Vega or The Three Marias

Since this is a very serious identification of a star formation that can be verified by Inca traditional myth, some pertinent background is necessary. First, it must be remembered that until the records of the Viceroy of Spain recorded that the Inca were to be treated as human beings and not as slaves, there was a massacre of many of the people who were fighting to save their land from gold-greedy foreigners. Many native groups "became extinct after the arrival of the Spanish." (Cobo, p. 45)

Gold is a commodity that no matter where it is found, it creates upheavals for the owners once a mother lode has been discovered. Man's nature is such that greed and avarice usually win battles first, then come the civilizers and things settle down, but only to the laws of the Conquerors. There was gold in Peru and in Mexico and both countries were "given' to Spain by Alexander VI in with the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). At that point, the mainland of the Americas had not yet been discovered by Columbus who was in the middle of his second voyage. This Pope died suddenly a short few months after signing the treaty. It was also, not surprising, that the natives of this world knew nothing about their changed citizenship.

Up until Page 30, in his History of the Inca Empire Father Cobo (1580-1653) described the Peruvian Indians after that Conquest as being lazy and bestial without any intelligence or ability. Then he included the Letter of Paul III (1534 -1549, one of the acknowledged "bad popes") who informed the world that the Inca were human beings. The rest of the book, except for a negative statement here or there, implies that the Inca were the most organized and intelligent of the native population.

It was in this atmosphere that the legends and history of the Inca were recorded. Maybe the Inca were lacking, but then again, maybe they were intelligent. The Inca themselves reacted to their conquerors by doing things more slowly or not doing them at all. Hence the "lazy" and "ungrateful" definitions became the new description for the conquered peoples.

Soon enough those who were interested in astronomy moved into the area, such as Gonçález Holguín who identified Catachillay and Urcochillay as stars of "the cross." Earlier, the book Arte y Vocabulrio... in 1586 stated that the terms katachillay and ur'quchillay were only used for Venus [el lucero]. These two designations appear to be the same words with an accent mark in the first syllable of each.

One can then assume that this "venus" star is the same as the venus star, called Xolotl of the Aztecs and Maya, "he who entered the underworld to save the sun," as a flaming meteorite which fell to earth. However, the identification of this star is sketchy until one reads about the Three Marias (the Belt of Orion). Calancha stated that
. . .divine for them were two stars that they called patá, which we call The Marias. . . that the star in the middle is a thief, and villain and bastard, that the Moon chose to punish and sent the two stars to take it with them and hand it over to vultures which are those buzzards formed by the four stars which are a ways below the Marias. In the article, Octopus or Comet there are two distinct pictures, each illustrating two birds at the end of the face of the god. Are these the two stars who were to take the rebel to justice? (Bk. 3, Ch. 2)

Even though Catachillay and the Pleiades are considered by Polo de Ondegardo and Cobo himself as two separate constellations, there are a few who think that they are two names for one, such as Zuidema. The first time I read the information available in Astronomy And Empire in the Ancient Andes, I missed the implication of the meteorite completely. It was not until I read the quote from Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamayhua (1613), that I realized that I was reading about the backlash of the exploding meteorite as it hit the Gulf waters in the North. This is exactly the same information as turned up in Argentina without the myth attached to it. (See Schultz, P. H. a. J. K. B. (1992, April). Teardrops on the Pampas. Sky & Telescope, p. 387-392).
In that time, they say. . . . of something like a yauirca or amaru that had emerged from the mountain of Pachatusan, a very fierce beast, half a league long and thick, and two and a half fathoms in width, with ears and fangs and whiskers, and it came by Yuncaypampa and Cinca and from there it entered the lake of Quibipay. Then two sacacas of fire came out of Asoncata, and [one] passed Pontina [mountain] of Arequipa; and the other came down to and passing Guamanca, where there are three or four very high mountains covered with snow. . . Those in which they say that there are animals with wings, and ears, and tails and four feet, and on top of their backs many spines like a fish; and from afar they say that it appeared to them [to be] all fire. (Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamayhua 1950: 242 [1613])

The star in the middle of two stars "of the Cross" that created this disaster may very well be X-1 from the beak of Cygnus or Tane of the Hawaiian Islands. To date, it has been identified as the star Vega in modern astroastronomy. Yet, it probably refers to the star X-1 which was an exploding star between Albireo and Vega.

The Moche picture below, shows a skeleton face with a mask hanging below being eaten by the vultures. It is very reminiscent of Prometheus of the Greeks whose liver is torn out daily by the birds because he dared to give fire to humans. Here we have verbal and traditional evidence of a wayward or "maverick" star.

Its Moche image with two faces agrees with the Aztec mask of a half human, half skeletal face. Apparently the Andeans could not understand the half/face, half/skull of the northern tribes, such as the Aztec version. Using the obvious symbol of two faces, one of death and the other of a masked creature, one can determine that the comet of "death" wore a different face. One can say a "beautiful" face if it was an iridescent meteorite with a long tail.

The asssumed blazing blue star thought to be in trouble was X-1. This star is between two stars in a "cross" constellation. However, it is not the star one needs to remember. It seems that the Hawaiian version shows that the exploding star was not the long arm of the cross, the in the hypotenuse of the upper right arms. Over these stars is Cygnus, while underneath them is Aquila, the Eagle and Lyra, once called the Vulture constellations. The renegade (X-1) was taken to the vultures (bird constellations) to be punished by the Three Marias which are supposed to be the Belt of Orion. And in the article

However, Vega, a star of the Northern Cross is connecteed to Catachillaywhich is not only translated as a "Star Cross," a "Llama with a lamb," a nebulous star in the Milky Way, but also the "Cabrillas" (Pleiades). On the other hand, the Llama (the mother of the baby) is part of a T-shaped star formation in Lyra called Vega. (Bauer, et al., p. 139-140) These stars are more likely to the connected to the Three Marias, than is Orion. The Vulture (an old name for Lyra), Aguila and Cygnus are three of the birds pecking at the man on the cross.

The Orion designation appears to be what those in Europe "knew" as a December constellation. Europeans, not accustomed to viewing the stars, would record the time element which the Spanish editors would have corrected to European standards. However, in Peru, our north of the Equator Winter constellations do not appear in the skies. Peru is having a very pleasant summer and our Northern Summertime stars are gracing the Southern skies. The Northern Cross is, at that time, more visible to the natives of Peru than previously believed. The natives, who were oppressed by the Spaniards, would not be about to tell them the actual star if it was important to their religion. That apparently is why there are so many designations for both the Venus star and the two cross constellations

Apparently, the mask fell to the earth while the other stayed in the heavens to eternally endure its own justice in the heavens. An Inca myth that has never been considered to be anything except the musings of a story teller may be a far more realistic tale than has been every told. (See The Astro-Backlash and The Radish (Nasca/Maya Astronomy) for further details.)