Assignment:
As an epic journey to Hell and back, The Inferno clearly traces its ancestry, in part, to The Aeneid. As an "autobiographical" record of a spiritual struggle, it also has equally obvious roots in Augustine's Confessions. We come to this book, then, uniquely well-versed in its literary antecedents. Where do you see the influence of The Aeneid in Dante's poem? Of Confessions?