Handbook of Inca Mythology

ABC-CLIO’s Handbooks of World Mythology

by Paul R. Steele

Full of hard to find information, Handbook of Inca Mythology provides an accessible introduction to the rites, beliefs, and spiritual tales of the Incas. It provides a concise overview of Incan civilization and mythology, a chronology of mythic and historical events, and an A-Z inventory of central themes (sacrifice, fertility, competition, reversaldualism, colors, constellations, giants, and miniatures), personages (Viracocha, Manco Capac, Pachackuti Inca), locations (Lake Titicaca, Corickancha), rituals, and icons.



The last Native American culture to develop free of European influence, the Incas, who had no written language, are known only from Spanish accounts written after the conquest and archaeological finds. From these fragments, a vanished world has been reborn and reintroduced into modern Andean life. There is no better way into that world and its mind-bending mythology than this unique handbook.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published December 8, 2004

Reviews

[Alan Bach · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is very much in the form an anthropological scholarly reference book, rather than of interesting stories. But even then and despite most of the pages being in the form of a glossary, I didn't get a very good picture of any of the gods, or their hierarchy (if it exists) and/or which gods were more prevalent where/when. There were also a lot of mentioning of different sites or how different motifs or animals are culturally important, but not mentioning of why.