I Felt The Need To Share - Blog Posts

I'm literally screaming! Ahhhhhhh, the Asphodels Meadows are wonderful, and I think they are a reference to Dante's "Inferno"!

Especially the 13th Canto, which is about the punishment of suicides, where the souls are transformed into trees and plants, bound to the ground, and then tortured by the Harpies, who destroy their branches.

That Canto is also a reference to the Aeneid because at the beginning of the poem, Aeneas arrived on a land with the fugitive Troyans and decided to offer something to the Gods. He found a myrtle plant (Aphrodite/Venus' sacred plant) and took some branches, which bleed, indicating something was not normal. That plant was, in reality, the corpse of Polydorus, one of the princes of Troy. He was killed by the man who sweared to protect him from the war in order to obtain his gold. Because he was not completely buried, his soul couldn't enter the Underworld, so Aeneas gave him the proper burial and freed him.

Also, in the Canto, the story of Pier delle Vigne, the soul that talks to Dante and Virgil, is a story of loyalty, betrayal, and regret because he was really loyal to his king and yet he killed himself because of the shame he was feeling.

Sometimes, I feel like this, and I feel crazy, but IT'S THERE, I REALLY SWEAR!