Vergil (Publius Vergilius Maro) (70 ~ 19 BC), “The Aeneid: The Voyage of Aeneas” which was a Latin epic, was the topic of an earlier blog post.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, “The Mistress of Spices: A Novel“, 1997 also was the topic of an earlier blog post.
Here I present: Dante Alighieri (1265~1321), “The Divine Comedy: Part #1. Inferno”, 1320 which was an epic, written in the Tuscan dialect of Italian.
Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet. Inferno is the first part of Alighieri’s epic Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatory and Paradise. The Inferno explains the journey of Dante through Hell and is a long narrative poem in the Tuscan dialect of Italian. Vergil (Publius Vergilius Maro) who was an ancient Roman poet from the time of August Caesar, guided Dante.
The Nine Circles of Hell are shown in the diagram ABOVE.
Circle 1. Limbo.
The souls of Pagans and the unbaptized wander the caves of Limbo in loneliness with desperation to meet God.
Circle 2. Lust.
The soul’s lust is endlessly blown and spiraling in the wind of a violent storm.
Circle 3. Gluttony.
Because of their cold nature, the souls of gluttony suffer the coldness of a of a ceaseless icy rain.
Circle 4. Greed.
The souls of greed are consumed in a pit of smelting gold, as they claw their way to escape, only to be swept back into the pit.
Circle 5. Anger.
An endless battle of wailing souls takes place on a murky swamp.
Circle 6. Heresy.
Souls are entrapped in a flaming pit, guarded by demons for those who attempt to escape.
Circle 7. Violence.
Those who possessed a thirst for violence are condemned to drown in a lake of boiling blood.
Circle 8. Fraud.
Souls are thrown into darkness, endlessly beaten and tortured by demons.
Circle 9. Treachery.
Satan is imprisoned in ice from the waist down in the very center of Circle IX (9), displayed as a trophy of treachery.
“The prestige established by the Tuscan dialect’s use in literature by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolo Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini led to its subsequent elaboration as the language of culture throughout Italy.”
ABOVE is the map of “Italy Before Unification”. Across from the island of Corsica is the “Grand Duchy of Tuscany” (dark blue color). The “Papal States” are on the border of Tuscany. Bologna is 40 kilometers from the Tuscany border. The University of Bologna is the first in Europe, and was founded in 1088 AD. Nalanda University in Bihar, India was the first in the World (founded 427 AD (table shown BELOW).
Here I presented: Dante Alighieri (1265~1321), “The Divine Comedy: Part #1. Inferno”, 1320 which was an epic, written in the Tuscan dialect of Italian.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, “The Mistress of Spices: A Novel“, 1997 also was the topic of an earlier blog post.
India cuisine has shaped the history of international relations; the spice trade between India and Europe was the primary catalyst for Europe’s Age of Discovery.
