At the beginning of Canto XXVI, Dante uses another political prophecy to propel the narrative and his political theme forward. Dante actually wishes this dark prophecy on his city. Because Dante was exiled at the time he wrote Inferno, these events had already come to pass.
The retribution that the sinners of the eighth chasm suffer fits with the sin that they perpetrated in life. They gave evil counsel (particularly to religious leaders), and therefore, misused God's gifts. These souls worked in hidden ways, and they will spend eternity hidden from sight and burning in flames that symbolize a guilty conscience.
The most dramatic event in Canto XXVI is Dante's meeting with Ulysses. Note that Ulysses and Diomede are punished for events that would have been acceptable, even praised, in the time in which they lived. Dante again falters from his concept that sinners are only punished according to the social standards of their time. Ulysses carried out the strategy of the Trojan Horse, which led to the fall of Troy and eventually, to the founding of the Roman line by Aeneas. Because Dante is partial to the Roman Empire, he sees this act as evil; however, another poet may see it as virtuous. Ulysses is also in the pit for two other acts: convincing Achilles to go on a journey, which caused Deidamia to die of heartbreak, and stealing a statue of Pallas from the Palladium, thus ensuring the downfall of Troy.
