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    The Divine Comedy
    The Divine Comedy
    The Divine Comedy
    Ebook858 pages10 hours

    The Divine Comedy

    By Dante Alighieri, Gustave Doré and Anna Amari-Parker

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    Dante's Divine Comedy is regarded as a masterpiece of medieval literature, telling the story of Dante's descent into hell, his journey through purgatory and eventual ascent into heaven, with Virgil as his guide.

    The tale's profound Christian message and detailed social and political commentary of fourteenth century Italy weave a rich tapestry of interpretation, meaning and symbolism. From the pilgrim's deepening insight into the workings of evil and moral choice (Hell) through to the dramatization of the nature and purpose of moral conversion (Purgatory) to the blissfully mystical ascent before God (Paradise), Dante's cosmic vision remains unparalleled

    This edition includes Henry W. Longfellow's classic translation, the magnificent illustrations of Gustave Doré and a brilliant introduction by Anna Amari-Parker, full of accessible analysis of Dante's allegorical tale.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcturus Publishing
    Release dateMay 3, 2013
    ISBN9781782122463
    Author

    Dante Alighieri

    Dante was a major Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy is widely considered the greatest work of Italian literature.

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    Reviews for The Divine Comedy

    4/5

    2,360 ratings46 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Extraordinary illustrations...Gustave Dore....Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • 5/5
      Un classico in un'edizione davvero prestigiosa.
    • 4/5
      Dante's classic poem of his journeys through hell and heaven.
    • 3/5
      In finally sitting down and reading the entire Divine Comedy, I can now see why The Inferno is usually separated from Purgatorio & Paradiso. The Inferno is captivating and paints vivid pictures of what Dante &. Virgil are seeing and experiencing. However Purgatorio & Paradiso seemed to lack this each in their own way. Purgatorio was still able to paint the pictures but not quite as vividly. Perhaps the subject matter was not as captivating as well. Dante certainly had the gift of making Purgatory feel not too bad but also not too good. In Paradiso we switch guides from Virgil to Beatrice. It is then that Dante seems to loose his focus on his surroundings and turns toward fauning over Beatrice's beauty. I figured that the Canto with God in it would have been a bit more powerful & profound. Lucifer's appearance was more awe inspiring than God's. Don't get me wrong, I give credit to the absolute classic that this work is, however I think there are some issues with it from a reader's standpoint. When all of the action is over in the 1st portion of the book it becomes a chore to finish reading it. All-in-all this entire work was beautifully written in the terza rima rhyme scheme which adds a bit of romance to every line read. I have to mention that I think it's funny how people get the details of this work confused with The Holy Bible. There in itself stands testement to how amazing this work has been throughout history. Despite my personal issues with reading it I am honored to have read such famous and renouned piece of historical literature.
    • 4/5
      Dore illustrations. Beautiful!
    • 3/5
      In finally sitting down and reading the entire Divine Comedy, I can now see why The Inferno is usually separated from Purgatorio & Paradiso. The Inferno is captivating and paints vivid pictures of what Dante &. Virgil are seeing and experiencing. However Purgatorio & Paradiso seemed to lack this each in their own way. Purgatorio was still able to paint the pictures but not quite as vividly. Perhaps the subject matter was not as captivating as well. Dante certainly had the gift of making Purgatory feel not too bad but also not too good. In Paradiso we switch guides from Virgil to Beatrice. It is then that Dante seems to loose his focus on his surroundings and turns toward fauning over Beatrice's beauty. I figured that the Canto with God in it would have been a bit more powerful & profound. Lucifer's appearance was more awe inspiring than God's. Don't get me wrong, I give credit to the absolute classic that this work is, however I think there are some issues with it from a reader's standpoint. When all of the action is over in the 1st portion of the book it becomes a chore to finish reading it. All-in-all this entire work was beautifully written in the terza rima rhyme scheme which adds a bit of romance to every line read. I have to mention that I think it's funny how people get the details of this work confused with The Holy Bible. There in itself stands testement to how amazing this work has been throughout history. Despite my personal issues with reading it I am honored to have read such famous and renouned piece of historical literature.
    • 5/5
      One of the absolute summits of western (arguably, world) literature.The general outline is well-enough known: Dante has a vision (on Easter weekend, 1300) in which he visits Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. (The vision frame is external to the poem itself; the Dante inside the poem is the dreamer from the very beginning.) He is guided through the first two realms (well, all of Hell and most of Purgatory) by Virgil, and through the rest of Purgatory and all of Heaven by Beatrice, the focus of his early work La Vita Nuova. He begins in a dark wood, "selva oscura" and ends with the beatific vision of the union of the Christian Trinity and the Aristotelian unmoved mover: "l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle".On its way he maintains a multi-level allegory, fills it with an encyclopaedia of his day's science, history, and theology, carries out an extended argument regarding the (sad) politics of his day and of his beloved Florence, from which he was an exile, and does so in verse which stays at high level of virtuosity throughout. It's the sort of thing that writers like Alanus de Insulis tried in a less ambitious way and failed (well, failed by comparison: who except specialists reads the De Planctu Naturae these days?).There is no equivalent achievement, and very few at the same level. This would get six stars if they were available.
    • 5/5
      Fascinating book that puts a different perspective on life and religion. Adds depth to the Bible and some of its symbolisms and philosophies. Has made me think of life and the life after death and has made me really aware of the precious things in life.
    • 5/5
      Perhaps the world's greatest achivement.
    • 5/5
      A classic. One of my all time favorites. The visions and descriptions in The Inferno are enough to make anyone pious.
    • 5/5
      I loved everything up to the Paradisso portion. I know this is supposed to be the best part of the three but it really wasn't to me. I really thought the first two were absolutely excellent. This is definitely devine!
    • 4/5
      There is so much going on in The Divine Comedy that one reading is not enough to try to comprehend this book. Someone could, and I am sure many have, spend a lifetime reading and studying this.
    • 5/5
      First and foremost, this is a review of Ciardi's translation. I haven't read any other translations of this work, but I did a moderate bit of research and the conclusion (of the critics) is that Ciardi's translation is superior.I have now read the Divine Comedy twice, and hope to read it at least once more -- if you read it you will see that it is the execution of perfection. Besides being about good and evil, and how one can salvage one's life by embracing the former while eschewing the latter, you will marvel at the structure of these three canticles. Dante leaves few loose ends. There are surprises, witticisms, and rapture.
    • 5/5
      A gorgeous poem that has stood the test of time. This translation, along with the Moser illustrations, is a beautiful volume. Having the original Italian on the opposite page makes it more accessible. The author's notes are helpful, although readers without a heavy classical education may want to avail themselves of other notes or commentaries. A work that can be read in short bursts, and will be read again and again.
    • 4/5
      Purgatorio is by far the best of the three.
    • 3/5
      Contains some wonderful imagery, but seems rather obsolete in certain sections. Still a masterful writing display though, which has had its impact over the last centuries.
    • 5/5
      It is a wonderful read if you have footnotes to understand who the people he is talking about is. I found it fascinating and I hope that I finish it someday.
    • 5/5
      Wow! All I can say is what a pleasurable and enriching experience to have had the opportunity to listen to Dante's legendary poetry read aloud. The only metaphorical example I can think of is the difference between watching an epic film (like "Life of Pi") in 2D or 3D.

      Yes! Dante's Divine Comedy book vs. audiobook is on the same proportional movie-going scale! I highly recommend indulging yourself with this audiobook. It's one you'll want to purchase, not borrow!
    • 5/5
      Throughout The Divine Comedy Dante claims that his is no mere story, but a vision granted to him by the divine. While your personal faith probably plays a role in how you assess that claim, one thing is certain: Dante was a visionary, and The Divine Comedy contains some of the most stunning imagery you'll find in literature. Everyone has heard of Dante's nine circles of hell, but how many know that the ninth circle is surrounded by a living wall of giants, chained for their rebellion? Or that the mountain of purgatory is the land that was thrust up by Lucifer's fall, and atop it sits the Garden of Eden? Or that in paradise the souls of all the protectors of humanity form a huge eagle that addresses Dante, the eagle being formed of countless souls that shine like rubies in the sunlight? Not to mention the ultimate image Dante gives us, of the highest realm of heaven, wherein every soul that has reached paradise joins together to take the shape of a white rose, with God at its center.

      It's beautiful stuff, and even in translation Dante's prose proves up to the task of describing it. From the opening of Inferno where Dante has lost his way to the final lines of each canticle that draw our minds to the stars, Dante is a masterful writer. Not only that, but he's an assertive writer as well. While I could easily imagine an author falling back on his beautiful writing and delivering only a milquetoast moral stance (and indeed, Dante mentions this temptation), in The Divine Comedy Dante makes his opinions known on issues large and small. He's not afraid to criticize the practice of blood feuds, or to pillory different orders of monks, or even to call out the leadership of the Church and the rulers of Italy. He places popes and kings in the fires of hell just as readily as he does false prophets and foreign conquerers.

      In addition to this, The Divine Comedy serves as perhaps the best memorial for a lost love to ever be written. Dante's first love Beatrice, dead before he began work on The Divine Comedy, is not only placed by Dante among the highest ranks of paradise, but it is through her mercy and care that Dante is granted his vision of the divine. She is credited with not only inspiring his pen, but with saving his soul as well. Through this work Dante immortalizes his lost love, and if there is a love letter that can compare I don't know of it.

      The work isn't without its flaws. Paradiso has several cantos that focus on Dante's take on cosmology or astrophysics that aren't only clearly wrong under our modern understanding, but that don't flow particularly well either. They're like Melville's chapters on whale classification in Moby Dick- they struck me as more distracting than atmospheric. Paradiso is also rife with Dante raising theological questions, only to give them unsatisfying answers. I wish Dante had given us more of his brilliant descriptions instead of trying his hand at reconciling the nature of God with real world events. Occasionally in Inferno it feels as though Dante is sticking it to the people he doesn't like in life at the expense of the flow of the canto, while at other times it feels as though Dante is making an exception for historical figures he really liked at the expense of the logic of the divine system he has described (Cato being the prime example, but various Roman and Greek figures throughout raise this issue). Still, these complaints are minor. It's a vision, after all, and so the lack of a concrete system with steadfast rules isn't surprising.

      It's the journey that counts, not the destination, and Dante gives us one hell of a journey. It's an epic sightseeing trip through the world of Christian theology, a world that is still heavily influenced by the myths and scholars of ancient Rome and Greece. Though it's not perfect, it's great, and well worth your time.
    • 5/5
      A true classic that everyone should read but, unfortunately, few will genuinely appreciate. You travel the afterlife from Hell through Purgatory and arrive in Heaven. Along the way you meet various souls (some of whom Dante had been ticked at who today are not known) and realize the very Catholic approach to redemption.
    • 4/5
      Quintessential tale of recovery - The way out is for Dante to journey deeper into Hell.
    • 4/5
      If you want the Italian text, with notes in English, you might track down the Grandgent/Singleton Divina Commedia published in (I think) 1972. (There's another, older, one with only Grandgent as editor.)
    • 4/5
      DRAFT notes - the neologism "trasumanar" in canto 1 of Paradiso (to go beyond the human). Why did Dante coin this new word? At this time in his day.Some of the metaphors sound somehow mixed or even wrong: In the Tuscan, "nel lago del cor m'era durata". Does the "hardening lake of my heart" prefigure the revelation at the end of the Inferno that its deepest pit is frozen? Is the not-burning, a pious reader surprise?
    • 4/5
      Hell is fun! in book form.
    • 3/5
      The Divine Comedy is a long, narrative poem in three parts that tells of the still living Dante's visit to Hell and Purgatory, guided by the poet Virgil and ascension to Paradise, lead by his ideal woman, Beatrice. The author uses allegory to describe the journey of the soul toward God, and on the way reveals much about his own scientific andpolitical idealogies and medieval Christian theology. In The Inferno, the underworld is rife with a variety of mythological creatures. Dante is able to meet with the damned, including a number of prominent figures in history and literature, as well as his own personal acquaintences. There are nine concentric circles of Hell, where deeper levels house greater sinners and punishments. Satan is bound in a lake of ice in the deepest circle at the center of the Earth. In Purgatorio, Dante climbs through the seven terraces of mount Purgatory, each housing penitents guilty of one of the seven deadly sins. He joins the penitents in their pilgrimmage and purges himself of sin in order that he might see his beloved Beatrice and ascend into Heaven. Dante and Virgil meet many souls along the way who are surprised to see the living Dante among them. As a resident of Limbo, Virgil takes his leave before the ascension into heaven. Beatrice meets Dante and guides him through the nine celestial spheres. Dante discovers that all souls in Heaven are in contact with God and while all parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul, its ability to love God determines its placement in heaven. The Paradiso is a poem of fullfilment and completion and, contrary to The Inferno, does have a happy ending fitting of the title, Comedy.I tried reading a few different translations but preferred those that were more prose than poetry. If my first language was Italian I'm sure I would have enjoyed the original terza rima rhyme scheme, but any attempt at a similar rhyme scheme in English just doesn't work for me. Sadly, I found The Inferno and Purgatorio to be the most interesting realms of Dante's visit, but I'll chalk that up to the nature of Heaven being beyond our human ability to even imagine. I would hate to be one of the many whose sins were called out by the author so blatantly, but I have to admit that if the work were contemporary I might even find it humorous at times. At least I would be able to relate better. Overall it is an interesting and fairly quick read (if you skip all of the footnotes and commentary that take more lines than the poem itself) that I would recommend to anyone curious about this acclaimed work of literature.
    • 5/5
      This is the sort of work that seems beyond review. It is a classic of the highest order, one which I have only just scratched the surface. From even the barest reading, it is obvious that this work would reward close study and careful consideration. As someone who is not a specialist in poetry, particularly of this era, Christian theology, or the historical context, I can only record my impressions as someone reading this for its literary value. This review is based on the Everyman's Library edition of the Divine Comedy, which includes the Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is translated by Allen Mandelbaum. I found the translation pleasurable to read, and it shows through some of Dante's poetry. Having heard readings of it in its original language, I can hardly imagine any translation really capturing its poetic brilliance, but such is the challenge facing all translations of poetry. While I cannot compare it with other translations, I did find this one an enjoyable experience to read.This edition also contains extensive end notes throughout. Unless one is steeped in the theology and history, this work would be impenetrable without these notes. Dante is constantly alluding to individuals of historical note (often only within his context), the political rivalry between the Black and White Guelphs plays an important role and the work is rife with symbolism (beyond the obvious punishments detailed in the Inferno!). Further, and most importantly, Dante is engaged with the philosophical and theological debates of the day, and he tries to defend certain positions in this work. I would have been lost without the notes here. Indeed, one of the most rewarding things about reading the poem is learning about the history and philosophical/theological context. Reading an edition without extensive notes not only makes the text more difficult to understand for a modern reader, but deprives one of one of the most rewarding experiences in reading it.The Inferno is the most famous of the three books, and it is no small wonder why. Dante's depiction of the levels of hell is riveting and powerful. The imagery throughout is engrossing. It is interesting, however, that Dante recognizes that his abilities to describe, in imagistic terms, what he observes diminish as he rises through Pugatory and Heaven. He consistently invokes higher and higher deities to help him match these sights poetically. Yet, taken in the imagery of the poem, none of the works is more immediately powerful than the Inferno. One of the most interesting aspects of the poem is how Dante rises to meet this challenge. While in the Inferno, Dante is able to describe all manner of punishment and pain, his descriptions of heaven often turn on the blinding nature of its beauty. Its beauty is such that his eyes fail, and the correspondingly imaginative nature of his poetry falls short. He compensates by revealing the beauty of his heaven in other ways. Most notably is that he does so by showing how the divine nature of heaven can meet all of his questions and intellectual challenges. The joy and beauty of heaven is revealed in its ability to provide rational coherence. While I may be over-intellectualizing Dante here (I am no scholar of this material), it was the intellectual nature of his work that really struck me.One final portion of the work that I found particularly moving is that Dante is a human being observing what he does, and this comes through in his emotions and questions most of all. Though he recognizes that the punishments of hell must be just (because they are divine justice), he pities those who suffer them. I wrestled with the same questions, and the reader cannot help but feel sympathy for these souls as Dante describes their punishments. Dante is our guide through these questions, and even if I as a reader am less than satisfied with the answers Dante comes with, he struggles with them. It is not merely a description and celebration of the divine, but rather a real struggle to understand it, and reconcile it to our own conception of justice and the world. This makes the work an interactive intellectual exercise, one works on the same problems that Dante does.
    • 4/5
      Personally, I'm a bit of a purist. I was halfway through the Inferno section when I looked into the details behind the translation. The problem with translating a rhyme from one language to another--and keeping the phrase rhymed--required the translator to completely butcher both the wording of the original and the English language as a whole. At times, whole lines are added to the cantos that were not even in the original Italian version. I'm not touching it until I find a non-rhyming version that is more directly translated from the original.But still, it's a good read, so 4 stars.
    • 5/5
      This is a republication of the origial English translation. This is an amazing poem describing man's struggle with God and the afterlife.
    • 5/5
      Here is where I default by saying...I am not a Christian. However I grew up in churches...I like to think I know the bible better than most Christians seeing as I have actually read it. And I appreciate aspects of the religion. More than anything...the most interesting to me has always been the Catholics. Dante...while being ever so colorful...and ever so in the past...gives me a fun little look at past Christianity. What I noticed in this segment...rather than the other two...even he had some small concerns over his own religion...largely the way God was meant to deal with certain things...like the people who had come before said religion. People who might have been just as pure and pious and deserving of Heaven as those who came after. I enjoyed my realization that while he understood the rules of his religion what could and could not be done...he believed over that..that God was loving and merciful...should always be loving and merciful and therefore he could not understand partial exclusion of some. Which again I say came as a nice surprise because in the first two...I often got the feeling he was merely speaking out against what had been done to him...through his beliefs and his skill as a poet. Not that I'm saying he didn't...because well really...throwing enemies in hell and friends in heaven would have perks. But I think there is a little more there and I like it..a lot.
    • 5/5
      As with other books from a different time, take a course or get a good study guide. You'll never understand all the specific references to Florentine conflicts. Keep at it because understanding personalities, parody and sniping provides a lot of entertainment.

    Book preview

    The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri

    Introduction

    DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265–1321) was born into a noble Florentine family in a city torn apart by rival clans. While feudal aristocracy backed imperial authority (Ghibellines), the Alighieri family supported the pope (Guelphs). Their party eventually splintered into hostile White and Black factions. Offended by Pope Boniface VIII’s interference in secular affairs, Dante, too, became embroiled in this sectarianism and joined the White Guelphs. He was banished following the Black Guelph victory of 1302. Although he enjoyed the patronage of powerful northern Italian princes, his future political allegiances were misguided. He died in exile in Ravenna in 1321.

    The Divine Comedy, the first book to be written in the Italian vulgare instead of Latin, was begun in 1308 and contains three cantiche – Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso (Paradise) – written in terza rima, a verse scheme of three-line stanzas with interlocking rhyme patterns (aba, bcb, cdc, and so on). Dante’s influences included the classics, the neo-Platonists, Aristotle, natural philosophy and theology. The Inferno’s opening canto is a microcosm of the entire work and its topography prefigures the three realms of the soul’s afterlife: the dark wood (Hell), the barren slope (Mount Purgatory) and the blissful mountain (Paradise).

    The epic poem juxtaposes human privation, injustice and imperfection with divine freedom, justice and perfection. Dante’s allegorical theme of God’s gradual revelation to an unsuspecting, unprepared pilgrim beautifully illustrates the concept of the rational human soul choosing salvation of its own free will. The use of real-life characters, autobiographical detail, personal failures and triumphs, sophisticated eschatological discourse and the denunciation of contemporary politics renders the poem unique. The images remain unsurpassed – galloping centaurs, devils, chained giants, cannibalism, dazzling angels, supernatural rivers and trees, configurations of lights and a heavenly stadium.

    The symbolism of each realm with its various landscapes, rivers, guardians, inhabitants, pageants and dramas, combined with important number patterns (seven terraces, nymphs and capital sins; the Trinity; Lucifer’s three faces; Cerberus’ three heads; the heavenly trio (Mary, Lucy and Matilda); three theological virtues; the triune nature of Geryon; and three beasts and three Furies), gives the poem a tight complexity.

    The technique of having two Dante characters, the Poet and the Pilgrim, allows the narrative to reach out to the universal reader whilst operating on a personal level. During his spiritual journey, the pilgrim participates in the sin of every sinner, the penance of every repentant soul and the bliss of the blessed – he is Everyman. Sometimes his pity is stirred by the damned – many sinners try to trick him (Inf. V) and each other (Inf. XXI–XXIII) – which threatens his safety. Exchanges in Hell are hurried, devious and insincere, in marked contrast with the stoical patience of Purgatory and Heaven’s peaceful eternity.

    Beatrice’s intervention when the pilgrim is lost and contemplating suicide (Inf. I) reveals that benign forces have authorized the whole pilgrimage. God’s supervision is also evident from the events paralleling the Advents of Christ: the arrival of the angel at the gates of Dis (Inf. IX) is like the First Coming or Christ’s Harrowing of Hell; the pair of angels making their descent into the valley (Purg. VIII) is like the Second Coming or Christ entering Christian hearts; and Beatrice appears in the Earthly Paradise (Purg. XXX) like the Third Coming or Final Judgment.

    Virgil and Beatrice embody qualities that change with major shifts in the narrative. Where logic is required over faith (Hell), Virgil is a wonderful personification of reason or human wisdom: he wards off danger and shows the way in spite of his pre-Christian limitations (Inf. IX). Where faith supersedes reason, he fades into the background (Purg. III) and feels self-conscious (Purg. VII, XXI), his answers limited by a lack of Christian knowledge (Purg. VI). Stepping in to pass judgment on the pilgrim after he has been crowned and mitred by Virgil is Beatrice (Purg. XXVII). She appears on the pageant’s chariot as the Sacrament of the Body of Christ in the Church. No longer just an earthly model of beauty and courtesy, she now embodies divine wisdom, revelation and grace (Purg. XXX) and in her eyes is reflected the dual nature of Christ in the Griffin (Purg. XXXI).

    Hell (Inferno)

    Dante categorizes sin as being without malice (Incontinence) or with malicious intent (Violence or Fraud). Cowardice and indecisiveness escape this dichotomy and are marginalized within Limbo. Heresy is in a kind of no-man’s land as it refutes Christian reality and the soul’s immortality yet does not involve sinful action. Hell, under the city of Jerusalem in the Northern Hemisphere, extends funnel-like into the earth’s core. Dante and Virgil are forced to climb down Lucifer’s body because Mount Purgatory lies in the opposite (Southern) Hemisphere.

    The pilgrim’s behaviour sometimes mirrors that of the damned – for example, he chooses not to interact with the Indecisives (Inf. III); he compares his excusable vandalism of church property with Boniface’s inexcusable destruction of the Church’s foundations (Inf. XIX); and the language he uses when conversing with the Thieves suggests that he is contributing to the transformations themselves (Inf. XXIV).

    Here are a few examples of contrapasso (the logical relationship between punishment and offence). The Suicides severed ties with their body so they will be denied human form on Judgment Day (Inf. XIII). The Profligates, who were violently wasteful, are chased and torn by dogs through trees because property was seen as an extension of the body and this kind of violence was tantamount to suicide (Inf. XIII). The Flatterers are immersed in their verbal diarrhoea (Inf. XVIII). The Simonists are given inverted baptisms with fire to illustrate their ecclesiastical perversion (Inf. XIX). The Benedictine garb of the Hypocrites condemns their false piety (Inf. XXIII) whilst the Thieves’ multiple transformations parody reincarnation and reflect their inability to separate ‘mine’ from ‘thine’ (Inf. XXV). Fraudulent, silver-tongued rhetoric is condemned by the flaming tongues that consume the evil counsellors (Inf. XXVI–XXVII) while those who divided institutions, communities and families are ripped open (Inf. XXVIII). The corrosive influence of falsification on metals (Alchemists), money (Counterfeiters), identity (Imposters) and truth (Liars) is fittingly expressed through the diseased state of their bodies and minds (Inf. XIX–XXX).

    Church doctrine unfolds within a dark, noisy, smelly and antagonistic panorama where teachings are witnessed through the actions of sinners. As the pilgrim progresses through Purgatory on his way to Paradise, learning more and more by example, he hears long discourses about philosophical and theological doctrine from his teachers (Virgil, Beatrice, Statius, Lucy, Saint Bernard) until his faith comes to be examined by three of the Apostles (Peter, James and John).

    Purgatory (Purgatorio)

    Hell and Heaven are eternal states. Purgatory is a place of transition where souls do penance and are in contact with the living (Purg. XXXIII). Death’s second kingdom is courteous yet disciplined with a gatekeeper at Peter’s Gate, the Rule of the Mountain and angel guardians stationed all the way up the terraces to the Earthly Paradise. It is fitting that the journey from Ante-Purgatory to the First Cornice should be the most arduous.

    The mood is one of joy – lovers are reunited and all souls are bound for Heaven – but there is melancholy and austerity here as well because acute contrition is required to purge the stain of capital sin. Rituals to eradicate its root include penitence (Purg. IX, XXXI), a seven-fold pardon and two baptisms – one by water (Purg. XXXIII), the other by fire (Purg. XXVII). In a reversal of Inf. XVI, when Virgil cast off his pupil’s cord (foolish self-confidence) before entering Lower Hell, the pilgrim girds himself with a reed (Purg. I) to clothe his spirit in humility.

    Everywhere there is the promise of God’s love: in visions of the Host (the Sun, Beatrice riding the chariot), Cato’s face (Purg. I), the ship of souls (Purg. II), the murmur of prayer and angelic voices, the pageants (Purg. XXIX, XXX, XXXII) and the seven terrace warders. Punishment is borne willingly. On every cornice, penitence comprises the penance itself followed by a meditation made up of the Whip (examples of the opposing virtue) and the Bridle (deterrent examples of the sin), plus a prayer, a benediction and the pardon of the angel.

    Paradise (Paradiso)

    The structure of the heavenly ascent is based on the accepted Ptolemaic model – seven concentric planetary spheres revolving around the Earth. Beyond Saturn, the planets are enclosed in the Starry Heaven, where changeless angelic intelligences control the motion and order of the visible universe circling around the Primum Mobile, which is motionless. The abode of God, the Empyrean or Tenth Heaven, lies beyond time, space and movement.

    Dante places different groups of souls on each level to represent the stages of spiritual advancement that are possible through the active and the contemplative life. This arrangement does not physically exist of course – all souls share one God and one Heaven and are not attached to a particular sphere (Par. IV) – but it is part of God’s plan to provide some sort of sequence so that the pilgrim may be able to grasp a fragment of the ultimate reality of it all.

    The tone of Paradise is at once liturgical, lyrical and scientific, dominated by the presence of light, song, discourse, visions and revelations. A sense of harmony, of spirits united in love and will, is reflected in the encounters and conversations with the souls (manifested as light forms) who speak, sing or blush in anger at humanity’s earthly wrongdoings. The blessedness of unity with God is conveyed in those cantos where souls are not presented individually but as part of a symbolic figure or a larger whole: the double configuration of lights (Par. XII–XIII), the ruby-studded Cross (Par. XIV–XV), the eagle of justice (Par. XIX–XX), the ladder (Par. XXI), the lit-up message (Par. XVIII) and, finally, the mystic rose (Par. XXX–XXXII).

    Paradise is a blinding vision beyond human comprehension where words fall short yet astounding lucidity prevails: the indescribable beauty of Beatrice’s face when the Empyrean momentarily shines through her (Par. III); the radiance of the blessed wearing their body of glory (Par. XXXII); Dante gazing into the divine light and seeing the created universe in its entirety (Par. XXXIII); the mystery of the Holy Trinity expressed through geometric perfection (Par. XXXIII).

    Anna Amari-Parker

    Inferno

    At the age of thirty-five Dante is lost in a dark forest, having missed the ‘straightforward way’. The way to salvation is symbolized by the sun behind the mountain but it is barred by a Leopard, a Lion and a She-Wolf. The beasts represent different sins. After Dante’s love, Beatrice, intercedes on his behalf he is joined by the poet Virgil, who becomes his guide through the underworld. They cross the Acheron, on Charon’s ferry, and reach the Gate of Hell. From there they descend through the nine Circles of Hell, each circle representing a different sin. The punishments are chillingly appropriate. They finally reach the lake of ice where the three-headed Lucifer resides. Each head is chewing a sinner (Judas, Brutus and Cassius). The pair escape by climbing down Lucifer’s furry legs. After passing through the centre of the Earth, they emerge to ‘rebehold the stars’.

    Contents

    I. The Dark Forest. The Hill of Difficulty. The Panther, the Lion and the Wolf. Virgil.

    II. The Descent. Dante’s Protest and Virgil’s Appeal. The Intercession of the Three Ladies Benedight.

    III. The Gate of Hell. The Inefficient or Indifferent. Pope Celestine V. The Shores of Acheron. Charon. The Earthquake and the Swoon.

    IV. The First Circle, Limbo: Virtuous Pagans and the Unbaptized. The Four Poets, Homer, Horace, Ovid and Lucan. The Noble Castle of Philosophy.

    V. The Second Circle: The Wanton. Minos. The Infernal Hurricane. Francesca da Rimini.

    VI. The Third Circle: The Gluttonous. Cerberus. The Eternal Rain. Ciacco. Florence.

    VII. The Fourth Circle: The Avaricious and the Prodigal. Plutus. Fortune and her Wheel. The Fifth Circle: The Irascible and the Sullen. Styx.

    VIII. Phlegyas. Philippo Argenti. The Gate of the City of Dis.

    IX. The Furies and Medusa. The Angel. The City of Dis. The Sixth Circle: Heresiarchs.

    X. Farinata and Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti. Discourse on the Knowledge of the Damned.

    XI. The Broken Rocks. Pope Anastasius. General Description of the Inferno and its Divisions.

    XII. The Minotaur. The Seventh Circle: The Violent. The River Phlegethon. The Violent against their Neighbours. The Centaurs. Tyrants.

    XIII. The Wood of Thorns. The Harpies. The Violent against themselves. Suicides. Pier della Vigna. Lano and Jacopo da Sant’ Andrea.

    XIV. The Sand Waste and the Rain of Fire. The Violent against God. Capaneus. The Statue of Time and the Four Infernal Rivers.

    XV. The Violent against Nature. Brunetto Latini.

    XVI. Guidoguerra, Aldobrandi and Rusticucci. Cataract of the River of Blood.

    XVII. Geryon. The Violent against Art. Usurers. Descent into the Abyss of Malebolge.

    XVIII. The Eighth Circle, Malebolge: The Fraudulent and the Malicious. The First Bolgia: Seducers and Panders. Venedico Caccianimico. Jason. The Second Bolgia: Flatterers. Allessio Interminelli. Thais.

    XIX. The Third Bolgia: Simoniacs. Pope Nicholas III. Dante’s Reproof of corrupt Prelates.

    XX. The Fourth Bolgia: Soothsayers. Amphiaraus, Tiresias, Aruns, Manto, Eryphylus, Michael Scott, Guido Bonatti and Asdente. Virgil reproaches Dante’s Pity. Mantua’s Foundation.

    XXI. The Fifth Bolgia: Peculators. The Elder of Santa Zita. Malacoda and other Devils.

    XXII. Ciampolo, Friar Gomita and Michael Zanche. The Malabranche quarrel.

    XXIII. Escape from the Malabranche. The Sixth Bolgia: Hypocrites. Catalano and Loderingo. Caiaphas.

    XXIV. The Seventh Bolgia: Thieves. Vanni Fucci. Serpents.

    XXV. Vanni Fucci’s Punishment. Agnello Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, Puccio Sciancato, Cianfa de’ Donati and Guercio Cavalcanti.

    XXVI. The Eighth Bolgia: Evil Counsellors. Ulysses and Diomed. Ulysses’ Last Voyage.

    XXVII. Guido da Montefeltro. His deception by Pope Boniface VIII.

    XXVIII. The Ninth Bolgia: Schismatics. Mahomet and Ali. Pier da Medicina, Curio, Mosca and Bertrand de Born.

    XXIX. Geri del Bello. The Tenth Bolgia: Alchemists. Griffolino d’ Arezzo and Capocchino.

    XXX. Other Falsifiers or Forgers. Gianni Schicchi, Myrrha, Adam of Brescia, Potiphar’s Wife and Sinon of Troy.

    XXXI. The Giants, Nimrod, Ephialtes and Antaeus. Descent to Cocytus.

    XXXII. The Ninth Circle: Traitors. The Frozen Lake of Cocytus. First Division, Caina: Traitors to their Kindred. Camicion de’ Pazzi. Second Division, Antenora: Traitors to their Country. Dante questions Bocca degli Abati. Buoso da Duera.

    XXXIII. Count Ugolino and the Archbishop Ruggieri. The Death of Count Ugolino’s Sons. Third Division of the Ninth Circle, Ptolomaea: Traitors to their Friends. Friar Alberigo, Branco d’ Oria.

    XXXIV. Fourth Division of the Ninth Circle, the Judecca: Traitors to their Lords and Benefactors. Lucifer, Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius. The Chasm of Lethe. The Ascent.

    Canto I

    In the middle of his life, Dante has left the ‘straightforward pathway’ and is lost in a dark forest. He tries to regain the path by climbing a mountain but his way is barred by a Leopard, a Lion and a She-Wolf. Each creature represents a different sin. Virgil appears and offers to show him another way, one that leads through Hell and Purgatory. After that, a ‘more worthy’ guide (Beatrice) will lead him to Paradise: Virgil, as a Pagan, is not allowed to go there. Dante gladly adopts Virgil as his leader.

    Midway upon the journey of our life

    I found myself within a forest dark,

    For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

    Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say

    What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,

    Which in the very thought renews the fear.

    So bitter is it, death is little more;

    But of the good to treat, which there I found,

    Speak will I of the other things I saw there.

    I cannot well repeat how there I entered,

    So full was I of slumber at the moment

    In which I had abandoned the true way.

    But after I had reached a mountain’s foot,

    At that point where the valley terminated,

    Which had with consternation pierced my heart,

    Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,

    Vested already with that planet’s rays

    Which leadeth others right by every road.

    Then was the fear a little quieted

    That in my heart’s lake had endured throughout

    The night, which I had passed so piteously.

    And even as he, who, with distressful breath,

    Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,

    Turns to the water perilous and gazes;

    So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,

    Turn itself back to re-behold the pass

    Which never yet a living person left.

    After my weary body I had rested,

    The way resumed I on the desert slope,

    So that the firm foot ever was the lower.

    And lo! almost where the ascent began,

    A panther light and swift exceedingly,

    Which with a spotted skin was covered o’er!

    And never moved she from before my face,

    Nay, rather did impede so much my way,

    That many times I to return had turned.

    The time was the beginning of the morning,

    And up the sun was mounting with those stars

    That with him were, what time the Love Divine

    At first in motion set those beauteous things;

    So were to me occasion of good hope,

    The variegated skin of that wild beast,

    The hour of time, and the delicious season;

    But not so much, that did not give me fear

    A lion’s aspect which appeared to me.

    He seemed as if against me he were coming

    With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,

    So that it seemed the air was afraid of him;

    And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings

    Seemed to be laden in her meagreness,

    And many folk has caused to live forlorn!

    She brought upon me so much heaviness,

    With the affright that from her aspect came,

    That I the hope relinquished of the height.

    And as he is who willingly acquires,

    And the time comes that causes him to lose,

    Who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent,

    E’en such made me that beast withouten peace,

    Which, coming on against me by degrees

    Thrust me back thither where the sun is silent.

    While I was rushing downward to the lowland,

    Before mine eyes did one present himself,

    Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse.

    When I beheld him in the desert vast,

    Have pity on me, unto him I cried,

    Whiche’er thou art, or shade or real man!

    He answered me: "Not man; man once I was,

    And both my parents were of Lombardy,

    And Mantuans by country both of them.

    ‘Sub Julio’ was I born, though it was late,

    And lived at Rome under the good Augustus,

    During the time of false and lying gods.

    A poet was I, and I sang that just

    Son of Anchises, who came forth from Troy,

    After that Ilion the superb was burned.

    But thou, why goest thou back to such annoyance?

    Why climb’st thou not the Mount Delectable,

    Which is the source and cause of every joy?"

    "Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain

    Which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech?"

    I made response to him with bashful forehead.

    "O, of the other poets honour and light,

    Avail me the long study and great love

    That have impelled me to explore thy volume!

    Thou art my master, and my author thou,

    Thou art alone the one from whom I took

    The beautiful style that has done honour to me.

    Behold the beast, for which I have turned back;

    Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage,

    For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble."

    Thee it behoves to take another road,

    Responded he, when he beheld me weeping,

    "If from this savage place thou wouldst escape;

    Because this beast, at which thou criest out,

    Suffers not any one to pass her way,

    But so doth harass him, that she destroys him;

    And has a nature so malign and ruthless,

    That never doth she glut her greedy will,

    And after food is hungrier than before.

    Many the animals with whom she weds,

    And more they shall be still, until the Greyhound

    Comes, who shall make her perish in her pain.

    He shall not feed on either earth or pelf,

    But upon wisdom, and on love and virtue;

    ’Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be;

    Of that low Italy shall he be the saviour,

    On whose account the maid Camilla died,

    Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds;

    Through every city shall he hunt her down,

    Until he shall have driven her back to Hell,

    There from whence envy first did let her loose.

    Therefore I think and judge it for thy best

    Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide,

    And lead thee hence through the eternal place,

    Where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations,

    Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate,

    Who cry out each one for the second death;

    And thou shalt see those who contented are

    Within the fire, because they hope to come,

    Whene’er it may be, to the blessed people;

    To whom, then, if thou wishest to ascend,

    A soul shall be for that than I more worthy;

    With her at my departure I will leave thee;

    Because that Emperor, who reigns above,

    In that I was rebellious to his law,

    Wills that through me none come into his city.

    He governs everywhere, and there he reigns;

    There is his city and his lofty throne;

    O happy he whom thereto he elects!"

    And I to him: "Poet, I thee entreat,

    By that same God whom thou didst never know,

    So that I may escape this woe and worse,

    Thou wouldst conduct me there where thou hast said,

    That I may see the portal of Saint Peter,

    And those thou makest so disconsolate."

    Then he moved on, and I behind him followed.

    Midway upon the journey of our life / I found myself within a forest dark, / For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

    Inf. I, lines 1–3

    And lo! almost where the ascent began, / A panther light and swift exceedingly, / Which with a spotted skin was covered o’er!

    Inf. I, lines 31–33

    He seemed as if against me he were coming / With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,

    Inf. I, lines 46–47

    Behold the beast, for which I have turned back; / Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage,

    Inf. I, lines 88–89

    Then he moved on, and I behind him followed.

    Inf. I, line 136

    Canto II

    The end of the day has come and Dante is having doubts. He does not feel worthy enough to undertake his journey. Virgil accuses him of cowardice and tells of how the Virgin Mary turned to Saint Lucia, who in turn asked for Beatrice, Dante’s love, to go down into Limbo, where Virgil resides. There Beatrice, with ‘voice angelical’, asked Virgil to assist Dante, whose way was impeded. At this, Dante is heartened, and declares to Virgil that ‘one sole will is in us both’.

    Day was departing, and the embrowned air

    Released the animals that are on Earth

    From their fatigues; and I the only one

    Made myself ready to sustain the war,

    Both of the way and likewise of the woe,

    Which memory that errs not shall retrace.

    O Muses, O high genius, now assist me!

    O memory, that didst write down what I saw,

    Here thy nobility shall be manifest!

    And I began: "Poet, who guidest me,

    Regard my manhood, if it be sufficient,

    Ere to the arduous pass thou dost confide me.

    Thou sayest, that of Silvius the parent,

    While yet corruptible, unto the world

    Immortal went, and was there bodily.

    But if the adversary of all evil

    Was courteous, thinking of the high effect

    That issue would from him, and who, and what,

    To men of intellect unmeet it seems not;

    For he was of great Rome, and of her empire

    In the empyreal heaven as father chosen;

    The which and what, wishing to speak the truth,

    Were stablished as the holy place, wherein

    Sits the successor of the greatest Peter.

    Upon this journey, whence thou givest him vaunt,

    Things did he hear, which the occasion were

    Both of his victory and the papal mantle.

    Thither went afterwards the Chosen Vessel,

    To bring back comfort thence unto that Faith,

    Which of salvation’s way is the beginning.

    But I, why thither come, or who concedes it?

    I not Aeneas am, I am not Paul,

    Nor I, nor others, think me worthy of it.

    Therefore, if I resign myself to come,

    I fear the coming may be ill-advised;

    Thou’rt wise, and knowest better than I speak."

    And as he is, who unwills what he willed,

    And by new thoughts doth his intention change,

    So that from his design he quite withdraws,

    Such I became, upon that dark hillside,

    Because, in thinking, I consumed the emprise,

    Which was so very prompt in the beginning.

    If I have well thy language understood,

    Replied that shade of the Magnanimous,

    "Thy soul attainted is with cowardice,

    Which many times a man encumbers so,

    It turns him back from honoured enterprise,

    As false sight doth a beast, when he is shy.

    That thou mayst free thee from this apprehension,

    I’ll tell thee why I came, and what I heard

    At the first moment when I grieved for thee.

    Among those was I who are in suspense,

    And a fair, saintly Lady called to me

    In such wise, I besought her to command me.

    Her eyes were shining brighter than the Star;

    And she began to say, gentle and low,

    With voice angelical, in her own language:

    ‘O spirit courteous of Mantua,

    Of whom the fame still in the world endures,

    And shall endure, long-lasting as the world;

    A friend of mine, and not the friend of fortune,

    Upon the desert slope is so impeded

    Upon his way, that he has turned through terror,

    And may, I fear, already be so lost,

    That I too late have risen to his succour,

    From that which I have heard of him in Heaven.

    Bestir thee now, and with thy speech ornate,

    And with what needful is for his release,

    Assist him so, that I may be consoled.

    Beatrice am I, who do bid thee go;

    I come from there, where I would fain return;

    Love moved me, which compelleth me to speak.

    When I shall be in presence of my Lord,

    Full often will I praise thee unto him.’

    Then paused she, and thereafter I began:

    ‘O Lady of virtue, thou alone through whom

    The human race exceedeth all contained

    Within the heaven that has the lesser circles,

    So grateful unto me is thy commandment,

    To obey, if ’twere already done, were late;

    No farther need’st thou ope to me thy wish.

    But the cause tell me why thou dost not shun

    The here descending down into this centre,

    From the vast place thou burnest to return to.’

    ‘Since thou wouldst fain so inwardly discern,

    Briefly will I relate,’ she answered me,

    ‘Why I am not afraid to enter here.

    Of those things only should one be afraid

    Which have the power of doing others harm;

    Of the rest, no; because they are not fearful.

    God in his mercy such created me

    That misery of yours attains me not,

    Nor any flame assails me of this burning.

    A gentle Lady is in Heaven, who grieves

    At this impediment, to which I send thee,

    So that stern judgment there above is broken.

    In her entreaty she besought Lucia,

    And said, "Thy faithful one now stands in need

    Of thee, and unto thee I recommend him."

    Lucia, foe of all that cruel is,

    Hastened away, and came unto the place

    Where I was sitting with the ancient Rachel.

    Beatrice said she, "the true praise of God,

    Why succourest thou not him, who loved thee so,

    For thee he issued from the vulgar herd?

    Dost thou not hear the pity of his plaint?

    Dost thou not see the death that combats him

    Beside that flood, where ocean has no vaunt?"

    Never were persons in the world so swift

    To work their weal and to escape their woe,

    As I, after such words as these were uttered,

    Came hither downward from my blessed seat,

    Confiding in thy dignified discourse,

    Which honours thee, and those who’ve listened to it.’

    After she thus had spoken unto me,

    Weeping, her shining eyes she turned away;

    Whereby she made me swifter in my coming;

    And unto thee I came, as she desired;

    I have delivered thee from that wild beast,

    Which barred the beautiful mountain’s short ascent.

    What is it, then? Why, why dost thou delay?

    Why is such baseness bedded in thy heart?

    Daring and hardihood why hast thou not,

    Seeing that three such Ladies benedight

    Are caring for thee in the court of Heaven,

    And so much good my speech doth promise thee?"

    Even as the flowerets, by nocturnal chill,

    Bowed down and closed, when the sun whitens them,

    Uplift themselves all open on their stems;

    Such I became with my exhausted strength,

    And such good courage to my heart there coursed,

    That I began, like an intrepid person:

    "O she compassionate, who succoured me,

    And courteous thou, who hast obeyed so soon

    The words of truth which she addressed to thee!

    Thou hast my heart so with desire disposed

    To the adventure, with these words of thine,

    That to my first intent I have returned.

    Now go, for one sole will is in us both,

    Thou Leader, and thou Lord, and Master thou."

    Thus said I to him; and when he had moved,

    I entered on the deep and savage way.

    Day was departing,

    Inf. II, line 1

    Beatrice am I, who do bid thee go;

    Inf. II, line 70

    Canto III

    As Dante and Virgil enter Hell’s ante-chamber, they see words inscribed above its gate and hear the cries of the Indecisive, the first group of damned souls. These moral ‘cowards’, rejected by Heaven yet ignored by Hell, have to chase a banner whilst being plagued by hornets and flies. Charon the Boatman refuses to carry Dante, a living soul, across the river Acheron on Hell’s outer boundary, but Virgil declares that Heaven wills it. A fierce wind picks up and Dante swoons.

    "Through me the way is to the city dolent;

    Through me the way is to eternal dole;

    Through me the way among the people lost.

    Justice incited my sublime Creator;

    Created me divine Omnipotence,

    The highest Wisdom and the primal Love.

    Before me there were no created things,

    Only eterne, and I eternal last.

    All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"

    These words in sombre colour I beheld

    Written upon the summit of a gate;

    Whence I: Their sense is, Master, hard to me!

    And he to me, as one experienced:

    "Here all suspicion needs must be abandoned,

    All cowardice must needs be here extinct.

    We to the place have come, where I have told thee

    Thou shalt behold the people dolorous

    Who have foregone the good of intellect."

    And after he had laid his hand on mine

    With joyful mien, whence I was comforted,

    He led me in among the secret things.

    There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud

    Resounded through the air without a star,

    Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat.

    Languages diverse, horrible dialects,

    Accents of anger, words of agony,

    And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands,

    Made up a tumult that goes whirling on

    For ever in that air for ever black,

    Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breathes.

    And I, who had my head with horror bound,

    Said: "Master, what is this which now I hear?

    What folk is this, which seems by pain so vanquished?"

    And he to me: "This miserable mode

    Maintain the melancholy souls of those

    Who lived withouten infamy or praise.

    Commingled are they with that caitiff choir

    Of Angels, who have not rebellious been,

    Nor faithful were to God, but were for self.

    The heavens expelled them, not to be less fair;

    Nor them the nethermore abyss receives,

    For glory none the damned would have from them."

    And I: "O Master, what so grievous is

    To these, that maketh them lament so sore?"

    He answered: "I will tell thee very briefly.

    These have no longer any hope of death;

    And this blind life of theirs is so debased,

    They envious are of every other fate.

    No fame of them the world permits to be;

    Misericord and Justice both disdain them.

    Let us not speak of them, but look, and pass."

    And I, who looked again, beheld a banner,

    Which, whirling round, ran on so rapidly,

    That of all pause it seemed to me indignant;

    And after it there came so long a train

    Of people, that I ne’er would have believed

    That ever Death so many had undone.

    When some among them I had recognised,

    I looked, and I beheld the shade of him

    Who made through cowardice the great refusal.

    Forthwith I comprehended, and was certain,

    That this the sect was of the caitiff wretches

    Hateful to God and to his enemies.

    These miscreants, who never were alive,

    Were naked, and were stung exceedingly

    By gadflies and by hornets that were there.

    These did their faces irrigate with blood,

    Which, with their tears commingled, at their feet

    By the disgusting worms was gathered up.

    And when to gazing farther I betook me,

    People I saw on a great river’s bank;

    Whence said I: "Master, now vouchsafe to me,

    That I may know who these are, and what law

    Makes them appear so ready to pass over,

    As I discern athwart the dusky light."

    And he to me: "These things shall all be known

    To thee, as soon as we our footsteps stay

    Upon the dismal shore of Acheron."

    Then with mine eyes ashamed and downward cast,

    Fearing my words might irksome be to him,

    From speech refrained I till we reached the river.

    And lo! towards us coming in a boat

    An old man, hoary with the hair of eld,

    Crying: "Woe unto you, ye souls depraved!

    Hope nevermore to look upon the heavens;

    I come to lead you to the other shore,

    To the eternal shades in heat and frost.

    And thou, that yonder standest, living soul,

    Withdraw thee from these people, who are dead!"

    But when he saw that I did not withdraw,

    He said: "By other ways, by other ports

    Thou to the shore shalt come, not here, for passage;

    A lighter vessel needs must carry thee."

    And unto him the Guide: "Vex thee not, Charon;

    It is so willed there where is power to do

    That which is willed; and farther question not."

    Thereat were quieted the fleecy cheeks

    Of him the ferryman of the livid fen,

    Who round about his eyes had wheels of flame.

    But all those souls who weary were and naked

    Their colour changed and gnashed their teeth together,

    As soon as they had heard those cruel words.

    God they blasphemed and their progenitors,

    The human race, the place, the time, the seed

    Of their engendering and of their birth!

    Thereafter all together they drew back,

    Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore,

    Which waiteth every man who fears not God.

    Charon the demon, with the eyes of glede,

    Beckoning to them, collects them all together,

    Beats with his oar whoever lags behind.

    As in the autumn-time the leaves fall off,

    First one and then another, till the branch

    Unto the earth surrenders all its spoils;

    In similar wise the evil seed of Adam

    Throw themselves from that margin one by one,

    At signals, as a bird unto its lure.

    So they depart across the dusky wave,

    And ere upon the other side they land,

    Again on this side a new troop assembles.

    My son, the courteous Master said to me,

    "All those who perish in the wrath of God

    Here meet together out of every land;

    And ready are they to pass o’er the river,

    Because celestial Justice spurs them on,

    So that their fear is turned into desire.

    This way there never passes a good soul;

    And hence if Charon doth complain of thee,

    Well mayst thou know now what his speech imports."

    This being finished, all the dusk champaign

    Trembled so violently, that of that terror

    The recollection bathes me still with sweat.

    The land of tears gave forth a blast of wind,

    And fulminated a vermilion light,

    Which overmastered in me every sense,

    And as a man whom sleep hath seized I fell.

    All hope abandon, ye who enter in!

    Inf. III, line 9

    And lo! towards us coming in a boat / An old man, hoary with the hair of eld, / Crying: Woe unto you, ye souls depraved!

    Inf. III, lines 82–84

    Charon the demon, with the eyes of glede, / Beckoning to them, collects them all together, / Beats with his oar whoever lags behind.

    Inf. III, lines 109–111

    Canto IV

    Virgil shows Dante the mournful shadows of virtuous non-Christians like himself who haunt Limbo, Hell’s First Circle, and suffer the spiritual torment of forever seeking God in vain. Virgil speaks about Christ’s descent into Hell and his salvation of several Old Testament patriarchs. A glowing light reveals four other great pagan figures – Homer, Horace, Ovid and Lucan. The pilgrim perceives a splendid castle of light in the distance, where the most renowned non-Christian philosophers, poets and warriors dwell.

    Broke the deep lethargy within my head

    A heavy thunder, so that I upstarted,

    Like to a person who by force is wakened;

    And round about I moved my rested eyes,

    Uprisen erect, and steadfastly I gazed,

    To recognise the place wherein I was.

    True is it, that upon the verge I found me

    Of the abysmal valley dolorous,

    That gathers thunder of infinite ululations.

    Obscure, profound it was, and nebulous,

    So that by fixing on its depths my sight

    Nothing whatever I discerned therein.

    Let us descend now into the blind world,

    Began the Poet, pallid utterly;

    I will be first, and thou shalt second be.

    And I, who of his colour was aware,

    Said: "How shall I come, if thou art afraid,

    Who’rt wont to be a comfort to my fears?"

    And he to me:

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