Dante's View Of Fame

Dante continually emphasizes the significance of fame throughout the epic. Souls frequently ask Dante to remember their names and to talk about them on earth, and on many occasions Dante promises to do so in return for information. Likely the most recurrent scene in the Inferno involves identifying or naming. Dante and Virgil are repeatedly asked to identify themselves, and conversely, they themselves often identify and ask about specific sinners. A few of these already have fame, like Jason (the mythological hero,) but many are plainly Italian citizens whose identities are preserved via Dante’s words. The notion of fame is significant in the epic because it puts forth a type of immortality, a minor recompense for the eternity of misery that