Divine Comedy—The Inferno

Background

Epic Poem

Dante Alighieri—1265-1321

• Thought Pope too powerful in politics
• Thought the Church too political & wanted it back to spiritual focus
• Was politically active
• When out of the city “religious” take over
  • He’s sentenced to die

• He never returns and lives in exile
• The Inferno is dedicated to Beatrice—his one true love.

Purgatory—holding zone for hell where people atone for their sins and move on to Paradise.

• Encounters with historical figures from Ancient Rome & Greece

It is an imaginary journey through hell, purgatory and Paradise

• Symbolic quest for salvation
  • Recognize sin—The Inferno = Hell
  • Rejecting sin/awaiting redemption—Purgatory
  • Achieving salvation through faith—Paradise = Heaven

Canto = Poem with 100 chapters

• 100 = perfect number—reason it was chosen
• Rhyme scheme
  • Terza Rima
  • 3 line stanza
  • 1^st & 3^rd lines rhyme

#3 is symbolic of the Holy Trinity = Father, Son, & Holy Spirit

1.      Inferno—focuses on power of God the father & punishment (Hell)

2.      Purgatory—focuses on wisdom of son & those awaiting salvation & final judgment.

3.      Paradise—focuses on Holy Spirit (Heaven)

When: journey takes place in 3 days, starts on Good Friday and ends on Easter

Who:  Dante takes a trip with the Virgin Mary. 

• Meets St. Lucia = Patron Saint of those without spiritual sight.
  • Patron Saint: a saint to whose protection & intercession a person, a society, a church, or a place is dedicated.
• Beatrice—his one true love, leads him to Paradise.

Virgil (Roman Poet) is guide—but not baptized so goes to hell.

• 1^st circle of Hell
  • meets all the philosophers, Homer, Horace & Ovid
    • he’s honored to be with these people.
      • Embodies how far the mind can take you, but is limited without faith
      • The conflict—all went to hell if not baptized, no matter how good.  This was the Christian belief at the time Dante was writing.

Nine levels in Hell

• First thing he comes in contact with—leopard
• Next meets hungry lion
• She wolf—starving, hunting for the bad things.  The greyhound (Christ) will hunt down the she-wolf.

Pg. 750—value of superstition, salvation, hope

• First sees people in pain, crying
• Next sees mountain on fire and people content to be there
• In the dark, hears screaming & bodies being beaten
  • Opportunist and no hope of dying
• Cowards (Celestine V) forever chased and stung by wasps & hornets
  • Gets worse if they run faster
    • Pus and bleeding all over, feeing the maggots & worms

• River of Achron
  • Boat is going to eternal dark, fire & ice (so cold it’s hot)
    • People in the boat are naked because clothes are a covering
      • Nakedness = humiliation
      • Clothes are worldly possessions that “cover” sins.  W/out clothes everyone is the same/no status

Charon meets them on the other shore

• A devil monster
• Will beat the stragglers with an oar
• When Dante first sees Hell he faints

In Dante’s time people who did not receive Last Rites went to Hell

• This is a conflict for Dante because a priest is not always available when a person dies.

Circle 2—for adulterers

• The torments of Hell begin
• Minos
  • Orders each sould their eternal torment
  • People stand before Minos and confess sins
    • His tail determines what level of Hell they are assigned to
    • Lots of pre-Christian folks there, condemned for sins involving sex
      • Semiramis—time of Roman orgies
      • Dido—killed herself on top of being an adulteress
      • Achilles—deserted the Greek army to marry Polyxens
      • Tristan—died for love

Caina—level of Hell reserved for murders of kin.  Named for Cain in the Bible.

• Francesca & Paolo had read the story of Lancelot and got caught up in the story and became lovers.
  • Paolo is not dead at this time.
    • When he dies he will go to Circle 9.

• Dante includes this description of various circles of Hell to question the Churches teachings
• In the Middle Ages, women were kept at home and kept virtuous
  • Married young
  • Were property of the family
    • No one would want to marry any but a virgin

• Circle 9—Cocytus
  • Ugolino & Ruggieri in Hell together for treason
    • Ugolino is eating  Ruggieri because of his betrayal and starvation of Ugolino
      • He had to watch his sons starve, which was part of his punishment

Dante meets people who cannot cry because their tears will freeze

·        Someone asks him for help and he believes he should

Branca D’Oria—invited his father-in-law Michel Zanche to dinner and murdered him

·        Michel Zanche sold his soul to the devil

·        Dante does not keep his promise of help when he realizes what Branca D’Oria had done.

In the center of the 9^th Circle sits Satan, beating his wings—causes the ice

·        He has 3 faces—each a different color—a parody of the Holy Trinity

o       In each mouth he eats a sinner

§         Judas

§         Brutus

§         Cassiuss

The Inferno is a political statement about those who exiled Dante.         

·        Dante had questioned the policies of the Church