Question

Which two classical sources primarily influenced Tennyson's portrayal of Ulysses in his poem?

• A. Virgil’s Aeneid and Homer’s Iliad
• B. Homer’s Odyssey and Dante’s Inferno
• C. Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Homer’s Odyssey
• D. Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Dante’s Purgatorio

Answer 1

Answer:

B. Homer’s Odyssey and Dante’s Inferno

Tennyson draws on Homer’s depiction of Ulysses (Odysseus) in the Odyssey and Dante’s portrayal in Inferno, Canto XXVI. Homer’s version speaks of Ulysses’ prophesied final voyage, while Dante’s Ulysses is a tragic hero driven by an unrelenting quest for knowledge, which leads to his doom