Roman Republic. L. Plautius Plancus,. 47 BC. AR Denarius, Rome

Roman Republic Plautia 47 BC ag / denarius d / head of the Medusa Crw. 453 / 1a Syd. 959 NS. 3. 84 q. SPL good centering! On the occasion of the 700th anniversary of Dante's death (1265-1321) , Catawiki is dedicating an auction to the Supreme Poet focused on the coins of his time and on those related to the characters of his Divine Comedy. # dante700memorial MEDUSA AND THE DIVINE COMEDY Of the three Gorgons Dante mentions only Medusa, whose intervention is invoked by the Furies in front of the walls of the city of Dite: Vegna Medusa: si 'l farem di enamel (If IX 52) . The threat of petrifying Dante by means of the Gorgon (the masculine form - perhaps referring to the severed head of Medusa - was common in the fourteenth-century vulgar) is not in vain if Virgil, deeply concerned about this possibility, makes his disciple turn around and, not I am satisfied that he has also placed his hands over his eyes, he prevents him from seeing again with his own: for if the Gorgón shows itself and you saw it, / it would be nothing to ever return to it (vv. 56-57) . Dante strongly emphasizes the doctrinal importance of this episode, even warning his reader openly that the text must also be understood according to the allegorical sense the veil of the strange verses, vv. 61-63) ; and therefore in the course of the centuries numerous interpretations have been advanced, the most disparate, on the allegorical meaning of that attempt to oppose the devils and the coming of the Mass, and also on the value to be attributed to the threat of the Furies.