Abstract

This article begins by examining Dante's "Divine Comedy" in order to establish the presence of what - in his book of the same name - Hans Blumenberg described as the "topos" of the "Shipwreck with Spectator". Such a "topos" can be found, in a peculiar form, in the first simile of Dante's poem; that of the survivor who looks back on the dangerous waters from which he escaped (If, I 22-7). Following on from this, the article goes on to analyze the three symbolic lines of patristic matrix to which the image of Dante's castaway apparently refers: the "naufragium fidei" of Pauline origin; the seashore as a symbol of secure refuge for the worldly navigator; the saved castaway as symbol "par excellence" of the appeal for penance. In this way, the simile seamlessly embeds itself in the expressive and allegorical context with which the poem opens.