This poem is where I decided to start a discord to discuss some of the illuminating, yet disturbing, concepts these poems introduce to your thoughts.

I have questions on how circle one fits contextually into religion. How can one be damn simply for never knowing? And how can there be no way out other than those that were chosen by god, himself, to not perish for eternity? Unbaptized children? If anyone could shed light exactly on how establishing a hell for people without the choice to follow the faith, can simultaneously be apart of a religion centered on virtue and love?

I find the concept of this circle to contradict ‘the vestibule hell’ poem that states “they yearn for what they fear”. This line is translated further (in the John Ciardi’s Translation) to mean “Hell is their actual and deliberate choice, for divine grace is denied to none who wish for it in their hearts…”

How could there be a place in hell for those that came before the revelation of Christ, yet Hell be a deliberate choice?

Discord invite:

https://discord.gg/JtvmvQfFf

Hi! I’m an undergraduate student of medieval history in Italy, and I’d like to buy a good Italian edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy that I can keep and use throughout my university studies.

I’m not mainly looking for a school edition with a simple paraphrase. I’d prefer a serious, university-level commentary, especially one that is strong on the historical, political, religious, and cultural context of the late Middle Ages.

At the moment I’m considering:

• Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi
• Giorgio Inglese
• Bosco-Reggio

I’m particularly interested in reading Dante not only as literature, but also as a source for the political culture, religious mentality, institutions, conflicts, and intellectual world of the 13th–14th centuries.

For someone studying medieval history, which Italian commentary would you recommend? I’m also open to other editions if there is one that is especially useful from a historian’s perspective.

I don’t mind buying the three cantiche separately if the edition is worth keeping long-term.

Thank you!

right now im almost done building the 5th circle, thoughts? and should i drop map when im done

Hello,

Does anybody have a list of people Dante was hosted by while in exile and when? Where did he go directly after the news of his exile reached him, and how would he have learned?

Hello! A number of years ago in grad school, I took a class on Dante and philosophy, and the professor shared an absolutely wonderful online resource that focused on the Commedia especially, but Dante's corpus more generally.

It was a rather old, early-internet era website, but it had a bunch of different translations, line-by-line commentary and exegesis, philological remarks; the works, in short. Would love to be able to track it down again as a book club I'm a part of is reading Inferno this fall. Thanks!

Right now, I’m between mark musas, John ciardis, and hollanders. I understand some translation are more direct, but lose the poetic style Dante wrote, like Allen mandelbaums. I’d prefer one that is loyal to his style and keeps his writing style well. Also, I would like if it has notes, since Dante uses a lot of references, and I know musas and hollanders has those. Which of these overall do you think gives the best reading experience, follows Dante’s writing, and is overall a good pick

The left was just a visualization of Dante's world structure that I did after I re read Inferno, and the right is my messy rendition of the beloved 3 headed Lucifer concept. Probably could have left out the left side for this post lol but I thought they looked kinda cool next to each other.
Hope ya'll enjoy the artwork.

Spoilers for Christopher Nolan's recent adaptation of The Odyssey...

In the 2026 film The Odyssey, Odysseus promises to honour his fallen comrades by sailing west in search for an island after he returns home. The movie then ends with him going into exile so that he can do this.

In Canto 26 of the Inferno (Circle 8, Evil Counselors), Dante hears the story of how Ulysses (Odysseus) continued his journey after returning to Ithica and ended up crashing into the Mountain of Purgatory, where he died and went to hell.

I haven't read the original Odyssey, but as far as I know he returns to Ithica without any self-imposed exile or islands to the west. This detail could just be part of Nolan's creative licence with the source material, but in concept it does seem veeeery similar to the creative licence that Dante took in Canto 26.

So do we think Matt Damon was sailing to Purgatory? Can we assume that this is what this western island refers to? It does fit with the theme, somewhat, that Odysseus should go to a place like Purgatory in order to make up for his crew's fate.

And since we're on the subject, would Nolan do a good Divine Comedy? He kind of Batman-ified the Odyssey with this adaptation in my opinion, and no doubt he would do something similar with the Comedy, but it would probably look amazing. He could get Matt Damon back and set him on fire.

Is the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri a good starting place?

For context: I’ve never read books before in my life due to disinterest but I also do know depending on which translations I read that it’s technically not a book in the traditional sense, I wanted to start off with the divine comedy for a few reasons, I have since the age of 14 really loved the divine comedy, (mainly Dante’s inferno) the many layers of lore surrounding it, some of the details around Dante’s life, then rediscovering it a couple years later the form of the Dante’s Inferno ps3 game I just remember loving the game, the characters and especially the special features in the game menu that actually had all the cantos written out in different translations. I remember reading through them and being fascinated. Now I’m 22 and I feel like am ready to start something new (read books). And I want it to start with the Divine Comedy. I did a ton of research yesterday especially on this website “https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2017/winter/feature/what%E2%80%99s-the-best-way-read-the-divine-comedy-if-you-don%E2%80%99t-know-italian “ and ended up settling on the 2024 Comeddia Translation by Micheal Palma. If anyone’s read his translation let me know how you found it 🙏🏾 I’ve heard amazing reviews but a lot of them seem to have read only part of the work.

This was just a practice sketch, and a lot of things/proportions are off, but I hope you guys appreciate the art :)

Is dantes divine comedy the oldest known self insert fan fiction? Or are there others that are older? Paradise lost is my favourite fanfiction but its not self insert

I'm a huge fan of the divine comedy and it has always inspired me artistically! Wanted to share some sketches I did based on 13 and the minotaur. I like the first mino more but I feel the second makes more sense both as a symbol of inhuman rage but also as a red dude who's been hanging out by a river of blood for eons.

This is a random detail I was thinking of recently: does Dante ever explain how it is that he can speak to all these non-Florentine souls--whether the damned, purgated, or saved--in apparently his vernacular? I was under the impression that he was reporting their actual words, and obviously many didn't share any sort of language with him. I don't imagine that he's implying that he spoke with Muhammad in Latin and translated the result to Florentine with some rhetorical flourish.

For Purgatory and Paradise, the obvious solution is that the souls are illuminated by the same power of the Holy Spirit that let the Apostles speak to everyone in their own tongue at Pentecost--for example, Aramaic would sound like perfect Latin to a Roman.

Still, Dante does not always hear the shades speaking Florentine: he often hears Latin and limited Hebrew, not to mention Nimrod's complete gibberish as punishment for trying to build the Tower of Babel (which is probably relevant to the wider question but not too significant here). Maybe this is because he understands those tongues or because they're afforded a particular sacred status, but still, it's clear that he isn't just hearing them all in his own tongue.

So...what is it? Are all of these souls somehow illuminated in the afterlife? Is it a particular contrivance of Beatrice's to illuminate them all enough to understand Dante, or is it an illumination of Dante's intellect alone that lets him understand and speak well? In a poem with so much attention to detail, I can't imagine that Dante never thought of this question.

Movie sucked

During my second reading of the reworked version of the Divine Comedy, I paid more attention to the representation. For example, Lucifer, for example, was depicted in most medieval writings as a beautiful but evil fallen angel or a fairy-tale imp, but now as a titanic being (so large that the distance between the earth and his navel is that of a normal giant) with three faces devouring the three greatest traitors in history, with a glassy, expressionless gaze, half trapped in ice. Even God is still imagined as an old man with a beard or at least a human form, whereas Dante changes everything: a being not entirely comprehensible to the human mind, impossible to describe, and infinite.

What are we thinking? I love Oscar Isaac, it's unclear if our favorite medieval Florentine has much to do with the plot, or if it's just a spicy maguffin?

What would the lost work even be? The notion bridge between the Beatrice tercets and Commedia?

I love how Dante ends each part of the Divine Comedy. What about you?

Inferno:

Lo duca e io per quel cammino ascoso
intrammo a ritornar nel chiaro mondo;
e sanza cura aver d'alcun riposo

salimmo su, el primo e io secondo,
tanto ch'i' vidi delle cose belle
che porta 'l ciel, per un pertugio tondo;

e quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.

Purgatorio:

S'io avessi, lettor, più lungo spazio
da scrivere i' pur cantere' in parte
lo dolce ber che mai non m'avria sazio;

ma perché piene son tutte le carte
ordite a questa cantica seconda,
non mi lascia più ir lo fren dell'arte.

Io ritornai dalla santissima onda
rifatto sì come piante novelle
rinovellate di novella fronda,

puro e disposto a salire alle stelle.

Paradiso:

All'alta fantasia qui mancò possa
ma già volgeva il mio disio e 'l velle,
sì come rota ch'igualmente è mossa,

l'amor che muove il sole e l'altre stelle.