Mythology in Dante's Inferno

Here Dante refers to the Argonauts, the crew of the Argos, led by the Greek hero Jason. The Argonauts serve as an example of a fraudulent group: they stole the Golden Fleece from Colchis under false pretenses.

"Latin land" means Italy. Latian or Latium refer to Italy and the people who inhabited Italy before Roman times. In Greek and Roman mythology, the Romans were the descendants of the Trojans, who ventured to Latium in the wake of the sacking of Troy.

Minos, the mythical Greek king, is one of three judges in Hades who determines where the dead shall spend their time. In this context, Minos works under God's supervision. Minos features prominently in Canto 5.

Dante is comparing the falsifiers and their terrible wounds and illnesses with the victims of the mythical plague at Aegina, caused by Hera.

In Book IV of Ovid's Metamorphoses, the story of Aeacus is told. Aeacus was the son of the god Jupiter and the nymph Aegina. He was the ruler of the island Aegina, named for his mother. Juno (or "Hera") destroyed the island with a plague. Zeus repopulated the island by transforming ants into men. Aeacus was the grandfather of Achilles and the father of Peleus.

This refers to King Athamas, the mythical Greek king of Boeotia. At Juno's command, the Fury Tisiphone altered Athamas's. Deluded, he believed that his wife, Ino, and their two sons were actually a lioness and her cubs. Athamas attacked them, killing his infant son, Learchus. In a frenzy, Ino jumped into the sea with her remaining child. Both were drowned.

In the myth of Narcissus, the handsome young man sees his reflection in the water and becomes so enamored of his own image that he dies in despair because he cannot possess it. 

In the legend of the Trojan War, Sinon was an Greek soldier who allowed himself to be captured by the Trojans. He falsely said that he had escaped from becoming a sacrifice of the Greeks. He claimed that the Trojan horse was an offering of atonement to Athena for stealing the Palladium (See Canto 26). He told the Trojans that if they succeeded in bringing the enormous horse into the city, they would be safe from future Greek attacks. In reality, Sinon intended to lure the Trojans into accepting the horse so that the Greek soldiers within could open the gates of Troy. Because of Sinon's lies, the Trojans took the horse into their city and were subsequently conquered. 

This Greek myth is told in Book X of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Because of her refusal to honor the goddess Aphrodite, Myrrha was beset with an incestuous passion for her own father, King Cinyras of Cypress. Myrrha seduced Cinyras by impersonating her mother. When Cinyras discovered the ruse, he threatened to kill her. Myrrha ran away and was turned into a myrtle (or "myrrh" tree). The god Adonis was later born from her trunk.

Hecuba was the widow of the Priam, the king of Troy. Hecuba and her daughter, Polyxena, were enslaved by the Greeks who had conquered Troy. Polyxena was sacrificed on Achilles' tomb. Polyxena's murder, as well as the discovery of Polydorus's body on the shore, drove Hecuba insane.

This story is told in Book IV of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

One of Zeus's many loves was Semele, whom Zeus impregnated. She was the daughter of the founder of the city of Thebes, Cadmus. Zeus accidentally killed her with a strike of lightening when he appeared to her in his godly form. Their unborn child somehow survived and was placed in Zeus's right thigh, where he was eventually born. The baby was given to Semele's sister, Ino. Hera, Zeus's wife, discovered the bastard child and was livid. In revenge for her husband's treachery, Hera angered Ino's husband, Athamas, to the point that he killed his and Ino's son, Learchus. In her grief, Ino jumped into the sea with their other son, Melicertes. The child of Zeus and Semele turned out to be Dionysus.

The giant Tityus, who tried to rape Apollo's mother, Latona, was killed by Apollo. The giant Typhon was killed by Zeus (Jove) at Phlegra.

Virgil flatters Antaeus because he needs the giant's help. Virgil says that men believe the Titans would have beaten if the Olympic gods if Antaeus had participated in the attack. This is an example of dramatic irony, for readers know that Virgil's story may well be a lie.

Unlike the other giants, Antaeus, the brother of Briareus, is able to speak. His punishment is not quite as restrictive as those of the other giants because Antaeus did not participate in the attack on Mt. Olympus.

Virgil describes Briareus, another giant, as equal to Ephialtes in size but even more terrifying. Dante does not describe Briareus, who is traditionally described as one of three giants with one hundred arms who helped the gods defeat an attack by the Titans. Briareus is specifically credited with saving Zeus (Jove).

Ephialtes is one of the giants who led the attack against Zeus (Jove) and the other gods on Mt. Olympus. He attempted, along with his twin brother, Otus, to scale Mt. Olympus by stacking Mount Pelion on Mount Ossa in Macedonia. Both brothers were killed by the arrows of the Olympian gods Apollo and Diana, themselves twins as well.

Virgil identifies a giant named Nimrod, who is thought to have created the Tower of Babel. As told in the biblical Book of Genesis, Babel was built in an attempt to reach Heaven. God, showing his displeasure, destroyed the tower and sundered the original universal language, supposedly creating the world's many languages.

At first Dante thinks that the giants, who tower over the rim of the central pit, are actually towers. The giants are here because they betrayed their rightful ruler by raging against the gods. They are once-powerful beings who are now powerless to help themselves because God is the ultimate wielder of power. Thus the giants reveal one of the central themes of Dante's Divine Comedy: the importance of attaining to God's will.

In Greek myth, Tydeus was one of the Seven Kings Against Thebes. He killed Menalippus, and although Tydeus was mortally wounded himself, he chewed on Menalippus' skull in celebration.

This line is a allusion to King Arthur's son, Mordred, who attempted overthrow Arthur and was killed by Arthur. Arthur's spear went through Mordred, allowing sunlight to shine through the wound.

According to Greek mythology, the Muses assisted Amphion in building the wall of Thebes by playing their lyres so beautifully that the rocks tumbled down from Mount Cithaeron and created the walls themselves. 

In Canto 8, Dante and Virgil encounter Dis, the walled city that contains the deepest circles of hell, the 6th through the 9th. In this line, when Virgil exclaims, "'Lo Dis! and lo the place,/Where thou hast need to arm thy heart with strength,'" he is referring to Satan. In Roman mythology, Dis—often known as Dis Pater—was a subterranean god of agriculture and mineral wealth. Later, he was absorbed into Pluto and Hades, also subterranean gods. When Dante combined the Greco-Roman and Christian mythological traditions in the Inferno, he conflated Dis, Hades, Lucifer, and Satan into the same figure—the great devil at the bottom of the lowest ring of hell.

Lucifer (Latin for "bearer of light") stands as the opposite of God in every way. Dante depicts him as a horrific trinity, with three faces—reddish, black, and a yellowish-white. This trinity contrasts the Christian Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Some scholars speculate that Dante chose the colors to represent the three races known to him: reddish, or ruddy, to represent Europeans; black for Africans; and yellowish-white for Asians.

"That emperor" is Lucifer. For Dante, Lucifer is the most important traitor to his benefactor in the history of mankind, for his benefactor was God.