# Manco Capac — The Columbiad character guide

> Manco Capac in The Columbiad by Joel Barlow.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Capac

**First appearance:** 0004-book-i

## Snapshot

Legendary founder of the Inca line, sent from the Sun's courts to teach wandering tribes to cease their feuds, devise their laws, and live in peace.

## Who they are

Manco Capac appears in the vision of the Americas as the civilizing patriarch of Peru, the sacred parent whose reign began when the Sun in pity taught the lone tribes to abandon imaginary powers and feuds. He stands opposite the sachem who defends the old religion of fire and human tribute, insisting that his own forefathers sprang from a god no less than Capac's. His presence gives the poem's American future a native antiquity — empire and law in the New World long before Europe arrived.

## Relationships

### [Garcilasso de la Vega](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_columbiad_se/characters/garcilasso_de_la_vega)

_social_

Garcilasso, a chronicler of Inca history, recounts the legendary founding of the Inca dynasty by Manco Capac.

### [Christopher Columbus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_columbiad_se/characters/christopher_columbus)

_social_

Columbus and Manco Capac are juxtaposed as parallel figures representing Old World exploration and New World civilization.

### [Hesper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_columbiad_se/characters/hesper)

_social_

Hesper and Manco Capac are linked as symbolic figures of the Western hemisphere and its indigenous heritage.

### [Atabalipa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_columbiad_se/characters/atabalipa)

_family_

Atabalipa (Atahualpa) is a later Inca emperor, while Manco Capac is the legendary founder, linked by dynastic lineage.

### [Muhammad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_columbiad_se/characters/muhammad)

_psychological_

Manco Capac is compared to Muhammad as a religious and political founder, drawing a parallel between Inca and Islamic traditions.

### [Christopher Columbus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_columbiad_se/characters/christopher_columbus)

_social_

Columbus and Manco Capac are juxtaposed as parallel figures representing Old World exploration and New World civilization.

## In the story

### [Book II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_columbiad_se/chapters/book-ii)

Founder of the Incan empire, who with Oella uses a divine fiction to civilize the tribes and establish rule.

### [Endnotes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_columbiad_se/chapters/endnotes)

Discussed as the legendary Peruvian lawgiver whose benevolent and pacific institutions are compared favorably to those of Moses, Lycurgus, Numa, Muhammad, and Peter the Great.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_columbiad_se/characters/manco_capac
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_columbiad_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_columbiad_se/characters