Inca Myths

THE INCA MYTH

THE GOD OF THE SUN

THE CREATION OF UIRA COCHA

THE REBELLION OF HUMANS

OTHER PRECURSORS OF THE EMPIRE

Pachacamac Appears

Pachacamac and the Sun God

THE DIVINE CULT

THE ACLLA, VIRGINS OF THE SUN

SECOND LINE DEITIES

The Nazca Plains

MOCHICA CULTURE

THE CHIMU PEOPLE

The Legend of Ollantay and Coyllur

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THE INCA MYTH

One very distant day, the nameless god reflected that
he had to create a world. He had the earth, the water, and the fire, and that gave him
it was enough to shape anything I wanted to shape.
So he did, creating three plans that composed a single one.
Universe. In the one above, he placed the gods, who had the appearance
brilliant of the Sun and the Moon, of the stars and of the comets, and
of everything that shines up there, above our heads. A
a little further down, but still above the second world, there were
the gods of lightning, of the flash and thunder, of the rainbow and of
all the things that have no explanation other than the one that the
the gods want to give. That upper third was called Janan Pacha.
In the second world, in this one, Cay Pacha, the god placed.
creator of humans, animals and plants, of everything
living, including spirits. In the world of the third plane, the
inner world, Ucu Pacha, the space remained closed and
reserved for the dead. The three plans were
They communicated, but they were very special paths that
they granted access to some and others. The child could access the one above
of the Sun, the Inca or prince, the Intip churin; from the interior it
I could access the one here, through all the ducts
natural openings from the inside to the outside, ducts
for the waters that spring from the earth, caves, cracks and
volcanoes, pacarinas, which were the primitive access routes by
the ones who came, the beings that gave rise to humanity;
the germs that gave birth to the animals, and the seeds that
they gave life to all the plants that grow on the world of
Here. The scheme of this Inca universe would be, then, the following:

JANAN PACHA

Churín hot springs

World of the dead

Pacarina

UCU PACHA

The cycle concludes with this upward flow, which originates from the Ucu.
Pacha, through a Pacarina, for them to penetrate.
Ayar men and, in this world, give birth to
Inca Empire, with its founders Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo to
the head of a humanity that, with them at the top, can
to address the higher world, to communicate with the gods of
those who they naturally are a part of.

THE GOD OF THE SUN

Just like the Chibchas with Bochica, like the Aztecs with
Huitzilopchtl, that the quinches with Hun-Apu-Vuch, the
the Quechuas of the Inca empire had the Sun god in the first
step of the celestial hierarchy, with the sacred name and
unpronounceable of Inti, although it later evolved
towards a more complex and universal personality, which ended
to absorb the nameless divinity of creation, to give
step to Ira Cocha, an abbreviation of the full name of the god
Apu-Kon-Tiki-Uira-Cocha, which is, by antonomasia, the
total demise of his omnipotent power, since this name
it is but the enumeration of its powers (supreme being of the water,
the earth and the fire) about the three elements on which it was based
creation of the Universe. This new and much more powerful god.
The Sun was not alone in his kingdom; his wife accompanied him - and
Sister, as befits an Inca - the Moon accompanied him.
of equal rank in the heavenly court, under the name of
Quilla. The Sun was represented in the form of an ellipsoid of
gold in which rays could also appear as another one of
its attributes of power, and the Moon had the ritual shape of a
silver disc. The Sun, as creator, was worshiped and
revered, but he was also sought for his favor and
your help, to solve the problems and alleviate the
needs, since only he could bring forth the harvests, heal
the illness and provide the security that human beings crave.
Naturally, the fervor was attributed to the goddess Quilla.
the women's religious, and they were the ones who formed the nucleus
of her faithful followers, as no one better than the goddess Quilla
could understand their desires and fears, and provide them with protection
searched.
THE CREATION OF UIRA COCHA

In the new legend of the creation of the world by Uira Cocha,

posterior to the first myth of the creation of the Universe for the
Incas, and to whom he is definitively replaced, is given to the god.
almighty the ability to direct the construction of everything
visible and invisible. Uira Cocha begins his work on the shores
from Lake Titicaca, in Tiahuanaco, carving in stone the
figures of the first two human beings, of the first ones
men and women who will be the foundations of your work.
These statues are placed by Uira Cocha in the
corresponding naughty ones and, as he names them,
they animate and come to life in the darkness of the primordial world,
because the god has not yet taken the time to bring light to the earth,
only illuminated by the glow of the Titi, an animal
wild and burning that lives at the top of the world, surely
the jaguar that blends with other animals in the
totemic representations of the Incas and cultures
previous. This world here is still in darkness because
Uira Cocha postpones all his work of erecting a world.
complete, at the birth of the human beings that are going to
enjoy it. Satisfied with the humans, the god continued his
project, now putting in its place the Sun, the Moon, the
infinite stars, until covering the entire celestial vault with their
lights. Then, Uira Cocha leaves Tihuanaco behind and heads towards the
north, road to Cacha, to, from there, call to his side the
creatures that he has just endowed with their own life. Upon departing from
Tihuanaco, Uira Cocha had delegated the secondary tasks.
from the creation with its two assistants, Toca pu Uira Cocha and
Imaymana Uira Cocha, who immediately undertake the
it goes through the East and West of the Andes, for -as it passes by such
long roads - giving life and name to all the plants and to all
the animals that are gradually appearing on the face of the earth,
in a beautiful auxiliary and complementary mission of the
performed before by their god and lord Uira Cocha, a mission that
they end up by the edge of the sea, only to then disappear
regally in its waters, once the ordered task was completed
by the main creator god of the Inca Universe.

THE REBELLION OF HUMANS

As in almost all of the most elaborate creation myths of the
Man, ingratitude is the only payment for kindness.
infinite that the good God receives from his creatures Universe by
Uira Cocha could not be less, and at his call no one from the
newborns come to the light. The god is alone and
saddened at the site Cacha, with the sad reality of the
disobedience of their children. The evidence is irrefutable and the
mandatory formula to convey who is in charge of the
the world is to come in the form of a devastating rain of
fire, an act of punishment and purification, that serves both
to remember the power of the Supreme Being, as to bring to the
good way to the proud humans. The rain of fire that
it comes out of the bowels of the earth through the volcanoes of
Cacha timely instills fear among the stupid.
humans, thus preventing them from becoming deserving of more and
greater punishments for their blindness, for men, when they see that their
senseless and foolish behavior has led them to the destruction of their
wonderful environment, abundantly lost with her the newly created
plant and animal life, even putting their own and
recent existence, now they become completely regretful of
your faults towards the benefactor god Uira Cocha to ask him
clemency, imploring her for forgiveness without arrogance, with
felt humility. The good God is pleased to see that
has achieved that desired return to the right path of its
creatures, and finishes giving them their very special lesson on
modesty, since they have been able to verify how what
received for free can also be lost just by itself
will of the creator god. Now with humans grouped in
yours, heads to a place that will be called Cosco (the center,
the later Cuzco), where the Inca Uira Cocha established his
first reign, but giving to a human, to one of the
repentant men, the command of the first city and the
center of the first empire that exists on the planet, and this
first chief, the first Inca directly appointed by the
divinity is the legendary Allca Huisa, who will also be the
generator of the long and powerful lineage of the Incas.

OTHER PRECURSORS OF THE EMPIRE

Among the great myths is that of Manco Capac and his
sister/wife Mama Ocllo, forming another great legend
about the precursors of the Inca empire. Manco Capac and Mama
In this myth, they are the first couple of inhabitants.
sacred of the earth, the first Incas who settled in
Her. The legend says that they emerged into the world from here due to the
privileged place of the Titicaca lake, on whose island were
placed by the hand of Uira Cocha, according to what was given to him
had ordered his father, the god of the Sun. The two brothers
they were united in marriage, thereby opening the ritual of the
Inca marriages with their sister Coya; Manco Capac became
dedicated to fertilizing the earth with a golden staff that Uira
Cocha had given it, and by growing the new plants, it was going
creating benefits for the race of poor mortals, for
who was also shaping the rivers and streams, was
to sprout trees and grasses and build rich rooms in which
they could live with dignity: meanwhile, Mama Oclla was dedicated
to do her great task. since it was she who was teaching the
women the arts and industries that would allow them to bring out everything the
possible benefit from the wealth that his brother produced; thus,
performing wonders, the royal couple arrived at a place where,
with his magical golden staff, he pointed to the center of the empire, the
future city of Cuzco (Cosco, the center). But there are different
versions of the arrival in the world of Manco Capac: one of them,
in which the story of Manco Capac and Mama Oclla is mixed with
the one of the Ayar brothers makes Manco Capac appear alongside
to three other very different beings; they are no longer them, the two
brothers, who will be alone at the front of the
creation of the Inca Empire.

Pachacamac appears

In this new tale about the origin of the Inca empire, it is told
that Manco Capac is with his three brothers, all of them children
of the Sun: Pachacamac, an ancestral deity that was
later incorporated into the official Inca cult, and which was
adored since ancient times by the peoples of the shore;
Uira Cocha, and another unnamed god. The first of those
brothers is, precisely, Pachacamac, who upon leaving to
our world ascended to the highest peak, to launch the
four stones at the four cardinal points, taking, then,
possession of everything that encompassed their sight and reached their
stones. Another brother emerged after him, who also ascended to the
summit according to the fourth and lesser, of the cunning and ambitious
Manco Capac, who took advantage of his trust to launch at him
empty and take power, after having locked up
Pachacamac previously in a cave and having seen how the
third, the good Uira Cocha preferred to leave him alone, abandoning
to their terrible brothers and hating their dealings for
to selfishly seize power. But there are other stories in the
that, precisely, is the ancient god Pachacamac who officiates
of protagonist in the care of humans, like that which
Father Augustinian Calancha gathered in the early 17th century,
in which the following legend is told: when it began the
world, there was no food for the man and the woman that
Pachacamac had created; when man died of hunger,
the woman, who had been left alone, went out one day in despair to
search for the roots of the herbs that could keep it with
life; she cried and moaned, complaining to the Sun that they had
born to the light of day only to let it die of
poverty, consumed by hunger. "I live alone in the world,
poor and distressed, without children to follow me; if You, Sun, have us
created, why do you consume us? How is it possible that if You
you are the one who gives us light, you present yourself as so evil and petty
why do you deny me sustenance?

Pachacamac and the Sun God

The Sun, moved by compassion, came down to earth, placing itself

next to her, he comforted her and asked the cause of her sorrow, making
as if I didn't know anything about their good reasons to
to lament. She then told him how her poor had been
life, her anxiety and her sorrow; the Sun, touched by her pain, said to her
who pulled up the roots and, while she did it, he pierced her.
with its rays and conceived a son in her womb. Nothing else did she do.
sun god, who seemed satisfied with having maintained that
conversation with the only survivor of humans, but
it wasn't like that, four days later, to his great delight, the
a woman gave birth to a wonderful boy, in whom one could find out
of her divine origin; the good woman was happy, completely
sure that their sorrows had ended and that the food would be
was abundant. But I did not account for the reaction of its creator, the
insensible god Pachacamac, who was indignant because the
Sol was now the one receiving the worship that was given to him.
I owed it only to him, and because a child had been born against his will.
will, took the semi-divine creature in his hands, without
to hear the anguished cries of his mother, asking for help to
Sun, since the Sun god was not only the father of that child, but of
same Pachacamac; and if I had taken that child, I had
made to finish him off, to kill him, then dismembering afterwards
the corpse of the innocent brother in tiny fragments.
But Pachacamac, so that it could never ever be
to contrast the goodness of his father the Sun against his own,
he planted the teeth of the murdered child and corn was born, whose
grains look like teeth; and he planted the bones and the ribs of the
the child was born and the cassava, whose root is long and white like the
bones; and He also created the other fruits of this land that are
roots. From the creature's skin came the pacay, the cucumber, and others
fruits and trees, and thus no one knew hunger or lament for
the need, and they owed their subsistence and abundance to the god
Pachacamac; and his fortune continued to be so good that the land
continued to be fertile and the descendants of the Yungas never
they experienced the extremes of hunger.

THE DIVINE CULT

So grand was the appearance of the first Inca and the first Coya,
their worship was also grand. They were adored in the
multitude of solar temples from all corners of the Empire,
in a place of the saints very close to the great god Sun. Of all
the religious sites dedicated to this great Inca god, already
it will be about temples, oratories, pyramids, or sacred places
natural, the one who headed them, by rank and by his greatness,
it was the great sanctuary of Inti-Huasi in Cuzco, a rich temple
also called Coricancha, or room of gold, since its
walls were covered with sheets of that metal, for
mayor glory of the Inca and the gods from whom he came. The image
the central Coricancha was the great solar disk, the image
orthodox and ritual of the Sun god, and around him were the
other chapels of the lesser deities of heaven. After
Coricancha, due to its splendor and importance, is situated at the temple.
dedicated by the Chinchas to Pachacamac in Lurín, near
Lima. It should be noted that the Chincha culture was in Chincha.
Call upon your Supreme Being, since although they worshipped the god
Pachacamac (more out of fear than out of respect or love), and to him
they dedicated temples and huacas as an act of gratitude
for her creative work and they dedicated offerings made by them
or selected from among its fruits, for being the savior of its
ancestors whom he freed from the initial hunger, were also
sure that this powerful and fearsome god, due to his special
personality, he could not be the one to whom they turned to in
search for solutions to their troubles and woes. In the great temple of
Lurín, sanctuary for the worship of the god without skin or bones,
how Pachacamac was described by his faithful, the Incas -after
similar to this god and its worship to that of the Sun - they carried out works of
beautification, until making it almost as beautiful as
Coricancha, also covering the central chapel with gold and silver,
the one of the god Pachacamac, in the manner of what was done before
with the entirety of the great solar temple of Cusco.

THE ACLLA, VIRGINS OF THE SUN

To provide the best possible worship to the Sun God, in addition to

their various classes of priests, the Incas had instituted a
important institution of virgins dedicated to their service,
known as Intip Chinán, in which the girls entered
chosen in their childhood (at the age of eight) to become
acllas after a strict novitiate that covered the first years of
her convent stay, under the guidance of a superior,
Mama Cuna, educator, guardian, and examiner of the young.
subjected to their custody. It should be said that they are also Mamacunas (the
chosen) was the name of the temple of the Aclla. But this
the religious profession was not just a calling or an obligation
to be forced to attend the service of the religion, but rather that it
it was more about a selective and careful education for
the young women from the upper classes, since, once they arrive
at the marriageable age, between thirteen and fifteen years old,
they became "introduced to society", to be the
promised potentials of lords of the nobility, since the
period of service in the Inti Chinán as aclla was also the
guarantee of the quality of your lineage and the endorsement of the best
education and, evidently, the best demonstrable proof
publicly about her undeniable virginity, since she
to maintain the required chastity and, above all, to be surprised with
a man meant, for the active vestal, his unappealable.
death sentence, to a cruelly exemplary death,
letting her die of starvation, so that it wouldn't be the hand
of the human being that will kill the priestesses, but the
abandonment. This punishment, very similar to that applied to the vestals
romanas considered impure, was also as hard as
all those who were applied to the chosen virgins for the
service of the gods, in all other latitudes with the
unfaithful vestals, as an extension of the maximum punishment that
it has always been applied exclusively to unfaithful women in
the religion or in married life, without it having been done
never let it be standard to have a similar counterpart for the many
less chaste men of religion, whatever it may be
considered doctrine. It should also be said that it seems that, if one
it would lead to a pregnancy of one of the aclla, as long as
there would be no evidence against the required adherence to the norm
strict requirement of virginity, it was considered that such
pregnancy had been carried out by the explicit will and
personal action of the Sun god and, automatically, the self that
If he had the vestal, he was considered a privileged son of the sun god.
and, as such, received preferential treatment for the rest of his days.

SECOND LINE DEITIES

Aside from the great UiraCocha and his earthly court of Amauta, or
wise men and first priests and administrators, the second
cord of clerics, the military nobility and the Ayllus or guilds,
governed even in their slightest movement by the law of the Inca,
the common people had their pantheon with other minor gods, to the
that -perhaps- it was easier and closer for him to address in
search for favors and solutions. The curled or morning star
accompanied the Sun, just like Illapa, the god of thunder, like the
image of the golden star, the one of the afternoon, Chasca, was making her
guard alongside the Moon, and Chuychú, the beautiful rainbow was about to
under both great gods. The constellations of the cup
the coca (Coa Manca) was a constellation that took care of the
magical herbs, like the constellation of the corn cup (Sara
Missing) I did it with vegetable foods, and that of the jaguar.
(Chinchay) was in charge of the felines. The Huasicamayo was the
tutelary god of the home, while the Cchajra-Camayoc is
he was trying to prevent the thieves from entering that same place
house, and the Auquis took on the surveillance of each village. There was
also a god of storms and another god of hail; after
Pacha-Mama, the goddess of the Earth, were Apucatequil and
Piguero, like guardian deities of the twins; the serpent
Urcaguay was the deity of what was beneath the earth, while
that the eager Supai ruled in the world of the dead and not
he ceased to claim more and more victims for his cause. Also
there was the god Kon, a brother of Pachacamac expelled by
this one and that took with him, when forced to leave, the rain and left
the coastal strip of Peru dries forever; other brothers,
Temenduare and Arikuté gave rise to the flood with their
complaints.

THE NAZCA PLAINS

In the valley of Palpa there is a gigantic and almost invisible

construction, made with small stones,
marking on its ground a series of figures that seem
it is impossible that they were carried out without being observed and
to direct its construction from some elevated place. It belongs
this great construction, rather, monumental drawing, to the
Nazca culture, which the Spaniards were already partly familiar with,
despite having been one of the many towns absorbed by
the expansion of the Inca empire. Modern legend has wanted
see all kinds of magical tricks in Palpa and even
extraterrestrials, but this valley had a much more useful purpose
precise and interesting: astronomical observation. From a square
central part 23 lines, mostly about 182 meters
of length, others half or a quarter of that length and
others of 26 meters in length, which demonstrates that it is about
a construction based on a precise geometric order. The
lines mark points that are related to the solstice and the
equinox, and should have served as a measuring instrument for
establish the solar calendar. As for the true myths
of Nazca, not much is known either, apart from the existence
of the spotted feline, perhaps personification of Pachacamac,
when surrounded by snakes, of the puma or water cat
of the lakes and the cat-demon; the figure of also appears
zigzag demon, with a snake on its back, the one of
man-centipede, the eight-legged spider and the most local ones
(Nazca era fishing village) of the whale, the terrible divinity
called Boto, a very particular kind of god of all
terrors; but one must not forget the god of the Sea,
with a fish body, face covered in angles and a scepter or a
head cut off in his hand, and that of the Mighty Lord of the Sea,
which is usually represented in scenes of fish and fishermen,
more like the figure of a legendary being from his story that
like that of a god from Nazca mythology.

THE MOCHICA CULTURE

Little remains of the myths on which they based their religion.

Mochica or Moche, little remains of that Moche culture that lived.
in the northern area of the coast of Peru. But there are still some left in
by its monumental adobe pyramids of Vicus, although the
time has been relentlessly eroding his frail
structure, as it has made its loss
collective wealth and its legendary legacy. It must have been a
coastal town that, as a successor to many and very diverse
cultures, was gathering the various mythological patches, until
form a group of heterogeneous deities, until creating a
a peculiar pantheistic ensemble dedicated to the care of the priestly class and
with the jaguar at the head of the various local deities, almost
all totemic, like the crab-demon, or the demon-
snake, its local animals, presided over by the kingfisher
fisherman and the curious sexual ceramics in which it is supposed
that wants to give a moral lesson, uniting the figure of
place at the death. Its two great temples, the Huaca of
Sun and the Temple of the Moon are two impressive works and without
the same. The Huaca del Sol, with five large terraces, the largest of
eighty meters long, on bases of 228 in length
by 136 in width and the platform of 18 meters in height, it is
crowned by a 23-meter high pyramid, which has
a square base of 103 meters on each side. The Huaca of the
Luna has a base of 87 meters and a height of 21, and in its
on the upper platform there was a series of decorated rooms
with human figures. The two huacas are built of
adobes, on the clayey plain, estimated to be only for the
the construction of the Huaca del Sol used one hundred thirty
millions of pieces, being, then, the two major huacas as
mountains made by man for the glory of his
divinities and to get even closer to the secrets of
firmament.

THE CHIMU PEOPLE

When the Inca Pachacutec conquered the territory of the

Chimú Confederation, in the mid-15th century, shortly before
the arrival of the Spaniards in America and eventually assimilated their
beliefs, just as he absorbed his domains. The Inca extended his
power to this lordship situated from the lands of the Moche up to
Paramonga in the south, along the coast of Peru, empire
governed from the great city of Chan-Chan. Chimú had the
God with Him as a mediator between earth and heaven, where
the Sun god, Chatay, reigned, aided by the Moon, Quillapa
Huillac, whom many considered more powerful than the Sun,
since he could reign in the night and in the day, he was even capable of
to cover the Sun and make it disappear from the sky during eclipses.
Around these major gods were the celestial gods,
like the lightning and the thunder, the morning star
(Achachi Ururi) and the evening star (Apadri Ururi), the
demon that lives in the central star of the constellation of
Orion, precisely the one that marks the belt of the hunter, and that
is accompanied by two other stars (Patas), which are the
sent by the goddess Luna to watch over him closely in her
desert and prevent, with your perpetual celestial prison, that it continues
doing evil. The Chimú also had in their pantheon
zoomorphic deities, such as the usual spotted felines
that appear in most of the cultures absorbed by
the Incas. For the Chimu, the sky was nothing more than an extension
from the earth, and the life that I was expecting after death was just the
extension of the first land. Their religious practice, which
it began being as peaceful as calm, it started moving in
the same sense of sacrifice as those in the environment, to
ending up being bloodthirsty and bloody, entwined in a
complicated aristocratic plot of priestly castes,
military personnel, traders, and peasants, in the Inca style, who
moved in a magical fetishism, in a dark ceremonial myth and
truculent, directed by the priestly caste for their benefit
politician.

THE LEGEND OF OLLANTAY AND COYLLUR

Chief Ollantay, the brave warrior and Titan of the Andes, was the
legendary hero of Tawantinsuyu, the military chief in love with
a beautiful princess, the unattainable Coyllur, daughter of the Inca Tupac
Yupanqui. Princess Coyllur (Star) had also been
in love with the courage and beauty of Ollantay, but he knew
that this love was a forbidden romance due to the strict law of
Inca, since never has a maiden of royal blood, a daughter of
Inca, and an Andi, a man from the village, could come to celebrate
such an unequal marriage, since such an act would be
considered sacrilege by the Uilac-Huma, the high priest and
they would bring the maximum punishment upon them. So Coyllur was confined.
in the temple of the Aclla, in Mamacunas, while
Offended, General Ollantay rose in rebellion against the
cruelty of political and religious power and began a
epic and unequal struggle, with the hero facing the Inca himself and
gathering all the totemic virtues under his sword.
Thus Ollantay moves with the elasticity of the serpent, he acts
with the cunning of a fox, it reaches where only the condor goes,
he is as brave as the jaguar and as tough as the mountains of
the Andes. The warrior and the princess are rewarded with
the birth of a son, by Ima Sumac, the very beautiful, and already
the love drama ends to begin the happy ending of
triumph of humans over the uncontestable power of the Incas.
With the struggle of Father Ollantay and the enamored surrender of the
Princess Coyllur, the people who live apart from the world
Cerrado del Inca can aspire to be part of history of the
that has only been a subject and a performer, but there was not much left anymore.
time for the treasure of culture to be transmitted
from the palace to the streets.