The Children of the Sun

This is a legend about the origins of the Inca people, who lived in South America’s rugged Andes mountains, between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. You can still see the ruins of their Temple of the Sun in Machu Picchu, Peru.

Inti, the sun god, slowly rose out of the Lake Titicaca. The sky was empty save for his bright presence. So he made the night sky and put the moon in charge and created the stars and the planets. He then decided to create the first humans. He made a huge mountain of rock and fashioned them out of it. But these first human creations were far from perfect. They hardly knew the ways of the world or how to survive in it.

Meanwhile in the lonely sky, the moon had become the wife of the sun god. They had two children—a boy and a girl. When Inti looked down to the earth, all he could see was utter chaos. The first people did not know how to build shelters or cook or find something to wear to keep themselves warm. Out of pity for these poor creatures on earth, Inti decided to send his children down to guide them.

Without a choice in the matter, Manco Capac, the son of Inti, and his sister, whom we must simply refer to as his sister for she was without a name, found themselves on the shores of Lake Titicaca. ‘I must leave you here now, my children,’ said Inti with a tear in his eye, for he was sad to see them go. He gave Manco a golden staff and said to him, ‘Take this rod of gold and go in search of the chosen land that is going to be your home. You will know it is the right place when the earth swallows this staff whole.’ Manco Capac respectfully received the shining rod from his father, a fragment of the sun god’s radiance.

‘When you find that place, you will build a city there and call it Cuzco. In that special city, you will teach the people the powers of the sun,’ said Inti and, blessing his children, he rose to the sky.

Manco Capac and his sister looked around them. There was nothing but wilderness. They travelled a long way through the harsh terrain of the Andes mountains. Every now and then they would stop to see if the golden staff would sink into the ground. But it did not. The journey was long and hard, but the children of the sun god walked on tirelessly with the staff in hand.

After many days had passed, they came to a breathtakingly beautiful valley. Manco Capac’s sister smiled at him; the beauty of the place had washed away all her tiredness.

‘Maybe the earth mother will swallow the rod here,’ she whispered to her brother. Manco struck the earth with the golden rod. Without effort, it disappeared deep, deep into the ground. They had indeed found the spot their father had wanted them to go to.

Slowly, the people, the very first awkward human creations that Inti had made, began to gather around the brother and sister. The children of the sun were beautiful and spoke kindly to them. Manco taught the men how to plough fields and plant crops. He taught them how to build houses too. His sister taught the women to weave and to cook food. They spoke to them about their father, the sun god, his powers and principles.

Under Manco’s guidance, they built the city of Cuzac in that sacred spot the sun god had chosen for them. Manco Capac became the first ruler of the Inca people, as they came to be called, and Cuzac, the capital of the Inca Empire.