Creative Writing Dante's Comedy

So many people are talking about the Divine Comedy lately, I figured we should have a whole discussion just for Alighieri's most famous work.
I don't really have anything to say right now, so feel free to jump in.
Anyway, now that other thread doesn't have to be so bogged down.

 

Hey, do you think that Cassius and Brutus deserved to be in the inner circle of Hell? From Dante's perspective, they did since they killed the great Julius Ceasar and were therefore enemies of Rome, but consider the Cassius and Brutus shown in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar or other works that are more sympathetic to them. Did these mean really deserve to be in Hell?

It also annoyed me that Dante placed Oddyseus in Hell. Why, oh why did Europeans hold Vergil in such high standing and Homer in such low. I guess its the Christian connection.

(Does this fit the thread? I'm not sure. :sweat2: Oh well.)

 

Dante is a very intersting guy. He's pretty vain too, but who wouldn't be.

Yeah, I don't know if Cassius and Brutus rank the same as Judas in historic betrayl, but Dante was Italian.

I'd have to agree about Odysseus too. Dante has a big time grudge against him. It may have to do with the Aenied. Virgil wrote it as a more illustrous history of Rome making them the descendants of the Trojans from Aeneas. So I guess since Dante feels that Italy is descendant from Troy the Greeks are the bad guys.

 

It just gets on my nerves since Vergil's writing was inspired by Homer's poems. Personal, I always thought Aeneas was kind of a jerk. :anime: After all, he was pulled from the battlefield during the Trojan War by his mother, Aphrodite, and he lost two duels before that. Then again, Achilles was a momma's boy too, and Odysseus cheated on his wife, so maybe I should leave Aeneas alone.

Was anyone surprised that Hell was frozen in the inner circles instead of being in flames? I admit that I was a little surprised when I first read it.

 

Well, the whole Aenied was a copy off of Homer's style so your anger is justified. I liked Aeneas more than Odyseuss though. I thought he was a little nicer. Like if Penelope was killed, Odyseuss would probably be mad that his property was ruined, kill the person, and wonder if she cheated on him after thats what he just did to her. But I guess Aeneas is a bit of a wimp. :anime:

The ice was surprising. You'd think the farther down you go the hotter its gets, but I guess they didn't know about the mantle then. :anime:

I was shocked at how snappy Dante was after doing all that fainting in the beginning. When he was going across the ice, and kicked one of the men's heads he flipped out and start chewing the guy out. I know its hell and all but still.

 

Brutus was romanticized in Shakespeare's play, but Cassius is still a villain in it so I don't know where you guys thought he was a more likable guy in it. Still, I have no problem with both of them being with Judas - Regardless of Brutus' aching heart, he still betrayed Caesar.

A more interesting question is whether Dante was bigoted in his views to non-Christians, Jews and Muslims. I actually wrote an essay about that in high school. He was obviously a hard-line Catholic, and his condemning of the great Greek thinkers to Limbo and guys like Caiaphas and Mohammed to Hell raises a lot of eyebrows nowadays (I think most Muslim countries have banned the book).

As for the inner circles being cold, Hell was originally supposed to be the hottest AND coldest place in existence. The latter part has just been forgotten in the last couple of years.

Like everyone else, I loved Inferno, but Purgatorio and Paradiso was huge disappointments. Paradiso in particular - There were so many cool angels Dante could have written into it but didn't.

 

Betrayal is betrayal. From Dante's perspective there was no grey area on this issue. Also remember that Dante was born in the 13th century, and Shakespeare would not rear his ugly head for several centuries.
Dante's alleged "bigotry" should be expected. He was an Italian in the 13th century, so you can expect some hard-core pro-Christian stuff, what with the Catholic Church's slightly-less-than-open-minded attitude at the time. Still, you can't condemn him for this. The Crusades were still fresh in everyone's minds at this time, and other than the first, the Christian contribution was largely just Europeans getting brutally defeated. And don't forget about all that business in Spain. If your people were at war with someone else, you probably wouldn't paint too pretty a picture of their heros either.
I read somewhere that while Homer emphasized Odysseus as a great warrior and hero, Virgil portrayed him as more or less just an opportunist, and kind of a jerk. So, considering Virgil's impact on Dante (not just as his guide in the poem, but also his role as the biggest influence on Dante's writing and his favourite classical author), it is no surprise that Odysseus is condemned.

Just a side-note, does anyone else think it's odd that we all call Dante by his first name rather than his last?

 

I think we say Dante because it's a lot easier to pronounce and remember.

 

That is a little weird. I guess I call him that because that's what my teachers called him. :sweat2: Then again, everyone refers to Leonardo DaVinci by his last name which was originally just a way to tell where he was from. So basically everyone is referring to him as "of Vinci" :anime: Dante is the opposite, I guess.