It may not be amiss here to refer to what are sometimes called the sources of the Divine Comedy . Foremost among them must be placed the Eleventh Book of the Odyssey , and the Sixth of the Aeneid ; and to the latter Dante seems to point significantly in choosing Virgil for his Guide, his Master, his Author, from whom he took “the beautiful style that did him honor.”

Next to these may be mentioned Cicero’s Vision of Scipio , of which Chaucer says:⁠—

“Chapiters seven it had, of Heven, and Hell,

And Earthe, and soules that therein do dwell.”