Tlamauhco (MH660r)

If the iris is intentionally decorated like water, it may be to provide a phonetic indicator for the “a” in Tlamauh. This eye is also called the starry eye or stellar eye, given how it can double as a star in the sky. This connection with celestial phenomena may relate to the meaning of the place name. The name seems to derive from tlamati, supposedly to "practice trickery or sorcery", but also to know someething. However, the translation of sorcery may reveal a Christian bias on the part of the friar Alonso de Molina, and really the Nahuas saw the Tlamauh- (or Tlamao) as being wise, perhaps like a priest. Supporting this, the use of the eye (ixtli) for the glyph calls forth the verb ixtlamati, to be wise, prudent. Furthermore, Marc Thouvenot (2010, 178–181) explains how iximati (which can become imati, to manage cleverly or create skillfully) compares to mati (to know). Imati involves knowing through seeing, much like conocer might indicate in Spanish, and mati is "to know" as in saber in Spanish. Once again, then, the eye glyph is a semantic indicator for a place of wisdom.