necoc yaotl (FCbk10f25v)

This iconographic example, featuring a traitor (necoc yaotl), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making possible comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a profile view of a fully-clothed man lying down on some grass. Speech scrolls go out of his mouth in two directions, toward two men on his left and two men on his right. All of those men sit on short woven seats (icpalli). Having people on both sides, literally, creates a visual for the necoc part of the term. Peterson and Terraciano (2019, 194) add that his lying down position represents the verb moteca, which appears appears nearby in the text. Also, according to the text, the traitor is gossiping, sewing discord, exciting revolt, causing turmoil, and lying to people (tecamac chichicha = he spits in one’s mouth, in Anderson and Dibble’s translation), but these actions are not depicted. Peterson and Terraciano note that the tlacuilo was paying more attention to the Nahuatl text than the Spanish.