Ripheus the trojan

Caburus

Active Member
He was killed in the siege of Troy. He was the most virtuous of the Trojans, yet the gods ignored that and allowed him to die. Is there anything else told about him.
Medieaval poets took him to be a virtuous pagan, who had a right to be in their Christian Heaven. What was so virtuous about him?
 

Alejandro

Active Member
I'm not sure which is the correct spelling of this dude's name now: Ripheus or, as Carlos Parada's Greek Mythology Link has it, Rhipeus. At any rate, I found an article about Ripheus, whose author says:
Virgil tells us flat out that Ripheus was most just and most equitable and then says that the gods didn't think so (dis aliter visum). What he means, of course, is that Ripheus's justice availed nothing: no matter how just he was the gods did not save him. Dante seems to have been struck by this; when introducing Ripheus he makes a point of underlining that God loves a just king. The injustice of the pagan gods is overcome by the mercy of the God of Heaven: according to Dante, [the personifications of] Faith, Hope, and Love came to Ripheus and baptized him... But why the special attention for Ripheus? To this question, Beatrice replies that Dante the narrator is not able to understand God's purposes...
See the rest here: http://branemrys.blogspot.com/2011/05/ripheus-in-heaven.html
 

Myrddin

Well-Known Member
I know in Dante's Inferno, he explains, or talks of, the nine circles of Hell. I believe it starts with Limbo, then goes on to Lust, Gluttons, the Greedy, Angry, Heretics, the Violent, Fraudsters, and finally the Treacherous. It is one I am quite interested in reading.
 
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