Throughout time, people across the world told each other tales of how they came to be, of heroes and monsters, romance and tragedy, death and rebirth. Mythology helped shape the ancient world, explaining the unexplainable. This is mythology.

The mythology of the Inca peoples is rooted deeply in the natural world, extending deeply into the very cosmos. One night descended on the land, and the moon rose to its purge. The Inca people associated the great planetary mass object with the goddess Mamakilia, Mother Moon, often depicted as a beautiful woman with a silver disc and tears of silver flowing from her eyes. Mama Kia is considered a defender of women, presiding over marriage and the menstrual cycle. Through her, the Incas were capable of calculating the passage of time, monitoring the phases of the moon for their lunar calendar, upon which many of their rituals and cultural traditions depended. She is the daughter of Viracocha, the Supreme Creator God, and Mama Cocha, the goddess of the sea. She is the wife and sister of the sun god Inti, and with him, she had four children: the fire god and the first ruler of the Incas, Mama Ocllo, the goddess of spinning and fertility, the Earth Creator God, and Khan, the god of rain and the southern wind.

Possibly due to European colonization, there are few surviving stories of Mamakia, but those stories that have survived pertain to the moon's image and cosmic events surrounding it. It was believed that lunar eclipses were caused by an animal trying to attack Mama Kia, often surmised as a puma, a jaguar, or a snake. In an attempt to scare away the beast, the people of Earth would throw weapons, hurl stones, make wild gestures, and create as much noise as possible. They believed that if the animal were to succeed in swallowing the Moon, the world would be left in darkness, and life on Earth would cease to exist.

But not every animal encounter that Mama Kia endured was dangerous. The Incas believed that the dark spots on the moon were there because a fox had been mesmerized by her beauty and fell in love with her. The fox rose into the sky to be with her, and when he got there, she squeezed him so close against her that it produced the dark patches that we see on the moon's surface.

In a different story, the spots on the moon came not from an amorous fox but from her own brother and husband, Inti. As the story goes, despite how bright the sun may have been, the moon was even brighter. The sun god envied how bright Mamakia was and he lashed out at her by flinging ashes at her face, explaining the dark patches on an otherwise white surface and why the moon, with all its brightness, is nowhere near as bright as the sun.

Those stories of Mamakia seem few, but she is doubtlessly one of the most revered deities of the Inca pantheon. Through her association with the moon, the Inca people were able to calculate and record the flow of time and were given light in the darkest of nights. From her union with Inti, the children she birthed would go on to give the world fire, rain, wind, and even the very Earth itself. She was a champion of women, granting them strength in times of hardship, blessing them in love and marriage, aiding them with their menstrual cycles, as well as during pregnancy and childbirth. In Cusco, Peru, the capital city of the Inca Empire, a temple dedicated to Mama Kia was erected with priestesses devoted in service to her. During the Koya Raymi's celebration held close to the autumnal equinox, Mamakia was honored with prayers and small gifts so that she may be of guidance to newly married women, those who were with child, and young girls nearing adulthood. Though far less intense than the Sun, the Inca peoples knew well the power of the Moon, and they sought to honor the goddess associated with it.