Dante's Inferno Inferno

Use of the Fantastic in Inferno and Sinbad

Valerie Skerkavich

Fantastic elements occur in both Dante’s Inferno and The Tales of Sinbad but it is obvious that Inferno uses a lot more of the fantastic than Sinbad. In Dante’s Inferno, there are several fictional creatures (Cereberus, the Furies, Geryon) in the realms of hell, which all serve a specific purpose in hell and in Dante’s journey through the depths of hell. Through Sinbad’s journey, we see a lesser quantity of fantastic creatures, but, similar to Dante’s Inferno, the creatures that appear in Sinbad’s voyages all serve a purpose to the plot of the story. The main connection that both Dante and Sinbad have in relation to the use of the fantastic in their journeys is the purpose of the fantastic creatures themselves—they serve to cause death among others, but oftentimes are the sources that help advance the plot of the poem forward.

On Sinbad’s second voyage, he encounters a large white ball that is so large, he cannot climb it. It is smooth and there are no foot grippings that he could use to ascend this mighty white ball. Then, he remembers stories from other sailors about a bird named Roc: a bird incredibly large, and Sinbad puts two and two together and realizes this giant ball is actually the egg of the bird, Roc. A fantastically large bird isn’t as original as the creatures we see in Dante’s Inferno (things that are half woman, half bird; or have three heads), however, this is still a fantastic element and the bird is used in the same way as the Geryon is in Inferno in regard to the advancement of the plot of the poem.

Taking off my turban I bound myself securely to [the foot of the bird] with the linen in the hope that the roc, when it took flight next morning,...

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... now, they literally look behind them and walk backwards, never predicting the future, but going back in time—through the past. There is no evidence of contrapasso in Sinbad such as in the Inferno, and because contrapasso is such a large part of the Inferno’s use of the fantastic, the lack of contrapasso in Sinbad is significant because it is major and definite difference between the use of the fantastic elements in Inferno and Sinbad.

The fantastic in both Dante’s Inferno and in Dante escape a realm of hell and move forward to the next circle, and are the sources that facilitate an escape route for Sinbad; the fantastic beings that do not support the advancement of the plots of the poems are creatures that only cause death or pose a threat to the protagonist. In these fantastical advances, we see how fortunate Sinbad is to be alive and how lucky he really is.