The Divine Comedy
I have recently read, again, one of the most famous works of literature in history - The Divine Comedy, a long poem written by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri in the 14th century. The poem tells the story of Dante's journey through the realms of the dead. Hell, purgatory, and heaven. The poem is especially known for its vivid and imaginative description of the Christian afterlife. One of the most fascinating parts of the poem is hell, which Dante divides into nine circles or levels for different kinds of sinners.
The first circle, limbo, is for good people who did not accept Christianity. The next circles are for those who sinned by lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. Each circle has a specific appearance and punishment that matches the sin of its inhabitants. For example, the souls who were lustful are tormented by strong winds that symbolise their lack of control over their passions. In treachery, the lowest and worst circle of hell, Satan is trapped in a frozen lake made of his own tears.
The Divine Comedy is not only a story about the afterlife, it also reveals a lot about the living world and the author himself. Dante meets many real people from his own time and earlier in his journey. His guide through hell and purgatory is the Roman poet Virgil, who is a pagan and therefore stuck in limbo. His guide through heaven is Beatrice, his first love, who died young. Some of the characters are from myths, like Minos, the king of Crete who judges the dead. Some are from history, like Brutus and Cassius, who killed Julius Caesar, are in treachery where Satan bites them with two of his three jaws. Some are from Dante's own life. He sees Filippo Argenti, his former enemy, drowning in the Styx river.
The real people that Dante encounters in his spiritual journey show his views on worldly issues like history and politics. Dante was very religious, but he was not a monk who tried to reach god by avoiding the world. His faith was closely connected to society, even though he thought they should be separate in governance.
Dante often shows contempt for his fellow Italians in hell, especially for their corrupt cities. In fraud, a soul from Lucca arrives, and a demon says he will bring more soon. In treachery, Dante finds out that a place in the frozen lake is reserved for Branca Doria, a living traitor from Genoa.
Some scholars argue that Dante's condemnation is based on bias. Dante wishes that Pisa would be ruined by the islands of Caprara and Gorgona blocking the Arno River's mouth, but this is not because of the alleged wickedness of its inhabitants - how can one prove such a sweeping moral claim? - but because of, as Anthony J. De Vito puts it, "the traditional feeling of rivalry and enmity which existed between Florence and Pisa, which Dante shared."
Dante was not very fond of his native city, and he made it clear in his work. He filled his hell with Florentines, and he portrayed Florence as a wicked place. He even claimed that Satan himself founded the city, and he used harsh words to criticise its flaws: a contrast with the refined language he used in other parts of The Divine Comedy. As you can imagine, many of his first readers were not happy with his negative ratings of their city!
Dante was a devout Christian who wanted the Church to be more faithful to the teachings of Jesus. He criticised the Church for being greedy and selling indulgences, which were supposed to reduce the punishment for sins in the afterlife. He also thought that the Church should not interfere with worldly affairs, such as politics and war. The Pope, who was supposed to be God's representative on Earth, had no right to compete with kings and lords for power and influence. Dante expressed his views on the role of the Church in a book called De Monarchia, and also in his famous poem The Divine Comedy. In this poem, he imagined a journey through hell, purgatory and heaven, where he met different souls who suffered or enjoyed their fate according to their actions in life. In hell, he saw Pope Boniface VIII among the simoniacs, who were corrupt clerics who used their position for personal gain. In heaven, he met Saint Peter, the founder of the Church, who lamented the state of his institution in Dante's time and hoped that God would intervene to restore its purity and integrity. He compared God's intervention to the divine assistance that Scipio Africanus received when he defeated Hannibal's army from Carthage.
Dante left a great legacy in The Divine Comedy. I often return to it for perspective.