dante alighieri and his greatest work divine comedy
TRANSCRIPT
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
• Born in Florence• Held progressively
more powerful positions in Florence
• Banished in 1302• Worked on
Commedia during banishment
Dante During Banishment
• Floated all over Europe• Influenced by:
– French poetry– Italian vernacular
• One of the most learned– Especially in art of classical
Greek
• Finished Comedy in Ravenna; died 1321
Divine Comedy
• Originally Commedia (Comedy)– Divine added in 16th
Century
• Not funny by any means– Traveler begins low
(Hell) and ends in Paradise.
• A literal journey but incredibly symbolic
Divine Comedy
• Literal level:– Journey through the
lands of the dead
• Symbolic– Spiritual pilgrimage of
Christian soul from sin (Hell), purification (Purgatory), salvation (Paradise).
Divine Comedy• 3 parts
– Inferno (Hell, guided by Virgil)– Purgatorio– Paradiso (Heaven, guided by Beatrice)
• Inferno • Inferno the most widely read section
– A journey through Hell • Entrance least harsh – Center most
– Constructed as a huge funnel with nine descending circular ledges
– Sinners classified according to the nature of their sins.
• “They got what they wanted”– Those who recognize and repudiate their sins
are given a change to purify themselves in Purgatorio, the second of three segments in the poem.
• Dante feels Hell is a necessary, painful first step of any man’s spiritual journey.
Inferno
• The sinners in the nine rings of hell are guilty of one of three types of sin:– Incontinence: losing control
of natural appetites and desires (sex)
– Brutishness: attraction to things which repulse the healthy soul (violence)
– Malice / Vice: abuse of reason, a human's most god-like quality
Inferno
• Punishments:– Adulterous lovers united forever– Suicides body separated from soul– Violent immersed in boiling blood– Gluttons wallow in own excrement– Dane Cook forced to hear his own “jokes”– Innermost layer
• Judas, Brutus, Cassius
Canto Region Sin People Punishment
Canto 12
Circle 7 Violent Against neighbors & fellow men; murderers, war makers
Alexander the Great
Attila the Hun
Submerged in hot blood, Guarded by centaurs, who shoot any soul which attempts to rise
Canto 26-27
subcircle 8
Fraudulent advisers
Ulysses/ Odysseus
Concealed in flames
Canto 34
Round 3
Traitors to lords and benefactors; those who set out to destroy the rightful God
Judas, Brutus, Cassius
At the center of the Earth, completely submerged in ice. The three ultimate traitors are held in Lucifer's three mouths. Lucifer's three wings send forth freezing blasts of impotence, ignorance and hatred.
Set-up of Comedy
• Sacred numerology– 3, 9, 10
• 100 cantos (square of perfect 10)• Each division has 33 cantos• 9 (3x3) circles or spheres in each realm• Written in tercets (3 line stanzas)• Italian rhyme scheme terze rima (third rhyme)
– Aba, bcb, cdc…