The Homeric material from Book 11 of the Odyssey is an amazing look at mythology of the time. When Odysseus (Ulysses) encounters the many members of the underworld, he views a cross section of early Greek mythology, from Hercules to Agamemnon, Sisyphus, and Achilles. By surviving Hell, he also becomes a larger than life figure in mythology, and his ability to enter Hades shows his tremendous status in the "real" world. However, Dante wants to refute this view of Odysseus as a hero. In his Canto, he shows Odysseus (Ulysses) and his men traveling through the underworld to a whirlpool that sucks them down, rather than returning to their home. He wants to show them as violent warriors who worship gods and goddesses, rather than a "true" God. Homer makes his characters larger than life and heroic, but Dante refutes this, because he lives in Christian times, and the men of Homer's time could be considered Pagan. Dante refutes Homer's material and his view of heroes by disputing the ideal of kleos or glory. He finds it more glorious to find yourself spiritually and rise to Heaven, as he eventually does in his book. He wants people to stop worshipping people like Ulysses as heroes, and see them for the pagans that they were. They worshipped mythical gods, made sacrifices to them, and did not behave as Dante felt Christians should, and so, he disparaged and berated them in his book.
             Kleos or glory is important to all heroes, but after his many adventures, and his experiences in the underworld, he realizes glory is not everything. Achilles says, "I'd rather be a hired hand back up on earth, Slaving away for some poor dirt farmer, Than lord it over all these withered dead" (Homer172). Thus, at least for Achilles, the idea of kleos is evolving from something the culture embraces to a principle, rather than a total way of life, and he wants to share this idea with others before they learn it the hard way.
             Dante's reaction kleos and the...