Dante Alighieri – The Divine Comedy

DANTE ALIGHIERIDante Alighieri is one of the most important poets not only of Italian, but of world literature. In his masterpiece, the “Divine Comedy”, he imagines to travel throughout the after-world during Easter week of 1300, the year of the Jubilee. This journey is told in the three Canticles: Hell, Purgatory and Heaven; each Canticle is divided into 33 cantos, so the total number of cantos is 99, preceded by an introductory one, to get the number ‘100’.The symbolism behind these numbers was very clear and important for Middle-Age Man: ONE was the unique God of Christianity, THREE the persons of the Holy Trinity, so their multiples too had symbolic meanings. Finally, 100 is the perfect number as it the multiple of 10, which contains 1 and 3, multiplied by itself.

The whole journey is intended as the path of purification of man’s soul from Sin, through expiation, starting from down below, so from HELL

Which is like a cone where sins are expiated, from the less to the most severe; it is divided into 3 areas corresponding to the sinful tendencies of the human soul(incontinence, violence, fraud) represented by 3 wild beasts (leopard, lion, she-wolf); each area is divided into 9 circles.

Dante with three wild beasts: leopard, lion and she-wolf.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita

mi ritrovai per una selva oscura

ché la diritta via era smarrita.

Dante has lost his way and loses himself in a ‘dark wood’ (representing sin), but he meets and is helped by the poet Virgil (representing human reason).

The most significant meetings are with:

Charon- Minos- Cerberus

THE LAW OF RETALIATION

The main feature of Hell and Purgatory is the Law of Retaliation: depending on the crimes, Dante puts the souls in different circles and applies the law by analogy (the punishment fits the crime: picture of the lustful), or by contrast (the punishment is the exact opposite: picture of the slothful).

● THE LUSTFULS AND THE SLOTHFUL

In Hell everything lasts eternally; it is dark, cries and blasphemies can be heard in every language. Deep down the infernal abyss is Lucifer, stuck head down, he who once was God’s brightest Angel, but who was punished for his rebellion and HELL was a consequence of his fall (moral and physical).

Purgatory is like a mountain divided into 3 sections: the Antepurgatory, the real Purgatory, whose 7 terraces correspond to the Seven Deadly Sins, the Earthly Paradise (Eden), where Virgil will leave Dante to Beatrice, the Symbol of Grace and Theology who’ll lead him to Heaven.

During his journey through Purgatory Dante we’ll go through all the 7 terraces and his sins will be expiated; on the contrary of Hell, here everything is transient. The passing of time can be perceived, as the Sun rises and sets and hymns, chants and prayers can be heard. The most important characters are Cato, the symbol of freedom; Manfred of Svevia, the musician Casella.

With Beatrice, Dante ascends to Heaven; this is composed of 9 skies, circular and concentric, moved by different Angels. The last sky is the Empyrean, which does not move because it already contains God, it is God’s seat.

After the beautiful prayer to the Virgin Mary by St Bernard, the journey comes to its end and Dante finds himself in the

presence of

“Colui che muove il cielo e le altre stelle”.

“He who moves the sky and the other stars”.

Canto XV

" ed è ragion, ché tra i lazzi sorbi si discovien fruttare el dolce fico."" and it is right, for among crabbed sorbs it ill befits the sweet fig to bear fruit."

Il proverbio richiama alla memoria un detto evangelico (Lc. 6,44): << Non si raccolgono i fichi dalle spine, né si vendemmia una dai rovi >>. Dante vuol porre l’accento sul contrasto tra l’asprezza del sorbo, un frutto dal sapore agro, e la dolcezza del fico: tra la cattiveria dei Fiorentini corrotti e la sua vita sempre mossa da rette intenzioni.

The proverb recalls the Gospel (Luke. 6,44) : << For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush>>. Dante wants to stress the contrast between the sourness of the rowan and the sweetness of the fig : between the badness of the corrupt Florentines and his life, always moved by good intentions.

Canto XXII

"Ahi fiera compagnia! ma ne la chiesacoi santi, e in taverna coi ghiottoni.""Ah savage company! but in the church with saints, and in the tavern with the gluttons!"

L’uomo deve adattarsi alla gente che incontra e frequenta.Man has to adapt himself to the people that he meets and frequents.

"Tra male gatte era venuto'l sorco.""Among malicious cats the mouse had come."

Cadere in brutte mani, fare una cattiva fine.This means to fall into bad hands ; make a bad end.