The Reptile´s Eye Glyph: The Calendar Name of the Butterfly Bird God in Teotihuacan and during the Epiclassic Period

Abstract

This work starts with a discussion of how to distinguish between gods and mortals in Teotihuacan art, and a review of the myth of the Butterfly Bird God. Subsequently, based on an analysis of different iconographic contexts in which the Butterfly Bird God is observed in Teotihuacan art, I propose that the Reptile's Eye glyph may have functioned as the name of this deity. I also establish the existence of images of the Butterfly Bird God in the Epiclassic Period which are accompanied by the Reptile's Eye glyph, on the Ixtapaluca Plaque and Xochicalco Stela 1, and propose a new interpretation for the Xochicalco triad of stelae. As the calendar name of this deity during the Epiclassic Period was 7 Reptile's Eye, I propose that the unnumbered glyph might have been part of its calendar name in the Teotihuacan period.