Ismene

Profile

Ismene is presented by Dante in the Purgatorio, in a passage in which the poet, addressing Statius, reviews some characters from his poems, pairing the historical names of the ancient poets with the legendary ones of the characters of epic poetry. The note to the verse identifies her as the other daughter of Oedipus, sent to death with her sister Antigone, and specifies that she saw all her relatives and her fiancé Haemon die, describing her weeping over the body of her mother according to the Statian source. The verse that introduces her characterizes her as «sì trista come fue», establishing a direct link between her fame for unhappiness and her characterization in the Dantesque verse. Her belonging to the Theban cycle is confirmed by the context in which the name is inserted, alongside Antigone, Deiphile, and Argia.