Dante’s Inferno Notes

A huge and powerful warrior-king who virtu onlyy embodies insubordination against his highest god, Capaneus is an exemplary blasphemerwith blasphemy understood as direct violence against God. Still, it is physical contact that Dante selects a pagan character to agree unitary of the few specifically religious sins punished in hell. Dantes passage of Capaneus in Inferno 14.43-72his large size and scornful account of Jove striking him trim back with boltsis based on the Thebaid, a late Roman epic poem (by Statius) treating a war waged by s plane kings against the city of Thebes.Capaneus arrogant defiance of the gods is a running theme in the Thebaid, though Statius description of the warriors resolution in the scenes leading up to his death reveals ele manpowerts of Capaneus nobility as swell up as his despite for the gods. For instance, Capaneus refuses to follow his comrades in a deceitful s elderiers operation against the Theban forces under the polish off of downcastne ss, insisting instead on fighting fair and squ ar out in the open. Nevertheless, Capaneus boundless contempt ultimately leads to his demise when he climbs atop the walls protecting the city and directly challenges the gods come now, Jupiter, and strive with all your flames against me Or are you braver at affright timid maidens with your thunder, and razing the towers of your father-in-law Cadmus? (Thebaid 10.904-6).Recalling the similar arrogance displayed by the Giants at Phlegra (and their ulterior defeat), the deity gathers his terrifying weapons and strikes Capaneus with a thunderbolt. His hair and helmet aflame, Capaneus feels the fatal prove burning at the stake within and wasteweirs from the walls to the install below. He finally lies outstretched, his lifeless trunk as immense as that of a giant. This is the image inspiring Dantes motion picture of Capaneus as a large figure look in the defeat pose of the blasphemers, flat on their backs Ser Brunnetto Latino = ro ach Three- Violence Against NatureOne of the to the highest degree important figures in Dantes life and in the Divine Comedy, Brunetto Latini is featured among the sodomites in one of the central cantos of the Inferno. Although the poet imagines Brunetto in hell, Dante-character and Brunetto show great affection and nonice for one another during their encounter in Inferno 15.Brunetto (c. 1220 1294) was a grownup guelph who spent many years living in exile in Spain and Francewhere he composed his encyclopedic work, Trsor (Treasure Inf. 15.119-20)before returning to Florence in 1266 and assuming positions of great responsibility in the commune and region (notary, scribe, consul, prior). much(prenominal) was Brunettos reputation that chroniclers of the era praised him as the initiator and master in amend the Florentines. While Brunettos own writingsin terms of quality and importeeare far inferior to Dantes, he was perhaps the most influential promoter in the Middle Ages of the es directial idea (derived from the Roman author Cicero) that eloquencein both oral and written formsis beneficial to partnership only when combined with wisdom.We understand from this event that Brunetto played a major(ip)if informalpart in Dantes education, most likely as a mentor finished his example of using erudition and intelligence in the military service of the city. Apart from the reputed frequency of intimate relations among males in this time and place, there is no independent documentation to explain Brunettos appearance in Dantes poem among the sodomites. Brunetto was married with threeperhaps fourchildren. Many raw scholarly discussions of Dantes Brunetto either posit a substitute vice for the sexual onelinguistic perversion, unnatural political affiliations, a quasi-Manichean heresyor emphasize a attri aloneeic form of sodomy over the oral act (e.g., rhetorical perversion, a failed theory of knowledge, a proto-humanist pursuit of immortality).Geryon = Round T hree- Violence Against Art(fraud) giant with three heads and bodies Geryon, merely depict in Virgils Aeneid as a three-bodied shade (he was a cruel king hit by Hercules), is one of Dantes most complex creatures. With an honest cheek, a colorful and elaborately patterned reptilian hide, hairy paws, and a scorpions tail, Geryon is an image of fraud (Inf. 17.7-27)the bole politic to which he transports Dante and Virgil ( round of golfs 8 and 9). Strange as he is, Geryon offers some of the outperform yard of Dantes attention to realism. The poet compares Geryons upward flight to the precise movements of a addlehead swimming to the surface of the ocean (Inf. 16.130-6), and he helps us imagine Geryons line of work by noting the sensation of wind rising from below and striking the face of a traveler in flight (Inf. 17.115-17).By comparing Geryon to a sullen, stubborn falcon (Inf.17.127-36), Dante also adds a touch of psychological realism to the episode Geryon may in fact be bitt er because he was trickedwhen Virgil employ Dantes knotted brawl to lure the monster (Inf. 16.106-23)into helping the travelers. Dante had used this belthe informs us long after the fact (Inf. 16.106-8)to try to puzzle the color amplyy patterned leopard who impeded his ascent of the mountain in Inferno 1.31-3. Suggestively associated with the disunite of factual truth so wondrous that it appears to be false (Inf. 16.124), Geryon is people by some readers to represent the poem itself or perhaps a negative double of the poem. sorrel della Vigna = Round deuce- Violence Against ThemselvesLike Dante, Pier della Vigna (c. 1190 1249) was an accomplished poetpart of the Sicilian School of poetry, he wrote sonnetsand a victim of his own faithful service to the state. With a first-rate wakeless education and ample rhetorical talent, Pier rose quickly through the ranks of public service in the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, from scribe and notary to assay and official spokesman for th e imperial court of Frederick II. But his powers appear to have exceeded even these titles, as Pier claims to have had final say over Fredericks decisions (Inf. 13.58-63).While evidence of corruption casts some doubt on Piers account of faithful service to the emperor butterfly, it is generally believed that he was indeed falsely accused of betraying Fredericks trust by envious colleagues and political enemies (Inf. 13.64-9). In this way, Piers story recalls that of Boethius, author of the Consolation of Philosophy, a well known book in the Middle Ages (and a positron emission tomography of Dantes) recounting the fall from power of another talented individual falsely accused of betraying his emperor. Medieval commentators relate that Frederick, believing the charges against Pier (perhaps for plotting with the pope against the emperor), had him jug and blinded. Unable to accept this wretched fate, Pier brutally took his life by smashing his head against the wall (perhaps of a chu rch) or possibly by leaping from a high window just as the emperor was passing below in the street.Piers shitVigna means vineryundoubtedly made him an even more(prenominal) attractive candidate for Dantes suicide-trees. As an added part of the contrapasso for the suicides, the souls forget not be reunited with their bodies at the Last shrewdness but will instead hang their retrieved corpses on the trees (Inf.13.103-8).MinotaurThe path down to the three rings of circle 7 is covered with a mickle of boulders that fellas Virgil explains (Inf. 12.31-45)during the earthquake triggered by Christs harrowing of hell. The Minotaur, a slob-man who appears on this broken slope (Inf. 12.11-15), is most likely a guardian and symbol of the entire circle of violence. Dante does not specify whether the Minotaur has a mans head and bulls physical structure or the other way around (sources support both possibilities), but he clearly underscores the bestial rage of the hybrid creature. At the sight of Dante and Virgil, the Minotaur bites himself, and his frenzied buckingset off by Virgils mention of the monsters executionerallows the travelers to deal unharmed.Almost everything about the Minotaurs storyfrom his creation to his demisecontains some form of violence. Pasipha, married woman of King Minos of Crete, lusted after a beautiful white bull and asked Daedalus to build a fake cow (Inf. 12.13) in which she could enter to induce the bull to mate with her Daedalus obliged and the Minotaur was conceived. Minos sassyly had Daedalus build an elaborate labyrinth to check and contain this monstrosity.To punish the Athenians, who had killed his son, Minos supplied the Minotaur with an annual sacrificial offering of seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls. When Ariadne (the Minotaurs half-sister Inf. 12.20) fell in rage with one of these boys (Theseus, Duke of capital of Greece Inf. 12.16-18), the two of them devised a plan to slay the Minotaur Theseus entered the la byrinth with a trade name and a ball of force, which he unwound as he proceeded toward the center having slain the Minotaur, Theseus was thus able to retrace his steps and escape the labyrinth CentaursThe Centaursmen from the waist up with lower bodies of horsesguard the first ring of circle 7, a river of blood in which the shades of murderers and bandits are immersed to varying sagacitys. arm with bows and arrows, thousands of Centaurs patrol the bank of the river, using their weapons to keep the souls at their allotted depth (Inf. 12.73-5). In classical mythology, the Centaurs are perhaps best known for their uncouth, uncivilised behavior guests at a wedding, they attemptedtheir lust incited by boozeto withdraw off the bride and other women a fierce battle ensued, described by Ovid in all its gory detail (Met. 12.210-535), in which the horse-men suffered the heaviest losses. Two of the three Centaurs who approach Dante and Virgil fully earned this negative reputation.Pholus , whom Virgil describes as full of rage (Inf. 12.72), was one of the combatants at the wedding. Nessus, selected to carry Dante across the river in hell, was killed by Herculeswith a poisoned arrowfor his attempted rape of the heros beautiful wife, Deianira, after Hercules had entrusted the Centaur to carry her across a river (Nessus avenged his own death he gave his blood-soaked shirt to Deianira as a love-charm, which shenot knowing the shirt was poisonedlater gave to Hercules when she doubted his love Inf. 12.67-9.) Chiron, the leader of the Centaurs, enjoyed a more favorable reputation as the wise tutor of both Hercules and Achilles (Inf. 12.71).Punishments of Each Ring -First Ring- For violence against neighbors. Made to furuncle in blood, and shot by arrows if they et out higher than they are deemed worthy. accommodate because those torturedmust boil in the blood they creted in life by violence.Chief evildoer alexander the great, who was violent against many of his countryme n as a tyrant. -Second Ring- For those violent against themselvesthey are turned into trees and are immobile. They are tortured and pecked at by Harpies. They will never be returned to their bodies because they didnt properly appreciate them in the first place.Chief sinner Pier della Vigna, who felt so ashamed by the lies of shcemers, took his own life. -Third Ring-For those violent against God. Three circles Blasphamers Just on hot sand Sodomites Also rained upon my fire Violent against art also with purses around thier necksChief Sinner Capaneus, Besieged Thebes. He is very defiant, still, and says hell shall never break him.Allusions Phlegethon-Literally a river of fire (Aen. 6.550-1), Phlegethon is the name Dante gives to the river of hot blood that serves as the first ring ofcircle 7 spillers of blood themselves, violent offenders against others are submerged in the river to a take aim corresponding to their guilt. Dante does not identify the riverdescribed in detail i n Inferno 12.46-54 and 12.100-39until the travelers have crossed it (Dante on the back of Nessus) and passed through the woods of the suicides. Now they approach a red stream flowing out from the inner circumference of the forest across the plain of sand (Inf. 14.76-84).After Virgil explains the putting green source of all the rivers in hell, Dante still fails to realizewithout further accountingthat the red stream in fact connects to the broader river of blood that he previously crossed, now identified as the Phlegethon (Inf. 14.121-35). Polydorus-If Dante had believed what he read in the Aeneid, Virgil would not have had to make him snap one of the branches to know that the suicide-shades and the trees are one and the samethis, at least, is what Virgil says to the wounded suicide-tree (Inf. 13.46-51). Virgil here alludes to the episode of the bleeding shrub from Aeneid 3.22-68. The bush in this case is Polydorus, a young Trojan prince who was sent by his father (Priam, King of Troy) to the neighboring kingdom of Thrace when Troy was beleaguer by the Greeks.Polydorus arrived bearing a large amount of gold, and the King of Thraceto whose make do the welfare of the young Trojan was entrustedmurdered Polydorus and took possession of his riches. Aeneas unwittingly discovers Polydorus unburied corpse when he uproots three leafy branches to serve as cover for a sacrificial altar the first two times, Aeneas freezes with terror when dark blood drips from the uprooted branch the third time, a voicerising from the groundbegs Aeneas to stop causing harm and identifies itself as Polydorus. The plant-man explains that the flurry of spears that pierced his body eventually took the form of the branches that Aeneas now plucks. The Trojans innocence Polydorus with a proper burial before leaving the accursed land.Old Man of Crete-Dante invents the story of the large statue of an old manlocated in Mount Ida on the Island of Cretefor both possible and symbolic purpose s ( Inf. 14.94-120). Constructed of a descending hierarchy of materialsgold head, silver gird and chest, brass midsection, iron for the rest (except one clay foot)the statue recalls the various ages of domain (from the golden age to the iron age Ovid, Met. 1.89-150) in a demoralised view of history and civilization devolving from best to worst. Dantes statue also closelyrecalls the statue appearing in King Nebuchadnezzars dream in the Bible this dream is revealed in a vision to Daniel, who informs the king that the composition of the statue signifies a declining succession of kingdoms all inferior to the eternal kingdom of God (Daniel 231-45).That the statue is off-balanceleaning more heavily on the clay footand facing Rome (as if in a mirror) probably reflects Dantes conviction that society suffers from the riotous political power of the pope and the absence of a strong sacrilegious ruler. Although the statue is not itself found in hell, the tears that flow down the go bad in its body (only the golden head is whole) represent all the torment of humanity and thus become the river in hell that goes by disparate names according to region Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, Cocytus (Inf. 14.112-20).Phaethon and Icarus-As he descends aboard Geryon through the unsaved atmosphere, Dante recalls the classical stories of previous aviators (Inf. 17.106-14). Phaethon, attempting to confirm his genealogy as the son of Apollo, carrier wave of the sun, took the reins of the sun-chariot against his fathers advice. Unable to control the horses, Phaethon scorched a large whack of the heavens with the earths fate hanging in the balance, Jove killed the boy with a thunderbolt (Ovid, Met. 1.745-79 2.1-332).Daedalus (see Minotaur above), to escape from the island of Crete, made wings for himself and his son by binding feathers with thread and wax. Icarus, ignoring his fathers warnings, flew too close to the sun the wax melted and the boy crashed to the sea below (Met. 8.203-35) . So heartbroken was Daedalus that he was unable to depict Icarus fall in his carvings upon the gates of a temple he built to honor Apollo (Aen. 6.14-33). Experiencing flight for the first, and presumable only, time in his lifeaboard a filthy image of fraud, no lessDante understandably identifies with these two figures whose judicious flying led to their tragic deaths.