304 The Atlantis Encyclopedia
Zuhe
Flood hero of the Muysca and Chibcha Indians. “Bearded, he was unlike a
man of any race known to them,” according to Wilkins. “He carried a golden
scepter.” Zuhe arrived on the shores of Colombia as the only survivor of a cataclysm
that destroyed his kingdom in the Atlantic Ocean. The sky had fallen down on his
homeland in a deluge of fire that was extinguished only when the island sank beneath
the waves. He established the first guidelines for agriculture, law, and religion.
The Chibcha greeted each Spanish visitor in the early 16th century as “Zuhe.”
Like Kukulcan, Quetzalcoatl, Votan, Itzamna, and all the other progenitors of
pre-Columbian civilization, Zuhe was one people’s mythic response to culture-
bearers from Atlantis.
(See Bochica)Zume
The Paraguayan Indian version of the “Feathered Serpent”—the fair-haired,
bearded leader of fellow survivors from the “Place of the Sunris,” a lost island
kingdom in the Atlantic Ocean. His obvious philological and narrative resemblance
to the Muyscan Zuhe of Colombia demonstrates the scope of the impact made on
pre-Columbian South America by what must have surely been waves of immigration
from Atlantis.
(See Quetzalcoatl)Zuni Deluge Story
This Pueblo Indian people preserve the tribal memory of a pair of rocks known
as “Father and Mother.” They were a boy and girl turned to stone after having
been sacrificed during the Great Flood, which their transformation subsequently
memorialized. People turned into stone and vise versa is a motif found in many
other flood myths around the world. In the Greek version, the deluge heroes,
Deucalion and Pyrrha, tossed stones over their shoulders; as they hit the ground,
the rocks became men and women. The children comprised an offering and appeal
to the gods for rescue from the Flood. Meanwhile, the Zuni’s ancestors sought
refuge in caves. They were afterwards led forth by the founder of their tribe,
Poshaiyankaya. Like most deluge stories in general, the Zuni trace their lineage
from a culture-creator who survived the cataclysm.
Another version of the flood story is particularly Atlantean. It depicts the
Zuni ancestors as given over to sexual excesses condemned by the virtuous son
of a priest, who warns them that their incestuous behavior will prompt the gods
to bring destruction. Divine penance comes in the form of fire and flood. The
people climb to the mountain tops for refuge, but the whole land is engulfed by
the Deluge, in which they mostly perish.