- "For another, it was absolutely clear to everyone that Virgil didn't actually say the things Dante put in his mouth;" It was far worse than that! https://en

- "For another, it was absolutely clear to everyone that Virgil didn't actually say the things Dante put in his mouth;" It was far worse than that! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil#Legends https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil#Legends The whole thing's a mess. It'd be hard to draw a bright line between the crazy bullshit medievals* literally believed about Virgil, and the poetic, metaphorical bullshit Dante wrote about him. (*I actually had a Latin professor in the 21st century sincerely advocate that Eclogues interpretation. There's a mode of thinking behind this stuff that, to put it tactfully, confounds people about what's the difference between fiction and reality).