English 12 - Mr. RinkaLesson #3

Dante’s Inferno

Dante Alighierihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy

Dante shown holding a copy of the Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelino's fresco

Devine Comedyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy

The Divine Comedy is the title usually employed to designate an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321; the author's own title for the work was simply "Comedìa". It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature.

The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the afterlife is a culmination of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church. It helped establish the Tuscan dialect, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

On the surface, the poem describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven; but at a deeper level, it represents allegorically the soul's journey towards God. At this deeper level, Dante draws on medieval Christian theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy and the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas.

1337 AD Manuscripthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy

Detail of a manuscript in Milan's Biblioteca Trivulziana (MS 1080), written in 1337 by Francesco di ser Nardo da Barberino, showing the beginning of Dante's Comedy

Infernohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy

Gustave Doré's engravings illustrated the Divine Comedy (1861–1868); here Dante is lost in Canto 1 of the Inferno

Inferno

The poem begins on the night before Good Friday in the year 1300, "halfway along our life's path.” Dante is thirty-five years old, half of the biblical life expectancy of 70, lost in a dark wood (understood as sin), assailed by beasts (a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf) he cannot

evade, and unable to find the "straight way" to salvation (symbolized by the sun behind the mountain). Conscious that he is ruining himself and that he is falling into a "low place" where the sun is silent, Dante is at last rescued by Virgil, and the two of them begin their journey to the underworld. Each sin's punishment in Inferno is a contrapasso, a symbolic instance of

poetic justice; for example, fortune-tellers have to walk with their heads on backwards, unable to see what is ahead, because that was what they had tried to do in life:they had their faces twisted toward their haunchesand found it necessary to walk backward,because they could not see ahead of them.

... and since he wanted so to see ahead,he looks behind and walks a backward path.Allegorically, the Inferno represents the Christian soul seeing sin for what it really is, and the three beasts represent three types of sin: the self-indulgent, the violent, and the malicious. These three types of sin

also provide the three main divisions of Dante's Hell: Upper Hell, beyond the city of Dis, containing four indulgent sins (Lust, gluttony, avarice, anger); Circle 7 for the sins of violence, and Circles 8 and 9 for the sins of malice (fraud and treachery). Added onto these are two unlike categories that are specifically spiritual: Limbo, within Circle 1, contains the virtuous

pagans who were not sinful but were ignorant of Christ; and Circle 6, containing the heretics who contradicted the doctrine and confused the spirit of Christ. The circles are put to 9, with the addition of the Satan completing the structure of 9 + 1 = 10.

Nine Circles of Hellhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)

Virgil then guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell. The circles are concentric, representing a gradual increase in wickedness, and culminating at the centre of the earth, where Satan is held in bondage. Each circle's sinners are punished in a fashion fitting their

crimes: each sinner is afflicted for all of eternity by the chief sin he committed. People who sinned but prayed for forgiveness before their deaths are found not in Hell but in Purgatory, where they labour to be free of their sins. Those in Hell are people who tried to justify their sins and are unrepentant. Allegorically, the Inferno represents the Christian soul seeing sin for what

it really is. What the three beasts may represent has been the subject of much controversy over the centuries, but one suggestion is that they represent three types of sin: the self-indulgent, the violent, and the malicious. These three types of sin also provide the three main divisions of Dante's Hell: Upper Hell (the first 5 Circles) for the self-indulgent sins, Circles 6 and 7 for

the violent sins, and Circles 8 and 9 for the malicious sins.

Gustave Doré's engravings illustrated the Divine Comedy (1861–1868); here Dante is lost in Canto 1 of the Inferno

First Circle (Limbo):In Limbo reside the unbaptized and the virtuous pagans, who, though not sinful, did not accept Christ. Second Circle (Lust):In the second circle of Hell are those overcome by lust. Dante condemns these "carnal malefactors" for letting their appetites sway their reason. They are the first ones to be truly

punished in Hell. These souls are blown back and forth by the terrible winds of a violent storm, without rest. This symbolizes the power of lust to blow one about needlessly and aimlessly.

Gianciotto Discovers Paolo and Francesca by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Third Circle (Gluttony):The "great worm" Cerberus guards the gluttons, forced to lie in a vile slush produced by ceaseless foul, icy rain.

The third circle, illustrated by Stradanus

Fourth Circle (Greed):Those whose attitude toward material goods deviated from the appropriate mean are punished in the fourth circle. They include the avaricious or miserly.

In Gustave Doré's illustrations for the fourth circle, the weights are huge money bags.

Fifth Circle (Anger):In the swamp-like water of the river Styx, the wrathful fight each other on the surface, and the sullen lie gurgling beneath the water, withdrawn "into a black sulkiness which can find no joy in God or man or the universe."

The fifth circle, illustrated by Stradanus

Sixth Circle (Heresy):In the sixth circle, Heretics, such as Epicureans (who say "the soul dies with the body") are trapped in flaming tombs.

Lower Hell, inside the walls of Dis, in an illustration by Stradanus. There is a drop from the sixth circle to the three rings of the seventh circle, then again to the ten rings of the eighth circle, and, at the bottom, to the icy ninth circle.

Seventh Circle (Violence):The seventh circle houses the violent. Its entry is guarded by the Minotaur, and it is divided into three rings:Outer ring: This ring houses the violent against people and property. Sinners are immersed in Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood and fire, to a level commensurate with their sins:

Middle ring: In this ring are suicides and profligates. The suicides – the violent against self – are transformed into gnarled thorny bushes and trees and then fed upon by Harpies.Inner ring: Here are the violent against God (blasphemers) and the violent against nature. All reside in a desert of flaming sand with fiery flakes raining from the sky, …

Eighth Circle (Fraud):The last two circles of Hell punish sins that involve conscious fraud or treachery. These circles can be reached only by descending a vast cliff, which Dante and Virgil do on the back of Geryon, a winged monster traditionally represented as having three heads or three conjoined bodies.

A Gustave Doré wood engraving of Geryon

Dante climbs the flinty steps in Bolgia 7, Canto 26.

Ninth Circle (Treachery):The ninth and last circle is ringed by classical and Biblical giants, who perhaps symbolize pride and other spiritual flaws lying behind acts of treachery.Satan is waist deep in ice, weeping tears from his six eyes, and beating his six wings as if trying to escape.

Dante speaks to the traitors in the ice, Canto 32

Satan is trapped in the frozen central zone in the Ninth Circle of Hell, Canto 34

Dante’s Inferno

http://quietube4.com/v.php/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlLQvZ6-GQ

Assignment #1

Read Canto I of Dante’s Inferno(As you read have the footnotes out so you can read them as you go through this Canto.)Dante’s Inferno has 34 Cantos.#3 LA 12 Dante's Inferno Canto I

Assignment #2

Discussion: Is fear the best motivator?•Does fear produce immediate results? Long term results?•Does motivation through fear improve or limit your life?•What are some negative historical examples in which fear was used to control people?

Assignment #2

• What are other methods of motivation?

• What motivates you best?

English 12 - Mr. RinkaLesson #3

Dante’s Inferno