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The Divine Comedy
A Classical Quest through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise
Paradiso
Dante’s
Structure:
The Quest
For
Salvation
Inferno
Purgatorio
POINTS TO REMEMBER
• THE INFERNO IS PART
OF A WORK CALLED THE
DIVINE COMEDY.
• IN THE MIDDLE AGES
COMEDY MEANT SOME
HUMAN EXPERIENCE
THAT BEGAN IN
TRAGEDY AND ENDED
IN HAPPINESS.
• IT IS ALSO AN ALLEGORY.
Allegory
• In an allegory the characters, setting and
plot have a hidden or symbolic meaning
beyond their literal meaning.
• An Allegory teaches a moral lesson
• TO POINT OUT TO THOSE STILL LIVING THE
ERROR OF THEIR WAYS AND TO PUT THEM ON
THE PATH OF SALVATION.
DANTE ALIGHIERI
• Born in Florence, May, 1265.
• His family was old and of
noble origin, but no longer
wealthy.
Excommunicated from the Roman Catholic
Church.
Exiled from his home, Florence, Italy.
BEATRICE
• As customary, Dante had an
arranged marriage in his
youth to Gemma Donati,
daughter of Manetto
Donati.
• But Dante’s greatest love,
and the greatest single
influence on his work, was a
woman named Beatrice.
• Dante met Beatrice when
he was nine and she eight,
at his father’s home, most
likely for a May Day festival.
• Beatrice married another
man about 1287, and died
in 1290 at the age of 25.
• After her death in 1290, he
dedicated a memorial “The
New Life” (La Vita Nuova)
to her.
BEATRICE
•Beatrice was Dante’s angel. He
could not touch her, because this
was the age of Courtly love.
•Dante’s life and work were
dedicated to her.
•Dante’s muse and inspiration—
the female aspect behind the
genius.
•She is the divine light of love.
Virgil
• Roman author of The Aeneid, the national epic of Rome.
• Virgil is Dante’s guide through Hell.
• “forbids me to come there…” Virgil lived and died before the
establishment of Christ’s teachings in Rome and cannot therefore enter
Heaven.
VIRGIL 70 B.C.E. 19 B.C.E
• He was the greatest of the
Roman poets.
• His Aeneid provided the
pattern for the structure of
Dante’s Hell.
• Virgil was chosen as
Dante’s guide through Hell,
because Dante saw him as
his master and inspiration
for his poetic style.
• Virgil is also revered as the
poet of the Roman Empire.
• The Aeneid tells of the
Empire’s founding.
• Virgil also wrote in his fourth
ecologue of the coming of a
Wonder Child who will bring
the Golden Age.
• This was interpreted in the
Middle Ages as the coming
of Christ.
THREE SECTIONS OF THE DIVINE COMEDY
INFERNO, PURGATORIO, AND PARADISO
3 was a holy number
to Dante— suggesting
the Holy Trinity.
STRUCTURE OF
THE DIVINE COMEDY
 DANTE’S NUMERICAL
 DANTE’S WORLD WAS ONE THAT
BELIEVED IN MYSTICAL
CORRESPONDENCES AND THE
POWER OF NUMBERS, STARS, AND
STONES
SYMBOLISM:
 3 A SYMBOL OF THE HOLY
TRINITY
 9 THREE TIMES THREE.
 33 A MULTIPLE OF 3
 EVENTS OF HISTORY—CONTAINED
A MYSTICAL SIGNIFICANCE.
 THE 7 DAYS OF CREATION
 10 CONSIDERED IN THE
MEDIEVAL PERIOD A PERFECT
NUMBER
 100, THE MULTIPLE OF 10.
STRUCTURE OF
THE DIVINE COMEDY
 Each section has 33 cantos (small
• Three major divisions of sin:
division of poetry; canto means
 Incontinence
“song.”)
 Violence
 The Inferno includes an introductory
canto, which makes 100 cantos total
(1oo representing the idea of
perfection or spiritual enlightenment
achieved after the journey).
 Fraudulence
 Three-line poetric structure:
Terza Rima
The Form of the Poem
•Epic poem in the tradition of Homer (The Odyssey, The
Iliad) and Virgil (The Aeneid)
•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
Dante’s Use of Terza Rima
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura!
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
Tant’ è amara che poco è più morte;
ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai,
dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ho scorte.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
Io non so ben ridir com’ i’ v’intrai,10
tant’ era pien di sonno a quel punto
che la verace via abbandonai.
I cannot well repeat how there I entered,10
So full was I of slumber at the moment
In which I had abandoned the true way.
Ma poi ch’i’ fui al piè d’un colle giunto,
là dove terminava quella valle
che m’avea di paura il cor compunto,
But after I had reached a mountain's foot,
At that point where the valley terminated,
Which had with consternation pierced my heart,
guardai in alto e vidi le sue spalle
vestite già de’ raggi del pianeta
che mena dritto altrui per ogne calle.
Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,
Vested already with that planet's rays
Which leadeth others right by every road.
The Inferno
• Dante is the main character in The Divine Comedy.
• The Inferno is a telling of Dante’s journey through the
nine circles of Hell.
• Dante begins his journey through Hell on Good
Friday and ends on Easter Sunday.
• This symbolizes the journey of Jesus, crucified on
Good Friday, descended into Hell and was resurrected
to live again on Easter Sunday.
THE SPIRALING INFERNO
• DANTE’S HELL IS A
HUGE FUNNEL SHAPED
PIT.
• THE CENTER IS
LOCATED BENEATH
JERUSALEM.
• THE NINE REGIONS ARE
DESIGNATED FOR A
PARTICULAR SIN.
• ITS REGIONS ARE
ARRANGED IN A SERIES OF
DESCENDING CIRCULAR
STAIRCASES THAT
DIMINISH IN
CIRCUMFERENCE THE
DEEPER THAT VIRGIL AND
DANTE TRAVEL.
• THE HIGHER UP A SINNER,
THE LIGHTER THE SIN,
THE DEEPER THE SINNER,
THE DARKER AND MORE
TERRIBLE THE SIN.
The Nine Circles of Hell
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Circle 1- LIMBO
Circle 2- The Lustful
Circle 3- The Gluttonous
Circle 4- Misers and Spendthrifts
Circle 5- Wrathful and Sullen
Circle 6- Heretics
Circle 7- The Violent (Murder & Suicide)
Circle 8- The Fraudulent
Circle 9- Traitors
Circles 2-5 are
Sins without
Malice.
They do not hurt
others.
Cantos 1-2
The Dark Wood
Three Beasts:
Leopard
Lion
She-wolf
Virgil as Guide
Three Blessed Women:
Virgin Mary
St. Lucia
Beatrice
The Three Beasts by Priamo della Quercia (1444-1452)
Symbols: The three beasts (leopard, lion, and she-wolf) are symbols
that represent the three divisions of sin (fraud, violence, and
incontinence). These are the sins that were believed to have caused
the downfall of humankind, and since Dante is at a crossroads in his
life, this journey is intended to make him question his life and what
punishment might await him for the sins he has committed.
Symbolism and Allusion:
The three beasts might also
symbolize the politics of the
day. Because of the conflict
between the Pope and the
Emperor, leadership was
continually in question. The
Greyhound was believed to
be an allusion to the hope for
a future leader who would
come to save Italy.
She-Wolf by
Gustave
Dore
Lion by
Gustave
Dore
Canto 3
Gates of Hell
Vestibule
“Abandon all hope ye
who enter here.”
Cowards
The Indecisive Angels
Punishment:
They are stung by insects
and endlessly chase
banners.
Acheron River
Charon
Canto 5
Circle 2
Lust
Punishment:
The lustful souls are
blown about in a
violent storm, without
hope of rest.
Minos
Francesca da Rimini
and her lover Paolo
Cantos 31-34
Circle 9
Betrayal
Caïna—Traitors to kindred: They are immersed in
ice up to their faces.
Antenora—Traitors to country/political entities:
They are immersed in ice and forced to eat out the
skull of another sinner or have their skulls eaten by
another sinner.
Ptolomaea—Traitors to their guests: They lie supine
in the ice, which covers them, except for their faces.
Their bodies on Earth are immediately possessed by a
demon, so what seems to be a walking man has reached
the stage of being incapable of repentance.
Judecca—Traitors to their lords and benefactors:
They are completely encapsulated in ice, distorted in
all conceivable positions. Satan appears upside down
with three faces, and in each mouth eternally being
eaten are Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot.