Dante and Virgil: The Influence of the Aeneid on the Divine Comedy

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Virgil is not only an influence on Dante as a character of Dante's fashioning and in terms of the poem, but he is also (perhaps more importantly) an incredible inspiration to Dante as a fellow poet. It seems clear that there are many similarities between the Aeneid and the Divine Comedy - what at first glance may seem indefinite is the importance of those similarities. Virgil's Aeneid is intimately intertwined with Dante's Divine Comedy in the capacity of an entire poetic work with similar themes, and also as an integral reference for specific images.
When “Dante” speaks to “Virgil” near the beginning of Inferno, he understands that he is not yet like Aeneas and Paul (Dante 1.2.32). He says that, unlike these two voyagers, his travels cannot profit others because of his soul's state of habitual sin. “Dante” briefly explains his reluctance to begin his odyssey, saying, “if I consent to start this journey, / I fear my venture will be wild and empty” (Dante 1.2.34-35). In this section, Dante uses Virgil's characterization of Aeneas to provide a strong contrast to the character “Dante” of Inferno. According to Dante, Aeneas completes a heaven-sent mission in founding his city, because Rome eventually becomes the home of the Papacy and the Church. In direct opposition to the mindset, at the start of the Commedia, “Dante” perceives himself as a man astray from the True Path; he does not believe that his voyage can ever ultimately lead to salvation in the way that Aeneas's did.
The scene from Paradiso in which Cacciaguida speaks to “Dante” explicitly evokes the image of Aeneas and Anchises from the Aeneid (Virgil 6.917-20) by using the same thematic elements. In both scenarios, the hero of the epic journeys to the after-life and visit...

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...taneously praises Virgil (Dante, 1.2.82-87) and then provides evidence that he himself is a type of Virgil. He refers to “Dante” as a type of Aeneas in the scene with Cacciaguida; therefore, by extension, Dante too would be a type of Virgil. Dante shows himself to be a new (and better) Virgil at the allegorical level upon which the Divine Comedy can be seen as guiding every Christian to salvation. Dante uses typology in order to make this point– for him, Virgil is not only a great poet, but a figure in literature that prefigures or foreshadows another, greater figure. So Dante is, in this way, a fulfillment of Virgil, both as a character and a poet.

Works Cited:
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. Trans. Allen Mandelbaum. New York: Everyman's Library, 1995. Print.
Virgil. The Aeneid. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Random House, 1990. Print.

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