Ungrateful Hero: Theseus and Ariadne in Inferno 12

Abstract

Abstract: This article considers Virgil’s reference to the myth of Theseus and Ariadne in the context of pilgrim’s encounter with the Minotaur in Inferno 12. Here Dante draws attention to Theseus’s debt to Ariadne, the princess of Crete who instructed the Athenian hero on how to kill the Minotaur and escape from the labyrinth. Yet, as Dante likely read in Ovid’s adaptations of this myth, it is Theseus’s lack of gratitude for Ariadne’s assistance that defines the relationship between these two characters. I will therefore argue that Dante does not see Theseus as a Christlike model for the pilgrim, but rather as one of his classical foils.