Among the various tools Dante Alighieri employs in the Commedia, his grand imaginative interpretation of life after death, scenes involving figures and beasts from classical mythology provide the reader with allegories and exempla effectively linking universal human themes with Christian thought and ideology. Among these, the figure of the Siren, found in Canto 19 of the Purgatorio, exists as a particularly sinister and moribund image. Visiting Dante in a dream upon the heights of Mount Purgatory, …showed first 75 words of 1928 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1928 total…By Dante Alighieri. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1995. ix-xxxvi. The New American Bible. St. Joseph Edition. New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1986. Toynbee, Paget. Concise Dicitonary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante. New York: Phaeton Press, 1968. Tozer, Rev. H.F., MA. An English Commentary on Dante's Divina Commedia. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, Inc., 1975. Vernant, Jean-Pierre. Mortals and Immortals: Collected Essays. Ed. Froma I. Zeitlin. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.