Apocatequil
Apocatequil is the Incan God of Lightning, he is also the high priest of the moon god Coniraya. The ancient Inca people were extremely religious and spiritual. They had deep religious beliefs that they incorporated to their lives every single day.
Apocatequil was the God of Lightning who is said to be associated with or was also called the name Illapa, who was a god of thunder. The ancient Incas heavily relied on farming and crops to sustain and nourish their bodies and grow their civilizations. Apocatequil was important because he was the one who they worshipped and prayed to for rain.
As with most of our ancient peoples, the Incas believed that weather phenomenons were caused by a variety of deities, Apocatequil being one. They would often build statues, and place giant sculptures of Apocatequil among the other gods on the mountain tops in Peru.
Apocatequil had a twin brother whose name was Piguero and it is said they both descended from a sky god. There are variations as to the creations of each of these figures in Inca mythology. Some legends say that Apocatequil was a god associated with night, and his twin brother Piguero was associated with the day time. In the Inca stories it is widely known that their mother was killed by her own brothers, a group that was called the Guachimines. Apocatequil and Pigureo were angered by this and it was fate they would destroy the Guachimanes with lightning bolts.
Art by: Cristian Bernales