temecania (FCbk8f38r)
This iconographic example, featuring a man being strangled with a rope or cord (temecania) by two other men, is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term (temecania) selected for this example comes from the keywording in the Digital Florentine Codex. The verb on the same page as the image is “quimecania.” This example shows a profile view of the victim seated, head down, mouth open, and his visible eye is closed, suggesting death. He has brown skin, a white cape tied behind his neck, and the waistband of a loincloth is visible. In the context, he is said to be an erring official. The other two men, holding the ends of the rope or cord, are his executioners. They are all dressed in a similar way. Their cloaks have folds that are shaded gray, a sign of European artistic influence, providing three-dimensionality.
Stephanie Wood
Two other examples of strangulation appear below, along with a hanging. Ropes and cords permeate this digital collection, which suggests that this technology had many uses across Nahua culture. A few examples appear below. But those record titles in uppercase refer to personal names, not actual historical events, so this should be taken under consideration.
Stephanie Wood
quimecania
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
cuerda, cuerdas, cordón, cordónes, estrangular, estrangulación, crimen, castigo
temecania, to strangle someone with a rope or cord, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/temecania
estrangular a alguien con una cuerda (fuente: DFC)
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 8: Kings and Lords", fol. 38r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/38r/images/0 Accessed 23 August 2025.
Images of the digitized Florentine Codex are made available under the following Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International). For print-publication quality photos, please contact the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ([email protected]). The Library of Congress has also published this manuscript, using the images of the World Digital Library copy. “The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.”
