Mount Helicon

Description

In Canto XXIX of the Purgatorio Dante turns to Helicon, the mountain of the Muses, asking for their help in celebrating adequately the vision of the triumphal chariot that concludes the mystical procession. Helicon appears here as a second pole of inspiration, alongside the Parnassus invoked in the Inferno and the Paradiso: while the ridge of Parnassus inhabited by the Muses has assisted the first two canticles, now Helicon is called upon to pour forth its inspiring waters. The critical notes clarify that Helicon was properly a mountain distinct from Parnassus, but the classical tradition (Isidore, Probus) tended to identify it with one of the two ridges of Parnassus, both consecrated to poetry. Both mountains were crossed by springs linked to poetic inspiration, and here the memory of Pegasus, who caused the spring of Helicon to gush forth, reaffirms the connection with the poetic art.