1. Dante’s Inferno

2. Dante Alighieri :1265-1321  Born in Florence; died exiled in Bologna  Involved in politics in People’s Council of the Commune  Resisted Pope Boniface’s attempt to secure control over Florence  Ends up exiled in March, 1302; never returns to Florence  Writes The Divine Comedy while exiled in his early 40s (in a metaphorical dark wood)

3. The Divine Comedy ( 1308-21 )  Dante began writing while exiled  Reflects Dante’s readings of Virgil’s Aeneid and the Bible  Dante also read Ovid  Virgil leads Dante the Pilgrim through Hell and Purgatory  Virgil is a pagan poet – able to lead Dante out of the darkness; Virgil is good and honorable, but is denied salvation as born before the coming of Christ  Beatrice, the love of Dante’s life who died at 25, picks up the journey in Heaven  Beatrice, to Dante, is the embodiment of his understanding love and the love of God

4. Sin in the world of Dante  Sin = what it means to fail totally as a person  Dante believed people have free agency in committing sin  Sins of incontinence vs. sins of malice  Sins of human nature vs. sins of the failure of human intellect  Contrapasso  Suffering either a continuation or a consequence of sin in life  Way people suffer in Hell, reflects Florentine legal system as well as their actual actions  Sin does not just affect the immortal soul, also social problem

5. Structure of the poem  Three (the Holy Trinity, Confession/Contrition/Satisfaction  Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), Paradiso (Heaven)  Thirty-three cantos per book; each canto written in tercets (three lines)  Nine circles of Hell (3x3)  Lucifer has three heads, three sets of wings  Seven (seven days of creation/seven deadly sins)  Seven marks on Dante’s forehead in Purgatory  Seven terraces in Purgatory  Ten (10 Commandments)  100 cantos – perfect number and 10x10  10 parts to Heaven

6. Inferno : Part one  Begins the night before Good Friday  Dante prevented from leaving wood by three creatures: lion, leopard, and she-wolf  Three parts of hell: sins of excessive love, deficient love, and malicious love  Paired with the transcendent love of God in Heaven  Virgil guides Dante through the woods into the circles of Hell