Biblitheca Herpetologica 15(10)

Savage, J. M. and B. I. Crother 2021. The snakes of Dante’s Inferno and Lucanus’ de Bello Civili (Pharsalia). Bibliotheca Herpetologica 15(10):106–112. Published October 15, 2021. “In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost.” Thus begins the famous poem, La Divina Commedia, by Dante Alighieri (1265–1321 AD). That poem is generally considered to be the greatest literary work of the Middle Ages and ranks among the greatest in Western literature (Durant 1959: 1980). It consists of three parts in thirty-four Cantos (Longfellow 1867abc). It describes Dante’s passage through Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (guided by the shade of the Roman poet Virgil), and through Paradiso (Heaven) by Beatrice, Dante’s ideal woman.