DANTE’s
INFERNO
Who was Dante?
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Lived from 1265 to 1321
Started Divine Comedy in 1309
Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso
Diplomat who spoke the language of the people
Christian who knew the importance of the Classics
Philosopher who wanted his work to be enjoyed
Entertainer who wanted his work to teach a lesson
Politician who truly practiced ETHICAL LEADERSHIP
Boy who never outgrew his crush on Beatrice Portinari
Sad old guy dealing with a mid-life crisis
Mid-life crisis
The Red Barchetta
Dante’s KATABASIS
In the middle of our life's way
I found myself in a wood so dark
That I couldn't tell where the straight path lay.
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
chè la diritta via era smarrita.
Allegory of Canto I
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Wanders through dark woods at age 35
Kicked out of his native city with no job
Scared by leopard, lion, and then she-wolf
Dante feels hopeless, but a man approaches him
Look… it’s the shade of Vergil himself!
Vergil can take him to Hell and to Purgatory
“Someone else” will guide him through Heaven
Dante’s life is… wait for it… a ROAD to salvation!
The “dark wood” = a life not ruled by morality
Vergil = morality, reason, pietas
Dante’s Background
Italy in Dante’s time
• North Italian city-states largely independent
• Strong papal influence rivaled imperial authority
• Each city had factions favoring either emperor or Pope
Durante “Dante” degli Alighieri (1265-1321)
• Minor noble family, extremely well educated
• One of the rulers of Florence in 1300
• Picked the emperor’s side over the Pope’s – oops
• Spent his life in exile after 1302
• Started Comedy in 1309
Dante’s Italy
Dante and PUBLIC AFFAIRS
• CULTURAL COMPETENCE: Dante was highly
educated in both Latin (the high language) and in Italian
(the vernacular). As an ambassador, he had to be very
aware of each city-state’s particular culture
• COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Dante was highly
involved in political life, risking his life in military service
and on political embassies.
• ETHICAL LEADERSHIP: Dante chose exile and an in
absentia death sentence rather than compromise his
principles. He also chose to write his master work, The
Comedy, in Italian.
Why comedy?
• Dante thought of his work as Commedia.
• The “divine” part was a value judgment courtesy of his
readers
• Commedia = vernacular language, not Latin
• Commedia = happy ending (Paradiso)
• Disgust with existing power structures in Italy
• Disgust with the corruption of the Church
• Trying to teach to the audience’s attention span, in the
way Aristophanes and Sophocles did.
Time For Me To Fly
Conga Line in Hell
Dante’s Italy
Dante and Beatrice
Beatrice Portinari (1266-1290)
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Born to a wealthy Florentine banking family
Met Dante at a May Day party in 1274
They met again in the streets of Florence in 1283
Dante married Gemma Donati in 1285
Beatrice married Simone dei Bardi in 1287
Dante admired her from afar = courtly love
Died at the age of 24 in 1290
Obviously Dante could not have known her at all!
His “Beatrice” is obviously an idealized creation
Beatrice’s Tomb
TOPOLOGY
• ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE
• River Styx, Charon, Cerberus
LEVELS
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2.
3.
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9.
Limbo, Classical Poets (Homer Ovid Lucan Horace ?)
Lust
Gluttony
Greed and Prodigality
Anger and Sullenness
Heresy
Violence (murder, suicide, blasphemy, sodomy, usury)
Fraud (corruption, simony, politics, lies, theft)
Treachery and Betrayal
Classical figures
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Poets (IV): Vergil, Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan
Heroes (IV): Hector, Aeneas, Caesar
Philosophers (IV): Socrates, Plato, Cicero, Seneca
Lustful (V): Dido, Cleopatra, Achilles
Heretics (X): Tombs of the Epicureans
Pagan Prophets (XX): Tiresias with his head on
backward
• Evil Counselors (XXVI): Ulysses (Odysseus) and
Diomedes
Charon the ferryman
Dante’s cosmogony
Real Map of Hell
I Wanna Get Liminal
Questions
• How is Dante’s katabasis a PUBLIC AFFAIRS
katabasis?
• What sort of sins does Dante consider particularly evil,
and why? Does Dante have a system? Where does it
come from?
• What similarities does Dante’s underworld have with
Vergil’s, and what differences?
• What is Dante’s opinion of Odysseus/Ulysses, and what
are his reasons for feeling that way?
The Harrowing of Hell
Farinata degli Uberti
CONTRAPASSO
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Modern Italian contrappasso
From Lat. contra (against), patior (suffer)
Punishment by something like the sin
Punishment by the opposite of the sin
Generically = APPROPRIATE punishment
Tantalus’s punishment = contrapasso
Ixion’s punishment = not so much
Can We Talk?
Bertrand de Born
You should know that I'm Bertran de Born, so that you
Can bring news of me above; I'm the one who misled
The young king, who set father against son, and who
Acted more wickedly than Achitophel did with David and
Absolom. Because I sliced such close bonds in two
I now hold my brain dangling from my hand,
Cut off—alas—from its vital source In the trunk.
By observing me you can understand
How the law of retribution takes its course."
Smoking Popes
Pope Nicholas III
He'd brought me to the hole where sorrow
Showed itself in fiercely flailing legs, my guide
Never dropped me from his side. "You who burrow
Into the earth like a pole," I began, "as if to hide
Your upper parts, speak if you can,
soul." I stood there like a priest beside
An assassin at confession—some vile man
Fixed upside down who delayed death a moment
calling me back. "This was not the plan,
Boniface, this was not the plan," he gave vent
To his distress. "Why do you already stand here?
Pope Nicholas III (1225-1280)
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Born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini
Belonged to famous, influential Roman family
Pope from 1277 to his death in 1280
Remodeled the Vatican and built himself a palace
Learned, had a strong character
Appointed three of his relatives as cardinals
Simony = selling of church offices
Not really as bad as Boniface VIII or Clement V
Example of Dante’s own personal views getting in
Reunited