Inti

Inti (Quechua: inti, lit. 'sun') is the ancient Inca sun god. He is revered as the national patron of the Inca state. Although most consider Inti the sun god, he is more appropriately viewed as a cluster of solar aspects, since the Inca divided his identity according to the stages of the sun. Worshiped as a patron deity of the Inca Empire, Pachacuti is often linked to the origin and expansion of the Inca Sun Cult. The most common belief was that Inti was born of Viracocha, who had many titles, chief among them being the God of Creation. The word inti is not of Quechua origin but a loanword from Puquina. Borrowing from Puquina explains why historically unrelated languages such as Quechua, Aymara and Mapuche have similar words for the Sun. Similitudes are not only linguistic but also symbolically as in Mapuche and Central Andean cosmology the Sun (Inti/Antu) and the Moon (Killa/Cuyen) are spouses.