While the structure and themes of the "Divine Comedy" are defined by the narrative of a spiritual pilgrimage guided by Christian truth, Winthrop Wetherbee s remarkable new study reveals that Dante s engagement with the great Latin poets Vergil, Ovid, Lucan, and Statius constitutes a second, complementary narrative centered on psychological and artistic self-discovery.This fresh, illuminating approach departs from the usual treatment of classical poets in Dante criticism, which assigns them a merely allegorical function. Their true importance to Dante s project is much greater. As Wetherbee...