Macahuisa

Macahuisa is a storm-and-lightning son of Pariacaca, remembered above all for the episode in which the Inca, having honored Pariacaca's oracle, asked the god for help against rebellious provinces. Pariacaca dispatched Macahuisa, who was carried in a litter to the war; there he unleashed rain and lightning that turned the enemy ground to mire and dissolved the rebel army utterly. In gratitude the Inca offered him worship and wished to make him a son, but the god desired only the customary highland sacrifices. His story dramatizes the incorporation of the Huarochirí cults into the wider Inca state religion, and he stands beside his brother Tutayquiri as one of the martial powers descended from Pariacaca.

Parentage

• parent: PariacacaHuarochirí Manuscript, ch. 23 (Salomon-Urioste ed., 1991) (primary)

Domains

• lightning and storm war

Powers

• destroy rebel armies with rain and lightning

Relations

• parent: PariacacaHuarochirí Manuscript, ch. 23 (Salomon-Urioste ed., 1991) (primary)
• sibling: TutayquireHuarochirí Manuscript, chs. 11, 23 (Salomon-Urioste ed., 1991) (primary)

Sources

• Macahuisa, a son of Pariacaca, was sent to aid the Inca and annihilated a rebel army with storm and lightning.: Huarochirí Manuscript, ch. 23 (Salomon-Urioste ed., 1991) (primary); Frank Salomon and George L. Urioste, The Huarochirí Manuscript (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991) (secondary)