List of cultural references in the Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is a long allegorical poem in three parts (or canticas): the Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise), and 100 cantos, with the Inferno having 34, Purgatorio having 33, and Paradiso having 33 cantos.

Set at Easter 1300, the poem describes the living poet's journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise.

Throughout the poem, Dante refers to people and events from Classical and Biblical history and mythology, the history of Christianity, and the Europe of the Medieval period up to and including his own day.

A knowledge of at least the most important of these references can aid in understanding the poem fully.

Boldface links indicate that the word or phrase has an entry in the list.

Dante, poised between the mountain of purgatory and the city of Florence, a detail of a painting by Domenico di Michelino , Florence 1465.
Abraham Sacrificing Isaac by Laurent de La Hyre , 1650
Aeneas flees burning Troy, Federico Barocci , 1598 Galleria Borghese , Rome
Albertus Magnus (fresco, 1352, Treviso, Italy) by Tommaso da Modena (1326–1379)
Alexander the Great, mosaic detail, The National Archaeological Museum of Naples , 1st century BCE
St. Thomas Aquinas from the Demidoff Altarpiece by Carlo Crivelli
Attila meeting Pope Leo from the Chronicon Pictum , c. 1360.
The meeting of Dante and Beatrice , Henry Holiday
Pope Boniface VIII, fresco by Giotto di Bondone
Cadmus fighting the dragon. Side A of a red-figured calix-krater found in Sant'Agata de' Goti (Campania), c. 350–340 BCE. From Paestum .
Cerberus, picture by William Blake (18th century)
The Death of Cleopatra by Reginald Arthur , Roy Miles Gallery, London
Constantine the Great
(mosaic in Hagia Sophia , Constantinople , c. 1000)
The Death of Dido by Joshua Reynolds 1781
Diogenes, Detail of Rafaello Santi's The School of Athens (1510), Vatican collection
Saint Dominic presiding over an auto de fe , Pedro Berruguete , 1475
The Furies hector Orestes , in Orestes Pursued by the Furies by William-Adolphe Bouguereau 1862
Farinata degli Uberti, as depicted by Andrea del Castagno . Villa Carducci, Florence.
Francis of Assisi, late 13th century
A medieval depiction of a Harpy.
Helen, detail from an Attic red-figure krater , c. 450–440 BCE, Louvre (G 424)
Homer flanked by Dante (left) and Virgil. Detail of fresco, by Raffael , in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican Palace , 1511.
Icarus and Daedalus by Charles Paul Landon
Jason delivering the Golden Fleece to Pelias , the king of Iolcos .
Denarius commemorating Julius Caesar for his success during the Gallic Wars .
Guido Reni 's archangel Michael (in the Capuchin church of Sta. Maria della Concezione, Rome) trampling Satan
Joseph Anton Koch , Paolo and Francesca discovered by Giovanni , 1805–1810
St. Peter , oil on panel by Francesco del Cossa (1473), Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
Gustave Doré 's depiction of Satan from John Milton's Paradise Lost .
Tiresias appears to Odysseus during the nekyia of Odyssey xi, in this watercolor with tempera by the Anglo-Swiss Johann Heinrich Füssli , c. 1780–85
Aeneas defeats Turnus, Luca Giordano , 1634–1705, The genius of Aeneas is shown ascendant, looking into the light of the future, while that of Turnus is setting, shrouded in darkness.
Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus, Octavia, and Livia by Jean-Baptiste Wicar , Art Institute of Chicago