Author: Dante
content
- Inferno - Canto 1 - Dark woods
- Inferno - Canto 2 - Virgil’s explanation
- Inferno - Canto 3 - Gates of Hell, ante-Inferno
- Inferno - Canto 4 - Limbo Incontinence
- Inferno - Canto 5 - Lust
- Inferno - Cantos 8, 9 - City of Dis Violence
- Inferno - Canto 10 - Heretics
- Inferno - Canto 13 - Suicides, violence against self
- Inferno - Canto 15 - Brunetto Latini, violence against God Fraud
- Inferno - Cantos 19, 21, 22 - Fraud in Malebolge, simonists and grafters
- Inferno - Canto 20 - Diviners
- Inferno - Canto 24, 25 - Thieves
- Inferno - Canto 26, 27 - Ulysses, fraudulent counselors
- Inferno - Canto 28 - Sowers of discord, schismatics
- Inferno - Canto 30
- Inferno - Canto 32 - Traitors, Caina, Antenora
- Inferno - Canto 33, 34 - Treachery, Satan
background
- Limbo → circles
- Follows traditional views of Hell within Christianity
- Book of Revelation
- Sealed abyss where Satan dwelled
- Sinful dead thrown into lake of fire
- Second death
- Book of Revelation
- Pit sealed within bowels of earth
- Other sources
- Rivers from Virgil’s description from the The Aeneid
- Acheron
- Styx
- Phlegethon
- Cocytus
- Medieval vision literature (partial katabasis)
- Tundale’s Visions (1149)
- Treatise on Saint Patrick’s Purgatory (1180–84)
- Entertainment (vs. Greco-Roman school curriculum)
- Harder to study
- Andreas Cappellanus The Art of Courtly Love (late 12th century)
- The Lives of Saints
- Roman and Latin sources
- Rivers from Virgil’s description from the The Aeneid
- Personal creativity
- Areas where neutrals are punished outside of Acheron
- Invention of Dante
- Limbo
- Unconventional
- Virtuous pagans
- Children who die before being baptized
- Unconventional
- Areas where neutrals are punished outside of Acheron
- Tradition of attacking Popes as political, rather than spiritual, leaders
- Layered nature of Dante’s knowledge
depiction of hell
- Formed from Earth retreating from the impact of Satan’s body
- Did not even want to touch it
- Tripartite notion of sin
- Seven deadly sins
- Incontinence: urges that stem from natural instincts
- No circle for
- Sloth
- Envy
- Pride (see ^6c5231)
- Violence
- Against
- Others
- Murder
- Self
- Suicide
- Spoilers
- Nature/God
- Sodomy
- Blasphemy
- Others
- Against
- Fraud
- Treason
- Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
- Seven deadly sins
- Anti-Inferno
- Houses
- Souls who refuse to choose between evil and good
- Angels who did not side with God or Lucifer
- Cowards run chasing blank banner, bitten by nasty insects
- Unworthy of even entering hell
- Houses
- Law of symbolic punishment
- Second circle of Hell guarded by Minos, Lust
- Bookends the two realms; furthest from Satan, closest to God (Purgatorio)
- Death by love; yielded
- Subjected reasons to desire
- Francesca da Rimini and Paulo, murdered by brother of Paulo and husband of Francesca
- Educated woman who shares literary interest with lover
- Psychological classification of sin in Inferno
- Based on motives rather than actions
- Christian theology over classical sources
Dante’s sources
- Hierarchical scheme of hell derived from Aristotle
- Incontinence
- Lust, gluttony, avarice, prodigality, wrath
- Materiality, not governed by reason
- Condemned for weakness in controlling self
- Triumph of instinct over reason
- Condemned for weakness in controlling self
- Materiality, not governed by reason
- Love dictated by God is regulated by reason
- Lust, gluttony, avarice, prodigality, wrath
- Mad bestiality/violence
- Malice
- Acts conducted out of choice or intention and involves others
- → Grafts sins onto this scheme
- Fundamental system of organizing Christian afterlife from pagan philosopher
- Incontinence
- Theological authorities
themes
- Aristotle’s telos is the ultimate goal of an entity
- Condemnation of Pope Boniface VIII
- Exaggerated importance of his exile
- Problematic because Boniface VIII could still have the opportunity to repent