Editing Supay (section)

== Origins ==
Among the indigenous Quechua people, "Supay" originally denoted a spirit that could both do good and do harm (they would try to appease the spirit they feared and worshiped<ref name="quentas_ormachea1986"/>). This sense had not been lost to Friar [[Domingo de Santo Tomás]] whose dictionary glossed the term as both "good angel" {{lang|qu|alliçupa}} and "bad angel" {{lang|qu|manaalliçupa}}<ref name="ramirez2018"/> in his ''Lexicón'' (1560), and only the spirit he qualified as bad, i.e., {{lang|qu|mana alii çupa}} "evil supay" corresponded to devils, as according to the quoted sermon about [[fallen angel]]s inserted in the dictionary.<ref name="silverblatt1987"/><ref name="diaz2017"/> However, the Christianized Spaniards went on to apply the term "supay" conveniently to mean strictly "devil".<ref name="silverblatt1987"/><ref name="diaz2017"/>

The original Supay could be benevolent towards the living whom he liked, or those who suffered a dignified death. But he could be a terrible and evil being for any of the rest, both in the underworld and in the earthly world, and he could tip the scales of bad luck by whim alone.<ref name="dup-0-16">{{cite book|last=Tapia |first=Javier |author-link=Javier Tapia |title=Mitología Inca: El pilar del mundo |publisher=Plutón Ediciones X Sl |year=2020 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nLHcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT44 |isbn=978-84-18211-10-2 |access-date=2024-08-29 |language=es}}</ref>

In the more original conception, the ''supay'' dwelled in the netherworld called "Ura Pacha" (or [[Pacha (Inca mythology)#Ukhu Pacha|Uku Pacha]], in the Incan three-world view{{sfnp|Bastien|1987|p=139}}) but the ''supaya'' as living "shadows" (as per the meaning of the word) may wander into the world of the living ("[[Pacha (Inca mythology)#Kay Pacha|Kay Pacha]]", 'Hereworld') to "gather companions" into the world of the dead.<ref name="bastien-EncyRel1987"/> The ''supaya'' is (typically) the soul of an ancestor,<ref name="bouysse-cassagne2023"/> and may assist the living by providing counsel for proper conduct in order to achieve peace (in death).<ref name="bonilla2006"/> The supaya represents a necessary force of nature that wither things in order to bring about new life.<ref name="bastien-EncyRel1987"/>

Just as the Supay became the Devil through the prism of Christianity, the [[Viracocha]], which originally designated a whole legion of primordial ancestors who came out of [[Lake Titicaca]], was turned into the equivalent of the one [[monotheistic]] [[Creator deity|Creator God]],<!--hence the claim (in es.wiki) that Viracocha created the Supay god, just as God must have created Lucifer--><ref name="gose2003"/>