American Association of Teachers of Italian Italica

Claudian's De raptu Proserpinae and Dante's Vanquished Giants
Author(s): George F. Butler

Source: Italica, Vol. 84, No. 4 (Winter, 2007), pp. 661-678
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Italian
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40505738
Accessed: 14-10-2018 00:33 UTC
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Articles
Claudian's De raptu Proserpinae and Dante's Vanquished Giants
the resurgence of interest in late antiquity, Claudian is emerg-

ing as a poet who has been unjustly neglected. Based at the
Court of Milan, he wrote a series of panegyrics celebrating Stilicho, the
general who ruled the West from 395 to 408. Aside from his political
poetry he wrote two unfinished mythological epics, the Gigantomachia
and the De raptu Proserpinae. At only 128 extant lines, the Gigantoma-
chia is very much a fragment. But the De raptu Proserpinae, which exists
in three books, is considerably larger and more developed. While the
De raptu Proserpinae is ostensibly about the rape of Proserpine by Pluto,
it also treats the subject of Claudian's other epic, the battle between the
gods and Giants of ancient Greece. And, in fact, the Gigantomachy per-
vades Claudian's other writings. The topic also permeates Dante's
Commedia, which combines classical and Christian mythology. While
Dante's likely knowledge of Claudian has been noted in the commen-
tary tradition, it has been largely disregarded in the scholarly litera-
ture. But Dante draws upon the De raptu Proserpinae to consider the
battle of the gods and Giants in his poem.
Claudian figured prominently in the Middle Ages. The Liber Cato-
nianus, an anthology used to teach elementary Latin as early as the end
of the tenth century, contained Claudian's De raptu Proserpinae along
with Statius' Achilleid and works by several other authors. Geoffrey of
Vitry prepared a commentary on the poem in the late twelfth century,
and his text was well known up to the fourteenth. Ernst Robert Curtius
observes that Claudian was the seventeenth author mentioned in Eber-
hard the German's Laborintus, a didactic poem on rhetoric composed
sometime between 1212 and 1280, and that the Latin poet was there-
fore a part of the typical medieval curriculum. "It is characteristic that
the list includes Sidonius . . . and Claudian," adds Curtius. "For the
new poetics of the twelfth century, both ranked as model authors."
And though Gilbert Highet says that Dante "deliberately ignores the
late classical writers and the early Christian poets like Prudentius," he
also observes that Petrarch (1304r-74), Dante's near-contemporary, "knew
Claudian well."1 Augustine, with whose works Dante was familiar,
had cited Claudian (Civ. Dei. 5.26).2 While Dante refers to Augustine
infrequently in his writings, he had a good understanding of the church
father's works.3 The status of Claudian in medieval education, his rep-
utation among Dante's contemporaries, and his appeal to early
Italica Volume 84 Number 4 (2007)
662 Articles
Christian authors suggest that Dante would have been

writings.
Medieval and Renaissance commentaries often mentioned Claudian
as part of the background of Dante's works.4 During the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, Dante scholars built upon these earlier texts
and continued to refer to the Latin poet.5 Twentieth-century commen-
tators have also cited Claudian in relation to Dante.6 As might be expect-
ed, later commentaries draw upon earlier ones, so that the commen-
tary tradition is repetitive at times.7 Many of the references to Claudian
simply note passages that parallel subjects or images in Dante's works.
Most of the detailed attention given to Claudian in the commentaries
concerns Dante's possible use of the De raptu Proserpinae in Purgatorio 28,
where Dante alludes to Proserpine in his account of Matelda and the
Earthly Paradise.8 More significantly, several commentators have asso-
ciated Claudian with Dante's hell, noting parallels between the two
poets' treatment of the Furies, the Giants, and the tremendous size and
utter helplessness of Pluto and Satan.9
While the commentators have noted a few verbal parallels in the
works of Claudian and Dante, in many cases they point to Claudian as
but one of several classical authors who recounted a given myth. Perhaps
because of his standing as a minor poet in relation to Ovid, Virgil,
Statius, and Lucan, and the lack of a direct reference to him in Dante's
writings, scholars have not enthusiastically embraced Claudian as one
of Dante's sources. Among early researchers, Paget Toynbee seems
uncertain about Dante's knowledge of Claudian, but he admits that
Dante probably had some familiarity with the Latin poet's texts. On the
other hand, Edward Moore argues that Dante probably had not read
Claudian's works.10 While modern writers have given considerable
attention to Dante's use of Latin literature, they have largely ignored
his relationship with Claudian.11 Certainly Dante had his favorite authors,
such as Virgil, to whom he would refer extensively. But Dante's failure
to name Claudian or to echo his works clearly and repeatedly does not
prove that he was ignorant of the Latin poet's writings. More likely, he
may have had some knowledge of Claudian, particularly of Claudian's
major poem, the De raptu Proserpinae, as the medieval curriculum and
the experiences of his contemporaries suggest, but he did not count the
poet among his most important classical authorities.
Dante alludes to the classical Gigantomachy several times in the Com-
media. When Virgil and the pilgrim approach the edge of Cocytus, they
see that it is surrounded by a ring of giants, whom Dante describes in
classical terms:
però che, come su la cerchia tonda

Montereggion di torri si corona,
così la proda che '1 pozzo circonda
Butler: Claudian and Dante 663
torreggiavan di mezza la persona

li orribili giganti, cui minaccia
Giove del cielo ancora quando tuona.
[for, as on its round wall Montereggione crowns itself with towers,
here the horrible giants, whom Jove still threatens from heaven when
thunders, betowered with half their bodies the bank that encompass
the pit.] (Inf. 31.4CM5) 12
The giants include such biblical and classical figures as Nimrod, E

tes, and Antaeus. The pilgrim is especially interested in Briareo
asks Virgil,
S'esser puote, io vorrei

che de lo smisurato Brïareo
esperienza avesser li occhi mei.

[If it were possible, I should wish my eyes might have experience of the
immense Briareus.] (Inf. 31.97-99)
To which Virgil replies that Briareos is farther on and resembles Ephialtes:
Quel che tu vuo' veder, più là è molto

ed è legato e fatto come questo,
salvo che più feroce par nel volto.
[He whom you wish to see is much farther on, and he is bound and fash-
ioned like this one, except that he seems more ferocious in his look.]
(Inf. 31.103-05)
Virgil suggests that Typhon, or Typhoeus, is also in hell, for he says to

Antaeus, "Non ci fare ire a Tìzio né a Tifo" ["Do not make us go on to
Tityus nor to Typhon"] (Inf. 31.124).
Some of these giants are then treated elsewhere in the Commedia. In
canto 12 of the Purgatorio, Dante's pilgrim sees a series of pavement tombs
on the Terrace of Pride. There are six pairs of stones, and each bears a
carving of a figure from classical or biblical mythology (Purg. 12.16-72).
On the first pair, the pilgrim sees Satan on one side and Briareos on the
other:
Vedea colui che fu nobil creato

più ch'altra creatura, giù dal cielo
folgoreggiando scender, da l'un lato.
Vedëa Brïareo fitto dal telo
celestial giacer, da l'altra parte,
grave a la terra per lo mortai gelo.
Vedea Timbreo, vedea Pallade e Marte,
armati ancora, intorno al padre loro,
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mirar le membra d'i Giganti sparte.

[I saw, on the one side, him who was created nobler than any o
ture fall as lightning from heaven. / I saw Briareus, on the
pierced by the celestial bolt, lying heavy on the ground in mor
I saw Thymbraeus, I saw Pallas and Mars, still armed, around th
gazing on the scattered limbs of the giants.] (Purg. 12.25-33)
The carving shows Briareos at the moment of his death.

closely related to the account in Inferno 31, since Briareos is
Satan and the biblical giant Nimrod appears next (Purg.
Typhon is also mentioned again in the Commedia, t
says little about him. In the Paradiso, Dante writes that
darkened "non per Tifeo ma per nascente solfo" ["not b
but by nascent sulphur"] (Par. 8.70). Dante's brief rejectio
of Typhoeus being buried under Aetna undermines the
classical Gigantomachy. Briareos, who was significant in
and Purgatorio, is not even mentioned in the Paradiso, t
dismissal of the myth of Typhoeus is in the same vein as
fication that the myth of Briareos having a hundred han
31.103-05).
According to Linda M. Lewis, there were three major
the battle of the gods and Giants: Ovid's Metamorphoses
Bibliotheca or Library of classical mythology, and Claudi
machia. 13 Ovid was one of Dante's chief classical authorit
Italian poet would have looked to the Metamorphoses fo
about the Gigantomachy, though Ovid says little.14 In
phoses, Ovid tells how the Giants piled Mount Pelion on
Ossa in a vain attempt to reach Olympus QAet. 1.151-62).1
the Giants as "anguipedum" ["serpent-footed"] (Met. 1.1
ing "centum . . . bracchia" ["a hundred arms"] (Met.
associates the hundred-handed Giants with Typhoeus (M
and he alludes to the victory of the gods at Phlegra (Met
the Bibliotheca, Apollodorus discusses the Gigantomach
sively. But given Dante's scant knowledge of Greek, the
probably would not have been one of his sources, though
myths may have been absorbed into medieval culture.16
focuses on the exploits of Hercules, without whose aid
were destined to lose the battle; and like Ovid, he does not n
(Bib. 1.6.1-2).17
But for Dante, Briareos is the principal symbol of the reb
Giants against the Olympian gods. While Ephialtes appe
31.91-96, Briareos transcends him. Virgil explains that E
the gods with fear:
"Questo superbo volle esser esperto
di sua potenza contra '1 sommo Giove/7

disse '1 mio duca, "ond' elli ha cotal merto.
Fialte ha nome, e fece le gran prove
quando i giganti fer paura a' dèi;
le braccia ch'el menò, già mai non move."
['This proud one chose to try his strength against supreme Jove," sa
my guide, "wherefore he has such requital. Ephialtes he is called, and
made the great endeavors when the giants put the gods in fear. Th
arms he plied he moves no more."] (Inf. 31.91-96)
Ephialtes is "assai più fero e maggio" ["far more savage and big
(Inf. 31.84) than Nimrod. But Briareos, says Virgil, is "più feroce
volto" ["more ferocious in his look"] (Inf. 31.105) than Ephialtes
the giants become progressively more terrifying. The pilgrim's
tence on seeing Briareos (Inf. 31.97-99) and Dante's failure to show
reos in Cocytus inspire the reader to imagine just how monstrou
creature is. The number of lines devoted to Briareos in Purgator
along with his pairing with Satan, confirm his importance to Da
a symbol of transgression.18
While the passage describing Briareos in Purgatorio 12.25-33 is
erally and indirectly indebted to numerous classical accounts of t
tle of the gods and Giants, scholars have generally cited Ovid's Metam
phoses 10.151 and Statius' Thebaid 2.595-601 as the principal sourc
Dante's depiction of Briareos.19 Dante may have embellished his
trait of Briareos with details from Ovid and Statius, but the Thebaid
the Metamorphoses do not closely match the tone and purpose
Italian poet's account. In his rather vague rendition, Ovid do
name Briareos or any other monster; nor does he mention the v
gods who fought with Jove against the Olympian's aspiring ad
saries. The case for Dante's use of Statius in Purgatorio 12.25-33 i
persuasive but still inadequate.20 In Book 2 of the Thebaid, Statiu
pares the warrior Tydeus to Briareos. The Latin poet says that
Tydeus single-handedly fought against fifty Thebans,
non aliter - Geticae si fas est credere Phlegrae -

armatum immensus Briareus stetit aethera contra,
hinc Phoebi pharetras, hinc torvae Pallados anguis,
inde Pelethroniam praefixa cuspide pinum
Martis, at hinc lasso mutata Pyracmone temnens
fulmina, cum toto nequiquam obsessus Olympo
tot queritur cessare manus.
[Not otherwise - if Getic Phlegra be worthy credence - stood Briare
vast in bulk against embattled heaven, contemning on this hand Phoeb
quiver, on that the serpents of stern Pallas, here Mars' Pelethronia
pinewood shaft, with point of iron, and yonder the thunderbolts
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changed for new by weary Pyracmon, and yet complaining

combated in vain by all Olympus, that so many hands were
2.595-601)21
While Moore argues that the verbal similarity between Statius' "im-
mensus Briareus" (Theb. 2.596) and Dante's "smisurato Brïareo" in In-
ferno 31.98 shows Dante's indebtedness to Statius, Dante instead calls
Briareos "grave" ("heavy") in Purgatorio 12.30.22 And while both poets
mention Apollo, Mars, and Pallas Athena, these gods of war were cus-
tomarily present at Phlegra. The acropolis of Pergamon, for example,
contained relief sculptures illustrating the battle of the Giants and the
Olympian deities, a popular theme in Greek art. The sculptures include
carvings of Athena, Mars, Apollo, and Zeus battling the serpent-legged
Giants.23 On two significant points, Statius' treatment of Briareos dif-
fers greatly from Dante's. First, Statius alludes to Briareos to exemplify
the martial valor of Tydeus. Dante, on the other hand, depicts Briareos
to underscore the vanquished nature of Satan. Second, Statius' descrip-
tion of Briareos thriving in the heat of battle suggests that Briareos may
emerge victorious. In contrast, Dante shows the aftermath of the mon-
ster's fight against the Olympians. The fate of Briareos is literally carved
in stone, with no possible outcome other than defeat.
The image of Briareos battling the gods is unusual in classical mythol-
ogy, for Briareos was originally presented as one of the hundred-handed
monsters who helped Jove defeat the rebellious Titans. Hesiod relates
how Briareos and his brothers, Cottus and Gyes, threw three hundred
rocks against the Titans and cast them into Tartarus, and that the hun-
dred-handed monsters guarded them in the underworld (Theog. 713-35).24
ApollodortB follows Hesiod by saying that after the Titanomachy, Zeus
appointed Briareos and his brothers wardens of the imprisoned Titans
(Bib. 1.2.1). Homer, too had told how Briareos came to Jove's rescue
when the other Olympians once tried to shackle him (11. 1.401-03).25
Though Briareos was customarily Jove's ally, there were some classical
precedents for portraying him as Jove's enemy. While Statius told of
Briareos fighting the Olympians, an even greater authority for Dante
was Virgil. In a passage that was probably Statius' source for the com-
parison of Tydeus to the classical monster, Virgil compares the fury of
Aeneas in battle to Briareos (whom he calls Aegaeon) violently clash-
ing against Zeus with his hundred hands and with as many swords
and shields as Jove had thunderbolts (Aen. 10.565-70).26 Thus Dante
had sufficient precedent for presenting Briareos as a rebellious Giant,
even if the tradition had not been extensively established.
But a far more accepted example of rebellion against Zeus was the
myth of Typhoeus, or Typhon. In the Theogony, Hesiod relates how the
grotesque monster fought against Zeus, and how Zeus maimed the crea-
ture with thunderbolts and cast him down into Tartans (Theog. 8
The myth of Typhoeus was popular in classical literature.27 Acco
to Ovid, Sicily had been placed upon the vanquished monster's
with Mount Aetna piled upon his head (Met. 5.346-58). Ovi
described the monster as having a hundred hands and as having
slain by Jove's thunder (Met. 3.302-04). Briareos and Typhoeus
often conflated, for Ovid's hundred-handed Typhoeus iese
Hesiod's hundred-handed Briareos.28 Virgil, too, may have thoug
Typhoeus when he described Aegaeon; and Dante, who was f
with both Virgil and Ovid, may likewise have combined featur
Briareos and Typhon. While Dante says that Typhoeus is not buried u
Aetna (Par. 8.67-70), Briareos is buried under the pavement tom
Mount Purgatory (Purg. 12.28-36).
In ancient Rome, the defeat of Typhoeus had been associated
Athena, as if Typhoeus had fought against Jove with the other
At the Panathenaic festival, the peplos, a cloth embroidered with
of mythological battles, was offered to Athena every five years,
the month of Hecatombaeon, the first month of the Attic year. In C
Virgil describes the cloth as depicting the fall of the Giants an
defeat of Typhoeus:
ergo Palladiae texuntur in ordine pugnae,

magna Giganteis ornantur pepla tropaeis,
hórrida sanguineo pinguntur proelia cocco,
additur aurata deiectus cuspide Typhon,
qui prius, Ossaeis conscendens aethera saxis,
Emathio celsum duplicabat vertice Olympum.
[Thus in due order are inwoven the battles of Pallas: the great robes
adorned with the trophies of Giants, and grim combats are depicted
blood-red scarlet. There is added he, who was hurled down by the go
en spear - Typhon, who aforetime, when mounting into heaven on t
rocks of Ossa, essayed to double the height of Olympus by piling the
on the Emathian mount.] (dr. 29-34)
Through Virgil, Dante would have had additional reason to asso

Typhoeus with Pallas and with the battle of the gods and Giants
When Dante describes the death of Briareos in Purgatorio 12, he sp
ically alludes to the mythological battle of the gods and Giants,
says that Thymbraeus, Pallas, and Mars stood "mirar le membr
Giganti sparte" ["gazing on the scattered limbs of the giants"]
12.33). In the Italian text, "Giganti" is capitalized, for Dante is re
to the race of Giants from classical myth, and not to large mons
general. In contrast, when he discusses the giants in the Inferno, "gi
is not capitalized (Inf. 31.31, 44; 34.30-31). Thus in the Purgatorio
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Dante may have remembered portions of the Titanoma

the Titans battle Jove and Briareos casts them into Tart
particularly alludes to the Gigantomachy, the later myth
which earth gives birth to new children, the Giants who
Jove from Olympus. While the Titans are immortal an
Tartarus, the Giants are not, and so they are slain. Dante
the Giants of classical myth, is likewise killed rather tha
The most extensive account of the battle of the gods
Claudian's unfinished Latin Gigantomachy. The story is f
details are significant. Though Claudian does not menti
the existing fragment of the Gigantomachia, he does menti
When Earth asks her new-born Giants to battle the gods, sh
fulmen sceptrumque Typhoeus" ["Let Typhoeus seize th
and the sceptre"] {Gigant 32).29 Her command is clear:
dus should command the sea {Gigant 33), Typhoeus, lik
reos, should usurp Jove's supreme rule. As the poem pro
dian tells how Mars slays Pelorus and Mimas {Gigant 75
Minerva, or Pallas Athena, turns Pallas the Giant to sto
Gorgon's head and defeats Echion and Palleneus {Gig
the final lines of the unfinished poem, Porphyrion trie
island of Delos, which calls to Phoebus Apollo for aid {G
While Claudian does not describe Apollo's combat and ev
the conclusion of his battle is nevertheless predictable. S
dian had finished the poem, Jove probably would have
phoeus and would have vanquished the monster with his
while the other gods looked on. Thus Claudian cites Mar
Apollo in his Gigantomachia, the same gods as Dante m
Purgatorio.
Unlike Homer and Hesiod, Claudian suggests that Briareos was Jove's
enemy. In the De raptu Proserpinae, Ceres, the mother of Proserpine and
the spouse of Zeus, questions Electra, Proserpine's nurse, after Proser-
pine is abducted: "regnatne maritus / an caelum Titanes habent?" ["Does
my husband yet rule or do the Titans hold heaven?"] {De rapt 3.181-82).
Her question alludes to Jove's previous battles against the sons of earth
who sought to overthrow him. Ceres then mentions a catalog of mon-
sters, including Typhoeus and Briareos:
quae talia vivo

ausa Tonante manus? ruptine Typhoia cervix
Inarimen? fractane iugi compage Vesevi
Alcyoneus Tyrrhena pedes per stagna cucurrit?
an vicina mihi quassatis faucibus Aetna
protulit Enceladum? nostros an forte penates
adpetiit centum Briareia turba lacertis?
[What hand hath dared this, if the Thunderer be still alive? Have T
phon's shoulders forced up Inarime or does Alcyoneus course on fo
through the Etruscan Sea, having burst the bonds of imprisoning Ves
vius? Or has the neighbouring mountain of Etna oped her jaws and
expelled Enceladus? Perchance Briareus with his hundred arms h
attacked my house?] (De rapt 3.182-88)
The references to Typhon, Alcyoneus, and Enceladus place Briar

the company of other Giants who had been imprisoned under vo
lands after their unsuccessful war against Jove. Briareos is thus
to Typhoeus and is also portrayed as a threat to Jupiter.
In light of the similarity between Typhoeus and Briareos in
dian and other authors, Dante could look to Claudian's lines for
own account of the defeated monster and attribute to Briareos the char-
acteristics of Claudian's Typhoeus. In the De raptu Proserpinae, Clau-
dian further links Pallas with Typhoeus. Venus, Pallas, and Diana
accompany Proserpine on her fateful walk. Pallas, the goddess of war,
wears a helmet that recreates her greatest experience in battle:
Tritonia casside fulva
caelatum Typhona gerit, qui summa peremptus

ima parte viget, moriens et parte supers tes.
[On her burnished helmet the Triton-born goddess wore a carved figure
of Typhon, the upper part of his body lifeless, the lower limbs yet writhing,
part dead, part quick.] (De rapt 2. 21-23)
The picture of Typhoeus on Pallas' helmet suggests that the goddess

was present when the monster was slain. Though Claudian does not
mention Zeus, it was a mythological commonplace that Zeus, not Pallas,
had actually slain the monster with his thunderbolt. The implied pres-
ence of Pallas at the defeat of Typhoeus suggests that Claudian is locat-
ing the monster within the midst of the rebellion of the Giants against
the Olympian deities. Thus for Claudian, Typhoeus assumes a role
analogous to that of Briareos in Statius' poem.
Moreso than the description of Briareos in the Thebaid, Claudian's
depiction of Typhoeus on Pallas' helmet closely parallels the image on
Dante's pavement tomb. While Statius alludes to Briareos in order to
glorify Tydeus, Claudian does not present Typhoeus as an emblem of
heroism. Just as Dante illustrates Briareos in defeat, Claudian shows
Typhoeus as an utterly vanquished rebel. And while Statius describes
the battle of the gods and Giants in progress, Claudian and Dante both
portray the aftermath of the rebellion. Dante and Claudian show the
result of striving against Jove and make no attempt to glorify the fight-
ing that eventually leads to the defeat of Briareos and Typhoeus.
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For Statius, the figure of Briareos is part of a simile that

heroism of Tydeus. But for Claudian and Dante, the rep
Typhoeus and Briareos are static exempla. Dante's relief
serves to elucidate the pride and consequent fall of Sata
trayed on the opposite pavement tomb. In Claudian's p
of the fallen Typhoeus likewise is a reminder of what h
who defy Jove and warns those who would challenge P
simile, on the other hand, attributes to Tydeus the mar
Briareos. It does not, however, uphold Briareos as a mo
Statius only presents process, not consequence. And while
Briareos in a simile, both Claudian and Dante offer icon
resentations of their fallen monsters. The graphic dep
monsters make the abstract classical myths more concre
time, the helmet and the tombstone serve as monument
and as commemorations of the power of Jove. Because
Typhoeus and Briareos are frozen in visual form, the h
tombstone function as moral emblems.
Dante follows Claudian by presenting Briareos just after the mon-
ster has been struck down by Jove's thunder. Briareos is
fitto dal telo
celestial giacer, da l'altra parte,

grave a la terra per lo mortai gelo.
[on the other side, pierced by the celestial bolt, lying heavy on the
ground in mortal chill.] (Purg. 12.28-30)
Dante's image of Briareos lying on the ground "per lo mortal gelo" ["in
mortal chill"] evokes Claudian's description of Typhoeus lying on the
ground "qui summa peremptus / ima parte viget, moriens et parte
superstes" ["the upper part of his body lifeless, the lower limbs yet
writhing, part dead, part quick"] (De rapt 2.22-23). The description
also recalls Claudian's image of the death of the Giant Mimas, who is
killed by Apollo's javelin:
ille, viro totó moriens, serpentibus imis

vivit adhuc stridore ferox et parte rebelli
victorem post fata petit.
[What was giant in him died, but the serpent legs still lived, and, hissing
vengeance, sought to attack the victor after Mimas' death.] (Gigant 89-91)
Because Claudian names Pallas in his account, and because the image
appears on her helmet, Claudian implies that Pallas and perhaps the
other gods were present when Jove struck down Typhoeus. Dante like-
wise names Pallas, rather than Minerva, Athena, Pallas Athena, or Athena
Nike; and he shows her and the other gods standing around the fallen
Briareos, still holding their weapons (Purg. 12.31-32). Neither poet na

Jove. For Claudian, the allusion to the myth of Typhoeus impli
presence of Jove. For Dante, Pallas, Mars, and Thymbraeus stand "int
al padre loro" ["around their father"] (Purg. 12.32).
Dante's veilled allusion to the helmet of Pallas in Purgatorio 12
nals a deeper intertextual relationship between the Commed
Claudian's De raptu Proserpinae. Throughout his poem, Cla
explores the Gigantomachy at length. Much of the action takes p
Sicily and Mount Aetna, where Ceres has hidden her daugh
Proserpine. Aetna is also the traditional burial site of Encela
Typhon. Pallas' helmet is not the only monument to Jove's conqu
the Giants. Claudian writes of Sicily:
in medio scopulis se porrigit Aetna perustis,

Aetna Giganteos numquam tacitura triumphos,
Enceladi bustum, qui saucia terga revinctus
spirat inexhaustum flagranti vulnere sulphur.
[In the midst of the island rise the charred cliffs of Aetna, eloquent m
ument of Jove's victory over the Giants, the tomb of Enceladus, who
bound and bruised body breathes forth endless sulphur clouds from
burning wounds.] (De rapt 1.153-56)
There is a grove on Aetna commemorating the battle of Phlegr

grove is laden with trophies, including the jaws and skins of the
hie patuli rictus et prodigiosa Gigantum

tegora dependent, et adhuc crudele minantur
adfixae truncis facies, inmaniaque ossa
serpentum passim cumulis exanguibus albent.
[Here hang the gaping jaws and monstrous skins of the Giants; affix
to trees their faces still threaten horribly, and heaped up on all sides ble
the huge bones of slaughtered serpents.] (De rapt 3.338-42)
One tree supports the swords of hundred-handed Aegaeon (D

3.344-46). Another holds "ipsius Enceladi fumantia gestat op
summi terrigenum regis" ["the reeking arms of Enceladus himse
powerful king of the Earth-born giants"] (De rapt 3.350-51).
The battle of Phlegra resonates throughout Claudian's poem.
threatens war upon the gods because he alone is unwed, and th
sters of the underworld side with him (De rapt 1.32-41). The Ti
and Aegaeon are prepared to battle Jove once again:
revulso
carcere laxatis pubes Titania vinclis

vidisset cadeste iubar rursusque cruentus
672 Articles
Aegaeon postis aucto de corpore nodis

obvia centeno vexasset fulmina motu.
[The Titan brood, their deep prison-house thrown open and their fetters
cast off, had again seen heaven's light; and once more bloody Aegaeon,
bursting the knotted ropes that bound his huge form, had warred
against the thunderbolts of Jove with hundred-handed blows.] (De rapt.
1.43-47)
The Fates implore Pluto not to engage in civil war against his brothers
Jove and Neptune (De rapt 1.63-65). Pluto tells Mercury to convey to
Jove his message that if he is not given a wife, he will let loose the infer-
nal monsters and mingle hell with heaven (De rapt 1.113-16). When
Pluto seizes Proserpine, he is like a lion grasping a heifer (De rapt
2.209-13). Claudian's simile recalls Statius' comparison of Tydeus to a
sated lion at the end of his battle with the fifty Theban soldiers (Theb.
2.675-81), the battle in which he fought like Briareos (Theb. 2.595-601).
When Ceres questions Electra about Proserpine's disappearance and
alludes to the rebellion of the Giants (De rapt 3.179-88), Electra replies:
"Acies utinam vesana Gigantum / hanc dederit cladem!" ["Would that
the raging band of Giants had wrought this ruin!"] (De rapt 3.196-97).
Ceres' questioning suggests that the gods may have been overthrown
and that chaos has become commonplace. The political unrest of the
Gigantomachy is being repeated by Pluto, but with Jove's blessing.
Pallas reprises her role at Phlegra when she threatens Pluto's horses
with her Gorgon's head (De rapt 2.223-26) and prepares to throw her
spear at his chariot (De rapt 2.226-31). But the abduction of Proserpine
is not the same as the Gigantomachy, and Proserpine makes this clear.
She appeals to Jove by saying that she did not fight against him with
the Giants at Phlegra (De rapt 2.255-57). The chaos and rebellion caused
by Proserpine's rape are reflected in her mother's response. Like a vin-
dictive Giant, the goddess Ceres threatens to cut down the trees com-
memorating Jove's triumph (De rapt 3.357-62), and she begins to do so
(De rapt 3.376-79).
In his evocation of De raptu Proserpinae, Dante additionally brings
to mind the larger role of the Gigantomachy throughout Claudian's
writings. Claudian alludes to the Gigantomachy to describe the oppo-
nents of Stilicho in his Panegyricus de tertio consulatu Honorii Augusti:
rupta si mole Typhoeus

prosiliat, vinclis Tîtyos si membra resolvat,
si furor Enceladi proiecta mugiat Aetna,
opposito Stilichone cadent.
[Even should Typhoeus rend away the rocks and leap forth, should
Tityus free his captive limbs, should Enceladus, hurling Etna from him,
roar in rage - each and all will fall before Stilicho's attack.] (3 cons. Hon.
159-62)
In reference to the incursions of the Germanic tribes into the Roman

Empire, he writes in De bello Gothico:
nee sidera pacem

semper habent, ipsumque Iovem turbante Typhoeo,
si fas est, tremuisse ferunt, cum brachia centum
montibus armaret totidem spiramque retorquens
lamberet attonitas erectis anguibus Arctos.
[Heaven's self was not always at peace: they tell how even Jove trem-
bled (if one may dare to say so) when Typhoeus attacked him, arming
his hundred hands with a hundred mountains and touching the aston-
ished constellation of the Bear with his towering snaky coils.] (De bell.
Goth. 62-66)
And in his De consulatu Stilichonis he refers to Briareos to describe the

difficulties facing Stilicho: "quae brachia centum, / quis Briareus aliis
numero crescente lacertis / tot simul obiectis posset confligere rebus?"
["What hundred-handed monster, what Briareus, whose arms ever grew
more numerous as they were lopped off, could cope with all these
things at once?"] (De cons. Stil. 1.303-05). Thus he uses the Giganto-
machy to comment on political treachery.
In the Commedia, Dante follows Claudian's example by making Bria-
reos and the fallen Giants examples of duplicity and deceit. The pair-
ing of Briareos and Satan on the pavement tomb link the two figures.
Dante then mentions the giant Nimrod, who built the tower of Babel
(Purg. 12.34-36), and Satan, Briareos, and Nimrod are all present in
Cocytus (Inf. 34; Inf. 31.97-105; Inf. 31.46-81). Dante's reference to Bria-
reos in Purgatorio 12 recalls the various historical sinners who are also
punished in the lowest circle of hell. Dante continues to expand the
associative meanings of Briareos by mentioning Niobe, Saul, Arachne,
Rehoboam, Alcmaeon, Sennacherib, Tomyris and Cyrus, and Holofer-
nes (Purg. 12.37-60). The pilgrim finally sees a carving of the fall of Troy
(Purg. 12.61-63).30 Like Claudian, but unlike Ovid, Statius, and Virgil,
Dante uses Briareos and the Gigantomachy to condemn political treach-
ery in the mortal world.
GEORGE E BUTLER
Fairfield, Connecticut
NOTES
Mane Chance, Medieval Mythography: From Roman North Africa to the School of
Chartres, A.D. 433-1177 (Gainesville: UP of Florida, 1994) 591-92n6; Chance, Medieval
Mythography: From the School of Chartres to the Court at Avignon, 1177-1350 (Gaines-
ville: UP of Florida, 2000) 202-14; The Commentary of Geoffrey ofVitry on Claudian:
De raptu Proserpinae, ed. A. K. Clarke and P. M. Giles (Leiden: Brill, 1973); Curtius,
European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, trans. Willard R. Trask (Princeton:
674 Articles
Princeton UP, 1990) 50, 51; Highet, The Classical Tradition: Greek an
on Western Literature (New York: Oxford UP. 1949Ì 80. 593.
2 Augustine is cited parenthetically by book and chapter number from The City of
God Against the Pagans, with an English trans. George E. McCracken et al., 7 vols.
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1957-72).
3 Edward Moore, Studies in Dante, First Series: Scripture and Classical Authors in
Dante (1896; rpt. New York: Haskell, 1968) 5, 291-94; Carlo Calcatemi, "Sanf Ago-
stino nelle opere di Dante e del Petrarca," Rivista di filosofìa neoscolastica 23 (1931):
422-99; Pietro Chioccioni, U Agostinismo nella Divina Commedia (Florence: Olschki,
1952); Charles Till Davis, Dante and the Idea of Rome (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1957),
47, 55, 70-71; John Freccerò, Dante: The Poetics of Conversion, ed. Rachel Jacoff (Cam-
bridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1986), 1-54; Peter S. Hawkins, Dante's Testaments: Essays in
Scriptural Imagination (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1999) 197-228; Hawkins, "Augustine,
St.," The Dante Encyclopedia, ed. Richard Lansing (New York: Garland, 2000) 71-72;
Francis X. Newman, "St. Augustine's Three Visions and the Structure of the Com -
media," MLNS2 (1967): 56-78; A. Pincherle, "Agostino," Enciclopedia Dantesca, ed.
Umberto Bosco and Giorgio Petrocchi, 6 vols. (Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Ita-
liana, 1970-78) 1: 80-82.
4Guido da Pisa, Guido da Pisa 's Expositiones et Glose super Comediam Dantis, or
Commentary on Dante's Inferno, ed. Vincenzo Cioffari (Albany: State U of New York
P, 1974), notes on Inferno 7.84, 9.41, 9.44-46, 13.109-10; Pietro Alighieri, Petri
Allegherà super Dantis ipsius genitoris Comoediam Commentarium, nunc primum in
lucem editum, ed. Vincenzo Nannucci (Florence: Piatti, 1845), notes on Inferno 3.70-75,
7.77-81, 7.88-90, 9.34-48, 12.46-48, 14.110-19, 26.7-9, 26.112-42, 26.136-41,
3.124-50; Pietro Alighieri, Comentum super poema Comedie Dantis: A Critical Edition
of the Third and Final Draft of Pietro Alighieri 's Commentary on Dante's The Divine
Comedy, ed. Massimiliano Chiamenti (Tempe: ACMRS, 2002), notes on Inferno 12.46-48,
14.110-19, 26.112-42, 33.124-50; Giovanni Boccaccio, Esposizioni sopra la Comedia
di Dante, a cura di Giorgio Padoan, voi. 6 of Tutte le opere di Giovanni Boccaccio, a
cura di Vittore Branca (Milano: Mondadori, 1965), note on Inferno 9.34-51; Benve-
nuto da Imola, Benevenuti de Rambaldis de Imola Comentum super Dantis Aldigherij
Comoediam, nunc primum integre in lucem editum sumptibus Guilielmi Wa rren Vernon,
curante Jacobo Philippo Lacaita (Florentiae: Barbra, 1887), notes on Inferno 2.141-42,
Purgatorio 3.7-87, 7.16-18, 8.19-24, 20.22-27, 28.49-51, Paradiso 8.1-3, 33.94-99;
Fratris Johannis De Serravalle, ord. min. translatio et comentum totius libri Dantis
Aldighierii cum textu italico Fratris Bartholomaei a colle eiusdem ordinis (Prati:
Officina Giachetti, 1891), note on Purgatorio 7.85-90; Sposizione di Ludovico Castel -
vetro a XXIX Canti dell'Inferno dantesco, ora per la prima volta data in luce da Gio -
vanni Franciosi (Modena: Società Tipografica, 1886), note on Inferno 24.103-08.
^Baldassare Lombardi, La Divina Commedia, novamente corretta, spiegata e dife -
sa da F.B. L.M.C. [Fra Baldassare Lombardi, minore conventuale], 3 vols. (Roma:
Fulgoni, 1791-92), note on Inferno 26.64; Gabriele Rossetti, La divina commedia di
Dante Alighieri, con comento analitico di Gabriele Rossetti, 2 vols. (London: Murray,
1826-27), notes on Inferno 7, 16.106-14, 24.103-11, 27.7-15; Niccolo Tommaseo,
Commedia di Dante Allighieri, con ragionamenti e note di Niccolo Tommaseo, 3 vols.
(Milano: Pagnoni, 1865), notes on Inferno 26.64-66, 27.10-12; Gregorio di Sien

media di Dante Alighieri, con note di Gregorio di Siena (Napoli: Perrotti, 1
notes on Inferno 24.107, 26.90, 27.7, 34.32, 34.38; The Divine Comedy of Dan
ghieri, trans. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 186
oalnferno 20.63; Brunone Bianchi, La commedia di Dante Alighieri, novamen
d uta nel testo e dichiarata da Brunone Bianchi, 7th ed. (Firenze: Le Monnier
note on Inferno 24.111; Giuseppe Campi, La Divina commedia di Dante Al
ridotta a miglior lezione con l'aiuto di ottimi manoscritti italiani e forestieri e
sa di note edite ed inedite antiche e moderne per cura del cav. Giuseppe Campi
(Torino: Unione-tipografico-editrice, 1888-93), notes on Inferno 24.106-08, 2
Purgatorio 7.85-90; P. Gioachino Berthier, La Divina Commedia di Dante, co
menti secondo la scholastica del P. Gioachino Berthier, 2 vols. (Friburgo:
dell'Università, 1892-98), notes on Inferno 16.73-75, 24.106-08, 31.28-33; Gi
Poletto, La Divina commedia, con commento del Prof. Giacomo Poletto, 3 vols.
Desclée, Lefebvre, 1894), note on Purgatorio 7.88-90.
^Francesco Torraca, La Divina commedia di Dante Alighieri, nuovamente com
tata da Francesco Torraca (Roma: Albrighi, Segati, 1905), notes on Inferno 3
32.31-33; La Divina Commedia, ed. C. H. Grandgent (Boston: Heath, 1913), h
on Inferno 26; Tommaso Casini, La Divina Commedia Dante Alighieri, comm
Tommaso Casini, 6th ed., rinnovata e accresciuta a cura di S. A. Barbi, 3 vols. (F
Sansoni, 1921-22), notes onlnferno 24.106, Paradiso 8.70; G. A. Scartazzini, L
Commedia, commentata da G. A. Scartazzini, ottava edizione in gran parte rifu
Vandelli (Milano: Hoepli, 1921), note on Inferno 24.106; Carlo Grabher, L
Commedia, col commento di Carlo Grabher, 3 vols. (Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 19
note on Inferno 24.106-11; Ernesto Trucchi, Esposizione della Divina Comm
Dante Alighieri (Milano: Toffaloni, 1936), notes on Inferno 26.76-84, 31.124-
gatorio 11. 22-24, Paradiso 31.31-42; Daniele Mattalia, La divina commedia, co
rio e indici, Dante Alighieri, a cura di Daniele Mattalia, 2 vols. (Milano: Rizzol
note on Purgatorio 33.47; Giuseppe Giacalone, La Divina Commedia, a cura d
seppe Giacalone, 3 vols. (Roma: Signorelli, 1993), notes on Inferno 26.81-84,
diso 33.1; The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, ed. and trans. Robert M. D
introduction and notes by Ronald L. Martinez and Durling, 3 vols. (New York:
UP, 1996 ), notes on Inferno 25.94-102, Purgatorio 1.116-17, 28.49-51, 28.64
7For a review of the commentary tradition, see Deborah Parker, Commenta
Ideology: Dante in the Renaissance (Durham: Duke UP, 1993) 3-49; Robert Ho
"Dante and His Commentators," The Cambridge Companion to Dante, ed. Rache
(New York: Cambridge UP, 1993) 226-36.
8 While most scholars consider Ovid to be Dante's source for the myth of P
pine, Emerson Brown, Jr., "Proserpina, Matelda, and the Pilgrim," Dante St
(1971): 33-48, discusses the possible influence of Claudian. Other accounts
mostly discuss Ovid, include Franco Masciandaro, Dante as Dramatist: The
the Earthly Paradise and Tragic Vision in the Divine Comedy (Philadelphia: U o
sylvania P, 1992) 192-97; Peter S. Hawkins, "Watching Matelda," The Poetry
sion: Virgil and Ovid in Dante's Commedia, ed. Rachel Jacoff and Jeffrey T. S
(Stanford: Stanford UP, 1991) 181-201; Hawkins, Dante's Testaments 159-79
676 Articles
Von Richtofen, "Dante 'Apollinian,'" Annali del' Istituto Universit

(1970): 147-244. Von Richtofen suggests that Servius and Claudian
the background of Dante's treatment of the griffin and the eagle in
9Guido da Pisa notes a parallel between the Furies in Inferno 9.41^
In Rufinum 1.41-43 and 1.118-19, and Boccaccio and Pietro di Dan
the presence of Claudian in this passage from the Inferno. In a note on
P. Gioachino Berthier indicates that Claudian celebrates the defeat of
Gigantomachia; and in a note on Inferno 31.124-29, Ernesto Truc
Claudian mistakenly describes Typhon as having a hundred hands, th
with Briareos. Gregorio di Siena, in a gloss on Inferno 34.32, notes a
the enormity of Dante's Satan and Claudian's representation of Pluto
serpinae 1.79-82; and in a gloss on Inferno 34.38, he cites De r
1.94-98, where Pluto laments his helplessness to Mercury. For a s
medieval commentators on Dante's giants, see Walter Stephens, Gian
Folklore, Ancient History, and Nationalism (Lincoln: U of Nebrask
10Toynbee, "Claudianus," A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notabl
Works of Dante (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1898) 165; Toynbee, "Was
with Claudian?" Dante Studies and Researches (New York: Dutto
Moore, Studies in Dante, First Series, 240nl.
^Teodolinda Barolini, Dante s Poets: Textuality and Truth in the C
ton: Princeton UP, 1984) 287-97, lists occurrences of some eigh
medieval writers in Dante's works, including Homer, Horace, Juv
Statius, and Virgil, but not Claudian. Nor does Barolini list Claudian i
book. Peter Dronke, Dante and Medieval Latin Traditions (New Yor
1986), similarly does not list Claudian in his index, though he incl
Dante's giants. Kevin Brownlee, "Dante and the Classical Poets," The
panion to Dante, ed. Jacoff 100-19, does not mention Claudian; nor d
Picone, "Dante and the Classics," Dante: Contemporary Perspective
Iannucci (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1997) 51-73. Alison Morgan, Dant
Other World (New York: Cambridge UP, 1990) 201-33, provides an ap
cal, apocryphal, and early Christian texts that may have influenced Dan
such authors as Cicero, Homer, Lucan, Ovid, and Virgil, she does not m
12Dante's poetry is cited parenthetically by canto and line number
Comedy, trans, and ed. Charles S. Singleton, 6 vols. (Princeton: Princ
13Lewis, The Promethean Politics of Milton, Blake, and Shelley
versity of Missouri P, 1992), 31.
14On Dante and Ovid, see Brownlee, "Dante and the Classical
Brownlee, "Ovid," The Dante Encyclopedia 666-68, ed. Lansing;
Testaments 145-93; The Poetry of Allusion: Virgil and Ovid in Dan
Jacoff and Schnapp; Michelangelo Picone, "L' Ovidio di Dante,"
Scola" della poesia: Autorità e sfida poetica, ed. Amilcare A. Iannucci
1993) 107-^4; Dante and Ovid: Essays in Inter textuality, ed. M
(Binghamton: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1991).
15Ovid's poetry is cited parenthetically by book and line number
phoses, with an English trans. Frank Justus Miller, 2 vols. (Cambr
UP, 1977).
^"Dante, whose scholarship was very considerable," says Highet, "appears

known no more than a word or two of Greek" (The Classical Tradition 14).
^Apollodorus is cited parenthetically by book, chapter, and section number
The Library, with an English trans. Sir James George Frazer, 2 vols. (Cambrid
Harvard UP, 1921).
l^As Martinez and Durling observe in a note on Purgatorio 12.28-33, "The
of the Giants (cf. Met. 1 . 15 1-62) is the only example in this canto to occupy two t
19Moore, Studies in Dante, First Series 250-51, notes that Ovid has been c
as a source for Purgatorio 12.28, but he adds that Statius is undoubtedly Dante
authority for the passage. Other commentators, including Grandgent and Scar
have also noted this. Singleton likewise remarks in his edition that Dante's
recalls Ovid's text, and in notes on Purgatorio 12.28-30 and 12.31, he point
influence of Statius. Several other commentators have also noted Statius' influence on
these passages from the Purgatorio. See, for example, the notes in the commentaries of
Martinez and Durling and Scartazzini. Statius is also cited in the commentary appear-
ing in Purgatorio, trans. Jean Hollander and Robert Hollander, ed. Robert Hollander
(New York: Doubleday, 2003).
20For Dante's knowledge of Statius, see Moore, Studies in Dante, First Series 243-55;
C. S. Lewis, "Dante's Statius," Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, col-
lected by Walter Hooper (New York: Cambridge UP, 1966) 95; Curtius, European
Literature and the Latin Middle Ages 18; Barolini, Dante's Poets 256-69; Ronald L.
Martinez, "Dante, Statius, and the Earthly City," Ph.D. Diss., University of California,
Santa Cruz, 1977; Winthrop Wetherbee, "Dante and the Thebaid of Statius," Lectura
Dantis Newberryana, I, ed. P. Cherchi and A. Mastrobuono (Evanston: Northwestern
UP, 1988) 71-92; Giorgio Brugnoli, "Stazio in Dante," Cultura neolatina 29 (1969):
117-25; Brownlee, "Dante and the Classical Poets" 106-08.
2 Statius' poetry is cited parenthetically by book and line number from Statius,
with an English trans. J. H. Mozley, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1928).
22Moore, Studies in Dante, First Series 251. Barolini, Dante's Poets, 227n43, sim-
ilarly remarks that in Inferno 31, Dante "follows Statius, who describes Briareus sim-
ply as 'immensus' (Thebaid II, 596)."
23"Pergamene Sculptures," in Oskar Seyffert, The Dictionary of Classical Mythol -
ogy, Religion, Literature, and Art, rev. and ed. Henry Nettleship and J. E. Sandys
(1891; rpt. New York: Gramercy, 1995) 469-71.
24Hesiod's poetry is cited parenthetically by line number from Hesiod, the Homeric
Hymns, and Homérica, with an English trans. Hugh G. Evelyn- White (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard UP, 1914).
25Homer's poetry is cited parenthetically by book and line number from The Iliad,
with an English trans. A. T. Murray, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1924-25).
26Virgil's poetry is cited parenthetically from Virgil, with an English trans, by H.
Rushton Fairclough, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1934-35). Virgil's Aegaeon
resembles Hesiod's Briareos, and Homer indicates that Aegaeon is an alternate name
for Briareos (II. 1.403-04). In a note on Aeneid 10.565, Servius also explains that
Aegaeon is Briareus. For Dante's knowledge of Servius, see Erich von Richtofen,
"Traces of Servius in Dante," Dante Studies 92 (1974): 117-28.
678 Articles
27Neil Forsyth, The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth (Prin
UP, 1987) 67-68, 82-85; Joseph Fontenrose, Python: A Study in Delph
ley: U of California R 1959) 70-74.
28Claudian, De raptu Proserpinae, ed. and trans. Claire Gruzelier (Oxford: Claren-
don P, 1993), note on 1.43, says that by Claudian's time, the classical Titanomachy and
Gigantomachy had become "hopelessly entangled." In a note on 2.22 she similarly
remarks: "By Claudian's time Typhon has long been conflated with the giants who
rebelled against Jupiter in heaven."
^Claudian's poetry is cited parenthetically from Claudian, with an English trans.
Maurice Platnauer, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1922).
30Scartazzini notes in his commentary that Troy is the ultimate example of pride
punished, and that Dante frequently alludes to the pride of the Trojans, as in Inferno
1.75 and 30.12.

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Claudian's De raptu Proserpinae and Dante's Vanquished Giants

Author(s): George F. Butler

American Association of Teachers of Italian is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,

Claudian's De raptu Proserpinae and Dante's Vanquished Giants

the resurgence of interest in late antiquity, Claudian is emerg-

Italica Volume 84 Number 4 (2007)

Christian authors suggest that Dante would have been

però che, come su la cerchia tonda

torreggiavan di mezza la persona

The giants include such biblical and classical figures as Nimrod, E

S'esser puote, io vorrei

esperienza avesser li occhi mei.

To which Virgil replies that Briareos is farther on and resembles Ephialtes:

Quel che tu vuo' veder, più là è molto

Virgil suggests that Typhon, or Typhoeus, is also in hell, for he says to

Vedea colui che fu nobil creato

mirar le membra d'i Giganti sparte.

The carving shows Briareos at the moment of his death.

"Questo superbo volle esser esperto

di sua potenza contra '1 sommo Giove/7

non aliter - Geticae si fas est credere Phlegrae -

changed for new by weary Pyracmon, and yet complaining

ergo Palladiae texuntur in ordine pugnae,

Through Virgil, Dante would have had additional reason to asso

Dante may have remembered portions of the Titanoma

quae talia vivo

The references to Typhon, Alcyoneus, and Enceladus place Briar

Tritonia casside fulva

caelatum Typhona gerit, qui summa peremptus

The picture of Typhoeus on Pallas' helmet suggests that the goddess

For Statius, the figure of Briareos is part of a simile that

fitto dal telo

celestial giacer, da l'altra parte,

ille, viro totó moriens, serpentibus imis

Briareos, still holding their weapons (Purg. 12.31-32). Neither poet na

in medio scopulis se porrigit Aetna perustis,

There is a grove on Aetna commemorating the battle of Phlegr

hie patuli rictus et prodigiosa Gigantum

One tree supports the swords of hundred-handed Aegaeon (D

carcere laxatis pubes Titania vinclis

Aegaeon postis aucto de corpore nodis

rupta si mole Typhoeus

In reference to the incursions of the Germanic tribes into the Roman

nee sidera pacem

And in his De consulatu Stilichonis he refers to Briareos to describe the

(Milano: Pagnoni, 1865), notes on Inferno 26.64-66, 27.10-12; Gregorio di Sien

Von Richtofen, "Dante 'Apollinian,'" Annali del' Istituto Universit

^"Dante, whose scholarship was very considerable," says Highet, "appears

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