Use of the fantastic in Inferno and SinbadValerie SkerkavichFantastic elements occur in both Dante's Inferno and the Tales of Sinbad, but it is obvious that Inferno uses much more fantastic than Sinbad. In Dante's Inferno, there are several fictional creatures (Cereberus, the Furies, Geryon) in the realms of hell, all of which have a specific purpose in hell and Dante's journey through the depths of hell. Throughout Sinbad's journey, we see a smaller amount of fantastical creatures, but similar to Dante's Inferno, the creatures that appear in Sinbad's journeys all serve a purpose in the plot of the story. The main connection that both Dante and Sinbad have in relation to the use of the fantastic in their journeys is the purpose of the fantastic creatures themselves: they serve to cause death among others, but are often the sources that help advance the plot of the poem . after you. In Sinbad's second journey, he encounters a large white ball so large that he cannot climb it. It is smooth and there are no footholds that he could use to step onto this powerful white ball. Then, he remembers other sailors' stories about a bird called the Roc: an incredibly large bird, and Sinbad puts two and two together and realizes that this giant ball is actually the egg of the bird, Roc. An extraordinarily large bird is not as original as the creatures we see in Dante's Inferno (things that are half woman and half bird; or have three heads), however, this is still a fantastical element and the bird is used the same way as Geryon is in Hell regarding the advancement of the poem's plot. Removing my turban I tied myself securely [to the bird's feet] with linen in the hope that the roc, when it took flight the next morning,...... middle of paper... now they literally look over their shoulders and walk backwards, never predicting the future, but going back in time, through the past. There is no evidence of contrapasso in Sinbad as in the Inferno, and since contrapasso is such a large part of the use of the fantastic in the Inferno, the lack of contrapasso in Sinbad is significant because it is an important and defining difference between the use of fantastic elements in Hell and Sinbad. The fantastic in both Dante's Inferno and Dante escapes from an infernal realm and advances to the next circle, and are the sources that facilitate an escape route for Sinbad; the fantastic beings that do not further the advancement of the poems' plots are creatures that only cause death or pose a threat to the protagonist. In this fantastic progress, we see how lucky Sinbad is to be alive and how lucky he really is.