Ripheus (also Rifeo and Rupheo) was a Trojan hero and the name of a figure from the Aeneid of Virgil. A comrade of Aeneas, he was a Trojan who was killed defending his city against the Greeks. "Ripheus also fell," Virgil writes, "uniquely the most just of all the Trojans, the most faithful preserver of equity; but the gods decided otherwise" (Virgil, Aeneid II, 426-8).

Ripheus in later works

Dante

In his Divine Comedy, Dante struggled with the concept of whether a virtuous pagan could find salvation after death. Ripheus' righteousness was not rewarded by the gods. In Paradiso Canto XX:73-148, St. Thomas Aquinas suggests, however, that the virtuous pagan will receive either inspiration or an instructor from God to achieve his conversion. Dante placed Ripheus in the sixth sphere of Jupiter (Paradiso Canto XX:1-72), the realm of those who personified justice (Cantos 18 through 20).

Boccaccio

In Boccaccio's Il Filostrato (1333-1339), Ripheus is named as one of the Trojans taken prisoner by the Greeks (IV.3.).

Chaucer

Il Filostrato served as the basis for Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. In it, Ripheo is mentioned as being unable to prevent Antenor from being taken prisoner (Tr IV.50-56). As Rupheo, he appears once, in final rhyming position (Tr IV.53).

ce, in final rhyming position (Tr IV.53).

Sources

Dante Index

Chaucer Name Dictionary

Greek Mythology

See also : Greek Mythology. Paintings, Drawings

Mythology Images