The Inca Flood Myth and the Rebirth of the Sun
The Inca flood myth is the central narrative of destruction and renewal in the Inca creation myth, and it accounts for the origin of the present world, the appearance of the sun, and the formation of the modern human race. According to the version recorded by the chronicler Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa in 1572, the creator god Viracocha destroyed a first race of giants by means of a great flood, after which he created a second, smaller humanity and brought forth the sun, the moon, and the stars. The myth is closely related to the myth of the dark giants destroyed in the first dawn and to the four ages of the world, and the three traditions together form the core of the Andean cosmogonic system. The flood myth has been compared with the biblical account in Genesis and with the Babylonian account of the flood of Utnapishtim, and the resemblances have been the subject of considerable scholarly debate.
The principal sources for the Inca flood myth are Sarmiento de Gamboa (1572), Juan de Betanzos (c. 1551), Garcilaso de la Vega (1609), and Bernabé Cobo (1653). The myth has been analyzed in detail by Gary Urton, Tom Zuidema, and Catherine Allen, who have situated it in the broader context of Andean cosmology and compared it with flood myths from other parts of the world.
The Great Flood in the Chronicle of Sarmiento de Gamboa
The most detailed account of the Inca flood is that of Sarmiento de Gamboa, written in 1572 as part of his Historia de los Incas under the supervision of the Spanish Viceroy Francisco de Toledo. According to Sarmiento, the creator Viracocha had fashioned a first race of humans, called the giants, at a place called Tiahuanaco near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca. The giants were of great stature and extraordinary physical strength, but they were rebellious against their creator and refused to obey his commands. Viracocha resolved to destroy them.
The destruction was accomplished by means of a great flood. Viracocha summoned the waters of the heavens and the waters of the earth, and the two met in a great wave that covered the highest mountains of the Andes. Almost the entire race of the giants was drowned. The chronicler records that the bodies of those killed by the flood were carried to the bottom of the sea, and that the few giants who managed to escape to the high peaks of the Andes were turned to stone by the light of the newly created sun. The petrified remains of these giants were identified by the Incas with the many strangely shaped rock outcrops, called huacas, that dotted the landscape of the Andes.
The version of Betanzos, written some twenty years earlier, contains a similar account but with significant differences. Betanzos places the flood at a different point in the narrative, and he does not identify the victims of the flood with the giants of the first creation. His account suggests that the flood was sent to destroy a wicked generation of humans, and that the creator then repopulated the world with a new, more obedient race. The differences between the two accounts have been the subject of scholarly debate, but the consensus is that both reflect genuine Andean traditions of varying regional origin.
The Rebirth of the Sun
The flood myth is closely tied to the myth of the rebirth of the sun. According to the chroniclers, the sun had not yet been created at the time of the first giants, and the world was a place of twilight and half-light. The first giants lived in this world of semi-darkness, and the chroniclers report that they were guided by the light of the moon and the stars. The flood, which destroyed the giants, was followed by the creation of the sun, which Viracocha commanded to take its place in the sky and to shine with a brilliant light that no living being could withstand. The light of the new sun was so bright that the few giants who had escaped the flood were turned to stone wherever they stood, becoming the rock outcrops that the Incas venerated as huacas.
The rebirth of the sun was understood as the beginning of the present age, the fifth sun or the sun of the Incas. According to the version recorded by Bernabé Cobo in his 1653 Historia del Nuevo Mundo, the present sun was created by the command of Viracocha from the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca, and the first humans of the present age were created from smaller clay figures that Viracocha had painted with the clothing, the hair, and the customs of each people. The sun, the moon, and the stars were then placed in the sky, and the present order of the world was established. The chronicler records that the sun was given a special role in the new order, since it was understood to be the source of light, of warmth, and of life, and the cult of the sun became the central element of the Inca state religion.
The Flood in Comparative Perspective
The Inca flood myth has been compared with flood myths from other parts of the world, including the biblical account in Genesis, the Babylonian account of the flood of Utnapishtim, and the Greek account of Deucalion. The resemblances are general: in each case, an earlier creation is destroyed by the gods because of human wickedness, and a new creation is initiated. The specific Andean details, however, are distinctive. The Inca flood is associated with the petrification of the earlier people and the formation of huacas, the creator emerges from a body of water (the lake of Titicaca), and the creator departs across another body of water (the Pacific Ocean). The parallels with the Old World flood myths have been the subject of considerable scholarly debate.
The most plausible interpretation, given the absence of any demonstrated pre-Columbian transatlantic contact, is that the similarities are the result of independent development rather than diffusion. Flood narratives are an example of a near-universal human response to the experience of catastrophic floods, and the resemblances between the Inca myth and the Old World myths are best understood as examples of convergent cultural evolution. The Inca account, in any case, stands on its own terms and is a central element of the Inca religious tradition.
The Inca flood myth also has features in common with accounts recorded in other parts of the Americas, including the Mesoamerican accounts of the destruction of earlier creations by flood, by fire, and by the falling of the sky. The general pattern — an earlier creation destroyed by the gods, followed by a new creation — is widespread, and the comparative study of these myths has been a major area of research in the anthropology of religion. The American anthropologist Anthony Aveni, in his studies of Mesoamerican astronomy, has argued that the destruction myths of the New World are often tied to the cycles of the planets and to the recurrence of catastrophic astronomical events, and the Andean flood myth may be similarly tied to the long-term climatic cycles of the central Andes.
The Persistence of the Flood Myth in the Modern Andes
The Inca flood myth has persisted in the rural Andes in modified form, often in combination with the biblical account of Noah and the flood. The chronicler Pedro Cieza de León reported in the 1550s that the indigenous people of the highlands preserved memories of a great flood that had destroyed an earlier generation, and the Jesuit priest José de Acosta recorded similar accounts in the late sixteenth century. Modern ethnographers have documented flood narratives in the highland communities of Peru and Bolivia, often in combination with local stories of the formation of the landscape and of the origin of the present inhabitants. The persistence of the flood myth suggests that the cosmogonic traditions of the central Andes have proven remarkably durable in the face of conquest and evangelization.
The myth of the flood and the rebirth of the sun is, in this sense, both an ancient narrative and a living tradition. The Spanish chroniclers recorded it as part of the Inca religious heritage, and the modern Quechua and Aymara peoples of the Andes have preserved elements of it in their oral traditions. The flood myth is thus a central part of the cultural heritage of the central Andes and a key to understanding the Inca religious tradition.