Viracocha is the great

creator deity A creator deity or creator god (often called the Creator) is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of monolatr ...

in the pre-Inca and

Inca mythology Inca mythology or religion includes many stories and legends that attempt to explain or symbolize Inca beliefs. Basic beliefs Scholarly research demonstrates that Runa ( Quechua speakers) belief systems were integrated with their view of the ...

in the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

region of South America. Full name and some spelling alternatives are Wiracocha, Apu Qun Tiqsi Wiraqutra, and Con-Tici (also spelled Kon-Tiki, the source of the name of Thor Heyerdahl's raft). Viracocha was one of the most important deities in the

Inca The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admi ...

pantheon and seen as the creator of all things, or the substance from which all things are created, and intimately associated with the sea.:56 Viracocha created the universe, sun, moon, and stars, time (by commanding the sun to move over the sky) and civilization itself. Viracocha was worshipped as god of the sun and of storms. He was represented as wearing the sun for a crown, with thunderbolts in his hands, and tears descending from his eyes as rain. In accord with the Inca cosmogony, Viracocha may be assimilated to

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; ...

, the "old god", the maker of time or "deus faber" (god maker), corresponding to the visible planet with the longest revolution around the sun.

Cosmogony according to Spanish accounts

According to a myth recorded by Juan de Betanzos, Viracocha rose from Lake Titicaca (or sometimes the cave of Paqariq Tampu) during the time of darkness to bring forth light. He made the sun, moon, and the stars. He made mankind by breathing into stones, but his first creation were brainless giants that displeased him. So, he destroyed them with a flood and made humans, beings who were better than the giants, from smaller stones. After creating them, they were scattered all over the world. Viracocha eventually disappeared across the Pacific Ocean (by walking on the water), and never returned. He wandered the earth disguised as a beggar, teaching his new creations the basics of civilization, as well as working numerous miracles. Many, however, refused to follow his teachings, devolving into warfare and delinquency; Viracocha wept when he saw the plight of the creatures he had created. It was thought that Viracocha would re-appear in times of trouble.

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532–1592) was a Spanish explorer, author, historian, mathematician, and astronomer. His birthplace is not certain and may have been Pontevedra, in Galicia, where his paternal family originated, or Alcalá de Henare ...

wrote that Viracocha was described as "a man of medium height, white and dressed in a white robe like an alb secured round the waist and that he carried a staff and a book in his hands." In one legend he had one son,

Inti INTI International University & Colleges are private university colleges located in Malaysia. The main campus was initially known as INTI University College until 31 May 2010 when the Higher Education Ministry announced its upgrade to universi ...

, and two daughters,

Mama Killa Mama Quilla ( Quechua ''mama'' mother, ''killa'' moon, "Mother Moon", hispanicized spelling ''Mama Quilla''), in Inca mythology and religion, was the third power and goddess of the moon. She was the older sister and wife of Inti, daughter of V ...

and

Pachamama Pachamama is a goddess revered by the indigenous peoples of the Andes. In Inca mythology she is an " Earth Mother" type goddess, Dransart, Penny. (1992) "Pachamama: The Inka Earth Mother of the Long Sweeping Garment." ''Dress and Gender: Making ...

. In this legend, he destroyed the people around Lake Titicaca with a

Great Flood A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primaeva ...

called '' Unu Pachakuti'', lasting 60 days and 60 nights, saving two to bring civilization to the rest of the world. These two beings are

Manco Cápac Manco Cápac ( Quechua: ''Manqu Qhapaq'', "the royal founder"), also known as Manco Inca and Ayar Manco was, according to some historians, the first governor and founder of the Inca civilization in Cusco, possibly in the early 13th century.Presc ...

, the son of Inti (sometimes taken as the son of Viracocha), which name means "splendid foundation", and Mama Uqllu, which means "mother fertility". These two founded the Inca civilization carrying a golden staff, called 'tapac-yauri'. In another legend, he fathered the first eight civilized human beings. In some stories, he has a wife called Mama Qucha. In another legend, Viracocha had two sons, Imahmana Viracocha and Tocapo Viracocha. After the Great Flood and the Creation, Viracocha sent his sons to visit the tribes to the northeast and northwest to determine if they still obeyed his commandments. Viracocha traveled North. During their journey, Imaymana and Tocapo gave names to all the trees, flowers, fruits, and herbs. They also taught the tribes which of these were edible, which had medicinal properties, and which were poisonous. Eventually, Viracocha, Tocapo and Imahmana arrived at Cusco (in modern-day Peru) and the Pacific seacoast, where they walked away across the water until they disappeared. The word "Viracocha" literally means "Sea Foam."

Etymology

''Tiqsi Huiracocha'' (spanisch ''Ticsi Viracocha'') may have several meanings. In the

Quechuan languages Quechua (, ; ), usually called ("people's language") in Quechuan languages, is an indigenous language family spoken by the Quechua peoples, primarily living in the Peruvian Andes. Derived from a common ancestral language, it is the most widel ...

, ''tiqsi'' means "origin" or "beginning", ''wira'' means fat, and ''qucha'' means lake, sea, or reservoir. Viracocha's many epithets include ''great'', ''all knowing'', ''powerful'', etc. Some people state that ''Wiraqucha'' could mean ''"Fat (or foam) of the sea"''. According to German archeologist

Max Uhle Friedrich Max Uhle (25 March 1856 – 11 May 1944) was a German archaeologist, whose work in Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia at the turn of the Twentieth Century had a significant impact on the practice of archaeology of South America. Biograp ...

, "foam lake" is an incomprehensible name. He points out that ''Vira'' (''Huira'') can also be derived from the Quechua word ''huyra'' ("the end of all things"), and that ''Ticsi Viracocha'' therefore could have the meaning "lake of origin and of the end of all things". Some think that linguistic, historical and archaeological evidence suggest that the name could be a borrowing of Aymara ''Wila Quta'' (''wila'' "blood"; ''quta'' "lake"), due to the sacrifices of camelids that were celebrated at Lake Titiqaqa by pre-Incan Andean cultures that spoke Aymara. Viracocha is often referred to a lord "Tunuupa", which in both Quechua and Aymara have a clear provenance from "Tunu"= mill or central support pillar of a roundhouse and "upa"= the bearer, the one who carries. Thus, "Tunuupa" or "Tunupa" may be read as the "bearer of the mill", while in the Old World the mill or millstone symbolizes time and the making of time, or "the works that make civilization". This epithet of Viracocha is thus well in line with the assimilation of Viracocha as Saturn, in agreement with Inca cosmogony (see, chapter 4).

Controversy over "White God"

The first Spanish chroniclers from the 16th century made no mention of any identification with Viracocha. The first to do so was

Pedro Cieza de León Pedro Cieza de León ( Llerena, Spain c. 1520 – Seville, Spain July 2, 1554) was a Spanish conquistador and chronicler of Peru and Popayán. He is known primarily for his history and description of Peru, ''Crónicas del Perú''. He wrote th ...

in 1553. Similar accounts by Spanish chroniclers (e.g. Juan de Betanzos) describe Viracocha as a "white god", often with a beard. The whiteness of Viracocha is however not mentioned in the native authentic legends of the Incas and most modern scholars therefore had considered the "white god" story to be a post-conquest Spanish invention. MocheBeardedMen

Similarly to the Incan god Viracocha, the

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...

god

Quetzalcoatl Quetzalcoatl (, ; Spanish: ''Quetzalcóatl'' ; nci-IPA, Quetzalcōātl, ket͡saɬˈkoːaːt͡ɬ (Modern Nahuatl pronunciation), in honorific form: ''Quetzalcōātzin'') is a deity in Aztec culture and literature whose name comes from the Na ...

and several other deities from Central and South American pantheons, like the

Muisca The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan l ...

god

Bochica Bochica (also alluded to as Nemquetaha, Nemqueteba and Sadigua) is a figure in the religion of the Muisca, who inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyacense during the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the central Andean highlands of present-da ...

are described in legends as being bearded.Siemens, William L. "Viracocha as God and Hero in the Comentarios Reales." Hispanic Review 47, no. 3 (1979): 327–38. doi:10.2307/472790. The beard, once believed to be a mark of a prehistoric European influence and quickly fueled and embellished by spirits of the colonial era, had its single significance in the continentally insular culture of Mesoamerica. The ''Anales de Cuauhtitlan'' is a very important early source which is particularly valuable for having been originally written in Nahuatl. The ''Anales de Cuauhtitlan'' describes the attire of Quetzalcoatl at Tula: In this quote the beard is represented as a dressing of feathers, fitting comfortably with academic impressions of Mesoamerican art. The story, however, does not mention whether Quetzalcoatl had facial hair or not with the point of outfitting him with a mask and symbolic feathered beard being to cover his unsightly appearance because as Quetzalcoatl said "If ever my subjects were to see me, they would run away!" While descriptions of Viracocha's physical appearance are open to interpretation, men with beards were frequently depicted by the Peruvian

Moche culture The Moche civilization (; alternatively, the Mochica culture or the Early, Pre- or Proto- Chimú) flourished in northern Peru with its capital near present-day Moche, Trujillo, Peru from about 100 to 700 AD during the Regional Development Epoc ...

in its famous pottery, long before the arrival of the Spanish. Modern advocates of theories such as a pre-Columbian European migration to Peru cite these bearded ceramics and Viracocha's beard as being evidence for an early presence of non-Amerindians in Peru. Although most Indians do not have heavy beards, there are groups reported to have included bearded individuals, such as the Aché people of

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

, who also have light skin but who are not known to have any admixture with Europeans and Africans. When the Southern Paiute were first contacted by Europeans in 1776, the report by fathers

Silvestre Vélez de Escalante Silvestre is a Spanish and Portuguese given name or surname, or a French surname. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Cindy Silvestre (born 1993), a French kickboxer *Franck Silvestre (born 1967), a retired French footballer * Israe ...

and

Francisco Atanasio Domínguez Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name '' Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father o ...

noted that "Some of the men had thick beards and were thought to look more in appearance like Spanish men than native Americans". cites: , pages=187–193

Representation of Wiracochan or Tunupa at Ollantaytambo

A representation of the messenger of Viracocha named Wiracochan or Tunupa is shown in the small village of

Ollantaytambo Ollantaytambo ( qu, Ullantaytampu) is a town and an Inca archaeological site in southern Peru some by road northwest of the city of Cusco. It is located at an altitude of above sea level in the Ollantaytambo District, district of Ollantaytamb ...

, southern Peru. Ollantaytambo located in the

Cusco Region Cusco, also spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu suyu ), is a department and region in Peru and is the fourth largest department in the country, after Madre de Dios, Ucayali, and Loreto. It borders the departments of Ucayali on the north; Madre de ...

makes up a chain of small villages along the Urubamba Valley. Known as the

Sacred Valley The Sacred Valley of the Incas ( es, Valle Sagrado de los Incas; qu, Willka Qhichwa), or the Urubamba Valley, is a valley in the Andes of Peru, north of the Inca capital of Cusco. It is located in the present-day Peruvian region of Cusco. In ...

, it was an important stronghold of the

Inca Empire The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The adm ...

. Facing the ancient Inca ruins of Ollantaytambo in the rock face of ''Cerro Pinkuylluna'' is the 140-metre-high figure of Wiracochan. The angry-looking formation of his face is made up of indentations that form the eyes and mouth, whilst a protruding carved rock denotes the nose. Inca ruins built on top of the face are also considered to represent a crown on his head. Artists' impressions of the rock face also include a heavy beard and a large sack upon his shoulders. The effigy of Viracocha/Tunupa at Ollantaytambo has been highlighted among others by Fernando and Edgar Elorrieta Salazar.Fernando E. Elorrieta Salazar & Edgar Elorrieta Salazar (2005) Cusco and the Sacred Valley of the Incas, pages 83–91 Wiracochan, the pilgrim preacher of knowledge, the master of time, is described as a person with superhuman power, a bearded tall man dressed as priest or astronomer.

Conversion to Christianity

Spanish scholars and chroniclers provide many insights regarding the identity of Viracocha. #

Bartolomé de las Casas Bartolomé de las Casas, Dominican Order, OP ( ; ; 11 November 1484 – 18 July 1566) was a 16th-century Spanish Empire, Spanish landowner, friar, priest, and bishop, famed as a historian and social reformer. He arrived in Hispaniola as a layman ...

states that viracocha means "creator of all things"Itier, César. ''Viracocha o El Océano: Naturaleza y Funciones De Una Divinidad Inca''. Lima: IFEA; IEP, 2012. Print. # Juan de Betanzos confirms the above in saying that "We may say that Viracocha is God"Betanzos, Juan de, María del Carmen Martín Rubio, and Digitalia (Firm).
Suma y narración De Los Incas [Electronic Resource
/nowiki>">lectronic Resource">Suma y narración De Los Incas Sarmiento de Gamboa, Blas Valera">lectronic Resource
/nowiki>''.Web. # Polo, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa">Sarmiento de Gamboa, # Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala">Guamán Poma, an indigenous chronicler, considers the term "viracocha" to be equivalent to "creator"Guamán Poma de Ayala, Felipe, and Franklin Pease G. Y. ''Nueva crónica y Buen Gobierno;''. Lima,: Casa de la Cultura del Perú, 1969. Web. Other authors such as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega">Garcilaso de la Vega, Betanzos, and Pedro de QuirogaPedro de Quiroga, El indio dividido. Fracturas de conciencia en el Perú colonial. Ana Vian Herrero (ed.). – Madrid/Frankfurt, Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 2009. 572 p. (colección : Parecos y australes 2) – (Iberoamericana); 978386527 4137 (Vervuert) hold that Viracocha wasn't the original name of "God" for the Incas. According to Garcilaso, the name of God in the language of the Incas was "

", not Viracocha.Vega, Garcilaso de la, and Ana Gerzenstein. ''Comentarios Reales''. [Buenos Aires]: Plus Ultra, [1967]. Coleccion Clasicoshispanoamericanos, 10–11 Web. Nevertheless, Spanish interpreters generally attributed the identity of supreme creator to Viracocha during the initial years of colonization. According to Antoinette Molinié Fioravanti, Spanish clergymen began to equate the "God of creation" with Viracocha in an attempt to combat the polytheistic worship of the Incas, which in their view was idolatrous. The existence of a "supreme God" in the Incan view was used by the clergy to demonstrate that the revelation of a single, universal God was "natural" for the human condition.Molinié-Fioravanti, Antoinette
"El Regreso De Viracocha."
''Bulletin de l'Institut francais d'études Andins'' 16.3–4 (1987)Web. Christian scholars such as

Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North A ...

and

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...

held that philosophers of all nations had learned of the existence of a supreme God.Pope John Paul II, ''Catechism of the Catholic Church''. Bloomingdale, OH: Apostolate for Family Consecration John Paul II Holy Family Center, 1994. ''Catechism of the Catholic Church – The Revelation of God''. Web. Nevertheless, medieval European philosophy believed that without the aid of revelation, no one could fully understand such great truths such as the nature of "The Trinity". The decision to use the term "God" in place of "Viracocha" is seen as the first step in the evangelization of the Incas. The reasoning behind this strategy includes the fact that it was likely difficult to explain the Christian idea of "God" to the Incas, who failed to understand the concept. In addition, replacing reference to Viracocha with "God" facilitated the substitution of the local concept of divinity with Christian theology.

References

{{Authority control Aymara gods Creation myths Creator gods Inca gods Sky and weather gods Solar gods