Viracocha
Inca · deity · cosmogonic · Recorded classification
Supreme Andean creator god who made sun, moon and mankind at Titicaca; distinct from the king Viracocha Inca.
Domains
- creation
- sun moon and stars
- water and the deep
Powers
- Create the sun, moon, stars and order time
- Fashion the nations and call them from stone and caves
- Wander as a beggar teaching, then depart over the sea
Epithets
- Pachayachachic Teacher/Maker of the World; he who instructs the cosmosCristóbal de Molina, Relación de las fábulas y ritos de los Incas (c. 1575), prayers to Con Ticci Viracocha Pachayachachic (primary); Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, Historia de los Incas (1572) (primary)
- Con Tiqsi Wiraqucha The ceremonial name of the creator who rose from Lake Titicaca to order the worldJuan de Betanzos, Suma y narración de los Incas (primary)
- Apu Qun Tiqsi Wiraqucha Lord Foundation Viracocha; the supreme creator of the great Cusco prayersCristóbal de Molina, Relación de las fábulas y ritos de los Incas (primary)
Relations
- syncretism: TunupaDocumented fusion in the Titicaca/Tiwanaku horizon: the Aymara thunder-creator Tunupa was absorbed into the Inca Viracocha cycle (chronicles write Tunupa-Viracocha, alias Tarapaca). Areal cult merger, not a cognate name.Alonso Ramos Gavilan, Historia del Santuario de Nuestra Senora de Copacabana (1621), on Tunupa at Titicaca (primary); Therese Bouysse-Cassagne, Lluvias y cenizas: dos Pachacuti en la historia (1988) (secondary)