Florence and Italy’s Inferno: Life and Work of Dante
Dante was born to Della degli Abati, who died when he was 7, and Dante Alighieri II, who died in the 1280’s. Dante had maintained a father figure with Brunetto Latini for most of his life. Latini was later placed in The Divine Comedy entering the 7th circle of hell, a place restricted to people who sinned with “violence against nature” or sodomy. One is left to draw their own conclusions as to the why of that.
Dante was well educated in both Christian and Classical Literature. At age 12 he was promised in marriage to Gemma Donati, a girl he later married in 1285. But he had but one love, and that was not of his wife but of a girl named Beatrice. Beatrice who was his guide in the Divine Comedy, and the same Beatrice who he wrote La Vita Nuova for. There are multitude of sonnets for Beatrice, and yet none for his wife.
Dante was a nomad of country, but came to rest for a final home in Ravenna in 1320. Shortly before his death he was accused of Averriosm and his book De Monarchia was ordered to be burned by Pope John XXII. Only two known copies of the original Divine Comedy are still remaining. 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 Societ� Dantesca Italiana, no original manuscript written by Dante survives.
The Divine Comedy (condensed)
The Gate of Hell, inscribed with Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’ entrate (Abandon all hope, ye who enter here) is probably one of the best known lines from literature to this day. Each circle incorporated a special sin, from limbo to the 9th circle that was said to encase Satan himself. These are the circles:
Hell
Circle 1. Limbo – the un-baptized and virtuous pagans. They are unpunished, but cannot enter Paradise.
Circle 2. Those overcome by lust, trapped in a violent storm.
Circle 3. Gluttons, face-down in the mud and gnawed apart by Cerberus.
Circle 4. The greedy and indulgent; forced to push giant rocks in opposite directions.
Circle 5. The wrathful and slothful; fighting each other and trapped beneath the river Styx.
Circle 6. Heretics, trapped in flaming tombs.
Circle 7. The violent; divided in three rings:
Outer ring: The violent against people and property, in a river of boiling blood
Middle ring: The violent against themselves-suicides -turned into thorny black trees. Inner ring: The violent against God, art, and nature-blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers-in a desert where fire rains from the sky
Circle 8 The fraudulent-those guilty of deliberate, knowing evil-are divided into ten ditches:
Ditch 1: Panderers and seducers, walking forever in opposite paths, scourged by demons
Ditch 2: Flatterers, steeped in human waste
Ditch 3: Those who committed simony, placed head-first in holes, flames burning their feet.
Ditch 4: Sorcerers and false prophets, their heads twisted so they can only see what is behind them
Ditch 5: Corrupt politicians, trapped in a river of burning pitch
Ditch 6: Hypocrites, made to wear brightly painted lead cloaks
Ditch 7: Thieves, chased by venomous serpents
Ditch 8: Fraudulent advisors, trapped in flames
Ditch 9: Sowers of discord, whose bodies are ripped apart, healed, and attacked again
Ditch 10: Falsifiers, each who are afflicted by a different disease
Circle 9: Satan froze in center but it has four zones:
Zone 1: Traitors to relatives
Zone 2: Traitors to political entities
Zone 3: Traitors to guests
Zone 4: Traitors to their lords and benefactors
Purgatory
Terrace 1: Pride, punishment by carrying a heavy weight tied around the neck
Terrace 2: Envy, punishment by having one’s eyes sewn shut, and wearing clothing that makes the soul indistinguishable from the ground
Terrace 3: Wrath, punishment by walking around in acrid smoke
Terrace 4: Sloth, punishment by continually running
Terrace 5: Avarice, punishment by lying face-down on the ground
Terrace 6: Gluttony, punishment by abstaining from any food or drink
Terrace 7: Lust, punishment by burning in an immense wall of flames
Paradise
Sphere 1: The moon – those who abandoned their vows
Sphere 2: Mercury – those who did good out of a desire for fame
Sphere 3: Venus – those who did good out of love
Sphere 4: The sun – souls of the wise
Sphere 5: Mars – those who fought for Christianity
Sphere 6: Jupiter – those who personified justice
Sphere 7: Saturn – the contemplative
Sphere 8: The stars – the blessed
Sphere 9: The Prime Mover – angels
