Gaddo

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Gaddo is one of the sons of Count Ugolino, imprisoned with him and with his brothers in the Tower of Hunger at Pisa after the betrayal of Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini. In the scene narrated by Ugolino in Canto XXXIII of the Inferno, Gaddo appears as one of the sons who speak to their father: to him is attributed the spoken word, and the gesture of throwing himself outstretched at his father's feet. The notes to the canto recall that in historical reality Gaddo (and Brigata) were adults, but Dante represents them as young, a reading also gathered by Buti, and upon this poetic age the entire scene of the tower is constructed. His figure, together with that of the other sons, stands in contrast to that of the father, mute and frozen, representing the innocence sacrificed by human hatred.