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Welcome to Danteworlds: danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321): Life and Legacy
        Allegory
is a literary representation of an abstract concept or value. Throughout his epic narrative, Dante develops an
          extended allegory using a literal description that has secondary, symbolic meanings. For example, the opening tercet in Canto 1--
          "[M]idway in our life's journey, I went astray / from the straight road and woke to find myself / alone in a dark wood"-- uses 
           such diction as "midway," "journey," "astray," "the straight road," and "dark wood." These literal descriptors help set the                         allegorical stage on which a world-weary reader raises his eyes heavenward and embarks on the spiritual journey through the
           netherworld and afterlife along with Dante.   


        Terza rima is a stanzaic unit of a poem invented by Dante in his Divine Comedy, which uses a chain rhyme, the second line              of each stanza rhymes with the first and the third line of the next stanza (aba bcb cdc etc.) 
          John Ciardi, in his English translation of The Divine Comedy, uses a more fluid form of a tercet (aba cdc efe etc.) whereas the
          last two lines of each canto form a rhyming couplet, creating a more empathic closure and transition. 

Florence and Florentine Tuscan: the Invention of the Vernacular Italian​

Picture

Dante penned his Commedia (the epithet "Divine" is a posthumous addition to the original title given by Dante) in his native tongue, Florentine Tuscan--a bold departure from the elite mode of writing, Latin.

The immediate popularity of The Divine Comedy imbued readership with zeal to learn and use Tuscan; both Petrarch and Boccaccio chose Dante's vernacular as their literary mode of delivery. The mother tongue that
Dante carried with him throughout his exile has formed the foundation of modern Italian. 

The Invention of the First-person Narrator: the Fountainhead of the Renaissance
Dante, the poet, invents Dante, the allegorical persona, using first-person narration. 

Mashing up Greco-Roman with Judeo-Christian: You Know Dante Even If You Do Not
Dante interjects Florentine politics and personal grievances into the Christian universe whose heaven, hell, and purgatory he is vividly inscribing with the pigments drawn from Greco-Roman mythology and historical references. In a way, he is carving the imaginary cities of sinners and of God into the flat surface of the Ptolemaic universe. 

The Inferno

Canto I: Introduction--Dante meets Virgil in Dark Wood  
Why does Dante have to travel through Hell in order to reach the shining Mount of Joy?

Canto II: The Descent 
Why does the poet use an invocation in the first three tercets?
Why does Virgil volunteer to lead Dante through Inferno?

VESTIBULE of INFERNO​
Canto III: The Gate of Hell--Crossing the Acheron

Why according to Dante are the opportunists condemned to chase the elusive banner?
Why does Dante swoon while entering Hell?


CIRCLE ONE: LIMBO
Canto IV: the Virtuous Pagans  

Who are those condemned to linger in Limbo, Circle One?

CIRCLE TWO: LUST
Canto V: the Carnals 

What literary device does the poet use in describing the amorous sinners?
        As cranes go over sounding their harsh cry,
            leaving the long streak of t heir flight in air,
            so come these spirits, wailing as they fly.

       And watching their shadows lashed by wind, I cried:
          "Master, what souls are these the very air
          lashes with its black whips from side to side?" (46-51)


CIRCLE THREE: GLUTTONY 
Canto VI:
Cerberus--the Gluttons 
Ciacco's political prophesies: through Ciacco's mouth, Dante retrospectively foretells the Florentine infightings that caused his lifelong banishment from his native land. 
In what ways does Cerberus reflect the gluttons' sins? 

CIRCLE FOUR: GREED
CIRCLE FIVE: WRATH

Canto VII: Circles 4 and 5--Plutus--the Hoarders and the Wasteful; the Wrathful and the Sullen 
Why does Plutus guard the clerical sinners? 
Why are the avaricious and the profligates condemned when Dame Fortune has favored them? 


Canto VIII: Descent to Circle 6 via the Styx--Phlegyas--the Fallen Angels 
The entrance of Dis

CIRCLE SIX: HERESY
Canto IX: the Heretics 

The Furies and Medusa

Canto X: the Heretics and the Epicureans 
Farinata and Cavalcanti the elder
Heretics (skeptics) are unable to know the present while given the foreknowledge of the future 
Farinata's love of Florence and its dialect (Tuscan) is juxtaposed with Cavalcanti's fierce love for his son, Guido.


Canto XI: 
Dante and Virgil rest by the tomb of Anastasius the Pope
Why is violence against self a condemnable sin?
​According to the Old Testament (especially Genesis) why is usury a sin? 

CIRCLE SEVEN: VIOLENCE
Canto XII: the Minotaur--the Centaurs--the Violent against Neighbors

What is the sin Alexander the Great and Attila have committed? 
​
Canto XIII: Round 2--Harpies--the Violent against Themselves (Suicides)
What mode of punishment do suicides face? 
Why does Dante gather  scattered leaves and return them to the plant?


Canto XIV: Round 3--the Violent against God, Nature, and Art 
How does Dante define blasphemy in this canto?
Why and how are the blasphemers scorched from below and above?
According to Dante, what is the origin story of the Acheron, Phlegethon, Styx, and Cocytus?

 
Canto XV: Round 3--the Violent against Nature
It is the night before Good Friday in 1300 when the persona Dante embarks his allegorical journey. What does Brunetto prophesize about Dante's future?
What "unnatural" sin did Brunetto Latini allegedly commit? 

​
Canto XVI: Round 3--the Violent against Nature and Art 
How does Dante summon the beast Geryon? 

Canto XVII: Round 3--Geryon--the Violent against Art
Why does each of wraiths in this round carry an enormous purse?

CIRCLE 8: MALEBOLGE: FRAUD 
Canto XVIII: Bolgias 1 and 2--the Panderers and Seducers

What sin did Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, commit and what is his punishment?

Canto XXIX: Bolgia 10--the Falsifiers 

Canto XXX: Bolgia 10--The Falsifiers (Evil Impersonators, Counterfeiters, and False Witnesses) 

Canto XXXI: the Central Pit of Malebolge--the Giants 
Single out one epic simile and discuss its function in vivifying the central pit and the giants.

CIRCLE 9: COCYTUS: TREACHERY
Canto XXXII: Caina and Antenora--Compound Fraud, the Treacherous to Kin and to Country 

How are brother killers punished?
How are traitors punished?

​
Canto XXXIII: Antenora and Ptolomea--Compound Fraud, the Treacherous to Country and to Hospitality 
​
Canto XXXIV: Judecca and the Center of Hell--the Treacherous to Their Masters 
Why do you think Lucifer gnaws Brutus and Cassius alongside Judas? 
According to Dante, why is Inferno located in the center of the earth? 

The Purgatorio

SHORE of the ISLAND
Canto I
Canto II

Canto III
Canto IV
Canto V
Canto VI
Why do you think this canto is longer than the others? 
Why does Dante use multiple apostrophes in addressing the absentee figures such as Italy (lines 79-99), Albert of Austria (100-129), and Florence (130-155)? 
​

Canto VII

Canto VIII: Ante-Purgatory--The Flowering Valley--The Negligent Rulers 

How do such Biblical allusions as the Serpent and celestial falcons characterize the Flowering Valley?

Canto IX: The Gate of Purgatory--The Angel Guardian 
How are the poets transported to the Golden Gate?

FIRST CORNICE: PRIDE
Canto X: the Whip of Pride 

What does the "needle's eye" (16) symbolize? 
Canto XI
Read lines 58-117 and discuss how pride of birth, pride of talent, and pride of temporal power are exemplified by the three penitents. 

SECOND CORNICE: ENVY: CANTOS 13-15

THIRD CORNICE: WRATH: CANTOS 15-18

FOURTH CORNICE: SLOTH: CANTOS 18-19
Canto XVIII: the Fourth Cornice--the Slothful--the Whip of Sloth--the Rein of Sloth 

What is the means of penitence that the slothful go through for purification? Read lines 88-114 carefully.

Canto XIX: the Ascent to the Fifth Cornice--the Slothful and the Avaricious 
What does Dante's dream of the Siren signify? Read lines 7-36 carefully.

FIFTH CORNICE: AVARICE: CANTOS 19-22
Canto XX: the Hoarders and Wasters--the Whip of Avarice and the Rein of Avarice 


Canto XXI: the Avaricious--Statius 
According to Statius, what is the cause of the earthquakes? 

Canto XXII: the Ascent to the Sixth Cornice--the Gluttons--the Tree and the Whip of Gluttony 
​
SIXTH CORNICE: GLUTTONY: CANTOS 23--25
Canto XXIII: the Gluttons 

What does OMO represent in Lines 31-42?

Canto XXIV: the Tree of Knowledge
How is the Rein of Gluttony allegorized in this canto?

Canto XXV: the Ascent to Seventh Cornice--the Whip of Lust
According to Statius, how can the shadows be emaciated? What do you think of the gendered division between the soul and the body as Statius compares them?  

SEVENTH CORNICE: LUST: CANTOS 26-27
Canto XXVI: the Rein of Lust
How are the two groups of the lustful different from each other? And how do they mirror each other? 

Canto XXVII: the Wall of Fire--the Angel of Chastity 
Why do you think Dante has a prophetic dream about Leah and Rachel?

THE EARTHLY PARADISE: CANTOS 28-33
Symbolism of the Seven Heavenly Virtues 

Three Theological Virtues: Hope, Faith, and Charity
Four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance 
​

Canto XXVIII: the Earthly Paradise (Garden of Eden)--Lethe 
Why can't Virgil and Statius accompany Dante any further?
According to Matilda, what are the two rivers that flow away from the Earthly Paradise? And what are their functions? 


Canto XXIX: the Banks of Lethe--the Heavenly Pageant 
What do you think Griffin, half-eagle and half-lion, signify? 

​Canto XXX: Virgil Vanishes--Beatrice
At last, we meet Beatrice. What do you think her white veil, olive crown, green cloak, and red flame skirting her cloak signify? 
Read lines 121-132 and discuss the allegorical function Beatrice plays in Dante's writing. 


Canto XXXI: Lethe--Beatrice and Matilda

Canto XXXII: Beatrice Unveiled--Departure of the Heavenly Pageant  
Read lines 94-162 and summarize Dante's mythologized version of the history of the Catholic Church. 
Who is the Harlot seated on the Beast? 


Canto XXXIII: Eunoe--Dante's Purification Completed 
What is the last word of The Purgatorio and what do you think it signified? 
​

The Paradiso

The First Sphere: The Moon (the Inconstant)
Canto I
Read and analyze Dante's invocation of Apollo (lines 13-36).

Canto II
Analyze the diction and imagery used in the Moon landing tercets (lines 19-42). 

Canto III
Why are Piccarda and Constance relegated to the lowest sphere?

Canto IV
Why is Dante troubled about Piccarda's placement and how does Beatrice expound the absolute will and the conditional will? 

Canto V
What consequence did Jephthah and Agamemnon have to suffer after making headlong vows?

The Second Sphere: Mercury (the Ambitious) Emperor Justinian 
Canto VI
Canto VII

The Third Sphere: Venus (the Lovers)
Canto VIII
Canto IX
In what ways are Folquet and Rahab different from Dido, "she of Rhodope," and Hercules?
How can Florence, according to Folquet's prophecy, reform its corrupt ways (lines 127-43)? 

The Fourth Sphere: the Sun (the Wise)
Canto X (Twelve Holy Fathers: Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Gratian, Peter Lombard, King Solomon, Dionysius the Areopagite, Orosius, Boethius, Isidore of Seville, Bede, Richard of Saint Victor, and Siger of Brabant)
Which church father introduces the twelve Holy Men to Dante and Beatrice?


Canto XI
What characteristics does Aquinas ascribe to Saint Francis and the Franciscan Order?

Canto XII
What characteristics does Bonaventure ascribe to Saint Dominic and the Dominican Order? 
Analyze the literary devices Dante employs in lines 7-30.


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