Commentary Inf XXVI 142

The final verse of the canto seems also to have a classical antecedent (one not previously noted), the final verses of the seventh book of Statius's Thebaid. There the seer Amphiaraus, the first of the 'seven against Thebes' to die in that civil war, plunges into a chasm in the earth only to have the land then close back in above him (Theb. VII.821-823): 'and as he sank he looked back at the heavens and groaned to see the plain meet above him, until a fainter shock joined once more the parted fields and shut out the daylight from Avernus' (trans. Mozley). Dante has referred to Amphiaraus's descent into hell at [Inf XX 31-36]. If he is thinking of it here, it would call to mind still another pagan hero who may serve as a model for Ulysses' rash voyage and entombment. (Such a view, if belatedly remarked, has a precursor in Giuseppe Velli's identical recovery of this source [Vell.1989.1, p. 43].)