Menalippo

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Menalippo is recalled by Dante in the simile of the two damned of the ninth circle (Inferno XXXII). The poet, describing the scene of the two giants who tear at each other with their teeth, compares the ferocity of the bite to the rage with which, according to myth, the temples were torn from Menalippo. The mention of the name is limited to this comparison: the verse "le tempie a Menalippo per disdegno" places him within the mythological tradition cited by Dante as an example of a cruel act, without further specification of his role or context. Furthermore, the critical notes to Canto XXXII comment extensively on the scene of the pair of damned who bite each other (the nape, the brain, the hunger that drives them) but do not dwell on the figure of Menalippo as such, who remains a simple term of comparison.