1. Dante Alagheri’s The Divine Comedy World Literature

2. The Divine Comedy  Comedy Not humorous/slapstick/laugh-out-loud A form of writing that begins in fear and ends happily. Main character attains a happy ending – a healing vision of God – and receives a divine message to deliver.

3. The Divine Comedy  The Inferno Hell  The Purgatorio Purgatory  The Paradisio Paradise

4. The Divine Comedy  Translations Robert Pinsky (1994) Dorothy Sayers (1949-62)  Terza rima John Ciardi (1954-70)  Rhymed 1 st and 3 rd lines only H.R. Huse  Literal prose translation Allen Mandlebaum  Poetic prose John D. Sinclair  Paragraph form

5. The Divine Comedy  Parable Political realities  Corruption vs. honesty Moral realities  The freedom that comes from accepting just laws vs. the self-slavery of lawlessness Mystical realities  The individual’s self-absorption vs. his trusting surrender to the divine

6. The Divine Comedy  Dante said he wanted the poem to: Liberate people still living in the world from a state of misery and lead them to a state of happiness. Praise Beatrice and the saving graces he received through her.

7. The Divine Comedy  Dante: “The subject of the work, then, in its literal sense is the state of souls after death – and this is without qualification, since the whole progress of the work hinges on and about this subject. Whereas if the work is taken allegorically, the subject is this: man becoming liable to the justice which rewards and punishes, inasmuch as by the exercise of his freedom of choice he merits good or ill.”  letter to Can Grande

8. On Dante:  Ruskin “He is the central man of all the world, as representing in perfect balance the imaginative, moral and intellectual qualities all at their highest.”  Carlyle Called it Dante’s “unfathomable love song.”  Emerson The textbook for teaching the young the art of writing well.  Trotsky Urged Marxist companions to study their Dante.

9. Background  Guelphs Anti-imperial/democratic attitude Desired constitutional government Represented indigenous peoples Pro-pope (looked to him for support)  White  Wanted to minimize all outside interference  Black  Wanted to enhance their papal connections  Ghibellines Pro-imperial Represented aristocracy Opposed papal territorial power Expelled from Florence in 1289

10. The Divine Comedy  Significance of the number Three Reflects the mysterious reality of the Godhead Each of the three parts contains 33 cantos Basic unit of verse is the terzine  33 syllables  3 lines Beatrice – associated with the number 9

11. Dante The Inferno World Literature

12. The Inferno: Canto I  Introduction to the entire Divine Comedy Dark Woods Good Friday, 1300  April 8, 1300  Catholic church’s first “Holy Year”  Jubilee period stressing spiritual repentance and renewal.  Dante is 35 years old

13. The Inferno: Canto I  Dante The poet who is also the Christian sinner  Virgil The poet who is also human wisdom (the best a man can become without divine grace)

14. The Inferno: Canto I  Poet feels alienated from the world  Poet feels fear (paura)  First 60 lines: reflect the theme of man’s estrangement from God Emphasize man’s dependence on the Divine  Last 76 lines: Emphasize the human power to discover his true self

15. The Inferno: Canto I  3 beasts 3 types of sin that will cast a soul into one of the three divisions of Hell  Leopard (lonza): lust (bodily pleasure)  Lion (leone): violence  Wolf (lupa): cupidity (desire for power/wealth)

16. The Inferno: Canto I  3-part Journey I.105-119  Hell – eternal place of despair  Purgatory – place where souls are in a temporary, purifying fire  Paradise (Heaven) – dwelling place of the everlastingly blessed

17. The Inferno: Canto II  Dante invokes the Muses (II.7) Allied with the arts as well as with religion.  Questions his worthiness to go on this quest. Two others who had visited the other worlds while in the flesh.  Aeneas & Paul  Dante believed the Catholic church and the Roman Empire were divinely willed partners in the world’s salvation.

18. Inferno: Canto II  Three ladies Virgin (Mary)  Mercy  Prevenient grace (first impulse in a sinner to repent) Lucia  Grace  Operant grace (allows sinner to desire good and do it) Beatrice  Wisdom  Perficient grace (causes the penitent sinner to persist in the doing of good)

19. Inferno: Canto III  Hell’s Gate: Entrance to Hell Proper  ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE. Two sets of people at the entrance  Morally neutral  Continuously running around a plain just inside the gate.  Lived without praise or blame (thus, never truly lived)  Fallen angels who were neither for good or evil, only for themselves.  Hated by both God and His enemies  They would defile heaven  They don’t fit into Hell’s scheme (would give the wicked some element of glory)  Souls just arrived who gather to wait to be ferried across a river to their proper placements in Hell.

20. The Structure of Dante’s Hell  Vestibule of Hell: The Uncommitted  Circle 1: Limbo  Circle 2: The Lustful  Circle 3: The Gluttons  Circle 4: The Avaricious and the Prodigal  Circle 5: The Wrathful and the Sullen  Circle 6: Heretics  Circle 7: The Violent  Circle 8: The Fraudulent  Circle 9: The Treacherous

22. Outer Circle  VESTIBULE Outer Rim of Hell GROUP I  Passionless people who lived without place or blame  Neither for good or evil  Hateful to both God and his enemies (won’t fit into either Heaven or Hell) GROUP II  Newly deceased who lived without reverence to God and who died unrepentant.  Punishment (Group I) Endless running around a plain just inside the gate Tormented by hornets, wasps, worms  Significant people: Fallen angels Celestine V Ponitus Pilate

23. Circle 1  LIMBO Outskirts of Hell Proper Neutral, lifeless place  Souls of unbaptized infants  Virtuous pagans or honorable men who lived before Christ  Punishment:None Suspended (sospesi) between the states of condemnation and salvation.  Significant people: Virgil, the guide Homer Aristotle Saladin Euclid

24. Circle 2  Minos: Judge of Hell Each sinner confesses to him Uses his tail to indicate the position of Hell the sinner is to occupy Warns Dante not to go any further

25. Circle 2  The Carnal Sinners LUSTFUL, SENSUAL  Punishment: Exist in an eternal storm, blown about by the winds of a hurricane  Reflects sexual sin and punishes it  Significant people: Helen of Troy Achilles Cleopatra Paris Tristan Francesca and Paolo  Murdered lovers

26. Circle 3  The Carnal Sinners: The GLUTTONOUS  Sensual gratification  Ate and drank unrepentantly to excess  Punishment: Plagued with filthy rain, sleet, snow Wallow in mud and filth Cerberus, 3-headed dog, guard and punishment  Claws the sinners  Howls, making the souls howl  Significant people: Ciacco

27. Circle 4  The Carnal Sinners: The AVARICIOUS (HOARDERS) The PRODIGAL (SPENDERS)  Punishment: Deadlocked in a battle of opposites Push heavy stones in opposite direction  “why do you hold?”  “why do you spend?” Plutus (Greek god of wealth) demon-guard  Significant people:

28. Circle 5  The River STYX  WRATHFUL  SULLEN  Punishment: Wrathful  Float in Styx  Snarl and rend themselves Sullen  Submerged in Styx Plutus (Greek god of wealth) demon-guard  Significant people: Filippo

29.  Dante and Virgil Leave the circles of outer Hell cross the Styx  Ferried by Phlegyas Reach gate of inner Hell  City of Dis Fallen angels hover above gates  Within gates are punished sins  VIOLENCE  FRAUD

30.  Dante and Virgil Met by furies Messenger of grace opens gates for them Enter gates of lower Hell

31. Circle 6  HERETICS Deniers of immortality  Punishment: Flaming tombs  Significant people: Cavalcanti  Father of Dante’s friend Epicurus Emperor Frederick II “The Cardinal” Farinata degli Uberti  Ghibilline leader

32.  Dante and Virgil pause Virgil explains the classification of the upcoming sins 3 remaining circles to visit  7 th (Violence)  Injury to one’s neighbor or property  murder  Injury to one’s self or property  suicide  Injury done to God’s sovereignty  blasphemy  Injury to God’s child, nature  homosexual behavior  Injury to God’s grandchild, human industry  usury

33. Circle 7 (outer round)  VIOLENT Those who harmed others (MURDER)  Punishment: Submerged in boiling river of blood Centaurs shoot arrows at any who come up for relief  Chiron is leader  Significant people: Alexander the Great Attila the Hun Ezzelino

34. Circle 7 (middle round)  VIOLENT Those who harmed self (SUICIDE) Self-destructive  Punishment: Gloomy wood Damned are trees Harpies nest in trees Those self-destructive:  Chased by devil dogs and torn to pieces  Significant people: Pier della Vigne

35. Circle 7 (outer round)  VIOLENT Those who were guilty of BLASPHEMY  Punishment: Scorching desert Flakes of flame falling  Lie down  Significant people: Capaneus

36. Description of Giant  “Old Man of Crete” Head: gold  Split by fissure  Endless tears flow down to frozen lake of Hell Breast & Arms: silver Torso: brass Waist down: iron Right foot: terra cotta  Rests most weight upon

37. Circle 7 (outer round)  VIOLENT Those who were guilty of SODOMY  Punishment: Scorching desert Flakes of flame falling  Continuously running  Significant people: Brunetto Latini

38. Circle 7 (outer round)  VIOLENT Those who were guilty of USURERY  Lending money at any price  Punishment: Scorching desert Flakes of flame falling  Sit, bent over  Eyes fixed on money pouches around their necks  Significant people: Jacopo Rusticucci Guido Guerra Teggahiaio Aldobrandi

39.  Geryon lowers Dante and Virgil to the next circle

40. Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 1  FRAUD PANDERERS  Sell people for sexual favors  pimps SEDUCERS  Gain sexual favors for self  Punishment: Whipped by horned demons  Significant people: Venedico Jason

41. Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 2  FRAUD FLATTERERS  Punishment: Immersed in excrement  Significant people: Thais

42. Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 3  FRAUD SIMONIACS  Those who corrupt the things of God  Punishment: Immersed headfirst in holes Feet are burning  Significant people: Pope Nicholas III Other popes

43. Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 4  FRAUD SOOTHSAYERS MAGICIANS AUGERS  Those who tried to make the mind of God subject to their will.  Punishment: Heads on backwards  Significant people: Manto

44. Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 5  FRAUD GRAFTERS  Political corruption  Punishment: Boiling pitch Deceiving demons (Malebranche) poke anyone who tries to rise with pitchforks  Significant people: Senator of Lucca Ciampolo of Navarre

45. Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 6  FRAUD HYPOCRITES  Punishment: Leaden cloaks Walk around narrow track  Significant people: Caiaphas Annas monks

46. Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 7  FRAUD THIEVES  Punishment: Fiery serpents Wrapped around souls Hands bound behind them Bite souls who then burst into flames  Significant people: Vanni Fucci Agnello Buoso Puccio Francesco de Cavalcanti

47. Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 8  FRAUD EVIL ADVISERS  Steal counsel of God for low purposes  Punishment: Enflamed souls  Significant people: Ulysses Diomedes Guido da Montefeltro

48. Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 9  FRAUD DIVIDERS  Tear apart what God has meant to be united SOWERS OF DISCORD  Religious discord  Political discord  Family Discord  Punishment: Mutilated Wounds are healed after making the full circult Wounds reopened by devil with sword  Significant people: Muhammad Mosca Bertran de Born

49. Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 10  FRAUD FALSIFIERS  ALCHEMISTS  IMPERSONATORS  COUNTERFEITERS  LIARS  Punishment: Madness Ills of mind and body  Significant people: Gainni Schicchi Capocchio Master Adam Potipher’s wife Sinon

50.  Giant, Antaeus, lowers Dante and Virgil into the pit  Cocytus frozen

51. Circle 9: Caina  TRAITORS To KIN  Punishment: Encased in ice up to neck Heads bent down  Significant people: Camicion de Pazzi Two brothers

52. Circle 9: Antenora  TRAITORS To CITY  Punishment: Encased in ice up to neck Heads turned upward  Significant people: Bocca Sassol Ugolino Archbishop Ruggieri

53. Circle 9: Tolomea  TRAITORS To GUESTS  Punishment: Frozen in ice On backs, heads up Tears freeze in eye sockets  Significant people: Friar Alberigo Branca D’Oria

54. Circle 9: Judecca  TRAITORS To BENEFACTORS  Punishment: Completely sealed under ice Satan fixed in the middle, waist deep in ice, continuously chews up three with his mouths  Significant people: Judas Brutus Cassius