Erichtho's role in "Pharsalia" has often been discussed by classicists and literary scholars, with many arguing that she serves as an antithesis and counterpart to Virgil's Cumaean Sibyl, a pious prophetess who appears in his work the "Aeneid". In the 14th century, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri referenced her in his "Divine Comedy" (wherein it is revealed that she, using magic, forced Virgil to fetch a soul from Hell's ninth circle). She also makes appearances in both Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 19th-century play "Faust", as well as John Marston's Jacobean play "The Tragedy of Sophonisba".