Week 7 – Dante: The Divine Comedy

The Inferno

Comedy – means confusion

In Shakespeare – solving confusion

Dante develop an idea of hell; each level in hell all bring down to where Satan resides has different
kind of sinners; punishments matches the sins committed.

Main political enemy was the pope.

Dante is celebrated in Italy. The Italian of all Italy, father of Italian language

In Italy, each region has a very strong dialect that they spoke. South will hardly be able to
understand the language spoke by those of the north.

Reading 1: About The Divine Comedy: Inferno

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/d/the-divine-comedy-inferno/about-the-divine-comedy-
inferno

Questions: About The Divine Comedy: Inferno

What was the cause of the main political struggle during the Middle Ages?

Throughout the Middle Ages, politics was dominated by the struggle between the two
greatest powers of that age: the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire (HRE). Each claimed
to be of divine origin and to be indispensable to the welfare of mankind. The cause of this
struggle was the papal claim that it also had authority over temporal matters, that is, the
ruling of the government and other secular matters. In contrast, the HRE maintained that the
papacy had claim only to religious matters, not to temporal matters.

Pope had the absolute right to tell the temporal leaders what to do. Struggle for control of the
land

Who were the Guelphs? Who did they support?

The Guelphs, of which Dante was a member, were mainly supported by the rising middle
class, represented by rich merchants, bankers, and new landowners. They supported the
cause of the papacy in opposition to the Holy Roman Emperor.

Middle class, professional people, merchants, supported the pope.

Dante wanted the pope to unite the whole country.

Who were the Ghibellines? Who did they support?

The Ghibellines represented the medieval aristocracy, which wished to retain the power of
the Holy Roman Emperor in Italy, as well as in other parts of Europe. The Ghibellines fought
hard in this struggle for the nobility to retain its feudal powers over the land and the people.

Wanted to be the absolute rulers within their country.

Why did Dante support the Guelphs?

Dante, as a Guelph, was a supporter of the imperial authority because he passionately

wanted Italy united into one central state. Italy was divided in that time.

He wanted Italy to be a untited country. The pope was the only one who can do that, single
unifying power.

Why was Virgil considered an ideal companion for Dante in his journey?
Virgil was considered the most moral of all the poets of ancient Rome. Virgil's Aeneid was
one of the models for Dante's Inferno. It is said that Dante had memorized the
entire Aeneid and that he had long revered Virgil as the poet of the Roman Empire,
especially since the Aeneid tells the story of the founding of the Roman Empire.
Furthermore, in Virgil's Fourth Eclogue, he writes symbolically about the coming of a Wonder
Child who will bring the Golden Age to the world, and in the Middle Ages, this was
interpreted as being prophetic of the coming of Christ. Thus, in the figure of Virgil, Dante
found a symbol who represented the two key institutions: the papacy and the empire,
destined by God to save mankind.

Video 1: What is Dante's Inferno? | Overview & Summary!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE5ihycCq54

Questions: What is Dante's Inferno? | Overview & Summary!

When was The Divine Comedy Written?

An epic poem written in the early 1300s by the Italian Dante Alighieri.

1520 – completed, 1 year before dante’s own death

What are the three parts of The Divine Comedy?

Depth of Hell, terrace of purgatory, and sphere of heaven

Inferno, purgatorio, paraiso

Who was Dante’s wife, and what happened to her?

Beatrice, died at a young age. Innocent and pure, inspiration to the story,
dante wanted to go to heaven to meet his wife

Is the Dante in the story the same Dante who wrote the poem?

Real life character, Dante himself appears as the protagonist in his own story.
Put himself in, and put other real characters into the story, and put them in
hell.

(From last week) What do we call the language used in The Divine Comedy?

Vernacular (middle English)

Where will Dante meet Beatrice again?

In heaven

What is inscribed on the Gates of Hell?

“Abandon all hope, you who enter here.”

What people inhabit the Anti-Inferno?

This area is for people that have had the choice between good and evil and
could not choose, so have therefore been rejected by both heaven and hell.

They are constantly tormented and chased by hornets and snakes, forcing
them into action.

There are angels here as well, those that chose neither side in the war of good
versus evil; also tormented.
What is the First Circle of Hell called? Who lives there?

Limbo (“virtuous pagans”) – have done great deeds, lived morally right lives,
but either didn’t accept Christianity or lived before it existed, or they were
never baptized.

This is were Virgil and other poets and philosophers exist, so Virgil will return
here after their adventure.

Who is the Second Circle of Hell intended for? What is their punishment?

Lust (lustful) – those that gave in to pleasure and now are cursed with eternity
in the midst of a raging storm. Wind so strong that it whips them about
uncontrollably, ravaging them against the rocks.

Lustful live their live with the whim of their desires. In hell, they cannot be led
by their desires, they are led by the wind.

Who is the Third Circle of Hell intended for? What is their punishment?

Gluttony – it continues to rain but now it is filth raining from the sky and those
that are gluttonous and consumed in excess lay on the ground unable to move;
forever pelted with debris and sewage.

Here Dante sees the monster Cerberus prowling; three-headed dog that keeps
souls in Hades. From ancient Greek mythology before the time of christianity

Who is the Fourth Circle of Hell intended for? What is their punishment?

Greed – the greedy here are forever battling each other, rolling giant boulders
into each other, a constant jousting match. There is no reprieve from the
battle.

Greedy and indulgent, in hell they cannot be one because they keep on
pushing boulders
Here is the demon named Plutus, who in Greek mythology was the god of
money and wealth.

Who is the Fifth Circle of Hell intended for? What is their punishment?

Is against a giant river, the river Styx.

Wrath – the wrathful and angry are kept here, forever fighting each other,
clawing, and biting in anger.

The sullen and gloomy are also kept here, submerged under the water, forced
to breathe and choke on the black mud, withdrawn from the world.

Wrathful and angry are not necessarily always wrathful, the are only angry

The gloomy doesn’t have to think of their self, tries to get breathe

LOWER HELL – the worst of the worst

There is a city guarded by the fallen angels who turn Virgil and Dante away, ‘no
living man may enter,’ they shout. Here is the first place where Virgil holds no
sway or influence and may not be able to protect Dante.

Who is the Sixth Circle of Hell intended for? What is their punishment?

A place with great graveyard with tombstones covered in flames.

Heresy – the heretics, those that pronounced other false religions.

Traditionally known as hell.

Leader og gebellines is here

Who is the Seventh Circle of Hell intended for?

Violence – being violent to others (murderers and warlords), those who are
violent to themselves, committing acts of suicide, and those that are violent
against God (blasphemers against God and violent against nature, God’s
creation)

Geryon – a beast with massive wings, a symbol of fraud, has a face of a man
which tricks you, while he stings you with a scorpion tale.

Who is the Eighth Circle of Hell intended for? What is their punishment?

Fraud – it’s a bowl almost with demons torturing people around, those that
have deceived and manipulated others during their life.

This includes pimps and sexual manipulators, as well as gamblers and people
who created false money.

Also, fortune tellers with their heads placed backwards, so they can only see
behind them.

People who uses their physical and psychological strength

To deceive other people is to deceive god, worse than being violent to others

Volent crimes are punished by prisonment

Who is the Ninth Circle of Hell intended for? What is their punishment?

Betrayal – Where Satan is; a giant three-headed beast that is forever flapping
his giant wings, which makes this level of Hell actually frozen and most of
Satan’s body is encased in ice. He is forever punishing the three greatest
betrayers in history: (1) Judas who betrayed Jesus Christ, (2) Brutus and (3)
Cassius who betrayed Julius Caesar.

There are other men completely frozen in ice, those that have betrayed their
family, their God, or their country.

Worst place in hell is ice, make cold by satan wings constantly flapping his
wings

Betrayers
Brutus and cassius – where before christ, betrayed Julius Caesar and killed him

The bad ones go in different part of hell, depending on what sins they have
committed.

Bad ones stay on the circles of hell

Themes

What do you think are the themes of The Inferno?

 The Perfection of God’s Justice

 Evil as the Contradiction of God’s Will – fraudsters are worse than violent criminals

 Storytelling as a Way to Achieve Immortality –

Questions for You

Do you think this is what Hell is really like?

Where every one burns and boils

Is there any type of sinner who is missed out of Dante’s Hell?