V:Vediouis to Vue 285
Viracocha
The Incas’ leading culture hero, believed to have escaped a world-class deluge
that obliterated everyone else in his kingdom. He hid in the Cave of Refuge, emerg-
ing to found Andean Civilization. In a later variant of his myth, Viracocha rose
from the depths of Lake Titicaca and recreated humans by breathing life into
great stones lying about, a process that resulted in the pre-Inca city of Tiahuanaco.
His action is similar to the transformation of stones into a post-deluge population
achieved by the Greek deluge hero, Deucalion, suggesting a shared flood tradi-
tion. Viracocha’s name, “Sea Foam,” implies the bow wave of an arriving ship. He
was described as fair-skinned, red-haired, and robed in a long garment decorated
with a red flower motif. Viracocha taught the natives everything they needed to
build the first Andean civilization, then sailed away from Peruvian shores into the
west and was never seen again. It would appear that a culture-bearer associated
with the Atlantis catastrophe around 2100 B.C. may have moved on to Lemuria
after making his mark in Bolivia and Peru.
The mere appearance of Francisco Pizarro and his Conquistadors in South
America during 1531 caused widespread confusion among the Incas. Emperor
Atahualpa and his people were unsure if these bearded white men in the possession
of magical technology were descendants of the beneficent Viracocha. The Spanish
soon enlightened them on that account by kidnapping and executing Atahualpa,
looting the Inca temples of their gold, demonizing their religion, and dismantling
their empire. The paralysis that had gripped the Incas at the sight of Pizarro was
identical to the Aztecs’ disabling uncertainty when confronted by Hernan Cortez,
who they imagined might be their own white-skinned culture hero, Quetzalcoatl,
the “Feathered Serpent.”
(See Quetzalcoatl)The Voguls
A Finno-Urgic-speaking people residing on either side of Russia’s Ural Mountains,
whose tradition of the Great Deluge tells how the world was engulfed in waves of
boiling hot water, suggesting a volcanic cataclysm.von Humbolt, Alexander
Famous in the early 19th century as an explorer, the author of a 30-volume
encyclopedia of the natural sciences, and organizer of the first international scientific
conference, von Humbolt is remembered today as the founder of ecology and the
modern earth sciences. Across the more than 6,000 miles that von Humbolt traveled
through Central and South America, numerous flood traditions he learned first-
hand from native speakers made him a firm believer in the historical reality of
Plato’s Atlantis, which he identified with America itself. Von Humbolt is but one