Tityos

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Tityos is recalled in the Commedia as an example of a mythological giant subordinate to Antaeus. The note to verse 124 of Canto XXXI of the Inferno places him alongside Typhon and Briareus, citing the passage from Lucan already invoked by Dante's Virgil, and specifies that Tityos was struck down by Apollo, while Typhon was struck down by Jupiter. The note further clarifies that, in the aforementioned text of Lucan, their mother Earth considered them inferior to Antaeus, the motivation with which Virgil calls upon the giant not to appear disdainful of the request. Dante recalls Typhon also in Paradiso VIII 70 and in the Convivio II, v 14, but Tityos's presence in the Commedia remains limited to this single mention, employed in comparison with the stature and power of Antaeus.