Page 56 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

Chapter 6

He Came in a Time of Chaos

Through all the ancient legends of the peoples of the Andes stalked a tall,
bearded, pale-skinned figure wrapped in a cloak of secrecy. And though
he was known by many different names in many different places he was
always recognizably the same figure: Viracocha, Foam of the Sea, a
master of science and magic who wielded terrible weapons and who came
in a time of chaos to set the world to rights.
The same basic story was shared in many variants by all the peoples of
the Andean region. It began with a vivid description of a terrifying period
when the earth had been inundated by a great flood and plunged into
darkness by the disappearance of the sun. Society had fallen into
disorder, and the people suffered much hardship. Then
there suddenly appeared, coming from the south, a white man of large stature and
authoritative demeanour. This man had such great power that he changed the hills
into valleys and from the valleys made great hills, causing streams to flow from
1
the living stone ...
The early Spanish chronicler who recorded this tradition explained that it
had been told to him by the Indians he had travelled among on his
journeys in the Andes:

And they heard it from their fathers, who in their turn had it from the old songs
which were handed down from very ancient times ... They say that this man
travelled along the highland route to the north, working marvels as he went and
that they never saw him again. They say that in many places he gave men
instructions how they should live, speaking to them with great love and kindness
and admonishing them to be good and to do no damage or injury one to another,
but to love one another and show charity to all. In most places they name him
Ticci Viracocha ...
2
Other names applied to the same figure included Huaracocha, Con, Con
Ticci or Kon Tiki, Thunupa, Taapac, Tupaca and Illa. He was a scientist,
3
an architect of surpassing skills, a sculptor and an engineer: ‘He caused
terraces and fields to be formed on the steep sides of ravines, and
sustaining walls to rise up and support them. He also made irrigating
channels to flow ... and he went in various directions, arranging many
things.’
4

1 South American Mythology, p. 74.
2 Ibid.
3 Arthur Cotterell, The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends, Guild Publishing,
London, 1989, p. 174. See also South American Mythology, p. 69-88.
Francisco de Avila, 'A Narrative of the Errors, False Gods, and Other Superstitions and
4
Diabolical Rites in Which the Indians of the Province of Huarochiri Lived in Ancient
Times', in Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Yncas (trans, and ed. Clemens R.

54