Dante’s Inferno

1. Dante’s Inferno By Dante Alighieri

2. Author Biography • Dante Alighieri • Son of a nobleman • Born in 1265 in Florence, Italy • Mother died when he was very young • Received early education in Florence • Was on his own by the time he was an adolescent

3. Love • His great love seems to have been Beatrice Portinari. • They met when he was 9 and she was 8 • He saw her frequently after age 18, often exchanging greetings in the street, but he never knew her well. • Dante worshipped Beatrice, but when he was 12, his family arranged for him to marry someone else. • After Beatrice’s death in 1290 at the age of 24, his first book, “The New Life” (La Vita Nuova), celebrated his love for her.

4. Marriage & Friend • Dante entered an arranged marriage in 1285 with Gemma Donati, a noblewoman. • They had four children; Jacopo, Pietro, Giovanni and Antonia.  • Records contain little else about their life together. • One of his early sonnets Dante sent to the poet Guido Cavalcanti, which started their friendship. • Dante also dedicated his first book to Cavalcanti. 

5. The Inferno: Historical Background • All was not well in Italy during the Renaissance. • Rulers of the independent Italian states often fought with each other to establish a large political unit. • The Guelph Political party (which favored local authority & the Pope) and the Ghibelline Political party (which favored old imperial aristocracy) were two such rival factions.

6. The Inferno: Historical Background • Dante’s birth in 1265 came at a time when the Guelph party was in control of Florence. • The Guelph political party, which supported Papal rule, eventually divided into two groups: • The Whites (supported imperial rule and independence from Papal rule) • The Blacks (supported Papal rule). • Dante became a member of the Whites and served as an ambassador to talk with the Pope in Rome about conditions in Florence.

7. The Inferno: Historical Background • While Dante was out of town, the Blacks took over Florence. • The Blacks sentenced Dante to banishment from the city. • His punishment for return would be death. • His wanderings gave him time to write and to study the Scriptures. • This banishment also gave Dante his perspective on corruption of the fourteenth century papacy, a view that he would clearly describe in The Inferno. • In Commedia Dante repeatedly condemns the Popes for their involvement in politics.

8. The Inferno: Historical Background • During his exile, he started to write his Commedia, a long story-poem through the three worlds of the afterlife, under the patronage of the Ghibelline leaders. • About 1320 Dante made his final home in Ravenna, where he died on the night of September 13-14, 1321. • La Divina Commedia was completed just before the poet's death. • He probably started to write it in 1307.  • The Purgatorio was written in Verona, where he stayed more or less continuously from late 1312 to mid-1318. • In Ravenna he wrote the final phases of The Paradiso. • By the time the first two parts of the Comedy had been sent in circulation, Dante was being acclaimed through much of Tuscany as its greatest poet. • Dante's idea was to make the world of his poem a mirror of the world of the Christian God of his era.

9. The Inferno • The work was a major departure from the literature of the day since it was written in Italian, not the Latin of most other important writing. • Politics, history, mythology, and religious leaders appear throughout The Divine Comedy. • Prominent people of the time, of literature, of the past, and of Dante’s personal life –including Beatrice – appear throughout The Divine Comedy.

10. The Divine Comedy • The Divine Comedy was not titled as such by Dante; his title for the work was simply Commedia or Comedy. • Dante’s use of the word “comedy” is medieval by definition. • To Dante and his contemporaries, the term “comedy” meant a tale with a happy ending, not a funny story as the word has since come to mean.

11. The Divine Comedy • The Divine Comedy is made up of three parts, corresponding with Dante’s three journeys: Inferno (or Hell); Purgatorio (or Purgatory); and Paridisio (or Paradise). • Each part consists of a prologue and approximately 33 cantos. • Since the narrative poem is in an exalted form with a hero as its subject, it is an epic poem.

12. The Divine Comedy • The Divine Comedy is a narrative poem describing Dante’s imaginary journey. • Midway on his journey through life, Dante realizes he has taken the wrong path. • The Roman poet Virgil searches for the lost Dante at the request of Beatrice. • He finds Dante in the woods on the evening of Good Friday in the year 1300 and serves as a guide as Dante begins his religious pilgrimage to find God. • To reach his goal, Dante passes through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.

13. The Inferno • Dante and Virgil enter the wide gates of Hell and descend through the nine circles of Hell. • In each circle they see sinners being punished for their sins on Earth; Dante sees the torture as Divine justice.

14. The Inferno The sinners in the circles include: • Circle One – Those in limbo (includes virtuous non-Christian adults in addition to unbaptized infants) • Circle Two – The lustful • Circle Three – The gluttonous • Circle Four – The hoarders • Circle Five – The wrathful • Circle Six – The heretics

15. The Inferno • Circle Seven – The violent • Ring 1: Murderers, robbers, and plunderers (those who were violent toward others) • Ring 2: Suicides (those who were violent toward themselves) • Ring 3: Blasphemers (violent towards God),Sodomites (violence towards nature), Usurers (violence toward art)

16. The Inferno • Circle Eight – The Fraudulent & Malicious • Bolgia (ditch) I: Panderers and Seducers • BolgiaII: Flatterers • BolgiaIII: Simoniacs(those who made profit from sacred things) • BolgiaIV: Fortune Tellers & Diviners • BolgiaV: Grafters (sell or purchase positions in church or state) • BolgiaVI: Hypocrites • BolgiaVII: Thieves • BolgiaVIII: The Evil Counselors (spiritual theft) • BolgiaIX: Sowers of Discord • BolgiaX: Falsifiers, Evil Impersonators, Counterfeiters, False Witnesses • The Central Pit of Malebolge: The Giants

17. The Inferno • Circle Nine – Traitors (Compound Fraud) • Round One: Traitors to their kindred • Round Two: Traitors to their country • Round Three: Traitors to their guests • Round Four: Traitors to their lords • THE CENTER: Satan