We'll see how we use this, but it can at least give us the chance to chat when we want. I think I could also add things that interested students could look into.
Let's look at some web resources first.
Princeton Dante Project
Digital Dante at Columbia
Dante Translations and Images
Dante on the Web
Dante in New Advent (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Dante in Wikipedia
Dante in Popular Culture (Wikipedia)
Maps and Images
12 comments:
this guy lived a freaking full life. always a battle or some political machinations. but he doesn't come off as that political in the Commedia. even though there are a couple prophecies, he seems like he doesn't really think it's that important, at least relative to spiritual and religious matters.
i'm also intrigued by the fact that he's so full of pity and affection for the sodomites--at least in comparison with his contempt for the wrathful Filippo Argenti. I'm glad he isn't hateful towards them, but why, when sodomy is a worse sin, farther down on the ladder. shouldn't he be getting less compassionate?
I'm wondering what the "Transfers" between the levels in hell look like or what happens. I'm also confused if you can reach the edge of a level and see all the way down to the devil...or if it's spiraling at a slant... And with that said--how can he see a long distance if these levels aren't laid out flat?
I'm having the same problem as Sean. I can't figure out how their moving down. Virgil briefly mentions in one of the Cantos that they only ever walk to the left.. however I'm still confused.
I thought it could have looked like a multi-layered cake encased in a corkscrew type thing, but that doesn't explain how they can look down and see the devil. Maybe there are holes in the middle. In that case i suppose they would be donuts encased in a corkscrew/drill.
I've never thought about them seeing Satan, because I imagine the landscape being very dark and dreary. I think that as they are spiraling down, the land is getting more arid, and the sky is just bleak. This meaning, they cannot see anyone below them.
Sofia, I would recommend going to the Princeton site and reading the lecture about the moral situation of th reader of Inferno. He has some interesting ideas about Dante's sympathy towards some of the shades he sees.
One thing we should keep in mind is that hell doesn't have to obey the laws of nature. I think that its safe to assume that distance, time and stuff like that are all void. So discussing things like line of sight is kind of useless.
I have always imagined Inferno as a rocky, mountainous landscape where Virgil and Dante come across new levels when they climb down.
It could be that sodomy offends god more than being wrathful, but could be viewed more compassionately by Dante because it affects less people than being wrathful. Sodomy is between you god, and whomever else, but wrath is directed towards everyone.
Where would the incontinently fraudulent souls go, such as: kleptomaniacs and pathological liars?
I've been thinking about this for a couple days now.
I think that the incontinently fradulant might fit well into any of the first Five levels (Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greedy/Wasteful, Wrathful/Sullen) depending on thei specific ailment.
Kleptomaniacs, for example, could be either Avaricious or Wrathful (or both), of course your example of pathological liars still eludes an answer.
Maybe as another part of the levels of incontinent is that it doesn't affect others, only yourself. I think with things like this its important to realize that Dante didn't necesairly say anything about those levels belonging to the incontinent, that was somebody's interpretation.
It might also be that when Dante wrote this there wasn't enough of an understanding of psychological issue to recognize that people might not mean to do the things that they do.
I thought about that part about psychological disorders and I'm pretty sure that is why they are not included in the Inferno; but he does directly mention incontinence in canto XI lines 83-84. It is only a translation but the gist is still there.
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