What do Inti and Mama Ocllo have in common?

They share no domain in this atlas: Inti is associated with the sun, kingship, and harvest, and Mama Ocllo with the founding of cusco, spinning and weaving, and the household.

Which traditions do they belong to?

Both belong to the Inca and Andean Tradition.

Side by sideParent and child

Inti vs Mama Ocllo

Inti and Mama Ocllo are recorded as parent and child in the Inca and Andean Tradition.

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At a glance

Inti and Mama Ocllo compared
	Inti	Mama Ocllo
Tradition	Inca and Andean Tradition	Inca and Andean Tradition
Domains	the sun, kingship, harvest	the founding of Cusco, spinning and weaving, the household
Symbols	a golden disk, the Punchao image, gold	the spindle, cloth
Also called	Punchao, Apu Inti	Mama Ocllo Huaco, Mama Uqllu

Where they meet

The atlas records no domain or symbol that Inti and Mama Ocllo share.

They are compared because of how the myths connect them, not because of what they rule.

Where they part

Only Inti

Associated with the sun, kingship, and harvest.

Only Mama Ocllo

Associated with the founding of cusco, spinning and weaving, and the household.

How each was worshipped

Inti

Cult sites: The Coricancha in Cusco, the chief temple of the Sun, whose curved Inca masonry survives beneath the Dominican church and convent of Santo Domingo.; Sun temples built by the Incas across the empire, including one at Pachacamac beside the older coastal sanctuary and another on the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca.
Festivals: Inti Raymi, at the June solstice, described by Garcilaso (Part I, Book 6); re-staged at Sacsayhuamán since 1944 as a reconstructed civic pageant.

The Sun held lands and herds in every province; chosen women (acllacuna) in walled compounds wove fine cloth and prepared maize beer for his cult; llamas and cloth were burned as offerings in Cusco.

Mama Ocllo

Honored as founding ancestress of the royal lineage; her role as the first coya passed to each Inca queen, who was regarded as the Moon's counterpart on earth.

The two figures

Inca and Andean Tradition

Inti

The Sun, divine ancestor of the Inca kings and center of the state cult, worshipped in the gold-sheathed Coricancha of Cusco and at the June solstice festival of Inti Raymi.

In Betanzos's account the Sun is made by Viracocha at Tiwanaku, rising from the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca; in Inca royal ideology he is the father of the first Inca, Manco Cápac.

The Inca kings called themselves children of the Sun (*intip churin*), and Garcilaso de la Vega's version of the dynasty's origin has the Sun himself send his son Manco Cápac and daughter Mama Ocllo to Lake Titicaca to teach humanity. Sun worship was the most visible part of the imperial cult: the Sun owned lands and herds in every conquered province, and communities of chosen women (*acllacuna*) wove cloth and brewed maize beer for him.

Read the full Inti entry

Inca and Andean Tradition

Mama Ocllo

The founding ancestress of the Incas, sister and wife of Manco Cápac, who in Garcilaso's account taught the women of Cusco to spin, weave, and keep house while her brother taught the men to farm.

Daughter of the Sun and the Moon in Garcilaso's version; one of the four sisters from the cave at Pacaritambo in Betanzos's and Sarmiento's.

In Garcilaso de la Vega's *Royal Commentaries* (1609), Mama Ocllo is the Sun's daughter, sent with her brother Manco Cápac from Lake Titicaca to civilize humanity. When their golden rod sinks at Huanacauri, the pair separate to call the people together, he to the north of the valley and she to the south, and while Manco teaches the men agriculture and irrigation, Mama Ocllo teaches the women to spin, weave, and sew clothing. The division reflects the gendered order of Inca society, in which fine cloth was among the most valuable of all goods.

Read the full Mama Ocllo entry

About this comparison

Comparisons pair figures that play a similar role across traditions, or that the myths connect within one. A shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.