Aeneas went alive
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Tu dici che di Silvïo il parente, corruttibile ancora, ad immortale secolo andò, e fu sensibilmente.
You tell that the father of Silvius, while still mortal, went into the deathless world, and was there in the flesh.
Dante builds his case for hesitation. He recalls that Aeneas — father of Silvius — went, still mortal, into the immortal world, and did so in the body.
Aeneas is named by riddle — <i>di Silvïo il parente</i>, the father of Silvius — the way Dante loves to point at the famous without saying the plain name. The point is precise: Aeneas made this same descent while <i>corruttibile</i>, still subject to death, and <i>sensibilmente</i>, in his living body.
Dante is quietly measuring himself against a hero of Virgil's own epic. If a man went down alive before, the thing is possible — but the comparison also frightens him, because he is no Aeneas.
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Inferno 2.13 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/dante-inferno/2.13/