The Infernoby

Dante Alighieri(1265-1321)

Max Hekler

English Instructor

Needham high School

clcmapping.wordpress.com/ 2009/10/02/5/

A Little on the Man, Himself

From a moderate income Florentine family

Florence was HOPPING then!

His father, a judge or notary, married twice.

Married & had 3 kids, but never saw them again after exiled at 36 years old

Lived another 20 years, traveling all around Italy and extensively around Europe until he died at 56

Exile was harsher than death in many respects.

Beatrice•D. Fell in love with a girl named Beatrice when he was 9, and he never got over her apparently.

•In The Divine Comedy, the figure of Beatrice guides/lures/brings/motivates D. from the Terrestrial to the Celestial Paradise.

•She sends Virgil to guide D. through Hell.

•Beatrice is mentioned by name sixty-three times in the D. C., but on no occasion does D. address her by name; the name occurs twice only in the Inferno, (ii.70), (ii.1030)

Toynbee, Paget. A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante. Oxford University Press,1968.

Beatrice•the Light of Grace (lumen gratiae)

•the Natural Light (lumen naturale) leading to

•the Light of Glory (lumen gloriae)

•Revelation (Sapientia creat)

•A Love (de sursum descendens or caritas creata)

•Analogue to Christ (Sapientia increata) (Purgatorio)

Toynbee, Paget. A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante. Oxford University Press,1968.

The Form of the Poem

•Epic poem in the tradition of Homer (The Odyssey, The Iliad) and Virgil (The Aeneid)

•Allegory: Symbolism as a 2-D picture

•The Divine Comedy: 3 Parts

Inferno Purgatorio Paradiso

•Written in Cantos (33 each +1= 100 Cantos in all)

•Employs terza rima:

- three-line stanzas(tercet)

- chain rhyme: A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D

- no limit to the number of lines

•No set rhythm for terza rima

The Form of Hell

• Could this be any more a Type 2, Medieval, Hierarchical text??

• A special circle with special punishments for every special sin

• The sins are categorized in 3 sections: Sins of Incontinence, Violence, and Fraud, respectively(mirroring the 3 Beasts from earlier)

• 7th, 8th, and 9th Circles have subdivisions (Rings and Bolgias)

• 2 rivers run through- Acheron & Styx

• Satan in lowest portion, stuck in a frozen lake (indeed, when did Hell freeze over?)

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http://www.catholica.com.au/peregrinus/images/DanteInferno_400x606.jpg

What’s With All The Ancient Greek & Roman Stuff?

• Virgil is Dante’s guide in multiple respects

• Modeled after Hades

• Old Rome vs. New Rome

• Dante’s Hell keeps old mythological figures off unemployment in a new Christian era

• Dante is giving himself mad props

• Those Greek and Roman figures are just too cool to leave out of an epic poem.

Overview• D. is going through a midlife crisis, wandering in the

woods

• Encounters 3 beasts:

Leopard of Malice and Fraud (i.33)

Lion of Violence and Ambition (i.44)

She-Wolf of Incontinence (i.48; 90-105) (Depends?)

• D. swoons on occasion (i.11- see note on 47); falls “unconscious”, has bad dreams

• Virgil “saves” him and guides him

• D. layers hell by sinner/punishment; and adds in literary, religious, political, historical figures where they “belong”

• A real slice of 13th Century Florentine life; a Medieval “Who’s Who”

The Gates of Hell

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Rodin’s Sculpture of The Gates of Dante’s Hell

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Milton’s Version http://www.sai.msu.su/cjackson/blake/blake7.jpg

THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE CITY OF WOE,THROUGH ME THE WAY TO EVERLASTING

PAIN,THROUGH ME THE WAY AMONG THE LOST.

JUSTICE MOVED MY MAKER ON HIGH.DIVINE POWER MADE ME,

WISDOM SUPREME, AND PRIMAL LOVE.BEFORE ME NOTHING WAS BUT THINGS

ETERNAL,AND ETERNAL I ENDURE.

ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER HERE. (iii.1-9)

The Vestibule of Hell

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Painting by William Blake http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/images/but812.1.5.wc.100.jpg

Engraving by Doré noircon.info

Opportunists in Hell’s Mud Room: The Punishment. . .sighs, loud wailing, lamentationresounded through the starless air,so that I too began to weep.Unfamiliar tongues, horrendous accents,words of suffering, cries of rage, voicesloud and faint, the sound of slapping hands --all these made a tumult, always whirlingin that black and timeless air,as sand is swirled in a whirlwind.. . .Heaven casts them out,and the depth of Hell does not receive them. . .They have no hope of death,and their blind life is so abjectthat they are envious of every other lot.'The world does not permit report of them.Mercy and justice hold them in contempt.Let us not speak of them -- look and pass by.'And I, all eyes, saw a whirling bannerthat ran so fast it seemed as thoughit never could find rest.Behind it came so long a file of peoplethat I could not believedeath had undone so many.. . .were naked and besetby stinging flies and waspsthat made their faces stream with blood,which, mingled with their tears,was gathered at their feet by loathsome worms.(iii.16-69)

•Destined to forever be nowhere

•Swirling in a whirlwind

•Envious of everyone else

•Banished, forgotten w/o legacy

•Chasing desperately a blank banner

•Naked

•Swarmed by biting flies & stinging wasps

•Oozing, bloody, pussy wounds from insects

•Nasty worms gather at their feet

Opportunists: The Crime

'This miserable state is borneby the wretched souls of those who livedwithout disgrace yet without praise.'They intermingle with that wicked bandof angels, not rebellious and not faithfulto God, who held themselves apart. (iii.34-39)

“their blind life” (iii.47)

After I recognized a few of these,I saw and knew the shade of himwho, through cowardice, made the great refusal.At once with certainty I understoodthis was that worthless crewhateful alike to God and to His foes.These wretches, who never were alive (iii.58-64)

The Great Refusal: Popes who decided they didn’t want the job

The reason why Opportunists are placed here in Hell is explained literally. Their moral apathy entitles them to no place anywhere.

Essentially, they are the selfish bystanders who abstain from taking sides. These folksare guilty of not caring enough, of apathy.

Most likely spot for sowers of Senioritis!