The Divine Comedy: Inferno

The Divine Comedy: Inferno (Italian: La Commedia, later La Divina Commedia) is a poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320, that gives the widest synthesis of medieval culture and world ontology. It is a real medieval encyclopedia of scientific, political, philosophical, moral and religious knowledges. It is considered to be the preeminent work in Italian and world literature. The Comedy is a result work of the whole second part of Dante’s life; it is his last and most mature creation. The poet’s view of the world is delivered in this work to the fullest extent. Dante acts here as the last great medieval poet; the poet who continues to develop medieval literature. Hell is represented in a form of a huge tunnel, consisting of concentric circles, which narrowing end approaches the centre of the earth. After going through the Hell’s threshold, where the souls of weak and vain people dwell, they enter the first Circle, Limbo that contains the souls of virtuous pagans who did not learn true belief but nearly approached it, so they were put out of hellfire. Dante watches here such representatives of Antic culture as Aristotle, Euripides, Homer etc. The Hell’s “antiquity” is inducted to underline that Antic culture is not signed by Christ, it is pagan and, as a result, it is not sinful.