Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and PeruRéville, Albert
Religion
Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru
Réville, Albert
Indian mythology -- Mexico; Indian mythology -- Peru
From all that I have said already, you will easily understand that the
Sun has never been worshipped more directly or with more devotion than
in Peru. It was he whom the Peruvians regarded as sovereign lord of the
world, king of the heaven and the earth. His Peruvian name was _Inti_,
"Light." The villages were usually built so as to look eastward, in
order that the inhabitants might salute the supreme god as soon as he
appeared in the morning. The most usual representation of him was a
golden disk representing a human face surrounded by rays and flames. In
Peru, as everywhere else, a feeling existed that there was a certain
relation between the substance of gold and that of the great luminary.
In the nuggets torn from the mountain sides they thought they saw the
Sun's tears.[75] The great periodic fêtes of the year, the imperial and
national festivals in which every one took part, were those held in
honour of the Sun.
Immediately after him came his sister and consort the Moon, Mama Quilla.
Her image was a disk of silver bearing human features, and silver played
the same part in her worship that gold did in that of the Sun. It
appears, however, that they performed fewer sacrifices to her than to
her august consort, which is quite in harmony with the inferior position
assigned to woman in the Peruvian civilization.[76] Like Selene amongst
the Greeks, Mama Quilla, and her incarnation in human form, Mama Ogllo,
were weavers. And that is why the latter was said to have taught the
Peruvian women the art of spinning and weaving. This is a mythological
conception suggested by likening the moonbeams to twisted threads, out
of which on fair clear nights the brilliant verdure in which the earth
is clad is spun.
But before going on to the gods who form the usual retinue of these two
official and imperial deities, I must speak of two great Peruvian gods
whose worship was likewise widely spread, but who nevertheless are not
attached to the solar family, or at least are only so attached by an
after-thought and by dint of harmonizing efforts which the Incas had
their motives of policy for favouring: I mean the two great deities,
_Viracocha_ and _Pachacamac_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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