Extra Reading Diary: Dantes Inferno

Dante's Inferno Part A:

(Image by: William Blake)

The circles of Hell:

1. Limbo
2. Lust
3. Gluttony
4. Greed
5. Anger
6. Heresy
7. Violence
8. Fraud
9. Treachery

Themes: 

• Hell (obviously)
• Curiosity, wisdom, desire to learn
• Punishments of sinner
• Christianity
• The fall of Lucifer

Dante and Virgil

• "In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself, in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost. It is a hard thing to speak of, how wild, harsh and impenetrable that wood was, so that thinking of it recreates the fear. "
• Lost in a forest, seems depressed
• Leopard appears--symbolism?
• Virgil appears (Virgil wrote the Aeneid)
• The poet, Dante, makes his literary idol, Virgil
• Virgil offers to guide him through Hell
• Dante as a student, Virgil is his teacher

The Gate of Hell and Charon

• The gates of Hell have a long incription, including the famous line, "Forsake all hope, all you that enter here."
• "Here, all uncertainty must be left behind; all cowardice must be dead."
• Atmosphere dark, forbodding, depressing. 
• Anger, sadness
• Angels who were cast from heaven are here

Limbo

• "Charon, the demon, with eyes of burning coal, beckoning, gathers them all and strikes with his oar whoever lingers."
• Charon, ferryman of the Archeon
• Unbaptised here, the "heathens"
• Souls at the shore of the Archeon

Poets and Philosophers

• Dante laments the poets that are here
• Poets, heroes, heroines, and philosophers
• Enters a castle
• Famous figures: Socrates and Plato (philosophers)
• Cicero (a Roman politician, scholar, and writer)
• Saladin (sultan of Egypt, considered a hero)

Paolo and Francesca

• "While the one spirit spoke, the other wept, so that I fainted out of pity, and, as if I were dying, fell, as a dead body falls."
• Storms that won't stop
• The "carnal sinners"
• Talks to the spirits
• Paolo and Francesca (adultry)
• Francesca was married to Paolo's brother. Her husband murdered both of them.   

Cerberus and Plutus

• "'Papé Satàn, papé Satàn aleppe,' Plutus, began to croak..." (A line that's meaning is still not clear.
• Cereberus, gluttonous
• Plutus, avarice
• Heretics
• The heretics figth eachother for eternity

Fortune and Phylegyas

• Lady fortune. She seems more of a positive figure than anything else that Dante has encountered. What is she doing in Hell?
• Styx

The Fallen Angels

• City of Dis, favorite place!
• A"joyless city"
• Angels falling from then enterence

Furies and the Heretics

• Medusa
• Dante enters Dis