Council of Constantinople (381)
The Nicene Creed
St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
Selections
From Confessions
From The City of
God
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Short Biography
From Summa
Theologica
Anthony Kenny on Medieval Philosophy Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
The Divine Comedy, Inferno
Canto
I, in Italian
Canto
III
Canto V
Gustave Doré Gallery (from The World of Dante)
Dante (1265-1321)
— Born and raised in Florence
¡ Importance: huge influence on him; both loved and despised it
— Politically active: member of city council, papal envoy
¡ Caught-up in major conflict of time: power of church vs. independence of city states
— Factions: Guelphs and Ghibellines
¡ Guelphs: supported pope
¡ Ghibellines: supported Holy Roman Emperor
— Dante allied with Guelphs
¡ In Monarchia (1318) he argued for the separation of ecclesiastical and secular rule
— Guelphs came to power then split:
¡ White: opposed the pope (Boniface VIII)
¡ Black: supported pope
— Dante aligned with White Guelphs
— 1301: Black Guelphs invaded Florence and took over
¡ Dante was in Rome on a diplomatic mission
— 1302: Dante and others tried and convicted on political charges
¡ Exiled, sentenced to burning at stake if ever entered Florence again
— Black Guelphs led by Donatis: his wife Gemma’s family
¡ She and their four children remained in Florence
— Spent next 20 years in exile
¡ Never returned to Florence
¡ Sentence only lifted by Florence’s city council in 2008
Inferno – Background
— Combination of literary, religious, political themes
— Though religious, it is more of a literary work
¡ Based more on Aristotle/other philosophers than Christianity
— Combining of imaginary with real-life details
— Many mythological, literary, historical references:
¡ Homer, popes, The Aeneid, people Dante knew
— Form:
¡ In vernacular Italian
¡ Terza rima (three-line rhyme scheme): aba bcb cdc
¡ Dante the first to use it
— Poem about symbolic retribution
¡ Punishment for sins that fit the sins
— All people in Hell choose to be there
— Dante is 35 in the poem
¡ Age when most men start to think about serious matters like those in the poem
— Dynamic protagonist
¡ Dante the character/pilgrim is not Dante the character/poet
÷ Both of these are creations of the historical Dante
¡ Palatable didacticism: don’t mind Dante’s preaching, teaching, attitude, or his histrionics
— The Divine Comedy overall:
¡ Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso
¡ Allegory of way to God/salvation
¡ Or, the way of the artist, role of the artist
¡ Or, the way of the individual soul
— Structure
— Comedy vs. tragedy:
¡ Narrative
¡ Style
¡ Character
¡ Subject matter
Canto I
— Poem takes place Easter weekend, 1300
— Dante is lost in wood of worldliness/error
— Universal journey toward holiness/spirituality
¡ Heaven is the joys of this world refined in the next
— Path blocked by three beasts:
¡ She-Wolf of Incontinence
÷ Not in control of appetites; what we do to ourselves
¡ Lion of Violence and Ambition
÷ Violence often accompanies ambition
¡ Leopard of Malice and Fraud
÷ When you hurt someone else
— Sins of fraud destroy fabric of society
— Blocked trying to go up Mount of Joy
¡ Must make his way through Hell and Purgatory first
¡ Why?
¡ Have to understand to reject
— No short way to Heaven
— Pilgrim must descend before he can ascend
— Have to know who he is before he can improve himself
— Canto 1 sets-up allegory for entire Comedy
— Virgil as character:
¡ Pre-Christian contrasted with Dante as Christian
¡ Represents human reason
¡ Sent by Beatrice, who represents blessed love, salvation
÷ She becomes Pilgrim’s guide through Paradise
— Beatrice Portinari (1266-1290)
¡ “the glorious lady of my mind”
¡ Inspiration for Dante’s Vita Nuova
¡ Met her twice, nine years apart
¡ Dolce Stil Novo: “sweet new style”
÷ Examination of inner world brought about by divine female beauty
÷ Courtly love tradition: nobly, chivalrously express love
— Male poet adores female in secret who is not his wife
Canto II
— Dante is worthy of trip because he has turned away from True Way
— Connects to Aeneas and Paul
— “I am not Aeneas, I am not
Paul.”
Canto III
— Vestibule of Hell: The Opportunists
¡ Did not make choices
— Those in Hell, by their life’s choices, have chosen to be there
— Punishments:
¡ Contrapasso
¡ Punishment resembles or contrasts with sin
¡ Capaneus says, “”What I once was, alive, I still am, dead” (XIV.51).
— Circle 1: Limbo
The virtuous pagans
— Dante walks with great poets
¡ Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan
¡ Remember: Dante the protagonist is a fictional creation
— Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, Rachel
— Aristotle, Plato, Caesar, Hector, Aeneas
— Aristotle’s Ethics forms much of the poem from here
¡ Self-indulgent sins
¡ Violent sins
¡ Malicious sins
Circle 2: The Carnel
— Forever whirled in a dark, stormy wind
— Helen and Paris
— Achilles
— Tristan and Isolde
— Dido
— Paolo and Francesca
Circle 3: The Gluttons
— Mired in rain and muck
— Cerberus: three-headed dog
¡ Guards the gluttons
— Ciacco, the Hog
¡ Makes political prophecy concerning future of Florence
¡ First of many prophecies in Inferno
— Dead in Hell know the future but not present
Circle 4: Hoarders and Wasters
— Miserly and prodigal
— Angry, clashing; pushing weights against each other
— Symbolic retribution: punishment fits sin
Circle 5: The Wrathful/Sullen and Slothful
— Mired in swamp of River Styx
— Wrathful: actively or vindictive
— Sullen = self-pity; wrath turned inward
¡ Don’t accept God’s gifts
— Slothful:
¡ Don’t use God’s gifts
Circle 6: Heretics
— Gates of Dis: Fallen Angels
¡ Essence of evil
¡ Modern essence of evil: banal, mundane, ordinary
¡ Human reason cannot deal with essence of evil
÷ Why Virgil cannot deal with Fallen Angels
÷ Divine aid needed to dispel essence of evil
— Dante not meant to look at some things
¡ Medusa is symbol of what he is not supposed to see
— Farther you fall, farther you go into evil
— Cemetery of burning tombs: heretics
— Heretics deny god by denying immortality of soul
— Epicureans
¡ Attacked superstition and divine intervention
¡ Believed in pleasure as greatest good—but with limits
— Circle
7: Violence
Lower Hell: sins of malice
¡ Aim is to injure others
— Minotaur: presides over this circle
— Violent against nature, art, themselves, neighbors
— River Phlegethon: river of burning blood
¡ Those violent against their neighbors: Alexander, Attila
— Wood of Suicides:
¡ Threw away own form so given plant form
¡ Leaves eaten by Harpies
¡ Can only speak when spilling their life’s blood
¡ Pier delle Vigne:
÷ Accused of lese-majeste: “violating majesty” or “injured sovereignty”
¢ Offense against a sovereign or state
÷ Imprisoned and committed suicide
— Plain of Burning Sand: wasteland image
¡ Sodomites and Blasphemers
— Old Man of Crete
¡ Tears are source of all rivers in Hell
¡ Big symbol
¡ Describes different ages of time: pessimistic
— More political prophecies
¡ Inferno is literary, social, political, religious statement
— Geryon:
¡ Body of serpent and face of guiltless, guileless man
¡ Perfect representation of Fraud
Circle 8: Panderers
— Pimps: those who sell other people
¡ Goaded by demons as they goaded others
— Seducers: get people to follow them when it isn’t good for them
¡ Jason: Seduced and abandoned Hypsipyle and Medea
— Flatterers: politicians, “yes men”
— Simoniacs: sold church favors
¡ Like televangelists: people will believe anything
¡ Pope Nicholas III: know for his nepotism as pope
— Fortune tellers and diviners
— While going down into Hell, going up to Purgatory
— Increasingly dealing with sins philosophy can’t fully understand
— Grafters: demons are here
¡ Malebranche: “evil claws”
¡ Using political power for personal gain
¡ One time Dante is in real danger:
÷ Grafting was the false charged leveled at him
— Hypocrites
¡ People who look good, know right words, but are liars
¡ Caiaphas: advised Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus
— Thieves
¡ Keep losing substance because they took substance of others
¡ Thieves being turned to lizards and back again
¡ Surrealism of 20th century in the 14th century
— Several layers of meaning in the poem:
¡ Literal, allegorical, moral, spiritual
— Evil counselors:
¡ Bring others to evil; lead people astray
¡ Ulysses, Diomed: encased in flames
÷ Both convinced Achilles to fight, devised plan of Trojan Horse, and stole the Palladium
¢ Statue of Athena that protected Troy
¡ Told in The Aeneid, Book 2
— Sowers of discord:
¡ Religious
¡ Political
¡ Among kinsmen
— Why do some people want power?
— Falsifiers:
¡ Tamper with basic commodities
— Bond of love between Nature and people a lie
Circle 9: Central Pit of Hell
— Giants: elemental forces remind us of lower animals
¡ Contrasted with reason
¡ Also defiant rebels, challenged the gods, represent pride
— Level of compound fraud:
¡ Using reason to commit fraud against people with whom you have a special bond
— Circle 9 is Cocytus:
¡ Lake of ice
¡ Because farthest from God’s love
¡ God’s love is warmth
— 4 Regions of Cocytus:
¡ Caina (Cain)
— Betrayers of family
¡ Antenora (Antenor)
— Betrayers of political party or homeland
¡ Ptolomea (Ptolemy of Jericho, Ptolemy XII)
— Betrayers of friends or guests
¡ Judecca (Judas)
— Betrayers of masters or benefactors
— These crimes have great social, historical, religious consequences
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