Commentary Inf XXVI 19-24

According to Pertile (Pert.1979.1), those who propose a negative view of Ulysses fail to acknowledge the importance of these verses, which reveal the poet's sympathy for the Greek hero even now as he writes of him. He cites (p. 37) Ovid (Metam. XIII.135-139) in support of his argument. However, that text offers Ulysses' vaunt of his own worthiness to receive the arms of Achilles (denying the claims of Ajax), and the entire passage gives us the portrait of a figure full of pride and self-love. See Hollander (Holl.1969.1), pp. 115-16, arguing that Dante, in this passage, is fully conscious of his previous 'Ulyssean' efforts, undertaken by his venturesome and prideful intellect, and now hopes to keep them under control. Castelvetro's reading of the passage is in this vein; according to him the poet grieves 'for having improperly put to use my genius' (DDP Castelvetro.Inf.XXVI.19-22). Dante hopes, in other words, to be exactly unlike Ulysses.

In a lecture at Dartmouth College in the early 1980s Prof. Rachel Jacoff pointed out that Dante's verb for his necessary restraint, affreno ('rein in,' 'curb'), reflects precisely what Phaeton failed to do, rein in his steeds: 'Fetonte abbandonò li freni' ([Inf XVII 107]).