Mythical allusiveness and polysemy in I’ ho veduto già senza radice: the myth of Helice

Abstract

The relationship between Dante and Cino da Pistoia develops through an exchange of texts. Thanks to the analysis of these texts, one can identify the pivotal moments of the poets’ relationship, and also the highly significant elements of the poetic evolutions of both. The tenzone the two poets exchanged is a corpus of texts which enables to investigate the nature of this poetic friendship. Specifically, the first pair of sonnets of the tenzone contains important features that allow to trace the initial phase of the dialogue between Cino (Novellamente Amor mi giura e dice) and Dante (I’ ho veduto già senza radice). In the individual works of Dante and Cino, the allusion to classical myths is undoubtedly present. Even though the passages where classical myths are evidently evoked in the text were analysed, a hypothesis emerging from Domenico De Robertis’s comment to the Rime (2005) has not already been studied nor developed. The article aims to display the plausibility of an allusion to the myth of Helice in the first responsive sonnet Dante writes to Cino, by analysing the implications this interpretation can lead to.