Tepapalotl (MH751r)

Tepapalotl (MH751r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Tepapalotl ("Stone-Butterfly") is attested here as pertaining to a man. It shows, on the left, a vertical stone on its end, with alternating dark and light angled stripes and curling ends. Coming out from the stone, on the right, is a butterfly in profile, facing the stone. Its wings are together. The wings are fairly plain and left white or natural.

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. Even though the gloss starts with Te-, perhaps Tlepapalotl was really the intention.

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

reduplication (in gloss/text)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Insects & Bugs

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

left to right

Keywords:

mariposas, piedras, nombres de hombres

Museum & Rare Book Comparisons:

Museum/Rare Book Notes:

Butterflies were popular themes in the Classic-Period art of Teotihuacan, as this detail from a mural at the mural museum at the site, and they continued to be popular in Nahua hieroglyphic writing centuries later. The butterfly element in the compound glyph has three dangling pieces at the bottom, something like the mural detail here, which comes from the piece labeled, “Jaguar con el cuerpo de perfil y el rostro de frente.” Photo by S. Wood, 6 May 2025.

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

te(tl), stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl-0
papalo(tl), butterfly, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/papalotl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Piedra-Mariposa

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 751r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=580&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).

Orthography:

"ll" for l

"th" for t, d, or gd

Historical Contextualizing Image: