Canto XVII

“I believe there was no greater fear when Phaethon abandoned the reins, so that the sky was scorched, as still appears, nor when the wretched Icarus felt his loins unfeathering because of the heated wax…than was mine, when I saw that I was in the air” (Dante 17.106-112, 265, 267).

Dante alludes only to the fear that both sons faced at the moment of their demise, however, I see a warning after reading both of their stories from Ovid. Phoebus warns Phaethon: “What you want, My son, is dangerous; you ask for power Beyond your strength and years; your lot is mortal, But what you ask beyond the lot of mortals” (Ovid 30). Phaethon, like Dante, is embarking on a mission not meant for mortals. His warning continues when directing his son of the course he should take: “The middle is safest” (Ovid 32). Daedalus gives his son the same advice: “I warn you Icarus, fly a middle course” (Ovid 188). This warning of sticking to the “middle” also alludes to the Aristotelian idea of moderation. Dante sets up his Inferno with the idea that virtue is found “in the middle” of two vices; the excessive, the uncontrollable, and going beyond the “golden mean” is what becomes sinful and needs punishment. Dante, here, alludes to two figures from Ovid’s Metamorphoses who could not control their appetites to the middle. Phaethon, who could not control his desire to be recognized as the Sun-god’s son and his desire to be in control of his chariot, and Icarus, who “thought This is wonderful! and left his father, soared higher, higher, drawn to the vast heaven” (Ovid 188), both left “the golden middle way” in their desire to rise above their lot. Dante, by using this allusion, warns himself and the readers that to be safe, he needs to be careful, to stay in the middle in order to save himself from destruction. (SJ)