Theseus

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Theseus is mentioned by Dante in two places in the Commedia. In canto IX of the Inferno, in a passage that summarizes the infernal deeds of Hercules, the poet writes «mal non vengiammo in Tesëo l'assalto», recalling the traditional descent of the hero into the realm of the dead. A note to the same canto specifies that Hercules and Theseus were interpreted by the Christian cultural tradition as figures of Christ, and the monsters of Hades as figures of the demon. In canto XXIV of the Purgatorio, the voice that speaks from the tree exhorts the gluttonous to recall the drunken Centaurs at the wedding of Pirithous, whom Theseus, Pirithous's friend, faced and defeated. In both cases Theseus is presented as a virtuous exemplum, opposed respectively to despair and to gluttony, with no further biographical details supplied by the verses.