My notes on my literary journey with Dante.
Canto 1 It is just before dawn on Easter Sunday, April 10, 1300 when Dante and Virgil arrive on the shores of the island-mountain of Purgatory (see Purgatory Introduction). Upon making ground they encounter Cato – a Roman military leader who lived from 95-46 B.C. and who committed suicide after he was defeated in the rebellion against Julius…
Introduction It is Easter morning in the year 1300 when and Virgil and Dante emerge from the pit of the Inferno. Following Dante’s imagery and afterlife structure, we might guess that what comes next is a walk through Heaven – but this is a Catholic poem! The second book of Dante’s Divine Comedy follows the…
Canto 33: Circle 9 – Judecca “Now see the face of Dis! This is the place where you must arm your soul against all dread.” Here is the bottom, the last circle of the last circle of Hell: Judecca. Not to be confused with any personal or national terms referring to Judaism, Judecca is named…
Canto 31 – Elemental Spirits “Where the instrument of intelligence is added to brute power and evil will, mankind is powerless in its own defense.” As he and Virgil ascend the containing ridge of Malebolge, Dante thinks he sees the towers of a city before him, and then hears a tremendous trumpet blast. In order…
Canto 28 “An eye for an eye to all eternity, thus is the law of Hell observed in me.” Here Dante finds some of the most revolting in all of Hell’s punishments. Observing the law of retribution (as eloquently stated by one of the sufferers, quoted above), these sinners are punished for schism – the…
Canto 26 And going our lonely way through that dread land among the crags and crevices of the cliff the foot could make no way without the hand I mourned among those rocks, and I mourn again when memory returns to what I saw . . . An unusual canto, this. Dante begins with his…
Canto 23 Dante and Virgil proceed along their course but are soon pursued by the demons that were tricked into falling into the 5th ditch. Virgil holds Dante to himself like a mother holds a child, and slides down into the 6th ditch. The demons follow up to the rim, but are not allowed to…
