In a message dated 97-07-20 11:33:27 EDT, you write:
> First, there was no way for Dante to read Homer's own account.
I realize Dante never read Homer. But Dante's Ulysses sets off to visit the
after world, as Homer's Ulysses had done. Maybe Dante read some bowlderized
paraphrase of Homer, or some text that mentioned events from Odyssey. I
don't find the annotators saying that Dante invented the name Ulysses, or had
no idea this was a character who had been mentioned by other authors.
In the main, though, I see what you're saying, and it does speak to my
question. One can come up with variant readings that might make sense to an
ordinary reader, but wouldn't make sense to a specialist who knew more about
the theological niceties. Probably that's exactly what happened, because
Eliot certainly wasn't a Dante specialist and I can't imagine his taking the
time to read 200 articles on Ulysses. Like most artists and writers, what
attracted him was probably the literary form. Or just the idea that this was
a trip to the afterworld that built on Aeneas' trip to the afterworld, which
built on Ulysses' trip to the afterworld.
Thanks much.
Pat Sloane
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