Tepapalotl (MH711r)

Tepapalotl (MH711r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This colorful compound glyph for the personal name, Tepapalotl (“Stone Butterfly”), shows a yellow butterfly in profile, facing toward the viewer’s right. Its legs are sticking forward, its eye is open, and its antenna curls upward. Below the butterfly is a stone in a frontal view. It has alternating, diagonal stripes in red and white, and the ends of the stone are curly.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The name raises the question of whether the name refers to a butterfly that is carved in stone. Mexicolore hosts an image of an obsidian butterfly (Itzpapalotl), which was a warrior goddess. Butterflies are prominent in this digital collection, and names that include papalotl also include other potentially religious elements, such as ecatl, quetzalli, and tletl. See some examples below.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Religion (Indigenous)

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

red

white/neutral

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

Keywords:

mariposas, deidades, fuerzas divinas, piedras, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

te(tl), stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl
papalo(tl), butterfly, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/papalotl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Mariposa de Piedra

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 711r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=500&st=image

Image Source, Rights:

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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: