Dante’s Inferno (first circle of Hell)
Introduction
This paper explores Dante Alighieri’s first part of his poem Divine Comedy called inferno (hell). The poem which is guided by the Roman poet Virgil tells the journey of Dante, an Italian writer journey through hell. This paper pays attention to Dante’s experience in the first circle of hell, how he describes the circle, the people he encounters in the circle and, the people he criticizes and why he criticizes them for being in this circle. The paper also contextualizes the works of Dante to the time the work was written in the 1300s and published in the mid-13th century.
Dante describes the first circle of hell (limbo) as a place for the unbaptized and the virtuous pagans who did not accept Christ but were not sinful enough to warrant damnation (Alighieri, 27). According to Dante, the first circle is entered when you cross Acheron rivered ushered by Charon; you think yourself in the deep valley which sets one at the brink of grief (10). Here you are said to be in Limbo, where there is no torment but full of sorrow. There is a castle of seven calls that has the light of reason illuminated fresh meadows which acts as the dwelling place of many shadows. Here, you encounter unbaptized children, the virtuous pagans, great authors and philosophers and all the people who are not supposed to be in heaven. In your company, you have Virgil, Caesar, Socrates, Homer, and Aristotle (Dante, 12). In this phase, there is a sad atmosphere even though there is no punishment and there is plenty of peace. These people are here because they did not recognize and accept Jesus Christ as their savior. They are not sinful enough to be punished. They are the people who chose human virtue instead of Christ and hence they have their reward here. The only punishment here is the lack of choice to enter heaven. Since they were not baptized, they lack the hope of anything more significant than they could imagine with their minds. According to Virgil, people have left Limbo in the help of Jesus who took them to Heaven, some of them include, Moses, Noah, David, Adam, Rachael, Abel, and Abraham (Dante, 14). Dante is contained in a list of poets such as Horace, Ovid, Homer, and Lucan. Dante and the rest of the poets reside at the base of the castle which was the place for the antiquity’s wisest men. These people are here because they were not sinful enough to be punished nor were they righteous enough to go to heaven but instead they are “in between”- limbo because they did not get baptized as a symbol of accepting Christ (Dante, 15).
In the inferno, Dante Criticizes church leaders and monks (including popes and cardinals). He accuses them of Greed, avarice, and lust for material gains. (Alighieri, 47). Dante showers scornful wrath on these people for this iniquity. He backs up the biblical verse that avarice is the beginning of all evil. The medieval Christians viewed this sin as the most offensive, and it is the source of all political and ethical corruption in the world (Alighieri, 60). Envy, pride, and avarice are also regarding as the main vices that lead to Florentine hearts. Dante suggests that there should be no mercy for cases of lust, greed, and gluttony. Avarice is among the capital offences punished in the fourth circle of hell. The Monks and church leaders are condemned for committing these sins in ways that are hidden so that they can keep on committing them without being recognized. They are accused of spending without measure. It is for the first time that Dante uses the moderation classical principle to criticize these two groups for their excessive desire for material things and for spending too much of people’s wealth without measure. According to him, these two groups insult and punish each other in the life to come (Dante, 223).
At the time Dante was writing the Divine Comedy, there were lots of tremendous shifts in the Italian peninsula and his Florence native home. Italy was not yet unified before the 15th century. At that time Dante was only speaking of an ideal Italy that later came to be in 1861. There was a lot of political conflict and factional violence in Florence despite tremendous growth in terms of influence and commerce. There was a divide between the Guelfs who supported the pope and the Ghibellines who supported the emperor. Florence took control of the land in 1269 when they defeated the Ghibellines. There were those who still wanted the return of the emperor and those who wanted the pope to reign forever. Some families were barred from governmental positions a fact that led to more conflict between the blacks and the whites (Longfellow, 123).
According to Fowlie (85), it was during this time that Dante got involved in this political and other commercial issues in poetry and his life. Fowlie posits that Dante was also involved in government leadership when he was elected as one of the six priors (112). The poet was exiled when the blacks gained power, and that is why he writes the Divine Comedy to bring to the light the politics of Florence and the connection that existed between the Empire and the Church and well as the evils that were predominant in the society. The writing by Dante reflects what used to happen in the rest of the Italian peninsula, where each city had a different political affiliation. It was during that time that Dante got fed up with the pretence of the monks and the church leaders who claimed that they would take people to heaven when they were not righteous (Longfellow 47). He also investigated the lives of great philosophers and authors who led a good life that was in line with human virtue. These are among those who never believed in Jesus Christ. Further, he wrote about the punishments that would be available at different levels of hell for different types of sinners. The patronage of people such as Guido and Cangrande made Dante devote his life to the pursuit of poetry (Longfellow, 67).
Conclusion
In conclusion, from Dante’s Inferno, he plunges to the high depths of Hell and his journey towards God. Dante describes the first circle as the place for people who were not sinful enough to warrant punishment but were not righteous enough to go to heaven particularly because they were not baptized (Alighieri, 13). In this first circle, his allegory Dante implies that it is the place for all virtuous non-Christians. According to Fowlie (134), the Limbo is the first circle of the nine concentric circles of hell whereby the circles are arranged systematically according to the sins of the people found therein moving from better to worse. The people he sees in the circle include poets like Ovid, Horace, Homer and Lucan. He criticizes church leaders accusing them of greed, lust and material gains. His work fits into the period that was written in the 1300s as Dante sought to warn the church leaders who claimed to take people to heaven while still, they were unrighteous (Alighieri, 362). Dante possibly tries to warn them that their place is not the real heaven but the first circle (inferno) which corresponded to their deeds. Thus, Dante’s Inferno is full of intellect and humor with a soaring passion to create an everlasting Christian allegory of the desire for humanity to search for spiritual enlightenment and self-knowledge. It is a warning for people especially Christians to consider their deeds as they seek to go to heaven as some may be held in limbo (who did not entirely devote to God).
Works Cited
Alighieri, Dante. Dante’s Inferno. Indiana University Press, 1995.
Dante, Alighieri. The divine comedy. Aegis, 2017.
Fowlie, Wallace. A reading of Dante’s Inferno. University of Chicago Press, 1981.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Divine comedy of Dante Alighieri, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Vol. 11. Riverside Press, 1886.