Dante's Divine Comedy general characteristics. The main ideas, heroes, plot and composition of the poem "Divine Comedy

The "Divine Comedy", Dante's summit creation, began to be born when the great poet had just experienced his exile from Florence. "Hell" was conceived around 1307 and was created during three years of wandering. This was followed by the composition of Purgatory, in which Beatrice took a special place (the entire creation of the poet is dedicated to her).

And in the last years of the creator's life, when Dante lived in Verona and Ravenna, "Paradise" was written. The plot basis of the vision poem was the afterlife journey - a favorite motif of medieval literature, which under Dante's pen received its artistic transformation.

Once the ancient Roman poet Virgil depicted the descent of the mythological third into the underworld, and now Dante takes the author of the famous "Aeneid" as his guide through hell and purgatory. The poem is called a "comedy", and unlike the tragedy, it begins anxious and gloomy, but ends with a happy ending.

In one of the songs of "Paradise" Dante called his creation "a sacred poem", and after the death of its author, descendants gave it the name "Divine Comedy".

We will not present the content of the poem in this article, but dwell on some features of its artistic originality and poetics.

It is written in terzines, that is, three-line stanzas, in which the first verse rhymes with the third, and the second with the first and third lines of the next terzina. The poet relies on Christian eschatology and the doctrine of hell and heaven, but with his creation he significantly enriches these ideas.

In collaboration with Virgil, Dante steps beyond the threshold of a deep abyss, above the gates of which he reads an ominous inscription: "Leave hope, everyone who enters here." But despite this gloomy warning, the satellites continue their march. They will soon be surrounded by crowds of shadows, which will be of particular interest to Dante, since they were once human. And for a creator born in a new time, man is the most fascinating object of cognition.

Having crossed the hellish river Acheron in the boat of Heron, the companions find themselves in Limbus, where the shadows of the great pagan poets rank Dante in their circle, declaring him sixth after Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid and Lucan.

One of the remarkable signs of the poetics of a great creation is the rare recreation of the artistic space, and within it, the poetic landscape, a component that did not exist in European literature before Dante. Under the pen of the creator of the "Divine Comedy", the forest, and the swampy steppe, and the icy lake, and steep rocks were recreated.

Dante's landscapes are characterized, firstly, by vivid depiction, secondly, penetrated with light, thirdly, their lyrical coloration, and fourthly, natural variability.

If we compare the description of the forest in "Hell" and "Purgatory", we will see how the terrible, frightening picture of it in the first songs is replaced by the image of a joyful, light, permeated with green trees and blue air. The landscape in the poem is extremely laconic: "The day was leaving, And the dark air of the sky / Terrestrial creatures led to sleep." It is very reminiscent of earthly pictures, which is facilitated by detailed comparisons:

As a peasant, resting on a hill, -
When it hides its gaze for a while
The one with whom the earthly country is illuminated,

and mosquitoes, replacing flies, circle, -
He sees the valley full of fireflies
Where he reaps, where he cuts grapes.

This landscape is usually inhabited by people, shadows, animals or insects, as in this example.

Another significant component for Dante is the portrait. Thanks to the portrait, people or their shadows turn out to be alive, colorful, vividly conveyed, full of drama. We see the faces and figures of giants sitting chained in stone wells, we look at the facial expressions, gestures and movements of former people who came to the afterlife from the ancient world; we contemplate both mythological characters and contemporaries of Dante from his native Florence.

The portraits sketched by the poet are distinguished by their plasticity, which means they are tactile. Here is one of the memorable images:

He took me to Minos, who, entwining
Tail eight times around the mighty back,
Even biting him out of anger,
Said ...

Spiritual movement, reflected in the self-portrait of Dante himself, is also distinguished by great expressiveness and life truth:

So I perked up, with the courage of grief;
Fear was resolutely crushed in my heart,
And I answered, boldly speaking ...

In the external appearance of Virgil and Beatrice there is less drama and dynamics, but Dante's attitude towards them is full of expression, who worships them and loves them passionately.

One of the features of the poetics of the "Divine Comedy" is the abundance and significance of numbers in it, which have a symbolic meaning. A symbol is a special kind of sign, which already in its external form contains the content of the representation it reveals. Like allegory and metaphor, the symbol forms the transfer of meaning, but unlike the named tropes, it is endowed with a huge variety of meanings.

The symbol, according to A.F. Losev, has a meaning not in itself, but as an arena for the meeting of known constructions of consciousness with one or another possible object of this consciousness. The same applies to the symbolism of numbers with their frequent repetition and variation. Researchers of the Middle Ages literature (S. S. Mokulsky, M. N. Golenishchev-Kutuzov, N. G. Elina, G. V. Stadnikov, O. I. Fetodov and others) noted the huge role of number as a measure of things in the Divine Comedy "Dante. This is especially true for the numbers 3 and 9 and their derivatives.

However, speaking about the indicated numbers, researchers usually see their meaning only in the composition, architectonics of the poem and its stanza (three cantikas, 33 songs in each part, 99 songs in total, threefold repetition of the word stelle, the role of xxx songs "Purgatory" as a story about meeting of the poet with Beatrice, three-line stanzas).

Meanwhile, the whole system of images of the poem, the narration and description of it, the disclosure of plot details and detailing, style and language are subordinated to mystical symbolism, in particular the trinity.

Trinity is revealed in the episode of Dante's ascent to the hill of salvation, where he is hindered by three beasts (a lynx is a symbol of voluptuousness; a lion is a symbol of power and pride; a she-wolf is the embodiment of greed and greed), when depicting the Limbo of Hell, where beings of three kinds (souls of the Old Testament righteous , the souls of infants who died without baptism, and the souls of all virtuous non-Christians).

Next, we see three famous Trojans (Electra, Hector and Aeneas), a three-headed monster - Cerberus (having the features of a demon, a dog and a man). Lower Hell, consisting of three circles, is inhabited by three furies (Tisiphona, Megera and Elekto), three sisters of the Gorgons. 3 here are shown three ledges - steps that appear three vices (anger, violence and deceit). The seventh circle is divided into three concentric belts: they are notable for the reproduction of three forms of violence.

In the next song, together with Dante, we notice how “three shadows suddenly separated”: these are three Florentine sinners who “ran all three in a ring,” finding themselves on fire. Further, the poets see three instigators of bloody strife, the three-body and three-headed Geryon and the three-pointed Lucifer, from whose mouth three traitors (Judas, Brutus and Cassius) stick out. Even individual objects in Dante's world contain the number 3.

So, in one of the three coats of arms - three black goats, in florins - mixed 3 carats of copper. Trinity is observed even in the syntax of the phrase ("Hecuba, in grief, in calamity, in captivity").

We see a similar trinity in Purgatory, where the angels have three lights each (wings, clothes and faces). It mentions three holy virtues (Faith, Hope, Love), three stars, three bas-reliefs, three artists (Franco, Cimabue and Giotto), three varieties of love, three eyes of Wisdom, which looks at the past, present and future with them.

A similar phenomenon is observed in "Paradise", where three virgins (Mary, Rachel and Beatrice) are sitting in the amphitheater, forming a geometric triangle. The second song tells about three blessed wives (including Lucia) and talks about three eternal creatures
(heaven, earth and angels).

It mentions three commanders of Rome, the victory of Scipio Africanus over Hannibal at the age of 33, the battle "three against three" (three Horatii against three Curiatii), it is said about the third (after Caesar) Caesar, about three angelic ranks, three lilies in the coat of arms of the French dynasty.

The named number becomes one of the complex definitions-adjectives ("triple" fruit "," triune God) is included in the structure of metaphors and comparisons.

What explains this trinity? First, the teaching of the Catholic Church about the existence of three forms of otherness (hell, purgatory and paradise). Secondly, the symbolization of the Trinity (with its three hypostases), the most important hour of Christian teaching. Thirdly, the impact of the chapter of the Knights Templar, where numerical symbolism was of paramount importance, affected. Fourthly, as the philosopher and mathematician PA Florensky showed in his works "The Pillar and Statement of Truth" and "Imagination in Geometry", the trinity is the most general characteristic of being.

The number "three", wrote the thinker. manifests itself everywhere as some kind of basic category of life and thinking. These are, for example, the three main categories of time (past, present and future) three-dimensionality of space, the presence of three grammatical persons, the minimum size of a complete family (father, mother and child), (thesis, antithesis and synthesis), three basic coordinates of the human psyche (mind , will and feelings), the simplest expression of asymmetry in integers (3 = 2 + 1).

In a person's life, there are three phases of development (childhood, adolescence and adolescence or youth, maturity and old age). Let us also recall the aesthetic law that prompts creators to create a triptych, trilogy, three portals in a Gothic cathedral (for example, Notre Dame in Paris), built three tiers on the facade (ibid.), Three parts of the arcade, divide the walls of the naves into three parts, etc. All this was taken into account by Dante, creating his own model of the universe in the poem.

But in the "Divine Comedy" subordination is found not only to the number 3, but also to the number 7, another magical symbol in Christianity. Recall that the duration of Dante's unusual wanderings is 7 days, they begin on the 7th and end on April 14 (14 = 7 + 7). Canto IV recalls Jacob, who served Laban for 7 years and then for another 7 years.

In the thirteenth song "Hell" Minos sends his soul to the "seventh abyss". The XIV song mentions 7 kings who besieged Thebes, and xx - Tirisey, who survived the transformation into a woman and then - after 7 years - the reverse metamorphosis from woman to man.

The week is reproduced most thoroughly in "Purgatory", where 7 circles ("seven kingdoms"), seven stripes are shown; it speaks of seven deadly sins (seven "R" on the forehead of the hero of the poem), seven choirs, seven sons and seven daughters of Niobe; the mystical procession with seven lamps is reproduced, 7 virtues are characterized.

And in "Paradise" the seventh radiance of the planet Saturn, the seven-word Ursa Major, is transmitted; it speaks of the seven heavens of the planets (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) in accordance with the cosmogonic concepts of the epoch.

This preference for the week is explained by the ideas prevailing in Dante's time about the presence of seven deadly sins (pride, envy, anger, despondency, avarice, gluttony and voluptuousness), about the pursuit of seven virtues, which are acquired through purification in the corresponding part of the afterlife.

The life observations of the seven colors of the rainbow and the seven stars of the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, seven days of the week, etc. also had an effect.

An important role was played by biblical stories related to the seven days of the creation of the world, Christian legends, for example, about seven sleeping youths, ancient stories about seven wonders of the world, seven wise men, seven cities arguing for the honor of being the homeland of Homer, about seven fighting against Thebes. Imagery had an impact on consciousness and thinking
ancient folklore, numerous tales about seven heroes, proverbs like "seven troubles - one answer", "seven are spacious, and two are cramped", sayings like "seven spans in the forehead", "seven miles of jelly slurp", "a book with seven seals "," Seven pots are gone. "

All this is reflected in literary works. For comparison, let's take a later example: playing around with the number "seven". In the "Legend of Ulenspiege" by C. de Coster and especially in the Nekrasov poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" (with her seven pilgrims,
seven owls, seven large trees, etc.). We find a similar influence on the magic and symbolism of the number 7 in the "Divine Comedy".

The number 9 also acquires symbolic meaning in the poem. After all, this is the number of celestial spheres. In addition, at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, there was a cult of the nine fearless: Hector, Caesar, Alexander, Joshua, David, Judas Maccabee, Arthur, Charlemagne and Gottfried of Bouillon.

It is no coincidence that there are 99 songs in the poem, before the top xxx song "Purgatory" - 63 songs (6 + 3 = 9), and after it 36 ​​songs (3 + 6 = 9). It is curious that the name of Beatrice is mentioned 63 times in the poem. The addition of these two numbers (6 + 3) also forms 9. And this special name rhymes - Beatrice - 9 times. It is noteworthy that V. Favorsky, creating a portrait of Dante, placed a huge number 9 above his manuscript, thus emphasizing its symbolic and magical role in New Life and Divine Comedy.

As a result, numerical symbolism helps to hold the frame of the "Divine Comedy" together with its multi-layered and populous nature.

It contributes to the birth of poetic "discipline" and harmony, forms a rigid "mathematical structure" saturated with the brightest imagery, ethical wealth and deep philosophical meaning.

Dante's immortal creation strikes with very often metaphors. Their abundance is closely related to the peculiarities of the poet's worldview and artistic thinking.

Starting from the concept of the Universe, which relied on the Ptolemy system, from Christian eschatology and ideas about hell, purgatory and paradise, confronting the tragic darkness and the bright light of the afterlife kingdoms, Dante had to widely and at the same time capaciously recreate worlds full of acute contradictions, contrasts and antinomies, containing a grandiose encyclopedia of knowledge, their comparisons, connections and their synthesis. Therefore, natural and logical in the poetics of "comedy" became the movement, transfer and convergence of compared objects and phenomena.

To solve the set tasks, a metaphor was best suited, combining the concreteness of reality and the poetic fantasy of a person, bringing together the phenomena of the cosmic world, nature, the objective world and the spiritual life of a person by similarity and kinship to each other. This is why the language of the poem is so powerfully based on metaphorization, conducive to the knowledge of life.

The metaphors in the text of the three cantiques are unusually diverse. Being poetic tropes, they often carry a significant philosophical meaning, such as, for example, "the hemisphere of darkness" And "enmity is vicious" (in "Hell"), "joy rings", "souls ascend" (in "Purgatory") or "the morning is on fire "And" the song rang "(in" Paradise "). These metaphors combine different semantic planes, but at the same time each of them creates a single indissoluble image.

Showing the journey beyond the grave as a plot often found in medieval literature, using theological dogma and colloquial style as necessary, Dante sometimes introduces commonly used linguistic metaphors into his text
("Heart warmed", "fixed eyes", "Mars is burning", "thirst to speak", "waves beat", "golden ray", "the day was leaving", etc.).

But much more often the author uses poetic metaphors, distinguished by their novelty and great expression, so essential in the poem. They reflect the variety of fresh impressions of the "first poet of the New Time" and are designed to awaken the recreational and creative imagination of readers.

These are the phrases “depth howls”, “crying hit me”, “a rumble burst in” (in “Hell”), “firmament rejoices”, “smile of rays” (in “Purgatory”), “I want to ask for light”, “labor of nature "(In" Paradise ").

True, sometimes we come across an amazing combination of old ideas and new views. In the neighborhood of two judgments (“art… God's grandson” and “art… follows nature-), we are faced with a paradoxical combination of the traditional reference to the Divine principle and the interweaving of truths, previously assimilated and newly acquired, characteristic of“ comedy ”.

But it is important to emphasize that the above metaphors are distinguished by their ability to enrich concepts, animate text, compare similar phenomena, transfer names by analogy, collide the direct and figurative meanings of the same word ("cry", "smile", "art"), identify the main, constant feature of the characterized object.

In Dante's metaphor, as in comparison, features are compared or contrasted ("overlap" and "pickets"), but comparative ligaments (conjunctions "like", "like", "as if") are absent in it. Instead of a two-term comparison, a single, tightly spliced ​​image appears (“the light is silent,” “screams fly up,” “a plea for the eyes,” “the sea is beating,” “come into my chest,” “the running of four circles”).

The metaphors found in the "Divine Comedy" can be conditionally divided into three main groups, depending on the nature of the relationship between cosmic and natural objects with living beings. The first group should include personifying metaphors, in which cosmic and natural phenomena, objects and abstract concepts are likened to the properties of animate beings.

Such are Dante's "a friendly spring ran", "earthly flesh called", "the sun will show", "vanity will reject", "the sun lights up. etc. The second group should include metaphors (for the author of the "comedy" these are "splashing hands", "build towers", "mountain shoulders", "Virgil is a bottomless spring", "beacon of love", "seal of embarrassment", "fetters evil ").

In these cases, the properties of living beings are likened to natural phenomena or objects. The third group is made up of metaphors that combine multidirectional comparisons ("face of truth", "words bring help", "light shone through," "wave of hair," "thought will sink," "evening has fallen," "the distance is on fire," etc.).

It is important for the reader to see that in the phrases of all groups there is often an author's assessment, which makes it possible to see Dante's attitude to the phenomena he captures. Everything that has to do with truth, freedom, honor, light, he certainly welcomes and approves ("taste the honor", "the brilliance has grown wonderfully", "the light of truth").

The metaphors of the author of "The Divine Comedy" convey various properties of the imprinted objects and phenomena: their shape ("a circle with the top lay down"), color ("accumulated color", "torments the black air"), sounds ("a rumble burst in", "a song will rise again" "The rays are silent") the arrangement of parts ("deep into my slumber", "the heel of the cliff") lighting ("the dawn has overcome", "the gaze of the luminaries", "the light rests on the firmament"), the action of an object or phenomena ("a lamp rises", " the mind soars "," the story flowed ").

Dante uses metaphors of different construction and composition: simple, consisting of one word ("petrified"); forming phrases (the one who moves the universe, "fallen fire from the clouds"): unfolded (metaphor of the forest in the first song of "Hell").

Dante created his main work for about fourteen years (1306-1321) and in accordance with the canons of ancient poetics called it "Comedy", as a work that begins sadly, but has a happy ending. The epithet "divine" appeared in the name later, it was introduced by Giovanni Boccaccio, one of the first biographers and interpreters of the work of his famous countryman.

The Divine Comedy tells about the journey of the lyrical hero, who reached the pinnacle of his life, to the afterlife. This is an allegorical story about the reappraisal of the values ​​of life by a man who has “passed through his earthly life to half”. The poet himself points out the allegorical nature of his work in the ninth song "Hell":

Oh you reasonable ones, see for yourself

And let everyone understand

Hidden under strange verses.

Allegory is an artistic technique built on the depiction of an abstract concept in the form of a specific object or phenomenon. So, for example, the gloomy forest in which the hero found himself is an allegorical representation of illusions, delusions and vices, from which he seeks to get out to the truth - "the hill of virtue."

The work consists of three parts: "Hell", "Purgatory" and "Paradise" - in accordance with the medieval Christian idea of ​​the structure of the afterlife. When reading the poem, one gets the impression that the entire structure of the universe is thought out to the smallest detail, and this is really so, it is no coincidence that the publications of the poem are usually accompanied by maps and diagrams of hell, purgatory and paradise.

The symbolism of numbers: three, nine and thirty-three is of great importance for Dante's "The Divine Comedy". The sacred number three corresponds to the Christian trinity, nine is three times three, and thirty-three is the number of years that Jesus Christ lived on earth. Each of the three parts - the cantic of the "Divine Comedy" consists of thirty-three canzone songs, in turn built of three-line stanzas - tertsin. Together with the introduction (the first song "Hell"), one hundred songs are obtained. Hell, Purgatory and Paradise each consist of nine circles, and together with the threshold and empyrean, thirty circles are obtained. The hero in his wanderings through the afterlife meets Beatrice exactly in the middle, that is, she finds herself in the center of the universe, personifying harmony and the path to enlightenment.

Choosing the hero's journey through the afterlife as a plot, Dante does not come up with something new, but turns to an old literary tradition. Suffice it to recall the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus's journey to Hades for his beloved Eurydice. The instructive story about travels to hell, describing the terrible torments of sinners, was also very popular in the Middle Ages.

Over the centuries, Dante's creation has attracted many creative personalities. The illustrations for the Divine Comedy were made by many outstanding artists, among them Sandro Botticelli, Salvador Dali and others.

The hero's journey begins with the fact that his soul goes to Hell, all nine circles of which he must pass in order to cleanse himself and approach Paradise. Dante gives a detailed description of the torment of each of the circles in which sinners are rewarded according to the sins committed. So, in the first five circles, those who sinned unknowingly or out of weakness of character are tormented, in the last four - true villains. In the very first circle - Limb, intended for those who did not know the true faith and baptism, Dante places poets, philosophers, heroes of antiquity - Homer, Socrates, Plato, Horace, Ovid, Hector, Aeneas and others. In the second circle, those who in life were moved only by pleasures and passions are punished. Helen of Troyanskaya, Paris, Cleopatra appear in it ... Here the hero meets the shadows of the unfortunate lovers Francesca and Paolo, his contemporaries. In the last, ninth circle - Giudecca - the most disgusting sinners - traitors and traitors - languish. In the middle of Giudecca is Lucifer himself, with his three terrible mouths gnawing at Judas and Caesar's killers - Cassius and Brutus.

The hero's guide to Hell is Dante's favorite poet, Virgil. First, he takes the hero out of the forest, and then saves him from three allegorically depicted vices - voluptuousness (lynx), pride (lion) and greed (she-wolf). Virgil leads the hero through all the circles of Hell and takes him to Purgatory - a place where souls receive cleansing from sins. Here Virgil disappears, and instead of him appears another guide - Beatrice. The ancient poet, allegorically representing the wisdom of the earth, cannot continue the path to the Christian paradise, he is replaced by the wisdom of heaven. The hero Beatrice, who has been cleansed of his sins, takes him to the "higher heights", to the abode of the blessed - Empyrean, where he opens the contemplation of the "heavenly Rose" - the highest wisdom and perfection.

Dante's Divine Comedy, especially the Paradise part, reflects the philosophy of the Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas, an older contemporary of the poet. The Divine Comedy has been translated into Russian many times. The very first translation was made at the beginning of the 19th century by P.A. Katenin, and one of the last - at the end of the 20th century, however, the translation by M.L. Lozinsky.

... "Divine Comedy" is the fruit of the entire second half of Dante's life and work. This work most fully reflected the poet's worldview. 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 features typical of the new bourgeois culture of the early.

Structure

The surprisingly consistent composition of The Divine Comedy reflects the rationalism of creativity that developed in the atmosphere of a new bourgeois culture.

The Divine Comedy is structured extremely symmetrically. It falls into three parts; each part consists of 33 songs, and ends with the word Stelle, that is, 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 by terzins - stanzas consisting of three lines. This tendency towards 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, the number 33 should remind of the years of earthly life, etc.

Plot

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

Dante describes with extreme accuracy the structure of the afterlife, with graphic certainty fixing all the details of its architectonics. In the introductory song, Dante tells how he, having reached the middle of his life, once got lost in a dense forest and, as the poet Virgil, having saved him from three wild animals blocking his path, invited Dante to travel through the afterlife. Upon learning that Virgil was sent to Beatrice, Dante surrenders himself 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 limb, 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 against the center of the earth) is filled with the souls of people who once indulged in unbridled passion. Among those worn by the wild whirlwind, Dante sees Francesca da Rimini and her beloved Paolo, who have fallen victim to the forbidden love for each other. As Dante, accompanied by Virgil, descends lower and lower, he becomes a witness of torment, forced to suffer from rain and hail, misers and profligates, tirelessly rolling huge stones, angry, bogged down in a swamp. They are followed by heresiarchs enveloped in eternal flame (among them the emperor, Pope Anastasius II), tyrants and murderers floating in streams of boiling blood, turned into plants, and rapists, burned by a falling flame, 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 whom the greatest are, and Cassius, who gnaws at them with his three mouths, once rebelled against, the king of evil, doomed to imprisonment in the center of the earth. The last song of the first part of the poem ends with a description of the terrible appearance of Lucifer.

Purgatory

After passing a 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. An angel guarding the entrance to purgatory lets Dante into the first circle of purgatory, having previously inscribed on his forehead with a sword seven P (Peccatum - sin), that is, the symbol of the seven deadly sins. 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 at 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 who atone for their sins. Here they are purified, forced to bend under the burden of weights pressing on their backs, careless ones, etc. Virgil brings Dante to the gates of paradise, where he, as he 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 prompts Dante to repentance, and then lifts him enlightened to heaven. The final part of the poem is devoted to Dante's wanderings in heavenly paradise. The latter consists of seven spheres encircling the earth and corresponding to the seven planets (according to the then widespread): spheres, etc., followed by spheres of fixed stars and a crystal one, - the empyrean is located behind the crystal sphere, - an endless region inhabited by blissful, contemplating God is the last sphere that gives life to all that exists. Flying through the spheres, the led, 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 participates in the highest grace, achieving communion with the Creator.

"Comedy" is Dante's last and most mature work. The poet did not realize, of course, that through his lips in “Comedy” “ten silent centuries” had spoken, that he summed 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 medieval poets, it rests on an allegorical core. So the dense forest, in which the poet got lost halfway through his 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 is, the spots on the skin of which should indicate the enmity of the parties and the Ghibellines. Leo - a symbol of brute physical strength -; a she-wolf, greedy and lustful - curia. These beasts threaten the national unity that Dante dreamed of, a unity held together by the rule of the feudal monarchy (some literary historians give a political interpretation to Dante's entire poem). The poet is saved from the beasts - the mind sent to the poet Beatrice (- by 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 brings eternal bliss.

The Divine Comedy is imbued with the author's political tendencies. Dante never misses an opportunity to reckon with his ideological, even personal enemies; he hates moneylenders, condemns credit as a "gain", condemns his age as a century of profit, etc. In his opinion, it is the source of all kinds of evil. He contrasts the dark present with the bright past, bourgeois Florence - feudal Florence, when simplicity of morals, moderation, knightly "vengeance" ("Paradise", Kacchagvida's story), feudal (cf. Dante's treatise "On Monarchy") reigned. The tercinas of Purgatory, accompanying the appearance of Sordello (Ahi serva Italia), sound like the real hosanna of Hibellinism. Dante treats the papacy as a principle with the greatest respect, although he hates individual representatives of it, especially those who contributed to the consolidation of the bourgeois system in Italy; Dante meets some popes in hell. His religion - 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 is an 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 by a pure platonic impulse (cf. "New Life", Dante's love for Beatrice). This is a great world force that "moves the sun and other luminaries." And humility is no longer an unconditional virtue. "Whoever does not renew his forces in glory with victory, will not taste the fruit he gained in the struggle." And the spirit of inquisitiveness, the desire to expand the circle of knowledge and acquaintance with the world, combined with "virtue" (virtute e conoscenza), encouraging heroic daring, is proclaimed an ideal.

Dante built his vision from pieces of real life. Separate corners of Italy went to the construction of the afterlife, which are placed in it with clear graphic contours. And in the poem there are so many living human images, so many typical figures, so many vivid psychological situations that literature continues to draw from them even now. People who are tormented in hell, repentant in purgatory (moreover, the volume and nature of sin corresponds to the volume and nature of the punishment), they are in bliss in paradise - all living people. In these hundreds of figures, no two are alike. In this huge gallery of historical figures there is not a single image that has not been cut by the poet's unmistakable plastic intuition. It is not for nothing that Florence experienced such a tense economic and cultural upsurge. That keen sense of landscape and man, which is shown in "Comedy" and which the world learned from Dante - was possible only in the social environment of Florence, far ahead of the rest of Europe. Individual episodes of the poem, such as Francesca and Paolo, Farinata in her red-hot grave, Ugolino with children, Capane and Ulysses, in no way similar to ancient images, Black Cherub with subtle devilish logic, Sordello on his stone, to this day produce strong impression.

The concept of Hell in The Divine Comedy

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

• 1st circle (Limb). Unbaptized babies and the virtuous.
• 2nd circle. Voluptuous (fornicators and adulterers).
• 3rd circle. , and gourmets.
• 4th circle. The misers and profligates.
• 5th circle (Stygian swamp). and.
• 6th circle. and false teachers.
• 7th circle.
  • 1st belt. Abusers over neighbor and over his property (and robbers).
  • 2nd belt. Abusers over themselves () and over their property (and motes).
  • 3rd belt. Abusers of a deity (), against nature () and art, ().
• 8th circle. Who deceived the distrustful. Consists of ten ditches (Zlopazuhi, or Evil Crevices).
  • 1st moat. Pimps and.
  • 2nd ditch. Flatterers.
  • 3rd moat. Holy merchants, high-ranking clergymen who traded in church positions.
  • 4th ditch. , stargazers,.
  • 5th ditch. Bribe-takers,.
  • 6th ditch. Hypocrites.
  • 7th ditch. ...
  • 8th ditch. Crafty advisors.
  • 9th ditch. Instigators of discord.
  • 10th ditch. , false witnesses, counterfeiters.
• 9th circle. Who deceived those who trusted.
  • Belt. Traitors to relatives.
  • Belt. Traitors and like-minded people.
  • Tolomey's belt. Traitors to friends and companions.
  • Giudecca Belt. Traitors to benefactors, majesty divine and human.

Building the 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 deception. Dante has 2-5th circles for the intemperate, 7th circle for rapists, 8-9th for deceivers (8th - just for deceivers, 9th - for traitors). Thus, the more material the sin is, the more forgivable it is.

The concept of Paradise in the "Divine Comedy"

• 1 sky() is the abode of those who keep duty.
• 2 sky() - the abode of reformers and innocent victims.
• 3 sky() is the abode of lovers.
• 4 sky() - the abode of sages and great scientists ().
• 5 sky() - the abode of the 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" Riphean)
• 7 sky() - the abode of theologians and monks (,).
• 8 sky(sphere of stars)
• 9 sky(Prime mover, crystal sky). Dante describes the structure of celestial inhabitants (see)
• 10 sky(Empyrean) - The Flaming Rose and the Radiant River (the heart of the rose and the arena of the celestial amphitheater) is the abode of the Divine. Blessed souls are seated 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). Maria (

Often, out of love, actions are performed that go beyond understanding. It is customary for poets, having experienced love, to devote their works to the object of feelings. But if this poet is still a person with a difficult fate and, at the same time, is not devoid of genius, there is a possibility that he is able to write one of the greatest works in the world. This was Dante Alighieri. His "Divine Comedy" - a masterpiece of world literature - continues to be of interest to the world after 700 years from the moment of its creation.

"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 body and soul among the cities and states of Italy, and the love of his life, Beatrice, had already fallen asleep for several years (1290), becoming a victim of a plague epidemic. Writing was a kind of consolation for Dante in his difficult life. It is unlikely that then he counted on world fame or memory in the 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. When viewed broadly, it is a poem. In a narrower sense, it is impossible to define its belonging to one of the varieties of this genre. The problem here is that there are no more such works in terms of content. It is impossible for him to come up with a name that would reflect the meaning of the text. Dante decided to call Giovanni Boccaccio a "comedy", following the logic of the Aristotelian doctrine of drama, where comedy was a work that began badly and ended well. The epithet "divine" was invented in the 16th century.

By direction - this is a classic work 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 sublimity and freedom of thought. All these features were characteristic of the Italian Renaissance poetry. It is they who form that unique style of Italian poetry of the 13th - 17th centuries.

Composition

When viewed as a whole, the basis 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 in which there can be no harmony, well, there are more inhabitants.

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, they are punished for the results of human intemperance:

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

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

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

In the eighth and ninth for a lie and all its derivatives. The worst fate awaits Dante's traitors. According to the logic of a modern, and then a person, the most serious sin is murder. But Aristotle probably believed that the desire to kill a person to control may not always be due to the bestial nature, while lying is an exclusively deliberate matter. Dante obviously followed the same concept.

In "Hell" all 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 in a non-Christian way.

Description of purgatory

Purgatory contains seven circles that correspond to seven sins. Their Catholic Church later called mortal sins (those that can be "forgiven"). Dante ranks them from hardest to most bearable. He did this because his path should be the path of ascent to Paradise.

Description of paradise

Paradise is performed in nine circles, named after the major planets of the solar system. Here are Christian martyrs, saints and scientists, participants in the crusades, monks, fathers of the Church, and, of course, Beatrice, who is not just anywhere, but in Empyrean - the ninth circle, which is presented in the form of a glowing rose, which can be interpreted as a place where God is. For all the Christian orthodoxy of the poem, Dante gives the circles of Paradise the names of the planets, which in their 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 a place for warriors for faith.

About what?

Giovanni Boccaccio, when writing a sonnet on behalf of Dante, dedicated to the purpose of the poem, said the following: "To entertain descendants and instruct in faith." This is really 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 she can entertain, as they say. Considering, for example, the fact that "Paradise" is the most unreadable part of the poem, since all the entertainment 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 Boccaccio said is entertaining may even rival the edification function in its importance. After all, the poet was certainly more a romantic than a satirist. He wrote about himself and for himself: everyone who prevented him from living was in hell, the poem was for his beloved, and Dante's companion and mentor, Virgil, was the favorite poet of the great Florentine (he knew his Aeneid by heart).

Dante's image

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". The narrator and the author have a lot in common. The "gloomy forest" in which the first found himself at the very beginning is the expulsion of the real Dante from Florence, a moment when he was really in disarray. And Virgil from the poem is the works of the Roman poet that existed for the exile in reality. As his poetry led Dante through difficulties here, so in the afterlife Virgil is his "teacher and beloved example." In the character system, the ancient Roman poet also personifies wisdom. The hero shows himself best in relation to sinners who personally offended him during his lifetime. To some of them, he even says in a poem that they deserve it.

Topics

• The main theme of the poem is love. The poets of the Renaissance began to raise the earthly woman to heaven, often calling them Madonna. Love, according to Dante, is the cause and the beginning of everything. She is an incentive for writing a poem, the reason for his journey 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 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 work can be safely called political. The poet always believed in the advantages of the emperor's power and wanted such power for his country. In total, his ideological enemies, as well as enemies of the empire, such as the assassins of Caesar, experience the most terrible suffering in hell.
• Strength of mind. Dante often falls into confusion, finding himself in the afterlife, but Virgil tells him not to do this, not stopping before any danger. However, even under unusual circumstances, the hero shows himself worthily. He cannot not be afraid at all, since he is a person, but even for a person his fear is insignificant, which is an example of an exemplary will. This will did not break either in the face of difficulties in the poet's real life, or in his book adventure.

Problematic

• Struggle 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 behave badly. The author, of course, cannot call himself a saint, but nevertheless he takes responsibility for distributing sinners in their places. The ideal in this matter for him is Christian teaching and his own views.
• Correlation between the earthly and the afterlife. Many of those who, according to Dante, or according to Christian law, lived unrighteously, but, for example, for their own pleasure and profit for themselves, 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 were famous for great and useful deeds. The concept of punishment and reward, developed by Christian theology, exists as a moral guideline for most people today.
• Death. When his beloved died, the poet was very grieving. His love was not destined to come true and receive embodiment on earth. "The Divine Comedy" is an attempt to reunite at least for a short time with a forever lost woman.

Meaning

"Divine Comedy" performs all the functions that the author laid down in this work. She is a moral and humanistic ideal for everyone. Reading "Comedy" evokes many emotions through which a person learns what is good and what is bad, and experiences a purification, the so-called "catharsis", as Aristotle dubbed this state of mind. Through suffering experienced in the process of reading the everyday description of hell, a person comprehends divine wisdom. As a result, he treats his actions and thoughts more responsibly, because the 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 educate the common people, popularizing and chewing on the content of Scripture. Dante's audience, of course, is more demanding, because it is literate, wealthy and perspicacious, but, nevertheless, it is not alien to sinfulness. Such people tended not to trust 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 sophistication. In this health-improving influence on those who are burdened with power and money, the main idea of ​​the work is expressed.

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 praised and shown in all their significance. "Divine Comedy" teaches a person to strive for a high destiny, which God has bestowed on him.

Features of the

"The Divine Comedy" has the most important aesthetic value because of the theme of human love, which has turned into a tragedy, and the rich artistic world of the poem. All of the above, together with a special poetic makeup and unprecedented functional diversity, make this work one of the most outstanding in world literature.

Interesting? Keep it on your wall!

He could not call his work a tragedy only because those, like all genres of "high literature", were written in Latin. Dante wrote it in his native Italian language. The Divine Comedy is the fruit of the entire second half of Dante's life and work. This work most fully reflected the poet's worldview. Dante appears here as the last great poet of the Middle Ages, a poet who continued the line of development of feudal literature.

Editions

Russian translations

• AS Norova, "An excerpt from the third song of the poem Hell" ("Son of the Fatherland", 1823, no. 30);
• F. Fan-Dim, "Inferno", translated from Italian (St. Petersburg, 1842-48; prose);
• DE Min "Inferno", translation of the size of the original (Moscow, 1856);
• DE Min, "The first song of Purgatory" ("Russian vest.", 1865, 9);
• V. A. Petrov, "The Divine Comedy" (translated with Italian tertsins, St. Petersburg, 1871, 3rd edition 1872; translated only "Hell");
• D. Minaev, "Divine Comedy" (Lpts. And St. Petersburg. 1874, 1875, 1876, 1879, translated not from the original, tertsin);
• PI Veinberg, "Hell", song 3, "Vestn. Heb. ", 1875, No. 5);
• Golovanov N. N., "The Divine Comedy" (1899-1902);
• M. L. Lozinsky, "The Divine Comedy" (, Stalin Prize);
• A. A. Ilyushin (created in the 1980s, first partial publication in 1988, full edition in 1995);
• V.S. Lemport, "The Divine Comedy" (1996-1997);
• V.G. Marantzman, (St. Petersburg, 2006).

Structure

The Divine Comedy is structured extremely symmetrically. It is divided into three parts: the first part ("Hell") consists of 34 songs, the second ("Purgatory") and the third ("Paradise") - 33 songs each. The first part consists of two introductory songs and 32, describing hell, since there can be no harmony in it. The poem is written in terzins - stanzas consisting of three lines. This tendency towards certain numbers is explained by the fact that Dante gave them a mystical interpretation - this is how the number 3 is associated with the Christian idea of ​​the Trinity, the number 33 should remind of the years of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, etc. In total, the "Divine Comedy" contains 100 songs (number 100 - a symbol of perfection).

Plot

Dante's meeting with Virgil and the beginning of their journey through the afterlife (medieval miniature)

According to Catholic tradition, the afterlife consists of hell where the condemned sinners go forever, purgatory- the abode of sinners who atone for their sins, and Raya- the abode of the blessed.

Dante details this representation and describes the structure of the afterlife, recording with graphic certainty all the details of its architectonics. In the introductory song, Dante tells how, having reached the middle of his life, he once got lost in a dense forest and, as the poet Virgil, having saved him from three wild animals blocking his path, invited Dante to travel through the afterlife. Upon learning that Virgil was sent to Beatrice, Dante's deceased beloved, he surrenders without trepidation to the leadership of the poet.

Hell

Hell looks like a colossal funnel, consisting of concentric circles, the narrow end of which rests on the center of the earth. Having passed the threshold of hell, inhabited by the souls of insignificant, indecisive people, they enter the first circle of hell, the so-called limb (A., IV, 25-151), where the souls of virtuous pagans who did not know the true God, but who approached this knowledge and for then delivered from hellish torments. Here Dante sees outstanding representatives of ancient culture - Aristotle, Euripides, Homer, etc. The next circle is filled with the souls of people who once indulged in unbridled passion. Among those worn by the wild whirlwind, Dante sees Francesca da Rimini and her beloved Paolo, who have fallen victim to the forbidden love for each other. As Dante, accompanied by Virgil, descends lower and lower, he becomes a witness to the torment of gluttons, forced to suffer from rain and hail, misers and profligates, tirelessly rolling huge stones, angry, bogged down in a swamp. They are followed by heretics and heresiarchs engulfed in eternal flame (among them Emperor Frederick II, Pope Anastasius II), tyrants and murderers floating in streams of boiling blood, suicides turned into plants, blasphemers and rapists burned by a falling flame, deceivers of all kinds, torment which are very diverse. Finally, Dante enters the last, 9th circle of hell, intended for the most terrible criminals. Here is the abode of traitors and traitors, among them the greatest - Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius - they are gnawed with his three mouths by Lucifer, an angel who once rebelled against God, the king of evil, doomed to imprisonment in the center of the earth. The last song of the first part of the poem ends with a description of the terrible appearance of Lucifer.

Purgatory

Purgatory

After passing a 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 - a purgatory, 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 inscribed on his forehead with a sword seven P (Peccatum - sin), that is, the symbol of the seven deadly sins. As Dante rises higher and higher, passing one circle after another, these letters disappear, so when Dante, having reached the top of the mountain, enters the "earthly paradise" located at 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 who atone for their sins. Here the proud are purified, forced to bend under the burden of weights pressing on their backs, envious, angry, careless, greedy, etc. Virgil brings Dante to the gates of paradise, where he, as he did not know baptism, has no access.

Paradise

In the earthly paradise, Virgil is replaced by Beatrice, seated on a chariot drawn by a vulture (an allegory of the triumphant church); she prompts Dante to repentance, and then lifts him, enlightened, to heaven. The final part of the poem is devoted to Dante's wanderings in heavenly paradise. The latter consists of seven spheres encircling the earth and corresponding to seven planets (according to the then widespread Ptolemaic system): the spheres of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, etc., followed by the spheres of fixed stars and a crystal one, - Empyreus is located behind the crystal sphere, - the infinite the area inhabited by the blessed, contemplating God, is the last sphere that gives life to all that exists. Flying through the spheres, led by Bernard, Dante sees the Emperor Justinian, introducing him to the history of the Roman Empire, teachers of faith, martyrs for the faith, whose shining souls form a glittering cross; Ascending higher and higher, Dante sees Christ and the Virgin Mary, angels and, finally, the “heavenly Rose” is revealed to him - the abode of the blessed. Here Dante participates in the highest grace, achieving communion with the Creator.

"Comedy" is Dante's last and most mature work.

Analysis of the work

In form, the poem is an afterlife vision, of which there were many in medieval literature. Like medieval poets, it rests on an allegorical core. So the dense forest, in which the poet got lost halfway through his earthly existence, is a symbol of life's complications. Three animals that attack him there: a lynx, a lion and a she-wolf - the three most powerful passions: sensuality, lust for power, greed. These allegories are also given a political interpretation: the lynx is Florence, the spots on the skin of which should indicate the enmity of the parties of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. Leo - a symbol of brute physical strength - France; the she-wolf, greedy and lustful, is the papal curia. These beasts threaten the national unity of Italy, which Dante dreamed of, a unity sealed by the rule of the feudal monarchy (some literary historians give a political interpretation to the whole of Dante's poem). Virgil saves the poet from the beasts - the mind sent to the poet Beatrice (theology - faith). Virgil leads Dante through hell into purgatory 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 brings eternal bliss.

The Divine Comedy is imbued with the author's political tendencies. Dante never misses an opportunity to reckon with his ideological, even personal enemies; he hates moneylenders, condemns credit as a "gain", condemns his age as an age of profit and love of money. In his opinion, money is the source of all kinds of evil. To the dark present, he opposes the bright past of bourgeois Florence - feudal Florence, when simplicity of morals, moderation, chivalrous "veneration" ("Paradise", the story of Cacchagvida), feudal empire (cf. Dante's treatise "On Monarchy") reigned. The tercinas of Purgatory, accompanying the appearance of Sordello (Ahi serva Italia), sound like the real hosanna of Hibellinism. Dante treats the papacy as a principle with the greatest respect, although he hates individual representatives of it, especially those who contributed to the consolidation of the bourgeois system in Italy; Dante meets some popes in hell. His religion is Catholicism, although a personal element is already woven into it, alien to the old orthodoxy, although mysticism and the Franciscan pantheistic religion of love, which are accepted with all passion, are also a sharp deviation from classical Catholicism. His philosophy is theology, his science is scholasticism, 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 by a pure platonic impulse (cf. "New Life", Dante's love for Beatrice). This is a great world force that "moves the sun and other luminaries." And humility is no longer an unconditional virtue. "Whoever does not renew his forces in glory with victory, will not taste the fruit he gained in the struggle." And the spirit of inquisitiveness, the desire to expand the circle of knowledge and acquaintance with the world, combined with "virtue" (virtute e conoscenza), encouraging heroic daring, is proclaimed an ideal.

Dante built his vision from pieces of real life. Separate corners of Italy went to the construction of the afterlife, which are placed in it with clear graphic contours. And in the poem there are so many living human images, so many typical figures, so many vivid psychological situations that literature continues to draw from them even now. People who are tormented in hell, repentant in purgatory (moreover, the volume and nature of sin corresponds to the volume and nature of the punishment), they are in bliss in paradise - all living people. In these hundreds of figures, no two are alike. In this huge gallery of historical figures there is not a single image that has not been cut by the poet's unmistakable plastic intuition. It is not for nothing that Florence experienced a period of such an intense economic and cultural upsurge. That keen sense of landscape and man, which is shown in "Comedy" and which the world learned from Dante - was possible only in the social environment of Florence, far ahead of the rest of Europe. Individual episodes of the poem, such as Francesca and Paolo, Farinata in her red-hot grave, Ugolino with children, Capanei and Ulysses, in no way similar to ancient images, Black Cherub with subtle devilish logic, Sordello on his stone, to this day produce strong impression.

The concept of Hell in The Divine Comedy

Dante and Virgil in Hell

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

• 1st circle (Limb). Unbaptized babies and virtuous non-Christians.
• 2nd circle. Voluptuous (fornicators and adulterers).
• 3rd circle. Gluttons, gluttons.
• 4th circle. Misers and profligates (love of overspending).
• 5th circle (Stygian swamp). Angry and lazy.
• 6th circle (city of Dit). Heretics and false teachers.
• 7th circle.
  • 1st belt. Abusers over neighbor and over his property (tyrants and robbers).
  • 2nd belt. Abusers over themselves (suicides) and over their property (players and motes, that is, senseless destroyers of their property).
  • 3rd belt. Abusers of a deity (blasphemers), against nature (sodomites) and art (covetousness).
• 8th circle. Who deceived the distrustful. Consists of ten ditches (Zlopazuhi, or Evil Crevices), which are separated from each other by shafts (rolls). Towards the center, the area of ​​Evil Crevices slopes, so that each next ditch and each next rampart are located slightly lower than the previous ones, and the outer, concave slope of each ditch is higher than the inner, curved slope ( Hell , Xxiv, 37-40). The first shaft adjoins the circular wall. In the center is the depth of a wide and dark well, at the bottom of which lies the last, ninth, circle of Hell. From the foot of the stone heights (v. 16), that is, from the circular wall, to this well go with radii, like the spokes of a wheel, stone ridges, crossing ditches and ramparts, and above the ditches they bend in the form of bridges, or arches. In the Evil Crevices, deceivers are punished who deceived people who are not associated with special bonds of trust.
  • 1st moat. Pimps and seducers.
  • 2nd ditch. Flatterers.
  • 3rd moat. Holy merchants, high-ranking clergymen who traded in church positions.
  • 4th ditch. Soothsayers, fortunetellers, astrologers, sorceresses.
  • 5th ditch. Bribe-takers, bribe-takers.
  • 6th ditch. Hypocrites.
  • 7th ditch. The thieves .
  • 8th ditch. Crafty advisors.
  • 9th ditch. Instigators of discord (Mohammed, Ali, Dolchino and others).
  • 10th ditch. Alchemists, false witnesses, counterfeiters.
• 9th circle. Who deceived those who trusted. Ice Lake Cocytus.
  • Cain's Belt. Traitors to relatives.
  • Antenor's Belt. Traitors to the homeland and like-minded people.
  • Tolomey's belt. Traitors to friends and companions.
  • Giudecca Belt. Traitors to benefactors, majesty divine and human.
  • In the middle, in the center of the universe, frozen into an ice floe (Lucifer) torments traitors to the majesty of the earth and heaven (Judas, Brutus and Cassius) in his three mouths.

Building a model of Hell ( Hell , XI, 16-66), Dante follows Aristotle, who in his Ethics (Book VII, Ch. I) refers to the 1st category the sins of incontinence (incontinenza), to the 2nd - the sins of violence ("violent bestiality "or matta bestialitade), to 3 - sins of deception (" malice "or malizia). Dante has 2-5th circles for the intemperate, 7th circle for rapists, 8-9th for deceivers (8th - just for deceivers, 9th - for traitors). Thus, the more material the sin is, the more forgivable it is.

Heretics - apostates from the faith and deniers of God - are singled out separately from the crowd of sinners filling the upper and lower circles, in the sixth circle. In the abyss of the lower Hell (A., VIII, 75), with three ledges, like three steps, there are three circles - from the seventh to the ninth. In these circles, malice is punished, wielding either force (violence) or deceit.

The concept of Purgatory in The Divine Comedy

Three holy virtues - the so-called "theological" - faith, hope and love. The rest are four "basic" or "natural" (see note. Ch., I, 23-27).

Dante depicts him as a huge mountain, towering in the southern hemisphere in the middle of the Ocean. It looks like a truncated cone. The coastal strip and the lower part of the mountain form the Precleaner, and the upper one is surrounded by seven ledges (seven circles of the Purgatory proper). On the flat top of Mount Dante places the desolate forest of Earthly Paradise.

Virgil expounds the doctrine of love as the source of all good and evil and explains the gradation of the circles of Purgatory: circles I, II, III - love for "someone else's evil", that is, ill will (pride, envy, anger); circle IV - insufficient love for true good (despondency); circles V, VI, VII - excessive love for false goods (greed, gluttony, voluptuousness). The circles correspond to the biblical deadly sins.

• Precleaner
  • The foot of Mount Purgatory. Here the newly arrived souls of the dead await access to Purgatory. Those who died under church excommunication, but repented of their sins before death, are waiting for a period thirty times longer than the time that they spent in "conflict with the church."
  • First ledge. They were negligent, slow to repentance until the hour of death.
  • Second ledge. The negligent, who died a violent death.
• Valley of Earth Lords (does not apply to Purgatory)
• 1st circle. Proud.
• 2nd circle. Envious people.
• 3rd circle. Angry.
• 4th circle. Sad.
• 5th circle. The misers and profligates.
• 6th circle. Gluttons.
• 7th circle. Voluptuous.
• Earthly paradise.

The concept of Paradise in the "Divine Comedy"

(in brackets - examples of personalities given by Dante)

• 1 sky(Moon) - the abode of those who keep duty (Jephthah, Agamemnon, Constance of Norman).
• 2 sky(Mercury) is the abode of the reformers (Justinian) and the innocent victims (Iphigenia).
• 3 sky(Venus) is the abode of lovers (Karl Martell, Kunitza, Folco of Marseilles, Dido, "Rodopeian", Rahab).
• 4 sky(Sun) is the abode of sages and great scientists. They form two circles ("round dance").
  • 1st circle: Thomas Aquinas, Albert von Bolstedt, Francesco Graziano, Peter of Lombard, Dionysius the Areopagite, Paul Orosius, Boethius, Isidore of Seville, Bede the Venerable, Ricard, Seager of Brabant.
  • 2nd circle: Bonaventure, Franciscans Augustine and the Illuminati, Gugon, Peter the Eater, Peter the Spanish, John Chrysostom, Anselm, Aelius Donat, Raban Mavr, Joachim.
• 5 sky(Mars) is the abode of warriors for faith (Joshua, Judas Maccabee, Roland, Gottfried of Bouillon, Robert Guiscard).
• 6 sky(Jupiter) - the abode of just rulers (biblical kings David and Hezekiah, emperor Trajan, king Guglielmo II the Good and the hero of the Aeneid Riphean).
• 7 sky(Saturn) - the abode of theologians and monks (Benedict of Nursia, Peter Damiani).
• 8 sky(sphere of stars).
• 9 sky(Prime mover, crystal sky). Dante describes the structure of celestial inhabitants (see Ranks of Angels).
• 10 sky(Empyrean) - The Flaming Rose and the Radiant River (the heart of the rose and the arena of the celestial amphitheater) is the abode of the Divine. Blessed souls are seated 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). Mary (Mother of God) is at the head, under her are Adam and Peter, Moses, Rachel and Beatrice, Sarah, Rebekah, Judith, Ruth, etc. Sitting opposite John, under him are Lucia, Francis, Benedict, Augustine and others.

Scientific points, misconceptions and comments

• Hell , XI, 113-114. The constellation of Pisces rose above the horizon, and Woz(constellation Ursa Major) leaned towards the northwest(Kavr; lat. Caurus- the name of the northwest wind). This means that there are two hours before sunrise.
• Hell , XXIX, 9. That their path is twenty-two circuit miles.(about the inhabitants of the tenth ditch of the eighth circle) - judging by the medieval approximation of Pi, the diameter of the last circle of Hell is 7 miles.
• Hell , XXX, 74. Baptist etched alloy- Florentine gold coin, florin (fiormo). On its obverse was depicted the patron saint of the city - John the Baptist, and on the reverse - the Florentine coat of arms, lily (fiore is a flower, hence the name of the coin).
• Hell , XXXIV, 139. The word "luminaries" (stelle - stars) ends each of the three cants of the "Divine Comedy".
• Purgatory , I, 19-21. Love beacon, beautiful planet- that is, Venus, eclipsing with its brightness the constellation of Pisces, in which she was.
• Purgatory , I, 22. To the spine- that is, to the celestial pole, in this case the south.
• Purgatory , I, 30. Chariot- Ursa Major, hidden behind the horizon.
• Purgatory , II, 1-3. According to Dante, the Mount of Purgatory and Jerusalem are located at opposite ends of the earth's diameter, so they have a common horizon. In the northern hemisphere, the top of the celestial meridian ("half-day circle") that crosses this horizon falls above Jerusalem. At the hour described, the sun, visible in Jerusalem, was declining in order to soon appear in the sky of Purgatory.
• Purgatory , II, 4-6. And the night ...- According to medieval geography, Jerusalem lies in the very middle of the land, located in the northern hemisphere between the Arctic Circle and the equator and extending from west to east for only longitudes. The remaining three quarters of the globe are covered by the waters of the Ocean. Equally distant from Jerusalem are: in the extreme east - the mouth of the Ganges, in the extreme west - the Pillars of Hercules, Spain and Morocco. When the sun sets in Jerusalem, night approaches from the direction of the Ganges. During the season described, that is, at the time of the vernal equinox, the night holds the scales in its hands, that is, it is in the constellation Libra, opposing the Sun, which is in the constellation Aries. In autumn, when she "overcomes" the day and becomes longer than he, she will leave the constellation Libra, that is, "drop" them.
• Purgatory , III, 37. Quia- Latin word meaning "because", and in the Middle Ages also used in the sense of quod ("what"). Scholastic science, following Aristotle, distinguished two kinds of knowledge: scire quia- knowledge of the existing - and scire propter quid- knowledge of the causes of the existing. Virgil advises people to be content with the first kind of knowledge, without delving into the reasons for what is.
• Purgatory , IV, 71-72. The road where the unlucky Phaethon ruled- the zodiac.
• Purgatory , XXIII, 32-33. Who is looking for "omo" ...- it was believed that in the features of a human face you can read "Homo Dei" ("Man of God"), and the eyes depict two "O", and the eyebrows and nose - the letter M.
• Purgatory , XXVIII, 97-108. According to Aristotle's physics, atmospheric precipitation is generated by "wet vapor", and wind is generated by "dry vapor". Matelda explains that only below the level of the gates of Purgatory are such troubles observed, generated by the steam, which “following the heat,” that is, under the influence of solar heat, rises from the water and from the earth; at the height of the Earthly Paradise there remains only a uniform wind caused by the rotation of the first firmament.
• Purgatory , XXVIII, 82-83. Twelve venerable elders- twenty-four books of the Old Testament.
• Purgatory , XXXIII, 43. Five hundred fifteen- the mysterious designation of the coming savior of the church and restorer of the empire, who will exterminate the "thief" (the harlot of Song XXXII, who has taken someone else's place) and the "giant" (the French king). The numbers DXV form, when the signs are rearranged, the word DVX (leader), and the oldest commentators interpret it this way.
• Purgatory , XXXIII, 139. The account is laid from the beginning- In the construction of the "Divine Comedy" Dante observes strict symmetry. Each of its three parts (kantik) contains 33 songs; In addition, "Hell" contains one more song, which serves as an introduction to the whole poem. The volume of each of the hundred songs is approximately the same.
• Paradise , XIII, 51. And there is no other center in the circle- there can be no two opinions, just as in a circle only one center is possible.
• Paradise , XIV, 102. The sacred sign was composed of two rays, which is hidden in the boundaries of the quadrants- the segments of the contiguous quadrants (quarters) of the circle form the sign of the cross.
• Paradise , Xviii, 113. In Liley M- Gothic M resembles a fleur-de-lis.
• Paradise , XXV, 101-102: If Cancer has a similar pearl ...- FROM