Mama Killa (Mama Quilla)

Accounts in surviving sources place Mama Killa within the Inca divine family. Many traditions describe her as a daughter of the creator deity (Viracocha/Wiraqucha) and as the sister—and in many accounts the wife—of the sun god Inti; she is also named as mother of the culture-heroes Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo (Mama Uqllu) who are associated with the founding of Inca society. Genealogies and emphases vary regionally in Andean sources, and some accounts present alternate family networks (for example links with Mama Qucha).

Mama Killa is envisaged as a beautiful woman and is represented iconographically by the lunar disc; extant descriptions note images such as a silver disc covering a temple wall. Her cult in Cusco included temples served by dedicated priestesses, and visual motifs associate her with silver and feminine form.

Within Inca belief Mama Killa is the personification of the moon: her phases structure lunar months and the calendrical timing of many rituals. She is attributed social functions — goddess of marriage, regulator of women's menstrual cycles, and protector of women — and is integrated as a cosmic and social authority whose favor and cycles governed ritual scheduling and domestic life. Mythic motifs attached to her include 'tears of silver,' an explanatory tale in which a fox causes the moon's dark patches, and eclipse myths in which an animal attacks her, prompting communal response.