Dantes Inferno Intro Power Point Essay

The Divine Comedy

A Classical Quest through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise

Paradis o Dante’s
Structure:
The Quest
For
Salvation
Inferno

Purgatori o DANTE ALIGHIERI
 Born in Florence, May,

1265.
 His family was old and of noble origin, but no longer wealthy.
 He probably spent a year at the University of Bologna as part of his education, studying the Trivium and the
Quadrivium, typical of
Medival curriculum.

BEATRICE
As customary, Dante

had an arranged marriage in his youth to Gemma Donati, daughter of Manetto
Donati.

Dante met Beatrice

when he was nine and she eight, at his father’s home, most likely for a May Day festival. But Dante’s greatest

love, and the greatest single influence on his work, was a woman named Beatrice.

Beatrice married

another man about
1287, and died in
1290 at the age of
25.

BEATRICE
•Beatrice was Dante’s angel.

He could not touch her, because this was the age of
Courtly love.
•Dante’s life and work were

dedicated to her.
•Dante’s muse and

inspiration— the female aspect behind the genius. •She is the divine light of

DANTE’S MEDIEVAL WORLD
 Dante’s world was

threefold:
 The world of politics
 The world of theology
 The world of learning
 His Comedy utilizes all

three; these areas are interdependent, so that it is impossible to say that one was more important than the other. The Middle Ages was

dominated by the struggle between the
PAPACY
and the
EMPIRE.

Both thought that they

were of divine origin and indispensable to the welfare of mankind. THE PAPACY
The Vatican
Rome, Italy

One of the few remaining city-states in the world.

CONSTANTINE I

WHERE CHURCH AND STATE
WERE FIRST IN CONFLICT.

THE
EMPIRE

CAUSE OF THE STRUGGLE
BETWEEN THE PAPACY AND THE
EMPIRE
In the 8th Century the Papal

claim to temporal power was justified by the
“DONATION OF CONSTANTINE” which stated that the emperor, had given power of the empire to the Pope before leaving for
Byzantium.

Later this was discovered to be a

FORGED DOCUMENT!

This claim created great

strife and discord in the empire. Nothing new between

politics and religion . . .

THE IMPORTANCE OF VIRGIL
•

In the Middle Ages Virgil was regarded as a sage and necromancer. •

His poems were opened in a manner of divination called Sortes.

•

The book was opened at random and a verse was selected as an answer to some question.

Does this sound kind of like a Quija
Board?

VIRGIL 70 B.C.E. 19 B.C.E
 He was the greatest

of the Roman poets.
 His Aeneid provided the pattern for the structure of Dante’s
Hell.
 Virgil was chosen as
Dante’s guide through Hell, because Dante saw him as his master and inspiration for his poetic style.

 Virgil is also revered

as the poet of the
Roman Empire.
 The Aeneid tells of the
Empire’s founding.
 Virgil also wrote in his fourth ecologue of the coming of a Wonder
Child who will bring the Golden Age.
 This was interpreted in the Middle Ages as the coming of Christ.

STRUCTURE OF
THE DIVINE COMEDY
 DANTE’S NUMERICAL

 DANTE’S WORLD WAS ONE

THAT BELIEVED IN
MYSTICAL

SYMBOLISM:
 3 A SYMBOL OF THE HOLY

TRINITY

CORRESPONDENCES AND

 9 THREE TIMES THREE.

THE POWER OF NUMBERS,

 33 A MULTIPLE OF 3

STARS, AND STONES

 THE 7 DAYS OF CREATION
 10 CONSIDERED IN THE

 EVENTS OF HISTORY—

CONTAINED A MYSTICAL
SIGNIFICANCE.

MEDIEVAL PERIOD A
PERFECT NUMBER
 100, THE MULTIPLE OF 10.

THREE SECTIONS OF THE DIVINE COMEDY
INFERNO, PURGATORIO, AND PARADISO
3 was a holy number to Dante
— suggesting the
Holy Trinity.

STRUCTURE OF
THE DIVINE COMEDY
 Three major divisions of sin:

 Each section has 33 cantos



Incontinence

(small division of poetry;



Violence

canto means “song.”)



Fraudulence

 The Inferno includes an

 By the time you finish

introductory canto, which

reading, you will know

makes 100 cantos total

which circle of hell you may

(1oo representing the idea

find yourself in!

of perfection or spiritual enlightenment achieved after the journey).



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