Jason Perry

3/15/2000

A2

Book Report—Divine Comedy

Alighieri, Dante. Divine Comedy. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1947.

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is considered by many as the first great poem in the Italian language and perhaps the greatest poem written in Medieval Europe. In addition to be a epic poem about a poet’s voyage through heaven, purgatory, and hell, Divine Comedy is a commentary on classical writers and medieval celebrities. Throughout his tour he sees them where Dante Alighieri believes they should be. Who are the people he choses and why does he put them where he has them in the stages of hell, purgatory, and heaven?

In "Inferno," Dante the Pilgrim is lost. In his wanderings he encounters three specters, the leopard, the lion, and the she-wolf. Dante runs away from these three foes and is stopped by Virgil, a Roman era poet. Virgil promises to show Dante hell, purgatory, and then Beatrice, a dead friend of Dante’s will show him heaven. Dante agrees and they embark. Dante and Virgil see many scary and terrifying sites in hell. He first sees the indecisionists who in life could not make up there mind who in death are forced to run after a flag. They visit Limbo, where those who were not baptized but lived a virtuous life stay. They see various sinners of the lesser circles, Paolo and Francesca, the adulterous lovers and the sinners who committed anger, greed, avarice, and gluttony. They enter the City of Dis and see the heretics in their coffins. They travel down a river of blood where the murderers are kept. As they travel farther down into hell, they see worse sins and even worse punishments for those sins. Finally they see Lucifer. Then, they climb a rock cliff and escape hell.

From there Virgil guides him through purgatory. He sees the various things souls must do to see heaven. He observes the branding of souls to tell how much farther they have to go. From the Mountain of Purgatory, Dante goes on to heaven. Beatrice, the one who had him go through the other parts of the afterlife, guides him through heaven. He goes through the various circles of heaven, each correspond to a planet, the sun, or the fixed stars. In the end, Dante goes to the center of heaven where Dante sees the heavenly host and Jesus.

Throughout Divine Comedy, Dante describes the situation of various classical people. Many of them are described historically in the textbook, Our Global Past. Many of the classical and Islamic writers and thinkers are on the outside of hell in a place called Limbo. They are put in hell not because they were sinful in their lives, but because they were non-Christians. In fact, the reason they are put in the outside of hell is because they were righteous in life. The people he sees in Limbo are Homer, Flaccus, Naso, and Lucan. He also sees many Greek and Roman philosophers: Socrates, Plato, Democritus, Euclid, Ptolemy, and Hippocrates. Many of these men did lead virtuous lives, but due to their lack of baptism, they are kept from heaven. Finally, another classical poet in limbo is Dante’s guide, Virgil. Virgil was a Roman poet who died in 19 BC. His most famous work was Aenid.

Another prominent part of the history displayed in Divine Comedy is the battle between the Bianchi and Neri parties in Florence in the late 13^th and early 14^th centuries. Dante Alighieri was a member of the Bianchi party. During his time of writing Divine Comedy, Dante was in exile from Florence. His own party had kicked him out. In other parts of the book, Dante comments on contemporary personalities. He places some of his dead friends, enemies, and other medieval people in various parts of the afterlife. He passively comments on the actions of Pope Anatastius when he puts a monument to that particular pope in hell near the murderers. The poet sees Attila the Hun in the boiling river of blood filled with murderers. Alexander the Great also resides in this ring. Not every one Dante commented about was in hell. In purgatory he sees three comic poets, Terence, Cæcillus, and Plautus. In purgatory, Dante also saw Boniface, archbishop of Ravenna shortly before the story took place. In heaven, Dante saw Charlemagne, Charles II of Anjou, Gratian, Thomas Aquinas, Peter, bishop of Paris, Pope Innocent III, Taddeo, Hugues of St. Victor, Anselmo, and of course Mary and Jesus.

Many of those seen in their respective destinations make a lot of sense based on their entries in Our Global Past. Those seen in heaven are generally considered saints or virtuous christians. Thomas Aquinas was a theologian who wrote about the laws that govern man. Aquinas proposed 4 laws: Eternal law, natural law, human laws, and divine law. Eternal law governs morality and nature. Natural law governs what humans can know. Human laws are laws that governments and society impose on themselves. Finally, divine laws are laws that God puts on his people. An example would be the 10 commandments. Charlemagne was also seen in heaven. He was the first Holy Roman Emperor. He also brought a lot of peoples under one government. This had not been seen since Roman times. In limbo, Dante sees many non-Christian poets and scholars. Homer, the leader of the people in limbo, wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey. Virgil, also in limbo and Dante’s guide through hell and purgatory, was a Roman poet and wrote The Aenid. Euclid, Ptolemy, and Hippocrates were important Greek mathematicians, scientists, and physicians, respectively.

If I were to revise the book, I would make many changes to the language of the story and the order in which events take place. I would also change some of the characters around to reflect the last 700 years (to be absolutely exact, 700 years from the story’s setting would be March 17-24, 2000). Instead of the head of the Bianchi as the main focus of the liars and hypocrites section of hell, I would put some of our politicians, say, Richard Nixon in there. In the murderer section of hell, Jeffery Dahmer, Jack the Ripper, and Adolf Hitler. In the blasphemer section of hell, I would put in a lot of the Reformation people like Martin Luther and John Calvin. Finally, in the lust section of hell, I would put in Bill Clinton, Heidi Flise, and Jody Badafucco in there when they pass away. I would also change the order of circles in heaven to reflect modern scientific thinking. Instead of Venus, Mercury, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn as the order of the rings of heaven, I would have Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The sun would be the heavenly host rather than a measly ring.

In all, Divine Comedy teaches a lot about medieval history. However, the history comes from one perspective. Dante does present a pretty complete who’s who of medieval times but by placing them in their final destinations without real first hand knowledge (that he said he did, but was nothing more than a dream). Atilla the Hun may have been pretty bad to those living in Europe during her reign of terror, but to the Huns, she was a very important figure in their history as the one secured their place in Europe and ended their wanderings though central Asia and Eastern Europe. Had Dante chose the people for heaven or hell on the basis of merit rather than how he felt about them, Divine Comedy would have been a great primary source on medieval history. This though was truer for those he placed in hell than those he placed in heaven.

Alighieri, Dante. Divine Comedy. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1947.