Pachacámac

Accounts recorded in secondary summaries are fragmentary and variable. Common elements present Pachakamaq as a creator who made the first man and woman; in one variant he neglected to give them food, resulting in the man's death, and the woman became mother to all peoples after praying to Inti, whereupon Pachakamaq, enraged, tried to kill her children. Other traditions link him into Inca genealogies in conflicting ways—some name him as the cowardly brother Ayca of Manco Cápac, while other variants list him alongside Manco Cápac and Viracocha as sons of Inti—indicating multiple local versions and syncretism rather than a single authoritative origin myth.

Surviving mythic accounts do not provide a consistent corporeal description of Pachakamaq. Archaeological investigation at the Pachacámac precinct uncovered a large painted idol (reported as a 2.34 m / 7.6 ft object from the Painted Temple, once painted with cinnabar and carbon-dated to ca. A.D. 760–876), but the sources do not definitively equate that specific idol's iconography with the mythic figure described in narrative traditions.

Recorded traditions emphasize creator actions (making the first human couple), hostile behavior in mythic narratives (attempting to kill the woman's children), and a later association with the sea and fish after being overthrown by a culture-hero (Wichama) who cast him into the sea. Sources also note that the Inca incorporated Pachakamaq into their religious structure but regarded Viracocha as superior. Beyond these narrative acts, the cited material does not attribute other discrete supernatural powers (such as possession or shapeshifting) to Pachakamaq.