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.
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When I had rested my body there a while As the slope began to rise Whichever way I turned she was there It was that hour early in the morning first started the beautiful motions of those things that gaudy beast, wild in its spotted pelt. and he was coming straight towards me, it seemed And now a she wolf came who, in her leanness, This last beast brought my spirit down so low, Inferno Canto 1:28-60 Drawn to the lightStill in his dream-like state (despite the fact that he claims he has woken up!) Dante sees the light of the sun streaming from the summit of the mountain before him and decides he must head towards it. Physically of course, the light he sees is the light of the rising sun but (as we will see later) the light actually emanates from God. It is really God's light he sees and is attracted to. Quite reasonably, he starts climbing the hill. The light reminds Dante the pilgrim of the first day of creation, when for the very first time the sun and the stars shone. I mentioned in the last post that Dante is the poet of hope and here the reason for his hope is revealed. The God he seeks is the God of creation who brought all things into being out of the darkness of nothingness. As he sees the sunlight he thinks of God's love which first started the beautiful motions of those things (the sun and the stars). The line could alternatively be read as 'setting all those beautiful things in motion'. Either way, Dante equates God, love and beauty with the created order. Later, Dante the pilgrim will discover how God's love and the beauty of the cosmos are closely tied to one another. Dante's search for God involves a search for Love and Beauty too.
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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.
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