The Greeks had Homer. The Romans had Virgil (70-19 B.C.), who was asked by Emperor Augustus to write The Aeneid — a Roman epic to rival The Iliad and The Odyssey. Centuries later, in the 1300s, Italian poet Dante Alighieri made Virgil his hero and chose him as his guide through Hell in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy.
Why? Because Dante admired Virgil so much, and because both writers wrote about the same place: the Underworld. But their Hells are very different.
1. Different Purpose: Political vs Religious
Virgil was politically motivated. According to historian Perry (1989), "Virgil's poetry expressed his optimism that Rome's destiny was to bring the blessings of peace and stability to the Mediterranean world." His goal was to praise Augustus and Rome.
That's why the souls Aeneas meets in the Underworld are mostly political figures: queens like Dido and Pasiphae, kings like Adrastus and Capys, and sons of kings like Deiphobus.
Dante was religiously motivated. Writing in the Medieval Era, his purpose was to show Christian salvation. His Hell is not about Rome's glory, but about sin and the soul's journey to God.
2. Different Hell: One Underworld vs Nine Circles
Both poets believed good and evil should be separated, with worse sinners getting heavier punishment. But Dante made it systematic. Virgil's Underworld is one large, shadowy place where souls wander and can even be reincarnated — an idea that mirrors the Greek philosopher Pythagoras's doctrine of transmigration, that souls are immortal and can live again in another body.
Dante's Hell is cone-shaped and has nine distinct circles, each for a specific sin. The punishment fits the sin:
Limbo (1st Circle): For good people who never knew Christ — including unbaptized babies and those who lived before Christ. They have no torture, but must wait. Dante shows his Christian belief here. As he writes:
"I was a novice in this state, / When I saw hither come a Mighty One, / With sign of victory incoronate" (Inferno IV.52-54)
This "Mighty One" is Christ, who saves Adam, Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham, and David.
2nd Circle: For the lustful. Their punishment is being whipped by a hellish storm. Dante believed sinning out of love was human nature, so this is the lightest punishment.
3rd Circle: For gluttons, who indulged too much in food. Their punishment is to lie in freezing slush while endlessly eating rotten food.
Dante identifies seven main sins — including gluttony, lust, fraud, wrath, and treachery — which reflect Christian teaching. As Jesus says in the Bible: "What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed..." (Mark 7:20-23).
3. Different Style: Allegory vs Apostrophe
Dante writes allegorically. His Hell is not just Hell — it'His Hell is not just Hell — it's an allegory for his own society. The struggles between the Black Guelphs and White Guelphs (Dante's own party) in Florence are reflected in the suffering in Hell. This is why Medieval allegory is hard to understand without knowing the history (Green, 1957).
Virgil uses apostrophe — speaking to someone who is not present or cannot answer. This is why in Books I and II of The Aeneid, it's sometimes hard to tell who is speaking.
Conclusion
Both believed in a second life, but they showed it differently.
Virgil wanted to uplift Augustus as a conqueror and show Rome's destiny. Dante wanted to use figurative language to unfold his personal religious experiences and political exile.
Dante admired Virgil so much that he made him his guide. The similarities show that respect. The differences show the gap between them — physically, culturally, and spiritually — one a poet of empire, the other a poet of the soul.
References
Alighieri, D. (n.d.). The Divine Comedy (H.W. Longfellow, Trans.).
Green, R. H. (1957). Dante's allegory of poets and the medieval theory of poetic fiction. Comparative Literature, 9(2), 118-128.
Perry, M. (1989). Western Civilization: A Brief History. Houghton Mifflin.
Shakespeare, W. (1992). The Aeneid (R. Fitzgerald, Trans.). Vintage Classics. (Original work published 19 BCE)
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