Charon the ferryman rowing to collect Dante and his guide, Virgil, to carry them across the Styx, 1861. Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was a great admirer of Virgil, and in his Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy), Virgil accompanies Dante through Purgatory and Inferno. From Inferno, first part of Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy), Canto III.