Significance of Dante's Inferno
 

I'm about halfway through his first (insert word for part of a trilogy) of the Divine Comedy. Though it's a difficult read--archaic language aplenty, and the rhymes don't translate from Latin--I'm really enjoying the imagery. It's fascinating to me the way Dante represents each sin with a fitting punishment in hell and how there are a plethora of sins to commit. No wonder people in the medieval times were so afraid of everything!

Anyways, Virgil accompanies Dante the Poet through hell since he had already recorded his own journey through hell. I am aware that Aristotle also had documented a trip through well that precedes Virgil. I was lead to believe that the reason why this book was to important in the history of literature was because it was the first piece of literature that fleshed out hell so to speak. However, it appears to the contrary that two authors beat him to it as Dante is aware of. I realize that the Catholic Church incorporated a lot of Dante's work, but I do feel it diminishes the respect and ignorant awe I held of Dante knowing that he wasn't the first to originate many ideas about hell.

I always thought that the book was just social commentary from an guy who was really pissed off about getting exiled.

This isn't the post you wanted, but I'm wondering why Dante's Inferno has survived the centuries and continues to be a classical piece of literature. Maybe for Italian speakers, I can understand. But other than that, it just seems like an allegory that drops names of many famous people throughout time.

First off, the three books of the Divine Comedy are generally referred to as canticas. Inferno is the first cantica; I would assume that was the word you were looking for.

As to the significance of the work, Dante was the first poet to describe Hell, Purgatory and Heaven in detail. Virgil's most significant work was the Aenid, which is a classical Roman poem in the vein of the Homeric works. Dante chose to use Virgil as a guide because he personally admired Virgil, who was considered to be one of the great poets at the time, much how Dante himself is viewed today. Dante states that Virgil had previously traveled Hell not because Virgil has described Hell in any of his prior works, but because Virgil is Dante's guide and therefore needs to be familiar with the surroundings; it's a literary device. Also, because Virgil was a Roman pagan, he would be consigned to Limbo and thus a denizen of Hell himself. Aristotle did not document a trip through Hell in the Catholic sense either; given that he lived about 300 years before the birth/death of Christ and founding of the religion, he would've been showing remarkable foresight to do so.

Inferno itself is significant as one of three canticas; the whole work together is one of the most important pieces of classical literature out there. Why? Well, as mentioned, Dante was one of the first poets to really go into the details of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, describing their structure and exactly what sorts of torments and rewards were available. Since Catholicism is the most influential religion in the world, a significant work like this is important by association in much the same way that much of the music of the era that has become significant is religious in nature.

Aside from that, the Divine Comedy is in it's whole a classic piece of Bangsian literature and a hero's journey. It's an allegorical work on par, some would say, with Homer himself. It's informed a large number of later works and continues to do so even today. I suspect that much of the brilliance of the poem is diminished by translation (it always is), yet it's impossible not to admire the imagery. Even the structure of the poem is well thought out; consider that there are three cantica, each consisting of thirty-three cantos (plus one extra canto as an introduction, where Dante meets the beasts and encounters Virgil).

I would say it's a little narrow-minded to assume that the work is only significant to Italian literature. Doing so is akin to stating that Shakespeare is only significant to the English, which isn't really true (Shakespeare's merits of lack thereof being fodder for another thread; I won't sidetrack here). A classic piece of literature is something that can and should be admired by everyone. It's origin has little bearing on the matter I think, except insofar as the few cultural references are harder to understand without an understanding of the relevant history.

I think you're incorrect about Virgil and Aristotle. Virgil certainly did write about an afterworld in the Aenid and it is referenced several times in the footnotes of the edition of The Inferno that I'm reading. Aristotle may not have come up with a Hell per se, but the Greeks had a concept of Hades and the underworld hundreds of years before Christianity was even an idea. Aristotle's images are also referenced in the book.

wasn't that a movie about a volcano, starring Pierce Brosnan?

No, no, no....that was Tommy Lee Jones in L.A., wasn't it? :p

Oh...wait... that was Dante's Peak.

whoops...never mind...carry on.

The Greeks had a concept of an underworld and Virgil did describe it in book 6 of the Aenid, when Aenas journeys there to speak with his faather. Note, however, that the underworld in the Greek sense and Hell in the Christian sense are two quite different things. I stated that Virgil did not describe Hell, which is true; Hell as a Christian concept did not exist for Virgil, who pre-dates Christianity. Dante does borrow ideas from Virgil (specifically the rivers Acheron and Styx and their respective ferryman, Charon and Phlegyas), but the underworld described by Dante and the one described by Virgil are more dissimilar than they are similar. I haven't personally read any of Aristotle's work yet so I can't comment directly on it, but I should imagine the comparison is largely the same.

As a footnote, if you're looking for significant historical works, the Aenid is a good one if you haven't gotten that far yet. I'd actually suggest reading the Iliad first though, since some of the events in the Aenid occur directly after events in the Iliad.

i think its just supposed to show the various levels of hell and basically how we are all going to go there haha

yeah, me too...and honestly, i found it incredibly boring. i couldn't finish it...and that rarely happens with me and books. i mean, i finished 'naked lunch' by billy borroughs...and that was a horrid piece of shit.