DIVINE COMEDY – Dante Alighieri
DELACROIX BARK OF DANTE --VIRGIL & DANTE
[284] http://www.allthingsbeautiful.com/all_things_beautiful/images/thebarque
oftruth.jpg
The Divine Comedy is a spiritual epic embodying the values of the
Israelites/Christians (sin, guilt, redemption, etc.). The purpose of Dante's book
is moral education. Morals concern the choices we have in this world: there
are good choices and there are bad choices. Dante's purpose is to show the
good ones and bad ones, and what happens to those who make choices.
This book has the same characteristics as other epics we have mentioned
such as the Iliad/Odyssey by Homer, and the Aeneid by Virgil. You'll recall
that Virgil wrote his Aeneid for the Roman Emperor Augustus. In keeping with
the revival of ancient writers in the early Renaissance, Dante selects Virgil as
a principal character in the Comedy. The Comedy has all the characteristics
of epics including heroes, heroines, saints, and even God. It incorporates
myth and legend and takes place outside of real time. New to the literary style
of the time, Dante's Comedy is written in vernacular Italian and not in Latin.
The story covers approximately one week in the life of Dante. The author is
having a mid-life crisis, a spiritual crisis. He has deviated from the straight and
narrow path and is confused about life. Walking along one day, he stumbles
into a dark hole where three apparitions of wild beasts—each representing
different kinds of sin—confront him. As he proceeds further along he is
confronted by the shadowy figure of Virgil—author of an earlier epic— who
agrees to serve as his guide through Hell with the promise that he can
continue his journey up through purgatory and on to Heaven in order to regain
his spiritual direction.
Who else would be the perfect guide to show you around Hell, than Virgil!
Although Virgil was a pagan, the Medieval Christians believed that he among
all the ancients was qualified to comment on life. He had written a series of
poems called Ecologues in which he predicted the coming of a great Golden
Age signaled by the birth of a child (Christ). The Christians felt that Virgil's
premonition of Christ's coming qualified him to be a spiritual guide—at least in
Hell. So Virgil acts as Dante's guide, taking him through the muck and mire,
traversing the living cesspool that is called Hell.
While his book is a glorification of the life hereafter—in keeping with the whole
theory of a God-centered universe—Dante's Comedy is also a contemporary
commentary on politics, theology, and learning because Dante puts his
enemies in Hell, friends in Heaven and alludes to political situations prevalent
during his lifetime. Is it any wonder that he was banned from his hometown of
Florence, Italy?
The Comedy is organized around a GEO-CENTRIC view of the universe. In
that view (handed down from the Ancient Greek, Ptolomy), Medieval learning
placed the earth at the center of the universe, with Hell on the inside and
Satan in the middle. A track leads out to Mount Purgatory on the opposite side
of the Earth. The Sun and planets revolved around the Earth with the stars
around them; beyond the stars were the angels and the Empyrian, or God.
GEOCENTRIC VIEW OF
UNIVERSE [285] http://www.redorbit.com/modules/reflib/article_images/6_e1845fd7cbce79e3af2bb1c39d6ffe63.jpg
Since that time, of course, science has changed our view of the universe and
demonstrated that the sun is at the center of our particular universe. Thus, we
currently hold a HELIO-CENTRIC (sun-centered) view of the universe. As we
shall see later, Galileo Galilei got into serious trouble when he suggested that
Copernicus' proposal of the helio-centric universe.
EPIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COMEDY
(See Attachment 1)
Dante's Comedy is filled with allegory and symbolism; it is the story of Dante
and the people he knew, but it is also the story of man's quest for salvation. It
has characters like Virgil, who represents wisdom and virtue, and a girl named
Beatrice, who represents supernatural wisdom. When Dante was about 35, he
fell in love with Beatrice who was then 13. Although never consummated, that
"love from a distance" drove Dante to include Beatrice in his book. There are
of course other characters such as Saint Bernard, Mary, and even God.
Il Comedie is full of numerology. Medieval numerology is not concerned with
mathematical proportions, but rather with numerical references to Christian
iconography. Medieval numbers include the perfect number 3, the Trinity; the
perfect number 10, as in the 10 commandments; and the perfect number
seven, as in the Seven Deadly Sins, etc. The Comedy is organized around the
perfect numbers 3 and 10. Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven form the canticles.
Each canticle is subdivided into 33 cantos or songs, and each of the songs or
cantos is subdivided into 3 line groups called terza rima. There are 99
canticles in all plus an extra one that equals 100--another perfect number
because it's a multiple of 10.
10 commandments X 10 commandments = 100.
Hell
= 9 divisions + 1 = 10
Purgatory = 9 divisions + 1 = 10
Heaven
= 9 divisions + 1 = 10
9 is a perfect number plus 1 equals another perfect number 10, another
perfect number. As you can see, medieval numerology doesn't have much to
do with proportions, ratios or mathematical theories. What is really important
here is the symbolic reference of the number to Christianity. It's what the
numbers stand for from a narrative point of view, and not numeric ratios
themselves. This is much different from the old Pythagorean idea that
numbers and ratios in and of themselves have value. This is a principal
difference between medieval Christian numerology and Ancient Greek
numerology.
DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY—HELL
OVERALL DIAGRAM OF HELL
(See Attachment 2)
Dante Alighieri has strayed from the straight and narrow path—he has
reached a mid-life crisis and must go through a complete tour of the universe
from Hell to Heaven in order to redeem himself and find the true way of life.
He stumbles into the darkness of Hell and a sign above the gate reads: "give
up all hope ye who enter here." He is escorted by Virgil onto the upper rim of
hell where numerous spirits are racing around. They are prodded by wasps
with pitch forks who chase them from one side of the rim to another. On one
side of Hell a hornet waves a colored flag and the spirits hurry around to get to
it, but then a hornet on the other side of Hell waves another colored flag and
they are chased to the other side. These spirits keep chasing flags of different
colors around Hell in perpetuity. Why? These are the people who never
committed themselves to anything in life. They are the flag chasers who are
condemned to chase different flags around the rim of hell forever.
WILLIAM BLAKE
http://www.island-of-freedom.com/BLAKE.HTM
"I saw a banner there upon the mist circling and circling, it seemed to scorn all
pause. So it ran on, on still behind it pressed a never-ending rout of souls in
pain. I had not thought death had undone so many as passed before me in that
mournful train. And some I knew among them; last of all I recognized the
shadow of that soul who, in his cowardice, made the Great Denial. At once I
understood for certain; these were of that retrograde and faithless crew hateful
to God and to His enemies. These wretches, never born and never dead, ran
naked in a swarm of wasps and hornets that goaded them the more they fled;
and made their faces stream with bloody guts of pus and tears that dribbled to
their feet to be swallowed there by loathsome worms and maggots."
As Dante walked along he recognized some of the sinners, and they told him
about the sins they committed in real life (Dante conveniently puts his
enemies in Hell). Many of his descriptions of these repugnant sinners—
writhing and twisting in the muck and mire—are so vivid that they have
inspired the imaginations of painters and illustrators throughout history such
as Delacroix and Blake.
Dante Alighieri. THE DIVINE COMEDY. translated by John Ciardi. New
American Library (Penguin Library). New York, 2003. excerpt....
"And every where along that hideous track I saw horned demons. Oh how the
marchers of that long route stirred at the first crack of the lash. Certainly no
one waited a second or a third. And I said "that sinner there, that certainly not
the first time I've seen that one" and stopped to study him, and Virgil out of his
kindness even waited and allowed me to walk back a few steps to the sinner's
side. And that sinner seeing me turn around, tried to hide his face but I called
to him "you there that walk along with your eyes on the ground if those are not
false features then I know you, you are Benedicamo Venedico. What are you
doing here among this pretty crew?" [This person actually lived in Florence at
that time.] "I speak unwillingly though something in your voice stirs me. It was I
that brought the Ghisola around to serve the lust of the Marquis however
distorted that ever may sound."
The man referred to above used to bring women around to the satisfy the
sexual desires of the Marquis, and Dante, who knew about it, tattles on him in
the book. One can understand why Dante had many political enemies and
was eventually banished from his hometown of Florence.
When Dante reaches the level of the River Styx, Charon, the ancient River
God who guards the entrance to lower Hell, refuses to allow him to pass.
Charon once let someone get through who was alive and as punishment the
gods turned him into a human being and tortured him for a year before
returning him to his post. He swore he would never again let anyone pass
through who was alive. But Virgil tells Charon that Dante has special
dispensation and so he lets them pass by, reluctantly.
CHARON THE RIVER GOD—from MICHELANGELO’S LAST
JUDGEMENT http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sistine/40j-I.jpg [lower left corner]
SINS IN THE PIT OF HELL
(See Attachment 3)
They continue their journey all the way down to the pit of Hell and Dante sees Satan
himself:
"If he was once as beautiful as now he is hideous, and still turned on his
Maker, well may he be the source of every woe! With what a sense of awe I
saw his head towering above me for it had three faces: one was in front, and it
was fiery red; the other two as weirdly wonderful, merged with it from the
middle of each shoulder to the point where all converged at the top of the
skull..." "Under each head two wings rose terribly their span proportioned to so
gross a bird; I never saw such sails upon the sea. They were not feathers--their
texture and their form were like a bat's wings--and he beat them so that three
winds blew form him in one great storm: it is these winds that freeze all of Hell.
He wept from his six eyes, and down three chins the tears ran mixed with
bloody frost and pus."
Note the use of the holy number three: he kept three people in eternal pain--Brutus,
Cassius and Judas--three people who had turned against their benefactors. Dante felt
that the worst sin was someone who turned against their own benefactor. Satan himself
turned against God, Judas turned against Christ, Brutus and Cassius turned against
Caesar.
"Judas ...he who kicks his legs in a fiery mouth and has his head inside. On the
other two mouths, who have their head thrust forward the one who dangles
down is Brutus. Notice how he writhes without a word? And there with huge
and sinewy arms is the soul of Cassius...but the night is coming on and we
must go for we have seen the whole. Then as I bade, I clasped his neck, and
he, watching for a moment when the wings were opened wide, reached over
dexterously and seized the shaggy coat of the king demon; Then grappling
matted hair and frozen crusts from one tuft to another, clambered down."
It's amusing to read from Dante's catalog of sins in Hell. Hypocrites, thieves, sowers of
evil, they're all here. Notice how he has placed fortune-tellers very low among the
sinners. Palm readers today who put up neon signs in the cities beware! It's an
interesting view of hell and a popular one from the medieval view, but it's not the official
church version. The story was written in vernacular Italian [Tuscan]—not in Latin—so
that everyone could read it and this ensured its popularity.
DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY--HEAVEN
Dante's account of Heaven is equally compelling. Here is his description of God:
"What I then saw is more than the tongue can say....my vision made one with
the Eternal Good....I think I saw the universal form....Within the depthless deep
and clear existence of that abyss of light three circles shown—three in color,
one in circumference: the second from the first, rainbow from rainbow; the third
an exhalation of pure fire equally breathed forth by the other two. But oh how
much my words miss my conception...that second aureole which shown forth in
Thee, conceived as a reflection of the first--or which appeared so to my
scrutiny—seemed in Itself to be painted in man's image. I fixed my eyes on that
alone in rapturous contemplation. Like a geometer wholly dedicated to
squaring the circle, but who cannot find, think as he may, the principle
indicated—so did I study the supernal face. I yearned to know just how our
image merges into that circle, and how it there finds place; but mine were not
the wings for such a flight. Yet as I wished, the truth I wished for came cleaving
my mind in a great flash of light. Here my powers rest from their high fantasy,
but already I could feel my being turned--instinct and intellect balanced equally
as in a wheel whose motion nothing jars—by the Love that moves the Sun and
the other stars."
Literary works in the Middle Ages were typically done for the glorification of God and in
that sense Dante's Comedy is the culmination of its type. Even though it does not
necessarily represent the official Church view of Christianity in the Middle Ages, it offers
a unique insight into the world outlook of that period. The temperature of Hell, for
example—which was described as being extremely cold—has gone up in recent years.
In the Middle Ages, Satan and Hell were thought to be extremely cold—the closer you
got to death, the colder you became. This contrasts sharply with the Hellfire and
brimstone views held by some Christians today.
The importance of Dante's book from a structural viewpoint may be its clever
construction using perfect numbers of 3 and 10. From a general artistic point of view, its
importance may lie in the many paintings and illustrations it inspired. But from a purely
cultural viewpoint, however, its importance may lie in the simple fact that it was written
in the native tongue and reached a wide audience.
Attachment 1
Attachment 2
Attachment 3