DANTE’sInferno

Dante and Vergil

Dante’s backgroundItaly 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 Six-

Fingered 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 all-around 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• 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• 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