El Dorado

The legend of El Dorado, the great city of gold, can be traced back through the centuries to have originated with the Muisca people, one of the great tribes of South America. Residing in modern day Colombia, in the upper reaches of the Amazon, the Muisca people are largely credited with having been the architects of the El Dorado myth. The legend was born out of the Muisca tradition of royal coronation. Whereby the Zipa (a term meant to refer to a ruler) had to undergo a ceremony where he would be sent out onto a lake (legend has it that the ceremony took place on Lake Guatuavita) on a raft, covered in gold dust. El Dorado in Spanish means ‘’the golden one.’’ Here he was, a man covered in gold who in order to complete the ceremony had to dive into the waters of the great lake and re-emerge cleared of all traces of the fine powder. Having cleansed himself of his golden coat, the Zipa could now rule the Muisca. This tradition inspired widespread tales of gold adorned kings, a lake covering vast seams of gold, and then eventually came to encapsulate an entire city rich in vast quantities of the precious mineral. The first Europeans that came to hear of the story could not believe what they were hearing. ‘’A great king covered in gold?’’ ‘’A city filled with the stuff?’’ It seemed almost too good to be true. But those Europeans swiftly came round. As these were no ordinary Europeans. They were the conquistadors, and it was they who gave the myth of El Dorado its vibrant and distinct characteristic. That of being a Utopia. El Dorado came to not just represent a man or indeed a single city, but came to represent a promised land. A land of untold riches. A land of unbridled opportunity. A land ripe for the taking. In the following series we will be telling the story of this Utopia. From multiple academic vantage points, through the use of primary and secondary sources (of which you can investigate further by clicking here), we will demonstrate how the myth evolved, how it inspired action and how it gave rise to the great artistic representations that still inspire us to this day. One of which being the following poem by the great American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe. Poe more than any other can convey the sheer wonder and the ultimate fruitlessness represented by the myth of El Dorado. Afterall, though, the Muisca could be said to have indeed adorned their kings with gold dust. Could their region really possess a city of gold, a veritable Utopia?

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