Winter in Tomis and “Winter” in Hell: Once More about the Parallels between Dante and Ovid

Abstract

Among the probable sources of “winter” imagery in the last cantos of Inferno a special place belongs to the motif of Scythian winter, developed in detail by Ovid in his “exile poetry” and (before him) by Virgil in the Georgics (III). Despite the absence of direct mentions of Tristia and Epistulae Ex Ponto in Dante’s oeuvre, the majority of modern scholars challenge the statement of E. Moore, who suggested in the late 19th century that later writings by Ovid created in exile may have remained unknown to the author of the Divine Comedy. In correlation with the view of Michelangelo Picone, who, beside tracing the characteristics of Ovid’s winter, also saw in Dante’s wintry parts of Hell a reconsideration of the motif of exile (central to Tristia), the author of the article examines the most important parallels, uniting the Commedia’s first cantica with Ovid’s “exile” verses, namely the description of the solidity of ice covering the river or lake; the hero-author walking on the ice and gazing at beings bound in it; the correlation between winter’s dominance and the escalation of hostility in the relations of persons and tribes; the connection of winter’s setting with the motifs of “death-in-the-life” and the loss of spiritual home; a longing for spiritual Absolute under the reign of winter; potential ambiguousness of “winter” motifs.