Chapoltepec (Mxnus35)
This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the place name Chapoltepec (“On Grasshopper Hill") shows a frontal view of a bell-shaped hill (tepetl) with an unusual pattern, perhaps mimicking the texture on the insect's spiracle (see this diagram of a grasshopper). This hill glyph does not have the usual rocky outcroppings on the slopes, but it does have a horizontal stripe at the base (in white). The grasshopper is crawling up the hill, in a profile view, facing toward the viewer's right. The antennae are standing upright, the forelegs are curving under, the wings have a mesh pattern and are raised up, the body curves slightly around the top of the hill, and the joints of the long hind legs are bent as though ready to jump.
Stephanie Wood
The painstaking detail of the grasshopper is remarkable. Having this insect as a part of the diet has allowed close observation and study. See also (below) the treatment of the grasshopper in the Codex Mendoza. John Montgomery made a drawing of the Chapultepec compound glyph that he cites as Boturini 18--interesting for comparisons here.
Stephanie Wood
ca. 1590
Jeff Haskett-Wood
grasshoppers, chapulines, chapulín, insectos, chapultepec, nombres de lugares
This glyph of Chapultepec is on a large board in the castle at Chapultepec Park, outside the Museo Nacional de Historia. It appears to be a modern copy or a modern rendering of a sixteenth-century hieroglyphs. The emergence of the water from the horizontal slits at the base of the tepetl are reminiscent the glyphs for Colhuacan (https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/content/colhuacan-colrg) and Ixicayan (https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/content/ixicayan-mdz40r), allowing a better sense of the very purpose of the slits, which are like labia. Photo by S. Wood, 29 April 2025.
Chapoltepec, "grasshopper hill" -- the location in the basin of Mexico where the Toltecs arrived to settle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chapoltepec
chapol(in), a grasshopper, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chapolin
-tepec, on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec
En el Cerro del Chapulín, o En el Cerro delos Chapulines
Stephanie Wood
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15284/?sp=35&st=image. This image is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library, but the manuscript is part of the holdings of Bibliothèque nationale de France and the original source is gallica.bnf.fr/BNF.
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