Meaning of Dante's Divine Comedy. What is the main meaning of Dante's Divine Comedy? Description of the Circles of Hell by Dante

"Comedy" is the main fruit of Dante's genius. It is written in a three-line stanza. The plot scheme of the Comedy is an afterlife wandering, as it was a very popular artistic motif among the classics: Lucan, Statius, Ovid, Virgil and others. The plot of the poem is literally understood - the state of the soul after death; understood allegorically, this is a person who, by virtue of his inherent free will, is subject to justice, rewarding or punishing. If we talk about the construction, then the poem consists of three canticles: "Hell", "Purgatory" and "Paradise". Each canticle is divided into songs, and each song into terts. "Comedy" is a grandiose allegory. Above her miraculous, almost unbelievable construction, shines the magic of numbers, originating from the Pythagoreans, rethought by the scholastics and mystics. The numbers 3 and 10 are given a special meaning, and the poem is an endless variety of options for numerical symbolism. The poem is divided into three parts. Each of them has 33 songs, for a total of 99, along with an introductory 100; all numbers are multiples of 3 and 10. The stanza is a tercina, that is, a three-line couplet, in which the first line rhymes with the third, and the second with the first and third lines of the next couplet. Each edging ends with the same word - "luminaries". From the point of view of the initial meaning of the Comedy, conceived as a poetic monument to Beatrice, the central point of the poem should have been that song where Dante first meets the “noblest”. This is the XXX song of Purgatory. The number 30 is simultaneously a multiple of 3 and 10. If you count in a row from the beginning, this song will be in order the 64th; 6 + 4 = 10. There are 63 songs before her; 6 + 3 = 9. There are 145 verses in the song; 1 + 4 + 5 = 10. It has two central points. The first, when Beatrice, addressing the poet, calls him "Dante" - the only place in the entire poem where the poet put his name. It's verse 55; 5 + 5 = 10. There are 54 verses before it; 5 + 4 = 9. After him 90 verses; 9 + 0 = 9. The second equally important place for Dante is where Beatrice first calls herself: “Look at me. It's me, it's me - Beatrice. It's the 73rd verse; 7 + 3 = 10. And besides, this is the middle verse of the entire song. Before him and after him, 72 verses each; 7+2=9. This game of numbers still baffles many commentators who have tried to understand what secret meaning Dante put into it. There is no need to give here various hypotheses of this mystery, it is worth mentioning only the main plot allegory of the poem.

“Halfway through earthly existence”, on Good Friday of the “Jubilee” of 1300, is the fictitious date of the beginning of the wandering, which allowed Dante to be a prophet, where more, where less than ten years, the poet got lost in a dense forest. There he is attacked by three beasts: a panther, a lion and a she-wolf. Virgil saves him from them, who was sent by Beatrice, who descended from paradise to limbo for this, so Dante fearlessly follows him everywhere. He leads him through the underground funnels of hell to the opposite surface of the globe, where the mountain of purgatory rises, and on the threshold of earthly paradise passes him to Beatrice herself. Together with her, the poet rises higher and higher in the heavenly spheres, and, finally, he is honored with the contemplation of a deity. The dense forest is the life complications of a person. Animals are his passions: panther - sensuality, lion - lust for power or pride, she-wolf - greed. Virgil, saving from the beasts, is the mind. Beatrice is divine science. The meaning of the poem is the moral life of a person: reason saves him from passions, and knowledge of theology gives eternal bliss. On the way to moral rebirth, a person passes through the consciousness of his sinfulness (hell), purification (purgatory) and ascension to bliss (paradise). In the poem, Dante's fantasy was based on Christian eschatology, so he paints the landscapes of hell and heaven on canvas, and the landscapes of purgatory are the creation of his own imagination. Dante depicts hell as a huge funnel that goes to the center of the earth. Hell is divided into nine concentric circles. Purgatory is a mountain surrounded by the sea, having seven ledges. In accordance with the Catholic doctrine of the posthumous fate of people, Dante portrays hell as a place of punishment for unrepentant sinners. In purgatory are sinners who have had time to repent before death. After purifying trials, they move from purgatory to paradise - the abode of pure souls.

For posterity, "Comedy" is a grandiose synthesis of the feudal Catholic worldview and an equally grandiose insight into a new culture. Dante's poem is a whole world, and this world lives, this world is real. The extraordinary formal organization of the "Comedy" is the result of using the experience of both classical poetics and medieval poetics. "Comedy" is primarily a very personal work. There is not the slightest objectivity in it. From the first verse, the poet speaks of himself and does not leave the reader without himself for a single moment. In the poem, Dante is the main character, he is a man full of love, hate and passions. Dante's passion is what makes him close and understandable to people of all times. Describing the other world, Dante speaks of nature and people. The most characteristic feature of the rest of the images of the "Comedy" is their drama. Each of the inhabitants of the afterlife has its own drama, not yet outlived. They died long ago, but none of them forgot about the earth. Dante's images of sinners are especially vivid. The poet is especially sympathetic to sinners condemned for sensual love. Grieving over the souls of Paolo and Francesca, Dante says:

"Oh, did anyone know

What bliss and dream, what

I led them down this path!

Then turning the word to the silent ones,

Said: "Francesca, your complaint

I will heed with tears, compassion.

Dante's mastery is simplicity and tangibility, thanks to these poetic devices, the Comedy attracts us.

Popes and cardinals Dante placed in hell, among the covetous, deceivers, traitors. In Dante's denunciations of the papacy, the traditions of anti-clerical satire of the Renaissance were born, which will become a smashing weapon of humanists in the fight against the authority of the Catholic Church. It is not for nothing that church censorship has repeatedly banned certain parts of the Divine Comedy, and to this day, many of its poems arouse the fury of the Vatican.

Also in the "Divine Comedy" are visible glimpses of a new view of ethics and morality. Making his way through the dense thicket of theological casuistry, Dante moves towards an understanding of the relationship between the ethical and the social. The ponderous scholastic reasoning of the philosophical parts of the poem is now and then illuminated by flashes of bold realistic thought. Dante calls acquisitiveness "greed". The motive of denunciation of greed sounded both in folk satire and in accusatory sermons of the lower clergy. But Dante not only denounces. He tries to comprehend the social meaning and roots of this vice. “The mother of dishonesty and shame,” Dante calls greed. Greed brings cruel social disasters: eternal strife, political anarchy, bloody wars. The poet stigmatizes the servants of greed, seeks out sophisticated tortures for them. Reflecting in the denunciations of "greed" the protest of the poor, destitute people against the acquisitiveness of the powerful of the world, Dante looked deep into this vice and saw in it a sign of his era.

People were not always slaves of greed, she is the god of the new time, she was born by growing wealth, the thirst for possession of it. She reigns in the papal palace, made her nest in urban republics, settled in feudal castles. The image of a skinny wolf with a red-hot eye - a symbol of greed - appears in the Divine Comedy from its first lines and an ominous ghost passes through the entire poem.

In the allegorical image of the lion, Dante condemns pride, calling it "the accursed pride of Satan", agreeing with the Christian interpretation of this trait.

“... A lion with a raised mane came out to meet.

He stepped on me,

From hunger, growling, furious

And the very air is numb with fear.

Condemning the pride of Satan, Dante nevertheless accepts the proud self-consciousness of man. So, the theomachist Capaneus evokes sympathy for Dante:

“Who is this, tall, gloomily lies like that,

Despising the fire, scorching from everywhere.

And the rain, I see, does not soften him.

And he, realizing that I marvel like a miracle,

His pride, answered shouting:

“As I lived, so I will be in death!”

Such attention and sympathy for pride marks a new approach to the individual, emancipation of him from the spiritual tyranny of the church. The proud spirit of the ball is inherent in all the great artists of the Renaissance and Dante himself in the first place.

But not only betrayal, greed, deceit, sinfulness and ruin affect the Comedy, but also love, because the poem is dedicated to Beatrice. Her image lives in the "Comedy" as a bright memory of the great, only love, its purity and inspiring power. In this image, the poet embodied his search for truth and moral perfection.

Also, "Comedy" is called a kind of chronicle of Italian life. The history of Italy appears in the Divine Comedy, first of all, as the history of the political life of the poet's homeland, in deeply dramatic pictures of the struggle of warring parties, camps, groups, and in the stunning human tragedies generated by this struggle. From song to song, the tragic scroll of Italian history unfolds in the poem: urban communes in the fire of civil wars; the age-old enmity between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, traced back to its very origins; the whole history of the Florentine feud between "whites" and "blacks" from the moment of its inception until the day when the poet became a homeless exile... Fiery, indignant passion bursts uncontrollably from every line. The poet brought to the kingdom of shadows everything that burned him in life - love for Italy, implacable hatred for political opponents, contempt for those who doomed his homeland to shame and ruin. In the poem, a tragic image of Italy arises, seen through the eyes of a wanderer, who proceeded all over her land, scorched by the fire of bloody wars:

Italy, slave, hearth of sorrows,

In a great storm a ship without a helm,

Not the lady of the peoples, but a tavern!

And you can't live without war

Yours are alive and they gnaw

They are surrounded by one wall and a moat.

You, unhappy, should look back.

To your shores and cities:

Where are peaceful cloisters to be found?

("Purgatory", song VI)

And yet interest in man; to his position in nature and society; understanding of his spiritual impulses, recognition and justification of them - the main thing in "Comedy". Dante's judgments about man are free from intolerance, dogmatism, and the one-sidedness of scholastic thinking. The poet did not come from dogma, but from life, and his man is not an abstraction, not a scheme, as was the case with medieval writers, but a living personality, complex and contradictory. His sinner can at the same time be a righteous man. There are many such "righteous sinners" in The Divine Comedy, and these are the most lively, most human images of the poem. They embodied a broad, truly humane view of people - the view of a poet who cherishes everything human, who knows how to admire the strength and freedom of the individual, the inquisitiveness of the human mind, who understands the thirst for earthly joy and the torment of earthly love.

At the heart of Dante's poem lies the recognition by mankind of their sins and the ascent to spiritual life and to God. According to the poet, in order to find peace of mind, it is necessary to go through all the circles of hell and give up blessings, and redeem sins with suffering. Each of the three chapters of the poem includes 33 songs. "Hell", "Purgatory" and "Paradise" are the eloquent names of the parts that make up the "Divine Comedy". The summary makes it possible to comprehend the main idea of the poem.

Dante Alighieri created the poem during the years of exile, shortly before his death. She is recognized in world literature as a brilliant creation. The author himself gave her the name "Comedy". So in those days it was customary to call any work that has a happy ending. "Divine" Boccaccio called her, thus putting the highest mark.

Dante's poem "The Divine Comedy", a summary of which schoolchildren pass in the 9th grade, is hardly perceived by modern teenagers. A detailed analysis of some songs cannot give a complete picture of the work, especially considering today's attitude to religion and human sins. However, an acquaintance, albeit an overview, with the work of Dante is necessary to create a complete picture of world fiction.

"The Divine Comedy". Summary of the chapter "Hell"

The protagonist of the work is Dante himself, to whom the shadow of the famous poet Virgil appears with a proposal to make a trip to Dante. ).

The path of the actors begins from hell. In front of the entrance to it are miserable souls who, during their lifetime, did neither good nor evil. Outside the gate flows the river Acheron, through which Charon transports the dead. Heroes are approaching the circles of hell:

Having passed all the circles of hell, Dante and his companion went upstairs and saw the stars.

"The Divine Comedy". Brief summary of the part "Purgatory"

The protagonist and his guide end up in purgatory. Here they are met by the guard Cato, who sends them to the sea to wash. The companions go to the water, where Virgil washes away the soot of the underworld from Dante's face. At this time, a boat sails up to the travelers, which is ruled by an angel. He lands on the shore the souls of the dead who did not go to hell. With them, the heroes make a journey to the mountain of purgatory. On the way, they meet fellow countryman Virgil, the poet Sordello, who joins them.

Dante falls asleep and is transported in a dream to the gates of purgatory. Here the angel writes seven letters on the forehead of the poet, denoting the Hero goes through all the circles of purgatory, being cleansed of sins. After passing each circle, the angel erases from Dante's forehead the letter of the overcome sin. On the last lap, the poet must pass through the flames of fire. Dante is afraid, but Virgil convinces him. The poet passes the test of fire and goes to heaven, where Beatrice is waiting for him. Virgil falls silent and disappears forever. The beloved washes Dante in the sacred river, and the poet feels strength pouring into his body.

"The Divine Comedy". Summary of the part "Paradise"

Beloved ascend to heaven. To the surprise of the protagonist, he was able to take off. Beatrice explained to him that souls not burdened with sins are light. Lovers pass through all heavenly skies:

the first sky of the moon, where the souls of the nuns are;
the second is Mercury for the ambitious righteous;
the third is Venus, the souls of the loving ones rest here;
the fourth - the Sun, intended for the sages;
the fifth is Mars, which receives warriors;
the sixth - Jupiter, for the souls of the just;
the seventh is Saturn, where the souls of contemplators are;
the eighth is for the spirits of the great righteous;
ninth - here are angels and archangels, seraphim and cherubim.

After ascending to the last heaven, the hero sees the Virgin Mary. She is among the shining rays. Dante raises his head up to the bright and blinding light and finds the highest truth. He sees the deity in his trinity.

He could not call his work a tragedy only because those, like all genres of "high literature", were written in Latin. Dante wrote it in his native Italian. The Divine Comedy is the fruit of the entire second half of Dante's life and work. In this work, the worldview of the poet was reflected with the greatest completeness. Dante appears here as the last great poet of the Middle Ages, a poet who continues the line of development of feudal literature.

Editions

Translations into Russian

A. S. Norova, “An excerpt from the 3rd song of the poem Hell” (“Son of the Fatherland”, 1823, No. 30);
F. Fan-Dim, "Hell", translated from Italian (St. Petersburg, 1842-48; prose);
D. E. Min "Hell", translation in the size of the original (Moscow, 1856);
D. E. Min, "The First Song of Purgatory" ("Russian Vest.", 1865, 9);
V. A. Petrova, “The Divine Comedy” (translated with Italian words, St. Petersburg, 1871, 3rd edition 1872; translated only “Hell”);
D. Minaev, "The Divine Comedy" (Lpts. and St. Petersburg. 1874, 1875, 1876, 1879, translated not from the original, in terts);
P. I. Weinberg, “Hell”, song 3, “Vestn. Evr.", 1875, No. 5);
Golovanov N. N., "The Divine Comedy" (1899-1902);
M. L. Lozinsky, "The Divine Comedy" (, Stalin Prize);
A. A. Ilyushin (created in the 1980s, first partial publication in 1988, full edition in 1995);
V. S. Lemport, The Divine Comedy (1996-1997);
V. G. Marantsman, (St. Petersburg, 2006).

Structure

The Divine Comedy is extremely symmetrical. It is divided into three parts: the first part ("Hell") consists of 34 songs, the second ("Purgatory") and the third ("Paradise") - 33 songs each. The first part consists of two introductory songs and 32 describing hell, since there can be no harmony in it. The poem is written in tertsina - stanzas, consisting of three lines. This penchant for certain numbers is explained by the fact that Dante gave them a mystical interpretation - so the number 3 is associated with the Christian idea of the Trinity, the number 33 should remind you of the years of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, etc. There are 100 songs in the Divine Comedy (number 100 - a symbol of perfection).

Plot

Dante's meeting with Virgil and the beginning of their journey through the underworld (medieval miniature)

According to Catholic tradition, the afterlife consists of hell where forever condemned sinners go, purgatory- the places of residence of sinners atoning for their sins, and Raya- the abode of the blessed.

Dante details this representation and describes the device of the afterlife, fixing all the details of its architectonics with graphic certainty. In the introductory song, Dante tells how, having reached the middle of his life, he once got lost in a dense forest and how the poet Virgil, having saved him from three wild animals that blocked his path, invited Dante to make a journey through the afterlife. Having learned that Virgil was sent to Beatrice, Dante's deceased beloved, he surrenders without trepidation to the leadership of the poet.

Hell

Hell looks like a colossal funnel, consisting of concentric circles, the narrow end of which rests on the center of the earth. Having passed the threshold of hell, inhabited by the souls of insignificant, indecisive people, they enter the first circle of hell, the so-called limbo (A., IV, 25-151), where the souls of virtuous pagans reside, who did not know the true God, but who approached this knowledge and beyond then delivered from hellish torments. Here Dante sees outstanding representatives of ancient culture - Aristotle, Euripides, Homer, etc. The next circle is filled with the souls of people who once indulged in unbridled passion. Among those carried by a wild whirlwind, Dante sees Francesca da Rimini and her beloved Paolo, who fell victim to forbidden love for each other. As Dante, accompanied by Virgil, descends lower and lower, he becomes a witness to the torment of gluttons, forced to suffer from rain and hail, misers and spendthrifts, tirelessly rolling huge stones, angry, bogged down in a swamp. They are followed by heretics and heresiarchs engulfed in eternal flames (among them Emperor Frederick II, Pope Anastasius II), tyrants and murderers swimming in streams of boiling blood, suicides turned into plants, blasphemers and rapists burned by falling flames, deceivers of all kinds, torments which are very varied. Finally, Dante enters the last, 9th circle of hell, intended for the most terrible criminals. Here is the abode of traitors and traitors, of which the greatest are Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius, they are gnawed with their three mouths by Lucifer, an angel who once rebelled against God, the king of evil, doomed to imprisonment in the center of the earth. The description of the terrible appearance of Lucifer ends the last song of the first part of the poem.

Purgatory

Having passed a narrow corridor connecting the center of the earth with the second hemisphere, Dante and Virgil come to the surface of the earth. There, in the middle of the island surrounded by the ocean, a mountain rises in the form of a truncated cone - purgatory, like hell, consisting of a series of circles that narrow as they approach the top of the mountain. The angel guarding the entrance to purgatory lets Dante into the first circle of purgatory, having previously drawn seven P (Peccatum - sin) on his forehead with a sword, that is, a symbol of the seven deadly sins. As Dante rises higher and higher, bypassing one circle after another, these letters disappear, so that when Dante, having reached the top of the mountain, enters the "earthly paradise" located on the top of the latter, he is already free from the signs inscribed by the guardian of purgatory. The circles of the latter are inhabited by the souls of sinners atoning for their sins. Here the proud are cleansed, forced to bend under the burden of weights pressing their backs, envious, angry, negligent, greedy, etc. Virgil brings Dante to the gates of paradise, where he, as someone who did not know baptism, has no access.

Paradise

In the earthly paradise, Virgil is replaced by Beatrice, seated on a chariot drawn by a vulture (an allegory of the triumphant church); she prompts Dante to repentance, and then lifts him, enlightened, to heaven. The final part of the poem is devoted to Dante's wanderings in the heavenly paradise. The latter consists of seven spheres encircling the earth and corresponding to seven planets (according to the then widespread Ptolemaic system): the spheres of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, etc., followed by the spheres of fixed stars and crystal, - the crystal sphere is Empyrean, - infinite the region inhabited by the blessed, contemplating God, is the last sphere that gives life to all that exists. Flying through the spheres, led by Bernard, Dante sees the emperor Justinian, introducing him to the history of the Roman Empire, teachers of the faith, martyrs for the faith, whose shining souls form a sparkling cross; Rising higher and higher, Dante sees Christ and the Virgin Mary, angels, and, finally, the “Heavenly Rose” is revealed before him - the abode of the blessed. Here Dante partakes of the highest grace, reaching communion with the Creator.

The Comedy is Dante's last and most mature work.

Analysis of the work

In form, the poem is an afterlife vision, of which there were many in medieval literature. Like the medieval poets, it rests on an allegorical core. So the dense forest, in which the poet got lost halfway through earthly existence, is a symbol of life's complications. Three beasts that attack him there: a lynx, a lion and a wolf - the three most powerful passions: sensuality, lust for power, greed. These allegories are also given a political interpretation: the lynx is Florence, the spots on the skin of which should indicate the enmity of the Guelph and Ghibelline parties. Lion - a symbol of brute physical strength - France; she-wolf, greedy and lustful - papal curia. These beasts threaten the national unity of Italy, which Dante dreamed of, a unity held together by the rule of a feudal monarchy (some literary historians give Dante's entire poem a political interpretation). Virgil saves the poet from the beasts - the mind sent to the poet Beatrice (theology - faith). Virgil leads Dante through hell to purgatory, and on the threshold of paradise gives way to Beatrice. The meaning of this allegory is that reason saves a person from passions, and knowledge of divine science delivers eternal bliss.

The Divine Comedy is imbued with the political tendencies of the author. Dante never misses an opportunity to reckon with his ideological, even personal enemies; he hates usurers, condemns credit as "excess", condemns his own age as an age of profit and avarice. In his opinion, money is the source of all evils. He contrasts the dark present with the bright past of bourgeois Florence - feudal Florence, when simplicity of morals, moderation, chivalrous "knowledge" ("Paradise", the story of Cacchagvida), the feudal empire (cf. Dante's treatise "On the Monarchy") dominated. The tercines of "Purgatory", accompanying the appearance of Sordello (Ahi serva Italia), sound like a real hosanna of Ghibellinism. Dante treats the papacy as a principle with the greatest respect, although he hates individual representatives of it, especially those who contributed to the strengthening of the bourgeois system in Italy; some dads Dante meets in hell. His religion is Catholicism, although a personal element is already woven into it, alien to the old orthodoxy, although mysticism and the Franciscan pantheistic religion of love, which are accepted with all passion, are also a sharp deviation from classical Catholicism. His philosophy is theology, his science is scholasticism, his poetry is allegory. Ascetic ideals in Dante have not yet died, and he regards free love as a grave sin (Hell, 2nd circle, the famous episode with Francesca da Rimini and Paolo). But it is not a sin for him to love, which attracts to the object of worship with a pure platonic impulse (cf. "New Life", Dante's love for Beatrice). This is a great world force that "moves the sun and other luminaries." And humility is no longer an absolute virtue. “Whoever in glory does not renew his strength with victory will not taste the fruit that he obtained in the struggle.” And the spirit of inquisitiveness, the desire to widen the circle of knowledge and acquaintance with the world, combined with “virtue” (virtute e conoscenza), which encourages heroic daring, is proclaimed an ideal.

Dante built his vision from pieces of real life. Separate corners of Italy, which are placed in it with clear graphic contours, went to the construction of the afterlife. And so many living human images are scattered in the poem, so many typical figures, so many vivid psychological situations that literature still continues to draw from there. People who suffer in hell, repent in purgatory (moreover, the volume and nature of the punishment corresponds to the volume and nature of sin), abide in bliss in paradise - all living people. In these hundreds of figures, no two are the same. In this huge gallery of historical figures there is not a single image that has not been cut by the poet's unmistakable plastic intuition. No wonder Florence experienced a period of such intense economic and cultural upsurge. That keen sense of landscape and man, which is shown in the Comedy and which the world learned from Dante, was possible only in the social environment of Florence, which was far ahead of the rest of Europe. Separate episodes of the poem, such as Francesca and Paolo, Farinata in his red-hot grave, Ugolino with children, Capaneus and Ulysses, in no way similar to ancient images, the Black Cherub with subtle devilish logic, Sordello on his stone, are produced to this day strong impression.

The Concept of Hell in The Divine Comedy

Dante and Virgil in Hell

In front of the entrance are pitiful souls who did neither good nor evil during their lifetime, including “bad flock of angels”, who were neither with the devil nor with God.

1st circle (Limb). Unbaptized Infants and Virtuous Non-Christians.
2nd circle. Voluptuaries (fornicators and adulterers).
3rd circle. Gluttons, gluttons.
4th circle. Covetous and spendthrifts (love of excessive spending).
5th circle (Stygian swamp). Angry and lazy.
6th circle (city of Dit). Heretics and false teachers.
7th round.
- 1st belt. Violators over the neighbor and over his property (tyrants and robbers).
- 2nd belt. Violators of themselves (suicides) and of their property (players and wasters, that is, senseless destroyers of their property).
- 3rd belt. Violators of the deity (blasphemers), against nature (sodomites) and art (extortion).
8th round. Deceived the disbelievers. It consists of ten ditches (Zlopazuhi, or Evil Slits), which are separated from each other by ramparts (rifts). Towards the center, the area of Evil Slits slopes, so that each next ditch and each next shaft are located somewhat lower than the previous ones, and the outer, concave slope of each ditch is higher than the inner, curved slope ( Hell , XXIV, 37-40). The first shaft adjoins the circular wall. In the center gapes the depth of a wide and dark well, at the bottom of which lies the last, ninth, circle of Hell. From the foot of the stone heights (v. 16), that is, from the circular wall, stone ridges go to this well in radii, like the spokes of a wheel, crossing ditches and ramparts, and above the ditches they bend in the form of bridges, or vaults. In Evil Slits, deceivers are punished who deceive people who are not connected with them by special bonds of trust.
- 1st ditch. Procurers and seducers.
- 2nd ditch. Flatterers.
- 3rd ditch. Holy merchants, high-ranking clerics who traded in church positions.
- 4th ditch. Soothsayers, fortune tellers, astrologers, sorceresses.
- 5th ditch. Bribers, bribe-takers.
- 6th ditch. Hypocrites.
- 7th ditch. The thieves .
- 8th ditch. Wicked advisers.
- 9th ditch. The instigators of discord (Mohammed, Ali, Dolcino and others).
- 10th ditch. Alchemists, perjurers, counterfeiters.
9th round. Deceived those who trusted. Ice lake Cocytus.
- Belt of Cain. Family traitors.
- Belt of Antenor. Traitors of the motherland and like-minded people.
- Belt of Tolomei. Traitors of friends and companions.
- Giudecca belt. Traitors of benefactors, majesty divine and human.
- In the middle, in the center of the universe, frozen into an ice floe (Lucifer) torments in his three mouths traitors to the majesty of the earthly and heavenly (Judas, Brutus and Cassius).

Building a model of Hell ( Hell , XI, 16-66), Dante follows Aristotle, who in his "Ethics" (book VII, ch. I) refers to the 1st category the sins of intemperance (incontinenza), to the 2nd - the sins of violence ("violent bestiality" or matta bestialitade), to 3 - sins of deceit ("malice" or malizia). Dante has circles 2-5 for the intemperate, 7th for rapists, 8-9 for deceivers (8th is just for deceivers, 9th is for traitors). Thus, the more material the sin, the more forgivable it is.

Heretics - apostates from the faith and deniers of God - are singled out especially from the host of sinners who fill the upper and lower circles, in the sixth circle. In the abyss of the lower Hell (A., VIII, 75), three ledges, like three steps, are three circles - from the seventh to the ninth. In these circles, malice is punished, wielding either force (violence) or deceit.

The Concept of Purgatory in The Divine Comedy

Three holy virtues - the so-called "theological" - faith, hope and love. The rest are four "basic" or "natural" (see note Ch., I, 23-27).

Dante depicts him as a huge mountain rising in the southern hemisphere in the middle of the Ocean. It has the shape of a truncated cone. The coastline and the lower part of the mountain form the Prepurgatory, and the upper one is surrounded by seven ledges (seven circles of Purgatory proper). On the flat top of the mountain, Dante places the desert forest of the Earthly Paradise.

Virgil expounds the doctrine of love as the source of all good and evil and explains the gradation of the circles of Purgatory: circles I, II, III - love for "another evil", that is, malevolence (pride, envy, anger); circle IV - insufficient love for the true good (despondency); circles V, VI, VII - excessive love for false goods (covetousness, gluttony, voluptuousness). The circles correspond to the biblical deadly sins.

Prepurgatory
- The foot of Mount Purgatory. Here, the newly arrived souls of the dead await access to Purgatory. Those who died under church excommunication, but repented of their sins before death, wait for a period thirty times longer than the time that they spent in "strife with the church."
- First ledge. Careless, until the hour of death they hesitated to repent.
- Second ledge. Careless, died a violent death.
Valley of Earthly Lords (does not apply to Purgatory)
1st circle. Proud.
2nd circle. Envious.
3rd circle. Angry.
4th circle. Dull.
5th round. Buyers and spendthrifts.
6th round. Gluttons.
7th round. Voluptuaries.
Earthly paradise.

The concept of Paradise in The Divine Comedy

(in brackets - examples of personalities given by Dante)

1 sky(Moon) - the abode of those who observe duty (Jephthah, Agamemnon, Constance of Norman).
2 sky(Mercury) - the abode of the reformers (Justinian) and the innocent victims (Iphigenia).
3 sky(Venus) - the abode of lovers (Karl Martell, Kunitzsa, Folco of Marseilles, Dido, "Rhodopeian", Raava).
4 sky(Sun) - the abode of sages and great scientists. They form two circles ("round dance").
- 1st circle: Thomas Aquinas, Albert von Bolstedt, Francesco Gratiano, Peter of Lombard, Dionysius the Areopagite, Paul Orosius, Boethius, Isidore of Seville, Bede the Venerable, Ricard, Seeger of Brabant.
- 2nd circle: Bonaventure, Franciscans Augustine and Illuminati, Hugon, Peter the Eater, Peter of Spain, John Chrysostom, Anselm, Elius Donatus, Raban Maurus, Joachim.
5 sky(Mars) - the abode of warriors for the faith (Jesus Nun, Judas Maccabee, Roland, Gottfried of Bouillon, Robert Guiscard).
6 sky(Jupiter) - the abode of just rulers (biblical kings David and Hezekiah, Emperor Trajan, King Guglielmo II the Good and the hero of the "Aeneid" Ripheus).
7 sky(Saturn) - the abode of theologians and monks (Benedict of Nursia, Peter Damiani).
8 sky(sphere of stars).
9 sky(The prime mover, crystal sky). Dante describes the structure of the heavenly inhabitants (see Orders of Angels).
10 sky(Empyrean) - Flaming Rose and Radiant River (the core of the rose and the arena of the heavenly amphitheater) - the abode of the Deity. On the banks of the river (the steps of the amphitheater, which is divided into 2 more semicircles - the Old Testament and the New Testament), blessed souls sit. Mary (Our Lady) - at the head, under her - Adam and Peter, Moses, Rachel and Beatrice, Sarah, Rebekah, Judith, Ruth, etc. John sits opposite, below him - Lucia, Francis, Benedict, Augustine, etc.

Scientific moments, misconceptions and comments

Hell , xi, 113-114. The constellation Pisces rose above the horizon, and Woz(constellation Ursa Major) tilted to the northwest(Kavr; lat. Caurus is the name of the northwest wind. This means that there are two hours left before sunrise.
Hell , XXIX, 9. That their way is twenty-two district miles.(about the inhabitants of the tenth ditch of the eighth circle) - judging by the medieval approximation of the number Pi, the diameter of the last circle of Hell is 7 miles.
Hell , XXX, 74. Baptist sealed alloy- golden Florentine coin, florin (fiormo). On its front side, the patron of the city, John the Baptist, was depicted, and on the reverse side, the Florentine coat of arms, a lily (fiore is a flower, hence the name of the coin).
Hell , XXXIV, 139. The word "luminaries" (stelle - stars) ends each of the three canticles of the Divine Comedy.
Purgatory , I, 19-21. Beacon of love, beautiful planet- that is, Venus, eclipsing with its brightness the constellation Pisces, in which it was located.
Purgatory , I, 22. To awn- that is, to the celestial pole, in this case the south.
Purgatory , I, 30. Chariot- Ursa Major, hidden over the horizon.
Purgatory , II, 1-3. According to Dante, the Mount of Purgatory and Jerusalem are located at opposite ends of the earth's diameter, so they have a common horizon. In the northern hemisphere, the top of the celestial meridian ("half-day circle") that crosses this horizon falls over Jerusalem. At the hour described, the sun, visible in Jerusalem, was sinking, to soon appear in the sky of Purgatory.
Purgatory , II, 4-6. And the night...- According to medieval geography, Jerusalem lies in the very middle of the land, located in the northern hemisphere between the Arctic Circle and the Equator, and extending from west to east by only longitudes. The remaining three quarters of the globe are covered by the waters of the Ocean. Equally distant from Jerusalem are: in the extreme east - the mouth of the Ganges, in the extreme west - the Pillars of Hercules, Spain and Morocco. When the sun sets in Jerusalem, night approaches from the Ganges. At the time of the year described, that is, at the time of the vernal equinox, the night holds the scales in its hands, that is, it is in the constellation Libraopposing the Sun, which is in the constellation Aries. In the autumn, when she “overcomes” the day and becomes longer than it, she will leave the constellation Libra, that is, she will “drop” them.
Purgatory , III, 37. Quia- a Latin word meaning "because", and in the Middle Ages it was also used in the sense of quod ("what"). Scholastic science, following Aristotle, distinguished between two kinds of knowledge: scire quia- knowledge of the existing - and scire propter quid- knowledge of the causes of the existing. Virgil advises people to be content with the first kind of knowledge, without delving into the causes of what is.
Purgatory , IV, 71-72. The road where the unfortunate Phaeton ruled- zodiac.
Purgatory , XXIII, 32-33. Who is looking for "omo"...- it was believed that in the features of a human face one can read “Homo Dei” (“Man of God”), with the eyes depicting two “Os”, and the eyebrows and nose - the letter M.
Purgatory , XXVIII, 97-108. According to Aristotelian physics, atmospheric precipitation is generated by "wet vapor", and wind is generated by "dry vapor". Matelda explains that only below the level of the gates of Purgatory are there such disturbances, generated by steam, which "follows the heat", that is, under the influence of solar heat, rises from the water and from the earth; at the height of the Earthly Paradise, only a uniform wind remains, caused by the rotation of the first firmament.
Purgatory , XXVIII, 82-83. Twelve four venerable elders- twenty-four books of the Old Testament.
Purgatory , XXXIII, 43. five hundred fifteen- a mysterious designation of the coming deliverer of the church and the restorer of the empire, who will destroy the "thief" (the harlot of song XXXII, who took someone else's place) and the "giant" (the French king). The numbers DXV form, when the signs are rearranged, the word DVX (leader), and the oldest commentators interpret it that way.
Purgatory , XXXIII, 139. Account set from the beginning- In the construction of the Divine Comedy, Dante observes strict symmetry. In each of its three parts (cantik) - 33 songs; "Hell" contains, in addition, another song that serves as an introduction to the whole poem. The volume of each of the hundred songs is approximately the same.
Paradise , XIII, 51. And there is no other center in the circle- there cannot be two opinions, just as only one center is possible in a circle.
Paradise , XIV, 102. The sacred sign was composed of two rays, which is hidden within the borders of the quadrants.- segments of adjacent quadrants (quarters) of the circle form the sign of the cross.
Paradise , XVIII, 113. In Lily M- The Gothic M resembles a fleur-de-lis.
Paradise , XXV, 101-102: If Cancer has a similar pearl ...- From December 21 to January 21 at sunset, the constellation

The idea of the work

It is believed that the impetus for the creation of the Divine Comedy was a dream that Dante had in 1300, i.e. at the age of 35 (according to medieval ideas, this is half of life), which is confirmed by the first lines of the work:

Having passed half of earthly life,

I found myself in a dark forest

Having lost the right path in the darkness of the valley.

("Hell", song I, 1-4)

Having finished his work in 1321, Dante called it “Commedia” (“La Commedia”), meaning by this its average style, which did not contradict the medieval genre definitions: any poetic work of the middle style with a frightening beginning and a happy ending, written by in the vernacular and not devoid of entertainment. Here is the work of Dante, written in Italian, tells how the poet, in the middle of his life's journey, got lost in a dark forest (an allegory of earthly life) and, full of fear and confusion, is looking for the lost "right path" (an allegory of the ideal), but the road to him three beasts block (an allegory of human vices). Dangerous beasts are driven away by Virgil (an allegory of earthly wisdom), who was summoned from the depths of hell by Beatrice (heavenly wisdom), who ordered him to save her friend. The story of the poet's wanderings in the underworld ends with a description of Paradise. In Dante's time, the concept of "comedy" did not include either the dramatic specifics of this genre, or the intention to arouse laughter from readers.

After the death of Dante, his first biographer, Giovanni Boccaccio, added the epithet "divine" ("divina") to the title of the work, which meant the work was extremely beautiful and perfect.

This epithet quickly grew to the work of Dante, because. was very apt: "The Divine Comedy", written in a simple style, gave a picture of divine creation, the afterlife as some kind of eternal life, for which temporary earthly life is only a preparation. The Lord God does not appear on the pages of the work, but the presence of the Creator of the Universe is felt everywhere.

2.2. Place of the Divine Comedy
in the genre system of the Middle Ages

Working on The Divine Comedy, Dante relied on the artistic experience of all previous literature - both ancient and medieval. He was exemplified by such ancient authors as Homer, who sent his Odysseus to the realm of the dead, and Virgil (Dante's favorite poet, whom he called his "leader, master, teacher"), in whom Aeneas, the protagonist of the poem "Aeneid", also descends to Tartarus to see his father. The plot of Dante's work reproduces the scheme of the genre of "visions", or "going through torment", that was popular in medieval clerical literature. poetic stories about the journey of the soul during sleep through the afterlife.

Researchers of Dante's work note the echoes of the Divine Comedy with the Vision of Tnugdal, written in the 12th century. in Ireland in Latin: the soul of the knight Tnugdal, who did not honor God's church, during a three-day sleep makes a journey through hell, where he sees the torment of sinners, and through the Silver and Gold cities, as well as through the city of Precious stones, where the souls of the righteous dwell; having received a good lesson, she returns to the body of a knight, and he becomes the most conscientious parishioner of the church.

Usually in medieval visions, the role of a guide in the afterlife was played by an angel, and the main task of the visions was to distract a person from worldly fuss, show him the sinfulness of earthly life and encourage him to turn his thoughts to the afterlife. In addition, it should be remembered that for a medieval person, the reality surrounding him was an occasion for allegory, for guessing what was hidden behind it. In literature, this manifested itself in the presence of several levels on which the poetic image is read as the meaning of the work becomes more complex.

Following this medieval tradition, Dante put four meanings into his work: literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical.

The literal meaning is the image of the fate of people after death, a description of the afterlife.

The allegorical meaning is an expression of the idea of being in an abstract form: everything in the world moves from darkness to light, from suffering to joy, from error to truth, from bad to good.

The moral meaning is the idea of retribution for all earthly affairs in the afterlife.

Anagogic sense, i.e. The highest meaning of the "Divine Comedy" was for Dante in the desire to sing Beatrice and the great power of love for her, which saved him from delusions and allowed him to write a poem. The anagogical meaning also assumed an intuitive comprehension of the divine idea through the perception of the beauty of poetry itself - the divine language, although it was created by the mind of a poet, an earthly person.

Catholic symbolism and allegorism, permeating the entire poem of Dante, connect his work with purely medieval traditions. Each plot point in the poem, each image and situation can be interpreted not only literally, but also allegorically, moreover, in several ways. Let us recall how, at the beginning of his poem, Dante tells about himself: “Having passed half my earthly life, // I found myself in a gloomy forest, // Having lost the right path in the darkness of the valley.” In this "wild forest, dense and threatening," he was almost torn to pieces by three terrible beasts - a lion, a she-wolf and a lynx. He is led out of the forest by Virgil, who was sent to him by Beatrice. The entire first song of the poem is a continuous allegory, which is commented as follows: “... in the moral sense, these animals mean vices that are most dangerous for humanity: a panther is a lie, betrayal and voluptuousness, a lion is pride, violence, a she-wolf is greed and selfishness. In an allegorical sense, the panther means the Florentine Republic, as well as other Italian oligarchies, the lion - the rulers - tyrants, such as the French king Philip IV the Handsome, the she-wolf - the papal curia. Anagogically, i.e. in the highest symbolic meaning, the three beasts represent evil forces that impede the ascent of man to perfection. And the ascent to it is the plot of the poem, which consists of three parts (“Hell”, “Purgatory”, “Paradise”), and each part (not counting the introductory to “Hell”) includes 33 songs (kantiks), which is 100 in total (33x3 = 99 + 1 = 100). One hundred is the square of the perfect number 10 and, therefore, the mathematical image of the highest perfection.

The ascent to perfection from the forest darkness begins (the forest, as already noted, is an allegory of earthly life full of sinful delusions), accompanied by Virgil, who embodies the earthly mind. The shadow of Virgil, to help Dante, summoned from the depths of hell the shadow of St. Beatrice. And this is also an allegory: heavenly wisdom comes to save a person, sending him reason (reason is the threshold of faith). But the earthly mind is able to perceive only sad or tragic, but this mind is not able to embrace the divine greatness and joy of bliss, therefore, on the threshold of Paradise, Virgil leaves Dante, and Beatrice herself becomes his guide, an allegory of love, beauty and heavenly wisdom.

Dante follows Beatrice, 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 "the love that moves the sun and the luminaries."

Each part has its own allegorical encoding: Hell is the embodiment of the terrible and ugly, Purgatory is the embodiment of correctable vices and quenchable sadness, Paradise is an allegory of beauty and joy.

Dante's journey through Hell, hand in hand with Virgil, showing him the various torments of sinners, symbolizes the process of awakening human consciousness under the influence of earthly wisdom. To leave the path of delusion, a person must know himself. All sins punished in Hell entail a form of punishment that allegorically depicts the state of mind of people subject to this vice: the angry, for example, are immersed in a stinking swamp in which they fiercely fight with each other. "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 their sins remain in Purgatory. The internal process of this cleansing 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 by one as Dante passes through the steps of Purgatory.

All of the above details: the plot of the poem, which tells about the author's journey during a "sleep, vision" through the afterlife, accompanied by a guide, and its allegoricalness, and the use of religious symbolism and the magic of numbers, according to which the numbers 3 are sacred (three parts of the poem) , 9 (nine circles of Hell, nine celestial spheres of Paradise, two Prepurgatory and seven steps of Purgatory - also nine in total) and 10 is a perfect number, and the aspiration from the sinfulness of the earthly world to the perfection of the heavenly world, where only one can find true Love and Faith and to contemplate the Almighty - bring Dante's "Divine Comedy" closer to the "vision" genre popular in the Middle Ages.

2.3. Features of the "Divine Comedy" Dante,
distinguishing it from the medieval genre of "vision"

Medieval "visions" indeed prepared many details that were included in Dante's "Divine Comedy", but the poet greatly modified this genre.

According to medieval tradition, only saints, from the dead, were allowed into the depths of hell, and sometimes the Mother of God descended there, an angel could act as a guide. Dante, firstly, presented in his work not only the depths of Hell, but the entire universe (Hell, Purgatory, Paradise). Secondly, he himself, a living, sinful person, passed through all areas of the afterlife, made this universe a part of his personal life. In addition, during his journey through Hell and Purgatory, Dante is accompanied not by an angel, but by the pagan Virgil, an ancient poet who in the Middle Ages was considered a “Christian before Christ” (based on the interpretation of Virgil’s eclogue IV, in which he allegedly predicted the birth of a miraculous baby, with the advent of which the “golden age” will come on earth).

Another difference between Dante's poem and the clerical literature of the Middle Ages is that he does not seek to distract a person from a sinful life. On the contrary, its goal is to reflect real earthly life as fully as possible. He does judgment on human crimes and vices, not for the sake of denying earthly life as such, but in the name of correcting it, in order to make people behave properly; it does not lead a person away from reality, but plunges him into it.

In the chapter "Hell" Dante shows a whole gallery of living people endowed with various passions. And if in medieval visions the most general, schematic image of sinners was given, then in Dante the images of sinners are specific and individual, deeply different from each other, although they are outlined with only two or three strokes. The poet all the time operates with material taken from living Italian reality - material that is modern and even topical for the first readers of his work, i.e. the afterlife is not opposed to real life, but continues it, reflecting the relations existing in it. In Dante's Hell, political passions rage, as on earth, sinners have conversations and disputes with Dante on modern political topics.

In the tenth song of "Hell", Farinata talks about politics with Dante, whose unbroken spirit rises from the flames. In Hell, Farinata suffers for being a follower of Epicurus, but his conversation with Dante only concerns Florentine politics. Farinata was one of the most famous politicians of Florence in the 12th century, the leader of the Florentine gibbels. Dante admires the mighty will and heroism of Farinata, who saved his native city from ruin and now,

... brow and chest uplifting imperiously,

Hell seemed to be looking down with contempt.

("Hell", Song X, 34-45)

The very idea of afterlife retribution thus acquires a political connotation in Dante: many of his political enemies reside in Hell.

Academician D.S. Likhachev formulated the concept of the Pre-Renaissance - that transitional period when Dante lived and worked: “The main difference between the Pre-Renaissance and the real Renaissance was that the general “movement towards man”, which characterizes both the Pre-Renaissance and the Renaissance, has not yet freed itself from its religious shell." Indeed, when analyzing Dante's Divine Comedy, we see that the role of religious consciousness in his work is quite large, and this is manifested in the system of images, allegorism, biblical symbolism, etc., as already mentioned above.

But Dante is unique in that he combined extremes. Medieval “vision” with its hierarchy of meanings, sequentially built - from the literal meaning of the event to its sacred, anagogical interpretation, is turned not only upwards - to the Divine meaning and perfection, but also, at the will of the author, to history and politics. As noted by M.M. Bakhtin, analyzing the semantic structure of the work, Dante's historical and political conception, his understanding of the progressive and reactionary forces of historical development (a very deep understanding) is drawn into its vertical hierarchy. Therefore, the images and ideas that fill the vertical world are filled with a powerful desire to break out of it and enter a productive historical horizontal line, to settle down not in the upward direction, but forward ... "

Many images and situations of the Divine Comedy, in addition to the moral and religious meaning, have a political meaning. The dense forest, for example, is not only an allegory of earthly existence, but also an allegory of the cruel historical time in which the poet lived, this 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 afterlife symbolize the earthly world, transformed according to the idea of strict justice. In Hell, the popes who fought the Ghibellines find their place; Brutus and Cassius, who betrayed Caesar, are declared, like Judas, who betrayed Christ, the greatest criminals.

In contrast to the moral and religious allegories that bring The Divine Comedy closer to the literature of the Middle Ages, political symbols and allusions give it a secular imprint, atypical for medieval literature.

But this does not exhaust the deep inconsistency of Dante's poem as a work that stands at the turn of two great eras. In the poetics of the Divine Comedy, as in Dante's mind, elements of the old and the new are intertwined in the most bizarre way.

For example, throughout the poem, the author carries the idea that earthly life is a preparation for a future, eternal life. But at the same time, he reveals an interest in earthly life and even reconsiders a number of church dogmas and prejudices from this point of view. For example, the church considers carnal love to be sinful, and Dante places "those whom the earthly flesh called, who betrayed the mind to the power of lust" in the second circle of Hell. Here are Francesca and Paolo, a couple in love caught kissing by Francesca's old and ugly husband over the pages of a chivalric novel about Lancelot that taught them to love. The fifth song of "Hell" tells how Dante's attention was attracted by a modest couple, unusual in that a man and a woman, hand in hand, rush past, not parting like a pair of doves. This is Francesca and Paolo. Virgil, at his request, stops the whirlwind, and allows sinners to approach Dante in order to tell him about their fate. After hearing their story, Dante faints. Here is how he writes about it in the poem: "... and the anguish of their hearts// My forehead was covered with mortal sweat;// And I fell as a dead man falls." This was the reaction of a Renaissance man, and not at all an orthodox medieval ascetic, who should have rejoiced that sinners were exemplarily punished.

Dante also critically reviews other ascetic ideals of the church, extolling such qualities of people as the inquisitiveness of the mind, the thirst for knowledge, the desire to go beyond the narrow circle of ordinary concepts and ideas, severely condemned by the church. An example of this is the image of Ulysses (Odysseus), close to the author himself and a wandering fate, and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge: neither tenderness for his son, nor fear of his father, nor love for Penelope could stop this ancient hero in his desire to "explore the world's far horizons" .

Dante's interest in real, earthly life is also manifested in his appeal to the natural world. Thus, describing the torments of sinners in Hell (Ode XXXII), he illustrates them with pictures of nature: traitors immersed in an icy lake are compared to a frog that tries to put its stigma out of a pond to croak.

The chapter "Hell" is dark abysses, crimson flames, bloody rivers, ice smooth as glass. In "Purgatory" and "Paradise" landscapes are permeated with light, white, green, scarlet colors prevail here.

The feeling of nature, the ability to convey its beauty and originality make Dante already a man of the new time, because. medieval man was alien to such an intense interest in the external material world.

All the above features of Dante's Divine Comedy testify to the fact that in this work elements of the old and the new are bizarrely intertwined, old genre traditions are being destroyed. With his attitude, his metaphorical vision, Dante hurries up a new picture of the world and creates it. Thus, describing the ascent of his heroes to Purgatory, the poet draws a picture of the Universe, based on the ideas of the ancient cosmographer Ptolemy, and supplements it with three areas located within the Earth: Hell, Purgatory, and also the Earthly Paradise.

Hell is a funnel in the Northern Hemisphere, reaching to the center of the Earth. It is formed by the fall of Lucifer, an angel who rebelled against God. Together with his demon minions, Lucifer was cast down by God from the height of the ninth heaven. Having pierced the Earth with himself, he froze into the ice of Lake Cocytus at the bottom of Hell. Part of the land, squeezed to the surface in the southern hemisphere against the place of the fall of Lucifer, formed the mountain of Purgatory, washed by the waves of the ocean that rushed there. On the “cut” peak of Purgatory, as if hovering above it, there is an Earthly Paradise. But according to medieval ideas, both Hell and Purgatory were underground. The man had no choice: the sky is far away! Bringing Purgatory to the surface of the Earth in his structure of the world, Dante thereby affirms the greatness and power of a person who has a life choice: the path to heaven, to Paradise, is getting closer. And Dante himself makes this path, freeing himself from sins, but not by the church way, not through prayers, fasting and abstinence, but guided by reason (Virgil) and high love (Beatrice). It is this path that leads him to the contemplation of the Divine light. Hence one of the most important ideas of the Divine Comedy: man is not a nonentity; relying on what is given to him from above - on reason and love, he can reach God, he can achieve everything. Thus, in The Divine Comedy, the idea of man as the center of the universe arises - Renaissance anthropocentrism, the humanism of a new era - the Renaissance is born.

The figurative meaning of the “Divine Comedy”, which has absorbed a lot, is, according to Yu. Olesha, “a whole fire of fantasy” and sums up a huge era, the Middle Ages, and not in its individual parts, but as a whole, and opens a new era - Revival.

Dante's innovation, therefore, lies in the fact that, using medieval structures, he fills them with a new, renaissance meaning.

2.4. "Divine Comedy" Dante from the point of view
modern genre system

When working on a work, each writer relies to a greater or lesser extent on the experience of his predecessors, uses the historically established methods of text organization that are characteristic of works of a particular genre.

As the literary process develops, genres do not remain the same, they change their content and content. In addition, genre is not only a characteristic of a work in terms of its content, form, or their unity. The genre expresses the relationship between the one who creates a work of art and the one who perceives it, i.e. Genre is a historically understandable type of form-content unity in literature.

From the point of view of Dante and the first readers of his work, there was nothing unreal in the Divine Comedy. In the gospel, the apostle Paul reported that he knew a Christian who, fourteen years ago, was taken to paradise and heard "unspeakable words" that a person cannot retell. This story was beyond doubt. Equally reliable for a medieval person was the fact that on Good Friday, 1300, Dante, in a dream-vision, “fell into a gloomy forest”, and then, having passed the dark pits of Hell, the cliffs of Purgatory illuminated by the weak dawn sun and overcoming the nine shining heavens of Paradise, ascended to the abode of God - the Empyrean.

If for Dante’s contemporaries in The Divine Comedy the genre of “vision” was easily guessed, and comprehending the levels of the meaning of the work did not seem to be an insurmountable difficulty, then over time the meaning of the work for readers was increasingly obscured, and its genre nature was comprehended within the framework of the existing at a certain moment and already familiar genre system, and from the point of view of a new worldview and a new look at a person.

Dante's "Divine Comedy" is called an encyclopedia of medieval life, because. it is not only the result of the development of the ideological, political and artistic thought of the poet, but also provides a grandiose philosophical and artistic synthesis of the entire medieval culture, like an epic, depicting reality in all its diversity, intertwining reality and fantasy.

But the Divine Comedy, despite its grandiose design, cannot be called an epic work, because the epic is objective, presupposes the self-elimination of the author, depicts a world outside the author. Dante, on the other hand, begins to talk about himself (“... I found myself in a gloomy forest ...”), he is the protagonist of the poem, combining the characteristic features of a lyrical hero whose thoughts, feelings, experiences are reflected in the work, the narrator (Dante talks about himself and other people or some events) and the object of the narration. At the same time, the image of the hero is not identical to the image of the author. The hero of the Divine Comedy is emotional: he can be angry with traitors; hot-tempered but respectful with Farinata; full of pity and sympathy for Francesca and Paolo. The author, who himself designed this whole world and populated it with souls at his own discretion, is omniscient, strict and objective.

It is the image of Dante, in all three of his hypostases, that is the connecting center of the various elements of the artistic system of the Divine Comedy. The poet not only and even not so much describes what appears to his eyes, but comprehends, experiences all events, inviting the reader to sympathy and empathy. After all, if Hell, according to medieval ideas, is punishment, the punishment of sinners, presented in the form of a faceless, screaming crowd, then Dante’s Hell is a fair retribution for an unworthy life, for deviation from moral norms and rules, and sinners are suffering people, with their own names, destinies, many of which the author deeply sympathizes (recall his reaction to the love story of Francesca and Paolo).

Thus, in Dante's Divine Comedy, the depiction of life combines the epic and the lyrical. This is a poetic narrative about the actions and experiences of the characters, and at the same time, the experiences of the poet-narrator are clearly expressed in it.

The Divine Comedy is, by its very nature, a fantastic work. The poet, equal to the Creator, builds his own poetic world, while the author's fantasy is based on the impressions 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”, Canto XXI). At the same time, the demons make sure that the sinners do not float to the top, and push them with hooks into the pitch, like cooks when they “heat meat with forks in a cauldron.” Creating the fantastic, Dante is not afraid of being reminded of the earthly, on the contrary, he is constantly trying to get the reader to recognize the real world. Thus, the pictures of Hell, presented to the eyes of Dante and Virgil, are fantastic in the highest degree. But this transcendent fantasy quite accurately reflects the reality of modern Italy for the author (scientists have calculated that out of 79 personified inhabitants of Hell, almost half of his fellow Florentines - 32 people).

In The Divine Comedy, the action appears as a live event, as if unfolding right before our eyes, and this provides a complete illusion of the reality of what is happening, which brings Dante's work closer to drama, as well as dialogues that also allow dramatizing the action.

An example of this is the dialogue between Dante and Virgil in the scene of their ascent to Purgatory: surprisingly accurately, with knowledge of the matter, Dante poses natural philosophical questions and himself, through the mouth of Virgil, answers them. Both the dialogue itself and the amazingly convincing small details of the narrative provide a complete illusion of the reality of what is happening, as if everything is happening in front of the readers.

All the noted features of the Divine Comedy make it possible to attribute it to lyrical-epic works and qualify it as a fantastic poem, in which the epic principle prevails, complemented by lyrical-dramatic elements.

At the same time, a global picture of the world that goes beyond the real world, recreated by the power of Dante's imagination, and the correlation of this world with the personal fate of the poet himself, his beloved Beatrice and Virgil - a teacher and friend, as well as the issues raised by the author of the universe, the purpose and meaning of human existence , responsibility for one’s actions allow us to say that Dante’s “Divine Comedy” is a poem of a universal philosophical nature: it is comparable to such works that are a “synthesis of genres”, such as Goethe’s tragedy “Faust”, which is also close to the poem in many genre features and combining epic, lyrics, drama, and M. Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita", created under the influence of both Dante and Goethe.

Often, because of love, actions are performed that go beyond understanding. It is customary for poets, having experienced love, to dedicate their compositions to the object of feelings. But if this poet is still a man with a difficult fate and, moreover, not without a genius, there is a possibility that he is able to write one of the greatest works in the world. That was Dante Alighieri. His "Divine Comedy" - a masterpiece of world literature - continues to be of interest to the world 700 years after its creation.

The Divine Comedy was created in the second period of the great poet's life - the period of exile (1302 - 1321). By the time he began work on the Comedy, he was already looking for a haven for soul and body among the cities and states of Italy, and the love of his life, Beatrice, had already rested for several years (1290), becoming a victim of the plague epidemic. Writing was for Dante a kind of consolation in his difficult life. It is unlikely that then he counted on worldwide fame or memory for centuries. But the genius of the author and the value of his poem did not allow him to be forgotten.

Genre and direction

"Comedy" is a special work in the history of world literature. Taken as a whole, this is a poem. In a narrower sense, it is impossible to determine its belonging to one of the varieties of this genre. The problem here is that there are no more such works of content. It is impossible to come up with a name for it that would reflect the meaning of the text. Dante decided to call the work “Comedy” Giovanni Boccaccio, following the logic of the Aristotelian doctrine of drama, where comedy was a work that started badly and ended well. The epithet "divine" was coined in the 16th century.

In direction, this is a classic composition of the Italian Renaissance. Dante's poem is characterized by a special national elegance, rich imagery and accuracy. With all this, the poet also does not neglect the loftiness and freedom of thought. All these features were characteristic of the Renaissance poetry of Italy. It is they who form the unique style of Italian poetry of the XIII-XVII centuries.

Composition

Taken as a whole, the core of the poem is the hero's journey. The work consists of three parts, consisting of one hundred songs. The first part is Hell. It contains 34 songs, while "Purgatory" and "Paradise" have 33 songs each. The choice of the author is not accidental. "Hell" stood out as a place where there can be no harmony, well, there are more inhabitants there.

Description of hell

"Hell" is nine circles. Sinners are ranked there according to the severity of their fall. Dante took Aristotle's Ethics as the basis for this system. So, from the second to the fifth circles are punished for the results of human intemperance:

in the second circle - for lust;
in the third - for gluttony;
in the fourth - for stinginess with wastefulness;
in the fifth, for anger;

In the sixth and seventh for the consequences of the atrocity:

in the sixth for false teachings
seventh for violence, murder and suicide

In the eighth and ninth for lies and all its derivatives. The worst fate for Dante awaits traitors. According to the logic of modern, and even then man, the most serious sin is murder. But Aristotle probably believed that the desire to kill a person can not always be controlled because of the bestial nature, while a lie is an exclusively conscious matter. Dante obviously had the same concept.

In "Hell" all the political and personal enemies of Dante. Also there he placed all those who were of a different faith, seemed immoral to the poet and simply lived not in a Christian way.

Description of purgatory

"Purgatory" contains seven circles that correspond to the seven sins. The Catholic Church later called them mortal sins (those that can be "prayed"). In Dante, they are arranged from the heaviest to the most tolerable. He did so because his path should be the path of ascent to Paradise.

Paradise Description

"Paradise" is performed in nine circles, named after the main planets of the solar system. Here are Christian martyrs, saints and scientists, participants in the Crusades, monks, fathers of the Church, and, of course, Beatrice, who is located not just anywhere, but in the Empyrean - the ninth circle, which is presented in the form of a luminous rose, which can be interpreted as a place where God is. With all the Christian orthodoxy of the poem, Dante gives the circles of Paradise the names of the planets, which in meaning correspond to the names of the gods of Roman mythology. For example, the third circle (Venus) is the abode of lovers, and the sixth (Mars) is the place for warriors for the faith.

About what?

Giovanni Boccaccio, when writing a sonnet on behalf of Dante, dedicated to the purpose of the poem, said the following: "Entertain posterity and instruct in the faith." This is true: The Divine Comedy can serve as an instruction in faith, because it is based on Christian teaching and clearly shows what and who awaits for disobedience. And entertain, as they say, she can. Given, for example, the fact that "Paradise" is the most unreadable part of the poem, since all the spectacle that a person loves is described in the two previous chapters, well, or the fact that the work is dedicated to Dante's love. Moreover, the function that, as Boccaccio said, entertains, can even argue in its importance with the function of edification. After all, the poet, of course, was more a romantic than a satirist. He wrote about himself and for himself: everyone who interfered with his life is in hell, the poem is for his beloved, and Dante's companion and mentor, Virgil, is the favorite poet of the great Florentine (it is known that he knew his "Aeneid" by heart).

Image of Dante

Dante is the main character of the poem. It is noteworthy that in the entire book his name is not indicated anywhere, except, perhaps, on the cover. The narration comes from his face, and all the other characters call him "you". Narrator and author have a lot in common. The "Dark Forest" in which the first one found himself at the very beginning is the expulsion of the real Dante from Florence, the moment when he was really in turmoil. And Virgil from the poem is the writings of the Roman poet that existed for the exile in reality. Just as his poetry led Dante through difficulties here, so in the afterlife Virgil is his "teacher and beloved example." In the system of characters, the ancient Roman poet also personifies wisdom. The hero shows himself most well in relation to sinners who personally offended him during his lifetime. He even tells some of them in a poem that they deserve it.

Topics

The main theme of the poem is love. Poets of the Renaissance began to elevate the earthly woman to heaven, often calling Madonna. Love, according to Dante, is the cause and beginning of everything. She is an incentive for writing a poem, the reason for his journey is already in the context of the work, and most importantly, the reason for the beginning and existence of the Universe, as is commonly believed in Christian theology.
Edification is the next theme of the Comedy. Dante, like everyone else in those days, felt a great responsibility for earthly life before the heavenly world. For the reader, he can act as a teacher who gives everyone what they deserve. It is clear that in the context of the poem, the inhabitants of the afterlife settled down as the author describes them, by the will of the Almighty.
Politics. Dante's writing can be safely called political. The poet always believed in the advantages of the emperor's power and wanted such power for his country. All his ideological enemies, as well as the enemies of the empire, like the assassins of Caesar, experience the most terrible suffering in hell.
Strength of mind. Dante often falls into confusion when he finds himself in the afterlife, but Virgil tells him not to do this, not stopping at any danger. However, even under unusual circumstances, the hero shows himself with dignity. He cannot not be afraid at all, since he is a man, but even for a man his fear is insignificant, which is an example of an exemplary will. This will did not break either in the face of difficulties in the real life of the poet, or in his book adventure.

Issues

Fight for the ideal. Dante pursued his goals both in real life and in the poem. Once a political activist, he continues to defend his interests, stigmatizing all those who are in opposition with him and do bad things. The author, of course, cannot call himself a saint, but nevertheless he takes responsibility by distributing sinners in their places. The ideal in this matter for him is the Christian teaching and his own views.
Correlation of the earthly world and the afterlife. Many of those who lived, according to Dante, or according to Christian law, unrighteously, but, for example, for their own pleasure and for their own benefit, they find themselves in hell in the most terrible places. At the same time, in paradise there are martyrs or those who during their lifetime became famous for great and useful deeds. The concept of punishment and reward developed by Christian theology exists as a moral guide for most people today.
Death. When his beloved died, the poet was very sad. His love was not destined to come true and be embodied on earth. The Divine Comedy is an attempt to at least briefly reunite with a forever lost woman.

Meaning

"The Divine Comedy" performs all the functions that the author laid down in this work. It is a moral and humanistic ideal for everyone. Reading the Comedy evokes many emotions through which a person learns what is good and what is bad, and experiences purification, the so-called "catharsis", as Aristotle dubbed this state of mind. Through the suffering experienced in the process of reading the life description of hell, a person comprehends divine wisdom. As a result, he treats his actions and thoughts more responsibly, because justice, laid down from above, will punish his sins. In a bright and talented manner, the artist of the word, like an icon painter, depicted scenes of reprisal against vices that enlighten the common people, popularizing and chewing the content of the Holy Scripture. Dante's audience, of course, is more demanding, because it is literate, wealthy and perspicacious, but, nevertheless, it is not alien to sinfulness. It was common for such people to distrust the direct moralizing of preachers and theological works, and here the exquisitely written “Divine Comedy” comes to the aid of virtue, which carried the same educational and moral charge, but did it in a secular manner. In this healing effect on those who are burdened with power and money, the main idea of the work is expressed.

The ideals of love, justice and the strength of the human spirit at all times are the basis of our being, and in Dante's work they are sung and shown in all their significance. The Divine Comedy teaches a person to strive for the high destiny that God has honored him with.

Peculiarities

The "Divine Comedy" is of great aesthetic importance because of the theme of human love, which turned into a tragedy, and the richest artistic world of the poem. All of the above, together with a special poetic warehouse and unprecedented functional diversity, make this work one of the most outstanding in world literature.