Commentary Purg XIX 22-24

A tormented tercet: what does vago mean? to whom or what does it refer? who is the serena who claims so to have held Ulysses' attention?  As Barbi (Barb.1934.1), p. 228, maintained, in this poem the adjective vago always (it is used 13 other times) means bramoso (desirous of) and is, as here, used with the genitive (cf. [Purg XXVIII 1]).  (See also [Inf VIII 52], [Inf XXIX 3], [Purg III 13], [Purg X 104], [Purg XV 84], [Purg XXIV 40], [Purg XXVII 106], [Purg XXXII 135], [Par III 34], [Par XII 14], [Par XXIII 13], [Par XXXI 33].)  Thus, while the commentators are divided roughly evenly, with more early ones opting for vago as modifying cammin (and meaning 'wandering, indirect'), and more modern ones, beginning with Torraca (DDP Torraca.Purg.XIX.22-24), believing that it modifies Ulysses (and means 'eager'), one is more likely to be convinced, as was Mezzadroli (Mezz.1990.1), p. 29, that the context and Dante's general practice allow us to resolve the first two questions as did Barbi (this woman drew Ulysses from the journey he was so eager to pursue).  (For a lengthy treatment of the word, Stierle [Stie.2002.1], p 75n., refers the reader to A. Noyer-Weidner, 'Standortbestimmung zum Gebrauch eines "echt italienischen Wortes" (vago) bei Dante und Petrarca,' in his Umgang mit Texten, I [Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1986], pp. 169-92.) But what of this 'siren' who so beguiled Ulysses?  Commentators have at times forgotten that Dante did not know Homer's account (Odyssey XII.39-200) of Ulysses' escape from the Sirens' seductive wiles.  (One of them, Benvenuto [DDP Benvenuto.Purg.XIX.16-24], perhaps flaunting his newly gained acquaintance with the newly translated Homeric epics, suggests that Calypso is the siren referred to here; Padoan [Pado.1977.2], encouraged by Benvenuto, also hears this ill-heard echo.)  It seems better to understand, following Moore (Moor.1896.1) that, from Cicero (De finibus V.xviii.48-49), Dante decided that Ulysses had indeed been tempted by the Sirens.  (In this vein see Hollander [Holl.1983.3], pp. 80-83; Mezzadroli [Mezz.1990.1], pp. 30-32; Howard [Howa.2001.1], pp. 139-41.)  In any case, that is how he has the Siren portray Ulysses, and he offers no textual support for any other view.  He also probably had in mind, as Moore indeed indicated, the passage near the opening of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy (I.i[pr]) that has Lady Philosophy ordering the 'sweet Sirens' to be gone from the presence of Boethius and leave him to the care of her better 'Muses' (perhaps first noted by Tommaseo [DDP Tommaseo.Purg.XIX.19-21]).  Hollander (Holl.1983.3), p. 82, also notes the closeness of Dante's description of the Sirens to that found in Isidore of Seville (Lind.1911.1, XI.iii.30-31).  Pertile (Pert.2000.2), attempting to demonstrate that the Christian tradition of Ulysses (which sees him positively, as the man who could withstand the Sirens, i.e., sensual and intellectual temptation) stands behind Dante's treatment of the hero, somehow fails to deal with the fact that in Dante Ulysses is portrayed precisely as failing to resist such temptation.  For that matter, in Beatrice's later opinion, Dante himself is seen in exactly the same light, namely as yielding to the temptation of the Sirens when he withdrew his attention from her in order to fall under the spell of another lady or ladies ([Purg XXXI 43-48]).  Picone (Pico.2001.3) has done a lectura of the canto that is almost entirely dedicated to the Ulyssean motifs found in it.  For an attempt to reassess in a balanced way Dante's treatment of Ulysses, see Boyde (Boyd.2000.1), Chapter 10, 'The worth and vices of Ulysses: a case-study,' pp. 231-72.  It is worth noting that at least one early commentator, the anonymous author of the chiose sincrone in a manuscript from Montecassino (DDP Cassinese.Purg.XIX.Nota), also believes, as Dante appears to, that the Sirens were found at sea.  He claims as much on the authority of the figmenta poetarum, the fables of the poets.  But see Hollander (Holl.1983.3), pp. 82-83, for a possible source in a poet quite familiar to Dante, Ovid (Metam. V.552-563), who gives the Sirens wings so that they may fly over the sea in their search for Proserpina.

      A number of commentators have believed, from the earliest days onward, that Dante confusedly considered Circe (to whom he has the Greek adventurer advert as his seductress in [Inf XXVI 91-92]) one of the Sirens.  He clearly knows better than that.  On the other hand, he also may be building his own version of Ulysses' biography, as he has already done in inventing the last voyage in the earlier passage, and now includes an interlude that adds another to the single 'canonical' and Circean divagation in yet another example of Ulyssean turning.