Dante Alighieri

His life and his work:

The Divine Comedy. Inferno
(Student example)
 Dante Alighieri’s Life:

• Born in Florence in Spring of 1265

• Member of the Florentine Guelphs
– One of two Florentine political classes
• Later split into the Blacks and the Whites
• Dante became a member of the Whites
• 1301, Blacks staged coup; Dante exiled the
next year
 The Divine Comedy
• Politics in The Divine Comedy are religious
and prophetic
• Dante wants to restore the conditions in
which Christ first came – the pax Romana
• For Dante, the Roman Empire was divinely
ordained
• Once the earth is returned to that unity and
order, Christ’s second coming would be
possible
 All parts are equal in Dante
Alighieri’s eyes:
• Three parts of The Divine Comedy are of
equal length (taking into account the first
canto of Inferno is a prologue)
– Inferno has 34 cantos
– Purgatorio and Paradiso contain 33 cantos
• Written in the verse style “terza rima”
• Rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc etc.
The Divine

Comedy Inferno
 The journey into Hell
• Poem takes place on Good Friday in the year 1300
• Virgil comes up against three beasts: Lion, leopard
and she-wolf
• Virgil meets with Dante at the request of Dante’s
love, Beatrice
• Virgil and Dante pass through the gates of Hell
– "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate"
• "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"
 Circles One through Three of
Hell
• Limbo
– Circle One
• Unbaptized and Virtuous Pagans
– Virgil, Homer, Horace, Ovid, Socrates, Plato
• Active, willed sins judged by Minos: Circles Two
through Five
– Circle Two
• Persons overcome by lust
– Paolo and Francesca
– Circle Three
• Gluttons Paolo & Francesca

– Guarded by Cerberus
– Ciaco
 Circles Four and Five
– Circle Four
• Persons concerned with material possessions
• Guarded by Plutus
– Circle Five
• Wrathful persons
• River Styx and Phlegyas
• Filippo Argenti
 Circle Six
• Lower Hell
– City of Dis surrounded by Stygian Marsh
• fallen angels, Furies and Medusa located here
• heavenly angel sent to permit passage into Lower
Hell
– Circle Six
• Heretics
• Farinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti
 Circle Seven
– Circle Seven
• Violent
• Guarded by Minotaur
– Outer Ring:
» Violent against people and property
» Phlegethon and Centaurs
– Middle Ring:
» Violent against self - Suicide (Suicide Forest)
» Pierre del Vigne
– Inner Ring:
» Violent against God, Nature, and Art
» Brunetto Latini, Florentines Catello di Roso Gianfigliazzi,
Paduans Reginaldo degli Scrovegni, Vitaliano di Iacopo
Vitaliani
 Circle Eight
– Circle Eight
• The fraudulent
• Malebolge
• “Evil Pockets”
– Divided into ten bolgia:
• Bolgia One: Panderers and Seducers
– Jason
• Bolgia Two: Flatterers
• Bolgia Three: Simony
– Pope Nicholas III
 Circle Eight cont.
– Bolgia Four: Sorcerers and false prophets
– Bolgia Five: Barrators (corrupt politicians)
• Malacoda and the Malebranch
– Bolgia Six: Hypocrites
• Catalano and Loderingo
– Bolgia Seven: Thieves
• Centaur guard, Cacus
– Bolgia Eight: Fraudulent Advisors
• Ulysses and Diomedes
• Guido da Montefeltro
 Circle Eight cont.
– Bolgia Nine: Sowers of Discord
• Sword wielding devil
• Muhammad
– Bolgia Ten: Falsifiers
• Alchemists, counterfeiters, perjurers, and
impersonators
– Afflicted by different diseases
 Circle Nine of Hell
• Ringed by Giants
• Virgil and Dante set down by Antaeus
• Traitors are frozen in the lake, Cocytus
• Zone 1: Caina – named for Cain
– Traitors of their kindred
• Zone 2: Antenora – named for Antenor of Troy
– Traitors to political entity (ie, city, state or country)
 Circle Nine cont.
– Zone 3: Ptolomaea – named for Ptolomy
• Traitors to their guests
• Fra Alberigo
– Fiend possession of their bodies on Earth
– Zone 4: Judecca – named for Judas
• Traitors to their lords and benefactors
• Encapsulated in ice
• Satan is located in this zone at the center
 Circle Nine cont. – Hell froze
over…
• Satan is three headed with three people in each
mouth
– Center mouth contains Judas
• Betrayed Christ
– Left mouth contains Brutus
– Right mouth contains Cassius
• Brutus and Cassius betrayed Julius Caesar
• “Perverted Trinity” (“The Divine Comedy”)
– “Satan is impotent, ignorant, and evil while God can be
attributed as the opposite: all powerful, all knowing,
and good” (“The Divine Comedy”).
 Leaving Hell behind
• Virgil and Dante climb down Satan to leave
Hell
• Emerging in other hemisphere before dawn
on Easter Sunday

Dante gazes at Mount Purgatory

 Works Cited:
The Divine Comedy. October 20, 2007. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 2007.

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Divine_Comedy>

Lawall, Sarah, ed. “The Divine Comedy. Inferno.” The Norton Anthology of Western

Literature. 8th ed. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2006. 1465-1576.

Lawall, Sarah, ed. “Dante Alighieri.” The Norton Anthology of Western

Literature. 8th ed. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2006. 1465-1576.

Slides One through Five come from The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Slides Six through 17 are cited from The Divine Comedy from the
cited Wikipedia entry.

Picture sources from the following sites:

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/ashp/inferno_purgatory_paradise_map.jpg
http://www.yst.org/images/yst/mask_drama.jpg
http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/d/fotos/
http://iws.ccccd.edu/Andrade/BritLitI2322/images/NEWINF.GIF
http://www2.bc.edu/~kellehbb/lava.jpg lava image
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Gianciotto_Discovers_Paolo_and_Francesca_Jean_Auguste_Dominique_Ingres.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Dante03.jpg