DANTE’s
Inferno
Dante and Vergil
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
Dante 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
Come Sail Away
Conga Line from Hell
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 achieve a “serene outlook on life” as SixFingered Jake would put it
Dante’s KATABASIS
• Midway on his journey through life, Dante realizes he
has taken the wrong path.
• The Roman poet Virgil searches for the lost Dante at the
request of Beatrice (Dante’s teenage crush and allaround muse)
• He finds Dante in the woods on the evening of Good
Friday in the year 1300 and serves as a guide as Dante
begins his religious pilgrimage to find God.
• To reach his goal, Dante passes through Hell, Purgatory,
and Paradise.
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.
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
Dante’s cosmogony
Real Map of Hell
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?
I Wanna Get Liminal
The Harrowing of Hell
The Harrowing of Hell
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Not a firmly founded Scriptural tradition
Explains what Jesus did after being crucified
Explains the salvation of Old Testament figures
Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Evangelicals all differ as
to the details
Lucifer