Vanni Fucci and Laocoon: Servius as Possible Intermediary Between Vergil and Dante

Abstract

That Dante in his depiction of the seventh bolgia of Circle Eight (Inferno 24-25) was particularly reliant upon the Aeneid for plot materials and classical analogies is indicated by the poet's inclusion of Cacus among Vanni Fucci's tormentors: another figure of murderous bestiality, like his progeny in crime ‘Vanni Fucci bestia’ himself, guilty of a notorious sacrilegious theft, the savage, fire-breathing monster is, with little debate, drawn principally from Aeneid 8.185-275. Yet in examining the traditionally cited sources for the seventh bolgia (and the Vanni Fucci episode in particular: Inf. 24.79-25.33), while one encounters nearly every relevant notice of serpents and metamorphoses in ancient Latin literature (e.g., Ovid, Lucan, Pliny, even the Georgics), a very serious omission is apparent. Absent from the catalogue, except for one or two no more than perfunctory observations, is any reference to probably the most celebrated victim of reptilian torture in all Western literature: Laocoon. Another glance at that justly famous passage from the Aeneid (2.201-27) will perhaps cast some new light not merely upon the Vanni Fucci episode but upon the complex nature of Dante's literary debt to Vergil as well.