Ulysses

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Ulysses is the protagonist of the episode of Inferno XXVI, where he recounts to Dante and Virgil his final voyage beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which ended with the shipwreck of his ship. The Dantean presentation insists on the mythical, non-historical character of the figure and on Ulysses's awareness of violating the limit set by divinity. The note to verse 56 places him together with Diomedes among the damned of the same ditch. In Purgatorio XIX a Siren recalls having turned Ulysses from his wandering course, in an episode that the note specifies as distinct from the Homeric one of the Sirens. In Paradiso XXVII Ulysses is recalled as an example of foolish presumption in a context of marine images. The authorized critical notes indicate that Dante, although not knowing Homer directly, received the story through sources such as Cicero's De finibus, and that the figure of Ulysses embodies in the Commedia the theme of magnanimity which, separated from divine aid, plunges down.