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
This confusion and rivalry of the Peruvian gods has left its traces in
the crude and obscure legend of the Collas, or mountaineers of Pacari
Tambo, to the south-west of Cuzco. "From the caves of Pacari Tambo (i.e.
'the house of the dawn') issued one day four brothers and four sisters.
The eldest ascended a mountain, and flung stones towards the four
cardinal points, which was his way of taking possession of all the land.
This aroused the displeasure of the other three. The youngest of all was
the cunningest, and he resolved to get rid of his three brothers and
reign alone. He persuaded his eldest brother to enter a cave, and as
soon as he had done so closed the mouth with an enormous stone, and
imprisoned him there for ever." This seems to refer to the
quasi-subterranean cultus of Pachacamac, the internal fire, the first
revelation of whom must have been a volcano hurling stones in every
direction.--"The youngest brother then persuaded the second to ascend a
high mountain with him, to seek their lost brother, and when they stood
on the summit he hurled him down the precipice and changed him into a
stone by a spell." I cannot say to what special deity this part of the
legend alludes, unless it simply refers to an ancient worship of stones
or rocks, many vestiges of which remained under the Incas, though it
ceased to have any official importance in presence of the radiant
worship of the Sun promulgated and favoured by the ruling family.--"Then
the third brother fled in terror." This fleeing god must be Viracocha,
the god of showers, who flees before the Sun.--"Then the youngest
brother built Cuzco, caused himself to be adored as child of the Sun
under the name of Pirrhua Manco, and likewise built other cities on the
same model."[84]
This last trait puts it out of doubt that the legend is really an
attempt to explain how the religion of Manco Capac established at Cuzco
had succeeded in eclipsing all others, owing to the superior skill of
its priesthood. It is a formal confirmation of all that I have told you
of the consummate art with which the Incas gradually extended the circle
of their political and religious dominion. _Pirrhua_ is the contraction
of Viracocha, taken in the generic sense of "divine being." Pirrhua
Manco was an alternative name of Manco Capac.
Of course this legend was not officially received under the Incas. The
latter, being unable or unwilling to abolish the worship of Viracocha
and of Pachacamac, took up a far more conciliatory attitude than that of
the legends I have given. The supreme god, the Sun, was admitted to have
had three sons, Kon or Viracocha, Pachacamac and Manco Capac; but the
latter was declared to have been quite specially designed by the common
father to instruct and govern men. By this arrangement every one was
satisfied,--and especially the Incas.
III.
We may now return to the other deities who were officially incorporated
in the family or retinue of the Sun.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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