The Role Of The Odyssey In Dante's Inferno

The Iliad, written by Homer, depicts the Trojan War between the Greeks and the Trojans due to a possessive sexual desire. Paris, Prince of Troy, took Helen, Greek King Menelaus’s wife, initiating the war. Hence, drawing the readers and Homer to sympathize with the Greeks. In Dante’s Inferno, Virgil is sympathetic to the Trojans. It is illustrated that only Ulysses, known as Odysseus, a Greek warrior is in one of the circles in hell. This indicates that the Greeks are considered sinners instead of the Trojans.
The Trojans committed a sin by insulting the Greek’s hospitality. Homer presents the reader with numerous of opportunities to sympathize with the Greeks. To start off, Paris abducted Helen from King Menelaus, king of Sparta, immediately justifying and supporting the Greeks in the war. The audience sympathizes with Achilles when he learns about his beloved friend’s, Patroclus, death. One concludes that Homer favored the Greeks seeing that many of the books in the Iliad are devoted to Odysseus, Achilles and Agamemnon. Interestingly, the Iliad was written from a Greek’s perspective since Homer is Greek. The Greeks are portrayed as being more capable than the Trojans unconsciously giving Homer a bias. Homer

Virgil, a sinner, guided Dante through the circles of hell. Post-Dante, Ulysses’ and Virgil’s sin is not considered a mortal sin. Throughout the circle of hells, there was worst crimes of sin committed.
In conclusion, the audience observes that authors of the Iliad and Dante’s Inferno favor two different groups. Homer favors the Greeks in the Iliad and gives the readers innuendos of this. Dante’s Inferno, Virgil and Dante favor the Trojans since they blame the Greek for the fall of Troy. He sympathizes Helen of Troy but shows no empathy for Ulysses and Diomede. In addition, Dante is Italian which is understandable why he favors the