S6E5 - Khipu Me in Mind: Cavillaca and Cuniraya Viracocha

stories featured in Greaking Out are usually original adaptations of classic Greek myths.

This week's story features getting pregnant from eating fruit, fatherless sons, turning to stone, blaming the messengers, and putting curses on wildlife.

Yep, once again, we are taking a break from your regularly scheduled programming to go on a field trip.

This time we're going further than we've ever gone before, all the way to South America to the Andes Mountains.

Now, usually, we associate this area with the Incans, and we call it the Incan Empire.

The Incans are people who lived in modern-day Peru and Bolivia between 500 and 600 years ago.

This was about the same time as the Italian Renaissance, and when Joan of Arc led the French army into battle.

They had a vast empire that covered about 770,000 square miles along the Andes mountains.

And you can imagine that within that empire there were many different cultures.

They spoke different languages like Quechua and Aymara, which their descendants still speak today.

In the Star Wars movies, the language spoken by Java, the Hutt, is based on Quechua.

Cool.

Now, before we get into the story, we have to talk about how these stories got to us.

The stories we do in Greaking Out are typically from people who have written down their own stories, even if they have come to us through other cultures.

Many Greek myths were preserved by the Romans and the Islamic cultures of the Middle East.

and would not have reached us today if not for them.

Exactly.

And many of the stories of the Incans were destroyed or forgotten.

They were eventually written down, mostly by colonial governments and Christian priests who had come from Europe to South America.

So sometimes we aren't sure if a detail from a myth is original or just sort of made up by the people who wrote it down.

The people of this area had epic stories, just like the Iliad and the Odyssey, but we only have very few bits and pieces of them surviving today.

The kind of writing that survived from the Incan Empire is called kipu.

And these kipu are made from strings with knots in them to convey, meaning we don't really understand how to read them all, but mostly they were used to keep track of people and goods in the empire.

Okay, wait, hold on.

They wrote things down with strings and knots?

Yes.

And we still have some of these kipu surviving today.

Wow, that's amazing.

I wish I could read string.

So do a lot of scientists.

Well, today's story is from a region called Warachari that did get to write down their own stories and in their own language, Quechua.

Today, we're talking about a woman named Caviaka, who was the most beautiful woman in the world.

And she caught the eye of Viracocha.

who was the god that created the universe.

Now, it's already complicated because this wasn't the original Viracocha.

Or maybe it was.

We don't really know.

You see, the god Viracocha was the creator god.

He pulled the planets and the stars into the sky and made the sun and the moon and made the giants and the people.

He traveled through the area just creating stuff, and different versions of him created different things.

When he was done, Viracocha walked into the Pacific Ocean, sailing away on a raft made of his own cloak, never to be seen again.

Impressive, dramatic, and efficient.

I like it.

Yeah, I thought you'd like that.

Well, like I said, there were different versions of him.

And this version of Viracocha, called Kuniraya Viracocha, is mainly talked about in a small region, and I'm not sure what he created other than confusion.

This god had some serious Zeus vibes, and when he saw the beautiful Kaviyaka for the first time, he knew that he wanted to marry her.

In fact, he started spying on her in the form of a bird sitting in the treetops.

One day, when she came to rest under a lucuma tree, he made one of the fruits of the lucuma tree fall right next to her hand.

Delighted, Caviaka ate the fruit while relaxing on that nice, sunny day.

The lucuma tree is native to the Andean valleys of Bolivia, Chile, and Ecuador.

In Peru, it is more commonly used as a flavor in juice, milkshakes, and ice cream.

A few months later, Kaviaka found out that she was pregnant.

And when the baby boy was born, she naturally wanted to know who the father was.

I mean, who was going to help her raise the child.

Kaviaka also knew, because of the whole fruit situation, that this was no ordinary man who was the father of her child.

So when the baby was a year old, she summoned all of the local gods to the town square to see who would own up to being the father.

Now, all of the gods were excited for the chance to oppress Kaviaka.

She was beautiful and strong, and they wanted to marry her, too, so they dressed in their finest clothes, combed their hair, and generally spiffed up for the chance to parade around in front of the prettiest woman they'd ever seen.

But one of the gods hadn't cleaned himself up for this meeting.

In fact, he'd come dressed in rags and rolled in mud for good measure.

He was also just generally unhygienic and bad-mannered, insulting everybody and just kicking dirt around.

It was Kuniraya Varacocha.

Right, yes, it was Kuniraya Veracocha.

I'm not sure what game he thought he was playing, but he generally made himself as unpleasant to be around as possible.

Kaviyaka was on a mission, so she ignored him.

She turned to the rest of the local gods assembled before her.

Which one of you is the father to my son?

she asked.

This was met with silence.

None of the gods thought they could just lie and say they were, as much as they might want to.

She was too clever for all of that.

So they all remained silent.

Maybe she'd just pick one of them to marry if the real father never came forward.

And probably, because he was enjoying the whole spectacle, Kunaraya Veracocha also said nothing, though he probably farted into the silence or something, you know, just to make sure everybody knew he was really gross.

I thought that might be the case, Kaviaka said.

Someone doesn't want to take responsibility for their own child.

Well,

I have a backup plan.

She held up her son to the crowd.

My son will know his father, so when I put him down, he will crawl right to him.

Again, the crowd was silent.

All the gods were trying to devise a plan to get the baby to come to them.

They searched their pockets for candy or rattles or whatever might attract a baby.

The onlookers were fascinated with the unfolding drama.

What would happen next?

Kunoraya Veracocho was just laughing to himself, imagining how excited Kaviaka would be when she found out he was the father and he was the god of creation.

That is, after he made her think he was rude and disgusting and she was stopped co-parenting with him forever.

That would for sure be the funniest part.

Kaviaka put the baby down and sure enough, he crawled right past the well-dressed and well-groomed gods, right to the filthy Kuniraya Viracocha dressed in rags and lounging on the floor.

He picked the baby up and smiled at the crowd.

I guess I'm his father, he announced.

Now, Kaviaka was a no-nonsense person, and this was utter nonsense.

The father of her lovely baby son could not be this gross and rude person.

She would not have him anywhere near her son.

She snatched the baby away from the man and turned on her heel, marching away.

Still smiling to himself, Kuniraya Veracocha spread his arms wide and revealed himself in all his glory to the crowd.

He was dressed in glittering gold.

He was clean, with a beautiful face as befitting a god, and the whole crowd oohed and ah.

But when Kuniraya Veracocha looked, Kaviaka was not only not staring in awe, she hadn't turned around at all.

She had marched into the forest with her head held high, her son snugly in her arms.

She was already out of sight.

This was when Kuniraya Veracocha started to doubt the hilarious plan he'd come up with.

Kaviaka was supposed to see that he was a powerful and beautiful god and be grateful that he was the father of her child.

How had this gone wrong?

Kunaraya Veracocha took off after Kaviaka.

Surely she was just down the path.

But the further he went, the more he panicked.

Where was she?

Eventually, Kunaraya Veracocha came to a clearing and he saw a figure resting there.

His heart jumped in his chest.

Was it her?

Was it his future wife?

But as he got closer, he saw that it was in fact just a condor perched in a tree.

But then he thought, the condor could almost certainly see far from his high perch.

Andean condors are the largest flying birds in the world.

They can live up to 75 years in captivity and have a wingspan of 10 feet.

That's longer than the tallest human.

Condor, Kunoraya Veracocha said, I am looking for Kaviaka, the mother of my child.

Have you seen her?

I saw her just a few minutes ago, the condor said.

She went that way into the forest.

If you hurry up, you might be able to catch her.

Kunaraya Veracocha thanked the Condor and headed in the direction it had pointed.

As he left, he turned and told the Condor, Thank you for helping me.

For your kindness, I will give you the power to build nests where you won't be disturbed.

And it's totally cool for you to eat dead things, too.

Also, if someone kills you, they'll die soon after.

Condors have a lot of symbolic meaning for the ancient people of the Andes.

Some say they are the keeper of lightning and they are known as messengers of the mountain gods.

Okay,

what about a commercial?

Yeah, let's take a break, regroup, and we'll be back in just a couple of seconds.

Hey there, do you ever wonder what would happen if Cinderella started her own rock band or if Medusa realized just how cool her hair was?

Well, there's a Webby award-winning show called Girl Tales that takes classic stories and puts a unique twist on them, giving girls the chance to save the day, use their intelligence and bravery, and show that they can be the heroes of their own stories.

If you are ready for an adventure, find Girl Tales wherever you get your podcasts.

Okay, thanks for that.

And now we're back with more Greaking Out.

Kunuraya Veracocho was now running through the forest and came upon another creature that was not who he was looking for.

But this time, it was a fox.

He asked the fox about Kaviaka.

The fox laughed at him.

You don't deserve that, beautiful woman.

I saw how you behaved.

You should give up now and leave her alone.

This was not what Kuniraya Veracocha wanted to hear, obviously.

And as you know, it's not wise to make a god angry, especially one who is in the middle of dealing with the consequences of their own bad decisions.

Fox, for speaking to me, a god this way, you will be cursed to be smelly.

Yeah, that's it.

Yeah, smelly.

And when people see you, they will hunt you down.

And you can imagine the story continues like this: he meets a puma who helps him, and he blesses the puma to forever be known as the creature that destroys evildoers.

Pumas, also known as mountain lions, panthers, catamounts, and cougars, are large felines native to the Americas.

After humans, they have the largest range of any mammal in the western hemisphere.

He meets a falcon who helps him and gives the falcon permission to eat hummingbirds and creates the law that if anyone kills a falcon, they have to sacrifice a llama to apologize.

He meets a parakeet who tells him he's no good for kaviaka, and so he curses the parakeet to be annoying for all eternity.

Every animal he meets that helps him, he blesses.

And every animal he meets that won't help, he curses.

This seems to be pretty on brand for gods in general, actually.

This is a story about how the people of the Andes came to think of animals in a certain way, as well as a story of what not to do when trying to impress a future partner.

Finally, Kuniraya Viracocha rounds a bend.

and sees Caviaka and her son walking into the sea, just strolling right into the waves of the Pacific.

Wait, Kaviaka, Look, I'm beautiful now!

Kunaraya Viracocha called.

But to no avail.

Kaviaka and her son walked into the sea and turned into stones.

And to this day, you can see the two stones side by side, staring out into the sea.

This could have all been avoided.

You are correct.

Kunaraya Viracocha played around and he learned the consequences.

The consequences being that Kaviaka would literally rather be a rock than co-parent with someone rude and gross.

That is definitely a mood.

Yes, it is.

Hey, Oracle.

Yes.

Can I tell you another real quick story before we go?

Another one?

Yeah, it's just a short one.

The Incans have a story about a flood that I thought would be interesting, especially considering we heard about a flood in our episode about Mesopotamia.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim was said to have built a big boat so that he could survive a world-ending flood.

You can hear about it in our Mesopotamia and Around episode.

That's right, and the Incans have a story like that as well.

You see, one day, a young llama started acting funny and wouldn't eat and wouldn't sleep.

His owner, a farmer, could tell that he was miserable and tried to tempt him to eat with the finest grass available.

He even borrowed his neighbor's field that got just the right amount of sun so the grass grew bright and green and extra tasty.

But the llama just sat there and seemed sad.

Finally, the owner asked the llama what was wrong, and the llama actually answered, The world is going to be destroyed, don't you see?

In five days' time, there will be a flood that covers the entire world.

This was pretty upsetting news for the farmer, especially coming from a llama that talked.

But the llama had no reason to lie.

If it's going to cover the entire world, asked the farmer, what can I possibly do to save myself?

Now, in other cultures that have flood myths, and there are a lot, there is often the building of a giant boat.

But in the Andes mountain range, they didn't have boats, but they did have one thing the rest of the world didn't: the mountains themselves.

The Andes mountains average 13,000 feet in height.

Cusco, the capital of the Incan Empire, is itself over two miles high at 11,200 feet.

People who visit often experience altitude sickness.

The llama did the llama equivalent of rolling its eyes because the way to avoid the flood was so obvious.

You have to climb all the way up the tallest mountain.

The flood won't reach you there.

So the farmer took his herd and his family and his neighbors and they climbed the tallest mountain.

There, they found caves filled with animals who had also known about the flood.

Condors, foxes, pumas, all the same animals that that Kunaraya Veracocha blesses or curses in the last story.

Plus, more creatures like alpacas and guinea pigs.

Guinea pigs are native to the Andes mountains and were domesticated sometime between 4,000 and 8,000 years ago.

They were, and still are, used as a food source.

The flood came just as the Lama said it would and covered the whole world in water.

When the waters came up to the mountain, it grew taller just to keep the people and the creatures there out of the water.

Finally, after five days, the water went down and the people and the animals were left to make their lives in a new world.

Even though that was a long time ago, the tallest parts of the Andes are still known as sacred places.

It is also said that llamas remember the flood and how it destroyed the world, and that's why they don't really like to live anywhere except in the mountains.

I don't blame them.

Me neither.

Greaking Out.

Thanks for visiting the Andes with us.

Next week, we head back to the brewing war between the Trojans and the Greeks.

Listen and you'll see it Greaking

Out

This episode of National Geographic Kids Greaking Out is written by Emily Everhart and hosted by Kenny Curtis, with Tori Kerr as the Oracle of Wi-Fi, audio production and sound design by Scotty Beam, and our theme song was composed by Perry Gripp.

Dr.

Catherine Allen is our subject matter expert, and Emily Everhart is our producer.