Tozcoatl (Verg44v)

This method for portraying the “coatl” part of the name may be a disguise, as the tlacuilos may have been aware of the colonial clergy’s opposition to the reverence held by Nahuas for the snake and their continuing use of the religious divinatory calendar for naming children. Coatl was a day sign in that 260-day calendar (tonalpohualli). Furthermore, serious events in Tetzcoco in 1539 may have made Nahua tlacuilos more cautious when writing and painting about aspects of their faith. See Patricia Lopes Don for information about the Inquisition case against don Carlos Ometochtli, a Chichimecatecuhtli (or Chichimecateuctli) executed in late 1539, in Bonfires of Culture, 2010. Bradley Benton (The Lords of Tetzcoco, 2017, 46) also writes that the case “demonstrates that blatant disregard for Christianity had serious consequences.” One other hieroglyph in this collection for the personal name Tozcatl, from Huexotzinco, does include a snake. See below.