Dante Alighieri starts off his epic in the Inferno, which
is hell and its environs. His first occurrence is meeting Virgil, who will
serve as his guide through hell. The outermost ring, Limbo, is where Virgil
says are the people that lived before Christ and lived righteous lives but did
not get into heaven. There is still suffering there, but it is minimized. They
then trek further in to hell, and after crossing the river into the pits of the
underworld, come across the normal hell. There Dante sees Celestine V, who
supposedly renounced his papacy for selfish reasons. With him are many other
vile and unrighteous sinners. Virgil then tells Dante that the people such as
Abraham and David, who are “missing” from hell, are in heaven with Christ
because he took them up with him after he rose from the dead. Virgil shows
Dante the four great ancient poets. Dante encounters Ugolino, who recounts his unfortunate
life and death to Dante and Virgil. They finally reach the inner ring of hell,
and can see Satan himself at the center. Around him are Judas, Brutus, and
Cassius. Finally, they climb out of the inferno and are back in the realm of
the living.
The strict rhythm of Dante’s verses give order to the
great epic. It further applies the idea that hell is made of several layers,
that each get progressively worse in correspondence to the transgressors. Virgil
is an interesting choice for a guide, but helps in the storytelling because he
was such a great poet. When Virgil shows Dante the four great ancient poets,
who are led by Homer, they call out to him as if he is one of them. Dante then considers
himself to be among the great poets such as Homer, Ovid, and Virgil.
Dante has an interesting worldview. Throughout his
journey are mixed elements of Catholic beliefs and mythology. The Greek titans
as well as the layout of the underworld with the river Styx are straight out of
Greek mythology, and even from Homer himself. He says in his journey that good
works are not enough to keep someone out of hell, however Virgil tells Dante
that “the signature of honor they left on earth is recognized in heaven and
wins them ease in Hell out of God’s favor.” Dante believes then that works
cannot lead to salvation, but are still necessary in order to keep a person in
the “good” parts of hell rather than the center. Moreover, Dante considers some
sins to merit more punishment than others. In the Bible, we are warned that all
sin is equal in God’s sight, save the unforgiveable sin of blasphemy. In
Dante’s Inferno, the worst sin is betrayal, which is why Judas, Brutus, and
Cassius are in the deepest part of hell with Satan himself. The Christian
worldview does not allow for different parts of hell. A soul can go to either
heaven or hell, with no inner or outer rings. Works, according to Dante, cannot
lead to salvation, but still have bearing on eternity. While this idea is
Biblical, his view is incorrect. We will be rewarded with riches based on our
deeds on the earth when we are judged by God. Works will not keep people out of
the deeper parts of hell. Dante takes a nearly Lutheran stance when criticizing
the pope, but does so for a far different reason; Luther criticized popes for
their inadherence to the scripture, but Dante criticized the pope because he stepped
down from the papacy because it was too corrupt. Finally, Dante’s placing of
Aristotle above Socrates and Plato shows that his reason is more based on induction
and observable facts than from the source of an infinite truth. Dante appears
to be a true medieval Catholic humanist that shows the corruption of the church
from its original beliefs, in which he is trying to synthesize ancient reason and
logic with his Christianity.
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