summarative post

as dante goes through hell, he retains those qualities that he has always possessed. 

 

he has a tendency to show alot of pity, sympathy, horror and revulsion.

dante feels sympathy and pity for certain people in hell, but not others.

he later finds out that his sympathy is wasted, because it did them no good.

i never knew what sin dante did to be sent to hell. it just states that he strayed from the straight path.

Virgil represents reason and wisdom in the story.

As they progress through hell, his treatment of Dante changes, depending on the situation.

Virgil is very protective of Dante.

he always has to remind Dante that his pity is being wasted and not to feel sorry for the souls he sees.

virgil meticulously explains the circles of hell and who inhabit them.

in each circle of hell, there is usually someone that gives dante an earful of their history.

it seems like virgil is trying to desensitize dante against the sinners in hell

in the end, he reaches purgatory by climbing lucifer’s body.

what a scary thought.

being in the same presence of the prince of darkness.

a 3 faced monster, who has no pity, no happiness, no remorse, and no mercy.

3 has alot of significance

its the number of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,

The number of parts of the Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso,

The number of divisions of Hell

 

there are many refrences to other epics and stories

like medusa, the odessy, and hercules.

overall, it was an iteresting yet still confusing piece of literature.

i enjoyed reading it because ive always wondered what exactly hell looks like.

now i have a good interpretation.

new chasm

In keeping with the theme of “Divine Retribution” that runs throughout Inferno, the sinners in the ninth chasm are brutally split and mutilated, just as they split and mutilated aspects of religion, politics, or people.

 

Each sinner is punished according to degree of sin, as well as suffering punishment specifically geared toward their particular sin.

Curio’s tongue is cut out because his sin was false advice, and Bertrand de Born has his head cut off because he caused a rift between father and son.

im tired of dante wanting to know everyone’s long history.

they’re annoying, too long and drawn out and some information is completely superfluous.

There is no time for pure emotion at this point in the journey

time is running out and Virgil must move Dante along, even if that means being harsh about it.

 

but still…Dante is still  human, his emotions changing with each moment of the journey, though he is coming to realize that his pity does not change the fate of these sinners, that his only proactive choices are to remember them to the upper world, and in some cases, cause a sinner more pain.

being known

The poets find themselves at Circle 8 with its ten “Malebolges” (meaning evil ditches or pockets or chasms), a cavern of stone with ten Bowges (trenches) dug into the rock in which the sinners of different natures reside.

 

they go from moat to moat looking at different popes and priests and what they did to deserve to be put in the trenches.

they are escorted by a few demons to the next circle.

In the circle of the Hypocrites, Dante is again recognized as being alive, this time because his throat moves as he talks.

This circle deals with the Hypocrites.

For their punishment, they are forced to wear coats that are glittery on the outside, but lined with lead on the  inside , forcing them to bend over and struggle to move. This punishment fits the sin since they glitter on the outside but are so weighted down that there is no chance of spiritual progression.

 ive noticed that alot…alot…ALOT of people recognize dante in hell.

is that good or bad?

there are alot of people from florence. that must be a horrible place to be if all of its citizens reside in hell.

 

 later they meet up with ulysses & diomede.

they were behind the ambush of the trojan horse, & the downfall of athena’s palace.

wow. dante  is meeting people that were crucial to the history of man.

saddly, they are all in hell.

inventors, scholars, kings, popes, you name it, its there.

 

 

the city of dis

int he 7th circle its divided into 3 smaller rounds that house sinners of violence

the 1st round features sinners against neighbors, murderers, and the makers of war.

 

Dante makes no distinction here between the punishment of those who commit acts of violence against people and those that commit acts of violence against property.

The 2nd round  houses the ppl who committed suicide.

 

the 3rd and final round houses those who committed the sin of violence against God, Art, and Nature.

People in the third round are the blasphemers, sexual deviants, and the money lenders.

Art in this usage means industry, and Dante believed that industry should be the sole means of man’s prosperity. To go against this plan was to go against God. Virgil says that Art is the grandchild of God, meaning that Art is the child of Nature, and to act against Nature is a sin of violence against God.

The meaning of the punishment of the suicidal is evident

aka  In Hell, those who on Earth deprived themselves of their bodies are deprived of human form. At the “Last Judgment” the suicidal will rise to claim their bodies, but they will never wear them because their bodies will remain suspended on the trees that enclose the spirits of their owners.

In classical times, when a person could no longer live in freedom it was considered virtuous to die by one’s own hand. The last great thing that a person could do was to take his or her own life, which was the last free choice that person could make.

With the coming of Christianity, however, Jesus preached the concept that a man is free inwardly, and no amount of imprisonment or disgrace could destroy one’s spiritual self.  

 

where the suicide was a virtue in the ancient days, for the Christian, it became a sin; murdering the body that God gave unto one.

Dante is naturally very confused when he arrives at the wood of suicides and hears human sounds but sees no human forms. Consequently, Virgil has to do something that seems extremely cruel. He has Dante pick off a branch from one of the trees, which causes the tree to bleed. Dante has previously shown that he has alot of pity.

 

minos

they meet up with minos

a great monster that puts people in specific rings of hell according to their sins

he also sees the next level of hell.  its where the lustfull reside.

 

he and virgil meet up with 2 people who tell them why they were put in hell.

they go to the 3rd circle of hell, where there is this huge 3 headed dog.

many movies and books have illustrated some form of a 3 headed dog.

like harry potter for instance.

dante faints again.

 

the next level of hell is for the gluttons.

could that be a form of lust?

to want something so badly that you’d sin to get it???

 

 

he’s very faint at heart.

atleast it seems that way.

 

there is a point to where souls or “shadows” will not let dante and virgil go any further.

they tell virgil that he may go forth, but he cant go back to his own circle.

 

he fails at trying to open the gates to the next circle, and tells dante to wait for the “Great One”

as they wait, 3 furies summon medusa.  who is largely known throughout greek literature for being so hideous, from her face and the snakes she has as hair, that she would turn anyone who looked at her to stone.

virgil cover’s dante’s eyes.

an angel come s from heaven to open the gate.

 

odd. i diddnt know angels could actually go into hell just for business purposes.

i always thought it was “everyone stays on their own side” kinda deal.

i dont think demons can go into heaven, but angels can go into hell??

its that that makes me think that heaven has soooo much more authority than hell

eventhough hell is where souls are punished, heaven has much more power than it.

kinda like how a government has more power than the state prison system.

into hell, we go

ok so when i left off last time, they were going across the river.

dante faints.  understandably haha

he wakes up to see virgil pale

he says its not because he’s scared, but because of the pity he has.

since dante is an acutal human being, he does have a concience and he also has feelings and a heart.

could this be forshadowing of what dante is to feel like?

 

he’s already shown emotion from seeing people suffer.

????

 

they finally enter limbo.

this is the most renound relm of hell for most people.

many think that “ghosts” that are in limbo are free to roam the earth for a purpose or to clean up some unfinished business.

but virgil explains that the souls arent just ghosts, they either were born before christ, or they werent babtized.

thats why they’re in there.

virgil explains that “the mighty one” came once to take a number of souls from limbo back to heaven

im guessing the mighty one is God?

or christ?

 

anyways, virgil and a group that he finds, plus dante go to a castle with seven walls.

ironically not the number i wouldve expected. “6″ as a formality of the term “666″

amazingly they find ARISTOTLE in hell.

 

i wouldve never guessed.

this is more difficult that i thought

okay, so i jumped right into the book, and right away it took  me off guard by its very small and hard to read text.

it also has what seems to me to be latin in some parts.

i dont know about you, but i dont know latin, but most of the words were cognates, so it wasnt too hard to interpret their meanings.

 

dante first talks about going through a dark forest, which im believing might be some outskirt of hell???

after being chased by a lion and a leopard, and a wolf, he meets virgil.

ok back up, i remember something in the bible saying something to the extent that “the devil is like a lion in waiting, preying on the weak”  could this be another form of the dark prince himself?

he also talks about the wolf alot.  idk how this could be interpreted.

anyway, he meets virgil (another poet) who im guessing has been there a very long time

virgil takes dante into hell.

dante is apprehensive. ofcourse any human being would be apprehensive about taking a journey through hell!

virgil reassures him that the “Ladies of Heaven” are the ones who sent virgil to help dante, so he shouldnt be scared.

i have to be careful on how i read this because this whole freaking book is a poem! haha

which could lead to everything being an interpretation of something or another

ive done my fair share of Rhetoric.

but this is somewhat confusing.

 

okay so back to whats going on.

so they enter hell. and he sees what virgil tells him are the souls of the “uncommitted”.  they are being eternally stung by hornets and wasps & worms eat their blood and tears.

this is pretty disgusting.

the uncommitted, are ones who didnt quite make it into heaven, but didnt quite make it into hell either.

therefore they didnt committ to either god or satan so they are forever to be stuck in the quagmire that they’re in.

 

further on, dante and virgil get on a boat to cross a lake.

 

now this “lake”, is a little bit familiar to me. in the sence that ive seen it not only in movies such as “Hercules” but its also described in the bible.

in the animated movie hercules, Hades has such  a lake where condemned souls are confined to.

in the bible, it talks of a “lake of fire & brimstone” in hell.

although it does  not say that the lake is on fire, it does make this reference many times.

also of the “carrier of souls”, that ferries souls to the inner workings of hell.

my first impressions

so, when i first picked out the book in the library, it gave me an eerie feeling just holding it.

maybe im just psyching myself out about “Dante’s hell” haha

 

it is intimidating holding a book that talks about the nine levels of hell and what lies within the dark depths of demon country.

 

i have heard many interpretations of the book.  ie. someone told me that the whole book is basically describing a huge monster.  while others say that it is about a mans journey through the nine levels of hell and what he sees while on the journey. 

 

i have also seen numerous History Channel documentaries on “Hell” and they made countless references to “Dante’s Divine Comedy” or “Dante’s Inferno”

alot of people have said that the book is a very challenging piece of literature.

i always like a challenge though. =)

although i do admit, when i first opened the book, the way it was written isnt easy to read, to say the least.

 

when i first saw the book title i was taken off guard. 

how is a book about the nine levels of hell, which are horrifying to say the least, called ” a divine comedy”????

 

someone must either be demented or crazy to even compare hell to comedy.

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