Guatavita lake

The legend began in the 1530s, in the Andes of present-day Colombia, where conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada first found the Muisca, a nation in the modern day Cundinamarca and Boyacá highlands of Colombia, in 1537.

The story of Muisca rituals was brought to Quito by Sebastián de Belalcázar's men; mixed with other rumors, there arose the legend of 'El Dorado' (meaning the Golden Man rather than a place - 'el indio dorado', the golden Indian or 'El Rey Dorado', The Golden King).

Imagined as a place, El Dorado became a kingdom, an empire, the city of this legendary golden king. Deluded by a similar legend, Francisco Orellana and Gonzalo Pizarro would depart from Quito in 1541 in a famous and disastrous expedition towards the Amazon Basin; as a result of this, however, Orellana became the first person to navigate the Amazon River all the way to its mouth.

Tribal ceremony

The Zipa used to cover his body in gold dust and, from his raft, he offered treasures to the Guatavita goddess in the middle of the sacred lake. This old Muisca tradition became the origin of El Dorado legend. This model is on display in the Gold Museum, Bogotá, Colombia

In 1636 Juan Rodriguez Troxell wrote account, addressed to the cacique or governor of Guatavita:

The ceremony took place on the appointment of a new ruler. Before taking office, he spent some time secluded in a cave, without women, forbidden to eat salt, or to go out during daylight. The first journey he had to make was to go to the great lagoon of Guatavita, to make offerings and sacrifices to the demon which they worshipped as their god and lord. During the ceremony which took place at the lagoon, they made a raft of rushes, embellishing and decorating it with the most attractive things they had. They put on it four lighted braziers in which they burned much moque, which is the incense of these natives, and also resin and many other perfumes. The lagoon was large and deep, so that a ship with high sides could sail on it, all loaded with an infinity of men and women dressed in fine plumes, golden plaques and crowns.... As soon as those on the raft began to burn incense, they also lit braziers on the shore, so that the smoke hid the light of day.

At this time they stripped the heir to his skin, and anointed him with a sticky earth on which they placed gold dust so that he was completely covered with this metal. They placed him on the raft ... and at his feet they placed a great heap of gold and emeralds for him to offer to his god. In the raft with him went four principal subject chiefs, decked in plumes, crowns, bracelets, pendants and ear rings all of gold. They, too, were naked, and each one carried his offering .... when the raft reached the centre of the lagoon, they raised a banner as a signal for silence. The gilded Indian then ... [threw] out all the pile of gold into the middle of the lake, and the chiefs who had accompanied him did the same on their own accounts. ... After this they lowered the flag, which had remained up during the whole time of offering, and, as the raft moved towards the shore, the shouting began again, with pipes, flutes, and large teams of singers and dancers. With this ceremony the new ruler was received, and was recognized as lord and king.

It is believed that these rituals were carried out by the Muisca in several lakes along their territory.

The Muisca towns and their treasures quickly fell to the conquistadores. Taking stock of their newly won territory, the Spaniards realized that — in spite of the quantity of gold in the hands of the Indians — there were no golden cities, nor even rich mines, since the Muiscas obtained all their gold in trade. But at the same time, the Spanish began to hear stories of El Dorado from captured Indians, and of the rites which used to take place at the lagoon of Guatavita. There were Indians still alive who had witnessed the last Guatavita ceremony, and the stories these Indians told were consistent.

Guatavita today bears a curious notch in its cliffside, evidence of an attempt to drain the lake in 1580.

Expeditions

El Dorado is applied to a legendary story in which precious stones were found in fabulous abundance. The concept of El Dorado underwent several transformations, and eventually accounts of the previous myth were also combined with those of the legendary city. The resulting El Dorado enticed European explorers for two centuries, and was eventually found to be in Colombia.

Among the earliest stories was the one told by Diego de Ordaz's lieutenant Martinez, who claimed to have been rescued from shipwreck, conveyed inland, and entertained by "El Dorado" himself (1531).

The most famous journey in search for El Dorado was undertaken by Francisco de Orellana and Gonzalo Pizarro (1541), who passed down the Rio Napo to the valley of the Amazon all the way to its delta.

Other expeditions include that of Philipp von Hutten (1541–1545), who led an exploring party from Coro on the coast of Venezuela; and of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, the Governor of El Dorado, who started from Bogotá (1569).

Sir Walter Raleigh, who resumed the search in 1595, described El Dorado as a city on Lake Parima far up the Orinoco in Guiana. This city on the lake was marked on English and other maps until its existence was disproved by Alexander von Humboldt during his Latin-America expedition (1799–1804). ^[1]

Metaphor

In the mythology of the Muisca today, El Dorado (Mnya) represents the energy contained in the trinity of Chiminigagua, which constitutes the creative power of everything that exists. Chiminigagua is, along with Bachué, Cuza, Chibchachum, Bochica, and Nemcatacoa, one of the creators of the universe.

Meanwhile, the name of El Dorado came to be used metaphorically of any place where wealth could be rapidly acquired. It was given to El Dorado County, California, and to towns and cities in various states. It has also been anglicized to the single word Eldorado.

In literature, frequent allusion is made to the legend, perhaps the best-known references being those in Milton's Paradise Lost (Book xi. 408-411) and in Voltaire's Candide (chs. 18, 19). "Eldorado" was the title and subject of a four-verse poem by Edgar Allan Poe. In the 1966 John Wayne film El Dorado, most of Poe's poem is recited by the character nicknamed Mississippi http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061619/trivia El Dorado is also referenced in Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness. Within Conrad's work, the Eldorado Exploring Expedition journeys into the jungles of Africa in search of conquest and treasure, only to meet an untimely demise.

El Dorado is also sometimes used as a metaphor to represent an ultimate prize or "Holy Grail" that one might spend one's life seeking. It could represent true love, heaven, happiness, or success. It is used sometimes as a figure of speech to represent something much sought after that may not even exist, or at least may not ever be found. Such use is evident in Poe's poem "El Dorado". In this context, El Dorado bears similarity to other myths such as the Fountain of Youth, Shangri-la, and to some extent the term "white whale" which refers to Captain Ahab's obsession in the book Moby-Dick. The disillusionment side of the ideal quest metaphor may be represented by Helldorado, a satirical nickname given to Tombstone by a tardy miner who complained that many of his profession had traveled far to find El Dorado, only to wind up washing dishes in restaurants.

Werner Herzog's film, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, also explores the El Dorado metaphor. The main character, Lope de Aguirre, is historically based, but is actually an amalgam of Aguirre and Francisco Orellana, mentioned in the historical section, above.

References in popular culture

El Dorado appears in the Donald Duck story "The Gilded Man" by Carl Barks. Donald and his nephews travels in the Amazon to find a lost and very rare stamp where he ends up prisoner of the El Dorado. Surprisingly, gold is not of great value there but silver amazes the natives.

In the game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, there is a statue made of gold known as El Dorado, which the plot revolves around.

The 1972 film Aguirre, the Wrath of God directed by Werner Herzog, depicts a group of Spanish Conquistadors attempting to find the lost city.

In the 1982 animated television series The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Esteban, Child of the Sun, and his companions Zia and Tao search for the seven lost cities of gold: "They long to cross uncharted seas and discover unknown countries, to find secret gold on a mountain trail high in the Andes. They dream of following the path of the setting sun,that leads to Eldorado, and the Mysterious Cities of Gold."

The 2000 Dreamworks Animation film The Road to El Dorado is about an expedition to the city of El Dorado by two Spanish bandits.

El Dorado was greatly intertwined with the plot of the 2007 film National Treasure: Book of Secrets where the "city of gold" Cibola was found.

The legend of El Dorado and Francisco Orellana's expedition is featured in the 2008 film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, where the city is more often referred to as "Akator". In the film, the "city of gold" turns out to be a mistranslation of the Mayan word for "treasure", as the city isn't actually made of gold. The treasure is the knowledge of the advanced beings who founded the city.

See also

• Dorado
• Quivira and Cíbola
• Seven Cities of Gold
• City of the Caesars (Ciudad de los Césares)
• Sierra del Plata
• Antillia
• Sir Walter Raleigh
• Helldorado

References

1. ↑ http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/humboldt/alexander/travels/chapter25.html Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America by Alexander von Humboldt

• Bandelier, A. F. A. The Gilded Man, El Dorado (New York, 1893).
• Freyle, Juan Rodriguez. El Carnero: Conquista y descubrimiento del Nuevo Reino de Granada. ISBN 84-660-0025-9
• Hagen, Victor Wolfgang von. The Gold of El Dorado: The Quest for the Golden Man
• Nicholl, Charles. The Creature in the Map, London, 1995 ISBN 0-09-959521-4
• Naipaul,V.S. The Loss of El Dorado 1969

External links

• Precolumbian Golden Boat Famous golden figure based on El Dorado rite (housed in the Gold Museum at Bogotá, Colombia)
• The Legend of 'El Dorado' by Tairona Heritage Trust
• Geografia Sacra. (Blog con material sobre la Ciudad de los Césares, Eldorado, y otros lugares enigmáticos)

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