Commentary Inf XXXI 115-124

Virgil begins by referring to the battle of Zama in 202 B.C., where Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal (revenge for the battle of Cannae in 216 -- see [Inf XXVIII 9-11]), thus successfully concluding the second Punic War, which had begun so badly. Needless to say, this (for Dante and any Roman-minded reader) great victory is hardly of a comparable magnitude to that of a giant capturing a lot of lions. Thus the reference to Zama offers a back-handed compliment to Antaeus, who killed his lions in the same place that Scipio defeated Hannibal. Scipio's importance for Dante is mirrored in the fact that he reappears by name three times in the poem: [Purg XXIX 117], [Par VI 53], [Par XXVII 61].

Virgil finds himself in a difficult situation. As was not the case with Ulysses, when Virgil could boast that he had written of his exploits (even if not very favorably, he had at least written of the Greek hero -- see [Inf XXVI 80-82]), he has not written about Antaeus at all. To make matters worse, he did once mention a certain Antaeus, a soldier in Turnus's ranks, mowed down by Aeneas in his Achilles-like battlefield fury (Aen. X.561). And, still worse, this mention of an Antaeus who is merely a walk-on corpse in Virgil's poem precedes by only four lines Virgil's mention of Briareus (see C.Inf.XXXI.97-105). And so here is a poet who has, intrinsically at least, insulted the giant whom he now wants to cajole. What is he to do? What he does is borrow from Lucan (of course only we know that he is accomplishing this chronologically impossible feat) in order to praise Antaeus. It was Lucan, not Virgil, who told the tale of Antaeus the lion-killer (Phars. IV.601-602), and it was Lucan, not Virgil, who explicitly compared Antaeus favorably to Briareus, not to mention Typhon and Tityus (the two other giants of whom we are about to hear at v. 124). See Phars. IV.595-597: Gea had more reason to boast of this gigantic son, Antaeus, than of the others, Typhon, or Tityus, or fierce Briareus; and she was merciful to the gods when she did not set loose Antaeus on the field at Phlegra. (This detail offers the matter for Virgil's second instance of the greatness of Antaeus.) It can hardly be coincidental that all four of the giants present in Virgil's speech here are also together in Lucan's text. And so Virgil's two gestures toward Antaeus are both taken from Lucan. It is an extraordinarily amusing moment; one can imagine how Dante smiled as he composed it. Nonetheless, many of his commentators vehemently deny that this passage is ironic. It is difficult to see with what justice they do so. For what has Virgil really said to Antaeus? 'You killed a lot of lions right near the place where Rome won one of its greatest military victories; you didn't fight at the battle in which your brothers were killed by the gods.'