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INFERNO
So begins the Inferno. Dante realizes he has wandered from the "True Way" in mid-life, and finds himself
in the Valley of Evil. He is rescued by the spirit of Virgil (author of the Aeneid), who tells him he has been
sent to guide him out of Hell because of prayers by Beatrice, the woman whom Dante admired all his life.
To leave Hell, they must go through all nine circles of Hell, the deeper the circle, the more grave the sin
and its appropriate punishment. Perhaps the worst punishment is that no one helps or cares for another
in Hell. By going through Hell, Dante - and the reader - learn to recognize and detest man's sinful nature
and the power of evil, and the need to guard against it. Dante learns those in Hell choose to go there by
their unrepentance. Dante enters Hell on Good Friday and reads the following posted above the gates of
Hell as he is about to enter (Canto III, line 9):
PURGATORIO
Dante and Virgil emerge from Hell just before the dawn of Easter Sunday, and in Purgatorio Dante begins
the difficult climb up Mount Purgatory. Souls that are repentant of their sins against God and man go to
Purgatory and become free of temptation, and know that they will eventually be with God. Purgatory is a
Mountain with seven ledges or cornices, one for each of the seven deadly sins (pride, envy, anger, sloth,
greed, gluttony, and lust). The renunciation of sin occurs in Purgatory, as one begins his ascent to Purity
by practicing virtue. A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good (Philippians 4:8). For each
cornice, Dante first offers biblical and classical examples of the particular virtue to encourage the
penitents, and after they are reformed, examples of the sin to remind them of its destructive nature. On
the first cornice (just above Hell) one is purified of pride, inordinate self-love or conceit, by learning the
contrasting virtue, Humility. When one is cured of pride, he moves up to the second cornice, envy,
resentful awareness of another's good fortune and the desire to obtain the same advantage. Envy is
purified by the virtue of Caritas, love of others. Anger is offset by Meekness and Patience, which leads
one to become a peacemaker. Sloth, spiritual apathy and inactivity, is cured by Zeal and Diligence.
Generosity is the virtue that overcomes greed. Gluttony, an excessive appetite for food and drink, is
controlled by Temperance through Fasting and Abstinence. On the seventh and last cornice, lust is
overcome by the virtue of Temperance through Chastity. Dante offers the following Biblical examples of
the Virtues that offset the seven deadly sins as well as the sins themselves:
Dante gives Biblical Examples of the Virtues that offset the Seven Deadly Sins and the sins themselves.
Virgil, the voice of Reason, takes Dante step-by-step up the mountain of Purgatory to the Garden of
Eden, where man resided before his fall, and releases him in Canto XXVII (27) to himself, as he is now
purged from sin. He meets Beatrice, the unrequited love of his earthly life, in Canto XXX (30), and she
leads him to Heaven. Repentant souls, even those with great sin, and even if they repent just prior to
death, still go to Purgatory, as we learn from Canto V:
PARADISO
Paradiso is Dante's imaginative conception of Heaven. The more one loves on earth, the closer in Heaven
one is to God, who is All-Love. The Seven Primary Virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, Justice,
Temperance, and Fortitude are fully displayed in Paradiso. Beatrice takes Dante through the 9 Spheres of
Heaven to Canto XXXI (31), where Beatrice turns Dante over to St. Bernard, who leads him to the Beatific
Vision of God. The passages are from the poetic and readable translation by the late John Ciardi
(copyright John Ciardi 1970, Publisher, WW Norton Company, New York and London). The following is
Canto XXXIII (33) of Paradiso, the final Canto of the Divine Comedy. The canto begins with a unique
expression referring to the Blessed Virgin Mary, "O Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son."
St. Bernard offers a Prayer to the Virgin so that Dante is permitted the Beatific Vision of God.
The vision passes and Dante is once more mortal and fallible.
Yet the truth is stamped upon his soul, which he now knows will return to be one with God's love.
that who seeks grace and does not first seek thee
is so indrawn it is impossible
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The Inferno (Dante Alighieri): The Immortal Drama of a Journey through Hell
John Ciardi
The Inferno (Dante Alighieri): The Immortal Drama of a Journey through Hell
Poet and literary critic John Ciardi reads an English-language translation of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno
(Hell), an allegory telling of Dante’s journey through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem,
Hell is depicted as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth. The Inferno is the first part of Dante’s
epic three-part work The Divine Comedy. The other two parts are Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso
(Heaven).
Inferno
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Dante and Virgil stop to look in awe at the Hellgate, on which encouraging words like "ABANDON EVERY
HOPE, [YOU] WHO ENTER HERE" appear.
There is more to the inscription, which describes the origins of Hell—how it was made by "Justice," "the
Highest Wisdom," and "Primal Love."
Virgil, in his sage way, doesn’t really answer Dante’s question, but tells him to be brave. He also describes
Hell’s sinners as people who have "lost the good of the intellect." (This is a good place to stick a big
bright sticky note because this is an Important Concept.)
Dante’s first impression of Hell: it’s noisy. It’s full of "strange utterances, horrible pronouncements, /
accents of anger, words of suffering, / and voices shrill and faint, and beating hands…"
Horrified, Dante asks Virgil who these people are that scream so loudly.
Virgil explains that they’re neutrals, people who failed to choose either good or evil in their lifetimes and
so are condemned to exist in a kind of ante-Inferno...pre-Hell, if you will. The "coward angels" are here
too—those that sided with neither God nor Lucifer in the great battle that created the Devil.
When Dante repeats his question, Virgil (slightly peeved) answers shortly:
These sinners have "no hope in death" and their entire existence is driven by envy for any other kind of
existence… even one in the true circles of Hell. Virgil says this so quickly and tersely that he implies that
these sinners aren’t even worth wasting many words over.
While sightseeing, Dante notices the neutrals’ punishment: various insects sting their naked bodies,
irritating them and making them run around in big circles under a long banner. Dante is blown away by
the sheer number of them; in other words, there are a lot of neutrals.
Among the horde, Dante recognizes the one "who made […] the great refusal." Scholars have interpreted
this sinner as Pope Celestine V, who abdicated his papal seat just five months after taking office. This
paved the way for the election of Pope Boniface VIII, whom Dante hates with a passion.
Dante observes a big crowd of people gathering on the banks of a big river and asks Virgil why they seem
so eager to cross the river.
Our wise man tells Dante to quiet down; he’ll find out why when they actually get there. "There" being
the banks of the river Acheron, one of the five rivers of the Greek Underworld.
When they do get there, Virgil doesn’t even get the chance to explain before an old man with a long
white beard comes up to them and basically says, "No chance the two of you are getting on my boat.
Only dead people allowed." This guy is Charon, the ferryman that takes people across the river.
Then Virgil gets all up in Charon’s face and one-ups him with "God sent us, so let us through." Or
something like that.
So Charon is forced to ferry them across, but he’s pouty and sullen about it.
Dante, in poet mode, compares all the dead souls gathering on the riverbanks to falling leaves in autumn
and later to hunting falcons returning to their masters when called. Dante is big on metaphors.
Virgil explains that only sinners ever have to undertake this crossing.
All of a sudden, an earthquake hits, complete with a tornado and a "blood-red light."
What souls are these who run through this black haze?”
Fig.Pope Celestine V
Shall you cross to that other shore. Not here! Not here!
And the place and the seed and the womb that gave them birth.
Their dread turns wish: they yearn for what they fear.
Summary:
Dante and Virgil arrived at the gateway of Hell, whose famous inscription ends with the words: “Abandon
hope, ye who enter here.” The damned shall suffer eternally and Hell will endure forever, in Dante’s
vision. Past the gate, Dante heard voices of suffering and despair that made him weep. Virgil told him
that he was hearing the laments of the morally neutral people, the “sorry souls of those who lived
without disgrace and without praise,” as well as the angels who sided neither with God nor with Satan in
Satan’s rebellion. These cowardly people were tormented by wasps, flies and worms. They are shut out
of both Hell and Heaven, disdained by the forces of good and evil alike.
Dante and Virgil approached the shore of the river Acheron, which forms the boundary of true Hell.
Charon, a demon in the shape of an old man, warned the waiting souls of the torments in store for them,
and told Dante that he, a living man, could not cross the river. However Virgil told him that God had
willed it, and Charon could not countermand that order. The exhausted, bitter and despairing damned
souls were forced by Charon across the Acheron on his boat. Even as the first group of the damned
crossed the river, more crowds assembled on the bank, waiting, unable to resist their fate. The earth
trembled and Dante, terrified, fell unconscious.
Analysis:
The inscription on the gate is the only text Dante reads in Hell. In it, different attributes are assigned to
different members of the Trinity: God-the-father is “divine authority,” Christ is “highest wisdom,” and the
Holy Ghost is “primal love.” Dante will very rarely refer to God directly: just as Mary is known as “a gentle
lady,” God is known as these different forces. The eternal things made before Hell are the heavens, the
angels, and primal matter, which were made on the first day.
Dante’s rejection of the lukewarm, neutral souls might seem overly harsh: although they did nothing evil,
their torments are great. This, and Dante’s lack of compassion for them, are evidence that he was no
believer in moderation or compromise. Just as he firmly and unrelentingly espoused his political
position, he expects others to do the same. The genuinely sinful souls may be more blame-worthy, but as
we shall see, Dante also finds them to be more worthy of compassion.
One of the neutral souls is singled out: he who made “the great refusal.” He is thought to be Pope
Celestine V, who was elected Pope in July 1294, and abdicated five months later, which allowed Pope
Boniface VIII (1294-1303), a bitter enemy of Dante, to come to power. There are unflattering references
to Boniface VIII in Cantos XIX, lines 52-57, and XXVII, line70.
Charon and the Acheron are both borrowed from Classical mythology: Dante uses Pagan characters and
geography in his Christian underworld. In the Italian Renaissance, there was great renewed interest in
Classical mythology and literature, which was sometimes at odds with Christian beliefs, since
theoretically even the greatest Greeks and Romans were all worthy of damnation. Dante is careful to
make sure that his veneration for Antiquity is kept within the bounds prescribed by Christianity, as we
shall see in the description of Limbo in the next Canto.
Summary
Canto III opens with the inscription on the gate of Hell. Dante does not fully understand the meaning of
the inscription and asks Virgil to explain it to him. Virgil says that Dante must try to summon his courage
and tells him that this is the place that Virgil told him previously to expect: the place for the fallen
people, those who have lost the good of intellect.
The poets enter the gate and the initial sights and sounds of Hell at once assail Dante; he is moved
deeply and horrified by the sight of spirits in deep pain. The unending cries make Dante ask where they
come from, and Virgil replies that these are the souls of the uncommitted, who lived for themselves, and
of the angels who were not rebellious against God nor faithful to Satan. Neither Heaven nor Hell would
have them, and so they must remain here with the selfish, forever running behind a banner and
eternally stung by hornets and wasps. Worms at their feet eat the blood and tears of these beings.
Dante wants to learn more about these souls, but Virgil moves him along to the beach of Acheron where
the ferryman, Charon, tells Dante to leave because Dante is still living and does not belong there. Charon
tells Dante to take a lighter craft from another shore. Virgil reprimands Charon, saying that it is willed,
and what is willed must happen.
Charon speaks no more, but by signs, and pushing, he herds the other spirits into the boat. The boatman
strikes with his oars any soul that hesitates. The boat crosses, but before it lands, the opposite shore is
again crowded with condemned souls. Virgil tells Dante to take comfort in Charon's first refusal to carry
him on the boat, because only condemned spirits come this way.
As Virgil finishes his explanation, a sudden earthquake, accompanied by wind and flashing fire from the
ground, terrifies Dante to such a degree that he faints.
Analysis
While the inscription is over the gates of Hell, they first enter the vestibule, that place reserved for those
who did not use their intellect to choose God.
The inscription over the gate of Hell has a powerful impact: "Abandon every hope, all ye who enter
here." Dante naturally thinks this applies also to him, and in the first of many passages that cause Dante
anguish, Virgil smiles and reassures him.
The inscription above the gates of Hell implies the horror of total despair. It suggests that anyone may
enter into Hell at any time, and then all hope is lost. Dante cries out that this sentence is difficult for him
to bear. However, this condemnation does not apply to Dante, because, allegorically, he can still achieve
salvation, and realistically, he is not yet dead so it does not (necessarily) apply to him.
Dante, in this early canto, is moved to tears and terror at his first sight of Hell. He continues to be moved
until he learns, later, to be unsympathetic towards sin in any form. This is part of his learning process and
his character development throughout the poem. Dante learns that sin is not to be pitied; however, this
lesson takes him many circles of Hell to learn.
In Canto III, Dante sets up the intellectual structure of Hell. Hell is the place for those who deliberately,
intellectually, and consciously chose an evil way of life, whereas Paradise is a place of reward for those
who consciously chose a righteous way of life. Therefore, if Hell is the place for people who made
deliberate and intentional wrong choices, there must be a place for those people who refused to choose
either evil or good. The entrance of Hell is the proper place for those people who refused to make a
choice. People who reside in Hell's vestibule are the uncommitted of the world, and having been
indecisive in life — that is, never making a choice for themselves — they are constantly stung into
movement.
This explanation is the first example of the law of retribution, as applied by Dante, where the
uncommitted race endlessly after a wavering (and blank) banner. Because they were unwilling to shed
their blood for any worthy cause in life, their blood is shed unwillingly, falling to the ground as food for
worms.
Among the sinners are the fallen angels who refused to commit themselves to either God or Lucifer and
stayed neutral. However, a refusal to choose is a choice, an idea Dante uses that has since become
central in existentialist philosophy.
Dante spies Pope Celestine V, who "made the great refusal" of giving up the chair of Peter after only five
months, thereby clearing the way for Boniface VIII, to whom Dante was an implacable enemy. Celestine
preferred to return to the obscurity of non-commitment, rather than face the problems of the papacy.
When Charon refuses to take Dante across the river, he does so because his job is to take only the dead
who have no chance of salvation. Dante, however, is both a living man and one who still has the
possibility of achieving salvation.
Virgil's incantation, "Thus it is willed there, where what is willed can be done," is a roundabout way to
avoid the word "Heaven," which is repeated in Canto V. In later cantos, Dante uses other allusions of
various kinds.
The shore of the river Acheron that serves as the outer border of Hell is crowded with more souls than
Dante believed possible. These souls are propelled not by the anger of Charon alone, but by the sharp
prod of Divine Justice, until they desire to make the crossing. Choosing to cross the river is their final
choice, just as their desire for sin on Earth was also their choice.
Glossary
Charon the boatman who ferries souls of the dead across the river Styx to Hades; in Inferno, he ferries
on the Acheron.