In their codices, the Mixtec scribes define the history of Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan, his person, and his Mixtec descendants. The histories of other great Mixtec leaders are part of that historical panoply. The first goal of this book, the elucidation of Eight Wind’s history, is accomplished. However, to gain further insights into the man himself, it is necessary to compare the sister manuscripts, codices Zouche-Nuttall obverse and Vienna obverse, since he appears in both.
The first point of comparison between codices ZN obverse pages 1–8 (specifically page 2) and Vienna concerns pages 22–11 in the latter. These Vienna passages are qualified by Furst (1978:229) as “the Nine Rites” (table 11.1). These rituals for ordering the Mixtec world occupy the last twenty-two pages of Codex Vienna. Furst notes they are similar in structure and content, and follow a basic pattern that includes seven elements, listed on pages Vienna 22a–5: (1) an initial date, (2) a cradleboard, (3) a major deity or deities as subjects of the dedication ceremonies, (4) objects pertaining to architecture and measuring, (5) a second date different from the first, (6) a fire-drilling or the apparatus for it, (7) and place signs that include both man-made constructions and natural features.
The first seven rites on Vienna pages 22a to 11b have three components not mentioned above: (1) one to four sets of ritual objects, (2) a bird sacrifice, and (3) a ceremony whereby three plants bound together by white paper or cloth are raised before the place signs. In these first seven rites the bird sacrifice, fire drilling, and ceremony of three bound plants occur together (Furst 1978a:231). Furst (1978a:229) notes that the rite displayed on page 10 includes these seven basic elements as well as the three bound plants, but page 5 is only the minimal basic structure, including fire-drilling apparatus. I note a further distinction among these rites; namely, some are short-term and others long-term when comparison is made between their first and second inclusive year dates. Also there is a correspondence in first and second dates between one of the Vienna rituals (pages 18–17a) and the Lord Eight Wind fire-drilling ritual at Yucuñudahui as written on ZN page 2.
Table 11.1. Codex Vienna Ordering Rituals
The ZN page 2 ritual at Yucuñudahui has the same years and thus the same interval as the Vienna ritual recorded on pages 18–17a. The entire page is devoted to a single complex ceremony, and because it has the most space allotted to it, I conclude that it is the peak event recorded on the codex’s first two pages. It lists some of the same elements as the ordering rituals described by Furst for pages 22a to 11b; specifically, (1) an initial date, (2) a major deity or deities to whom the dedication is made, (3) a second date different from the first, (4) fire-drilling apparatus, (5) a list of place signs consisting of both natural and man-made features, and (6) secondary actors employed as ceremonial assistants. In addition to these ritual elements, the Zouche-Nuttall narrative also includes a bird sacrifice and the three bound plants ceremony, although here displayed differently than portrayed on the Vienna pages. The Zouche-Nuttall ritual also differs from that in Vienna by day dates and toponyms; that is, they do not occur in the same place and, though in the same years, not on the same days.
The three bound plants found in Codex Vienna are also seen on ZN page 2: one growing from Rain God Hill directly behind the emerging figure of Lord Eight Wind, another in his eagle crown, and the third growing from Rain God Hill at his feet. The first of these is exactly the same plant displayed in the Codex Vienna tableau, except in Zouche-Nuttall they are unbound and growing unplucked from both Rain God Hill and, apparently, from Lord Eight Wind. As mentioned previously, the implication given by the Codex Zouche-Nuttall is that Rain God Hill is the source of these particular plants. Although these three plants are seen frequently associated with ordering rituals in Vienna, their meaning remains elusive, as Furst notes in her excellent dissertation (1978). The data recorded on ZN page 2 is both evocative and suggestive.
As I have mentioned, Lord Eight Wind Eagle Flints is another manifestation of the three bound plants and also has strong associations with the fire-drilling bundle and apparatus. Further, his identification with both ordering of places and lineage-founding indicates an implied meaning for these ritual plants, which the gods at Apoala raise over places founded and ordered. That is to say, in Codex Vienna, the three bound plants are raised over or before places to be ordered; in the Zouche-Nuttall tableau Lord Eight Wind himself is raised over Yucuñudahui at its fire-drilling ritual. The god in Codex Vienna, Lord Two Dog, conducts ordering rituals and appears in other ritual contexts. Codex ZN page 5 shows Two Dog as one of four secondary actors functioning as ceremonialists conducting a ritual in honor of Lord Eight Wind (Furst 1978a:162). Significantly, neither codex shows Lord Eight Wind conducting a ritual in honor of anyone else except the rain god. By this I understand that he is the precedent figure in his own domain and stands in dignity above the gods of Apoala, excepting only Lord Nine Wind Quetzalcoatl. This is an important point. The comparison of Eight and Nine Wind is, so far, chronological and concerns circumstances of their dual births.
In addition, the Vienna rites on pages 22a–21, 20–19, 18a–17a, and 13a–12a illustrate the decapitated maguey/pulche goddess or maguey plants themselves as elements of ordering rituals. The Zouche-Nuttall tableau on page 2 shows the maguey plant growing from Lord Eight Wind’s throat as a part of his accoutrements. In effect, then, Yucuñudahui is the source of the three ceremonial plants, and Lord Eight Wind a seminal figure for them and for the all-important maguey itself. Also, on Codex ZN page 1, tableau 4 Lord Eight Wind speaks or sings a type of plant used for ceremonial wands, and yet another grows from his body. As to ideology contained in these scenes, then, Lord Eight Wind and Yucuñudahui are both sources of these plants.
The ZN page 2 tableau indicates that the deity to whom the fire-drilling ordering ceremony is dedicated is the rain god, as personified by his toponym. This deity/toponym is also seen on Vienna page 48 as the site where the god Lord Nine Wind Quetzalcoatl holds up sky and water. Therefore Yucuñudahui seems to preexist the later ordering rituals shown in Codex Vienna. Subsequently, Yucuñudahui is seen on Vienna page 38b (Year 8 Flint Day 8 Grass) just prior to the Tree-Birth ceremony in which Lord Eight Wind participates. This is eighteen years before the Tree-Birth ceremony at Apoala (Year 13 Rabbit Day 2 Deer) and five years after the date recorded for Lord Eight Wind’s arrival there.
Yucuñudahui is then shown on Vienna page 10, where Lord Nine Wind Quetzalcoatl drills for fire and deity Lord Two Dog raises the bound plants over a vast, two-page schematic map of the Mixteca. Otherwise, the rain god as an individual does not appear in Codex Vienna obverse, although he does so on ZN pages 4 and 5. Codex Vienna suggests that the rain god is personally manifested as a place that preexisted the ordering rituals and is first in that ritual, which ultimately unified the whole Mixteca. Inasmuch as the rain god is known as the deity of the original inhabitants of the Mixteca, the Stone Men, and the Mixtecs themselves became known as People of the Rain, this preeminence of place for Yucuñudahui seems appropriate.
This precedence of place may also apply to the person of Lord Eight Wind as implied in our recovered chronology. Is his ordering ritual on ZN page 2 a tenth ordering rite, separate from those in Codex Vienna, or a rite conducted simultaneously with that in Vienna? Or is it the prototypal ordering rite initiated for Yucuñudahui, which Lord Eight Wind then took to Apoala, where it was utilized by the gods in various ordering ceremonial contexts (Powell n.d.)? The codex chronology suggests the latter—and even more.
The attendants for Lord Eight Wind at Apoala (ZN page 1, tableau 3) and then at Suchixtlan in tableau 4 suggest ordering rituals at those places also, but conflated to the simplest representations for the sake of available space (pars pro toto). As I have shown in the proposed chronology, Lord Eight Wind arrived at Apoala some years before the Tree-Birth ceremony. Soon after the conclusion of the War from Heaven, he was present at that ceremony and assumed his dual dignity as both earth-born and tree-born noble; he then founded his lineage at Monkey Hill/Suchixtlan/Cerro Jasmin.
The scribes suggest that Lord Eight Wind’s greatness is more than that of a lineage patriarch: he also participated in some way in the War from Heaven, perhaps precipitating it by his arrival at Yucuñudahui, and that war spread and ultimately destroyed the old lineage at Wasp Hill. Then he was a seminal figure instituting a new lineage order and the ritual ordering system for a new lineage franchise of tree-born nobles at Apoala. Perhaps this is the reason why, if he was an original resident and ruler at Yucuñudahui, he survived the war and did so well for himself.
The ideology of birthing nobles from trees caught on, apparently, because codices Selden and Bodley mention it also. Of interest is the fact that Codex Selden states that the first dynasty to rule Jaltepec was earth-born and tree-born, yet it failed for unstated reasons. The second dynasty of Jaltepec, which succeeded, was that of Lord Eight Wind and Lady Ten Deer of Suchixtlan.
Yet another ritual seen in Vienna on page 24 implies a correspondence with a Zouche-Nuttall tableau. ZN page 1, tableau 3 shows Lord Eight Wind at Apoala. He emerges from a cave in one of two rivers—a river and cave that also produce the fire-drilling bundle. A cave at Apoala is also associated with, or produces, a sacred plant, as shown on Vienna page 24b. Among other things, the magic mushroom ceremony begins with Lord Nine Wind Quetzalcoatl before an effigy of the rain god. At the conclusion of the ceremony, Lord Seven Motion of the Two Faces enters a cave in a river at Apoala (as did Eight Wind), and then, standing at that same cave, displays a sacred three-leaved plant to Lord Seven Motion (the sacrificer of Stone Men in ZN page 3, tableau 3, and capturer of Striped Men in ZN page 4, tableau 2). The plant in Vienna resembles the one spoken by Lord Eight Wind at Suchixtlan (ZN page 1, tableau 4). After all, Lord Eight Wind frequently emerges from caves, and travel beneath or through the earth was not considered unusual for him.
Figure 11.1. Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I (Vienna) page 24. The sacred plants are pictured in the second column (reading right to left). ADEVA, Graz, Austria. (© Akademische Druck- u Verlagsanstalt, Graz, Austria)
These sister manuscripts portray individuals, temporal indicators, and geographical places (both natural and man-made) as integrated units. A typical tableau presentation consists of four elements: place, date, actor(s), and action(s). In Codex Vienna there are often more places than temporal indicators or actors. In effect, Codex Vienna is one long map ranging from sky to earth and divided into several sections representing individual places, districts, actors in those places, and regions. Codex Zouche-Nuttall employs similar visual devices, has many more actors, and occasionally represents entire regions as unified map-tableaux, as in double-page 19, page 22, and page 36. The introduction page for the third saga (ZN page 36) is a single-page toponym for Apoala, showing the two lineage rivers, valley walls, a waterfall, Serpent’s Mouth Cave, and lineage persons associated with the two rivers. The effect of this union of place, person, and time is to firmly associate the elite with their hereditary territories and rights to rule to them.
My interest focuses on the specific Epiclassic era site of Yucuñudahui since it is prominent as the major toponym on Zouche-Nuttall’s first two pages. It appears three times in Codex Vienna on pages 47b, 45d, and in the regional map on pages 10–9, where it is included as first in the ordering ritual conducted by Lord Two Dog for an entire landscape composed of twelve hills and a number of buildings, valleys, and lakes.
This latter map representation and ordering ritual by Lord Two Dog differs in scope from the ritual conducted by Lord Eight Wind at Yucuñudahui and its immediate precincts. Two Dog conducts the former for a larger area that includes Yucuñudahui as first among many. As mentioned previously, ZN page 5, tableau 1 shows Lord Two Dog participating in a ritual at Yellow Man Hill honoring Eight Wind, formerly of Yucuñudahui.
Codex Vienna places Yucuñudahui in a unique context that serves to underscore it as literally the first ordered area in Codex Zouche-Nuttall. After an ordering or creation event that occurs in the sky (Vienna pages 52–48b), and after the birth and empowerment of Lord Nine Wind Quetzalcoatl in the sky and his subsequent descent (Vienna 48c), Yucuñudahui is seen as the place where Lord Nine Wind Quetzalcoatl holds up water and the sky in Year 10 House on Day Two Rain. Suggestively, Lord Eight Wind’s ordering ritual for Yucuñudahui has Year 3 Reed for its initial date and Year 7 Flint as final date, a seventeen-year interval. Year 7 Reed, associated in Vienna with Yucuñudahui itself, occurs four years after 3 Reed. Year 10 House occurs five years before 3 Reed. This provokes thought about an interesting sequence of events regarding these two heroes, Eight Wind and Nine Wind (tables 11.1 and 11.2). Although they are not recorded in the codices as interacting directly, they are shown in Vienna as being at the Tree-Birth ceremony at the same time, Year 13 Rabbit Day 2 Deer. Nine Wind is seen on Vienna 36b, and Eight Wind on Vienna 35a. Both were also at Yucuñudahui.
Remembering that pictograms only show parts of any particular ritual, a twenty-eight year series of rituals is demonstrated involving the god Lord Nine Wind Quetzalcoatl and the patriarch Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan. Yucuñudahui and the individuals associated with it serve as connecting elements between these two codices, and the chronologies reinforce these documents, the individuals, and their actions. The Apoala event at which both were present is an evocative point in their chronology. One hallmark, then, of the first eight pages of Codex Zouche-Nuttall is that it mixes and matches actors and actions with some from Codex Vienna. The chronology in table 10.1 functions as a kind of concordance to enhance Zouche-Nuttall’s representation of Lord Eight Wind, just as connecting his biography with that of the later Lord Eight Deer of Tilantongo on Zouche-Nuttall reverse does.
The Zouche-Nuttall narrative creates a unified history and ideology with its own obverse/reverse narratives and also with those in Codex Vienna. Whether or not correlation of dates in Codex Vienna with European calendar dates is possible can be debated, but one such correspondence has been demonstrated reasonably, and I intend to investigate whether other correspondences exist. For those who interpret events in Codex Vienna’s first pages as the beginning or creation of the world long ago, correspondence with European calendar sequences will seem inappropriate. Yet, as noted previously, there is nothing in the codices to suggest that the Mixtecs were interested in vast cycles of time, as would be implied by cycles of creation in either the Mayan religious system or that of the Aztecs. Hamann (2002) has noted ethnographic evidence regarding previous cycles of creation, but this happened after the Mixtecs were conquered by the Aztecs.
Table 11.2. Nine Wind and Eight Wind at Yucuñudahui
Codex Vienna begins its events in the sky (or on it, if sky and earth were not separated at that time), but in both manuscripts, several events begin in the sky and then individuals descend to earth. The most prominent to do so is Lord Nine Wind Quetzalcoatl, and it is possible that the Vienna representation of his descent constitutes a paradigm for subsequent individuals doing the same, notably on Codex ZN obverse pages 18, 19, and 22. Codex Vienna describes the celestial creation of certain unique stones, the birth of Lord Nine Wind Quetzalcoatl from a stone knife, his descent to earth, and his holding up water and sky at Yucuñudahui (Furst 1978a:109) (figure 11.2).
Figure 11.2. Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I (Vienna) page 47. Lord Nine Wind Quetzalcoatl lifts water and sky above the earth at the Place Where the Sky Was. Yucuñudahui is the central toponym. (© Akademische Druck- u Verlagsanstalt, Graz, Austria)
The Codex Zouche-Nuttall scribes integrated these chronological events according to their own traditions, but with subtlety, each series of tableaux presupposing unstated prior events or excluding events between tableaux known to those who painted and recited them. From the point of view of occulted information, the Vienna and Zouche-Nuttall narratives are not mutually exclusive, but mutually inclusive and integrated, although differing by details chosen for inclusion or omission by the various authors of each document. One codex recites certain parts of an event, and the other recites those or other parts of events particular to its concerns. The relationship between them is not impaired by this political selection of historical poetry.
Since Zouche-Nuttall is a historical manuscript with verifiable dates, we should not be surprised that historicity transfers to Codex Vienna as well. As seen previously regarding the events of Year 13 Rabbit Day 2 Deer recorded in both codices and connected by the historical person of Lord Eight Wind Eagle Flints, Vienna has historicity. These sister documents need not have been painted at the same time by the same artists from the same place. They illustrate a common ideological history from mutually shared traditions that were important in the Epiclassic era and assumed greater value as time passed. They can illustrate different parts or facets of those traditions with the whole efficiently implied.
The scribes who painted Zouche-Nuttall obverse did so with the intention of unifying their ancient Epiclassic history and its ideology from the northern Nochixtlan Valley with critical events at Apoala, and also with those in the time of Lord Eight Deer at Tilantongo, in the southern Nochixtlan Valley. These royal anonymous princes had an eye to the future and exploited their prestigious past with admirable skill.
As we have seen, the Mixtec scribes took great care to unify their picto-gram historical texts by combining events in different eras and the individuals associated with them. Lord Eight Wind Eagle Flints, the subject of ZN pages 1–8, is joined by mystical and historical events with Lord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw of Tilantongo and, through association with him, Lady Six Monkey of Jaltepec/Hua Chino, and the ill-fated young king of Tilantongo, Lord Two Rain. In effect, the history of one, Eight Wind, is the history of all the rest, in one unified series of sequences. Codex Zouche-Nuttall obverse is more recent than the biography of Lord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw on the reverse side; therefore, the scribes joined the history of the former hero with that of the latter by studied intention. Why? As illustrated previously, these two lords were possibly the greatest social reformers in the Mixteca. Having examined Lord Eight Wind’s history thoroughly, we now proceed with that of Lord Eight Deer of Tilantongo.
