Commentary Purg XXII 109-114

Virgil adds eight more souls to Limbo, now not those of poets, but of virtuous women.  All of them are to be found in Statius's two epics (the last two in the Achilleid) and all are also to be understood, as they were by Giovanni Boccaccio, as exemplifying filial piety (see Hollander [Holl.1983.1], pp. 208-12).  'She that revealed Langia' is Hypsipyle (see [Inf XVIII 92] and [Purg XXVI 95]).  'La figlia di Tiresia' is, almost all now agree, Manto, thus causing a terrible problem for Dante's interpreters, the sole 'bilocation' in his poem (for her first appearance see [Inf XX 52-102]).  Did he, like Homer, 'nod'?  Are we faced with an error of transcription?  Or did he intentionally refer here to Statius's Manto, while Virgil's identical character is put in hell?  For the second view, see the work of Kay and Hollander referred to in C.Inf.XX.52-56.