Blood, Flowers, and Power: A New Interpretation of Plate 44 of the Codex Borgia, a Mexican Pre-Hispanic Manuscript

Abstract

In this paper, I propose a new interpretation of Plate 44 of the Codex Borgia in the context of his central part, the most difficult to understand. The challenge is to demonstrate that Nowotny's (2005 [1961]) reading of this plate as a representation of a ritual of access to power can be combined with Boone's (2007) interpretation of the plate as a representation of a myth of the origin of flowers. In Mesoamerica, the nose-piercing ritual is part of a rite of passage in which the candidate appeared symbolically as a sacrificial victim, dying before his rebirth as a king. The myth of the origin of flowers is also a myth of the origin of menstruation and access to womanhood, thereby constituting a feminine equivalent of the nose-piercing rite of passage. Therefore, plate 44 of the Codex Borgia would illustrate the parallelism between women's fertility and men's access to power. This proposal will contribute to elucidate Frazer's (1981–1984 [1913–1924]) study, who, years ago, was wondering about the coincidence of menstruation taboos related to menarche and taboos that affected sacred kings in many parts of the world.