Having witnessed the hopeless chasing of the empty banner by the uncommitted souls, the pilgrim notices that they are near the banks of a river. Countless numbers of lost souls wait for the boat that will take them into hell itself. The boat appears, manned by a frightful figure, And now, coming toward us in a boat, INFERNO Canto 3:82-87 [Translation Robert and Jean Hollander: the Princeton Dante Project] During the summer I spent a day in the Swedish mountains. It was wonderful and I will never forget the memories of wandering around the (minor) peaks of the Sarek National Park virtually alone. But to start my climb I had to be taken across a river by boat. The few of us making the journey made our way down from the Fjällstation at Kvikkjokk to the river bank at the appointed time and very soon a small boat powered by an outboard motor came and moored at the jetty and we got on board. Within minutes I realised that the boatman was as much a feature of the national park as the mountains and the river. His name was Björn and naturally and engagingly he asked us who we were and why we were making the journey. He explained the natural features of the river, and took a detour to show us the pool that formed where the river waters came down to mix with the waters of the river (and to feel the cold wind that flowed down from the mountains with the freezing water!). He explained everything gently and effortlessly. He was quiet and unassuming and yet all of us were gripped by his strange charisma and his 'other-worldly' bearing. Later I discovered that he is quite famous and held in high regard by those who have encountered him! He is very special and one of my best memories of that day. If paradise has to be accessed by crossing a river then I know the perfect candidate for the job of boatman! Unfortunately for Dante the boat that came to take him and Virgil across the Acheron river, the boundary between the entrance to hell and hell itself, was not manned by Björn. Instead the figure punting the boat towards them is Charon the mythological ferryman of classical legend. Unlike Björn, Charon is rough and aggressive, part human, part monster, a terrifying, unpleasant, uncouth figure whose appearance reflects his terrible job, conveying the damned to their eventual fates in hell. There is no welcome, no interesting conversation in Charon's boat. There is simply condemnation, accusation and, if we are not careful, a blow from his pole! At first Charon refuses to take Dante across the river to hell. Dante is still alive and Charon spits out his distaste at the unnatural sight of the living in the presence of death and damnation. 'And you there, you living soul, INFERNO Canto 3:88-93 [Translation Robert and Jean Hollander: the Princeton Dante Project] But Charon has no right to deny Dante the pilgrim acces to hell. Like Jake and Elroy Blues, the pilgrim is on a 'mission from God'. His journey is a journey of salvation, a journey to the very heart of God. Charon, representing the old classical world with all its pagan myths and philosophy which Christ has judged by his coming, cannot resist such a journey. He must play his part and take his allotted role in helping to bring the pilgrim to his revelation of God. The message is clear. The world has changed. Christ is Lord and the very intellectual framework by which each of understands and relates to the world must change to reflect that Lordship.
0 Comments
As he passes through the gates with their terrible message of warning Dante sees an unsettling sight And I, all eyes, saw a whirling banner INFERNO Canto 3:52-69 [Translation Robert and Jean Hollander: the Princeton Dante Project] 'Making your mind up'Sometimes it's hard to make choices. Either we don't quite know what we want (will we have the beef or the chicken) where we are trying to balance the merits of two things we like, or we are worried about the consequences of our choice (if I have the chicken with the creamy sauce I will be putting on more weight than if I have the lean beef) where we are weighing up our desire (creamy chicken) against the outcome (calories). Usually finding it hard to choose isn't a big problem (unless for our spouses, who are sitting outside the changing room growing increasingly frustrated at the time it is taking to choose a new pair of trousers/shoes etc) but sometimes, when our choices really matter, indecision can be fatal. Sometimes not choosing is simply not a option and is in fact a form of surrender. When we refuse to take sides when one of those sides is clearly wrong, when we stay neutral when existential issues are at stake, when we stay silent and hide behind our newspaper when someone is being sexually harassed in our train carriage, when we 'opt out' of the discussion when the future of the community or the family is being decided, then we are denying something fundamental about ourselves, our necessary involvement and responsibility. When we opt out in this way we become less than what we should be, as Dante would see it, less than human, For Dante the refusal to decide for or against the Good was the worst sin that a person could commit. In his view each person creates his or her own identity through the decisions they make, be they good or bad. Being is a function of doing and doing involves decision-making. Those who refused to take sides, to commit themselves in the necessary moral choices of life were, in his view, opting out of life itself. In his own day Dante thought that far too many people were playing safe and 'sitting on the fence'. At that time there was a fierce battle raging over who should have supreme political authority over the city-states of Italy such as Florence, between the supporters of the papacy based in Rome, and those who supported the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor, who claimed to be the direct successor of the original Roman emperors. Dante was on the side of the Emperor and critical of the church and papacy. The Emperor, he believed, was the divinely appointed ruler over the material world and his rule would bring peace and safeguard the rights and prosperity of his home city of Florence. The papacy on the other hand, was responsible for the spiritual good of the citizens, guiding them to eternal happiness. Even in that regard, Dante thought, the Popes had failed, becoming as he saw it hopelessly corrupt. But Dante saw that the rapid growth and increasing prosperity of Florence and other italian city states led many to opt out of involvement in the big issues of the day. For some there was too much to lose. In his life before his exile, Dante had committed himself to one of the political factions within Florence, the so called 'White' Guelf party, which ultimately led to his exile in 1302 when, at the instigation of the then Pope, Boniface VIII, the 'Black' Guelf party took over control of the city. Although he eventually renounced membership of any factional party or group, calling himself a 'party of one', Dante knew what it was to make choices, take risks and suffer the consequences out of conviction. He believed that everyone who was able to should take responsibility for working towards the common Good, i.e. the revelation of God's will on earth (which he associated with the victory of the Emperor and the limitation of the powers of the Pope). But he believed many, motivated by greed and self interest, avoided doing so. For such as these, the moral cowards of his day, he created a very special place in his hell. In the ante-chamber of hell, he locates the people who refused to choose, who, in the afterworld as in life, hardly seem to exist at all. They spend eternity chasing a banner (flag) which has no emblem, represents no cause. Those who in this life chose no cause, who believed in nothing, are now seen as they really are; the devoted, committed supporters of nothing! As they chase the banner, they are gnawed at by worms and their blood, running to the ground, provides the nourishment for the maggots beneath their feet. In other words their pointless lives have become a form of death. These are the people as Dante puts it, 'who never were alive'. Centuries later, another poet trying to express his impression that the modern world was devoid of the commitment and passion that gave it meaning, found inspiration in this terrible vision. In The Wasteland T.S. Eliot describes his own vision of the living dead, the great crowd 'who never were alive' Unreal City, Dante the pilgrim is on the threshold of the greatest adventure of his life. He is beginning a journey which will take him through the wonders of paradise to the highest heaven and the vision of God. But on the way, he knows, he will be a witness to the horrors of the damned in hell, and of the trials of those who must purge their sins away through suffering, in purgatory. This then is going to be an arduous, harrowing journey. He must prepare himself! The day was coming to its end and the darkening air Inferno Canto 2:1-6 To help his resolve he reminds himself of two other famous visitors to the afterword. He thinks about Aeneas, the protagonist of Virgil's great epic poem the Aeneid, and his journey to the underworld. Then he remembers that the Apostle Paul spoke about a journey he made to paradise in the third heaven. But these thoughts don't help him; in fact they make things worse. When he contemplates his famous predecessors he realises that he has no qualifications for such a journey. He is no ancient warrior here (like Aeneas) nor is the chosen apostle of the Church, like Paul. Suddenly he feels terribly inadequate. He tells Virgil his feelings and seeks his help. But me? Who has deemed me fit to go there? Inferno Canto 2:31-36 And so he begins to have second thoughts Like someone who loses the desire Inferno Canto 2:37-42 Virgil sees the pilgrim's dilemma. He understands the terror in his heart "If I have rightly understood your words", Inferno Canto 2:43-48 Virgil encourages the pilgrim by telling him why he came to help him. He tells the pilgrim that the lady Beatrice herself, the great love of Dante's life, visited him in his 'suspended' place at the edge of hell, where he exists in a shadowy half life with the other great pagan thinkers and writers, and that there she asked him to find and help the pilgrim. He is only here to help the pilgrim because the woman Dante the pilgrim (and Dante the writer) adored has summoned him. By saying this Virgil reminds the pilgrim that Grace and Beauty are waiting for him on 'the other side'. I was one of those who were suspended Inferno Canto 2:52-57 Beatrice had been told about the pilgrim's struggle on the mountain by Saint Lucia who in turn had been sent by the Virgin Mary herself. Beatrice had been desperately worried that Dante the pilgrim would be too afraid of the the wild beasts ever to leave the forest and find the way to paradise. Virgil describes what she said to him about the pilgrim "My friend, who is no friend of Fortune, Inferno Canto 2:61-70
The pilgrim continues to retreat from the fierce animals but suddenly he is confronted by a shadowy figure While I was fleeing to a lower place When I saw him in that vast wilderness The shade replies revealing that he is the shade of Virgil the great roman poet He answered "Not a man, though once I was. I was born under Julius Caesar (though late in his reign) I was a poet and I sang of that just He asks the pilgrim why he is heading back to the wretched misery of the dark forest rather than climbing the mountain towards paradise "But you, why do you turn back to wretchedness? The pilgrim is overwhelmed with joy at the realisation that this is his hero, the Roman poet Virgil "Are you Virgil that source "You are the glory of all other poets you are my master and my 'author' After commenting on the eventual fate of the three beasts, Virgil reveals that he has been asked to be the pilgrim's guide, first through hell, the place people burn hopelessly, and then through purgatory where they burn hopefully! "Therefore for your sake I think it wise where you shall hear despairing cries And after, you shall see the ones who are content Finally he reveals that he cannot take the pilgrim into heaven (paradise) itself because he has not been counted fit by God. Another (Beatrice) will lead the pilgrim there "Should you desire to ascend to these, For the Emperor who lives on high Everywhere He reigns and there He rules. The pilgrim readily accepts the offer of guidance and help. And I answered: 'Poet, I entreat you. lead me to these realms you speak of Inferno Canto 1:61-87; 112-135 Just as Dante the pilgrim is about to re-enter the dark forest, despairing of ascending the mountain and finding the light of God, a strange, shady form appears in front of him. Amazingly, (since he had been dead for over a thousand years) it is Virgil, the famous Roman poet and Dante's literary hero. In Dante's day Virgil was perhaps the most famous Latin author and it is clear that Dante admired him greatly. He was most famously the author of an epic poem called the Aeneid, the story of the journey of the Trojan hero Aeneas after the destruction of Troy by the Greeks, to Italy where he founded the city of Rome. The book, written in Latin, is written in verse and deals with heroic and epic themes and includes a famous (and hugely influential) visit by the hero, Aeneas, to the underworld, where he sees various characters from mythology and from his own life and the punishments and rewards they experience. And yet although we shouldn't be surprised that Dante employs as his (and our guide) to the afterlife someone who had written so masterfully on such themes before, it is a surprising and 'edgy' choice. Part of the genius of Dante is that time and time again we are challenged morally and intellectually by the choices he makes. The readers of Dante's day would have been surprised that a pagan author would play such a crucial role in the story. Here, right at the beginning Virgil acknowledges his distance from the Christian vision. He says he does not belong in paradise so another must guide Dante the pilgrim through that part of his adventure. He was alive during the time of the false and lying gods (presumably implying his own part in their devotion). He confesses that he was a rebel against His law. So, a man who did not know Christ as saviour and Lord will guide the pilgrim away from the forest of dark ignorance and sin towards the light! Because the poem is so well known we barely bat an eyelid at this choice but at the time it was a remarkable one. Dante could have employed a Christian guide, the Apostle Paul (who had visited paradise while he was alive), a church father such as Augustine whose writings had helped to define church thinking on the afterlife, or even, perhaps, as in earlier tours of hell and heaven, an angel. But he didn't. He chose the pagan poet Virgil. But the reasons for that choice help us to understand his purpose in writing the Commedia and the manner in which he writes it.
Half way through the journey of our life How can I express the horror of that wood To speak of that place is so bitter for me I can't say how I got myself into that place, But when I reached the foot of a slope, looking up, I saw its shoulders Then the fear that had endured And just like someone who, struggling for breath so my mind, still in flight, Inferno Canto 1:1-27 Dante's midlife crisisHalf way through the journey of our life, Dante the pilgrim discovers that he is lost in a dark forbidding forest. Since Dante the poet was born in 1265 and the allotted span of a human life is traditionally 'three score years and ten' (70), the journey through the three domains of the afterlife apparently begins in the year 1300. The pilgrim is 35, so at the mid point of his life. But this, Dante says, is the mid-point of our lives, the lives of the readers too, (despite the fact that, sadly, I am no longer 35!). The poem pulls us all into that terrible forest, for according the writer, we are all enduring a mid-life crisis of existential proportions. We, the readers, stand there too, lost and confused with the pilgrim. But not because we stand there as individual readers, but because this is the crisis of the life of the world in which we all live. According to some medieval speculation about the age of the earth, 1300 stood exactly as the mid-point of the history of the world. The Christian world was in crisis as the Papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor fought it out for political supremacy over europe. In February 1300 Pope Boniface VIII declared a year of Jubilee (the present Pope has just done the same!) and declared that a plenary indulgence (time off from Purgatory) would be given to everyone who visited the churches of St Peter and St Paul in Rome. This was in fact a huge money-grabbing operation, as tens of thousands flocked to Rome. This is where the story begins, in a year like this, a year which finds mankind at its own 'mid-life crisis'.
|
Archives
April 2016
GalleryThis blog is as much about images as it is about text. Below is a slideshow of the pictures and images used in this blog. Click on any of the pictures to go to the post where that image is featured.
PostsLocating Paradise #1 In a Garden, Far, Far Away
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #5 'Stuck in the Middle With You'
The Resurrection According to Rahner
Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #4 'And Who by Fire'
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #3: Held in the Balance
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #2: Once, Twice, Three Times a Sinner
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #1: The Broad and Narrow Gates
Daily Dante 7: Many Rivers to Cross
Daily Dante 6: 'You Gotta Serve Somebody'
In Hell Everyone Can Hear You Scream. The Vision of Tundale #3
Teeth, Spikes and Cleavers: At the Sharp end of Hell. The Vision of Tundale #2
'No Pain No Gain': The Vision of Tundale #1
'Hellzapoppin':
Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #2 'It's The End of the World as We Know It (and we feel fine)'. Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #1
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #2 Blinded by the Light
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #1: Glorious and Immortal
Daily Dante 5: What the gates said.
Daily Dante 4: When I find myself in times of trouble
Daily Dante 3: I'll take you there
Daily Dante 2: Fierce creatures
Daily Dante 1: If you go down to the woods today
In Seventh Heaven or 'What Enoch Did Next'
A World of Fire and Ice: Heaven according to Enoch
The Power and the Glory: Visions of God as king in the Hebrew bible
The Beautiful Bestiary of Catherine Cleves: Monsters and Demons in detail.
Heaven is for Real: Heaven as a physical space up above the sky
Resurrecting the Dead or Reviving the Flowers? The loss of resurrection faith in Judaism.
The Defeat of Death #1: The promise of resurrection in the Isaiah Apocalypse.
The Defeat of Death #2: Death as a hostile power and promise of God's victory in Isaiah
Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: The 'Last Judgement' according to Stefan Lochner
Hell in the Hospital: The 'Last Judgement' of Rogier van der Weyden in the Beaune altarpiece.
'Hell' in the New Testament #2: The gates of Hades shall not prevail
The Hours of Catherine Cleves: Imagining hell and purgatory in Catherine's prayer book
'On Earth as in Heaven': The kingdom of God as a revelation of heaven
'Hell' in the New Testament #1: Gehenna
Lost in Translation #1: How the King James version got it so wrong about hell
Heaven is not our home
Domes, Depths and Demons: The cosmology of the Hebrew world
A Bigger God
"See you in Sheol" - Sheol, the common destination of all
Heaven, Hell and Christian Hope
BooksBelow are some of the books which have helped me the most in the research and writing for this blog. Click on any image to find out more about that book at its page on Amazon uk.
Categories
All
|