octli (Mdz71r)

octli (Mdz71r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This iconographic detail from the Codex Mendoza is meant to provide comparative support for the analysis of glyphs showing octli (pulque, a mildly alcoholic beverage). The symbol on the bowl is the yacametztli (called a nariguera in Spanish, which refers to a nose crescent or a nose ornament, something associated with pulque).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The foam bubbles up above the level of the top of the vessel. Foam was (and still is) a prized aspect of various beverages in Mesoamerican cultures.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Beverages
Food, Eating, Cooking
Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
orange/terracotta
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
dotted, granular, textured
foamy, frothy, bubbly
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
trapezoidal
Keywords: 

noses, narices, ornaments, ornamentos, beverages, bebidas, pulque, tazón, nariguera, yacametztli

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

oc(tli), pulque, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/octli
yacametz(tli), a crescent-shaped nose ornament, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/octli

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 71 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 152 of 188.

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)

See Also: 

yacametztli (Mdz65r)