Dante Alighieri

The Divine Comedy

Biography of Dante

• Born in Florence, Italy, in 1265

• Exiled from Florence in 1300

– Political party was overthrown

– Civil war was the result of a fight

The Comedy

• It is unknown when Dante began writing his masterpiece The Comedy.

• Traditionally defined, a comedy begins in sorrow and ends in joy.

• Dante just called his work The Comedy, later Italian writers called it The Divine Comedy.

• It appears that he had finished the first of its three parts by 1314.

• He finished the last part only shortly before his death in 1321.

Brief Plot

• Begins with Dante in a dark wood.• Trying to find his way out he climbs up a

mountain, but it driven back by three beast who block him.

• In fear, he runs toward an approaching man to ask for help.

• The man is Virgil his guide through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

• Virgil tells Dante that he has been sent by Beatrice (a woman who Dante loved) to guide him through his spiritual journey.

• Dante follows Virgil, who conducts him through Hell, a funnel-shaped region under the surface of the earth, with a series of terraces that form narrowing circles on which various kinds of evil deeds are punished, down to the center.

• They reach the end of the funnel and the directions up and down are reversed.

• Here they enter a tunnel which leads them out on the other side of the earth, opposite of Jerusalem.

• They are at Mount Purgatory, and they climb it.

• At the summit of the mount they find Eden, the earthly Paradise.

• In Paradise, Beatrice, Dante’s lover, accompanies him to Heaven.

• Once he gets to Heaven, he sees all of the hosts (angels) of Heaven, and is given a vision of the glory of God.

• This is where the poem ends.

• The Divine Comedy is composed of over 14,000 lines.

• Those lines are divided into three canticas (or hymns), Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise.

• Each canticas is divided into 33 cantos (or a large division of poetry).

• Canto 1 serves as an introduction.• There are 100 cantos counting the

introduction.• 3 is a very prominent number in this work.

Dante’s Hell

• Located inside the earth.• There are nine circles• Each circle is smaller than the one above and

contains a different class of sinners.• Lesser sins are punished in the top circles• As sins become greater the punishment gets

harsher, and the circles narrow.• Lucifer is in the center of the lowest circle (frozen

lake).

Greek Influence

• The five rivers of the Greek underworld appear in the work– four in The Inferno– Lethe as the transition from Purgatory to Paradise.

• Charon acts as a ferry operator and refuses Dante because he is not dead.

• Minos (son of Zeus and Europa), transformed into a bull-monster.