Dante Alighieri Divine Comedy. The main ideas, characters, plot and composition of the poem "The Divine Comedy

The action of the Divine Comedy begins from the moment when the lyrical hero (or Dante himself), shocked by the death of his beloved Beatrice, tries to survive his grief, setting it out in verse in order to fix it as concretely as possible and thereby preserve the unique image of his beloved. But here it turns out that her immaculate personality is already immune to death and oblivion. She becomes a guide, the savior of the poet from inevitable death.

Beatrice, with the help of Virgil, the ancient Roman poet, accompanies the living lyrical hero - Dante - bypassing all the horrors of Hell, making an almost sacred journey from existence to non-existence, when the poet, just like the mythological Orpheus, descends into the underworld to save his Eurydice. On the gates of Hell it is written “Abandon all hope”, but Virgil advises Dante to get rid of fear and trembling before the unknown, because only with open eyes can a person comprehend the source of evil.

Sandro Botticelli, "Portrait of Dante"

Hell for Dante is not a materialized place, but the state of the soul of a sinning person, constantly tormented by remorse. Dante inhabited the circles of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, guided by his likes and dislikes, his ideals and ideas. For him, for his friends, love was the highest expression of independence and the unpredictability of freedom. human personality: this is freedom from traditions and dogmas, and freedom from the authorities of the church fathers, and freedom from various universal models of human existence.

Love with a capital letter comes to the fore, directed not towards a realistic (in the medieval sense) absorption of individuality by a ruthless collective integrity, but towards a unique image of a truly existing Beatrice. For Dante, Beatrice is the embodiment of the entire universe in the most concrete and colorful image. And what could be more attractive for a poet than the figure of a young Florentine, accidentally met on a narrow street ancient city? So Dante realizes the synthesis of thought and concrete, artistic, emotional comprehension of the world. In the first song of "Paradise", Dante listens to the concept of reality from the lips of Beatrice and cannot take his eyes off her emerald eyes. This scene is the embodiment of deep ideological and psychological shifts, when artistic comprehension of reality tends to become intellectual.

Illustration for The Divine Comedy, 1827

The afterlife appears before the reader in the form of an integral building, the architecture of which is calculated in the smallest details, and the coordinates of space and time are distinguished by mathematical and astronomical accuracy, full of numerological and esoteric context.

Most often in the text of a comedy there is the number three and its derivative - nine: a three-line stanza (tertsina), which became the poetic basis of the work, which in turn is divided into three parts - canticles. Excluding the first, introductory song, 33 songs are allotted for the image of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, and each of the parts of the text ends with the same word - stars (stelle). To the same mystical digital series can be attributed the three colors of clothes in which Beatrice is clothed, three symbolic beasts, the three mouths of Lucifer and the same number of sinners devoured by him, the tripartite distribution of Hell with nine circles. All this clearly built system gives rise to a surprisingly harmonious and coherent hierarchy of the world, created according to unwritten divine laws.

The Tuscan dialect became the basis of the literary Italian language

Speaking of Dante and his Divine Comedy, one cannot fail to note the special status that the birthplace of the great poet, Florence, had in the host of other cities of the Apennine Peninsula. Florence is not only the city where the Accademia del Cimento raised the banner of experimental knowledge of the world. It is a place where nature has been looked at as closely as anywhere else, a place of passionate artistic sensationalism, where rational vision has replaced religion. They looked at the world through the eyes of an artist, with spiritual upliftment, with the worship of beauty.

The initial collection of ancient manuscripts reflected the transfer of the center of gravity of intellectual interests to the device inner world and human creativity. Space ceased to be the dwelling place of God, and they began to treat nature from the point of view of earthly existence, in it they looked for answers to questions understandable to man, and took them in earthly, applied mechanics. New look thinking - natural philosophy - humanized nature itself.

The topography of Dante's Hell and the structure of Purgatory and Paradise stem from the recognition of loyalty and courage as the highest virtues: in the center of Hell, in the teeth of Satan, there are traitors, and the distribution of places in Purgatory and Paradise directly corresponds to the moral ideals of the Florentine exile.

By the way, everything that we know about Dante's life is known to us from his own memoirs, set out in the Divine Comedy. He was born in 1265 in Florence and remained faithful to his native city all his life. Dante wrote about his teacher Brunetto Latini and about his talented friend Guido Cavalcanti. The life of the great poet and philosopher took place in the circumstances of a very long conflict between the emperor and the Pope. Latini, Dante's mentor, was a man with encyclopedic knowledge and based in his views on the sayings of Cicero, Seneca, Aristotle and, of course, on the Bible - general ledger Middle Ages. It was Latini who most of all influenced the formation of the personality of Bud current Renaissance humanist.

Dante's path was full of obstacles when the poet faced the need for a difficult choice: for example, he was forced to contribute to the expulsion of his friend Guido from Florence. Reflecting on the theme of the ups and downs of his fate, Dante in the poem "New Life" devotes many fragments to his friend Cavalcanti. Here Dante brought out the unforgettable image of his first youthful love - Beatrice. Biographers identify Dante's beloved with Beatrice Portinari, who died at the age of 25 in Florence in 1290. Dante and Beatrice have become the same textbook embodiment of true lovers, like Petrarch and Laura, Tristan and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet.

With his beloved Beatrice, Dante spoke twice in his life

In 1295, Dante entered the guild, membership in which opened the way for him into politics. Just at that time, the struggle between the emperor and the Pope escalated, so that Florence was divided into two opposing groups - the "black" Guelphs, led by Corso Donati, and the "white" Guelphs, to whose camp Dante himself belonged. The "Whites" won and drove the opponents out of the city. In 1300, Dante was elected to the city council - it was here that the brilliant oratorical abilities of the poet were fully manifested.

Dante increasingly began to oppose himself to the Pope, participating in various anti-clerical coalitions. By that time, the “blacks” had stepped up their activities, broke into the city and dealt with their political opponents. Dante was called several times to testify to the city council, but each time he ignored these requirements, so on March 10, 1302, Dante and 14 other members of the "white" party were sentenced in absentia to death penalty. To save himself, the poet was forced to leave his native city. Disillusioned with the possibility of changing the political state of affairs, he began to write the work of his life - the Divine Comedy.

Sandro Botticelli "Hell, Canto XVIII"

In the 14th century, in the Divine Comedy, the truth that was revealed to the poet who visited Hell, Purgatory and Paradise is no longer canonical, it appears to him as a result of his own, individual efforts, his emotional and intellectual impulse, he hears the truth from the lips of Beatrice . For Dante, the idea is the “thought of God”: “Everything that dies and everything that does not die is / Only a reflection of the Thought, to which the Almighty / with His Love gives life.”

Dante's path of love is the path of perception of divine light, a force that simultaneously elevates and destroys a person. In The Divine Comedy, Dante made special emphasis on the color symbolism of the Universe he depicts. If Hell is characterized by dark tones, then the path from Hell to Paradise is a transition from dark and gloomy to light and shining, while in Purgatory there is a change in lighting. For the three steps at the gates of Purgatory, symbolic colors stand out: white - the innocence of a baby, crimson - the sinfulness of an earthly being, red - redemption, the blood of which whitens so that, closing this color range, white reappears as a harmonic combination of previous symbols.

“We do not live in this world for death to catch us in blissful laziness”

In November 1308, Henry VII becomes King of Germany, and in July 1309, the new Pope Clement V declares him King of Italy and invites him to Rome, where the new Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire is crowned magnificently. Dante, who was an ally of Henry, returned to politics again, where he was able to use his literary experience productively, writing many pamphlets and speaking publicly. In 1316, Dante finally moved to Ravenna, where he was invited to spend the rest of his days by the signor of the city, philanthropist and patron of the arts, Guido da Polenta.

In the summer of 1321, Dante, as ambassador of Ravenna, went to Venice on a mission to make peace with the Doge's Republic. Having completed a responsible assignment, on the way home, Dante falls ill with malaria (like his late friend Guido) and suddenly dies on the night of September 13-14, 1321.

Often, because of love, actions are performed that go beyond understanding. It is customary for poets, having experienced love, to dedicate their compositions to the object of feelings. But if this poet is still a man with a difficult fate and, moreover, not without a genius, there is a possibility that he is able to write one of the greatest works in the world. That was Dante Alighieri. His " The Divine Comedy"- a masterpiece of world literature - continues to be interesting to the world 700 years after its inception.

The Divine Comedy was created in the second period of the great poet's life - the period of exile (1302 - 1321). By the time he began work on the Comedy, he was already looking for a haven for soul and body among the cities and states of Italy, and the love of his life, Beatrice, had already rested for several years (1290), becoming a victim of the plague epidemic. Writing was for Dante a kind of consolation in his difficult life. It is unlikely that then he counted on worldwide fame or memory for centuries. But the genius of the author and the value of his poem did not allow him to be forgotten.

Genre and direction

"Comedy" is a special work in the history of world literature. Taken as a whole, this is a poem. In a narrower sense, it is impossible to determine its belonging to one of the varieties of this genre. The problem here is that there are no more such works of content. It is impossible to come up with a name for it that would reflect the meaning of the text. Dante decided to call the work “Comedy” Giovanni Boccaccio, following the logic of the Aristotelian doctrine of drama, where comedy was a work that started badly and ended well. The epithet "divine" was coined in the 16th century.

In direction, this is a classic composition of the Italian Renaissance. Dante's poem is characterized by a special national elegance, rich imagery and accuracy. With all this, the poet also does not neglect the loftiness and freedom of thought. All these features were characteristic of the Renaissance poetry of Italy. It is they who form the unique style of Italian poetry of the XIII-XVII centuries.

Composition

Taken as a whole, the core of the poem is the hero's journey. The work consists of three parts, consisting of one hundred songs. The first part is Hell. It contains 34 songs, while "Purgatory" and "Paradise" have 33 songs each. The choice of the author is not accidental. "Hell" stood out as a place where there can be no harmony, well, there are more inhabitants there.

Description of hell

"Hell" is nine circles. Sinners are ranked there according to the severity of their fall. Dante took Aristotle's Ethics as the basis for this system. So, from the second to the fifth circles are punished for the results of human intemperance:

• in the second circle - for lust;
• in the third - for gluttony;
• in the fourth - for stinginess with wastefulness;
• in the fifth, for anger;

In the sixth and seventh for the consequences of the atrocity:

• in the sixth for false teachings
• seventh for violence, murder and suicide

In the eighth and ninth for lies and all its derivatives. The worst fate for Dante awaits traitors. According to the logic of modern, and even then man, the most serious sin is murder. But Aristotle probably believed that the desire to kill a person can not always be controlled because of the bestial nature, while a lie is an exclusively conscious matter. Dante obviously had the same concept.

In "Hell" all the political and personal enemies of Dante. Also there he placed all those who were of a different faith, seemed immoral to the poet and simply lived not in a Christian way.

Description of purgatory

"Purgatory" contains seven circles that correspond to the seven sins. The Catholic Church later called them mortal sins (those that can be "prayed"). In Dante, they are arranged from the heaviest to the most tolerable. He did so because his path should be the path of ascent to Paradise.

Paradise Description

"Paradise" performed in nine circles named after the major planets solar system. Here Christian martyrs, saints and scientists, participants crusades, monks, fathers of the Church, and, of course, Beatrice, who is located not just anywhere, but in the Empyrean - the ninth circle, which is presented in the form of a luminous rose, which can be interpreted as the place where God is. With all the Christian orthodoxy of the poem, Dante gives the circles of Paradise the names of the planets, which in meaning correspond to the names of the gods of Roman mythology. For example, the third circle (Venus) is the abode of lovers, and the sixth (Mars) is the place for warriors for the faith.

About what?

Giovanni Boccaccio, when writing a sonnet on behalf of Dante, dedicated to the purpose of the poem, said the following: "Entertain posterity and instruct in the faith." This is true: The Divine Comedy can serve as an instruction in faith, because it is based on Christian teaching and clearly shows what and who awaits for disobedience. And entertain, as they say, she can. Given, for example, the fact that "Paradise" is the most unreadable part of the poem, since all the spectacle that a person loves is described in the two previous chapters, well, or the fact that the work is dedicated to Dante's love. Moreover, the function that, as Boccaccio said, entertains, can even argue in its importance with the function of edification. After all, the poet, of course, was more a romantic than a satirist. He wrote about himself and for himself: everyone who interfered with his life is in hell, the poem is for his beloved, and Dante's companion and mentor, Virgil, is the favorite poet of the great Florentine (it is known that he knew his "Aeneid" by heart).

Image of Dante

Dante is the main character of the poem. It is noteworthy that in the entire book his name is not indicated anywhere, except, perhaps, on the cover. The narration comes from his face, and all the other characters call him "you". Narrator and author have a lot in common. The "Dark Forest" in which the first one found himself at the very beginning is the expulsion of the real Dante from Florence, the moment when he was really in turmoil. And Virgil from the poem is the writings of the Roman poet that existed for the exile in reality. Just as his poetry led Dante through difficulties here, so in the afterlife Virgil is his "teacher and beloved example." In the system of characters, the ancient Roman poet also personifies wisdom. The hero shows himself most well in relation to sinners who personally offended him during his lifetime. He even tells some of them in a poem that they deserve it.

Themes

• The main theme of the poem is love. Poets of the Renaissance began to elevate the earthly woman to heaven, often calling Madonna. Love, according to Dante, is the cause and beginning of everything. She is an incentive for writing a poem, the reason for his journey is already in the context of the work, and most importantly, the reason for the beginning and existence of the Universe, as is commonly believed in Christian theology.
• Edification is the next theme of the Comedy. Dante, like everyone else in those days, felt a great responsibility for earthly life before the heavenly world. For the reader, he can act as a teacher who gives everyone what they deserve. It is clear that in the context of the poem, the inhabitants of the afterlife settled down as the author describes them, by the will of the Almighty.
• Politics. Dante's writing can be safely called political. The poet always believed in the advantages of the emperor's power and wanted such power for his country. All his ideological enemies, as well as the enemies of the empire, like the assassins of Caesar, experience the most terrible suffering in hell.
• Strength of mind. Dante often falls into confusion when he finds himself in the afterlife, but Virgil tells him not to do this, not stopping at any danger. However, even under unusual circumstances, the hero shows himself with dignity. He cannot not be afraid at all, since he is a man, but even for a man his fear is insignificant, which is an example of an exemplary will. This will did not break in the face of difficulties in real life poet, nor in his book adventure.

Issues

• Fight for the ideal. Dante pursued his goals both in real life and in the poem. Once a political activist, he continues to defend his interests, stigmatizing all those who are in opposition with him and do bad things. The author, of course, cannot call himself a saint, but nevertheless he takes responsibility by distributing sinners in their places. The ideal in this matter for him is the Christian teaching and his own views.
• Correlation of the earthly world and the afterlife. Many of those who lived, according to Dante, or according to Christian law, unrighteously, but, for example, for their own pleasure and for their own benefit, they find themselves in hell in the most terrible places. At the same time, in paradise there are martyrs or those who during their lifetime became famous for great and useful deeds. The concept of punishment and reward developed by Christian theology exists as a moral guide for most people today.
• Death. When his beloved died, the poet was very sad. His love was not destined to come true and be embodied on earth. The Divine Comedy is an attempt to at least briefly reunite with a forever lost woman.

Meaning

"The Divine Comedy" performs all the functions that the author laid down in this work. It is a moral and humanistic ideal for everyone. Reading the Comedy evokes many emotions through which a person learns what is good and what is bad, and experiences purification, the so-called "catharsis", as Aristotle dubbed this state of mind. Through the suffering experienced in the process of reading the life description of hell, a person comprehends divine wisdom. As a result, he treats his actions and thoughts more responsibly, because justice, laid down from above, will punish his sins. In a bright and talented manner, the artist of the word, like an icon painter, depicted scenes of reprisals against vices that enlighten the common people, popularizing and chewing the content Holy Scripture. Dante's audience, of course, is more demanding, because it is literate, wealthy and perspicacious, but, nevertheless, it is not alien to sinfulness. It was common for such people to distrust the direct moralizing of preachers and theological works, and here the exquisitely written Divine Comedy comes to the aid of virtue, which carried the same educational and moral charge, but did it in a secular manner. In this healing effect on those who are burdened with power and money, and is expressed main idea works.

The ideals of love, justice and the strength of the human spirit at all times are the basis of our being, and in Dante's work they are sung and shown in all their significance. The Divine Comedy teaches a person to strive for high purpose with which God bestowed upon him.

Peculiarities

The "Divine Comedy" is of great aesthetic importance because of the theme of human love, which turned into a tragedy, and the richest artistic world of the poem. All of the above, together with a special poetic warehouse and unprecedented functional diversity, make this work one of the most outstanding in world literature.

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. The Divine Comedy is the fruit of the entire second half of Dante's life and work. In this work, the worldview of the poet was reflected with the greatest completeness. Dante appears here as the last great poet of the Middle Ages, a poet who continued the line of development of feudal literature, but absorbed some of the features typical of the new bourgeois culture of the early.

Structure

The surprisingly coherent composition of The Divine Comedy was influenced by the rationalism of creativity that developed in the atmosphere of the new bourgeois culture.

The Divine Comedy is extremely symmetrical. It falls into three parts; each part consists of 33 songs, and ends with the word Stelle, that is, the stars. In total, 99 songs are obtained in this way, which, together with the introductory song, make up the number 100. The poem is written in terts - stanzas consisting of three lines. This tendency to certain numbers is explained by the fact that Dante gave them a mystical interpretation - so the number 3 is associated with the Christian idea of ​​\u200b\u200b, the number 33 should remind you of the years of earthly life, etc.

Plot

According to Catholic beliefs, the afterlife consists of hell, where forever condemned sinners go, purgatory - the seat of sinners atoning for their sins - and paradise - the abode of the blessed.

Dante describes the structure of the afterlife with extreme accuracy, capturing all the details of its architectonics with graphic certainty. In the opening song, Dante tells how he, having reached the middle life path, once got lost in a dense forest and, like the poet Virgil, having saved him from three wild animals that blocked his path, he invited Dante to make a journey through the afterlife. Upon learning that Virgil was sent to Beatrice, Dante surrenders without trepidation to the leadership of the poet.

Hell

Having passed the threshold of hell, inhabited by the souls of insignificant, indecisive people, they enter the first circle of hell, the so-called limbo, where the souls of those who could not know the true God reside. Here Dante sees outstanding representatives of ancient culture -, etc. The next circle (hell looks like a colossal funnel consisting of concentric circles, the narrow end of which rests on the center of the earth) is filled with the souls of people who once indulged in unbridled passion. Among those carried by a wild whirlwind, Dante sees Francesca da Rimini and her beloved Paolo, who fell victim to forbidden love for each other. As Dante, accompanied by Virgil, descends lower and lower, he becomes a witness to the torment, forced to suffer from rain and hail, misers and squanderers, tirelessly rolling huge stones, angry, bogged down in a swamp. They are followed by heresiarchs engulfed in eternal flame (among them the emperor, Pope Anastasius II), tyrants and murderers swimming in streams of boiling blood, turned into plants, and rapists burned by falling flames, deceivers of all kinds. The torments of deceivers are varied. Finally, Dante enters the last, 9th circle of hell, intended for the most terrible criminals. Here is the abode of traitors and traitors, of which the greatest are, and Cassius, they are gnawed by their three mouths, who once rebelled on, the king of evil, doomed to imprisonment in the center of the earth. The description of the terrible appearance of Lucifer ends the last song of the first part of the poem.

Purgatory

passed narrow corridor, connecting the center of the earth with the second hemisphere, Dante and Virgil come to the surface of the earth. There, in the middle of the island surrounded by the ocean, a mountain rises in the form of a truncated cone - like hell, consisting of a series of circles that narrow as they approach the top of the mountain. The angel guarding the entrance to purgatory lets Dante into the first circle of purgatory, having previously drawn seven Ps (Peccatum - sin), that is, a symbol of the seven deadly sins, on his forehead with a sword. As Dante rises higher and higher, passing one circle after another, these letters disappear, so that when Dante, having reached the top of the mountain, enters the earthly paradise located on the top of the last, he is already free from the signs inscribed by the guardian of purgatory. The circles of the latter are inhabited by the souls of sinners atoning for their sins. Here they are cleansed, forced to bend under the burden of weights pressing their backs, negligent, etc. Virgil brings Dante to the gates of paradise, where he, as one who did not know baptism, has no access.

Paradise

In the earthly paradise, Virgil is replaced by Beatrice, seated on a drawn chariot (an allegory of the triumphant church); she induces Dante to repentance, and then lifts him up to heaven, enlightened. The final part of the poem is devoted to Dante's wanderings in the heavenly paradise. The latter consists of seven spheres encircling the earth and corresponding to seven planets (according to the then widespread): spheres, etc., followed by the spheres of fixed stars and crystal, - behind the crystal sphere is the Empyrean, - an endless region inhabited by blessed, contemplative God, - the last sphere that gives life to all things. Flying through the spheres, guided, Dante sees the emperor, introducing him to history, teachers of the faith, martyrs for the faith, whose shining souls form a sparkling cross; ascending higher and higher, Dante sees Christ and the angels, and, finally, the “heavenly Rose” is revealed to him - the abode of the blessed. Here Dante partakes of the highest grace, reaching communion with the Creator.

The Comedy is Dante's last and most mature work. The poet, of course, did not realize that through his mouth in the Comedy "ten silent centuries spoke", that he sums up in his work the entire development of medieval literature.

Analysis

In form, the poem is an afterlife vision, of which there were many in medieval literature. Like the medieval poets, it rests on an allegorical core. So the dense forest, in which the poet got lost halfway through earthly existence, is a symbol of life's complications. Three beasts that attack him there:, and - the three most powerful passions: sensuality, lust for power,. This also gives a political interpretation: the panther -, the spots on the skin of which should indicate the enmity of the parties and the Ghibellines. Lion - a symbol of brute physical strength -; she-wolf, greedy and lustful - curia. These beasts threaten the national unity that Dante dreamed of, a unity held together by the rule of a feudal monarchy (some literary historians give Dante's entire poem a political interpretation). Saves the poet from the beasts - the mind sent to the poet Beatrice (- faith). Virgil leads Dante through to and on the threshold of paradise gives way to Beatrice. The meaning of this allegory is that reason saves a person from passions, and knowledge of divine science delivers eternal bliss.

The Divine Comedy is imbued with the political tendencies of the author. Dante never misses an opportunity to reckon with his ideological, even personal enemies; he hates usurers, condemns credit as "excess", condemns his own age as an age of profit, and. In his opinion, - the source of all evils. To the dark present, he contrasts the bright past, bourgeois Florence - feudal Florence, when simplicity of morals, moderation, chivalrous "knowledge" ("Paradise", Kachchagvida's story), feudal (cf. Dante's treatise "On the Monarchy") prevailed. The tercines of "Purgatory", accompanying the appearance of Sordello (Ahi serva Italia), sound like a real hosanna of Ghibellinism. Dante treats the papacy as a principle with the greatest respect, although he hates individual representatives of it, especially those who contributed to the strengthening of the bourgeois system in Italy; some dads Dante meets in hell. His religion is, although a personal element is already woven into it, alien to the old orthodoxy, although the Franciscan religion of love, which is accepted with all passion, is also a sharp deviation from classical Catholicism. His philosophy is theology, his science is his poetry, his poetry is allegory. Ascetic ideals in Dante have not yet died, and he regards free love as a grave sin (Hell, 2nd circle, the famous episode with Francesca da Rimini and Paolo). But it is not a sin for him to love, which attracts to the object of worship with a pure platonic impulse (cf. “ new life", Dante's love for Beatrice). This is a great world power, which "moves the sun and other luminaries." And humility is no longer an absolute virtue. “Whoever in glory does not renew his strength with victory will not taste the fruit that he obtained in the struggle.” And the spirit of inquisitiveness, the desire to widen the circle of knowledge and acquaintance with the world, combined with “virtue” (virtute e conoscenza), which encourages heroic daring, is proclaimed an ideal.

Dante built his vision from pieces of real life. Separate corners of Italy, which are placed in it with clear graphic contours, went to the design of the afterlife. And so many living human images are scattered in the poem, so many typical figures, so many vivid psychological situations that literature still continues to draw from there. People who suffer in hell, repent in purgatory (moreover, the volume and nature of the punishment corresponds to the volume and nature of sin), abide in bliss in paradise - all living people. In these hundreds of figures, no two are the same. In this huge gallery of historical figures there is not a single image that has not been cut by the unmistakable plastic intuition of the poet. No wonder Florence experienced a period of such intense economic and cultural upsurge. That keen sense of landscape and man, which is shown in the Comedy and which the world learned from Dante, was possible only in the social situation of Florence, which was far ahead of the rest of Europe. Separate episodes of the poem, such as Francesca and Paolo, Farinata in his red-hot grave, Ugolino with children, Capaneus and Ulysses, in no way similar to ancient images, the Black Cherub with subtle devilish logic, Sordello on his stone, are produced to this day strong impression.

The Concept of Hell in The Divine Comedy

In front of the entrance are pitiful souls who did not do either good or evil during their lifetime, including “bad flock of angels”, who were neither with the devil nor with God.

• 1st circle (Limb). Unbaptized Infants and the Virtuous.
• 2nd circle. Voluptuaries (fornicators and adulterers).
• 3rd circle. , and gourmets.
• 4th circle. Buyers and spendthrifts.
• 5th circle (Stygian swamp). and .
• 6th round. and false teachers.
• 7th round.
  • 1st belt. Violators over the neighbor and over his property (and robbers).
  • 2nd belt. Violators over themselves () and over their property (and motes).
  • 3rd belt. Violators of the deity (), against nature () and art, ().
• 8th round. Deceived the disbelievers. It consists of ten ditches (Zlopazuhi, or Evil Slits).
  • 1st ditch. Pimps and.
  • 2nd ditch. Flatterers.
  • 3rd ditch. Holy merchants, high-ranking clerics who traded in church positions.
  • 4th ditch. , stargazers, .
  • 5th ditch. Bribe-takers, .
  • 6th ditch. Hypocrites.
  • 7th ditch. .
  • 8th ditch. Wicked advisers.
  • 9th ditch. Discord instigators.
  • 10th ditch. , false witnesses, counterfeiters.
• 9th round. Deceived those who trusted.
  • Belt . Family traitors.
  • Belt . Traitors and associates.
  • Belt of Tolomei. Traitors of friends and companions.
  • Giudecca belt. Traitors of benefactors, majesty divine and human.

Building a model of Hell, Dante follows, which refers to the 1st category the sins of intemperance, to the 2nd - the sins of violence, to the 3rd - the sins of deceit. Dante has circles 2-5 for the intemperate, 7th for rapists, 8-9 for deceivers (8th is just for deceivers, 9th is for traitors). Thus, the more material the sin, the more forgivable it is.

The concept of Paradise in The Divine Comedy

• 1 sky() - the abode of those who observe duty.
• 2 sky() - the abode of reformers and innocent victims.
• 3 sky() - the abode of lovers.
• 4 sky() - the abode of sages and great scientists ().
• 5 sky() - the abode of warriors for the faith -,.
• 6 sky() - the abode of just rulers (biblical kings David and Hezekiah, Emperor Trajan, King Guglielmo II the Good and the hero of the "Aeneid" Ripheus)
• 7 sky() - the abode of theologians and monks ( , ).
• 8 sky(sphere of stars)
• 9 sky(The prime mover, crystal sky). Dante describes the structure of the heavenly inhabitants (see)
• 10 sky(Empyrean) - Flaming Rose and Radiant River (the core of the rose and the arena of the heavenly amphitheater) - the abode of the Deity. On the banks of the river (the steps of the amphitheater, which is divided into 2 more semicircles - the Old Testament and the New Testament), blessed souls sit. Maria (

The Divine Comedy is the most brilliant work of the great Italian poet and thinker Dante Alighieri. This is his last work, which reflected the worldview of the poet. The poem consists of three parts, these are Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, and describes the state of the soul that has fallen into the afterlife after death. Everyone who has fallen into the kingdom of this world must repent and admit his sins, go through all the circles of Hell in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, and stand before the Creator. The protagonist of the Divine Comedy is Dante himself, who went through all the circles of Hell and ascended to enlightenment.

Characteristics of the heroes of the "Divine Comedy"

main characters

Minor characters

In the "Divine Comedy" Dante involved great amount characters who have fallen into the afterlife, and in order to understand the philosophical depth of this brilliant work, it is necessary to study it completely. The work gives food for thought, and makes each person think about how to live their lives.

The Divine Comedy ("Divina Commedia") is a creation that brought Dante immortality. Why Dante called his work a comedy is clear from his treatise "De vulgarie eloquentia" and from the dedication to Cangrande: the comedy begins with terrible and disgusting scenes (Hell), and ends with beautiful pictures of heavenly bliss. The name "divine" arose after the death of the author; the first edition in which it is called "Divina Commedia" seems to be the Venetian ed. 1516.

The Divine Comedy is something like a vision. It describes the state and life of souls after death in the three kingdoms of the afterlife and, accordingly, is divided into 3 parts: Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Paradise (Paradiso). Each of the sections consists of 33 cantos, so that the entire poem, including the introduction, is 100 cantos (14,230 verses). It was written in tercines - a meter created by Dante from sirventer, and is distinguished by remarkable architectonics: "Hell" consists of 9 circles, "Purgatory" of 9 rooms: the threshold, 7 terraces and the earthly paradise on the Mount of Purification, "Paradise" - of 9 these rotating celestial spheres, above which is the Empyrean, the immovable seat of the deity.

The Divine Comedy. Hell - summary

In The Divine Comedy, Dante undertakes a journey through these 3 worlds. The shadow of the ancient poet Virgil (the personification of human reason and philosophy) appears to Dante when he tries in vain to get out of the dense forest where he got lost. She reports that the poet must follow a different path and that, on behalf of Dante's deceased beloved, Beatrice, he himself will lead him through Hell and Purgatory to the home of the blessed, through which a more worthy soul will lead him.

9 circles of hell according to Dante

Their journey goes first through Hell (see its separate description on our website), which looks like a funnel, the end of which rests on the center of the earth; nine concentric circles in the form of steps stretch along the walls. On these steps, which the lower they become narrower, are the souls of condemned sinners. On the eve of Hell dwell the souls of the "indifferent", i.e. those who have lived their lives on earth without glory, but also without shame. In the first circle are the heroes of ancient times who lived impeccably but died without being baptized. In the following circles are placed according to the degrees of crime and punishment: voluptuaries, gluttons, misers and spenders, angry and vengeful, Epicureans and heretics, rapists, liars and deceivers, traitors to the fatherland, relatives, friends and benefactors. In the depths of hell, in the center of the earth, is the ruler of the hellish kingdom, Dit or Lucifer- the principle of evil.

(Circles of Hell - La mappa dell inferno). Illustration for the "Divine Comedy" by Dante. 1480s.

The Divine Comedy. Purgatory - summary

Rising through his body, and having passed the other hemisphere, travelers reach opposite side the globe where Mount Purgatory rises from the ocean. On the shore they are met by Cato Utica, the guardian of this kingdom. Mount Purgatory looks like a steep body with a cut off top and is divided into 7 terraces, which are interconnected by narrow stairs; access to them is guarded by angels; on these terraces are the souls of the penitents. The lowest is occupied by the arrogant, followed by the envious, angry, indecisive, stingy and squandering, gluttons. Having passed the threshold of Purgatory and all the terraces, the satellites approach the earthly Paradise, which is at the very top.

The Divine Comedy. Paradise - summary

Here Virgil leaves Dante and Beatrice (the personification of divine revelation and theology) leads the poet from here through the third kingdom - Paradise, whose division is entirely based on the Aristotelian concepts of the universe that prevailed in Dante's time. This kingdom consists of 10 hollow, transparent celestial spheres enclosed in each other, surrounding the earth - the center of the universe. The first seven heavens bear the names of the planets: these are the spheres of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The eighth sphere is of the fixed stars, and the ninth heaven is the prime mover, which communicates motion to all the rest. Each of these heavens is destined for one of the categories of the blessed, according to the degree of their perfection, in fact, all the souls of the righteous live in the 10th heaven, the motionless sky of light, Empyrean outside of space. Beatrice, having led the poet throughout Paradise, leaves him and entrusts Saint Bernard, with whose assistance the poet is honored with the contemplation of a deity that appears to him in a mystical vision.

During the entire journey through these three worlds, conversations are constantly being held with famous persons who are in the afterlife; questions of theology and philosophy are discussed and the conditions of the social life of Italy, the degeneration of church and state are depicted, so that the poem comprehensively reflects the entire era of Dante in the coverage of his personal worldview. Particularly remarkable are the first two parts of the poem, thanks to the skillful plan, the variety and reality of the displayed faces, and the brightness of the historical perspective. the last part, more than others distinguished by the loftiness of thought and feeling, can much more quickly tire the reader with its abstract content.

To clarify the allegorical meaning of both the entire poem and its particulars, different thinkers proceeded in different ways. The ethical-theological point of view of the first commentators is the only one that can withstand criticism. From this point of view, Dante himself is a symbol of the human soul, seeking salvation from sin. To do this, she must know herself, which is possible only with the help of the mind. Reason gives the soul the opportunity, through repentance and virtuous deeds, to acquire happiness on earth. Revelation and theology open her access to heaven. Next to this moral and theological allegory is a political allegory: anarchy on earth can only be put an end to by a universal monarchy, modeled on the Roman one, which was preached by Virgil. However, some researchers have tried to prove that the purpose of the Divine Comedy is predominantly or even exclusively political.

When Dante began to write his great work and when individual parts of it were developed, it is impossible to establish exactly. The first two parts were published during his lifetime, "Paradise" - after his death. Divina Commedia soon circulated in a huge number of copies, many of which are still kept in the libraries of Italy, Germany, France and England. The number of these medieval manuscripts exceeds 500.

Dante "Hell". Illustration by Gustave Doré

The first attempt to illustrate Dante's "Comedy" dates back to 1481, when 19 etchings on the themes of "Hell" were placed in the Florentine edition, based on drawings by Sandro Botticelli. Of the illustrations of the New Age, the engravings by Gustave Dore and 20 drawings by German artists are the most famous.