Illapa

In the image Cobo records, Illapa is a warrior formed of stars in the night sky, a war club in his left hand and a sling in his right, dressed in garments that flash and glitter. Thunder is the crack of his sling; lightning, the glare of his clothing and weapons as they move. He draws water from the Mayu, the celestial river of the Milky Way, and when his sling shatters the jar that holds it, rain falls on the earth. In the state cult of Cusco he ranked directly after Viracocha and the Sun, and bore the further name Chuqui Illa. Garcilaso preserves an old Quechua song, transmitted through the Jesuit Blas Valera, in which a maiden in the sky carries a jar of water; her brother smashes it, and thunder, lightning, rain and snow pour down.

Since every Andean harvest hung on the rains, Illapa received the most urgent prayers. In drought years livestock were sacrificed to him, and shrines on high ground were commonly his; hail and frost that ruined fields also had to be turned aside with offerings. A person or place struck by lightning was held to be marked by his own hand and became sacred on the spot, and the birth of twins was likewise credited to the thunder and required its own rites.

After the conquest, the roar of Spanish firearms led Andeans to recognize Illapa in the figure of Santiago, Saint James on his white horse with sword raised, and the two fused throughout the colonial era; village feasts of Santiago carried the old thunder cult forward. Among Quechua and Aymara communities today, one who survives a lightning strike is still often understood to have been called, and may take up work as a ritual specialist.