Yaocihuatl (Verg12v)

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Yaocihuatl (perhaps "Warrior Woman” or "Combative Woman," attested here as a man’s name) shows a profile view of a woman's (cihuatl) head looking toward the viewer's left. Behind her head is a war shield (chimalli), a glyph typically used in names to conjure up war (yaotl) and to speak specifically of enemies or combatants. While this shield appears to have a smiling-face design, it could be a simplified cuexyo design. But perhaps more likely, it suggests European influence. Another example also comes from the Codex Vergara (11r), so these peculiar faces are the work of the same tlacuilo. The Codex Azcatitlan (Library of Congress, Image #30) shows Pedro de Alvarado (“Tonatiuh”) carrying a shield with a face in profile. In the latter, the face of the sun may be implied, given the use of suns as a heraldic charge in medieval and Renaissance art. See, for example, the fifteenth-century Book of Hours in France. Faces on European shields can also represent Christ or saints.