Commentary Par XVII 55-57

The protagonist has asked his ancestor to provision him against the 'slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune' ([Par XVII 27]); Cacciaguida now responds by referring to the sharpest wound of all: his exile.  For Dante's sense of himself as the Italian Ovid, see Smarr (Smar.1991.1).  From her observation that Ovid casts himself in the role of wandering Ulysses in both the Tristia and the Ars amatoria, she argues that Dante takes Ovid as a negative version of himself.  For another treatment of Ovid as Dante's counterpart in exile, see Picone (Pico.1999.3).  And see C.Par.XVII.46-48.