The Divine Comedy By Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/DivineCom.html Original Title . Originally La commedia di Dante Alighieri (The Comedy of Dante Alighieri). In 1555, when a special edition of the poem was published in Venice, admirers of the great work added the word "Divina" ("Divine") to call attention to its greatness. Thus, it became known as La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) and the author's name was dropped from the title. In the original title, "di" ("of") appears to have a double meaning. On the one hand, it means Dante wrote the work. On the other, it means Dante experienced what took place in the work. Study Questions and Short/Long Answer Topics • Why does The Divine Comedy remain one of the world's most popular literary classics, appearing in college curriculums around the world? • To what extent did Dante intend his description of the afterlife to be taken literally? To what extent was it to be taken figuratively or allegorically? • Identify TDC passages/quotes and additional research summarizing TDC as seen through the Forces of Literature perspective: o the effects of prior literature, and influence on future literature o the historical/the cultural/religious context of the day o the author’s personal background . background . beliefs o the author’s worldview and themes Author Information . The author of The Divine Comedy was Dante Alighieri, Italy's greatest poet, who was born to a middle- class family in Florence, Italy, in 1265. After his mother died when he was an adolescent, his father remarried and had two more children, a boy and a girl. Dante began writing poetry when he was a teenager, One of his mentors was the poet Vito Cavalcanti, who exerted a strong influence on Dante. Before beginning work on The Divine Comedy, Dante wrote two major works, La Vita Nuova (The New Life) and Il Convivio (The Banquet), both of which included verse and prose. In the latter work, he urged the use of vernacular Italian instead of classical Latin in the composition of literary works. After becoming involved in rivalries between Florentine politicians and between Vatican and secular authorities vying for power, Dante was banished from Florence. In exile, he wrote The Divine Comedy, incorporating in it commentary on the various factions competing for political control. He wrote it in the Italian Tuscan dialect that favors a familiar, conversational style, thus breaking with the tradition that serious literary works had to be written in Latin and thereby helping to establish Italian as the language of literature. He died in Ravenna, Italy, in 1321. 1 Free Texts in Italian and English . The following reliable sites post Dante's epic. Be aware that the quality and readability of English translations vary from book to book, depending on the skill of the translator. Digital Dante: English translation and the original Italian poem Everypoet.com: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Translation State University of New York at Stony Brook: James Finn Cotter Translation Project Gutenberg, Volume 1, Inferno: English translation of Volume 1 by Charles Eliot Norton Project Gutenberg, Volume 2, Purgatorio: English translation of Volume 2 by Charles Eliot Norton Project Gutenberg, Volume 3, Paradiso: English translation of Volume 3 by Charles Eliot Norton Oliver & Boyd, Publishers, Volume 1, Inferno: S. Fowler Wright Translation Oliver & Boyd, Publishers, Volume 2, Purgatorio: S. Fowler Wright Translation Oliver & Boyd, Publishers, Volume 3, Paradiso: S. Fowler Wright Translation Other sources of research http://www.enotes.com/divine-comedy http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmDivine114.asp 2 Settings . The action takes place in 1300. It begins in the Forest of Darkness on Good Friday, the day commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ, and ends the following Thursday. When Dante starts his journey, he is 35 years old–exactly half the biblical life span of "three score years and ten." From the Forest of Darkness, Dante proceeds through Hell and Purgatory, then ascends into Heaven. Characters . Dante: The main character, or protagonist, of the poem is the author himself. No other epic poets before him–including Homer and Vergil–had made themselves the main characters of their poems. Dante's Guides through the afterlife are as follows: Vergil (Virgil): The Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro, or Vergil, escorts Dante through Hell and Purgatory. He symbolizes human reason. Vergil (70-19 B.C.), a poet Dante admired, wrote the great Latin epic The Aeneid, which chronicled the exploits of the legendary Trojan hero Aeneas, who escaped Troy after the Trojan War and settled in Italy. There, his descendants founded Rome. Beatrice: Beatrice Portinari (1265-1290), believed to be the daughter of banker Folco Portinari, guides Dante into the celestial realm. Beatrice, who represents faith and grace, was Dante's first love, and he never forgot her even after he married Gemma Donati and Beatrice married Simon de Bardi. St. Bernard: A French Cistercian monk and abbot, St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) guides and instructs Dante when the poet reaches the highest region of heaven. Bernard supported the ascendancy of Pope Innocent II against Anacletus II, an antipope. He preached in favor of the Second Crusade, strongly opposed heresy, and wrote many hymns that remain popular today. Mythological Personages and Creatures: Examples of the mythological figures in The Divine Comedy are the following: Minos, King of Crete and later judge of the Underworld Paris and Helen, lovers who caused the Trojan War Achilles, the proud Greek warrior who offended the gods in various ways Cerberus, the three-headed dog at the entrance to the Underworld and, in the Inferno, symbol of appetite and gluttony with his three mouths Geryon, a monster with a stinger who is a symbol of fraud Ulysses, wily Greek who devised the Trojan horse, enabling Greece to defeat Troy in the Trojan War; he is in hell as a deceiver Arachne, a maiden turned into a spider after angering Minerva (Athena), goddess of wisdom and war; The Furies, avengers of crimes The Harpies, hideous monsters Chiron, a wise centaur (creature that was part horse and part human) Jason, famed retriever of the Golden Fleece who abandoned his wife, Medea, for another woman. Historical Personages: Examples of historical personages in The Divine Comedy are the following: Vergil (see above) Homer, the great epic poet of ancient Greece Horace, Ovid, and Lucan, poets of ancient Rome Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, illicit lovers killed by Francesca's husband Queen Cleopatra of Egypt Cato, a righteous government official of ancient Rome Venedico Caccianemico, an Italian politician accused of pimping 3 Griffolino of Arezzo, who deceived Alberto of Siena by pretending that he could teach him to fly Pope Nicholas III, associated with simony, the practice of buying or selling ecclesiastical offices or benefices Pierre de la Brosse, chancellor of France who was executed in 1278 but was innocent of the charge against him, treachery Brutus and Cassius, ringleaders of the assassination plot against Julius Caesar Judas, betrayer of Christ St. Thomas Aquinas; St. Benedict; St.Peter; St. John. Supernatural Beings: These include Lucifer, demons, and angels.. 4 Plot Summary By Michael J. Cummings...© 2003 . .......The Divine Comedy has three sections: Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso (Paradise or Heaven). The first section has 33 cantos (chapters) and an introduction of 1 canto for a total of 34. The second and third sections each have 33 cantos. The characters include mythological and historical personages. The Forest of Error .......On Good Friday in 1300, the 35-year-old Dante enters the Forest of Error, a dark and ominous wood symbolizing his own sinful materialism and the materialism of the world in general. At the top of a hill in the distance, he sees a light representing the hope of the resurrected Christ. When he attempts to climb toward the light, a leopard, lion, and she-wolf–which symbolize human iniquity–block his way. The spirit of the Roman poet Vergil (also spelled Virgil), author of the epic The Aeneid, comes forth to rescue him. Vergil, the exemplar of human reason, offers to escort him out of the Forest of Error by another route, for there is no way to get by the she-wolf. This alternate route leads first through Hell, where Dante will recognize sin for what it is, then through Purgatory, where Dante will abjure sin and purge himself of it. Finally, it leads to Heaven, where Beatrice–a woman Dante had loved before her death in 1295–will become his guide while Vergil returns from whence he came, for human reason cannot mount the heights of paradise. Dante happily agrees to make the journey, and they depart. Hell (Inferno) ......After passing into hell, Dante and Vergil hear the groans and wails of the damned in the outer reaches of the abyss and see persons who were lukewarm and halfhearted in their moral lives. They then cross the Acheron River and arrive at a cone-shaped cavern with nine circles. In the First Circle at the top, called Limbo, are the least offensive souls, such as unbaptized but well-meaning heathens. They suffer no torment. However, they cannot move on to Purgatory or Heaven because they died before Christ brought redemption. Vergil himself dwells in the First Circle. ......They then pass down through the other eight circles, seeing terrible sights of suffering experienced by those who died in mortal sin (in Catholicism, the worst kind of sin, such as willful murder and rape). Circles 2 through 6 contain those who could not control their desires for sex, food, money, or wayward religion (heresy). Among the personages they encounter are Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, the Greek warrior Achilles, Helen of Troy, and the man who carried her off, Paris.The Seventh Circle contains those who committed violence against themselves or others, or against God himself.