Moche mythology

The Moche god Ai apaec, represented on a wall of the sunken.

The mochica mythology developed with the Mochica or Moche culture, in ancient Peru.

Conception of life

For the Mochicas, lovers of life, death was not the end. Men continued to live in another sphere of the world with their same obligations or privileges, which is why they were buried with provisions and goods. The burials thus reflected the function and place of each being within his society.

Mochica mythology

Little remains of the myths on which the members of the Mochica or Moche culture based their religion, which developed in the northern part of the Peruvian coast long before the Wari and Inka Empires.

But its monumental adobe pyramids of Vicus still remain standing, although time has relentlessly eroded its flimsy structure, as much as it has led to the loss of its collective wealth and cultural legacy.

It was a coastal town that, as the successor of many and very diverse cultures, was grouping the various mythological pieces, until forming a group of heterogeneous divinities and creating a peculiar pantheistic group under the care of the priestly class, having the jaguar as their the heads of the various local divinities, almost all totemic, such as the god-crab or the god-serpent, their local animals, presided over by the kingfisher and the curious sexual ceramics in which it is speculated that they want to portray unrepressed customs by current cultural spheres (Jewish Christians) rather than giving a moral lesson, developing the theme of pleasure, uniting it with that of the (other) stage of life that today is called death.

Its two large temples, the Huacas del Sol and Huacas de la Luna, are large-scale works.

Mochica gods

The Mochicas called the main divinity of their pantheon Ai apaec and Alaec pong the stone or figure that represented it.

Other divinities were Si (the moon), Ni (the sea), Fur (god of death). Those of the Chicama Valley worshiped their god Chicamac. Despite the fact that Ai apaec was the main deity, the cult of Si was the most widespread given the relationship of the moon with the sea and the tides (since the Mochicas They were also fishermen and sailors). It is speculated that they considered the moon more powerful than the sun. Lunar eclipses were represented in ceramics as the moon was attacked and with great tears. The end of the eclipse was celebrated with parties for the triumph of the goddess. For this, many sacrifices were offered to the moon, including humans. The inhabitants of the Pacasmayo area (Pacatnamun) paid special homage to the sea and offered it corn and red ocher. Shamanism was widespread, which shows that the priestly class could not fully control traditional medical science, represented by special people (Shaman) with experimental knowledge of the effects of local plants and minerals, as well as knowledge of how to create a psychological-hypnotic-charismatic relationship with the patient, to use this relationship for the prevention and treatment of common and less common diseases of the time. The shamans healers (generally local sages) also made sacrifices (Payments) in places considered to possess a special energy (sacred) in the Talambo valley called Coalechec.