Copacabana Idol

The Copacabana idol was the second of the two great wak'as of pre-Christian Copacabana. Ramos Gavilán describes it as a beautiful blue stone bearing a human face on a body shaped like a fish, adored as the deity of the lagoon and the creator of its fish and their fertility. It represented the terrestrial waters from Below (Hurin), complementing the celestial-water goddess Copacati of the hilltop; the sanctuary's sacred prestige was eventually inherited by the Virgin of Copacabana enthroned there in 1583.

Domains

• lake and fish

Powers

• to create and multiply the fish of the lake

Relations

• companion: CopacatiThe lakeshore Copacabana, deity of water from Below (Hurin), formed a complementary pair with the hilltop Copacati, deity of water from Above (Hanan).Verónica Salles-Reese, From Viracocha to the Virgin of Copacabana (1997) (secondary)

Sources

• The Copacabana idol was a pre-Hispanic Aymara lake deity, a blue stone with a human face and fish's body worshipped as god of Lake Titicaca and creator of its fish, whose name passed to the town and later the Marian shrine.: Alonso Ramos Gavilán, Historia del célebre santuario de Nuestra Señora de Copacabana (1621) (secondary); Verónica Salles-Reese, From Viracocha to the Virgin of Copacabana: Representation of the Sacred at Lake Titicaca (1997) (secondary)