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Dante's "Inferno?"

I'd been wondering about that as well, but Dante DOES present his narrative both as that of an allegorical AND that an actual journey; one that begins in a dark wood (even though that wood is clearly metaphorical as well). From the beginning of Canto 1:

"Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straight-forward pathway had been lost.

Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.

So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.

I cannot well repeat how there I entered,
So full was I of slumber at the moment
In which I had abandoned the true way.

But after I had reached a mountain's foot,
At that point where the valley terminated,
Which had with consternation pierced my heart,

Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,
Vested already with that planet's rays
Which leadeth others right by every road.

Then was the fear a little quieted
That in my heart's lake had endured throughout
The night, which I had passed so piteously.

And even as he, who, with distressful breath,
Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,
Turns to the water perilous and gazes;

So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,
Turn itself back to re-behold the pass
Which never yet a living person left.

After my weary body I had rested,
The way resumed I on the desert slope,
So that the firm foot ever was the lower."

Hmmm. Interesting philosophical point.

I would be more eager to say Dante had "gone native" had he found a level of the Inferno at which he got chummy with the residents and decided he's like to stay ! That said, I've long believed each person's list is their own, and our combined efforts bring the most apposite to the top. And hats off as well to those who follow their "different drummer" and stick to their "weird" postings. Like to think I'd find Einstein among these.