The Divine Comedy: Inferno (Post 1)

by Dante Alighieri

This is the first part of The Divine Comedy which Dante wrote between 1308 and 1321. It maps Dante's journey down into hell, then to purgatory and ascendancy into heaven; thus the three books Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.

The original book is in Italian which was then considered vulgar when all other serious writing was written in Latin. But it is a testament of this work that it has survived the ages and now translated to English. There are plenty of translations out there on this, and because the art of translating is not an exact one, one just has to make do with the interpretations of Dante's work (unless of course one would take the trouble to study classical Italian). The version I am reading is translated by John Ciardi and is mentioned not to be written with the most flourish and exact wording, but it evokes the most precise emotions of what Dante means to say, which is why I chose this version.

As of yet I have only read the first section of the book. Even the foreword and introductions took me quite a while to read. I normally do not read these, because there is so much to take in in this book, I figured a proper frame and construct of what I am reading is required.

As of now I have read that Dante has fallen from the straight path and has seen the great light upon the mountain. But his path is blocked by three beasts, that is a lion, a leopard and a she-wolf. Each of these creatures signifying a type of sin. So being turned away from the direct path to salvation (the mountain), he is turned deeper into the forest. In the forest, he meets Virgil his guide who says to him he needs to take the long way round and descend into hell and purgatory before he can come into salvation. But there he shall be guided not by Virgil himself for Virgil is the embodiment of reason, and reason can only take you so far. Into heaven he must follow Beatrice who will lead him there.

This book really has to be consumed very very slowly to take on the full effect of the writing. So it would probably take me a long time to finish this whilst I read other things along the way. But as the title suggests, I shall periodically post to wherever I have read.