Xochiteotl (MH526v)

Xochiteotl (MH526v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Xochiteotl (perhaps “Flower Divinity”) is attested here as a man’s name. It shows the head of a bald man with two flowers on his head. The flowers each have three petals and a stem. The man's eyes are closed, possibly suggesting that he is dead.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The bald-headed figure here seems to stand for teotl, which can mean divine force, deity, or divinity. This is not how teotl appears in the Codex Mendoza of two decades earlier, where teotl is half of a sun sign. This shift toward anthropomorphizing the divine force may imply Christian influence. Perhaps given exposure to the deceased body of Christ on crucifixes and in paintings, and the instruction that Christ was god, has led to this new interpretation of teotl.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

pedro.xochiteotl.

Gloss Normalization:

Pedro Xochiteotl

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories:

deity name/theonym

personal name

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Flowers

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Religion (Indigenous Christianity)

Religion (Indigenous)

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

profile view

facing right

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

left to right

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

flowers, flores, deidades, fuerzas divinas, espíritus, Jesús, Cristo, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

xochi(tl), flowers, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl
teo(tl), a divine force, a 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.]

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 526v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=132&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: