Abstract
The reason for the condemnation of Ulysses has often been debated by the interpreters, and especially in recent times the idea that it is disobedience to the divine command to cross the Pillars of Hercules has made its way. In truth, however, the text specifies that Ulysses' fault is deception, so that thesis is fanciful. Furthermore, there is no trace of that ban in the sources of the myth. The doubt that Ulysses is in hell for a non-explicit reason remains, but this is due to the artifice that Dante puts in Ulysses' mouth in his long speech, which concludes the chant without any comment. That tale is a final deception of the deceiving Ulysses, who without lying (the damned cannot do so) manages to make the memory of his sin disappear in the reader, and to make him come to the conclusion that his condemnation is unjust