In his final appearance in the Codex Selden, Lord 9 Lizard and his wife are seated on thrones before a temple. Depictions of married couples are prevalent in all of the historical codices. These pairs of king and queen may be illustrating the Mixtec metonym yuhui_tayu : "kingdom." Literally, the phrase can be translated as either "the throne, the mat" or "the throne, the marriage pair." As discussed in detail by ethnohistorian Kevin
Terraciano, gender complimentarity was central to
Mixtec rulership. King and queen ruled as equals,
and thus rather than referring to Mixtec polities
as "kingdoms," Terraciano suggests that the term
"coupledoms" better represents the way in which
royal power was shared.(9) Images of king and
queen seated together, enthroned (either on the
place sign for the polity over which they rule or
on "the thrones, the mat" seen below) may
therefore represent more than just wedding
scenes. These scenes may present, over and
over again, the yuhui_tayu , the pairing of husband
