quiyahuitl (Mdz7v)

quiyahuitl (Mdz7v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This element for rain (quiyahuitl) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Chiconquiyauhco. It consists of a symmetrical triad of short streams of water [atl with a drop (two small concentric circles) at the end of each one. The streams of water have a black line down the middle, perhaps suggestive of flow (movement, current). The staggering of these raindrops at different heights also provides a type of visual movement, as though they are falling through the air. They fall from an unknown source, as though suspended in air. They are also painted turquoise blue, the color typically given to water in the Codex Mendoza.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The visual relationship between rain (quiyahuitl) and water (atl) is not a coincidence. Variations will occur, but this is a classic representation of rain, and we have a few compound glyphs in this collection that indicate the importance of rain. As our online Nahuatl Dictionary entry for quiyahuitl shows, there was a strong relationship between tears and raindrops. When children cried, people believed that to be a sign that it would rain. Rainfall had a strong association with the deity or priest called Tlaloc, who could bring on the rain and facilitate fertility in agriculture (Florentine Codex, Book 1). Tlaloc wore a necklace of green stones, which also symbolized water or precious raindrops.

Besides the fact that rain is essential for agricultural success in many parts of the Nahua world, and probably because of that, the term quiyahuitl is a day name in the 260-day divinatory calendar called the tonalpohualli, which figured prominently in Nahuas' religious views of the cosmos.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

calendrics

day name

Syntax:

noun(s)

visible movement

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Movement

Religion (Indigenous)

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Water

Weather, Climate

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood, Xitlali Torres

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

Shapes and Perspectives:

symmetry

tripartite

Keywords:

rains, lluvia, gotas de agua, aguacero, días, days, dates, fechas, calendarios, calendars

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

quiyahui(tl), rain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quiyahuitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la lluvia

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 07 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 25, 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-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).