Teotl (MH575v)

Teotl (MH575v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Teotl (“Deity” pr "Spirit," attested here as a man’s name) shows an anthropomorphic head in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. The curling bits that seem to suggest a stone (tetl) are a phonetic indicator for the start of the word teotl. The "stone" even has a diagonal stripe across the face, which further suggests that stone is meant for this phonetic purpose (not contributing any semantic meaning).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Glyphs for teotl in the Codex Mendoza (c. 1541) do not have faces; they are half-suns. But by 1560, in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, Christian influences seem to have led to the use of faces on some teotl glyphs, such as this one. See comparisons, below. The glyph here is much like the one on MH576r, except that one has red colorant added.

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
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Religion (Indigenous Christianity)
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
diagonal or angled
facing right
profile view
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
left to right
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

religión, deidades, divinidades, fuerzas divinas, fuerzas sagradas, espíritus, spirits

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

teo(tl), divine force, spirit, divinity, deity, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teotl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

La Deidad, La Fuerza Divina

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 575v, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=230&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: 
See Also: 

teotl (Mdz51r)

Teotl (MH576r)

Teoxoch (MH524v)

Xochiteotl (MH500r)