Inferno XXVI, or “Ulysses’ canto” A collection of critical interpretation of a famous episode of Dante’s Comedy

This article traces the history of critical interpretations of Inferno XXVI, from the first commentators to today, and it underlines their similarities, differences, and nuances. Its main goal is to show that, from the end of the 19th century onwards, Ulysses’ character slips away from his author and ends up becoming, especially in the 20th century, a knowledge hero, a model of thought and life, that is to say the opposite of what Dante had probably planned.