Gods and Pumas and Eggs, Oh My! Quiz

Answer: Viracocha

Viracocha, also known as Kon-Tiki and Apu Qun Tiqsi Wiraqutra, was an Inca creator god who created the universe, sun, moon, stars, and humanity itself, which he carved out of stone. He was depicted as wearing the sun for a crown and carrying thunderbolts.

Inti, the god of the sun, and Mamaquilla, the goddess of the moon, were his children. His early creations were giants, but he was dissatisfied with them and broke them, and made smaller people instead. When the people started to forget Viracocha, he became angry and killed them, either by turning them into stone, drowning them with a massive flood, or making the ground swallow them; however, he spared three people so they could help him start again.

He made a new set of people and animals and sent them out in the world, and traveled the world to see how they were getting on.

In the village of Cacha, the people did not recognise him, so he set the village on fire. When the people panicked and promised to worship him, he stopped the fire but let one hill burn as a reminder. Viracocha finally went down to the ocean and told his people that he would be leaving them, but that he would send a messenger to watch over them, and walked away into the sea (hence the name 'Viracocha', which means 'sea spray').

Answer: Leather

In this particular myth, Kon, the god of rain, created a race of humans, but took back the gifts he gave them when they started to forget him. Pachacamac, a god of death who was worshiped by the Ichma (a pre-Inca people), turned Kon's people into black cats and replaced them with a man and a woman. Pachacamac forgot to give them anything to eat and the man starved to death, while the woman prayed to Inti, god of the Sun, for help.

Inti gave her food and four days later, she gave birth to a baby, but Pachacamac killed it and cut its body into pieces; each piece turned into a different fruit or vegetable.

Inti gave the woman a second child, who she had to raise in secret; this child was Vichama. Many years later, Vichama's mother and created a new race of people.

In revenge, Vichama drove Pachacamac into the sea and turned his people into rocks and islands. He then asked Inti to send down three giant eggs: one gold, one silver, and one leather. When the eggs hatched, noblemen came out of the gold egg, noblewomen came out of the silver egg, and commoners came out of the leather egg.

Answer: Water and fire

Pariacaca was the god of water and Huallallo was the god of fire, and the two of them fought over Mullacocha. When Huallallo was winning, the land became hot; when Pariacaca was winning, it rained and the land grew cold. Pariacaca had been born from five eggs, so he had five bodies (the art in the book I used as a reference depicts Pariacaca as five men made from ice, hail, rain, water and cloud). Huallallo managed to hold his own against Pariacaca despite being outnumbered and Pariacaca drenching him. During their battle, some friendly spirits turned a mountain upside down to catch the water and stop it drowning nearby villages, which created Lake Mullacocha. Eventually, Huallallo's flames went out and he was forced to withdraw, with one of Pariacaca's sons to guard him. Pariacaca went on to fight Huallallo's wife, who was also made of fire, and she injured one of Pariacaca's sons by breaking his leg with a rock.

The son sent her flying into the sea with a jet of water. He stayed by the sea in case Huallallo's wife came back for revenge, and Pariacaca ordered the locals to keep his son fed with corn and llamas. Huallallo's wife had burned down their forests and villages, so they were only too happy to help the water god.

Whenever fire broke out, the villagers would make sacrifices to Huallallo to appease him, and pray at a sacred rock haunted by Pariacaca's spirit.

Answer: A star

Many cultures have stories of star-crossed lovers, and the Incas were no exception; in this case, it was a literal example. The young man's father was growing increasingly annoyed with him for not being able to prevent their potatoes from being stolen, and ordered him to keep watch for the thief.

While the man was guarding the potato patch, a group of women with hair and dresses the colour of stars appeared and stole the potatoes. The man grabbed one of them by the hair, but the others flew away into the sky and turned into stars.

He fell in love with the star and begged her to marry him, but was afraid of what his parents would think, so he kept her in a hut. Eventually, he realised he had to tell his family the truth and introduced his wife to his parents.

While his parents were happy for the man to marry the star, they told the couple that the star had to cover her hair and hide her dress so nobody would know what she really was. While the star was greatly loved by the local people for her kindness, she was deeply unhappy and spent hours looking at the sky and talking to the stars.

She asked her mother-in-law to give her her dress, and when she got her dress back, she put it on and disappeared. The man searched everywhere for the star in desperation and a friendly condor agreed to take him to her, in exchange for two llamas. The condor took the man to a golden temple in the sky and he and the star were reunited, but she had to hide him in her room as her parents, the sun and the moon, would kill him if they found out he had married her. The man soon grew weak and ill, and the star told him that he had to go back to earth or else he would die, and that he would never see her again. The condor took the man home in exchange for two more llamas. The man never told anyone what had happened, and every night, he would look up at the stars and cry for his lost love.

Answer: A monkey

Mancharu was a huge and terrible monkey who spat poison and shot lightning out of his eyes. He chased Rainbow for several days until she came to the wild forests of Hueva, where the Huillcas lived. She begged Turuncana, the chief giant, to protect her from Mancharu, and turned herself into a tiny ball of wool in the giant's hand. Turuncana took Rainbow into his care and warned the Huillcas to be careful, as he felt that Mancharu would be after Rainbow.

The Huillcas holed themselves up in their caves. Mancharu did not come for several months, but Turuncana was afraid to sleep in case the beast showed up.

When he finally fell asleep, Mancharu came down from the trees and broke Turuncana's neck, and the Huillcas were all turned into hills. Rainbow turned herself into a ball of wool and rolled down to the river.

She was too afraid to turn back into a girl in case Mancharu caught her, so she stayed as a ball of wool and jumped from one river to another on rainy days, making rainbows in the sky.

Answer: Producing the first grandchild in the family

The rich man, who lived in the village of Anchicocha, claimed to be a god and owned a big fancy house, and lots of llamas, while Uathiacuri lived a spartan life. One day, the rich man fell ill and a fox told Uathiacuri what had happened: the rich man's wife had fallen in love with another man, which had put a curse on him. A pair of snakes were waiting on the man's roof for him to die so they could eat his body, and a two-headed toad was also lurking nearby under a flat stone. Uathiacuri went to the rich man's house and when he saw Champinaca, he fell in love with her straight away and promised to cure her father if she married him. Champinaca agreed and Uathiacuri told the man to lift the curse by killing the toad and the snakes. In return, however, he would have to stop claiming he was a god and worship Pariacaca. The rich man recovered once the three animals had been killed, but Champinaca's brother was jealous and issued a series of challenges to Uathiacuri.

Uathiacuri went to Pariacaca for advice each time. For the drinking and dancing contest, Pariacaca gave him a pitcher of chicha beer and a magic flute; for the second challenge, to see who could wear the most magnificent outfit, he gave him a poncho made of snow; for the puma skin challenge, he gave Uathiacuri a beautiful red puma skin that made a rainbow encircle his head when he put it on; and for the final challenge, the hardest yet, thousands of llamas, snakes and birds helped Uathiacuri build his house by bringing all sorts of materials. Uathiacuri had had enough of challenges at this point and asked his brother-in-law to meet him in the village square to dance. When Uathiacuri came to the square, he cried out and his brother-in-law ran away in fear, and was turned into a deer, while the local river washed the rich man's house away, only leaving the stone where the toad had hidden. The villagers placed offerings to Pariacaca on the stone.

Answer: A llama

Llamas were important creatures for the Incas, as they were - and still are - beasts of burden, and a source of wool and food. They often featured in Inca myth and llama figures were sometimes buried with dead people. Yacana was a magical white llama who lived among the stars, and was the guardian of all the llamas on Earth.

He was represented by the constellation we know as Lyra, while a number of nearby stars represented his children. He came down to Earth to drink every night and keep rivers from overflowing, but nobody ever saw him because he walked along the bottom of riverbeds, and he never drank at the same place twice. One myth tells of a poor young boy who saw Yacana come down to a stream to drink, and soft wool began to fall from the sky.

The boy fell asleep and when he woke up, he was surrounded by llama wool of all colours. In gratitude, the boy took the wool into town to sell and promised to worship Yacana, and sacrifice a llama to him at the stream every month. He grew rich enough to buy llamas of his own, and his llamas produced enormous flocks. Urcuchillay, another Inca god who took the form of a colourful llama, was also represented by a constellation, the star we know as Canis Major.

Answer: Thunder

Inti Illapa, aka Apu Illapu, was the god of thunder, who was said to keep the Milky Way in a jug. He made it rain by smashing the jug with his sling, which also caused thunder, and lightning came from the flashing of his clothes. The Incas prayed to him for rain in times of drought. Anyone unlucky enough to be struck by lightning would be caught and forced to work in the god's barns. One legend tells of a man who was struck by lightning and woke up to find himself in one of Inti Illapa's barns, but managed to escape during a storm. Later on, the man was lost in a storm and looked for shelter.

He found a house where an old woman lived and begged her to let him in. She was reluctant as she feared her sons would kill him, but agreed to hide the man under a pile of blankets.

When the woman's sons walked in, carrying slings and bags tied with snakes, the man realised they were Inti Illapa's sons. He fell asleep and when he woke up, he found himself lying next to a lake. The house had gone, but he found a scrap of wool in his hand which was the same colour as the old woman's blankets.

He kept it as a souvenir and tied it around his wrist.

Answer: The gods were angry that the people refused to worship them, and flooded the area.

Lake Titicaca, up in the Andes on the border between Bolivia and Peru, is the highest navigable lake in the world and South America's biggest lake. The legend in question states that the area was once a great city filled with arrogant people who thought themselves to be on the level of the gods. A group of ragged Indians came to the city and warned the people that the gods were angry, and that they should go into the mountains and repent before it was too late. The people ignored the Indians, but the local priests took them seriously and went to a mountain to pray. One day, the sky turned red and black and a terrible storm broke out. Crimson rain fell from the sky and flooded the city, drowning everyone in it. Only the priests survived; the mountain where they took refuge became the island of Titicaca, while the flooded city became Lake Titicaca.

Incidentally, in 2000, a team of divers found the ruins of a temple at the bottom of Lake Titicaca, thought to have been built by the Tiwanaku people, a pre-Inca civilisation. The divers also found a road, terraces for crops, and several ceramic artefacts.

Answer: Cuzco

When Ayar Manco and Mama Ocllo (whose name means 'mother fertility') arrived on Earth, its people were primitive and needed guidance. Inti, their father (although in other myths, Viracocha was their father), gave them a golden rod called a 'tapac-yauri' and told them to found a capital city, build a temple to him and use it as a base for their new empire. Setting off from Lake Titicaca, with local people following them, they traveled far and wide until they came to a valley surrounded by mountains. This time, the rod sank into the ground. They had found the place that would become Cuzco, and the local people helped them build the city. While they were building Cuzco, the wind disrupted their work, so Ayar Manco locked it up in a llama enclosure. Ayar Ucho, Ayar Manco's brother, heard the howling of the wind, who was a friend of his, and threatened to release it at sunset. To stop the Sun from setting, Ayar Manco and his strongest servant chained the Sun to a rock so they could finish their work before it set. Once the work was done, he released both the Sun and the wind. Ayar Manco later married his sister and changed his name to Manco Capac.

Today, Cuzco - now known as Cusco, or Qosqo in Quecha - is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and capital of the Cusco Province. It is one of Peru's most popular tourism sites.