Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
This blog is intended to serve as a online journal for the Step-Ahead class of World Literature.
15 comments:
In Dante’s divine comedy, Inferno, the second circle of hell is reserved for the lustful. Some historical figures that Dante sees in the circle are Semiramis, a powerful Assyrian queen accused by the Christian historian Orosius as being so immoral that she even allowed incest to become a legal practice. He also sees the Greek warrior and hero of Homer’s The Iliad, Achilles, Dido, Queen of Carthage and Aeneas’ lover from Virgil’s The Aeneid who killed herself after Aeneas is forced to leave to Italy as well as Paris and Helen of Troy , whose affair sparked the Trojan War. Another famous person from history found in the second circle is Cleopatra, who despite never marrying either of them, had illegitimate children with Mark Antony and possibly even Julius Caesar. Lastly, was the lesser known Tristan, a Cornish knight of the round table who was sent to fetch a princess from Ireland and bring her back to marry his king, but instead drinks a potion and falls in love with her. All of these people were consumed by their sexual appetites during their lifetimes on earth. Dante, however, additionally comes across adulterous lovers Francesca de Rimini and Paolo Malatesta. Francesca de Rimini was married to Paolo’s brave but lame/crippled older brother Giovanni Malatesta for political reasons. However, she quickly fell for his younger and healthier brother Paolo; and they began to have an adulterous affair with one another, even though they were both married to other people at the time. The affair lasted approximately ten years before Francesca’s husband ultimately found them in her bedroom one day and stabbed them both to death. Dante writes them as, like the others in the second circle, as being trapped in an eternal whirlwind, doomed to be constantly swept away by the winds just as they were swept away by their desires for sex. Francesca’s major sin was lust in the form of adultery; sleeping with a married man while she too was married. She is punished like the other sinners within the circle along with her lover, Paolo, another adulterer. Francesca’s shade tells Dante that her husband is destined for a far worse punishment in the Caina ring in the ninth circle, reserved for those who betrayed their family and named after Cain of the Old Testament who murdered his brother out of jealousy. This is one of the few times that Dante feels pity for those doomed to eternal suffering because of their sins, as he faints at the end of Canto III.
In Dante’s “Dante’s Inferno”, he recounts his joinery through hell. On his journey he was lead by the great writer, Virgil. Virgil was considered Dante’s voice of reason. Virgil lead Dante though hell, but could not lead him into paradise. In Dante’s account of their journey, there are seven layers of hell. Dante wrote people into each layer of hell based on their sins. The worse the sins you committed, the deeper into hell you were. Throughout his journey he encountered many famous and historically important people. Close to the end of his journey, Dante passes through the seventh circle of hell. The seventh circle of hell is reserved for violent people, and it is split into 3 parts. The The outer part is reserved for those who were violent towards others. The next part is for those who were violent towards themselves (committed suicide). The inner part is reserved for blasphemes and sodomers. As Dante passes through the first part of the seventh circle, he encounters who is thought to be Alexander the Great. It is unclear if Dante is actually referring to Alexander the Great, but it is assumed that he is. Alexander is known for many things during his lifetime. He was a greek ruler and a fighter. During his childhood he was outshines by his father and his conquers. Once his father died, Alexander lived out his fathers life goal of conquering Persia. After he conquered the Persians, he moved onto Asia to conquer even more places and people. Throughout his lifetime, he killed great amounts of people. On top of his own personal murders murders and acts of violence, he led his army into war and their own acts of violence. In total, he and his army killed thousands of people, if not more. These actions are what inspired Dante to condemn Alexander the the seventh circle of hell. His murders and encouraged acts of violence combined to make his major sin. His punishment-more specifically than being condemned to hell- is that he is trapped in a boiling river of blood. In the river with him are other sinners who committed acts of violence towards their neighbors. Alexander the Great lived before Dante, so Dante never knew him personally. Because Alexander the Great was such a influential person in the worlds history that everyone knew about him. Dante obviously knew Alexander the Great, his reputation, and his sins. Because of his sins, Dante judged him and classified him along with others who committed similar sins by writing him into the seventh circle of hell.
In Dante’s inferno he tells of his journey through the nine levels of hell and describes in detail the punishments of the sinners and the sins that caused them to end up in their specific circles of hell. He also gives examples of famous historical people that have ended up in each circle of hell. One of the main people that Dante encounters in circle eight is Ulysses (Odysseus). Odysseus is found in the 8th pit of circle 8; circle 8 as a whole contains all the sinners who committed fraud, however, there are ten sub circles, or ditches. Circle eight is nicknamed the malebloge which means “little pouches.” Odysseus resides in ditch eight. Ditch eight is where all the barrators (fraudulent counselors) are assigned. The punishment for these sinners is that they are being constantly consumed by a flame- essentially they are burning for eternity. In hell when Dante crosses paths with Odysseus, he is seen as a double flame, because him and Diomedes are attached, being punished together. However, vigil notes that Odysseus is the bigger flame because he was a greater hero than Diomedes. The reason both of them appear in this ditch is because they are both solely responsible for the Trojan horse and the demise of the Trojans in the war. Additionally, they also appear here because they are responsible for the destruction of Athena’s temple. When Dante wrote the Inferno, The Iliad and The Odyssey was not available to him during this time, so he did not know the tale of Odysseus from these writings. However, he knew of Odysseus from parts of the reworking’s of the Homeric story. Odysseus was a Greek hero that helped come up with the idea of the Trojan horse. He was also the ruler of Ithaca who was married to Penelope. During the encounter between Odysseus, Diomedes, Dante and Virgil, Odysseus tells the story of his journey home after the Trojan war and how it took a lot longer than he expected, making many detours along the way. Then Odysseus recounts his death. On this second journey he tells of how they have traveled farther than any man has, so far that they could see purgatory. According to Odysseus, Zeus thought that was too far and him and his men with furious winds that headed straight for his boats and him and all his men died. After this Virgil lets Odysseus go and him and Dante continue making their way through hell, encountering a few others in this ditch, then making their way to the last of the ditches and then the ultimate ninth circle of hell.
-Laina Suarez
Dante in "Dante's Inferno" gives a description of his fictional journey through hell. In this description, Dante describes hell as having nine circles containing various sinners being punished in various ways. Of the nine circles, I was assigned circle seven. This circle is the circle of violence and is actually split into three parts. One part is designated for those who were violent towards others. Another part is designated for those who committed suicide and were, therefore, violent towards themselves. Finally, the last loop of circle seven is saved for those who showed violence towards God. This broad category of sins causes tons of people to reside in circle seven. There are blasphemers, murderers, tyrants, and those who committed suicide. Of the people stuck in circle seven, one of the souls is Dionysius of Syracuse.
Dionysius, as his name suggests, was a Greek tyrant of Syracuse in what is now Sicily or southern Italy. Dionysius was alive from roughly 432-367 B.C. and began his early life working as a clerk in a public office. In his lifetime, a war began against Carthage. Dionysius, being an able young man, joined the military and turned out to be a great fighter. Thanks to his achievements in the war, Dionysius was elected the supreme military commander in 406 B.C.. However, Dionysius went wrong when in the following year he seized total power and became a tyrant.
After rising to power, Dionysius made Syracuse the most powerful Western Greek colony. However, he did this ruthlessly and has been regarded by the ancients as one of the worst and cruelest rulers ever. Thanks to this sin of ruthless violence against his people and his literal neighbors, Dante chose to put Dionysius in the seventh circle. This makes complete sense as Dionysius obviously was violent towards others. Furthermore, the punishment employed by Dante is clever as well. Dionysius, for his sin, has to stay in a river of boiling blood. In a sense, this punishment was brought on himself as he was extremely angry and violent towards his neighbors. People who are angry are often described as having their blood boiling so it is only fitting that Dante would have him sitting in boiling blood. Some other notable people in the boiling blood include Alexander the Great and many other ruthless rulers. After examining Dionysius' life, it is clear why Dante decided to write him in the seventh circle.
The question then arises as to how Dante gained knowledge of Dionysius. Obviously, Dionysius lived long before Dante so it would be impossible for Dante to know Dionysius personally. However, Dionysius was so ruthless his reputation remained long after he had passed. In picking Dionysius as an example of someone who is violent towards others, Dante brilliantly picked someone that all his readers would know as ruthless. This is because Dionysius ruthlessness was common knowledge and remember as an example of what rulers should never be like.
In Dante’s depiction of Hell in his work Inferno, The second circle is reserved for those that the chief sin in their lives was that of lust. Minos the King of Crete stands at the front of the second circle of Hell, he is portrayed as a giant beast in Dante’s Inferno. Minos is the one who makes all the decisions of where each sinner’s soul will be sent to Hell. Minos would make this decision after hearing that particular sinner’s confession then would coil his tail and the number of times he did this would signify the circle that the sinner would be forced to spend eternity in. Dante places many figures in this particular circle, such as Cleopatra, Tristan, Helen of Troy, and Achilles. Also, Paolo and Francesca Da Rimini were sentenced to this circle as well. The punishment of those sent to the second circle is that they are blown by a violent wind back and forth, unable to find rest and peace. The winds are meant to symbolize the restlessness of a person who lets themselves be controlled solely by the desires of their flesh. Dante calls to the souls in this circle hoping one will be willing to tell the story of how they ended up in this portion of the Inferno. Francesca answers his call and tells Paolo and her story of how love caused her demise. She was married to an old and disabled man, she later fell in love with his younger brother and how when they came upon the story of the legend of King Arthur and the forbidden love of Sir Lancelot and Guinevere, they felt the story spoke to their secret affair and when Francesca’s husband found out he had them both killed. When Dante and Virgil move to the third circle in Hell they are met by the souls plagued by the sin of Gluttony: The overconsumption or overindulgence in material things. These souls are guarded by the three-headed dog Cerberus. These sinners are forced to sit in vile slush that is continually poured on them by a never-ending icy rain. This punishment symbolizes the degradation of a person’s body when they overindulge in food, drink or other material pleasures. They are also unable to see people around them which signifies the selfish spirit of a person that falls into the sin of gluttony. Dante speaks to a character by the name of Ciacco while passing through this circle, who tells him of events happening concerning the pope and the emperor in Florence. While traveling through each of these circles Dante especially feels pity for those trapped in the second circle because they met their demise because they were restless and careless with love.
- Gracie Cahalan
In Dante’s Inferno, he places historical figures throughout his description of hell based on what sins they are known for. In the 8th circle of hell, Dante places Pope Nicholas III in the third pouch of the circle. The 8th circle as a whole is known for the sin of fraud in general. The specific type of fraud that a person commits determines the exact pouch he or she will spend eternity in hell. In this case, the third pouch of the 8th circle relates to those called Simoniacs or those who have sold or auctioned off a political office to others. The punishment for Simoniacs is that their heads are stuck in pits with only their feet protruding, and as they struggle to be lets loose, a burning flame burns on their feet. The height of the fame on the feet is a sign of how severe the sin was of the person. Dante notices one person who has higher flames on his feet than any other soul in the pits. He Notices that the person is Pope Nicholas III Pope Nicholas III is placed here because of the actions he committed when he was Pope. Pope Nicholas III was known as a nepotistic man, this means that he favored his family or relatives in his politics and decision making. While he was in office as pope, he elevated three of his closest relatives to Cardinal solely because they were related not because his relatives deserved the position. Like Martin Luther, Dante calls out the actions of Nepotism that Pope Nicholas III performs in the Inferno in respect to warn other Religious figures in the Catholic church the punishment for their actions. Dante obviously knows the Pope because of his jobs and his significance in the Catholic Church. Although Dante knows Pope Nicholas III, Pope Nicholas III doesn’t recognize Dante, rather he mistakes Dante for another Pope who just died that committed the same sins as him. He soon realizes that it is not him and that the other Pope is still alive. This writing and inclusion of the Pope makes Dante’s Inferno a political piece. The inclusion of the pope and the placement in hell for the actions of the religious figures is a slap to the face to the Catholic church. Much like Martin Luther’s 95 thesis, Dante’s inferno calls out the catholic church on their actions from the past and the present.
In Dante’s book, “Dante’s Inferno,” he details his treacherous and difficult journey through hell. There he meets his guide, Virgil who escorts him through the nine circles of hell. The two begin their journey through hell in the first circle this is the circle where Virgil resides. The Circles of hell and their punishments increase as hell continues. The lightest punishment occurs in the first realm and goes until the final and the worst punishment in the final circle, where Satan himself and his demons reside. Once Dante and Virgil arrived in the first circle they find that the first circle is composed of generally good people, included there are people that were never baptized as well as the “virtuous pagans,” these were very good people but they did not believe in religion. This first circle is called “Limbo,” there Dante sees the poets Horace, Homer, Ovid, and Lucan, next they encounter many warriors, such as Hector, Aeneas and Julius Caesar. After the warriors he encounters a group of great but pagan philosophers, these included the famed Aristotle along with Plato and Socrates. Many of these people were great people that did not deserve an incredibly harsh punishment for their actions. In the circle they reside in, there is beautiful fields play in and there is very little pain. At one point in time the Moses of the Bible even resided their until Dante’s work describes how Jesus came down to hell on a thundering landslide and with him he took many people from hell into heaven. Finally the pilgrim Dante sees something that surprises him; there in the first circle is his former lover, Beatrice. At first he feels a deep sorrow and pity for her, but then he realizes that she is more than comfortable in the first circle. In Dante’s book he does not provide the reader with adequate information to allow them to determine how his once lover died, however it can be assumed that she died an early and most likely an unexpected death, Dante is once again relieved that she is happy and experiences very little pain in hell. This is one of the very few times that the author Dante, allows the character Dante to experience a close relationship with someone who he sees in his journey through hell.
Jack Brunton
Dante’s Inferno opens with Dante trying to climb a mountain. Three beasts: a lion, leopard, and a she-wolf were blocking the path. He goes back into the forest and meets Virgil’s ghost. His ghost guides him through Hell, and he also says the path will eventually take them to Heaven. Dante wanted to reach Heaven so he could be reunited with his love, Beatrice. In the Inferno, there are nine circles of Hell. The first being Limbo, where non-Christians and unbaptized pagans reside. The second is Lust, where people who were tempted by the flesh reside. The third was the gluttonous, the ones who lie in a pile of vile. The fourth belonged to the ones who hoarded possession and those who spent it lavishly. The fifth was Anger and Wrath, and their punishment is determined by their sins. The sixth was the Heretics who are burning for all eternity. The seventh circle is divided into three rings: the first were the ones who were violent towards others, the second were the ones who were violent to themselves, and the third were the ones who were violent towards the gods and nature. The eighth circle belong to the Fraudulent, and was also divided into ten Bolgias. In the first Bolgia, were the panderers and seducers. In the second, are the flatterers. In the third, are the simonists. In the fourth, are the false prophets. In the fifth, are the corrupt political leaders. In the sixth, are the hypocrites. In the seventh, are thieves. In the eighth, are evil counselors. In the ninth, divisive individuals. In the last one, were various falsifiers such as, alchemists. In the ninth and final circle, is where Lucifer and the betrayal of others resided. One of the historical characters in Circle Nine of Dante’s Inferno, was Judas Iscariot. He was one of the twelve apostles closest to Jesus, and sat next to Jesus during the Last Supper. He traded Jesus over to the Romans for 30 pieces of silver. His own desires and greed drove him to betray Jesus. The sad thing is, Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus and the eleven apostles were praying. He marked Jesus with a kiss and called him “master.” Satan then enters into Judas, revealing his true inner evil. He was so struck with guilt that he hung himself once he saw what happened to Jesus because of him. The rope eventually gave out, and Judas fell and busted open. This field was known as the “field of blood.” In Dante’s Inferno, Judas is in the Ninth Circle with Lucifer. This Circle is known as “The Circle of Treachery.” Judas resides in Lucifer’s central mouth, and his back is skinned by the Devil’s claws. Dante knew Judas from the other two historical men, Brutus and Cassius. They betrayed Julius Caesar by murdering him. They all were men who betrayed an important figure, who people loved and they were close to. Judas will forever remain in Lucifer’s mouth, being eaten for eternity. This punishment that Dante gives him is reasonable. He betrayed an innocent man for his own benefit. He may not have known what was going to actually happen to Jesus, but he knew the Romans despised Jesus. So what good would have come out of Jesus being in their possession?
The first circle is comprised of everyone who had not committed a major sin but was not saved through Jesus Christ. No matter how good the person was if they had not been saved they were in hell. Thus, the very first circle of hell was created for these people. People who lived seemingly good, righteous lives, yet were still missing the most important factor. One of these was Homer. Homer was an extremely influential writer within Greek literature, writing both the Odyssey and the Iliad. He influenced the thoughts of Socrates and Aristotle who both developed systems of thought in an attempt to solve the problem of being and becoming. Because of this, it can most likely be reasoned that Homer reasoned in a similar fashion as those that learned from him. This would ultimately, end up being Homer’s sin. He did many great things, and worked to solve many issues and contribute to society, but in the end he did not believe in Christ and thus was not saved. So although he completed many great works and contributed a great amount to society, all of his works were not enough to get him through the gates of heaven. He needed salvation from Jesus Christ and that was his missing piece. Though the first circle is one of relative mild punishment compared to the other levels of hell, the first level of hell is still a level of hell. They will never be fulfilled or filled with anything of substance because they are without Christ. This person was well known because of his works of literature that shaped the beginning of modern western civilization. He was the author of the well known, Odyssey and the Iliad. These two works that are still prominent today were most definitely prominent then as well. Both epics contained heavy references towards the Greek mythogy of that time and both works seem to mirror Homer’s ideology. His ideology was popular and closely followed by many notable Greeks. His followers or students carried his teachings and his epics throughout Europe. Thus, this was most likely how Dante knew of Homer. He was a renown writer and thinker of his time. His thoughts and ideas as well as his literature were well known throughout western society and civilization. Because he was so highly regarded within society he would have been a person Dante immediately noticed when arriving in hell. His high status and authority that spanned throughout his life would have been carried over into his after life in hell.
I was assigned the sixth circle of hell of from Dante’s inferno. This circle is the first of the sort of lower hell in the story. It is beyond the gates of Dis, where the sins that souls are being punished are greater, and more offending to God. The demons turn Virgil away since Dante is a living soul, although Virgil has been able to talk his way in to each circle before. Finally, messenger sent from Heaven comes down, and the demons flee in his presence. The messenger convinces the demons guarding the gate of Dis to let Virgil and Dante through, as he explains that Dante’s visit is sent from Heaven. Dante and Virgil enter the gate of Dis into the sixth circle. The first thing upon them is tombs, where the Heretics reside.Virgil describes in detail the heresy of one of the groups, the Epicureans, who engaged mostly in worldly pleasures and things of the flesh because they believed that the soul died along with the body. Virgil and Dante then hear a voice coming from one of the tombs. The voice addresses Dante as a Tuscan, a person whom is from the Tuscan region of Italy, where Florence is located. The voice turns out to belong to Farinata, who in life was a political leader of Dante’s era. Virgil urges Dante to speak to Farinata. During the conversation between Dante and Farinata, the voice of another doomed soul interjects. The voice is that of Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti, who turned out to have been the father of Dante’s close friend Guido. The soul begs Dante the question of why his son Guido does not accompany him and Virgil, and Dante’s vague answer, ( that the true meaning of is still debated among scholars today ) causes Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti to believe that his son is dead.
Farinata begins a discussion with Dante of Florentine politics. It becomes clear that Dante and the soul are members of opposing political parties, yet still treat each other politely in their conversation. Due to the things that Farina says, Dante can infer that these shades know of future events but not present ones. Farinata can see into future events, and predicts that Dante will be exiled from Florence. Farinata explains to Dante that as a component of their punishment, the Heretics can only see things distantly in the future and are ignorant of current events. Dante becomes nervous of the prophesy of his exile, wondering how much time he has until this. Virgil reassures him.
- Karli Haws
Dante’s Inferno is a story about what Dante believes hell to be like. He begins his writing discussing how he was walking through a forest when he sees a mountain. He tries to climb it but a lion accompanied by a she-wolf and a panther stop him. He walks down the mountain when he becomes star struck by his favorite writer Vigil. Virgil agrees to show Dente the levels of hell in order for him to get to the mountain he saw earlier. They travel throughout the levels of hell. They see everything from the level of lust, full of goddesses to the graves of fire. Finally they arrive at the eight circle.
The eight circle of hell is divided into nine sections that Dante refers to as pouches. The pouches are what divide the people in the eight circle by the sins they have committed. The circle is reserved for men that obtained sins of fraud during their life. Fraud includes seducers, flatterers and many others.
Jason is the one of the characters that Dante finds in the eight circle of hell. He is found in the first pouch, which is for seducers. Jason finds himself in this part of hell because of his actions in using women during his life. During his life he loved and left women some of the women included Hysipyle who he left pregnant after seducing her. Medea was another women that he seduced. We discussed the events that happened after Jason left Medea. Medea tried to kill everyone close to Jason by killing her children and Jason's new lover. Jason experiences torment by being whipped by demons while they march in the pit of the pouch. Dante never personally knew the man of Jason but Jason was famous in mythology for abandoning Medea after finding the Golden Fleece. Dante and Virgil move to the second pouch of the eight circle of hell where they find more famous men.
-Golda
In Dante’s Inferno, Dante creates a fictional Hell that consists of nine figurative circles. He categorizes sinners according to the nature of their sins; people were punished more harshly for worse sins. Many people argue that Dante’s Inferno is as much a political piece as a theological piece. Dante got to choose who went Hell and the punishment for each sin. These punishments were symbolic of the sin committed by the person. Dante also got to play favorites by putting people he liked in the better circles and the people he did not like in the worse circles. Therefore, this piece is biased because if Dante did not like someone, then he would give him a harsh punishment in Hell. As the circles go higher in number, the punishments get worse. For my project, I was assigned ditches 6-10 of Dante’s eighth circle. The eighth circle is the second worst circle a person could end up in, so the punishments in this circle were severe. The people in circle eight were people who committed the sin of fraud, and ditch eight contains sinners who were deceivers in life. One of the main historical figures in the eighth ditch of the eighth circle is Odysseus, also known as Ulysses. The reason he was there was because he committed three major sins: the devising and execution of the Trojan horse, luring Achilles into the war, and stealing a statue of Athena that protected Troy. His punishment is that he is contained in a flame with another Greek war hero, Diomedes, who also suffers for the same reasons that Odysseus suffers. Dante places Odysseus in this category because he fit the description of the people in that ditch: people who robbed other men of their integrity by persuading them to practice deceit. Dante might have given Odysseus that harsh of a punishment because he likes Virgil enough to choose him as his guide through Hell, and Virgil does not like Odysseus. Virgil’s writings of Odysseus were from the perspective of the Trojan war hero Aeneas, and he has nothing good to say about him in the Aeneid. Some philosophers would argue that Odysseus was a good man and a good king, but Dante obviously does not think so and gives him a harsh punishment in Hell. This is one of the reasons why people argue that Dante’s goal was to produce a political piece, not just a theological piece. However, Dante would not have known of Odysseus from Homer like we do. We know Odysseus from two of Homer’s famous epics: the Iliad and the Odyssey. Those writings were not available to Dante during his life. He would have known of Odysseus from parts and reworking’s of the stories contained in classical and medieval Latin works. Therefore, Dante might not have fully understood Odysseus’s character, but if he did have a good grasp of his character, then Dante is just biased against Odysseus.
In the 5th circle of Hell, Dante comes across a man named Filippo Argenti. The character is based on the historical Filippo Argenti. Argenti was known for his temper. In life, he was described as a very tall man, very burly, bizarre, and famous for his iron fists. Though no specific sin is mentioned, his general sin is anger. For this, he was thrown in the river Styx along with the other Wrathful. After arguing with Dante, he touchescthe boat and is attacked and torn apart by other spirits in the river. Dante’s Inferno was as much a political piece as it was a comedy. Filippo was one of Dante's political enemies, but Dante also held a personal resentment Filippo. Supposedly, he slapped Dante in the face, his brother took possession of Dante's property after Dante was exiled, and Filippo's family opposed Dante's return from exile. Dante throws many of his political adversaries into the inferno. In fact, I think Dante even enjoys imagining their punishments. A comical punishment he comes up with for Farinata, an opposing political leader of the time, is that he is damned to observe the political events in Florence, without being able to influence them. He takes it a couple steps further with Fra Alberigo and Branca d’Oria. These men were still alive at the time of his writing. Dante says they were so evil the devil did not wait for them to die before taking their souls. So, Alberigo and D'Oria, who were still alive at the publication of the poem, are actually soulless bodies possessed by demons. Talk about dirt. Even the 2016 Presidential Election didn’t go that far. Dante uses his Inferno to advance his own political policies while essentially damning the opposition at will. It is disappointing his masterpiece took such a political turn but overall it does not take too much away from the story as a whole.
In the story of Dante’s inferno, we find a pilgrim, Donte, who meets up with a shade who happens to be one of his favorite writers of all time. Virgil walks Dante through hell, as Donte describes has nine circles to it. Donte favors Virgil by putting him in the lest painful circle in hell. Out of the nine circles of hell I have been assigned circle six. Virgil and Donte start of in the sixth circle by waiting on help from “Heaven” and both Donte and Virgil are getting worried. They are stationed around the doleful city and from the tower outside the wall of the city sprang three hellish furies. These furies where covered in blood and looked like females. They had serpents for hair they served the queen of hell. The women were tearing their breast and squealing. This freaked Donte out. He looked and ran to Virgil, his guide. Medusa came and Virgil told Dante to shield his eyes from hers because if he didn’t, he would not return to the real world. Virgil didn’t even trust Donte to cover his eyes so he covered them for him. Then Donte turns and sees a thousand souls and they cleared the way for the one who walked the Stynx. His faced looked that of a concerned man and he began to make his way into the city. They walked by the graves of souls and Donte knew the graves looked different, the Lids were loose. Donte said that the tombs were those of tormented souls. Donte asked what kind of people these were. Virgil answered and said that the arch-heretics and their disciples. They lie there, buried with one another burning. One of the historical figure in this circle is Megara. She is the daughter of Creon and she is one of the Hellish Furies who is punished by being covered in blood and tears her skin with her nails. Donte knew here from the Aeneid the epic that his guide and greatest mentor wrote.
- Joseph Huett
In the Fifth Circle of the Inferno, The reader finds Dante briefly convening with Filippo Argenti. Filippo resides in the fifth circle as wrath was chief among his sins. For this sin, he now suffers in the river Styx. As soon as he touches the boat in which Dante is making his voyage, he is ripped apart by the other wrathful spirits, into pieces. Filippo is a historical figure and was a fierce political opponent for Dante during his time alive. Filippo was directly involved in Dante's Exile and his family opposed his return. Along with this figurative slap to the face, Iron-fisted Filippo also literally slapped Dante in the face. To add insult to injury, Filippo's brother also stole his land and possessions after Dante's Exile. Perhaps Dante gave Filippo such a gruesome death for the wrath he harbored towards him and took great pleasure in imagining for Filippo such a gruesome death. Ironically, later in the story, Dante completes his spiritual journey and ascends into Paradise, though clearly he would deserve to reside in the Fifth Circle of Hell with Filippo on account of not only the wrath he harbored towards him, but to his other political opponents and people who negatively affected him. An assertion could be made that the hero Achilles belongs in the 5th circle of hell in the river styx as well, for his wrath described in the Homeric Epic, The Iliad or perhaps in the eighth circle with Odysseus (Ulysses) and Diomedes with the schemers and false counselors for having schemed against his own armies, or perhaps within the 9th Circle of Hell, closest Lucifer, for being a traitor to his country and his best friend, Patroclus.
Post a Comment