DANTE AND VIRGIL HEAR THE TALE OF ULYSSES' FINAL DAYS

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Dante Virgil Ulysses [Odysseus] Diomedes ... vincer potero dentro a me l'ardore [... could overcome in me the yearning] ch'i'ebbi a divenir del mondo esperto [that I had to gain experience of the world e de li vizi umani e del valore.[and of human vices and virtue.] Ma misi me per l'altro mare aperto [But I set sail on the deep open sea] sol con un legno e con quella compagna [with one ship only and that small band of companions] picciola da la qual non fui diserto. [who had not deserted me.] L'un lito e l'altro vidi infin la Spagna, [On one shore and the other, I saw as far as Spain,] fin nel Morroccho, e l'isola d'i Sardi [as far as Morocco and the island of Sardinia] e l'altre che quel mare intorno bagna. [and the other islands washed on all sides by the sea.] Io e' compagni eravam vecchi e tardi [My companions and I had grown old and sluggish] quando venimmo a quella foce stretta [when we reached that narrow outlet] dove Hercule segnò li suoi riguardi... [where Hercules set up his markers...]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bodleian Library, Univ. of Oxford, MS. Holkham misc. 48 (formerly Norfolk, Holkham Hall, MS. 514) p. 40 (detail). Dante, Divine Comedy, in Italian; North Italy, mid-14th cent.

The story of Odysseus (Ulysses) was known to Dante only through Latin sources, primarily Virgil's Aeneid, in which he is an unscrupulous deceiver, ruled only by expediency. Dante gives us a different version from the Odyssey, either through misunderstanding of his Latin sources or through deliberate re-creation. Here Ulysses does not head for home and family after leaving Circe, but sails beyond Gibraltar (marked on medieval maps "ne plus ultra"–"venture no further") on a voyage of discovery reminiscent of the Sirens' offer in the Odyssey. In the scene from the Inferno depicted at the left, the soul of Ulysses, from the flame that engulfs him and Diomedes, tells Dante and Virgil the story (Inferno 26.90ff. Charles S. Singleton tran.; ms. text at left appears below in red):

"When I departed from Circe, who had detained me more than a year there near Gaeta, before Aeneas had so named it, neither fondness for my son, nor reverence for my aged father, nor the due love which would have made Penelope glad, could conquer in me the longing that I had to gain experience of the world, and of human vice and worth. But I put forth on the deep open sea with one vessel only, and with that small company which had not deserted me. The one shore and the other I saw as far as Spain, as far as Morocco, and Sardinia, and the other islands which that sea bathes round. I and my companions were old and slow when we came to that narrow outlet where Heracles set up his markers, that men should not pass beyond."

But, continues Ulysses, they passed through the geographic (and symbolically the moral) barrier represented by Gibraltar and encountered a fierce storm:

"Three times it whirled [our ship] round with all the waters, and the fourth time it lifted the stern aloft and plunged the prow below, as pleased Another, till the sea closed over us."

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