Xochmitl (Verg8r)

Xochmitl (Verg8r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Xochmitl (“Flowery Arrow,” attested here as a man’s name) shows a frontal view of a three-petalled flower (xochitl) with an arrow (mitl) piercing it. The flower has a tripartite sepal and a short stem. The arrow's point goes to the reader's right, going through the flower and coming out the other side.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This special, flowery arrow was prepared as part of a feast associated with Macuilxochitl/Xochipilli. The arrow would rest upon five tamales. Also a part of the feast were "corn cakes" made into "shields, arrows, swords, and dolls," according to Book 1 of the Florentine Codex (Anderson and Dibble translation). See our Online Nahuatl Dictionary.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Vergara, Codex (Verg)
Date of Manuscript: 

1539

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Tepetlaoztoc, near Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Flowers
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Plants, Flora
Religion (Indigenous)
Weapons, Shields, Armor
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
diagonal or angled
frontal view
tripartite
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
front to back
Keywords: 

flores, flechas, flowers, arrows

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

xochmi(tl), a flowery arrow for a special feast, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochmitl
xoch(itl), flower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl
mi(tl), arrow, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

La Flecha Florida

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Vergara, folio 8r, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84528032/f23.item.zoom

Image Source, Rights: 

The non-commercial reuse of images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is free as long as the user is in compliance with the legislation in force and provides the citation: “Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France” or “Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.” We would also appreciate a citation to the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/.

See Also: 

Tlacopan (CmpRG)

mitl (Mdz40r)

mitl (Mdz2r)

Xochhua (MH486v)