Tziccoac (Mdz13r)
This simplex glyph for the place name Tziccoac features a turquoise-blue snake, somewhat coiled, and facing to our left. Its red and yellow bifurcated tongue protrudes. Its underbelly is yellow, and it has red and yellow markers periodically spaced along its back. Its tail has three rattlers. Red and white fangs are visible in its upper and lower jaws.
Stephanie Wood
The elements of the term tziccoatl, presumably the root of the place name (with the locative -c not being visual), would appear to combine tzictli/tzictic (a word for a blue color, either turquoise or sky blue, judging by the translations in our dictionary and by the color of the snake in this glyph. Tzictli also means chewing gum, but that would not appear to be relevant here. The coatl part means snake or serpent. The red and white colors of the fangs are reminiscent of the thorns on the huixachin.
The red and yellow markings might point to a specific snake that has such colors, perhaps a special type of garter snake or coral snake.
There is a Tziccoac in the Huasteca, also spelled Chicoaque, mentioned in Wikipedia as "now Mesa de Cacahuatengo in the municipality of Ixhuatlán de Madero."
Finally, the Matrícula de Huexotzinco has a Tziuhcoatl feathered serpent, and the feathers are said to come from the motmot, which has a turquoise brow. So, perhaps Tziccoac or Tziccoatl should really be spelled Tziuhcoatl.
Stephanie Wood
tziccoac. puo
Tziccoac, pueblo
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
snakes, serpents, turquoise blue, serpientes, azul, turquesa, cohuatl
This image of an undulating serpent (coatl) was photographed by Rebecca Horn (13 August 2023) at the Museo de Escultura Mexica in the archaeological site of Santa Cecelia Acatitlan (region of Tlalnepantla, Mexico City). This may or may not represent a tziccoatl, but it has a similar shape--undulating and segmented.
tzic(tic), sky blue, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzictic-0
coa(tl), snake or serpent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coatl
tziccoa(tl), a blue snake, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tziccoatl
tziuh(tli), a turquoise-browed motmot, a bird with precious feathers, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tziuhtli
Tziuhcoatl, a name, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tziuhcoatl
Codex Mendoza, folio 13 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 36 of 188.
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).
