Copacati

Copacati was one of the two principal wak'as of pre-Christian Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. The colonial chronicler Ramos Gavilán describes her as a stone idol of ugly form whose body was entirely bound with curled snakes, set upon a hill and beseeched for rain during droughts. Scholars read her as the personification of celestial water from Above (Hanan), the complement of the lakeside idol Copacabana who embodied the terrestrial waters from Below (Hurin); her sanctuary was later overlaid by the cult of the Virgin of Copacabana.

Domains

• rain and celestial water

Powers

• to send rain upon the fields in times of drought

Relations

• companion: Copacabana IdolCopacati, the deity of water from Above (Hanan) on the hilltop, formed a complementary pair with the lakeshore idol Copacabana, the deity of water from Below (Hurin), expressing the moiety dualism of the Copacabana sanctuary.Verónica Salles-Reese, From Viracocha to the Virgin of Copacabana (1997) (secondary)

Sources

• Copacati is the pre-Hispanic Aymara deity of rain and celestial water venerated on a hill above Copacabana, represented by a serpent-wreathed stone idol implored for rain in times of drought.: 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)