Viracocha and Pachacamac

After Viracocha had created all the men and left them on the surface of the earth, he returned to his cold, watery home of Lake Titicaca. He was content with the hard labor he had done, carving men and beasts from the hard stones of the earth, and so resolved to sleep for a long time. Viracocha slept undisturbed for many years as the seaweed grew up around him and the fishes swam in and out of his great water-rush beard. The water was frigid and dark, and so Viracocha rested in a deep, untroubled slumber.

One day, many years after the men had started to have their own children, and those children had their children, the gentle earth began to shake violently. Something deep inside the rocks was stirring, and the men and women began to be afraid. They cried out to Viracocha, but he was still too tired to hear their voices. The ground split and broke, and whole mountains and valleys rose up and fell down. Hot fire poured from some of the splits in the earth, burning the grass and leaving black scars of rock across the ground. The men gathered together their wives and children, and they huddled together, terrified of what was happening to their peaceful world.

The shaking did not subside, but rather continued to increase until at last Viracocha stirred from his sleep and rose slowly from his cool bed of water. He saw the fires raging across the grasslands and stretched out his arm, guiding rushing rivers of cool water across the plains. Where the water hit the lava, it hissed and cried out, but Viracocha stood firm, until at last only smoke and steam filled the air. The ground continued to shake, and where the water poured into the depths, it shot back out, crying as it went. Viracocha resolved to go beneath the surface of the earth to stop the tremors, and descended into a great cave that led below the land.

When Viracocha arrived at the source of the shaking, he saw that it was a terrible monster, a great beast whose eyes burned with the brightest of fires, but darkness veiled his face. His arms and legs shook the whole earth, and his roars echoed forever into the sky. It was Pachacamac, the great god of volcanoes and fire. It was Pachacamac who had first created the rocky earth, but Viracocha had long ago captured and imprisoned him underground with chains of water. Now it appeared that he had broken loose from his cold restraints, and was tearing apart all that had been created.

Pachacamac and Viracocha began at once to fight again, and never before was there a more terrible and awful scene. Water met fire in great hissing screams, and rocks ground against each other as the earth shook even more terribly than before. Rain poured from the heavens as fire flashed across the sky, and the poor men on the surface could only cry in fear. Far below them, the two gods wrestled furiously to gain an advantage over one another.

Long before, Viracocha had proven to be the strongest, but he had slept for many years and had exhausted much of his strength. Pachacamac fought with the fury of a creature bent on revenge as he began to hit Viracocha harder and harder, driving the water god deeper and deeper into the earth. At last, Pachacamac struck such a terrible blow that Viracocha could withstand him no longer, and he fled from the fiery deity back to the cool safety of Lake Titicaca. As he ran, great rivers of water poured out of his wounds, filling the caverns and trapping Pachacamac again below the surface, where he has remained ever since.

Men still remember this terrible day and the awful power that the fire god wielded, and so they still respect and offer sacrifices to Pachacamac. Some of the fire escaped while the gods were fighting, and inhabited wild beasts, making them into monsters. A few men were also caught by the fire, turning them dark and angry. This fire lives today among the fiercest of men, a reminder of the power of Pachacamac.

Author’s Note: This story is based on the legend of Viracocha and Pachacamac as written by Lewis Spence in his book The Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and Peru (1907). He only briefly treats the fight they have, and so I took a great deal of artistic liberty when describing the actual events. He wrote that even among the Inca, there was not a consensus as to the official religious beliefs, and so for some, Pachacamac is viewed with great reverence and worshipped along with other nature gods, while for others he is seen more as an evil god that should be avoided.

There are also contrasting stories of the battle between Viracocha and Pachacamac, but the basic idea was what I presented: that there is a fundamental conflict between the forces of fire and heat, and water and the cold. In Incan mythology, this is usually represented as an ongoing struggle between the two gods, but it depends on one’s own individual interpretation whether this is also a battle between good and evil.

In some of the stories, Pachacamac actually escapes his captivity and destroys the earlier race of men (created by Viracocha) and fashions his own, who are more prone to anger and evil. According to the legend, these are the men that we are descended from, hence our propensity to not always do what is right. I decided that I would keep this version simpler and focus instead on his awakening and fight with the god of water, Viracocha.

Image: We hiked up to about spot about 16,000 feet above sea level that had spectacular views of the valley we were living in at the time. While we were up there, I found a rock with a small pool of water that set up that beautiful shot used in the header. It reminded me of the cold, watery nature of Viracocha and contrasts nicely with the sharp rocks and landscape.