ABOUT THE AUTHORDurante Degli Alighieri

• Born Mid-May to mid-June, c. 1265 Florence, Republic of Florence

• Died September 13/14, 1321(aged about 56)Ravenna, Papal States

• Occupation Statesman, poet, language theorist, political theorist

• Nationality Italian

• Period Late Middle Ages

• Literary movement Dolce Stil Novo

STRUCTURE OF THE STORY

The Divine Comedy is composed of 14,233 lines that are divided into three canticas (Italian plural cantiche)

Inferno(Hell)

Purgatori(Purgatory)

Paradiso(Paradise)

-each consisting of 33 cantos (Italian plural canti). An initial canto, serving as an introduction to the poem and generally considered to be part of the first cantica, brings the total number of cantos to 100.

Additionally, the verse scheme used, terza rima, is hendecasyllabic (lines of eleven syllables), with the lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme aba, bcb, cdc, ded, ....

The physical aspect of Hell is a gigantic funnel that leads to the very center of the Earth.

According to the legend used by Dante, this huge, gigantic hole in the Earth was made when God threw Satan (Lucifer) and his band of rebels out of Heaven with such force that they created a giant hole in the Earth.

Satan was cast all the way to the very center of the Earth, has remained there since, and will remain there through all of eternity.

Circle 1: Those in Limbo Circle 2: The Lustful Circle 3: The Gluttonous Circle 4: The Hoaders Circle 5: The Wrathful Circle 6: The Heretics Circle 7: The ViolentRing 1:Murderers, Robberers & PlundersRing 2:Suicides and those harmful to the worldRing 3:Against GOD, Nature & Art Circle 8: The Faudulent

Trench I: Panderers & SeducersTrench II: FlatterersTrench III: SimoniacsTrench IV: SorcerersTrench V: BarratorsTrench VI: HyprocritesTrench VII: TheivesTrench VIII: Evil CounselorsTrench IX: Sowers of DiscordTrench X: Falsifiers

Circle 9: TraitorsRegion 1: KindredRegion 2: CountryRegion 3: GuestsRegion 4: Lords

DIVINE COMEDY

Inferno, Purgatorio, ParadisoBY DANTE ALIGHIERI

This is a place where the souls of sinners would go after they

die

INFERNO

CANTO I The Dark worlds of Error

The Inferno follows the wanderings of the poet Dante as he strays off the rightful and straight path of moral truth and gets lost in a dark wood. And that, folks, is just the beginning.

At the age of thirty-five, on the night of Good Friday in the year 1300, Dante finds himself lost in a dark wood and full of fear.

CANTO I The Dark worlds of Error

Just as three wild animals threaten to attack him, Dante is rescued by the ghost of Virgil, a celebrated Roman poet and also Dante’s idol.

CANTO II

The Descent

Virgil asked the deceased love-of-Dante’s-life, Beatrice, to send someone down to help him. Virgil to the rescue! He’s an appropriate guide because he’s very much like Dante, a fellow writer and famous poet.

When asked why he came, Virgil answers that the head honchos of Heaven—the Virgin Mary and Santa Lucia—felt sorry for Dante. Beatric

e

CANTO III

The Opportunists(Gate)

Dante passes through the gate of Hell, which bears an inscription ending with the famous phrase "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", most frequently translated as "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Dante and his guide hear the anguished screams of the Uncommitted. These are the souls of people who in life took no sides; the opportunists who were for neither good nor evil, but merely concerned with themselves.

CANTO III

The Opportunists(Gate)

After passing through the vestibule, Dante and Virgil reach the ferry that will take them across the river Acheron and to Hell proper. The ferry is piloted by Charon, who does not want to let Dante enter, for he is a living being

Virgil forces Charon to take him however, the passage across the Acheron is undescribed, since Dante faints and does not awaken until he is on the other side.

Charon

CANTO IV

The Virtuous Pagan Circle 1 - Limbo

The first circle of Hell (Limbo), considered pre-Hell, just contains all of the unbaptized and good people born and before the coming of Christ, who obviously couldn’t be saved by him.

CANTO IV

The Virtuous Pagan Circle 1 - Limbo

The first circle of Hell (Limbo) :

Virgil resides here, along with a bunch of other Greek and Roman poets.

Dante encounters the poets Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan, who include him in their number and make him "sixth in that high company".

CANTO V

The LustfulCircle 2

Dante and Virgil leave Limbo and enter the Second Circle — the first of the circles of Incontinence — where the punishments of Hell proper begin. It is described as "a part where no thing gleams. They find their way hindered by the serpentine Minos.

Minos- who judges all of those condemned for active, deliberately willed sin to one of the lower circles.

He sentences each soul to its torment by wrapping his tail around himself a corresponding number of times.

CANTO V

The LustfulCircle 2

In the second circle, lustful sinners are tossed around by endless storms.

CANTO V

The LustfulCircle 2

Dante speaks to the soul of Francesca da Rimini, a woman who was stuck in a loveless, arranged marriage and committed adultery when she fell in love with a dashing youth named Paolo.

Paolo

Francesca

CANTO VI

The GluttonousCircle 3

Cerberus - the monstrous three-headed beast of Hell, ravenously guards the gluttons lying in the freezing mire, mauling and flaying them with his claws as they howl like dogs.

CANTO VI

The GluttonousCircle 3

Dante then awakes in the third circle, where the Gluttonous sinners suffer under a cold and filthy rain.

CANTO VII

The Avaricious and ProdigalCircle 4

Virgil leads Dante on to the fourth circle, where the Avaricious (greedy people) and Prodigal (reckless spenders) roll heavy weights in endless circles.

Circle 4 – Guarded by Plutus.

CANTO VIIIThe Wrathful and SullenCircle 5 – The River Styx

The next stop on the tour is the fifth circle, where the Wrathful and Sullen are immersed in the muddy river Styx.

While they are crossing the Styx, a sinner named Filippo Argenti reaches out to Dante (presumably for help), but Dante angrily rejects him.

Philippo

CANTO IX-XI

The Wrathful and SullenCircle 5 – The Gate of Dis

Now at the gates of a city called Dis, Virgil takes it upon himself to persuade the demon guards to let them pass. Unexpectedly, he fails.

CANTO IX-XI

The Wrathful and SullenCircle 5 – The Gate of Dis

The walls of Dis are guarded by fallen angels.

Demon guards

This means that instead of continuing on with the journey, Dante and Virgil must wait for an angel to come down and force open the gates for them.

CANTOIX-XI

The HereticsCircle 6

After passing the city of Dis, our dynamic duo, enters the sixth circle, where the Heretics lay in fiery tombs.

Dante talks to Farinata degli Uberti, who predicts that Dante will have difficulty returning to Florence from exile.

Farinata degli Uberti

CANTO XII The Violent against Neighbors Circle 7

This circle houses the violent. Its entry is

guarded by Minotaur.

Divided into 3 rings:

Outer ringMiddle ringInner ring

Minotaur

CANTO XII The Violent Circle 7

As they cross from the sixth to the seventh circle, where the Violent are punished, Virgil finally begins explaining the layout of Hell.

Violent against their neighbors

Circle 7

Violent against themselves

Violent against GOD

Outer ring

Middle ring

Inner ring

CANTO XIIThe Violent against their neighbors Circle 7 – Outer Ring

Outer ring – housing the violent against people and property, who are immersed in Phlegethon – a river of boiling blood, to a level commensurate with their sins.

CANTO XIIIThe Violent against themselvesCircle 7 – Middle Ring

Middle ring – In this ring are the suicides, who are transformed into gnarled thorny bushes and trees.

*The trees are a metaphor; In life the only way of the relief of suffering was through pain (suicide)

CANTO XIV-XVII

The Violent against GOD, Nature and ArtCircle 7 – Inner Ring

Inner ring –

All reside in a desert of flaming sand with fiery flakes raining from the sky.Violent against:

GOD – blasphemers,Nature –Sodomites;Art – Usurers

Latini

CANTO XVIII

The Fraudulent Circle 8

Finally, Dante and Virgil ready themselves to cross to the eighth circle. Dante, at Virgil’s command, summons the beast Geryon from the depths with a cord wrapped around his waist.

-Geryon, symbol of deceit

Geryon

Virgil stays to talk with the beast while urging Dante to look at the last of the Violent sinners. When Dante comes back, they mount Geryon and ride the beast during the descent into the eighth circle.

CANTO XVIII

The Fraudulent Circle 8

The eighth circle contains ten pouches, each containing different types of sinners.

Dante’s Inferno Circle 1: Those in Limbo Circle 2: The Lustful Circle 3: The Gluttonous Circle 4: The Hoaders Circle 5: The Wrathful Circle 6: The Heretics Circle 7: The ViolentRing 1:Murderers, Robberers & PlundersRing 2:Suicides and those harmful to the worldRing 3:Against GOD, Nature & Art Circle 8: The Faudulent

Trench I: Panderers & Seducers

Trench II: FlatterersTrench III: SimoniacsTrench IV: SorcerersTrench V: BarratorsTrench VI: HyprocritesTrench VII: TheivesTrench VIII: Evil CounselorsTrench IX: Sowers of DiscordTrench X: Falsifiers

Circle 9: TraitorsRegion 1: KindredRegion 2: CountryRegion 3: GuestsRegion 4: Lords

CANTO XVIII

The Fraudulent Circle 8Trench I: Panderers & SeducersTrench II: Flatterers

Panderers and Seducers walk in separate line in opposite direction, whipped by demons.

Flatterers are steeped in human excrement.

CANTO XIX-XX

The Fraudulent - Circle 8Trench III: SimoniacsTrench IV: Sorcerers

Simoniacs -Those who committed simony are place head first in holes in the rock, with flames burning on the soles of their feet.

Sorcerers and false prophets- they have their heads twisted around on their bodies backward, so they can only see what is behind them and not in the future.

CANTO XXI-XXIIIThe Fraudulent Circle 8Trench VI: HyprocritesTrench VII: Theives

Corrupt politicians( barrators) are immersed in a lake of boiling pitch, guarded by devils, the Malebranche

Hypocrites listlessly walking along wearing gold-gilded lead cloaks.

lol

CANTO XXIV-XXVII

The Fraudulent Circle 8Trench VII: TheivesTrench VIII: Evil Counselors

Thieves are bitten by snakes. Snakes bites make them undergo various transformations and some resrrected after being turned to ashes.

Evil counsellors are encased in individual

flames

*They’re watching the flaming spirits of Oddyseus and

Diomedes (Trojan War)

CANTO XXVII-XXXI

The Fraudulent Circle 8Trench IX: Sowers of DiscordTrench X: Falsifiers

A sword-wieldded devil hacks at the sowers of discord.As their wounds heal, the devil will tear their bodies again.

Groups of various sort of falsifiers are

afflicted with different types of

diseases.

The severed head of

Bertrand de Born speaks to

Dante

CANTO XXVII-XXXI

The Fraudulent Circle 8

As they leave, Virgil points out the sinning giants who are immobilized around them in punishment.

CANTO XXVII-XXXI

The Fraudulent Circle 8

Nimrod of the giants

Nimrod—who was responsible for building the Tower of Babel—has lost the ability to speak coherently. His words are gibberish.

Virgil requests that one of the unbound giants, Antaneus, transport them in the palm of his hand down to the last circle of Hell. He complies.

The giant Antaeus lowers Dante and Virgil into the last circle

Nimrod

Antaneus

CANTO XXXIII The TraitorsCircle 9

The ninth circle of Hell, where traitors are punished, contains four different zones.

Dante’s Inferno Circle 1: Those in Limbo Circle 2: The Lustful Circle 3: The Gluttonous Circle 4: The Hoaders Circle 5: The Wrathful Circle 6: The Heretics Circle 7: The ViolentRing 1:Murderers, Robberers & PlundersRing 2:Suicides and those harmful to the worldRing 3:Against GOD, Nature & Art Circle 8: The Faudulent

Trench I: Panderers & Seducers

Trench II: FlatterersTrench III: SimoniacsTrench IV: SorcerersTrench V: BarratorsTrench VI: HyprocritesTrench VII: TheivesTrench VIII: Evil CounselorsTrench IX: Sowers of DiscordTrench X: Falsifiers

Circle 9: TraitorsRegion 1: KindredRegion 2: CountryRegion 3: GuestsRegion 4: Lords

CANTO XXXIII The TraitorsCircle 9

Traitors, distinguished from the “merely” fraudulent in that their acts involve betraying one in a special relationship to the betrayer, are frozen in a lake of ice known as Cocytus.

The traitors frozen in the ice of Cocytus

CANTO XXXIII The TraitorsCircle 9 – The Four Concentric Zones of 9th Circle

Traitors to their Kindred

REGION 1:Caïna

Named for Cain, is home to traitors to their

kindered.

REGION 2:Antenor

aIs name for Antenor of

troy,who betrayed his city to the

Greeks.

REGION 3:Ptolomæ

aIs probably named

for Ptolemy, the captain of Jericho ,

He killed Simon Maccabaeus and

his sons.

REGION 4:Judecca

Is named for Judas the Iscariot,

Biblical betrayer of Christ, is for traitor

to their Lords.

Traitors to their Country Traitors to their Guests Traitors to their Lords

CANTO XXXIII The TraitorsCircle 9 – REGION 1:Caïna

REGION 1:Caïna

The souls here are immersed in the ice up to their necks.

Dante addresses the traitor Bocca degli Abati

Bocca degli Abati

CANTO XXXIII The TraitorsCircle 9 – REGION 2:Antenora

REGION 2: Antenora

The souls here are immersed the same

level as those in Caïna, except they are unable to bend

their necks.

Ugolino gnaws upon the head of Archbishop Ruggieri

Archbishop Ruggierir

Ugolino

CANTO XXXIII The TraitorsCircle 9 – REGION 3:Ptolomæa

REGION 3:Ptolomæa

Where traitors against their guests suffer, immobilized

in ice and their tears frozen against their

eyes.

As they cry, their tears freeze and seal their eyes shut – they are denied even comfort of tears.

CANTO XXXIII The TraitorsCircle 9 – REGION 4:Judecca

REGION 4:Judecca

In the fourth the final zone, Judecca,

where traitors against their

benefactors are punished, Dante

witnesses the king of Hell, the three-

headed Lucifer, giant and frozen at

the core. In his three mouths,

Lucifer mechanically chews on the most

evil mortal sinners—Judas, Brutus, and

Cassius.

Lucifer, king of Hell, frozen in the ice

PURGATORY

This is the place where the souls of sinners, who still have the chance to redeem themselves, would go after they die.

•Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom, to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world.

 Beatrice, Dante's ideal woman, guides him through PURGATORY. Beatrice was a Florentine woman whom he had met in childhood and admired from afar in the mode of the then-fashionable courtly love tradition which is highlighted in Dante's earlier work La Vita Nuova.

THE TERRACES OF PURGATORIOLATE-REPENTANT

PROUD

ENVIOUS

WRATHFUL

SLOTHFUL

AVARICIOUS

GLUTTONOUS

LUSTFUL

ANTE-PURGATORY(LATE-REPENTANT)

•This is the level where the late-repentants stay.

•These sinners stay in purgatory until the prayers of their loved ones shorten their stay there.

FIRST TERRACE(PROUD)

•Those who are proud are being punished in this level.

•The proud are purged by carrying giant stones on their backs, unable to stand up straight

SECOND TERRACE(ENVIOUS)

•Those who are envious are being punished in this level.

•The envious are purged by having their eyes sewn shut and wearing clothing that makes the soul indistinguishable from the ground

THIRD TERRACE(WRATHFUL)

• Those who are wrathful are being punished in this level.

• The wrathful are purged by walking around in acrid smoke

FOURTH TERRACE(SLOTHFUL)

• Those who are slothful are being punished in this level. • The slothful are purged by continually running

FIFTH TERRACE(AVARICIOUS)

• Those who sinned on the fifth through seventh terraces are those who loved good things but loving them in a disordered way.

• Those who are avaricious and prodigal are being punished in this level.

• The avaricious and prodigal are purged by lying face-down on the ground, unable to move

SIXTH TERRACE(GLUTTONOUS)

• Those who are gluttonous are being punished in this level.

• The gluttonous are purged by abstaining from any food or drink

SEVENTH TERRACE(LUSTFUL)

• Those who are lustful are being punished in this level.

• The lustful are purged by burning in an immense wall of flame

An illustration of purgatorio

PARADISO

is the third and final Journey Of Dante, following the Inferno and the Purgatorio. It is an allegory telling of Dante's journey through Heaven, guided by Beatrice, who symbolises theology.

•Dante, under the guidance of Beatrice, completes his journey to the afterlife by leaving the earth and rising through the ten celestial heavens of the ancient cosmos. Paradiso narrates how Dante and Beatrice encounter blessed spirits in the seven planetary spheres. In describing the heavens, Dante is going beyond previous poets, driven by intellect (Minerva), steered by divine creativity (Apollo), and guided by poetic inspiration (The Muses).

The System of Dante's Paradise

MoonThe sphere is that of faith, the content of faith, taken on trust that will be revealed,

realised, self-evidently as “truth.”

The spirits in the moon is also associated in our culture with woman, with the

virginity and chastity of Diana.

Spirits are those who failed in the aspect of faith by breaking their vows.

Mercury

• Justinian and the hope of the Roman Empire

• refers to the justice of the sin of the Fall of Man.

• Mercury is filled with spirits who hoped for earthly fame and honor, so they impaired the force of their spiritual hope.

• The spirits are satisfied because reward is matched with merit and they are free of envy.

VENUS• Still in the heaven of Venus, Dante speaks first with Cunizza, the mistress of the troubadour poet, Sordello, and sister of the tyrant, Ezzelino da Romano, and secondly with Foulquet of Marseilles, a troubadour poet, renowned as much for his amours as for his poetry. The discourse of both souls is concerned with affairs on earth, Cunizza foretelling the disasters which will befall the inhabitants of the Trevisan territory, and Foulquet deploring the avarice of the Church and her neglect of true religion. Both spirits rejoice in the degree of bliss to which God has destined them; the love in which they erred in their first life is now discerned by them as the power by which the universe is governed.

SUN• The spirits are manifested who reconciled spiritual and

earthly wisdom; pagan and Christian learning and history, and directed the virtuous Christian life on Earth.

MARSSignifies the virtue of Fortitude.

• The red planet carries traditional associations of blood and war in myth and astrology; but in here, it represents the associations of the Church Militant and of the Crucifixion.

• The Spirits are those of the warriors of God; those who fought for the Chosen People of the old law (Old Testament), and of Christ’s Church in the new (New Testament).

JUPITER• It is associated with Justice and Wisdom, with Jupiter the Roman God, and therefore with the Roman Emperors, and with the Christian God.

• The head and neck of an Eagle• 1. The emblem of Rome• 2. The divine sign of Empire and justice

• The mind of God inspires the earthly forms, the nests where intellect builds and creates justice.

SATURN

• The contemplative spiritual life of an individual and the fourth cardinal virtue of Temperance

• Is also a reminder of the Golden Age when in myth, Saturn ruled the Earth; a time of simplicity, moderation and primal innocence.

FIXED STARS

• Love, in all its forms, reads to him, is Divine Love, The good God, Himself. Love is one continuum, from the divine to the earthly. All love is one.

Dante will be examined by the Apostles who stand at the threshold to the Primum Mobile, concerning his understanding of the theological virtues:

Saint Peter • Fait

h

Saint Jame

s•Hop

e

Saint

John• Lov

e

The Primum Mobile/ Crystalline

The Angelic Circles

-There is a spiritual rather than a spatial

correspondence between the two arrangements.

Concentric Sphere-Centered on Earth

Concentric Angelic-Orders Centered on God

The Empyrean

•Here, Dante had seen the redeemed spirits and the angels in their form of the Last Judgment.

• The Emyprean is the full Light of Truth which is filled with Divine Love. That love is full of transcendent joy coming from the Supreme God, the essence of Love.

• The Angels fly among the redeemed, in the form of a white rose, and God. Angels’ faces are flame, their wings golden and the rest, white: the three colors that symbolize Love, Knowledge and Purity.

THANK YOU!