DANTE

1
DANTETHE INFERNOREVIEW OF SELECTED CANTOS
Presentation By Ralph Monday
Western Literature I
2
DANTE IN THE WOOD OF DARK ERROR
CANTO I
3
THIS IS THE MEDIEVAL EASTER SEASON
THE ANGEL ADDRESSES THE THREE MARYS
AT THE EMPTY TOMB OF CHRIST.
DANTE IS 35 IN 1300, THE FICTIONAL DATE OF
THE POEM.
4
THE SUNRISE QUIETS HIS FEAR.
DANTE BEGINS ONCE AGAIN TO ASCEND THE HILL.
HE IS SEARCHING FOR THE RIGHT PATH.
5
THE DARK HILL THAT HE MUST CLIMB, FOR HE
HAD LOST THE WAY. THE PATH
WAS RENEWED BY THE APPEARANCE OF SOL.
HE BEGAN TO CLIMB, ONCE AGAIN.
6
HE FIRST ENCOUNTERS THE LEOPARD
SYMBOL
OF
MALICE
THE LEOPARD DRIVES HIM BACK FROM THE PATH.
AND
FRAUD
7
DANTE AND THE LION
HE NEXT ENCOUNTERS THE LION.
SYMBOL OF VIOLENCE AND AMBITION,
THIS IS ANOTHER OBSTACLE IN HIS JOURNEY TO SEEK
THE RIGHT PATH.
8
THE SHE WOLF
SYMBOL OF INCONTINENCE
SHE DRIVES DANTE BACK IN DESPAIR.
HE NOW FEARS THAT HE IS TOTALLY LOST.
9
VIRGIL
IN DANTES DESPAIR, VIRGIL COMES TO HIS RESCUE.
SYMBOL OF CLASSICAL HUMAN REASON,
A GOOD BEGINNING GUIDE, DANTE WILL EVENTUALLY
UNDERSTAND THAT REASON CAN ONLY TAKE ONE SO
FAR UPON THE JOURNEY.
10
CANTO II
THE DESCENT
INVOCATION OF THE MUSE.
DANTE CALLS UPON THE ANCIENT MUSE FOR INSPIRATION.
EUTERPE, THE GREEK INSPIRATION OF POETRY WAS A
LIKELY CONJUR.
INVOCATION OF THE MUSES IS A TYPICAL
CHARACTERISTIC OF THE EPIC.
11
It is near the end of the day Dante then asks
Virgil if he considers him worthy of making the
long and arduous journey.
Virgil tells Dante that an Angelic spirit,
Beatrice, has concern for him. Virgil relates the
conversation between them and tells Dante
that Beatrice had descended to Limbo, sent by the
Virgin Mary, through her messenger St. Lucia, to
plead for Virgils aid in helping to bring Dante
back from his dark wanderings.
Beatrice wept when she spoke with Virgil, and
now, Virgil tells Dante, the three Ladies of
Heaven care for himhave courage.
Dantes courage is renewed Virgil moves away and
Dante follows.
12
The Three Ladies of Heaven
The Virgin Mary
13
Beatrice
Dante First Spotting Beatrice.
She was the Love of his Life.
14
St. Lucia
15
Canto III
THE GATE OF HELL
ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.
16
Virgil tells Dante that this is the place that he
had spoken of earlier he takes Dantes hand and
leads him into a dark and starless place of such
horrific noise that Dante weeps.
Here are the souls of the uncommitted, who
live for themselves alone, and of the angels who
did not rebel against God, nor did they support
Satan.
HEAVEN and HELL will not have them. They remain
here with the selfish, forever chasing a banner.
They are eternally stung by hornets and wasps.
At their feet, worms are fed by their blood and
tears.
17
Dante sees people standing eagerly awaiting
passage.
The river Acheron looms ahead, and a
boatman appears who shouts at the spirits and
tells them that he will take them to a place from
which they can never escape.
Charon, the boatman, orders Dante to leave
because he is still living.
Virgil tells Charon that he cannot prevent
Dantes crossing. Heaven has willed Dantes way.
18
CHARON FERRYING THEM ACROSS
INTO HELL
19
Doomed souls preparing to cross the Acheron.
20
Limbo is a Noble Castle of great Pagan Poets
Dante and Virgil are welcomed by Homer,
Horace, Ovid, and other aesthetic artisans of the
ancient Past.
They welcome and honor Dante as one of their own.
Their pain is that they were unfortunate in being
born before the illuminating presence of Christ
came incarnated into the world.
They are sinless, not physically tormented, they
have no hope of ever seeing God.
21
Yet, there are individuals in this catacomb
of Woe who were allowed to embrace the visage Of
God.
Old Testament patriarchs, in particular
Adam, Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, the
King Of Israel were transported to Heaven
In the Harrowing of Hell.
Notice that Eve, the Mother of the race is not
mentioned.
Do you wonder why?
22
The Ancient Poets
Homer, the great poet
Horace, the satirist
23
Ovid
Lucan greeting Dante
Greatest of the ancient Roman poets.
These individuals represent the Highest
achievement of human Reason unaided by Divine Love
24
Canto V
The Carnal the Lustful
Here the Lustful are eternally buffeted by a
violent Storm.
The bestial Minos is the judge of the dead.
When a sinner approaches him, he wraps his tail
The number of encirclements
Around his body.
determines which Circle of Hell the sinner goes
to.
25
The Carnal Sinners are Continually Whirled Around.
26
The two Illicit lovers--
Francesca And Paolo
27
Canto VI
This is the Circle of the Gluttons.
A cold, barren place, filled with icy snow and
slush, pelting rain.
Cerberus, a monstrous three-headed dog, stands
over the sinners sunken into the filthy slush.
He howls and barks furiously, clawing all within
reach.
Virgil silences him by throwing dirt in his mouth.
28
Virgil, Dante, and hungry dog
Ciacco, the hog, is also here.
He prophesies that Florence will undergo a
war One party will be defeated and banished.
29
Canto VIII
Phlegyas, boatman Of dead souls,
Ferries Dante And Virgil
The Wrathful and The Sullen reside Here.
Across the river Styx.
30
A further Graphic view Of their Crossing the Styx.
Notice the Poor, suffering Souls.
31
Dis, the great city of Hell, the lower part.
This is the Approach to Dis.
The demons, The Fallen Angels exist here.
They obstruct, Oppose, Dantes Passage.
32
Dis is described As having Mosques.
Why do you Think such An image Is Utilized?
33
Before the city walls,
Called by the Furies
Dante is confronted by Medusa
If Dante Looks At her, He will Be Turned To stone.
34
Canto IX
They need a Heavenly Messenger to unlock The gate.
The realm of the heretics.
One appears, Sent by God To aid Dante On his
quest.
With a wave of a Wand, the Gates Are opened,
and They continue on.
35
Canto XII
This is the Seventh Circle, the First Ring
contained here are the Violent against their
Neighbors, against God, or themselves.
The Centaurs exist here, led by Chiron, who
instructs Nessus to guide Dante and Virgil across
the boiling River of blood.
The beginning of the descent is rocky, broken,
perhaps From an earthquake. The only opening is a
cleft in the Rock guarded by Minotaur, who is in
a horrific rage.
36
The Minotaur
37
Minotaur on the shattered Cliff.
38
Perhaps A better Image of The grisly Beast.
Half man, Half bull, A horrific Challenge.
39
Chiron, tutor of Achilles.
These half human, Half beast creatures Symbolize
the Bestial nature of People.
Catholicism Wishes to Eliminate this Part of
human Nature.
40
Chiron instructs Nessus to lead them across
the Boiling river of blood, which he does.
The Minotaur and the centaurs are like their
figures in mythology
The Minotaur is violent and bloodthirsty, a
fitting Guardian for the Seventh Circle.
The centaurs were mythological creatures
capable of sudden violence.
41
They kept the Sinners in the Boiling blood By
shooting Arrows at them.
42
Canto XIII
Still in the Seventh Circle, Second Ring is where
the Violent against Themselves (suicides) are
found.
The Squanderers, or those violent against
their Possessions, are also found here.
The suicides in the dreary wood are transformed
into Strange trees.
The Squanderers are hounded and rent by bitches.
43
Harpies in the Forest Of the Suicides.
44
CANTO 15
Circle Seven Round Three
The Violent Against Nature.
The poets are protected by the powers of the
boiling rill, and So walk along its banks across
the burning plain.
The Wood of Suicides is behind them the Great
Cliff at Whose base lies the Eighth Circle,
before them.
They pass a roving band of Sodomites. One of the
sinners Stops Dante and he recognizes him under
his baked Features as Ser Brunetto Latino. Dante
had greatly admired This writer and pays him the
highest tribute offered to any Sinner in the
Inferno.
45
Brunetto Latino Accosts Dante.
He gives an account of the Souls that move with
him Through the fire.
Finally, under Divine Compulsion, he races
off Across the plain.
46
CANTO XVI
The descent into the Abyss On Geryons back.
47
(No Transcript)
48
CANTO XXVIII
Circle Eight Bolgia Nine.
The Sowers of Discord.
A Bolgia is a ditch or pouch. Here they come to
the edge of The Ninth Bolgia and gaze down at a
throng of hideously Mutilated souls, the Sowers
of Discord.
Their sin was to rend asunder what God had meant
to be United they are hacked and torn apart for
all eternity by A great demon with a bloody sword.
After being mutilated the souls must drag their
broken Bodies around the pit and return to the
demon, where Their since healed bodies are once
again rent by the sword.
49
Three Different Classes of Sinners are Here

• Sowers of Religious Discord
• Mahomet and his son-in-law, Ali, split from
  crotch to chin appear first.
• Mahomet, the creator of Islam, and Ali, represent
  the rift between Christianity and Mohammedanism.

• The other two classes are
• The Sowers of Political Discord, and
• The Sowers of Discord between Kinsmen.
• They are all punished according to the Law of
  Divine Retribution.

50
The mutilated shade of Mahomet.
51
Mahomet, from Dantes perspective, One of the
great Sinners in history.
52
Canto XXXICentral Pit of Malebolge

• This is the central pit of Malebolge, a great
  well. At the bottom lies Cocytus, the ninth and
  final circle of Hell.
• The Giants and Titans are here.
• Nimrod, builder of the Tower of Babel.
• Ephialtes and Briareus who warred against the
  Gods.
• Tityos and Typhon who insulted Jupiter.
• Antaeus, who is there for no particular reason.

53
All are bound except For Antaeus.
They are the sons of Earth, elemental Forces
unbalanced By love, desire without Restraint.
Great intellect without Acknowledgment of Moral
and theological law.
54
Anateus lowering Virgil and Dante tothe final
floor of Hell
55
Canto XXXII

• Circle Nine CocytusCompound Fraud
• Round One CainaTreacherous to Kin
• Round Two AntenoraTreacherous to Country

56

• At the bottom of the well Dante finds himself on
  a huge frozen lake.
• This is Cocytus, the Ninth Circle, the fourth and
  last great water of Hell.
• Sinners are frozen in the ice.
• This is Dantes symbolic equivalent of the final
  guilt denials of love (God) and of human warmth.

57

• Because they denied Gods love they are the
  furthest removed from the light and warmth of His
  Sun.
• They denied all human ties, so they are bound
  only be the unyielding ice.
• The first round is Caina where frozen are the
  sinners who were treacherous against blood ties.

58
The frozen in hell.
Only the remorseless dead Center of the ice will
serve To express their natures.
59
Canto XXXIV

• Ninth Circle CocytusCompound Fraud
• Round Four JudeccaTreacherous to their Masters
• The Center Satan

60

• Here is Satan, fixed into the ice at the center,
  to which flow all the rivers of guilt.
• His great wings beat like a windmill and provide
  the icy wind.
• In a grotesque parody of the Trinity, he has
  three faces, each a different color.
• In each mouth he rips three sinners
• Judas, Brutus, Cassius.

61

• These, in Dantes vision, are the three greatest
  sinners of all time
• Betrayers of Church and State, and the worst
  punishment is meted out to these individuals.
• They symbolize the Christian and the Roman
  tradition.

62
Lucifer, King of Hell
63
(No Transcript)