Citation

Vanacker J. Neophilologus 2011; 95(3): 431-445.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011)

DOI

10.1007/s11061-010-9215-3

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The author of this essay focuses on Canto 13 of the Inferno which describes the encounter between Dante and Pier delle Vigne, the suicide who has been changed into a tree. To this day critics do not agree on the classical source which has been a model for this episode. Several Ovidian tales (the tales of Daphne, the Heliads, Dryope and Erysichthon which occur in the Metamorphoses) and one passage in the Aeneid (the Polidorus episode narrated in book 3) have been considered a source of inspiration. The question can be resolved by a more profound and more systematic examination of both Canto 13 and its possible sources. Some of the most important issues studied are: the relationship between the changing character and the character that does not change; the conduct of the person transformed into a tree and the meaning of metamorphosis in the story. The author concludes that, although there are many structural resemblances between Canto 13 and the Polydorus episode, Dante clearly took a few essential elements from Ovidian myths. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Language: en

Keywords

Inferno; Metamorphosis; Ovid (Metamorphoses); The wood of the suicides; Virgil (Aeneid III)