Name: Why should you read Dante’s “Divine Comedy”? - Sheila Marie Orfano
Uploaded: 2020-03-20T03:12:30.000Z
Duration: 5 min 10 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here… ”

these ominous words warn dark  tidings for Dante

this prophecy sets into motion what is  perhaps the greatest love story ever told;

an epic journey that encompasses both  the human and the divine.

But for Dante to reach  benevolent salvation,

This landscape of torture is the setting  for "Inferno,"

written by Dante Alighieri  in the 14th century.

Dante travels deeper and deeper  into Hell’s abyss,

witnessing obscene punishments distinct  to each of its nine realms.

Beginning in Limbo, he travels through the circles of Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath,

to the horrific ninth circle of Treachery,

where sinners are trapped under the  watchful eyes of Satan himself.

The following two parts, "Purgatorio" and  "Paradiso," continue Dante’s journey,

and ascends the nine celestial  spheres of Heaven.

Written together over 10 years, these  3 sections comprise the "Divine Comedy"–

an allegorical imagining of the soul’s  journey towards God.

But Dante’s "Divine Comedy" is more than  just religious allegory.

It’s also a witty, scathing commentary on  Italian politics.

A soldier and statesman from Florence,  Dante was staunchly faithful to God,

but often critical of the  Roman Catholic Church.

He particularly disliked its rampant  nepotism and practice of simony,

the buying and selling of religious  favours such as pardons from sin.

Many groups took advantage of these  corrupt customs,

but few supported them as much as the  Guelfi Neri, or Black Guelphs.

This was a political and religious faction

which sought to expand the pope’s  political influence.

Dante was a member of the Guelfi Bianchi,  or White Guelphs–

who believed Florence needed more  freedom from Roman influence.

As a public representative for the  White Guelphs,

Dante frequently spoke out against  the pope’s power,

until the Black Guelphs leveraged their position

this lifelong exile led to Dante’s  greatest critique of all.

Dishonored and with little hope of return,

the author freely aired his grievances  with the Church and Italian society.

rather than the traditional Latin of the  educated elite,

Dante ensured the widest possible audience for his biting political commentary.

In the "Inferno’s" circle of the Wrathful,

tear Black Guelph Filippo  Argenti limb from limb.

Dante converses with a mysterious sinner  burning in the circle’s hottest flames.

He learns that this is Pope Nicholas III,

who tells Dante that his two successors  will take his place when they die—

all three guilty of simony and corruption.

Despite the bleak and sometimes violent  imagery in "Inferno,"

the "Divine Comedy" is also a love story.

with the daughter of a powerful  Florentine family,

he had also been unrequitedly in love with another woman since he was nine years old:

Despite allegedly meeting just twice,  she became Dante’s lifelong muse,

serving as the inspiration and subject for many of his works.

In fact, it’s Beatrice who launches his  intrepid journey into the pits of Hell

Portrayed as a powerful, heavenly figure,

she leads Dante through "Paradiso’s" concentric spheres of Heaven

until he is finally face-to-face with God.

the "Divine Comedy’s" themes of love,  sin, and redemption

have been embraced by numerous artists–

from Auguste Rodin and Salvador Dali,  to Ezra Pound and Neil Gaiman.

And the poet himself received his own  belated, earthly redemption in 2008,

when the city of Florence finally revoked  Dante’s antiquated exile.

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Why should you read Dante’s “Divine Comedy”? - Sheila Marie Orfano

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