Eight Deer Jaguar Claw
| Lord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iya (lord, king) | |||||
Teozacoalco) | |||||
| Born | 5 October 1063 Tilantongo | ||||
| Died | 1115 Tilantongo | ||||
| Spouse | See list
| ||||
| Issue | See list
| ||||
| |||||
| Father | Lord Five Alligator Sun Rain, High Priest of Mixtec religion | ||||
Eight Deer Jaguar Claw (
Biography
Born on the Mixtec Calendar date from which he got his name, Eight Deer was the son of the high priest of Tilantongo Lord Five Alligator Sun Rain. His mother was Lady Eleven Water Bird Jewel. Two of his brothers, Twelve Earthquake Bloody Jaguar and Nine Flower Copal Ball with Arrow, were his faithful war companions.
He also had a half-sister, Six Lizard Jade Fan. First the fiancée and lover of Eight Deer himself, she was ultimately married to Eight Deer's archenemy Eleven Wind Bloody Jaguar, the king of the city Xipe's Bundle, also known as Red and White Bundle. The lords of Xipe's Bundle had rights to the throne of Tilantongo and were therefore the most important rivals to Eight Deer's power.
Lord Eight Deer is remembered for his military expansion. The Codex Zouche-Nuttall counts 94 cities conquered during his reign. Almost always pictured wearing a jaguar helmet, he supported the powerful Toltec ruler of Cholula, Lord Four Jaguar Face of the Night, in his attempts at expansionism, and was thus awarded a turquoise nose ornament, a symbol of Toltec royal authority.[6]
The codices also tell of his several marriages which seem to have been part of a political strategy to achieve dominance by marrying into different Mixtec royal lineages. He married Thirteen Serpent, daughter of his own stepsister and former fiancée Six Lizard.
In 1101 Eight Deer conquered Xipe's Bundle and killed his wife's father and his stepsister's husband Eleven Wind. He also tortured and killed his brothers-in-law, sparing only the youngest, Four Wind. In 1115 Four Wind led an alliance between different Mixtec kingdoms against Eight Deer, who was taken prisoner and sacrificed by Four Wind, his own nephew and brother-in-law.[6]
Legacy
Eight Deer was the only Mixtec king to unite kingdoms of the three Mixtec areas:
His reputation as a great ruler has given him a legendary status among the Mixtecs; some aspects of his life story as told in the pictographic codices seem to merge with myth. Furthermore, actual knowledge of his life is hindered by the lack of complete understanding of the Mixtec codices, and although the study of the codices has advanced much over the past 20 years, it is still difficult to achieve a definitive interpretation of their narrative. The narrative, as it is currently understood, is a tragic story of a man who achieves greatness but falls victim to his own hunger for power. The above biography of Eight Deer is based on the codex's interpretation by Mixtec specialist John Pohl.[7]
Notes
- ^ Jansen & Jiménez (2011)
- ^ Jansen & Jiménez (2011)
- ^ Jansen and Pérez Jiménez (2004)
- ^ Consonant with standard Mesoamerican practice, the "Eight Deer" component of his name refers to his day of birth within the 260-day Mesoamerican cycle, which cycles through 13 numbers and 20 various signs (e.g., animals, plants, natural phenomena).
- ^ See Pohl (n.d.)
- ^ a b Pohl (n.d.)
- ^ See Pohl (2002); Byland and Pohl (1994)
References
- Byland, Bruce E.; Pohl, John M.D. (1994). In The Realm of Eight Deer: The Archaeology of the Mixtec Codices. Norman: OCLC 30892609.
- OCLC 40511286.
- OCLC 66724118. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2007-07-12.
- S2CID 163136552.
- Pohl, John M.D. (n.d.). "Ancient Books: Mixtec Group Codices". John Pohl's Mesoamerica. Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc (FAMSI). Retrieved 2007-08-21.
- Pohl, John M.D. (2002). The Legend of Lord Eight Deer: An Epic of Ancient Mexico. Oxford; New York: OCLC 47054677.
- Spores, Ronald (1967). The Mixtec Kings and Their People. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-1091-2.
- Troike, Nancy P. (1987). OCLC 165889191.
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