Commentary Inf XXXI 1-6

The reader -- at least on a second reading -- may admire Dante's insistence on his authorial freedom in not marking the border between Malebolge and the ninth Circle at the canto's edge. Instead, with another classical simile (and Momigliano notes the large numbers of classical allusions sprinkled through Cantos XXVIII-XXXI [DDP Momigliano.Inf.XXXI.4-6]), he delays the transition until v. 7.

Virgil's rebuke in [Inf XXX 130-132] had both caused Dante embarrassment and supplied the antidote: his blush of shame (which reassured Virgil of his charge's moral development). The most likely source for Dante's reference to the lance of Achilles, which had the magical property of curing with a second touch the very wound that it had caused, is Ovid (Remed. am. I.43-44): 'The Pelian spear [in Dante's understanding, the spear of Peleus?] that once had wounded his enemy, the son of Hercules [Telephus], also brought comfort to the wound,' a tale presented as being of somewhat dubious provenance, as another one of those pagan yarns ('so I have heard it told'). For some of the problems associated with this text see DDP Singleton.Inf.XXXI.5. Ovid in fact refers to the spear given by Chiron, the centaur (see [Inf XII 71]), who lived on Mt. Pelion, to Achilles himself. At least one other medieval poet before Dante, Bernard de Ventadour, had referred to the weapon as belonging first to Peleus. Dante knew that Peleus was the father of Achilles, from, if nowhere else, Statius' Achilleid I.90.

The word mancia in v. 6 has caused debate. Most commentators believe it merely means 'gift' (in modern Italian, the tip for a waiter); some, following André Pézard (see DDP Bosco.Inf.XXXI.6) believe it comes from chivalric custom, the sleeve (manica) that a lady might present to her knight if he won his joust.