Illapa

Illapa, the Inca thunder god, was believed to control the weather. The Incas prayed to Illapa for rain and protection from drought. He was envisioned as a warrior in the sky who held a sling and was dressed in shining garments. The lightning was believed to be the flashing of his clothing, and the thunder was the crack of his sling. His sling stone was the lightning bolt that broke his sister's water jug, causing the rain to fall. In a land of frequent drought, where the people depended on agriculture to sustain them, the god of rain was of paramount importance.

See alsoIncas, The .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John H. Rowe, "Inca Culture at the Time of the Spanish Conquest," in Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 2 (1946), pp. 183-330. Additional sources include Burr Cartwright Brundage, The Empire of the Inca (1963) and The Lords of Cuzco: A History and Description of the Inca People in Their Final Days (1967).

Additional Bibliography

Barham Ode, Walid. Apu pitusiray = Realismo mítico. Calca: Asociación Cultural Pumaruna, 2005.

Jones, David M. Mythology of the Incas: Myths and Legends of the Ancient Andes, Western Valleys, Deserts, and Amazonia. London: Southwater, 2007.

Rosa, Greg. Incan Mythology and Other Myths of the Andes. New York: Rosen Group, 2007.

Sullivan, William. The Secret of the Incas: Myth, Astronomy, and the War against Time. New York: Crown Publishers, 1996.

Urton, Gary. Inca Myths. Austin: University of Texas, 1999.

                                        Gordon F. McEwan