tlacatecolotl (FCbk8f34v)
This iconographic example, featuring a devil (tlacatecolotl), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the keywords chosen by the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss. This example shows a frontal view of this devil, which wears an animal hide in shades of brown and yellow. It has horns on its head something like a steer. Its eyes are wide open, and teeth protrude from its mouth. It has long nails or claws. It sits with its knees up somewhat, and its right paw (with fingers) rests on its right knee. The “feet’ are something like that of an eagle. The creature’s tail curves up to the left of its body, and this tail is a serpent, with a segmented light-colored belly like a snake. The snake’s back is brown. Its head, in profile and looking to the viewer’s left, has some hair standing up on top. Its eye is open, and its mouth is open. A front tooth is visible. The contextualizing image shows that a priest is trying to hold onto this devil-like figure. They are both present at a scene where a war captive will have his heart cut out as an offering. Presumably, this devil has taken the place of a Nahua religious divinity, both visually and apparently in the minds of Nahuas influenced by Christian religious teachings.
Stephanie Wood
The cuauhtetepoyo was a known war shield design featuring eagles’ claws, and Cuauhizte (eagle claw) was a personal name in Nahua culture. The horned owl may have been a formidable bird that lent itself to a transformation into the Christian “devil.” At this point (August 2025), the glyphs for tlacatecolotl in this collection show a face in a profile (not frontal) view, perhaps a way of depicting the horned owl that dates from prior to the Christian transformation of it. But, even so, the horned ears in one case have been transformed into animal horns. It is interesting that both of these examples are personal names, an identity presumably bestowed at or near birth. The demonic figure in this record is shown in a frontal view, which was not given to most people or animals, but the owl is one that is usually facing forward, sometimes with startling expressions. The extra lines around the eyes may borrow from tonalli (day, sun, sun’s energy). A Quick Search for tonalli will pull up many examples that include these radiating lines.
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
hombres diablos, demonios, búhos, tecolotes, iztihuihuiyac, iztihuihhuiyac
tlacatecolo(tl), "human horned owls," but meaning devil, demon, sorcerer, etc., https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacatecolotl
el hombre-búho, el demonio, el diablo
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. 34v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/34v/images/0 Accessed 21 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.”
