The Legend of Guayota

Demon or evil being linked to the interior of Mount Teide, present in Guanche beliefs of Tenerife.

The historical sources that record the beliefs of the Guanches of Tenerife point to the existence of an evil being called Guayota, linked to the fiery bowels of Mount Teide, considered their hell. Espinosa, one of the first chroniclers, states that they called the demon Guayota and that its punishment lay on earth, in places of volcanoes, fire and sulphur, particularly Mount Teide.[1]

Teide as hell

The ancient inhabitants of Tenerife knew the volcano as Echeyde, a term the chroniclers identified with hell. The image of a mountain that spewed fire helped shape a cosmology in which the volcanic landscape had religious and moral meaning.[1]

A localized demon

Unlike other traditions, Guayota is not an abstract figure: it inhabits a concrete place in the territory. This localization of evil in the volcano allows the Tenerife landscape to be read as a symbolic text in which geology and religiosity intertwine.[1]

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