Dante Alagheri’s The Divine Comedy World Literature

The Divine Comedy  Comedy Not humorous/slapstick/laugh-out-loud A form of writing that begins in fear and ends happily. Main character attains a happy ending – a healing vision of God – and receives a divine message to deliver.

The Divine Comedy  The Inferno Hell  The Purgatorio Purgatory  The Paradisio Paradise

The Divine Comedy  Translations Robert Pinsky (1994) Dorothy Sayers ( )  Terza rima John Ciardi ( )  Rhymed 1 st and 3 rd lines only H.R. Huse  Literal prose translation Allen Mandlebaum  Poetic prose John D. Sinclair  Paragraph form

The Divine Comedy  Parable Political realities  Corruption vs. honesty Moral realities  The freedom that comes from accepting just laws vs. the self-slavery of lawlessness Mystical realities  The individual’s self-absorption vs. his trusting surrender to the divine

The Divine Comedy  Dante said he wanted the poem to: Liberate people still living in the world from a state of misery and lead them to a state of happiness. Praise Beatrice and the saving graces he received through her.

The Divine Comedy  Dante: “The subject of the work, then, in its literal sense is the state of souls after death – and this is without qualification, since the whole progress of the work hinges on and about this subject. Whereas if the work is taken allegorically, the subject is this: man becoming liable to the justice which rewards and punishes, inasmuch as by the exercise of his freedom of choice he merits good or ill.”  letter to Can Grande

On Dante:  Ruskin “He is the central man of all the world, as representing in perfect balance the imaginative, moral and intellectual qualities all at their highest.”  Carlyle Called it Dante’s “unfathomable love song.”  Emerson The textbook for teaching the young the art of writing well.  Trotsky Urged Marxist companions to study their Dante.

Background  Guelphs Anti-imperial/democratic attitude Desired constitutional government Represented indigenous peoples Pro-pope (looked to him for support)  White  Wanted to minimize all outside interference  Black  Wanted to enhance their papal connections  Ghibellines Pro-imperial Represented aristocracy Opposed papal territorial power Expelled from Florence in 1289

The Divine Comedy  Significance of the number Three Reflects the mysterious reality of the Godhead Each of the three parts contains 33 cantos Basic unit of verse is the terzine  33 syllables  3 lines Beatrice – associated with the number 9

Dante The Inferno World Literature

The Inferno: Canto I  Introduction to the entire Divine Comedy Dark Woods Good Friday, 1300  April 8, 1300  Catholic church’s first “Holy Year”  Jubilee period stressing spiritual repentance and renewal.  Dante is 35 years old

The Inferno: Canto I  Dante The poet who is also the Christian sinner  Virgil The poet who is also human wisdom (the best a man can become without divine grace)

The Inferno: Canto I  Poet feels alienated from the world  Poet feels fear (paura)  First 60 lines: reflect the theme of man’s estrangement from God Emphasize man’s dependence on the Divine  Last 76 lines: Emphasize the human power to discover his true self

The Inferno: Canto I  3 beasts 3 types of sin that will cast a soul into one of the three divisions of Hell  Leopard (lonza): lust (bodily pleasure)  Lion (leone): violence  Wolf (lupa): cupidity (desire for power/wealth)

The Inferno: Canto I  3-part Journey I  Hell – eternal place of despair  Purgatory – place where souls are in a temporary, purifying fire  Paradise (Heaven) – dwelling place of the everlastingly blessed

The Inferno: Canto II  Dante invokes the Muses (II.7) Allied with the arts as well as with religion.  Questions his worthiness to go on this quest. Two others who had visited the other worlds while in the flesh.  Aeneas & Paul  Dante believed the Catholic church and the Roman Empire were divinely willed partners in the world’s salvation.

Inferno: Canto II  Three ladies Virgin (Mary)  Mercy  Prevenient grace (first impulse in a sinner to repent) Lucia  Grace  Operant grace (allows sinner to desire good and do it) Beatrice  Wisdom  Perficient grace (causes the penitent sinner to persist in the doing of good)

Inferno: Canto III  Hell’s Gate: Entrance to Hell Proper  ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE. Two sets of people at the entrance  Morally neutral  Continuously running around a plain just inside the gate.  Lived without praise or blame (thus, never truly lived)  Fallen angels who were neither for good or evil, only for themselves.  Hated by both God and His enemies  They would defile heaven  They don’t fit into Hell’s scheme (would give the wicked some element of glory)  Souls just arrived who gather to wait to be ferried across a river to their proper placements in Hell.

The Structure of Dante’s Hell  Vestibule of Hell: The Uncommitted  Circle 1: Limbo  Circle 2: The Lustful  Circle 3: The Gluttons  Circle 4: The Avaricious and the Prodigal  Circle 5: The Wrathful and the Sullen  Circle 6: Heretics  Circle 7: The Violent  Circle 8: The Fraudulent  Circle 9: The Treacherous

Outer Circle  VESTIBULE Outer Rim of Hell GROUP I  Passionless people who lived without place or blame  Neither for good or evil  Hateful to both God and his enemies (won’t fit into either Heaven or Hell) GROUP II  Newly deceased who lived without reverence to God and who died unrepentant.  Punishment (Group I) Endless running around a plain just inside the gate Tormented by hornets, wasps, worms  Significant people: Fallen angels Celestine V Ponitus Pilate

Circle 1  LIMBO Outskirts of Hell Proper Neutral, lifeless place  Souls of unbaptized infants  Virtuous pagans or honorable men who lived before Christ  Punishment:None Suspended (sospesi) between the states of condemnation and salvation.  Significant people: Virgil, the guide Homer Aristotle Saladin Euclid

Circle 2  Minos: Judge of Hell Each sinner confesses to him Uses his tail to indicate the position of Hell the sinner is to occupy Warns Dante not to go any further

Circle 2  The Carnal Sinners LUSTFUL, SENSUAL  Punishment: Exist in an eternal storm, blown about by the winds of a hurricane  Reflects sexual sin and punishes it  Significant people: Helen of Troy Achilles Cleopatra Paris Tristan Francesca and Paolo  Murdered lovers

Circle 3  The Carnal Sinners: The GLUTTONOUS  Sensual gratification  Ate and drank unrepentantly to excess  Punishment: Plagued with filthy rain, sleet, snow Wallow in mud and filth Cerberus, 3-headed dog, guard and punishment  Claws the sinners  Howls, making the souls howl  Significant people: Ciacco

Circle 4  The Carnal Sinners: The AVARICIOUS (HOARDERS) The PRODIGAL (SPENDERS)  Punishment: Deadlocked in a battle of opposites Push heavy stones in opposite direction  “why do you hold?”  “why do you spend?” Plutus (Greek god of wealth) demon-guard  Significant people:

Circle 5  The River STYX  WRATHFUL  SULLEN  Punishment: Wrathful  Float in Styx  Snarl and rend themselves Sullen  Submerged in Styx Plutus (Greek god of wealth) demon-guard  Significant people: Filippo

 Dante and Virgil Leave the circles of outer Hell cross the Styx  Ferried by Phlegyas Reach gate of inner Hell  City of Dis Fallen angels hover above gates  Within gates are punished sins  VIOLENCE  FRAUD

 Dante and Virgil Met by furies Messenger of grace opens gates for them Enter gates of lower Hell

Circle 6  HERETICS Deniers of immortality  Punishment: Flaming tombs  Significant people: Cavalcanti  Father of Dante’s friend Epicurus Emperor Frederick II “The Cardinal” Farinata degli Uberti  Ghibilline leader

 Dante and Virgil pause Virgil explains the classification of the upcoming sins 3 remaining circles to visit  7 th (Violence)  Injury to one’s neighbor or property  murder  Injury to one’s self or property  suicide  Injury done to God’s sovereignty  blasphemy  Injury to God’s child, nature  homosexual behavior  Injury to God’s grandchild, human industry  usury

Circle 7 (outer round)  VIOLENT Those who harmed others (MURDER)  Punishment: Submerged in boiling river of blood Centaurs shoot arrows at any who come up for relief  Chiron is leader  Significant people: Alexander the Great Attila the Hun Ezzelino

Circle 7 (middle round)  VIOLENT Those who harmed self (SUICIDE) Self-destructive  Punishment: Gloomy wood Damned are trees Harpies nest in trees Those self-destructive:  Chased by devil dogs and torn to pieces  Significant people: Pier della Vigne

Circle 7 (outer round)  VIOLENT Those who were guilty of BLASPHEMY  Punishment: Scorching desert Flakes of flame falling  Lie down  Significant people: Capaneus

Description of Giant  “Old Man of Crete” Head: gold  Split by fissure  Endless tears flow down to frozen lake of Hell Breast & Arms: silver Torso: brass Waist down: iron Right foot: terra cotta  Rests most weight upon

Circle 7 (outer round)  VIOLENT Those who were guilty of SODOMY  Punishment: Scorching desert Flakes of flame falling  Continuously running  Significant people: Brunetto Latini

Circle 7 (outer round)  VIOLENT Those who were guilty of USURERY  Lending money at any price  Punishment: Scorching desert Flakes of flame falling  Sit, bent over  Eyes fixed on money pouches around their necks  Significant people: Jacopo Rusticucci Guido Guerra Teggahiaio Aldobrandi

 Geryon lowers Dante and Virgil to the next circle

Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 1  FRAUD PANDERERS  Sell people for sexual favors  pimps SEDUCERS  Gain sexual favors for self  Punishment: Whipped by horned demons  Significant people: Venedico Jason

Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 2  FRAUD FLATTERERS  Punishment: Immersed in excrement  Significant people: Thais

Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 3  FRAUD SIMONIACS  Those who corrupt the things of God  Punishment: Immersed headfirst in holes Feet are burning  Significant people: Pope Nicholas III Other popes

Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 4  FRAUD SOOTHSAYERS MAGICIANS AUGERS  Those who tried to make the mind of God subject to their will.  Punishment: Heads on backwards  Significant people: Manto

Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 5  FRAUD GRAFTERS  Political corruption  Punishment: Boiling pitch Deceiving demons (Malebranche) poke anyone who tries to rise with pitchforks  Significant people: Senator of Lucca Ciampolo of Navarre

Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 6  FRAUD HYPOCRITES  Punishment: Leaden cloaks Walk around narrow track  Significant people: Caiaphas Annas monks

Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 7  FRAUD THIEVES  Punishment: Fiery serpents Wrapped around souls Hands bound behind them Bite souls who then burst into flames  Significant people: Vanni Fucci Agnello Buoso Puccio Francesco de Cavalcanti

Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 8  FRAUD EVIL ADVISERS  Steal counsel of God for low purposes  Punishment: Enflamed souls  Significant people: Ulysses Diomedes Guido da Montefeltro

Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 9  FRAUD DIVIDERS  Tear apart what God has meant to be united SOWERS OF DISCORD  Religious discord  Political discord  Family Discord  Punishment: Mutilated Wounds are healed after making the full circult Wounds reopened by devil with sword  Significant people: Muhammad Mosca Bertran de Born

Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 10  FRAUD FALSIFIERS  ALCHEMISTS  IMPERSONATORS  COUNTERFEITERS  LIARS  Punishment: Madness Ills of mind and body  Significant people: Gainni Schicchi Capocchio Master Adam Potipher’s wife Sinon

 Giant, Antaeus, lowers Dante and Virgil into the pit  Cocytus frozen

Circle 9: Caina  TRAITORS To KIN  Punishment: Encased in ice up to neck Heads bent down  Significant people: Camicion de Pazzi Two brothers

Circle 9: Antenora  TRAITORS To CITY  Punishment: Encased in ice up to neck Heads turned upward  Significant people: Bocca Sassol Ugolino Archbishop Ruggieri

Circle 9: Tolomea  TRAITORS To GUESTS  Punishment: Frozen in ice On backs, heads up Tears freeze in eye sockets  Significant people: Friar Alberigo Branca D’Oria

Circle 9: Judecca  TRAITORS To BENEFACTORS  Punishment: Completely sealed under ice Satan fixed in the middle, waist deep in ice, continuously chews up three with his mouths  Significant people: Judas Brutus Cassius