Xochiteotl (MH712r)

Xochiteotl (MH712r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This colorful compound glyph for the personal name, Xochiteotl (perhaps, “Divinity-Flower”), is attested here as a man’s name. It shows a frontal view of an upright yellow flower (xochitl) with a green base and stem and leaf on the viewer’s right. It has a three-partite petal arrangement, with two stamens or pistils rising above, each one with a little ball on the tip (the anthers). The body of the flower has a human face drawn on it, presumably to cover the -teotl part of the name.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This digital collection includes a number of glyphs for the personal name Xochiteotl consisting of a considerable variety of expressions (see below).

In some flowers, such as this one, the anthers are rather pronounced. The anthers are the flower parts that produce and provide the pollen, which has the reproductive capacity that has been compared in Western cultures to semen.

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:

Anatomy, human body parts

Flowers

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Plants, Flora

Religion (Indigenous)

Sexuality, Fertility

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

green (light)

white/neutral

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

tripartite

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

inward (from outside in)

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

religión, flores, deidades, fuerzas divinas, fuerzas sagradas, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

xoch(itl), flower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl
teo(tl), a sacred force, divinity, deity, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teotl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Flower-Deity" or "Sacred Flower" [H.B. Nicholson, in Mesoamerican Writing Systems, ed. Elizabeth P. Benson (1973), 28.]

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

posiblemente, Flor-Divinidad

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 712r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=502&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: