The Divine Comedy

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The Divine Comedy (Italian: Commedia, later christened "Divina" by Giovanni Boccaccio), written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, the last great work of literature of the Middle Ages and the first great work of the Renaissance, and one of the greatest of world literature. Its influence is so great that it affects the Western Christian view of the afterlife to this day.

Structure and story

The Divine Comedy is composed of three canticas (or "cantiche"), Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise), composed respectively of 34, 33, and 33 cantos. The first cantica, Inferno, is by far the most famous of the three, and is often published separately under the title Dante's Inferno. As a part of the whole literary work, the first canto serves as an introduction to the entire Divine Comedy, making each of the canticas 33 cantos long. The number 3 is prominent in the work, represented here by the length of each cantica. Also, that they add up to 100 cantos is not accidental. The verse scheme used, terza rima, is the hendecasyllable (line of eleven syllables), with the lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme ABA BCB CDC . . . YZY Z.

The poet tells in the first person his travel through the three realms of the dead, lasting during Holy Week in the spring of 1300. His guide through Hell and Purgatory is the Latin poet Virgil, author of The Aeneid, and the guide through Paradise is Beatrice, Dante's ideal of a perfect woman. Beatrice was a real Florentine woman whom he met in childhood and admired from afar in the tradition of the then-fashionable courtly love tradition.

The last word in each of the three parts of The Divine Comedy is "stars".

Inferno

The poem begins on Holy Thursday of the year 1300, a significant holiday, "In the middle of our life's journey" (Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita), and so opens in medias res. Dante is thirty-five years old, half of the biblically alloted age of 70 (Psalm 90:10), lost in a dark wood (perhaps allegorically, contemplating suicide--as "wood" is figured in canto XIII), assailed by beasts (a lion, leopard, and a she-wolf; allegorical depictions of temptations towards sin) he cannot evade, and unable to find the "straight way" (diritta via) to salvation (symbolized by the sun behind the mountain). Conscious that he is ruining himself, that he is falling into a "deep place" (basso loco) where the sun is silent ('l sol tace), Dante is at last rescued by Virgil after his love Beatrice intercedes on his behalf (Canto II), and he and Virgil begin their journey to the underworld.

Before entering Hell, Dante and his guide see the Opportunists, souls of people who in life did nothing, neither for good or evil. Mixed with them are the outcasts, who took no side in the Rebellion of Angels (among these Dante recognizes either Pope Celestine V, or Pontius Pilate; it is deliberately ambiguous). These souls are neither in Hell nor out of it, but reside on the shores of the Acheron, their punishment to eternally pursue a white banner (no cause), and be pursued by wasps and hornets that continually sting them and drink their blood and tears.

Here they reach the ferry that will take them across the Acheron and to the Gate of Hell. The ferry is driven by Charon, who does not want to let Dante enter, for he is a living being and weighs down the boat. Their passage across is unknown since Virgil forces him to let them across, but Dante faints and does not awake until he is on the other side and approaches the Gate of Hell, on which is inscribed the famous phrase, "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" or "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here". Dante and Virgil enter.

Virgil guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell. The circles are concentric, each new one representing further and further evil, culminating in the center of the earth, where Satan is held, bound. Each circle's sin is punished in an appropriately revengeful way to fit the crime. The nine circles are:

1. First Circle. Limbo — the unbaptized and virtuous pagans, who, though not sinful, did not accept Christ. They are not punished in an active sense; it is a somewhat pleasant place, with fields and a castle. However, they are merely unable to reach Heaven and denied God's presence for eternity (Canto IV).

All of the condemned sinners are judged by Minos, who sentences each soul to one of the lower eight circles. These are structured according to the classical (Aristotelian) conception of virtue and vice, so that they are grouped into the sins of incontinence, violence, and fraud (which for many commentators are represented by the she-wolf, lion, and leopard respectively). The sins of incontinence — weakness in controlling one's desires and natural urges — are the mildest among them, and, correspondingly, appear first:

2. Second Circle. Those overcome by lust, trapped in a violent storm, never to touch each other again, featuring Francesca da Rimini and her lover Paolo (Canto V).

3. Third Circle. Gluttons, forced by Cerberus to lie in the mud under continual cold rain and hail. Ciacco, a Florentine contemporary of Dante, known as The Hog makes an appearance. (Canto VI).

4. Fourth Circle. The greedy, who hoarded possessions, and the indulgent, who squandered them, forced to push giant rocks in opposite directions (Canto VII).

5. Fifth Circle. The wrathful, fighting each other in the swamp-like water of the river Styx, and the slothful, trapped beneath the water (Canto VII).

The lower parts of hell are contained within the walls of the city of Dis, which is itself surrounded by the river Styx (Canto VIII-IX). These are the active (rather than passive) sins; first are the sins of violence. It is unclear whether the city of Dis encompases just the sixth circle or circles 6-9.

6. Sixth Circle. Heretics, trapped in flaming tombs (Cantos X and XI).

7. Seventh Circle. The violent (Cantos XII through XVII). These are divided into three rings:

* Outer ring: The violent against people and property, in a river of boiling blood (Canto XII).
* Middle ring: The violent against themselves—suicides —turned into thorny black trees. Uniquely amongst the dead, they will not be bodily reincarnated after the final judgment. Where others will continue to occupy Hell (and Heaven) in corporeal (rather than merely spiritual) form, suicides—because they alienated themselves from their own bodies—spend eternity in the body of a tree, their own corpses hanging from the limbs. Also punished in this circle are profligates, chased perpetually through the trees by ferocious dogs (Canto XIII). They are held here with the suicides because, during Dante's time, one's property is seen as an extension of one's physical body. Hence, doing violence to one's property is kin to suicide.
* Inner ring: The violent against God, nature, and art—blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers—in a desert of flaming sand where fire rains from the sky (Cantos XIV through XVII).

The last two circles of Hell punish sins of malice, or sins of the intellect; that is, sins involving conscious fraud or treachery, and can only be reached by descending a vast cliff into the "pit" of Hell:

8. Eighth Circle. The fraudulent—those guilty of deliberate, knowing evil—are located in a circle named Malebolge (Cantos XVIII through XXX). This is divided into ten ditches:

* Ditch 1: Panderers and seducers, running forever in opposite directions, whipped by demons (Canto XVIII).
* Ditch 2: Flatterers, steeped in human excrement (Canto XVIII).
* Ditch 3: Those who committed simony, placed head-first in holes, flames burning on the soles of their feet (Canto XIX).
* Ditch 4: Sorcerers and false prophets, their heads put on their bodies backward, so they can only see what is behind them (Canto XX).
* Ditch 5: Corrupt politicians (barrators), trapped in a lake of burning pitch (Cantos XXI and XXII).
* Ditch 6: Hypocrites, made to wear brightly painted lead cloaks (Canto XXIII).
* Ditch 7: Thieves, chased by venomous snakes and who, after being bitten by the venomous snakes, turn into snakes themselves and chase the other thieves in turn (Cantos XXIV and XXV).
* Ditch 8: Fraudulent advisors, trapped in flames. Dante includes Ulysses and Diomedes here, for their role in the Trojan War. (Cantos XXVI and XXVII).
* Ditch 9: Sowers of discord, whose bodies are ripped apart, then healed, only to be attacked again. Dante chose to include Mohammed and his son-in-law Ali here. (Cantos XXVIII and XXIX).
* Ditch 10: Falsifiers, i.e. alchemists, counterfeiters, perjurers, and impersonators. Each group is punished by being afflicted with a different type of disease (Cantos XXIX and XXX).

The passage to the ninth circle contains classical and Biblical giants (Canto 31). Dante and Virgil are lowered into the pit by Antaeus.

9. Ninth Circle. Traitors, distinguished from the "merely" fraudulent, in that their acts involve knowingly and deliberately betraying others, are frozen in a lake of ice known as Cocytus (Cantos XXXII through XXXIV). Each group of traitors is encased in ice to a different height, ranging from only the waist down to complete immersion. This is divided into four concentric zones:

* Outer zone 1 (Caïna): Traitors to their kindred (Canto XXXII). Named for Cain.
* Zone 2 (Antenora): Traitors to political entities, such as party, city, or country (Cantos XXXII and XXXIII), such as Count Ugolino. Named for Antenor of Troy, who, according to medieval tradition, betrayed his city to the Greeks.
* Zone 3 (Ptolomæa): Traitors to their guests (Canto XXXIII). Named (probably) for Ptolemy, captain of Jericho, who invited Simon the High Priest and his sons to a banquet and there killed them. One of its inhabitants, Friar Alberigo, explains that sometimes a soul falls here before the time that Atropos (the Fate who cuts the thread of life) should send it. Their bodies on Earth are immediately possessed by a fiend.
* Zone 4 (Judecca): Traitors to their lords and benefactors (Canto XXXIV). This is the harshest section of Hell, containing Satan, waist deep in ice, who is eternally consuming the bodies of Brutus and Cassius for assassinating Julius Caesar, and the head of Judas Iscariot (the namesake of this zone) for betraying Jesus.

Satan is depicted with three heads, each chewing one of the former. His six wings beat as if he is trying to escape, but the icy wind that emanates only further ensures his imprisonment as well as all the others in the ring.

The two poets escape by climbing the ragged fur of Lucifer, passing through the center of the earth, emerging in the southern hemisphere just before dawn on Easter Sunday beneath a sky, studded with stars.

Purgatorio

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 (in Dante's time, it was believed that Hell existed underneath Jerusalem). The initial parts of the book describe the shore of Purgatory (Cantos I and II) and its slopes, where those who were excommunicated, those too lazy to repent until shortly before death, and those who suffered violent deaths await their turn to ascend the mountain (Cantos III through VI). Finally, there is a valley housing European rulers and others whose devotion to public and private duties hampered their faith (Cantos VII and VIII). From this valley Dante is carried (while asleep) up to the gates of Purgatory proper (Canto IX).

From there, Virgil guides Dante Pilgrim through the seven terraces of Purgatory. These correspond to the seven deadly sins, each terrace causing the purging of a particular sin in an appropriate manner:

1. First Terrace: Pride, by carrying a heavy weight on their backs. The wearer is unable to stand up straight (Cantos X through XII).

2. Second Terrace: Envy, by having one's eyes sewn shut, and wearing clothing that makes the soul indistinguishable from the ground (Cantos XIII through XV).

3. Third Terrace: Wrath, by walking around in acrid smoke (Cantos XV through XVII).

4. Fourth Terrace: Sloth, by continually running (Cantos XVIII and XIX).

5. Fifth Terrace: Avarice, by lying face-down on the ground (Cantos XIX through XXI).

6. Sixth Terrace: Gluttony, by abstaining from any food or drink (Cantos XXII through XXIV).

7. Seventh Terrace: Lust, by burning in an immense wall of flames (Cantos XXV through XXVII).

The ascension of terraces culminates at the summit, which is the Garden of Eden (Cantos XXVIII through XXXIII). Virgil, as a pagan, is a permanent denizen of Limbo, the first circle of Hell; thus, he may not enter Paradise. Beatrice then becomes the second guide (accompanied by an extravagant procession), as well as a redemptrix and mediatrix. Beatrice is modeled after Beatrice Portinari, a woman Dante loved in childhood, and who passed away in 1290, leaving him grief-stricken. She is exemplified in La Vita Nuova ("The New Life") and is further beatified.

Paradiso

After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante Pilgrim through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology. The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it. The nine spheres are:

1. First Sphere: The moon - those who abandoned their vows (Cantos II through V).

2. Second Sphere: Mercury - those who did good out of a desire for fame (Cantos V through VII).

3. Third Sphere: Venus - those who did good out of love (Cantos VIII and XIX).

4. Fourth Sphere: The sun - souls of the wise (Cantos X through XIV).

5. Fifth Sphere: Mars - those who fought for Christianity (Cantos XIV through XVIII).

6. Sixth Sphere: Jupiter - those who personified justice (Cantos XVIII through XX).

7. Seventh Sphere: Saturn - the contemplative (Cantos XXI and XXII).

8. Eighth Sphere: The fixed stars - the blessed (Cantos XXII through XXVII). Here, Dante is tested on faith by Saint Peter, hope by Saint James, and love by Saint John the Evangelist.

9. Ninth Sphere: The Primum Mobile ("Prime Mover") - angels (Cantos XXVII through XXIX).

Beatrice leaves Dante with Saint Bernard who prays to Mary on behalf of Dante and Dante is allowed to see both Jesus and Mary. From here, Dante ascends to a substance beyond physical existence, called the Empyrean Heaven (Cantos XXX through XXXIII). Here he comes face-to-face with God Himself, and is granted understanding of the Divine and of human nature.

Thematic Concern

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings. Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical).

The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines. What has made the poem as great as it is are its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination. The fact that he uses real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar language of Italian, not Latin as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Response and criticism

The work was not always so well-regarded. After being recognized as a masterpiece in the first centuries after its publication, the work was largely ignored during the Enlightenment, only to be "rediscovered" by the romantic writers of the nineteenth century. Later authors as disparate as William Blake, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Samuel Beckett, and James Joyce have drawn on it for inspiration, while modern poets, including Seamus Heaney, Robert Pinsky, and William Merwin, have given translations of all or parts of the book. William Blake illustrated the Comedy and the engravings of Gustave Doré are widely used in modern editions. Salvador Dalí also composed a cycle of paintings from each section of the Commedia.

Original copies

Only two known copies of the original manuscript still remain. One is in Milan, and the other is owned by the Asiatic Society of Bombay. In 1930, Mussolini offered the society one million pounds sterling for the book, but was flatly refused.

According to the Società Dantesca Italiana, no original manuscript written by Dante survived; there are many manuscript copies from the 14th and 15th centuries.