Inca goddess, sister and wife of Manco Cápac
Mama Ocllo
Mama Ocllo is a founding figure of Inca mythology, sister and wife of Manco Cápac, with whom tradition credits the founding of Cusco. She is regarded as the first coya and as a mother and fertility goddess, and she is remembered for teaching Inca women weaving, which makes her a symbol of domestic and craft knowledge.
The myth
In most accounts, Inti, the sun, created Mama Ocllo and Manco Cápac and sent them to teach the Inca, who were living in poverty. The legends give several versions of their origin: in one they emerge with a brother from an island or cave in Lake Titicaca; in another they come from the sacred Rock of Origins; in another they rise from the middle of three windows in a cave called Pacariqtambo. Some accounts make them children of Inti and the Moon, while one legend makes Mama Ocllo the daughter of Viracocha and Mama Qucha, and so a sister of Inti.
The myth also tells of the founding of Cusco. The siblings were given a golden rod to help them find an ideal place to settle and worship the sun. After wandering, they reached a valley by the Huatanay river, below the Huanacaure hill, where the rod sank into the soil and vanished, a sign that the city should be built there. They then gathered the people, instructed them, and divided them by trades: she taught the women weaving, pottery and household work, while he taught the men farming, hunting, fishing, goldsmithing and architecture.
In one episode, after the people of Yanayaco rebelled and lost, Mama Ocllo interceded to save the yanaconas who were about to be executed, and secured their perpetual service under fair terms. From this, the custom arose that the Inca gave a portion of this population to the coya after their wedding.
Worship and religion
Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo built the Coricancha, or Inticancha, the temple of the Sun, also called the Intihuasi, at the center of the city, a temple dedicated to Inti. The sources do not describe a cult devoted to Mama Ocllo herself, and there is no information on whether her veneration survives today.
Legacy
Her story remains part of popular culture in Puno. In November 2019, more than 200 performers, students from ESFA Puno and guests, staged her legend during the city's foundation anniversary festivities. The year before, actress Magaly Solier and Nivardo Carrillo had portrayed the legend, with her emerging from Lake Titicaca.
Ancient sources: The colonial-era chronicles of Juan de Betanzos, Martín de Murúa and the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, written after the Spanish conquest, record versions of her legend and of the founding of Cusco.