Creusa

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In Canto IX of Paradiso, Folco da Firenze evokes his own troubled love life, comparing his ardor to that of the great passions of ancient poetry, and in particular to that of Dido, who burned with love for Aeneas, bringing offense to her dead husband Sicheus and to Aeneas's previous spouse, Creusa. The note to verse 98 explicitly clarifies that Creusa is "the dead wife of Aeneas," that is, the first wife of the Virgilian hero lost during the flight from Troy. The name appears only in this passage of Paradiso, as part of an emblematic list that measures the intensity of the amorous flame experienced by the poet before his hair turned white. No other biographical or attributive element is supported by the anchor verses and the notes provided.