Characters

Characters of the Divine Comedy

Explore the protagonists and figures Dante meets on his journey.

Personaggio	Tipologia	Menzioni	Versi collegati	Descrizione
Pedanius Dioscorides	Unclassified	1	1	Ancient Greek physician of the 1st century A.D., author of the treatise De materia medica, recalled by Dante in Limbo as a gatherer of the medicinal qualities of herbs.
Dominic	Popes and clergy	2	2	Saint Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers, recalled by Saint Bonaventure in the Heaven of the Sun as the guide of his Order and as a champion of evangelical poverty.
Dominations	Deity	1	1	The Dominations are one of the angelic choirs of the second triad, cited by Beatrice in the Crystalline Heaven (Paradiso XXVIII) and placed in the Dionysian ordering before the Virtues and the Powers.
Domitian	Rulers and nobles	1	1	Roman emperor recalled by Statius as a persecutor of Christians, in a passage of the Purgatorio that also alludes to his sister Plautilla and to the martyr Domitilla.
Donatus	Poets and thinkers	1	2	Elius Donatus, a fourth-century grammarian, mentioned by Cacciaguida among the wise in the Heaven of the Sun in Paradiso.
donna Berta	Unclassified	1	1	Proverbial character cited by Dante in Paradiso, alongside ser Martino, to indicate any two random people, often in a disparaging sense, who presume to be able to judge.
Draghignazzo	Mythological	2	2	Demon belonging to the decuria of devils who escort the two wayfarers in the fifth bolgia of Hell, where the barrators are immersed in boiling pitch.
Ebrei	Families and factions	1	3	A people to whom the Mosaic law imposed the obligation of offering sacrifices to God in every case, even while sometimes permitting the substitution of the material offered.
Hecuba	Mythological	1	1	Queen of Troy, wife of Priam, recalled by Dante as Hecuba 'trista, misera e cattiva' in the double mythological simile of Canto XXX of the Inferno.
Egidio	Popes and clergy	1	1	Franciscan friar remembered by Dante among the earliest followers who went barefoot to follow Francis, an example of the renunciation that accompanied the beginning of the order.
Helen of Troy	Mythological	1	1	Helen is recalled by Dante in Canto V of the Inferno as the cause of the Trojan War, among the great lovers in the band of the lustful.
Elektra	Mythological	1	1	Character from Greek mythology, princess of Mycenae, daughter of Agamemnon, mentioned by Dante among the great spirits of Limbo.
Elijah	Biblical figures	2	2	Biblical prophet mentioned in the Comedy as a figure of comparison in two similes: the chariot of fire that carried him up to heaven, recalled by Ulysses, and the Transfiguration of Christ on Tabor, recalled in Purgatorio.
Helice	Mythological	2	2	Figure from Greek mythology, recalled by Dante as a nymph beloved by Jupiter and transformed into the constellation of the Great Bear; Diana banished her from her retinue.
Eliodoro	Biblical figures	1	1	Eliodoro is recalled by Dante in the verses of Purgatorio as an example of divine punishment for greed: we praise the kicks he received.
Elios	Deity	1	1	Entity invoked by Dante in Canto XIV of Paradiso with the form «Elïòs», in the expression «O Elïòs che sì li addobbi» linked to the theme of the holocaust and the light of sacrifice.
Eliseo	Families and factions	1	1	Brother of Moronto and relative of Cacciaguida, remembered by the latter in the family survey of Paradiso XV.
Empedocles	Unclassified	1	1	Presocratic philosopher from Agrigento, author of a poem on nature; in Limbo Dante mentions him among the sages of antiquity together with Heraclitus and Zeno.
Aeneas	Mythological	3	3	Hero of Greek and Roman mythology, cited by Dante as a model of an otherworldly journey alongside Saint Paul, and remembered among the great spirits of Limbo.
Aeneid	Poets and thinkers	1	1	Poetic work mentioned by Statius in Purgatorio as the source of his formation, defined as the «mamma» of his literary production.
Epicurus	Poets and thinkers	1	1	Ancient Greek philosopher, recalled by Dante as the founder of one of the major philosophical schools and identified in the Middle Ages as the principal denier of the immortality of the soul.
Heraclitus	Unclassified	1	1	Ancient Greek philosopher from Ephesus (5th century B.C.), cited by Dante among the sages of Limbo alongside Empedocles and Zeno.
Hercules	Mythological	3	3	Hercules is the hero of classical myth to whom Dante alludes in three places in the Inferno. In Canto XXV he is recalled as the slayer of Cacus, in Canto XXVI for the signs he placed at the Strait of Gades, and in Canto XXXI for the struggle he waged with Antaeus.
Erisittone	Mythological	1	1	Mythological figure recalled by Dante in Purgatorio: the example is introduced to illustrate the punishment of hunger and thirst inflicted upon the gluttonous souls.