Mixtec Huehuecoyotl
Added 2024-10-06 07:27:03 +0000 UTCThe white coyote deity from Codex Zouche-Nuttall.
Various Mesoamerican civilizations have long been in close contact with each other. Even their deities transcended political and geographic boundaries. For example, the feathered serpent was called Quetzalcoatl by the Nahua, Kukulkan by the Yucatec Maya, and Q'uq'umatz by the K'icheʼ Maya.
Codex Zouche-Nuttall or Codex Tonindeye is a pre-Columbian document made by the Mixtec (Ñuù savi) people of modern-day Oaxaca. On page 78, it depicts a coyote deity wielding an atlatl and a shield. Iconographic elements such as the yellow stripe around the eyes, conch collar, and conch pendant indicate that this deity is the Mixtec equivalent of Huehuecoyotl. Manuel A. Hermann Lejarazu specifies that this white coyote is ‘Huehuecoyotl as a warrior’, and Guilhem Olivier corroborates by pointing out that Huehuecoyotl is linked with war in other codices such as Telleriano-Remensis and Borgia. Unfortunately, we don’t have any information about the Mixtec name of Huehuecoyotl.
Sources
Codex Zouche Nuttall, 14~15th centuries, British Museum
Guilhem Olivier, Huehuecóyotl, “Coyote Viejo”, el Músico Transgresor : ¿Dios de los Otomíes o Avatar de Tezcatlipoca?, Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl 30, 1999
Manuel A. Hermann Lejarazu, Códice Nuttall Lado 1 : La Vida de 8 Venado, Arqueología Mexicana, 2006
