The structure of Dante’s Hell
History 100, April 19, 2006
Reminder: paper due next Monday.
Prof. Ogilvie’s cell phone: (413) 687-0780
The
medieval
cosmos
The medieval cosmos
Sublunary
Superlunary
Four elements (earth, air,
fire, water)
Quintessence
Generation and
corruption
Unchanging
Imperfect motion
(straight)
Perfect motion (circular)
Space is moralized. Up is good, down is bad;
movement up and down has a moral implication
Dante’s journey from Hell to
Heaven
• The “dark wood” of sin
• Pilgrimage in the hereafter
• Dante: the pilgrim and the poet
The moral
geography
of Hell
• The hierarchy of sin
• Crime and
punishment
Punishment of
soothsayers (Canto 20)
Pen and ink drawing by
Franz Stassen, 1906
Fortune’s
lesson
Wheel of fortune.
Woodcut, probably by
Albrecht Dürer, from
Sebastian Brant’s
Narrenschiff, 1494
Dante and the pagan heritage
• Virgil, Dante’s poetic guide
• The virtuous pagans in Limbo
• The anomalous pagans in Purgatory and
Paradise
Dante’s epic and medieval
culture
• Criticism of his age
• The Church
• Dante’s political enemies (e.g. Farinata,
Canto 10)
• Accepted yet immoral behavior
• The moral clarity of Hell
• Canto 14, lines 13-15