690 years ago Dante Alighieri wrote his Divine Comedy. Why comedy and why "divine"? What is more in this work: political satire or Catholic doctrine? These and other questions of "Thomas" were answered by the priest and philologist.
1. Why did Dante call his work a comedy and what is the epithet "Divine" associated with?
There were two apparent reasons to call his work a comedy, and not a tragedy, for Dante. And both of them are substantiated by the then literary canons. Firstly, these are the features of the development of the plot: the mournful and terrible narration at the beginning ends with a joyful end, which is typical of comedies. Secondly, works that belonged to the genres of "high literature" were then written exclusively in Latin. Dante wrote his Comedy in Italian.
The epithet "divine" does not belong to Dante at all. So they began to call her later. There is an opinion that Boccaccio was the first to call it that, having come into admiration from what he read.
2. How did this work influence world literature and culture?
The Divine Comedy by Dante is traditionally included in the set of ten most famous works at least Western European literature. Many writers and poets drew their inspiration from him, let us recall from close to us, for example, Akhmatova's poem "Dante":
Il mio bel San Giovanni
He never returned even after his death.
To old Florence.
Torch, night, last embrace,
Behind the threshold is the wild cry of fate ...
He sent her a curse from hell
And in paradise I could not forget her, -
But barefoot, in a repentant shirt,
With a lit candle did not pass
According to your desired Florence,
Treacherous, low, long-awaited ...
Spill
The Divine Comedy had a very great influence on the emergence of Italian literature proper, since it is one of those texts where Italian was formed. literary language. It is important to note here that this language was formed on the basis of a work that affects the fundamental contexts Christian doctrine: life and immortality of the soul, retribution and responsibility, afterlife. In this regard, it can be said that the Italians later, like the French with such texts by Calvin as "Instruction in the Christian Faith", the Germans with translations of Luther's Bible and his other doctrinal works were very lucky: their literary language was formed simultaneously with the language of theology. And in this respect for European culture the paradigm given by Dante must be very, very significant.
3. What is more in this work - the political background or the spiritual search of the author?
Yes, indeed, Dante updated his plots, but there was hardly any special intention of the author in this. If we remember not only the Western, but also the Eastern images of the Last Judgment, we will see that the faces depicted on them are often very personified. They correspond to the realities of their time. For example, in modern Dante frescoes, voluptuaries were depicted as usurers. So here, the fact that the presented faces are recognizable and have some political allusions is a completely traditional artistic device.
4. Is it possible to get something more from reading this book than just the aesthetic pleasure of good literature?
First, I sincerely wish someone to read it in its entirety. Because even philologists very often limit themselves to the excerpts that are in anthologies. I sincerely rejoice for the hypothetical reader who not only says that he has read The Divine Comedy, but actually read it. Can this give something to modern religious experience? Here I believe that for a person who already lives some kind of intense life in the fence of the church, it is unlikely. Because he has more direct sources both for acquiring the skill of communion with God and for understanding the faith of his own church. And for a person outside the church, but somehow thinking about his path, I do not exclude that the "Divine Comedy" can become one of the impetuses for rethinking his worldview in the proper approximation to the Christian.
5. Does Dante's afterlife correspond to Christian doctrine?
I think we can say that this is a fairly accurate reflection of the traditional scholastic views of the Catholic Church, which, by the way, never came out either during his lifetime or after Dante's death with any criticism of what he wrote.
It is clear that these ideas have serious differences with the teaching Orthodox Church. Chief among which is the doctrine of purgatory, i.e. about the average state between heaven and hell, where the absolute majority of people fall in the actual Catholic view. These are the people who are not unrepentant sinners, but also whose measure of virtue and repentance is not such as to let them go straight to paradise. In Orthodoxy there is no teaching about such an average state, which must be served before you are allowed into paradise.
Well, some details associated with circles, with the structures of hell, purgatory and paradise, the fate of unbaptized babies and other things - these are typical medieval ideas, which to some extent are shared even by the modern Catholic Church.
Photo by Alexander Bolmasov
SAINT PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY
CULTURE AND ARTS
ABSTRACT
at the rate: FOREIGN LITERATURE
Subject: "Dante Alighieri and his "Divine Comedy" as a standard of Italian Renaissance literature"
PERFORMED:
2nd YEAR STUDENT
LIBRARY AND INFORMATION
OFFICES
CORRESPONDENCE TRAINING
A. V. FOMINYKH
TEACHER: KOZLOVA V. I.
Introduction ................................................ ................................................. .............3
Chapter 1. Biography of the poet............................................... ........................................4
Chapter 2. Dante's "Divine Comedy" .................7
Conclusion................................................. ................................................. ........14
Bibliography............................................... ......................15
INTRODUCTION
The study of the literature of the Italian Renaissance begins with an examination of the work of the great predecessor of the Renaissance, the Florentine Dante Alighieri (Dante Alighieri, 1265 - 1321), the first of the great poets of Western Europe.
By the whole nature of his work, Dante is a poet of transitional times, standing at the turn of two great historical eras.
The main work of Dante, on which his world fame is primarily based, is the Divine Comedy. The poem is not only the result of the development of Dante's ideological, political and artistic thought, but provides a grandiose philosophical and artistic synthesis of the entire medieval culture, while at the same time throwing a bridge from it to the culture of the Renaissance. Precisely as the author of the Divine Comedy, Dante is at the same time the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of modern times.
Chapter 1. Biography of the poet
Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265. The poet came from an old noble family. However, the Dante family has long lost its feudal appearance; already the poet's father belonged, like himself, to the Guelph party.
Having reached adulthood, Dante enrolled in 1283 in the guild of pharmacists and doctors, which also included booksellers and artists and belonged to the seven "senior" guilds of Florence.
Dante received an education in the volume of the medieval school, which he himself recognized as meager, and sought to fill it with the study of French and Provencal languages, which opened him access to the best examples of foreign literature.
Along with the medieval poets, the young Dante carefully studied the ancient poets and, first of all, Virgil, whom he chose, in his own words, as his "leader, master and teacher."
The main passion of the young Dante was poetry. He began to write poetry early and already in the early 80s of the XIII century. wrote many lyrical poems, almost exclusively of love content. At the age of 18, he experienced a great psychological crisis - love for Beatrice, daughter of the Florentine Folco Portinari, a friend of his father, subsequently
married to a nobleman.
The story of his love for Beatrice Dante outlined in a small book, New Life, which brought him literary fame.
After the death of Beatrice, the poet engaged in an intensive study of theology, philosophy and astronomy, and also learned all the subtleties of medieval scholasticism. Dante became one of the most learned people of his time, but his learning was typically medieval in nature, as it was subject to theological dogmas.
Dante's political activity began very early. Barely reaching adulthood, he takes part in the military enterprises of the Florentine commune and fights on the side of the Guelphs against the Ghibellines.
In the 90s, Dante sat in city councils and carried out diplomatic missions, and in June 1300 he was elected a member of the college of six priors that ruled Florence.
After the split of the Guelph party, he joined the Whites and vigorously fought against the orientation towards the papal curia. After the Blacks were defeated by the Whites, Pope Boniface VIII intervened in their struggle, calling for help from the French prince Charles of Valois, who entered the city in November 1301 and massacred the supporters of the White party, accusing them of all kinds of crimes.
In January 1302, the blow fell on the great poet. Dante was sentenced to a heavy fine on a trumped-up charge of bribery. Fearing the worst, the poet fled from Florence, after which all his property was confiscated. Dante spent all the rest of his life in exile, wandering from city to city, he fully learned “how bitter is the bread of a stranger”, and never again saw Florence dear to his heart - “a beautiful sheepfold where he slept like a lamb”.
Life in exile significantly changed political beliefs
Dante. Full of anger against Florence, he came to the conclusion that her citizens had not yet grown up to defend their interests on their own. More and more, the poet is inclined to believe that only the imperial power can pacify and unite Italy, giving a decisive rebuff to the papal power. He pinned the hope for the implementation of this program on Emperor Henry VII, who appeared in Italy in 1310, allegedly to restore “order” and eliminate the internecine strife of Italian cities, in fact, with the aim of robbing them. But Dante saw in Henry the desired "messiah" and vigorously agitated for him, sending Latin letters in all directions.
messages. However, Henry VII died in 1313 before he could occupy Florence.
Now Dante's last hopes of returning to his homeland have collapsed. Florence crossed his name twice from the amnestied list, because she saw him as an implacable enemy. The offer made to him in 1316 to return to Florence under the condition of humiliating public repentance, Dante resolutely rejected. The poet spent the last years of his life in Ravenna with Prince Guido da Polenta, the nephew of Francesca da Rimini, whom he sang.
Here Dante worked to complete his great poem, written during the years of exile. He hoped that poetic fame would bring him an honorable return to his homeland, but did not live to see it.
Dante died on September 14, 1321 in Ravenna. He remained faithful to the end of his mission as a poet of justice. Subsequently, Florence repeatedly made attempts to regain the ashes of the great exile, but Ravenna always refused her.
Chapter 2. Dante's Divine Comedy
The title of the poem needs clarification. Dante himself called it simply “Comedy”, using this word in a purely medieval sense: in the poetics of that time, any work with a happy beginning and a sad end was called a tragedy, and any work with a sad beginning and a happy, happy end was called a comedy. Thus, the concept of "comedy" in the time of Dante did not include the installation necessarily cause laughter. As for the epithet “divine” in the title of the poem, it does not belong to Dante and was established no earlier than the 16th century, and not with the aim of denoting the religious content of the poem, but solely as an expression of its poetic perfection.
Like other works of Dante, The Divine Comedy is distinguished by an unusually clear, thoughtful composition. The poem is divided into three large parts (“canticles”), dedicated to the image of the three parts of the underworld (according to the teachings of the Catholic Church) - hell, purgatory and paradise. Each of the three canticles consists of 33 songs, and one more song (the first) is added to the first canticle, which has the character of a prologue to the entire poem.
For all the originality of Dante's artistic method, his poem has numerous medieval sources. The plot of the poem reproduces the scheme of the popular in medieval clerical literature genre of "visions" or "walking through the torment", that is, poetic stories about how a person managed to see the secrets of the afterlife.
The task of medieval “visions” was the desire to distract a person from worldly fuss, show him the sinfulness of earthly life and encourage him to turn his thoughts to afterlife. Dante, on the other hand, uses the form of “visions” in order to most fully reflect real, earthly life; he does judgment on human crimes and vices not for the sake of
denial of earthly life as such, but with the aim of correcting it. Dante does not lead a person away from reality, but immerses a person into it.
Depicting hell, Dante showed in it a whole gallery of living people endowed with various passions. He is perhaps the first in Western European literature to make the subject of poetry the image of human passions, and in order to find full-blooded human images, he descends into the afterlife. Unlike medieval “visions”, which gave the most general, schematic representation of sinners, Dante concretizes and individualizes their images.
The afterlife is not opposed to real life, but continues it, reflecting the relationships that exist in it. In Dante's hell, as on earth, political passions rage. Sinners have conversations and disputes with Dante on contemporary political topics. Proud Ghibelline Farinata degli Uberti, punished in hell among heretics, is still full of hatred for the Guelphs and talks about politics with Dante, although he is imprisoned in a fiery grave. In general, the poet retains in the afterlife all the political passion inherent in him and, at the sight of the suffering of his enemies, bursts into abuse against them. The very idea of afterlife retribution acquires political overtones in Dante. It is no coincidence that many of Dante's political enemies reside in hell, and his friends live in paradise.
Fantastic in its overall design, Dante's poem is built entirely from pieces of real life. So, when describing the torment of the covetous, thrown into boiling tar, Dante recalls the marine arsenal in Venice, where ships are caulked in melted tar (“Hell”, canto XXI). At the same time, the demons make sure that sinners do not float up, and push them with hooks into the pitch, as cooks “heat meat with forks in a cauldron.” In other cases, Dante illustrates the described torment of sinners with pictures of nature. So, for example, he compares traitors immersed in an icy lake with frogs, who
from the pond” (Ode XXXII). The punishment of crafty advisers, enclosed in fiery tongues, reminds Dante of a valley filled with fireflies on a quiet evening in Italy (Canto XXVI). The more unusual the objects and phenomena described by Dante, the more he strives to visually present them to the reader, comparing them with well-known things.
So, “Hell” is characterized by a gloomy color, thick sinister colors, among which red and black dominate. They are replaced in “Purgatory” by softer, pale and misty colors - gray-blue, greenish, golden. This is due to the appearance in purgatory of wildlife - the sea, rocks, verdant meadows and trees. Finally, in "Paradise" dazzling brilliance and transparency, radiant colors; paradise is the abode of the purest light, harmonious movement and music of the spheres.
Particularly expressive is one of the most terrible episodes of the poem - the episode with Ugolino, whom the poet meets in the ninth circle of hell, where the greatest (from Dante's point of view) crime - betrayal - is punished. Ugolino furiously gnaws the neck of his enemy, Archbishop Ruggeri, who, having unjustly accused him of treason, locked him with his sons in a tower and starved him to death.
Terrible is Ugolino's story about the torments he experienced in the terrible tower, where before his eyes his four sons died of starvation one after another, and where he, in the end, mad with hunger, attacked their corpses.
Allegorism is of great importance.
So, for example, in the first song of his poem, Dante tells how “in the middle of his life path”he got lost in a dense forest and was almost torn to pieces by three terrible beasts - a lion, a she-wolf and a panther. He is led out of this forest by Virgil, whom Beatrice sent to him. The entire first song of the poem is a solid allegory. In religious and moral terms, it is interpreted as follows: a dense forest - the earthly existence of a person, full of sinful delusions, three animals - three
the main vices that destroy a person (the lion - pride, the she-wolf - greed, the panther - voluptuousness), Virgil, delivering the poet from them, is earthly wisdom (philosophy, science), Beatrice - heavenly wisdom (theology), which is subject to earthly wisdom (mind - threshold of faith). All sins entail a form of punishment that allegorically depicts the state of mind of people covered by this vice. For example, the voluptuous are condemned to forever spin in a hellish whirlwind, symbolically depicting the whirlwind of their passion. Just as symbolic are the punishments of the angry (they are immersed in a stinking swamp in which they fiercely fight each other), tyrants (they wallow in boiling blood), usurers (heavy purses hang around their necks, bending them to the ground), sorcerers and soothsayers ( their heads are turned back, since during their lifetime they boasted of the imaginary ability to know the future), hypocrites (they are wearing lead robes, gilded on top), traitors and traitors (they are subjected to various tortures with cold, symbolizing their cold heart). Purgatory and paradise are filled with the same moral allegories. According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, those sinners who are not condemned to eternal torment and can still be cleansed of their sins are in purgatory. The inner process of this purification is symbolized by the seven letters P (the initial letter Latin word peccatum - “sin”), inscribed with the sword of an angel on the forehead of the poet and denoting the seven deadly sins; these letters are erased one by one as Dante goes through the circles of purgatory. Dante's guide through purgatory is still Virgil, who gives him long instructions about the mysteries of divine justice, about the free will of man, etc. Having climbed with Dante along the ledges of the rocky mountain of purgatory to the earthly paradise, Virgil leaves him, because further ascent to him, as a pagan, inaccessible.
Virgil is replaced by Beatrice, who becomes
Dante's guide through the heavenly paradise, for in order to contemplate the divine reward given to the righteous for their merits, earthly wisdom is no longer sufficient: heavenly, religious wisdom is needed - theology, personified in the image of the poet's beloved. She ascends from one celestial sphere to another, and Dante flies after her, carried away by the power of his love. His love is now cleansed of everything earthly, sinful. It becomes a symbol of virtue and religion, and its ultimate goal is the contemplation of God, who himself is "love that moves the sun and other stars."
In addition to the moral and religious meaning, many images and situations of the Divine Comedy have a political meaning: the dense forest symbolizes the anarchy that reigns in Italy and gives rise to the three above-mentioned vices. Dante carries through his entire poem the idea that earthly life is a preparation for a future eternal life. On the other hand, he reveals a passionate interest in earthly life and reconsiders from this point of view a number of church dogmas and prejudices. So, for example, outwardly identifying with the teaching of the church about the sinfulness of carnal love and placing the voluptuous in the second circle of hell, Dante internally protests against the cruel punishment that befell Francesca da Rimini, who was deceived into marrying Gianciotto Malatesta, ugly and lame, instead of his brother Paolo, whom she loved.
Dante critically revisits the ascetic ideals of the church in other respects as well. Agreeing with the church teaching about the vanity and sinfulness of striving for glory and honors, at the same time, through the mouth of Virgil, he praises the striving for glory. He extols another property of a person, just as severely condemned by the church - the inquisitiveness of the mind, the thirst for knowledge, the desire to go beyond the narrow circle of ordinary things and ideas. A striking illustration of this trend is the wonderful image of Ulysses (Odysseus), who is executed among other evil
advisers. Ulysses tells Dante about his thirst to "explore the world's far horizons." He describes his journey and thus conveys the words with which he encouraged his weary companions:
O brothers, - so I said, - into the sunset
Those who came along the difficult road,
That short period, while they still do not sleep
Earthly feelings, their remnant is meager
Give in to the comprehension of novelty,
To follow the sun to see the deserted world!
Think about whose sons you are
You were not created for animal fate,
But they were born to valor and knowledge.
("Hell," Ode XXVI.)
In the nineteenth canto of Inferno, talking about the punishment of popes who sell church positions, Dante compares them to the harlot of the Apocalypse and angrily exclaims:
Silver and gold are now God for you;
And even those who pray to the idol,
They honor one, - you honor a hundred at once.
But Dante condemned not only the greed and greed of the popes and princes of the church. He threw the same accusation against the greedy bourgeoisie of the Italian communes, in particular he reproached his Florentine compatriots for their thirst for profit, for he considered money to be the main source of evil, the main reason for the decline of morality in Italian society. Through the mouth of his ancestor, the knight of Kachchagvida, a participant in the second crusade, he paints in the XV song of Paradise a wonderful picture of ancient Florence, in which
simplicity of morals prevailed, there was no pursuit of money and the luxury and debauchery generated by it:
Florence within the ancient walls,
Where the clock still strikes terts, nones,
Sober, modest, lived without change.
This idealization of the good old days is not at all an expression of Dante's backwardness. Dante is very far from glorifying the world of feudal anarchy, violence and rudeness. But at the same time, he surprisingly sensitively discerned the basic properties of the emerging bourgeois system and recoiled from it with disgust and hatred. In this, he showed himself to be a deeply popular poet, breaking the narrow boundaries of both the feudal and bourgeois worldview.
CONCLUSION
Accepted by the people for whom it was written, Dante's poem became a kind of barometer of the Italian people's self-consciousness: interest in Dante either increased or fell according to the fluctuations of this self-consciousness. The Divine Comedy enjoyed particular success during the years of the national liberation movement of the 19th century, when Dante began to be praised as an exiled poet, a courageous fighter for the cause of the unification of Italy, who saw art as a powerful weapon in the struggle for a better future for mankind. This attitude towards Dante was also shared by Marx and Engels, who ranked him among the greatest classics of world literature. In the same way, Pushkin referred Dante's poem to the number of masterpieces of world art, in which "a vast plan is embraced by creative thought."
Dante is first and foremost a poet who still touches hearts. For us, the readers who today reveal the Comedy, what matters in Dante's poetry is poetry, not religious, ethical or political ideas. These ideas are long dead. But Dante's images live on.
Of course, if Dante had written only The Monarchy and The Feast, there would not have been a whole branch of science dedicated to his legacy. We carefully read every line of Dante's treatises, especially because they belong to the author of the Divine Comedy.
The study of Dante's worldview is essential not only for the history of Italy, but also for the history of world literature.
Bibliography:
Batkin, L. M. Dante and his time. Poet and politics / L. M. Batkin. - M. : Nauka, 1965. - 197 p.
Dante Alighieri. Divine Comedy / Dante Alighieri. - M. : Folio, 2001. - 608 p.
Dante Alighieri. Collected Works: In 2 vols. Vol. 2 / Dante Alighieri. - M. : Literature, Veche, 2001. - 608 p.
Dante, Petrarch / Translation. from Italian, foreword. and comment. E. Solonovich. - M.: Children's literature, 1983. - 207 p., ill.
History of world literature. In 9 vols. T. 3. - M .: Nauka, 1985. - 816 p.
Story foreign literature. Early Middle Ages and Renaissance / ed. Zhirmunsky V. M. - M .: State. study.-teacher. ed. Min. Enlightenment of the RSFSR, 1959. - 560 p.
Encyclopedia of literary heroes. Foreign literature. Antiquity. Middle Ages. In 2 books. Book 2. - M.: Olimp, AST, 1998. - 480 p.
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The main work of Dante, which brought the poet worldwide fame, is the Divine Comedy. The poem is not only the result of the development of Dante's ideological, political and artistic thought, but also provides a grandiose philosophical and artistic synthesis of the entire medieval culture, throwing a bridge from it to the culture of the Renaissance. Precisely as the author of the Divine Comedy, Dante appears at the same time last poet Middle Ages and the first poet of modern times. All the contradictions of Dante's ideology, reflected in his other works, all the diverse aspects of his work as a poet, philosopher, scientist, politician, publicist are merged here into a majestic, harmonious artistic whole.
The title of the poem needs clarification. Dante himself called it simply "Comedy", using this word in a purely medieval sense: in the poetics of that time, any work with a happy beginning and a sad end was called a tragedy, and any work with a sad beginning and a happy, happy end was called a comedy. As for the epithet "divine" in the title of the poem, it does not belong to Dante and was established in the 16th century, and by no means with the aim of denoting the religious content of the poem, but solely as an expression of its poetic perfection. The Divine Comedy is distinguished by an unusually clear, well-thought-out composition. The poem is divided into three large parts ("kantiki"), dedicated to the image of the three parts of the afterlife, according to the teachings of the Catholic Church - hell, purgatory, paradise. Each of the three canticles consists of 33 songs, and one more song (the first) is added to the first canticle, which has the character of a prologue to the entire poem. This is how the total number of 100 songs is obtained, with a ternary articulation carried out simultaneously through the entire poem, which finds expression even in the poetic size of the poem (it is written in three-line stanzas - terts).
The dominance of the numbers 3 and 9 in the compositional structure of the poem is explained by their mystical meaning. Already in the "New Life" number 9 mysteriously accompanied everyone significant events V personal life poet. It can be added here that each canticle ends with the same word "stars", that the name of Christ rhymes only with itself and is not mentioned at all in hell, like the name of the Virgin Mary, etc.
The poem has numerous medieval sources. The plot of the poem produces a scheme of the popular in medieval clerical literature genre of "visions" or "traveling through torment", i.e. poetic stories about how a person managed to see the secrets of the afterlife. The Divine Comedy also has ancient sources. From ancient sources highest value has Virgil's "Aeneid", which describes the descent of Aeneas to Tartarus in order to see his late father. The influence of the "Aeneid" on Dante was reflected not only in the borrowing of individual plot details from Virgil, but also in the transfer to the poem of the very figure of Virgil, depicted by Dante's guidebook during his wanderings through hell and purgatory. The pagan Virgil takes on the role in Dante's poem, which in medieval "visions" was usually played by an angel.
Depicting hell, Dante shows in it a whole gallery of living people endowed with various passions. He is perhaps the first in Western European literature to make the subject of poetry the image of human passions, and in order to find full-blooded human images, he descends into the afterlife. Unlike medieval "visions", which gave the most general, schematic representation of sinners, Dante concretizes and individualizes their images. All the characters in the Divine Comedy, especially its first canticle, which is artistically the most powerful, are deeply different from each other, although they are outlined with only two or three strokes. The ability to draw an image in the narrowest space is one of the main features of Dante's amazing poetic skill, which in this respect has no equal in all world poetry.
The afterlife is not opposed real life, but continues it, reflecting the relations existing in it. In Dante's hell, as on earth, political passions rage. Sinners have conversations and disputes with Dante on contemporary political topics. Proud Ghibelline Farinata degli Uberti, punished in hell among heretics, is still full of hatred for the Guelphs and talks about politics with Dante, although he is imprisoned in a fiery grave ("Hell", canto X). Dante admires the mighty will and heroism of Farinata, who saved his native city from ruin. In general, the poet retains in the afterlife all the political passion inherent in him and, at the sight of the suffering of his enemies, bursts into abuse at their address. The very idea of afterlife retribution acquires political overtones in Dante. It is no coincidence that many of Dante's political enemies reside in hell, and his friends live in paradise. Thus, the Roman popes, led by Nicholas III, are tormented in hell, while Emperor Henry VII has a place in the empyrean, in close proximity to God. The specific political orientation of the poem gives it a pronounced realistic character.
Fantastic in its overall design, Dante's poem is built entirely from pieces of real life. So, when describing the torment of the covetous, thrown into boiling tar, Dante recalls the naval arsenal in Venice, where ships are caulked in melted tar ("Hell", Ode XXI). At the same time, the demons make sure that the sinners do not float up, and push them with hooks into the tar, as cooks "drown meat with forks in a cauldron." In other cases, Dante describes the torment of sinners with pictures of nature. So, for example, he compares traitors immersed in an icy lake with a frog, which "puts out to croak, a stigma from a pond" (Ode XXXII). The punishment of crafty advisers, imprisoned in evil tongues, reminds Dante of a valley filled with fireflies on a quiet evening in Italy (Canto XXVI). The poet accurately indicates the distance from one step of the mountain of purgatory to another, saying that it is equal to the height of three people. When he needs to give the reader an idea of the Gardens of Eden, he does not hesitate to compare them with the flowering gardens of his beautiful homeland. An unusually developed sense of nature, the ability to convey its beauty and originality make Dante already a man of the new time, for medieval man was alien to such an intense interest in the external, material world.
This interest is also reflected in Dante's pictorial skill. The poet owns a palette that is exceptionally rich in colors. Each of the three edgings of the poem has its own basic colorful tone. So, "Hell" is characterized by a gloomy color, thick ominous colors, among which red and black dominate, appearing in a wide variety of combinations. They are replaced in "Purgatory" by softer, pale and misty colors - gray-blue, greenish, golden; this is due to the appearance in purgatory of wildlife - the sea, rocks, verdant meadows and trees. Finally, in "Paradise" - dazzling brilliance and transparency, radiant colors; paradise is the abode of the purest light, harmonious movement and music of the spheres. Comparison of two descriptions of the forest (in Canto I of "Hell" and in Canto XXVIII of "Purgatory") clearly shows the variety of colors in the Divine Comedy, corresponding to the different moods of the poet in different canticles; If in the first song of "Hell" the forest is depicted as gloomy and sinister, then in "Purgatory" it is painted with soft colors.
Dante writes in a courageous, concise, energetic language, which is an exceptionally flexible tool for expressing his thoughts and is surprisingly adapted to show the objects he depicts. Dante's words are extremely good, weighty, "nobly rough," in the words of one critic. He does not stop at rude, base, vulgar expressions and only fears that his verse is not yet sufficiently "hoarse and creaky, as required by the ominous vent, where all other steeps fall."
The allegorism that permeates the entire poem of Dante from its first to its last song, as well as purely Catholic symbolism, are of great importance. Each plot point in the poem, each of its images and situations can and should be interpreted not only literally, but also allegorically, moreover, in several ways: moral-religious, biographical, etc.
The entire action of the poem represents a moral allegory. Dante's journey through hell, hand in hand with Virgil, showing and interpreting to him the various torments of sinners, symbolizes the process of awakening human consciousness under the influence of earthly wisdom and philosophy. To leave the path of delusion, a person must know himself. All sins punishable in hell entail a form of punishment that allegorically depicts the state of mind of people subject to this vice. Purgatory and paradise are also filled with moral allegories. According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, those sinners who are not condemned to eternal torment and can still be cleansed of the sins they have committed are in purgatory. The internal process of this purification is symbolized by the seven letters P (the initial letter of the Latin word peccatum, "sin"), inscribed with an angel's sword on the forehead of the poet and denoting the seven deadly sins; these letters are erased one at a time as Dante goes through the circles of purgatory. Dante's guide to purgatory is still Virgil, who gives him lengthy instructions on the mysteries of divine justice, on the free will of man, and so on. Rising from Dante along the ledges of the mountain of purgatory to the earthly paradise, Virgil leaves him, because. further ascent to him as a pagan is not available.
Virgil is replaced by Beatrice, who becomes Dante's driver in heavenly paradise. She ascends from one celestial sphere to another, and Dante flies after her, carried away by the power of his love. His love is now cleansed of everything earthly, sinful. It becomes a symbol of virtue and religion, and its ultimate goal is the contemplation of God, who himself is "love that moves the sun and other stars."
Many images and situations in the Divine Comedy have a political meaning. Thus, the dense forest symbolizes the anarchy reigning in Italy; Virgil, who glorified the Roman Empire in his Aeneid, symbolizes the Ghibelline idea of a world monarchy, which alone, according to Dante, can establish peace on earth; the three kingdoms of the underworld symbolize earthly world, transformed in accordance with the idea of strict justice.
Dante carries through his entire poem the idea that earthly life is a preparation for a future, eternal life. But on the other hand, he reveals a keen interest in earthly life and reconsiders from this point of view a number of church dogmas and prejudices. So, for example, outwardly identifying with the teaching of the church about the sinfulness of carnal love and placing the voluptuous in the second circle of hell, Dante internally protests against the cruel punishment that befell Francesca da Rimini, who was deceived into marrying Gianciotto Malatesta, ugly and lame, instead of his brother Paolo, whom she loved. Catching Francesca in Paolo's arms, Gianciotto stabbed them both. Francesca's laconic, amazingly powerful story about her sinful love, which led her and her lover to hell, is listened to by the poet with ardent sympathy for their suffering, and he loses consciousness at the end of Francesca's story.
The poet extols another property of a person, just as severely condemned by the church - the inquisitiveness of the mind, the thirst for knowledge, the desire to go beyond the narrow circle of ordinary concepts and ideas. A vivid illustration of this trend is the wonderful image of Ulysses (Odysseus), who is executed among other crafty advisers. Ulysses tells Dante about his thirst to "explore the world's far horizons." He describes his journey and thus conveys the words with which he encouraged his weary companions:
O brothers, - so I said, - into the sunset
Those who came along the difficult road,
That short period, while they still do not sleep
Earthly feelings, their remnant is meager
Give in to the comprehension of novelty,
To follow the sun to see the deserted world!
Think about whose sons you are:
You were not created for animal fate,
But they were born to valor and knowledge.
("Hell", song XXXVI)
With brilliant insight, Dante anticipates in this story of Ulysses the discoveries of navigators of the late 15th century. In the image of Ulysses, the features of Columbus, who will appear in a century and a half, are visible.
A characteristic feature of the Divine Comedy is its consistent denunciation of the Catholic clergy and their acquisitive spirit. The vices of churchmen are condemned in the Divine Comedy stubbornly and repeatedly. In the 19th canto of "Hell", telling about the punishment of popes who sell church posts, Dante compares them with the harlot of the Apocalypse and angrily exclaims:
Silver and gold are now God for you;
And even those who pray to the idol,
They honor one, you honor a hundred at once.
But Dante condemned not only the greed and greed of the popes and princes of the church. He threw the same accusation against the greedy bourgeoisie of the Italian communes, in particular he reproached his Florentine compatriots for their thirst for profit, for he considered money to be the main source of evil, the main reason for the decline of morality in Italian society.
The Italian people understood and appreciated Dante's poem earlier and more correctly. learned people. He surrounded with legends the majestic image of the author of the Divine Comedy already during his lifetime. Immediately after his death, commentary and imitations appear. Already in the XIV century. tertsy "Comedy" sang in the squares. At the same time, public interpretations of the poem begin. The first commentator to lecture publicly on Dante was Boccaccio. He created a tradition that has survived in Italy to this day.
Dante's poem, accepted by the people for whom it was written, has become a kind of barometer of the Italian national consciousness: interest in Dante either increased or fell according to the fluctuations of this self-consciousness. The Divine Comedy enjoyed particular success in the 19th century, during the years of the national liberation movement (Risorgimento), when Dante began to be praised as an exiled poet, a courageous fighter for the cause of the unification of Italy, who saw art as a powerful weapon in the struggle for a better future for mankind. .
According to the monk Gilarius, Dante began to write his poem in Latin. The first three verses were:
Ultima regna canam, fluido contermina mundo,
Spiritibus quae lata patent, quae praemia solvuut
Promeritis cuicunque suis (data lege tonantis). -
"In dimidio dierum meorum vadam adportas infori." Vulgat. Bible.
In the middle of N. and. road, i.e., at the age of 35, an age that Dante in his Convito calls the pinnacle of human life. According to the general opinion, Dante was born in 1265: therefore, he was 35 years old in 1300; but, moreover, from the twenty-first canto of Hell, it is clear that Dante assumes the beginning of his journey in 1300, during the jubilee announced by Pope Boniface VIII, in Passion Week on Good Friday - in the year when he was 35 years old, although his poem was written much later; therefore, all incidents that occurred after this year are given as predictions.
Dark forest, according to the usual interpretation of almost all commentators, means human life in general, and in relation to the poet - his own life in particular, that is, a life full of delusions, overwhelmed by passions. Others under the name of the forest understand the political state of Florence at that time (which Dante calls trista selva, Pure XIV, 64), and by combining all the symbols of this mystical song into one, they give it a political meaning. Here, for example. as Count Perticari (Apolog. di Dante. Vol. II, p. 2: fec. 38: 386 della Proposta) explains this song: in 1300, at the age of 35, Dante, elected prior of Florence, was soon convinced amid the turmoil , intrigues and frenzy of parties that true path to the public good is lost, and that he himself is in dark forest disasters and exiles. When he tried to climb hills, pinnacle of state happiness, he presented himself with insurmountable obstacles from his native city (Leopard with a motley skin), pride and ambition of the French king Philip the Fair and his brother Charles of Valois (Lion) and self-interest and ambitious designs of Pope Boniface VIII (Wolves). Then, indulging in his poetic attraction and placing all his hope on the military talents of Charlemagne, lord of Verona ( Dog), he wrote his poem, where, with the assistance of spiritual contemplation (donna gentile) heavenly enlightenment (Lucia) and theology Beatrice), guided by reason, human wisdom, personified in poetry (Virgil) he goes through the places of punishment, purification and reward, thus punishing vices, consoling and correcting weaknesses and rewarding virtue by immersion in the contemplation of the highest good. From this it can be seen that the ultimate goal of the poem is to call a vicious nation, torn by strife, to political, moral and religious unity.
Dante escaped this life full of passions and delusions, especially the strife of the party, into which he had to go as the ruler of Florence; but this life was so terrible that the memory of it again gives rise to horror in him.
In the original: "He (the forest) is so bitter that death is a little more." – The ever-bitter world (Io mondo senia fine amaro) is hell (Paradise XVII. 112). “Just as material death destroys our earthly existence, so moral death deprives us of clear consciousness, the free manifestation of our will, and therefore moral death is a little better than material death itself.” Streckfuss.
Dream means, on the one hand, human weakness, darkening of the inner light, lack of self-knowledge, in a word - the lulling of the spirit; on the other hand, sleep is a transition to spiritual world(See Ada III, 136).
Hill, according to the explanation of most commentators, it means virtue, according to others, the ascent to the highest good. In the original, Dante awakens at the foot of the hill; the sole of the hill- the beginning of salvation, that moment when a saving doubt arises in our soul, a fatal thought that the path we have been following up to this moment is false.
Vale limits. The vale is a temporary field of life, which we usually call the vale of tears and calamities. From XX Song of Hell, v. 127-130, it is clear that in this vale the flickering of the moon served as a guiding light for the poet. The moon signifies the faint light of human wisdom. Save up.
The planet that leads people on a straight path is the sun, which, according to the Ptolemaic system, belongs to the planets. The sun here has not only the meaning of a material luminary, but, in contrast to the month (philosophy), is full, direct knowledge, divine inspiration. Save up.
Even a glimpse of divine knowledge is already able to reduce in us partly the false fear of the earthly vale; but it completely disappears only when we are completely filled with the fear of the Lord, like Beatrice (Ada II, 82-93). Save up.
When climbing, the foot on which we lean is always lower. “Ascending from the lower to the higher, we move forward slowly, only step by step, only when we firmly and faithfully stand on the lower: spiritual ascent is subject to the same laws as bodily.” Streckfuss.
Leopard (uncia, leuncia, lynx, catus pardus Okena), according to the interpretation of ancient commentators, means voluptuousness, Leo - pride or lust for power, She-wolf - self-interest and stinginess; others, especially the newest ones, see Florence and the Guelphs in Bars, France and especially Charles Valois in Leo, the Pope or the Roman curia in She-Wolf, and, in accordance with this, give the entire first song a purely political meaning. According to Kannegisser, Leopard, Leo and She-wolf signify three degrees of sensuality, moral corruption of people: Leopard is an awakening sensuality, as indicated by its speed and agility, motley skin and persistence; The lion is sensuality already awakened, prevailing and not hidden, demanding satisfaction: therefore, he is depicted with a majestic (in the original: raised) head, hungry, angry to the point that the air around him shudders; finally, the she-wolf is the image of those who completely indulged in sin, which is why it is said that she was already the poison of life for many, therefore she completely deprives Dante of peace and always more and more drives him into the vale of moral death.
This terzina defines the time of the poet's journey. It, as said above, began on Good Friday in Holy Week, or March 25: therefore, around the spring equinox. However, Philaletes, based on the XXI song of Hell, believes that Dante began his journey on April 4th. - divine love, according to Dante, there is a reason for the movement of celestial bodies. - A crowd of stars the constellation Aries is indicated, into which the sun enters at this time.
The Mystery of Time: When Dante's Famous Journey Began
Dante dated his journey to the afterlife to the year 1300. This is evidenced by several clues left by the poet in the text. Let's start with the obvious: the first line of the Divine Comedy - "Crossing the border of mature years ..." - means that the author is 35 years old.
Dante believed that human life lasts only 70 years, as it is written in the 89th psalm (“The days of our years are seventy years, and with a large fortress - eighty years”), and it was important for the poet to indicate that he had passed half of his life path. And since he was born in 1265, it is easy to calculate the year of travel to Hell.
The exact month of this campaign is suggested to researchers by astronomical data scattered throughout the poem. So, already in the first song we learn about "constellations with uneven meek light." This is the constellation "Aries", in which the sun is in the spring. Further clarifications give every reason to assert that in the "dark forest" lyrical hero falls on the night of Good Thursday to Friday (from 7 to 8 April) in 1300. On the evening of Good Friday, he descends into Hell.
Mystery of the Popadants: Pagan Gods, Heroes and Monsters in Christian Hell
In the underworld, Dante often meets mythological creatures: in Limbo, Charon is the mediator and carrier, the guardian of the second circle is the legendary King Minos, gluttons in the third circle are guarded by Cerberus, the miserly are Plutos, and the angry and desponding are Phlegius, the son of Ares. Elektra, Hector and Aeneas, Helen the Beautiful, Achilles and Paris are tormented in different circles of Dante's Hell. Among the pimps and seducers, Dante sees Jason, and among the ranks of crafty advisers - Ulysses.
Why does the poet need all of them? The simplest explanation is that in Christian culture the former gods turned into demons, which means their place is in Hell. The tradition of associating paganism with evil spirits has taken root not only in Italy. The Catholic Church had to convince the people of the failure of the old religion, and the preachers of all countries actively convinced people that all ancient gods and heroes were adherents of Lucifer.
However, there is also a more complex subtext. In the seventh circle of Hell, where rapists endure torment, Dante meets the Minotaur, harpies and centaurs. The dual nature of these creatures is an allegory of sin, for which the inhabitants of the seventh circle suffer, the animal nature in their character. Associations with animals in The Divine Comedy very rarely carry a positive connotation.
Encrypted biography: what can you learn about the poet by reading "Hell"?
Actually, quite a lot. Despite the monumentality of the work, on the pages of which famous historical figures, Christian saints and legendary heroes, Dante did not forget about himself. For starters, he fulfilled the promise he made in his first book, New life", where he promised to say about Beatrice "such that has not yet been said about any." By creating the "Divine Comedy", he really made his beloved a symbol of love and light.
Something about the poet is said by the presence in the text of St. Lucia, the patroness of people suffering from eye disease. Early experiencing problems with vision, Dante prayed to Lucia, this explains the appearance of the saint along with the Virgin Mary and Beatrice. By the way, note that the name of Mary is not mentioned in "Hell", it appears only in "Purgatory".
There are in the poem and indications of individual episodes from the life of its author. In the fifth song, the lyrical hero meets a certain Chakko - a glutton who is in a stinking swamp. The poet sympathizes with the unfortunate man, for which he opens the future for him and tells about the exile. Dante began working on The Divine Comedy in 1307, after the Black Guelphs came to power and were expelled from their native Florence. In fairness, we note that Chacko tells not only about the misfortunes that await him personally, but also about the entire political fate of the city-republic.
A very little-known episode is mentioned in the nineteenth canto, when the author speaks of a broken jug:
Everywhere, and along the channel, and along the slopes,
I saw an innumerable number
Rounded wells in grayish stone.
<...>
I, saving the lad from suffering,
Broke one of them last year...
Perhaps, with this retreat, Dante wanted to explain his actions, which, perhaps, led to a scandal, because the vessel he broke was filled with holy water!
Biographical facts include the fact that Dante placed his personal enemies in Hell, even though some of them were still alive in 1300. So, among the sinners, was Venedico dei Cacchanemici - the famous politician, leader of the Bolognese Guelphs. Dante neglected chronology only in order to take revenge on his enemy at least in a poem.
Among the sinners clinging to Phlegius's boat is Filippo Argenti, a wealthy Florentine who also belongs to the Black Guelph family, an arrogant and wasteful person. In addition to the Divine Comedy, Argenti is also mentioned in The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.
The poet did not spare the father of his best friend Guido - Cavalcante dei Cavalcanti, an epicurean and atheist. For his beliefs, he was sent to the sixth circle.
The riddle of numbers: the structure of the poem as a reflection of the medieval worldview
If we ignore the text and look at the structure of the entire Divine Comedy, then we will see that much in its structure is connected with the number “three”: three chapters are “kantiki”, thirty-three songs in each of them (added to “Hell” still a prologue), the whole poem is written in three-line stanzas - tertsina. Such a strict composition is due to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the special meaning of this number in Christian culture.
