Canto 12 Summary and Analysis
New Characters
Minotaur: Creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man
Centaurs: Creatures with the heads of men and the bodies of horses
Chiron: Chief centaur
Deianira: Wife of Hercules; dipped his shirt in blood of Nessus
Nessus: Centaur who tried to carry off Deianira (wife of Hercules); his blood on Hercules’s shirt caused Hercules so much pain that Hercules burned himself to death
Violent Sinners: Guilty of violence, included Pyrrhus, Achilles’ cruel son
Summary
Dante and Virgil see a place where a great landslide has occurred and where the Minotaur has come forth from the resulting cleft. Virgil...
(The entire section is 581 words.)
