[204] It is said that the Hells of the Oriental religions even surpass those of mediæval Christendom in the morbid cruelty and obscenity, and in the childish extravagance of their descriptions.
[205] The angel who came to Tundale’s rescue may also be compared to the angel who came to the aid of Dante and Virgil when their entrance into the City of Dis was opposed by the demons (Inf. ix.). Signor D’Ancona (op. cit., p. 55 n.) compares the approach of Tundale’s angel, ‘with a radiance as of a star,’ to the approach of the angel in Purgatorio xii. 89 sq., nella faccia, quale Par tremolando mattutina stella, citing the passage from the Latin Tundale, where the resemblance is still closer—longe venientem velut stellam lucidam.
[206] Purg. xxvii. 130 sqq.
[207] Par. xxii. 129 sqq. Dante evidently follows the corresponding passage in the Somnium Scipionis, or the derivative passage in Book ix. of Lucan’s Pharsalia. The manner in which the idea appears in Tundale is not analogous. The doctrine—‘to whomsoever God giveth power to behold Himself, to him is power to see all other creatures likewise’—is precisely that of Dante. See Paradiso ix. 61 sq. and cp. viii. 90; ix. 73 sq.; xi. 19 sq., etc.
[208] For many specimens of these visions, both of earlier and later dates, see Ozanam, Dante et la Philosophie catholique au treizième Siècle; Wright, St. Patrick’s Purgatory, 1844; Ancona, op. cit. The learned author of the last-named work has recorded several curious and little-known examples, and, in his notes, gives references to many works upon special branches of the subject.
[209] ‘Andovvi poi lo Vas d’elezione, Per recarne conforto a quella fede,’ etc. (Inf. ii. 28-9).
[210] For this extreme tenuity, cp. Al Sirât, the Muslim equivalent of the Chinvât Bridge, narrow as a razor’s edge; also the souls’ bridge of the Inoits of Aleutia, which, as in several mediæval visions, is of the thickness of a single thread.
[211] Cp. the fate of the violent in canto xii. of the Inferno. The traitors also stand more or less completely congealed in the ice, according to the circumstances of their treachery (Inf. xxxii.-xxxiv.).
[212] It is possible that this circumstance was suggested by similar travel tales told of the serpents of India, and preserved by the Greek naturalists. However, the idea is one which might well occur spontaneously, as one of the usual Otherworld applications of the lex talionis.
[213] Cp. the fiery sepulchres in Inf. canto xi., wherein, likewise, infidels were immured.