1. Allegory and Inferno

2. Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy was written between
Dante is the source of modern Italian.
His writings inspired Geoffrey Chaucer and William Blake.
Married with four children
Fell in love with a young woman (Beatrice). “At that very moment I say truly that the vital spirit, that which lives in the most secret chamber of the heart began to tremble so violently that I felt it fiercely in the least pulsation, and, trembling, it uttered these words: ‘Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur michi’ (Behold a god more powerful than I, who, coming, will rule over me).”

3. Dante’s Inferno
Contains one of the most detailed and influential literary descriptions of Hell.
Virgil (the Roman poet) leads Dante the nine circles of Hell.
After Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend to Purgatorio (Purgatory) and travel through the seven terraces, representing the Seven Deadly Sins.
Beatrice joins Dante and they travel through Paradiso (Paradise) together.

4. Dante’s Inferno cont.
“But my own wings were not enough for this, Had it not been that then my mind there smote A flash of lightning, wherein came its wish. Here vigor failed the lofty fantasy: But now was turning my desire and will, even as a wheel that is eventually moved, the Love which moves the sun and the other stars.” –Canto XXXIII

5. Pictures of Dante’s Hell