Apu Ollantay: A Drama of the Time of the Incas

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Ollantay is the most celebrated surviving pre-Columbian dramatic text in the Americas, preserved in Quechua and debated by scholars as to whether it predates or postdates Spanish contact. The play follows the general Ollantay who falls in love with an Inca princess far above his station; the forbidden relationship, the king's wrath, and the final reconciliation form a romance-tragedy of considerable emotional power. Markham's English translation introduced the work to Western readers in the nineteenth century. Whatever its exact origins, Ollantay offers a rare window into Indigenous dramatic tradition from the Andean world.