Commentary Par XXIII 55-60

Not even if all the most inspired (pagan) poets, inspired by all the Muses (led, in this consideration, by Polyhymnia, the one associated with sacred song), should come to Dante's aid, would that serve to reveal more than a tiny bit of the Christian truth he now saw in Beatrice.  There is a small dispute between Hollander (Holl.1976.2) and Ledda (Ledd.2002.1), pp. 41-42, as to how to regard this 'non-invocation.'  Hollander insists that it betokens a dramatic rejection of the classical Muses, while Ledda sees it as part of a gradual program for downgrading their importance.  The fact is, however, that, with a single exception, the Muses have not been part of an invocation since they were referred to by name or by clear periphrasis (quelle donne or sacrosante Vergini) in all four of the invocations in the first two canticles.  And there is only one later one that involves a Muse.  However, it also happens that most commentators think that the reference to diva Pegasëa is not a reference to one of the nine Muses (if the present writer is convinced that it is: see the notes to [Par XVIII 82-87] and [Par XVIII 82]).  Once we reach the Empyrean (or its 'outpost' in this canto) it may seem fair to refer to what happens in this passage as comprising 'a fervent non-invocation,' the phrasing that triggered Ledda's objection.  There happen to be in the poem nine invocations (no more than five of them addressed to traditional Muses) and nine references to the Muses; see Hollander (Holl.1976.2), n. 3, who also offers an account of the inaccuracies of Muse-counting from 1896-1973, from Scartazzini to Singleton.  And now see The Dante Encyclopedia (Lans.2000.1), which has no entry for 'invocations' but has one for 'Muses, the,' which may mercifully be described as confused, undercounting invocations (three) and overcounting presences of the Muses (thirteen).  Since we have known for a long time of the importance of the number nine to Dante, this failed accounting is surprising.  But see Hollander's belated discussion (in his later version of this article [Holl.1980.1], p. 32, n. 1a) of Fabio Fabbri (Fabb.1910.1), p. 186, who lists the nine invocations correctly.

For strong claims for a greater than usually perceived reliance, in this passage, on Horace (to the exclusion of Cicero) for the formal matters of Dante's ars poetriae, see Baranski (Bara.2001.3).

For this trope (nursing Muses) as it is developed in the (only slightly?) later Eclogues, see Heil (Heil.2003.1).  And see Cestaro (Cest.2003.1), pp. 139, 162, 166, for the Muses as nourishing in Purgatorio and Paradiso.