1. A Tour “Abandon all hope ye who enter here…”
Dante’s Inferno
A Tour
“Abandon all hope ye who enter here…”

2. The Middle Ages: Background
Impact of the Crusades
conflict between the Church and the various kingdoms
Began to reshape the political landscape of Europe
Dante: very upset with the Church’s meddling in politics

3. Common Themes in Medieval Literature
The Hero’s Journey, Religious Pilgrimage
Knight in search of the Holy Grail
Search for Truth & Answers
Seeking answers to religious, political, and social questions
Not a period of conformity anymore
Struggle to Remain Faithful
Pursuit of Salvation (The Divine Comedy)

4. Dante Alighieri Born in Florence, 1265 Died in Ravenna, 1321
Hailed as the supreme poet of Italy and one of the most gifted of all time: “Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them—there is no third” (T.S. Eliot)

5. Dante Alighieri: Background
Florence, Italy
Unique place: culture, philosophy, and politics seemed to “advance” more quickly in Florence
Place of political turbulence (divided between two rival political factions: Guelphs vs. the Ghibellines
Dante’s personal struggles motivated him to get involved in politics
Deeply religious, old-school Catholic
HOWEVER, he thought that the Church should tend to matters of the divine (SORT OF like separation of Church and state)
Makes some people argue that Dante was ahead of his time

9. The Divine Comedy
Written in exile from 1306 to 1321 (the year of Dante’s death)
Three books: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso reflect the Power of the Father, the Wisdom of the Son, and the Love of the Holy Spirit = the Trinity
Each book contains 33 cantos. These, plus the introductory canto in Inferno, make 100 cantos
The square of 100 is 10, a perfect number because it is the square of the Trinity plus one: the Unity of God
Threes: Three lines per stanza / three books. Nine circles in each level of afterlife (3x3=9)

10. The Divine Comedy
The poem presents an overview of the attitudes, beliefs, philosophies, as well as the material aspects of the Medieval world.
Because of these many elements the poem encompasses, The Divine Comedy has become universally known as one of the greatest poems in world literature.
Premise: A man struggling to make peace with his political exile through the triumph of love
Dante's purpose for writing The Divine Comedy was expressed in a famous letter to his Veronan benefactor, Can Grande della Scala, where he said, "it is an attempt to remove those living in this life from the state of misery and lead them to the state of bliss."

11. Ideas to Consider The soul’s search for illumination and guidance
The poem as story, allegory, theology, and moral outlook
Balances tensions of Medieval society: Classicism vs. Christianity
Elevated the vernacular Italian, as opposed to Latin
Begins on Good Friday, ends on Easter Sunday (rebirth and resurrection).

12. Distinct Features of Dante’s Inferno
Allegory
A fictional story designed to reflect something in real life
The story of his journey through the inferno mirrors his journey through political exile and lost love
The sinners represent the people who wronged him
The punishments represent Dante’s view of their sins’ seriousness and what he thought to be appropriate punishment

13. Virgil Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) 70 B.C.–19 B.C., Roman poet.
In the Eclogues, Virgil turned to rural poetry of a contrasting kind, realistic and didactic.
For the rest of his life Virgil worked on the Aeneid, a national epic honoring Rome and foretelling prosperity to come.

14. The Symbol of Human Reason
His qualities of tenderness, humanity and deep religious sentiment caused him to be regarded as the herald of Christianity throughout the Middle Ages. This ensured a wide transmission of his works and caused Dante to choose him as the guide in his master work The Divine Comedy.

15. Distinct Features of Dante’s Inferno
The Geometry of Hell is a MORAL map
Downward spiral, each sin more severe
Top: sins against the self (no bad intent to others)
Middle: sins against others
Bottom: sins against the order of the community

16. Distinct Features of Dante’s Inferno
The bottom line:
The Inferno is a persuasive argument for Dante’s vision of JUSTICE.
It is more than just “hellish” imagery here for our entertainment; it is an expression of his beliefs and opinions, and he wanted other people to agree with him.
Dante really believed that these people were sinners and needed to pay for their sins.
Evidence suggests that he probably believed, or at least wished, that God very well might punish these sinners in the ways he described.
Some readers agreed with him.

18. The Circles…

20. Virgil guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell
Virgil guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell. The circles each represent further and further evil, culminating in the center of the earth, where Satan is held bound. The nine circles are:
1. Limbo - those unbaptized yet virtuous (Canto 4)
2. Those overcome by lust (Canto 5) -- lost in a great whirlwind
3. Gluttons (Canto 6) – habitual greed or excess consumption
4. The greedy who hoarded possessions and the indulgent who wasted them (Canto 7) -- the clash of heavy stones
5. The wrathful and sullen (Canto 8) -- attacking in slime; entombed in slime
Heretics—someone against the church (Cantos 10-11) -- fiery coffins
The violent (Cantos 12-17). These are divided into three rings:
a. The violent against people and property (Canto 12) -- immersed in boiling blood
b. The violent against themselves - suicides and profligates (Canto 13) -- encased in trees
c. The violent against God - blasphemers, sodomites, usurers, (Canto 14-17) -- rain of fire on burning sand

21. The fraudulent (those who deceive) are located in a circle named Malebolge (Cantos 18-30). This is divided into ten ditches:
a. Panderers and Seducers (Canto 18) -- lashed by demons
b. Flatterers (Canto 18) -- sunk in excrement
c. Simoniacs (I.e. the buying or selling of religious offices, etc.) (Canto 19) -- upside down in baptismal font with burning feet
d. Sorcerers and false prophets (Canto 20) -- heads backwards on bodies and forced to walk backwards
e. Corrupt politicians (Canto 21-22) -- sunk in boiling pitch with demons
f. Hypocrites (Canto 23) -- weighted down by heavy monk’s robes
g. Thieves (Canto 24-25) -- snakes bind like rope, biting, transforming
h. Fraudulent advisors (Cantos 26-27) -- hidden from view inside great flames
i. Sowers of discord (Canto 28-29) -- hacked and torn by demon
j. Falsifiers, i.e. alchemists, forgers, counterfeiters, perjurers, impersonators (Cantos 29-30) -- corruptions: filth, stench, brutality,
etc.

22. The passage to the ninth circle, Cocytus, contains classical and Biblical giants (Canto 31).
9. Traitors (Cantos 32-34). This is divided into four zones:
a. Traitors to relatives (Canto 32) -- necks and heads out of ice
b. Traitors to political entities (party, city, country) (Canto 32-33) -- only heads
c. Traitors to guests (Canto 33) -- half their heads
d. Traitors to benefactors (Canto 34). The harshest section of Hell, containing Satan who is eternally consuming the bodies of Brutus and Cassius and the head of Judas Iscariot