Eldorado

El Dorado is a legend that originates in modern day Colombia. In 1537, Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada first found the Muiscas, a nation in the modern day highlands of Colombia. The stories of Muisca rituals along with other rumors brought about the legend of El Dorado. El Dorado actually means the Golden Man rather than a place. Imagined as a place, El Dorado became a kingdom of this legendary golden king. According to legend, the king or chief priest of the Muisca was said to be ritually covered with gold dust at a religious festival held in Lake Guatavita. In 1638 Juan Rodriguez Troxell wrote about the ritual:

The ceremony took place on the appointment of a new ruler. 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 incense and 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. After lighting the incense, 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. 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. 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 moves the raft towards the shore and 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.

The Spaniards realized that though the Indians had much gold in their hands, there were no golden cities. Some still believed that a golden city existed. Guatavita today bears a curious notch in its cliffside, evidence of an attempt to drain the lake in 1580.

Since some believed El Dorado to be a city or place of greatness, it can be related to Mount Olympus where the gods supposedly lived.

Picture from movie The Road to El Dorado.