Chimu mythology

When the Inca Pachacútec or Pachakutiq Incayupanqui, ninth in the list of Inca emperors, conquered the territory of the Chimú confederation, in the mid-fifteenth century, shortly before the arrival of the Spanish in America and Peru, it ended for assimilating the beliefs of Chimú mythology, just as they assimilated their domains. The Chimú Culture had its center in Chan Chan.

Religious vision

For the Chimú, the sky was nothing more than an extension of the earth. The life he expected after death was only the prolongation of his earthly stay.

Their religious practice, which began as peaceful as it was calm, moved in the same sense of sacrifice as those of the environment, to end up being bloodthirsty and bloody, embedded in a complicated aristocratic web of priestly, military, merchant and peasants, in the style of the Inca, who moved in a magical fetishism, in a dark and gruesome ceremonial myth, directed by the priestly caste for their political benefit. That is why many believe that the Chimú culture sacrificed children to their gods.

Kon the Flying Cat

Kon is the ancient coastal god worshiped as creator of the world by important kingdoms such as Paracas and Nazca, who represented him in fine fabrics and beautiful polychrome huacos.

He was an eminently flying god, he had no bones, he was fast and light and could shorten distances at will. In the best-known images of him, he can be seen flying, with feline masks, folded feet and carrying a staff, food and trophy heads.

A myth tells that Kon, in the most ancient times, populated the earth with human beings and filled them with abundant water and fruits; but his creatures soon forgot the offerings they owed to the creator father. Kon punished them by taking away the rains and transforming the fertile lands into the immense coastal deserts. Kon only left some rivers so that with a lot of effort and work, humans can survive.

The god Kon was the creator of that first generation of men who populated the earth but one day he was defeated by the god Pachacamac who turned them into monkeys, foxes, and lizards to later create a new generation of human beings.

Taken from: Andean Mythology

Quillapa Huillac

Quillapa Huillac was the Moon goddess who many considered more powerful than the Sun, since she could reign at night and during the day, she was even capable of covering the Sun and making it disappear from the sky in eclipses.

Heavenly Gods

Around these major gods were the heavenly gods, such as those of lightning and thunder, the morning star (Achachi Ururi) and the evening star (Apadri Ururi), the demon who lives in the central star of the constellation of Orion, precisely the one that marks the hunter's belt, and which is accompanied by two other stars (Foots), which are those sent by the Moon goddess to keep a close eye on him in his desert and avoid, with his perpetual celestial prison, keep doing evil.

Zoomorphic deities

The Chimú also had zoomorphic deities in their pantheon, like the usual spotted felines that appear in most of the cultures absorbed by the Inca Empire.