Dante’s Divine Comedy

One of the Best Poems

of European Literature

Type of Literature

Late Medieval Literature (Dante finished shortly before his death in 1321 AD)

Originally written in Italian“Divine” indicates subject matter“Comedy” indicates style of poem

– Starts off oppressive but ends on a happy note

Dante’s Life

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

Born in Florence on May 29, 1265

1274 - meets and falls in love with Beatrice Portinari

1283 – However, he marries Gemma Donati and they have four children

Dante’s Life

1290 - Beatrice Dies1292 - Dante writes the Vita nuova a collection of

sonnets and odes inspired by his love for Beatrice.1314 - Publication of Inferno. 1321 - Dante falls ill on return from Venice, where he had

been sent as ambassador by Guido Da Polenta, and dies September 13 or 14.

Dante’s InspirationDante’s love for Beatrice inspired him to write

sonnets and odes in Vita nouva.Dante pledged when he felt he was able to write

a great piece of literature he would dedicate it to her memory. The Divine Comedy was written for her.

Dante and Beatrice never had anything more than an emotional relationship.

Dante’s Divine Comedy

Numbers in Medieval SocietyNumbers were extremely important in

Medieval Society. 100 is the square of 10, and is therefore

considered the perfect number.The number 3 was associated with the

Trinity and 9 was important as the square of 3.

Structure of the Divine Comedy

Contains three great divisions

– Cantica One: Hell (Inferno)

– Cantica Two: Purgatory (Purgatorio)

– Cantica Three: Paradise (Paradiso)Each Cantica contains thirty-three cantos with

an additional canto in Inferno serving as a prologue

33 + 33 + 33 + 1 = 100 cantos

Structure of the Divine Comedy

The three greater divisions or canticas were to represent the Trinity.

The number 9, the square of three, figures centrally in the interior structure of each of the three divisions.– There are nine circles in the Inferno– There are nine ledges in the Purgatorio– There are nine planetary spheres in Paradiso

Structure of the Divine Comedy

Dante varied the lengths of the individual cantos for a purpose:– The canto length in the Inferno is chaotic, this

parallels the chaos between souls and God.– The canto length becomes more standardized in

Purgatorio, this parallels the state of the soul and God

– The canto length in Paradiso is uniform, this parallels the harmony between the souls and God.

The Nature of the Divine Comedy

Allegory and Journey

Allegory is a story operating at a literal and symbolic level, each character and action signify the literal as well as represent an idea.

The Divine Comedy is a narrative that details the journey of one man, Dante, through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven.

Allegory and JourneyDante represents every human.The journey represents rejection of sin

(Hell), redemption of the soul (Purgatory), and finally the unification between soul and God (Heaven).

Journey and Allegory Continued

Virgil represents Reason, which can take Dante only through Hell and Purgatory.

Beatrice, or Divine Revelation, must take Dante through Heaven.

Dante & Virgil’s Journey

Dante, guided by Virgil, heads down into the Inferno.

Hell is an inverted cone, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom.

Dante and Virgil travel through Hell and Dante recounts the sights of sinners being punished in ways that symbolically fit the sin.

Structure of Inferno (cross section)

Structure of Inferno (model)

Structure of Inferno

There are 9 concentric circles in Hell.

Hell is geographically divided into Upper Hell and the Lower Hell by the Walls of the Dis.

Four Areas of Hell, Four Types of Sin

Hell is theologically divided into four sections:

– Opportunisim (vestibule/outside hell)

– Sin of Paganism (circle 1)

– Sins of Incontinence (circles 2-6)

– Sins of Violence (circle 7)

– Sins of Fraud (circles 8-9)

Vestibule: OpportunismSin: choosing neither

right nor wrong.Punishment: floating

around outside Heaven, Hell and Purgatory chasing a banner (opportunity) being stung by bees (conscience or guilt).

ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE…

Circle One: Limbo

Sin: Not knowing Jesus ChristPunishment: No physical torments, only

the emotional torment of never knowing God or experiencing Heaven (no hope).

Incontinence: Circles 2-6Sins of incontinence are irrational sins

against God. Sins in which people give into their physical or emotional urges without regard to rational thought or moral consequences.

-The sinners are sentenced to their punishment by Minos (pictured here).

Circle 2: Sins of LustSin: Lust or AdulteryPunishment: To have

one’s soul float around in a whirlwind, never to touch anything again, just as one gave into physical desires.

Circle 3: Gluttony

Sin: to give into one’s physical desires to eat and drink regardless of consequences

Punishment: To be bloated and mired in filth and feces, while hail rains down from the sky; symbolic of the garbage they produced

Circle 4: Hoarders & WastersSin: Hoarding (greed) or

Wasting (prodigality) without thought to consequence.

- Punishment: They are divided into two groups (greedy vs. wasters), each pushing boulders against each other (symbolic of their mundane existence on earth, with sin punishing its opposite sin).

Circle 5: AngerSin: Wrathfulness or great

anger in life Punishment: to be immersed

in the filthy river Styx and constantly tear at one another

Sin: Sullen, those who refused to welcome the light of God into their hearts

Punishment: To forever be buried underneath the Styx, never seeing light.

Circle 6: Heretics

Sin: Heretics denied the idea of immortality/heaven and therefore denied God

- Punishment: To exist eternally in fiery graves of God’s wrath. Because they believed the soul dies with the body, they will suffer that fate in Hell

Circle 7: Violence

Circle 7 is an area divided into three separate rounds, each round is an area in which specific groups of sinners are punished.

Round One: The Violent Against NeighborsRound Two: The Violent Against

ThemselvesRound Three: The Violent Against God,

Nature and Art

Circle 7: The Violent and the Bestial

Circle 7: Outer Ring- The Violent Against Neighbors -Murderers and

Warmakers are immersed in boiling blood ; symbolic of the blood of those they killed.

-Centaurs (pictured here) guard the banks and shoot arrows at anyone who tries to escape

Circle 7: Middle Ring- The Violent Against Self * The Wood of the

Suicides* Their souls are

encased in thorny trees.

* The harpies feed upon their leaves.

Circle 7: Inner Ring - The Violent Against God- Blasphemers,

sodomites, and usurers all committed a profane act against God

- They are lain over burning sand or forced to run around in circles

- The sky rains fire symbolic of God’s wrath

Circle 8: The Fraudulent and Malicious

Circle 8 consists of 10 bolgias or pockets.

They are often referred to as malebolges, or ‘pockets of evil.’

Each pocket or bolgia is where a group of specific sinners is punished.

Ten Malebolgias of Circle 8Bolgia 1: Panderers and

Seducers. Run forever in opposite directions and are whipped by demons

Bolgia 2: Flatterers. Lie up to their necks in human feces

Bolgia 3: Simoniacs. Those who mocked the church are placed head-first in flaming holes

Bolgia 4: Fortune Tellers. Their heads are put on their bodies backward

Bolgia 5: The Grafters. Trapped in a lake of burning pitch (oil)

Circle 8 – Inside Malebolge…* Bolgia 6: The Hypocrites. Made to wear brightly painted lead

cloaks

* Bolgia 7: Thieves. Chased by venomous snakes and who, after being bitten by the venomous snakes, turn into snakes themselves and chase the other thieves in turn

* Bolgia 8: Evil Counselors. Eternally trapped in flames

* Bolgia 9: Sowers of discord. Their bodies are ripped apart, healed, and then destroyed again

* Bolgia 10: Falsifiers. Alchemists, counterfeiters, and perjurers are cursed with disease

Circle 9: Treachery

Circle 9 includes four areas called rounds:

Round 1: Treacherous to Kin. They are frozen up to their necks in ice and cry eternally for those they betrayed

Round 2: Treacherous to Country. Frozen in a lake up to their necks

Circle 9: TreacheryRound 3: Treacherous to

Guests & Hosts. Their tears freeze instantly and pierce their eyes

Round 4: Treacherous to Their Masters. Lucifer’s three faces eternally consume the bodies of Brutus and Cassius for betraying Caesar, and Judas Iscariot for betraying Christ

The Center: Satan

Circle 9: Treachery

Dante Emerges from Hell

Dante views Satan and proceeds to climb his spiny back to emerge on Earth, not far from the nine ledges of Purgatory.