Metzineuh (Mdz2r)

Metzineuh (Mdz2r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the personal name Metzineuh has two main components. One is a very elaborate maguey plant (metl), painted turquoise blue at the core and red on the tops of the branches. Its curly red roots are also visible. Poking out of the left side of the maguey is the lower half of a man's body in profile, facing to the viewer's right, and with his knees bent tightly, making his bottom (tzintli) prominent. The white belt at his waist is evidence that he is wearing a loincloth, and thus that he is a male. His skin is terracotta in color.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The tzintli is there not to provide any literal meaning about buttocks, but rather to provide the -tzin- reverential for this lord's name. The red tips of the maguey may relate to the fact that the spines of this plant were used in bloodletting, a religious offering. The historical contextualizing image provides a gloss name (Teçineuh) for this man that is incorrect.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

The

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
tzin(tli) as reverential suffix
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Body postures
Gender (male)
Gifts, Offerings, Sacrifice
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Plants, Flora
Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
orange/terracotta
red
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
roots are visible
spiky
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
right to left
Keywords: 

founders, fundadores, names, nombres, magueyes, cacti

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

me(tl), maguey cactus, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/metl
tzin(tli), rear end, buttocks, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzintli

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 2 recto, https://codicemendoza.inah.gob.mx/inicio.php?lang=english

Image Source, Rights: 

Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

metl (Mdz2r)

tzintli (Mdz40r)