Dante as Orpheus: “Georgics” 4 and “Inferno” 5

Critics have struggled to explain the apparent contradiction between Inferno 5.31, where the violent winds of the second circle of hell are said never to rest, and Inferno 5.96, where the wind calms while Dante speaks with Francesca da Rimini. I argue that the winds abate specifically because they also pause when Orpheus visits the underworld in search of Eurydice in Georgics 4. With this briefest of allusions Dante fashions himself as another Orpheus, a poet whose art can affect hell itself, into which he has dared (as a character) to descend.

Keywords: Dante, Inferno, Georgics, Orpheus, winds, Francesca, Eurydice