malinalli (Mdz41r)

malinalli (Mdz41r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for malinalli (twisted grasses) has been carved from the compound glyph for the place name Malinaltepec. In that compound, the grasses are growing out of the top of a skull, hence here they appear to be slanted to the left, and we do not see their roots. There are five blades of grass, and they are painted two tones of green. They have yellow tips, the shape of candle flames.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The skull of the original compound glyph points to death, and this may be explained because, as shown in our online Nahuatl Dictionary, nopalli malinalli is a diphrasis that stands for blood (owing to the tuna fruit's red juices) and death. The dried malinalli grasses also serve as curative herbs, and they have an association with "the moon, drunkenness, the theluric goddess Cihuacóatl Quilaztli, who is undoubtedly one aspect of witchcraft." [See: Michel Graulich, "Las brujas de las peregrinaciones aztecas," Estudios de Cultural Náhuatl 22 (1992), 87–98, and for this example, see 91.] Malinalli is also a day sign in the calendar.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
Syntax: 
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
Keywords: 

grasses, medicinal herba, hierbas medicinales

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 
Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 41 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 92 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-