The Mythology of All Races, Vol. 11: Latin-American

by Hartley Burr Alexander

The names of this heaven-god, ancient in origin and wide in the range of his cult, have doubtless been many in the course of history; but though several of them have survived in the traditions which have been recorded, paramount among them all is that by which the divinity was known to the Inca—Viracocha (or Uiracocha). Montesinos's list of kings commences, says Markham,[139] "with the names of the deity, Illa Tici Uiracocha. We are told that the first word, Illa, means 'light.' Tici means 'foundation or beginning of things.' The word Uira is said to be a corruption of Pirua, meaning the 'depository or store-house of creation.'... The ordinary meaning of Cocha is a lake, but here it is said to signify an abyss—profundity. The whole meaning of the words would be, 'The splendour, the foundation, the creator, the infinite God.' The word Yachachic was occasionally added—'the Teacher.'"

PLATE XXXVI.

Plaque probably representing Viracocha. The head is surmounted by a rayed disk, doubtless the sun; tears, symbolic of rain, stream from the eyes; above the hands, on either side, are dragon-like creatures which are doubtless the equivalent of the wands or serpents shown in the hands of similar figures, and which may represent the two servants of the god, as they appear in legend. After CA xii, Plate VIII.

Molina, Salcamayhua, Huaman Poma, all give Inca prayers addressed to Viracocha—prayers which are our best evidence for the character in which he was regarded. In the group recorded by Molina[140] the deity appears as lord of generation of plants and animals and humankind; and to him are addressed supplications for increase. But he is very clearly, also, a supreme creator: "O conquering Viracocha! Ever-present Viracocha! Thou who art in the ends of the earth without equal! Thou gavest life and valour to men, saying, 'Let this be a man!' and to women, saying, 'Let this be a woman!' Thou madest them and gavest them being! Watch over them that they may live in health and peace. Thou who art in the high heavens, and among the clouds of the tempest, grant this with long life, and accept this sacrifice, O Creator!" In other prayers Viracocha is represented as creator of the sun, and hence as supreme over the great national god of the Incas; and in the rites which Molina describes, Viracocha (the creator), the Sun, and the Thunder form a triad, addressed in the order named. The same supremacy of Viracocha is recognized in the elaborate hymn recorded by Salcamayhua and translated by Markham after the emended text of Dr. Mossi and the Spanish version of Lafone Quevado:[141]

"O Uira-cocha! Lord of the universe;
Whether thou art male,
Whether thou art female,
Lord of reproduction,
Whatsoever thou mayest be,
O Lord of divination,
Where art thou?
Thou mayest be above,
Thou mayest be below,
Or perhaps around
Thy splendid throne and sceptre.
Oh, hear me!
From the sky above,
In which thou mayest be,
From the sea beneath,
In which thou mayest be,
Creator of the world,
Maker of all men;
Lord of all Lords,
My eyes fail me
For longing to see thee;
For the sole desire to know thee.
Might I behold thee,
Might I know thee,
Might I consider thee,
Might I understand thee.
Oh, look down upon me,
For thou knowest me.
The sun—the moon—
The day—the night—
Spring—winter,
Are not ordained in vain
By thee, O Uira-cocha!
They all travel
To the assigned place;
They all arrive
At their destined ends,
Whithersoever thou pleasest.
Thy royal sceptre
Thou holdest.
Oh hear me!
Oh choose me!
Let it not be
That I should tire,
That I should die."

It were easy to accept a pantheistic interpretation of a divinity so addressed; it is plausible to regard that deity as androgynous, as Lafone Quevado suggests. What is certain is that here we have a creator-god superior to the world of visible nature, so that he was represented, according to Salcamayhua, by an oval plate of fine gold above the symbols of the heavenly bodies in the great temple at Cuzco. Salcamayhua, moreover, connects with Viracocha two other names, Tonapa and Tarapaca, which, he declares, are appellatives of a servant (or servants) of Viracocha; and here we have a glimpse into another cycle of mythic history.

The story, as Salcamayhua tells it,[142] begins with the remote Purunpacha—the time when all the nations were at war with each other, and there was no rest from tumults. "Then, in the middle of the night, they heard the Hapi-ñuños [harpy-like daemones] disappearing with mournful complaints, and crying,—'We are conquered, we are conquered, alas that we should lose our bands!'" This Salcamayhua interprets as a New-World equivalent of the death-cry of Old-World paganism, "Great Pan is dead!"—for from their cry, he says, "it must be understood that the devils were conquered by Jesus Christ our Lord on the cross on Mount Calvary." Some time after the devils departed, there appeared "a bearded man, of middle height, with long hair, and a rather long shirt. They say that he was somewhat past his prime, for he already had grey hairs, and he was lean. He travelled by aid of a staff, teaching the natives with much love and calling them all his sons and daughters. As he went through the land, he performed many miracles. The sick were healed by his touch. He spoke all languages better than the natives." They called him, Salcamayhua says, Tonapa or Tarapaca ("Tarapaca means an eagle"), associating these names with that of Viracocha; "but was he not the glorious apostle, St. Thomas?"

Many tales are told of the miracles performed by Tonapa, among others the story, which Avila narrates of Pariacaca, of the overwhelming by flood of a village, the inhabitants of which had abused him; and similar legends in which the offenders were transformed into stones. "They further say that this Tonapa, in his wanderings, came to the mountains of Caravaya, where he erected a very large cross; and he carried it on his shoulders to the mountain of Carapucu, where he preached in a loud voice, and shed tears." In 1897 Bandelier[143] visited the village of Carabuco, on Lake Titicaca, and there saw the ancient cross, known for more than three centuries, which tradition associates with pre-Columbian times. "The meaning of Carapucu," Salcamayhua continues, "is when a bird called pucu-pucu sings four times at early dawn." May there not be here a clue to the meaning both of the myth and of the emblem? At dawn, when the herald birds first sing, the four quarters of the world, of which the cross is symbol, are shaped by the light of day—a token and a reminiscence of the first creation of Earth by shining Heaven.

Molina, Cieza de León, Sarmiento, Huaman Poma[144] tell of the making of sun and moon, and of the generations of men, associating this creation with the lake of Titicaca, its islands, and its neighbourhood. Viracocha is almost universally represented as the creator, and the story follows the main plot of the genesis narratives known to the civilized nations of both Americas—a succession of world aeons, each ending in cataclysm. As told by Huaman Poma, five such ages had preceded that in which he lived. The first was an age of Viracochas, an age of gods, of holiness, of life without death, although at the same time it was devoid of inventions and refinements; the second was an age of skin-clad giants, the Huari Runa, or "Indigenes," worshippers of Viracocha; third came the age of Puron Runa, or "Common Men," living without culture; fourth, that of the Auca Runa, "Warriors," and fifth that of the Inca rule, ended by the coming of the Spaniards. As related by Sarmiento the first age was that of a sunless world inhabited by a race of giants, who, owing to the sin of disobedience, were cataclysmically destroyed; but two brothers, surviving on a hill-top, married two women descended from heaven (in Molina's version these are bird-women) and repeopled a part of the world. Viracocha, however, undertook a second creation at Lake Titicaca, this time with sun, moon, and stars; but out of jealousy, since at first the moon was the brighter orb, the sun threw a handful of ashes over his rival's face, thus giving the shaded colour which the moon now presents. Viracocha, we are told, was assisted by three servants, one of whom, Taguapaca, rebelled against him; for this he was bound and set adrift upon the lake (an event which, in a different form, is given by Salcamayhua as a part of the persecution of Tonapa); and then, taking his two remaining servitors with him, the deity "went to a place now called Tiahuanacu ... and in this place he sculptured and designed on a great piece of stone all the nations that he intended to create," after which he sent his servants forth to command all tribes and all nations to multiply. The last act of Viracocha's career was his miraculous departure across the western sea, "travelling over the water as if it were land, without sinking," and leaving behind him the prophecy that he would send his messengers once again to protect and to teach his people.