At the Battle of Balaclava, some six-hundred British Lancers, Hussars, and Light
Dragoons were ordered into a valley held by Russian Infantry and Artillery. The positions did not
lend themselves to frontal assault, but due to miscommunication the horsemen were ordered to
do just that. As the Light Brigade charged into that Valley, death awaited them with bated breath.
Just as the cavalrymen could see their impending doom, so too did Aeneas and Virgil understand
the horrors into which they would both descend. During the reign of Augustus, Publius Vergilius
Maro, henceforth to be referred to by the colloquial Virgil, dedicated a book of his Aeneid to a
journey into and out of the underworld. Durante degli Alighieri, known as Dante to modernity,
placed himself on a journey into Hell accompanied by Virgil, the story of which makes up the
first third of his epic poem, Divina Commedia. The influence of Virgil is evident throughout
Dantes poem, though the similarities may be more aesthetic than foundational. Despite outward
justly deserved pain and suffering upon those guilty of sin is vastly different to that of Virgil,
who presents a world that is a realm of the dead, both virtuous and evil.
The decent of Aeneas into the underworld is described in book six of the Aeneid.
Following a prophecy that foretells great hardships for his people in Italy, Aeneas seeks out the
Sibyl of Cumae, Deiphob, for assistance in making the journey to the underworld to congress
with his father.1 The Sibyl, in turn, requests that Aeneas must find a golden bough deep in the
forest that will allow the hero entrance into the realm of the dead, as well as complete the funeral
rites of a fallen comrade.2 These tasks completed, Deiphob performs the necessary sacrifices to
enter into the underworld and flings herself, possessed into the gates that admit entrance to the
realm of the dead.3 Thus begins a processions filled with speech after speech, prophesy after
As the pair advance past the entrance, they come to the mighty river Acheron. It is here that the
first similarity with The Inferno can be drawn. Both Dante and Aeneas cross this river forbidden
to the living, accompanied by a guide who has divine sanction for this task. It is also here that the
first dissimilarity is to be noted. Aeneas enters the underworld of his own vocation, to seek out
guidance from his Father on the trials that surely await him and his people. Dante is spurned to
enter Hell by Virgil himself, sent as a guide by his beloved Beatrice, who awaits him in Heaven.
He must bear witness to what fate befalls those who live unvirtuous lives, as he is in danger of
Returning to Aeneas, the realm past the river Acheron is divided into stages or areas,
which are inhabited by a multitude of peoples. He bears witness to souls suffering various fates
directly correlating to incidents in their lives, from infant mortality and the falsely accused, to
suicides and those who searched vainly for unrequited love.6 Virgil damns these souls to eternal
misery as they displayed virtues he saw as damaging to the ideal Roman. Continuing onward,
4 Sarah Spence, Response to Horsfall: The Role of Discernment in Aeneid 6, Vergilius 59, (2013): 29,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43186249.
5 Dante, Inferno, 1. 3.
Aeneas come across a vast field home to the heroic war dead. Here he meets friends who greet
him warmly, and enemies he has slain who maintain their distance out of fear and respect.7
Again, such manly virtues as bravery in battle speak to the ideal countryman Virgil aims to
promote. At this stage, Aeneas sees a mighty fortress surrounded by fire, and is informed by the
Sibyl that this is where Rhadamanthus rules, administering judgment to all the Titans and Gods
who dared oppose Jupiter, as well as those who committed heinous despicable crimes such as
adulterers, traitors, and misers.8 Finally, the Sibyl leads Aeneas to the altar of Proserpina where
he deposits the golden bough, thus granting him entry to Elysium. The scenes that follow, the
reunion with his father and their dialogue, represent the summit of the Aeneid. Here, Virgil not
demonstrates the supreme love and respect Aeneas has for his father.9 The family was the
cornerstone of Roman domestic and political life, and the Father rules supreme inside the family.
Virgil aimed to reinforce this order, as well as lend credibility to Augustus program of turning
As stated above, Dante at the beginning of the Inferno is half-way though his life, and has
wandered off the path of the virtuous life. Lost in a forest, Dante is visited upon by the ghost or
soul of Virgil himself.10 The ancient poet instructs Dante that he must make a perilous journey in
order to again lead a life that will allow him entry into Heaven (Paradiso). For the first third of
the journey, his guide will be Virgil, who has been charged with this duty by the beloved
The treatment of the underworld, its topography and purpose, by Dante is vastly different
to that of Virgil. Whereas the latters use of the setting was to convey all the manly virtues that
he believed the Romans ought to exhibit, Dantes Hell can be seen as the ultimate manifestation
of Catholic Doctrine on the afterlife, heavily influenced by the teachings of Thomas Aquinas.12
Dante made great use of the theological dissertations of Saint Thomas Aquinas, primarily the
assertion that the soul outlives the body, and thus is capable of being rewarded or punished
following death. This is the underpinning of the entire Divina Commedia, as Dante bears witness
to both the punishment of individuals who had transgressed without repentance, and the reward
of those who lived lives worthy of admittance to paradise. The notion of unrepentant sinners and
of sinners who failed to repent. To revisit the distinction between pain and suffering, each
is incomplete in its own way; virtual bodies cannot feel maximal pain, and damned souls
12 Steven Kreis, Lecture 28 Aquinas and Dante, The History Guide, Accessed November 4th, 2015,
http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture28b.html.
5
Should sinners repent their sins however, they will be admitted into purgatory as is evidenced in
the second division of the Divina Commedia. This distinction is important, as it gives those who
have transgressed hope for salvation which is the ultimate aim of Christianity.
Separated by a thousand years and a religion, the underworlds of Virgil and Dante are
markedly different, both in purpose of existence and in literary meaning. The two poets aimed to
influence how their fellow man approached daily life by presenting either what man ought to
strive for, or what he ought to avoid on pain of eternal damnation. Despite outward similarities in
setting, the Aeneid and the Inferno depict nearly opposing underworlds.
13John Alcorn, Suffering in Hell: The Psychology of Emotions in Dante's Inferno, Pedagogy:
Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture 13, no. 1 (Winter
2013): 77-85. https://library.macewan.ca/library-search/detailed-view/mzh/2013300566.