„That image vile of fraud.” Dante Geryon's interpretation

Abstract

Dante’s Inferno, depicted as a gaping abyss, swallowing the souls of the dead as if it were the enormous mouth of a creature, is populated by various kinds of monsters. This study puts focus on Geryon’s symbolism and role in the play, and aims to present the Dantean inventios as well as the antique and medieval sources that formed Dante’s way of thinking. The poet created the perfect figure of insincerity and fraud with great deliberation, out of components originating in part from pagan traditions and from descriptions found in bestiaries and encyclopedias of his time, as well as from Bible commentaries. Geryon, the meticulously detailed demonic creature is characterized by a variety of attributes: his face is that of an honest man but apart from his trust-inspiring visage, his body is made up of animal parts, suggesting that he may be associated with falsehood.