Mixcoatl (MH719r)
This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name, Mixcoatl ("Cloud Serpent"), is attested here as a man's name. One element is a large cloud (mixtli) with some smaller clouds on both sides of it. A horizontal row of short diagonal lines cuts across the base of the clouds. Above the clouds is a lightly coiled serpent with a rattle, spots on its back, an open eye, a protruding fang, and a protruding bifurcated tongue. It is somewhat vertical, shown in profile, looking toward the viewer’s right. Its belly has hash marks. The tail has somewhat diamond-shaped rattles.
Stephanie Wood
Cloud Serpent was a popular name for Nahua men, especially notable in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco. According to Sahagún, it was a divine force among the Chichimecs, and carried a powerful significance for the Nahuas. Some scholars have seen it as a divinity associated with hunting, others as part of a Tlaloc complex (of clouds, rain, lightning, etc.), and others as a symbol for a whirlwind (remolino). A famous altepetl, Mixcoac, is now a neighborhood of Mexico City.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
nubes, serpientes, clouds, serpents, religión, nombres de deidades, nombres de hombres
Mixcoatl, a personal name, also a divine force/deity, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mixcoatl
mix(tli), clouds, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mixtli
coa(tl), snake/serpent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coatl
Serpiente de la Nubes
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 719r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=516&st=image
This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).
