Unit Three Section C

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri from “Canto I” Just as Dante loses his way in life, he meets the ancient poet Virgil. Virgil is respected by Dante as a wise man, and is Dante's inspiration. Can Virgil help Dante find the right path once again? Introduction: Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, written in 1300, is considered one of the world's greatest poems. In three parts, Dante describes his imaginary journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven in his search for salvation. Along the way Dante meets political figures and other well--known people of his time. He also meets famous characters from the past. The first part, “Inferno,” is the best known of the three parts. It dramatizes Dante's trip through hell. Its purpose is to point out to the living the error of their ways. from Canto 1 Midway in our life's journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood. How shall I say what wood that was! I never saw so drear, so rank, so arduous a wgderness! Its very memory gives a shape to fear. Death could scarce be more bitter than that place! But since it came to good, I will recount all that I found revealed there by God's grace. How I came to it I cannot rightly say, so drugged and loose with sleep had I become when I first wandered there from the True Way. But at the far end of that valley of evil whose maze had sapped my very heart with fear I found myself before a little hill and lifted up my eyes. Its shoulders glowed already with the sweet rays of that planet whose virtue leads men straight on every road, and the shining strengthened me against the fright whose agony had wracked the lake of my heart through all the terrors of that piteous night. Just as a swimmer, who with his last breath flounders ashore from perilous seas, might turn to memorize the wide water of his death-- so did I turn my soul still fugitive from death's surviving image, to stare down that pass that none had ever left alive. And there I lay to rest from my heart's race till calm and breath returned to me. Then rose and pushed up that dead slope at such a pace each footfall rose above the last. And Io! almost at the beginning of the rise I faced a spotted Leopard, all tremor and flow and gaudy pelt. And it would not pass, but stood so blocking my every turn that time and again I was on the verge of turning back to the wood. This fell at the first widening of dawn as the sun was climbing Aries with those stars that rode with him to light the new creation. Thus the holy hour and the sweet season of commemoration did much to arm my fear of that bright murderous beast with their good omen. Yet not so much but what I shook with dread at sight of a great Lion that broke upon me raging with hunger, its enormous head held high as if to strike a mortal terror into the very air. And down his track, a She-Wolf drove upon me, a starved horror ravening and wasted beyond all belief. She seemed a rack for avarice, gaunt and craving. Oh many the souls she has brought to endless grief! She brought such heaviness upon my spirit at sight of her savagery and desperation, I died from every hope of that high summit. And like a miser--eager in acquisition but desperate in self--reproach when Fortune's wheel turns to the hour of his loss--ah tears and attrition I wavered back; and still the beast pursued, forcing herself against me bit by bit till I slid back into the sunless wood. And as I fell to my soul's ruin, a presence gathered before me on the discolored air, the figure of one who seemed hoarse from long slience. At sight of him in that friendless waste I cried: "Have pity on me, whatever thing you are, whether shade or living man," And it replied: "Not man, though man I once was, and my blood was Lombard, both my parents Mantuan. I was born, though late, “sub Julio,” and bred in Rome under Augustus' in the noon of the false and lying gods. I was a poet and sang of old Anchises' noble son who came to Rome after the burning of Troy. But you--why do you return to these distresses instead of climbing that shining Mount of joy which is the seat and first cause of man's bliss?" "And are you then that Virgil and that fountain of purest speech?" My voice grew tremulous: "Glory and light of poets! now may that zeal and love's apprenticeship that I poured out on your heroic verses serve me well! For you are my true master and first author, the sole maker from whom I drew the breath of that sweet style whose measures have brought me honor. See there, immortal sage the beast I flee. For my soul's salvation, I beg you, guard me from her, for she has struck a mortal tremor through me." And he replied, seeing my soul in tears: "He must go by another way who would escape this wilderness, for that mad beast that fleers before you there, suffers no man to pass. She tracks down all, kills all, and knows no glut, but, feeding, she grows hungrier than she was ... Therefore, for your own good, I think it well you follow me and I will be your guide and lead you forth through an eternal place. There you shall see the ancient spirits tried in endless pain, and hear their lamentation as each bemoans the second death of souls. Next you shall see upon a burning mountain souls in fire and yet content in fire, knowing that whensoever it may be they yet will mount into the blessed choir. To which, if it is still your wish to climb, a worthier spirit shall be sent to guide you. With her shall I leave you, for the King of Time, who reigns on high, forbids me to come there since, living, I rebelled against his law. He rules the waters and the land and air and there holds court, his city and his throne. Oh blessed are they he chooses!" And I to him: "Poet, by that God to you unknown, lead me this way. Beyond this present ill and worse to dread, lead me to Peter's gate and be my guide through the sad halls of Hell." And he then: "Follow." And he moved ahead in slence, and I followed where he led.

Developing Comprehension Skills 1. At the beginning of Canto I where did Dante, the speaker, stray from? Where is he wandering? Describe the place. 2. What hints are given about Dante's life? 3. What seems to give Dante a little hope, and the desire to go on? What might this object represent? 4. Why has Virgil been sent to Dante? Why do you think Dante, as the author, chose Virgil to be his guide in this poem? 5. Virgil was an ancient Roman poet known for his wisdom. How can reason and logic help a person escape from the hell that Dante describes?

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri from “Canto III” Dante and Virgil stand at the doorway to Hell. Although fearful, Dante knows be must follow Virgil if be is to once again find bis way. Who dwells just inside The Gate of Hell? “The Gate of Hell” I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE. I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE. I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW. SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT. I WAS RAISED HERE BY DMNE OMNIPOTENCE, PRIMORDIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT. WERE MADE BEFORE ME, AND BEYOND TIME I STAND . ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE. These mysteries I read cut into stone above a gate. And turning I said: "Master, what is the meaning of this harsh inscription?" And he then as initiate to a novice: "Here must you put by all division of spirit and gather your soul against all cowardice. This is the place I told you to expect. Here you shall pass among the fallen people, souls who have lost the good of intellect." So saying, he put forth his hand to me, and with a gentle and encouraging smile he led me through the gate of mystery. Here sighs and cries and wails coiled and recoiled on the starless air, spilling my soul to tears. A confusion of tongues and monstrous accents toiled in pain and anger. Voices hoarse and shrill and sounds of blows, all intermingled, raised tumult and pandemonium that still whirls on the air forever dirty with it as if a whirlwind sucked at sand. And I, holding my head in horror, cried: "Sweet Spirit, what souls are these who run through this black haze?" And he to me: "These are the nearly soulless whose lives concluded neither blame nor praise. They are mixed here with that despicable corps of angels who were neither for God nor Satan, but only for themselves. The High Creator scourged them from Heaven for its perfect beauty, and Hell will not receive them since the wicked might feel some glory over them." And I: "Master, what gnaws at them so hideously their lamentation stuns the very air?" "They have no hope of death," he answered me, “and in their blind and unattaining state their miserable lives have sunk so low that they just envy every other fate. No word of them survives their living season. Mercy and justice deny them even a name. Let us not speak of them: look, and pass on."

Developing Comprehension Skills 1. What warning is printed on the Gate of Hell? 2. Virgil explains the warning to Dante. What does he tell Dante to expect in Hell? 3. How does Dante react to what he sees as he enters the gate? 4. What place does Dante find just inside the gate? Why are the souls here not welcome in Heaven or in Hell? 5. Is there any hope for these souls at the Gate of Hell? Do you think their crimes justify this punishment? Explain your answer.

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri from “Canto XXVI” In a lower circle of hell, Dante meets Ulysses. Ulysses tells of his final voyage following the Trojan war. What sins did Ulysses commit? What can Dante learn from him? from “Canto XXVI” As many fireflies as the peasant sees when he rests on a hill and looks into the valley (where he tills or gathers grapes or prunes his trees) in that sweet season when the face of him who lights the world rides north, and at the hour when the fly yields to the gnat and the air grows dim-- such myriads of flames I saw shine through the gloom of the eighth abyss when I arrived at the rim from which its bed comes into view .... I stood on the bridge, and leaned out from the edge; so far, that but for a jut of rock I held to I should have been sent hurtling from the ledge without being pushed. And seeing me so intent, my Guide said: "There are souls within those flames; each sinner swathes himself in his own torment." "Master," I said, “your words make me more sure, but I had seen already that it was so and meant to ask what spirit must endure the pains of that great flame which splits away in two great horns, as if it rose from the pyre where Eteocles and Polynices lay?" He answered me: "Forever round this path Ulysses and Diomede move in such dress, united in pain as once they were in wrath; there they lament the ambush of the Horse which was the door through which the noble seed of the Romans issued from its holy source; there they mourn that for Achilles slain sweet Deidamia weeps even in death; there they recall the Palladium in their pain." "Master," I cried, "I pray you and repray till my prayer becomes a thousand--if these souls can still speak from the fire, oh let me stay until the flame draws near! Do not deny me: You see how fervently I long for it!" And he to me: "Since what you ask is worthy, it shall be, But be still and let me speak; for I know your mind already, and they perhaps might scorn your manner of speaking, since they were Greek." And when the flame had come where time and place seemed fitting to my Guide, I heard him say these words to it: "O you two souls who pace together in one flame!--if my days above won favor in your eyes, if I have earned however much or little of your love in writing my High Verses, do not pass by, but let one of you be pleased to tell where he, having disappeared from the known world, went to die." As if it fought the wind, the greater prong of the ancient flame began to quiver and hum; then moving its tip as if it were the tongue that spoke, gave out a voice above the roar. "When I left Circe,"' it said, "who more than a year detained me near Gaeta long before Neneas came and gave the place that name, not fondness for my son, nor reverence for my aged father, nor Penelope's claim to the joys of love, could drive out of my mind the lust to experience the far--flung world and the failings and felicities of mankind. I put out on the high and open sea with a single ship and only those few souls who stayed true when the rest deserted me. As far as Morocco and as far as Spain I saw both shores; and I saw Sardinia and the other islands of the open main. I and my men were stiff and slow with age when we sailed at last into the narrow pass where, warning all men back from further voyage, Hercules' Pillars rose upon our sight. Already I had left Ceuta on the left; Seville now sank behind me on the right. 'Shipmates,' I said, 'who through a hundred thousand perils have reached the West, do not deny to the brief remaining watch our senses stand experience of the world beyond the sun. Greeks! You were not born to live like brutes, but to press on toward manhood and recognition!' With this brief exhortation I made my crew so eager for the voyage I could hardly have held them back from it when I was through; and turning our stern toward morning, our bow toward night, we bore southwest out of the world of man; we made wings of our oars for our fool's flight. That night we raised the other pole ahead with all its stars, and ours had so declined it did not rise out of its ocean bed. Five times since we had dipped our bending oars beyond the world, the light beneath the moon had waxed and waned, when dead upon our course we sighted, dark in space, a peak so tall I doubted any man had seen the like. Out cheers were hardly sounded, when a squall broke hard upon our bow from the new land: three times it sucked the ship and the sea about as it pleased Another to order and command. At the fourth, the poop rose and the bow went down till the sea closed over us and the light was gone."

Developing Comprehension Skills 1. What are the flames that Dante sees on the eighth level of hell? What souls are wrapped in these flames? 2. The Greek heroes Ulysses and Diomede are on this level, paying for their crimes in the war against Troy. Why must they suffer together in the split flame? 3. Why did Ulysses leave home the final time, in spite of his love for his wife and son? Where did he travel? 4. How did Ulysses die? 5. Ulysses occupies his spot in hell for the crimes he committed during the Trojan War. Do you think that his punishment is justified? Explain your answer.