The Divine Comedy (The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso)

She went to her room to do some homework and then she was going to head to bed. So Lillian went into her bedroom and she just read a book in bed. After reading for some time she went to sleep. ... He sat up in bed for a little while himself reading Dante's Divine Comedy.

The book, Dante's Divine Comedy, was still on his nightstand where he had left it but now it was opened to a certain page. The certain page is Canto 1 and it says, Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark...

If you really want to drill down though to where we get many, many of our ideas of what we think of as hell is Dante, of course, who we mentioned earlier. I did not even know Dante's last name until we researched this, but it's - and there's going to be some great Italian coming up everyone.

And his divine comedy and specifically Inferno, Dante's Inferno is really where we get a lot of what we think of as hell today comes from Inferno as far as - and people even say without even knowing like, oh, the eighth circle of hell and stuff like that.

Like I've been guilty of saying that my whole life and not really understanding what the heck that even meant.

But what's interesting too is so Dante wrote the Inferno or he wrote the divine comedy in the early 1300s. I guess it took him 15 years.

And so, this is the 1300s and he writes about these nine circles of hell, the nine concentric circles of hell. Like that is a really ancient concept even though he divided it and like really enunciated all of the different distinctions in a really popular way.

One was John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost and then of course Dante's Divine Comedy. This is where we got the idea that Satan was an angel expelled from heaven because of his pride who then said and I will defeat the Lord.

If you really want to drill down though to where we get many, many of our ideas of what we think of as hell is Dante, of course, who we mentioned earlier.

And his divine comedy and specifically Inferno, Dante's Inferno is really where we get a lot of what we think of as hell today comes from Inferno as far as - and people even say without even knowing like, oh, the eighth circle of hell and stuff like that.

And so, this is the 1300s and he writes about these nine circles of hell, the nine concentric circles of hell.

Like that is a really ancient concept even though he divided it and like really enunciated all of the different distinctions in a really popular way.

And there's also a very famous inscription over the gates of hell, abandon all hope ye who enter here.

One was John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost and then of course Dante's Divine Comedy. This is where we got the idea that Satan was an angel expelled from heaven because of his pride who then said and I will defeat the Lord.

If you really want to drill down though to where we get many, many of our ideas of what we think of as hell is Dante, of course, who we mentioned earlier.

And his divine comedy and specifically Inferno, Dante's Inferno is really where we get a lot of what we think of as hell today comes from Inferno as far as - and people even say without even knowing like, oh, the eighth circle of hell and stuff like that.

And so, this is the 1300s and he writes about these nine circles of hell, the nine concentric circles of hell.

Like that is a really ancient concept even though he divided it and like really enunciated all of the different distinctions in a really popular way.

And there's also a very famous inscription over the gates of hell, abandon all hope ye who enter here.

Harold, before he fell asleep, was reading Dante's Divine Comedy, a little light reading.

midway upon the journey of our life within a dark for nope within a forest dark for the straightforward path had been lost.

Harold, before he fell asleep, was reading Dante's Divine Comedy, a little light reading.

midway upon the journey of our life within a dark for nope within a forest dark for the straightforward path had been lost.

I think there's a case for seeing the whole sweep of human history as a very dark comedy... even the very darkest episodes, it's a comedy in the sense that Dante wrote the Divine Comedy.

Inferno, page 52. And what color isn't, like, amazing on you? I am in hell, Dante said.

Inferno, page 52. And what color isn't, like, amazing on you?

I am in hell, Dante said. The critically acclaimed comedy returns.

It was claimed that... Dante, in his great poem The Divine Comedy, felt able to place Trajan in paradise.

one of the absolute foundational texts of European and world literature.

It really made me think about Dante's Inferno, these paintings of suffering people.

Whereas Dante in The Divine Comedy describes in great detail where he thought all the souls were.

I was going to illustrate Dante's Divine Comedy, all 100 cantos or chapters. I was going to do 100 works on each of the 100 cantos, and it would be a 25year project. It began two days before Easter 1975, before everybody here was born. It was supposed to end on Easter the year 2000. And I made it as far as the third canto.

the opening lines of the divine comedy.

Well that's why Dante outlined levels of hell

Well exactly that and I mean that that book was an investigation into the structure of malevolence right he put betrayal at the bottom which I think is right I think that's right because people who develop post-traumatic stress disorder for example which almost only accompanies and encounter with malevolence rather than tragic circumstances they are often betrayed sometimes by other people but often by themselves and yes there are levels of hell you know and you outlined a couple there

Now to investigate those, you have to take a trip to Dante's Inferno. Okay. So the book, The Inferno is a story of a voyage to the underworld, a voyage to hell.

I started thinking about the Inferno as a kind of political text... the fact is that, you know, you get to the ninth circle and Dante's beautiful creation, invention is that it's ice. Everyone's frozen in the ice.

After the Bible it would be Dante it would really be Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise the three parts of Dante's Divine Comedy or if you get rid of that I would do Dante and then I would do Shakespeare.

And it's in Dante's Inferno too. Like what's at the bottom of the center of the frozen lake of hell inside of Satan's belly, you come through that into paradise.

the representation of hell in Dante's Inferno. You start with the land of venal sins, and then Virgil guides you down the rabbit hole, right to the depths of hell itself.

you get the impression he's reading Dante, he's reading Chaucer, he's getting interested in those stories and that's driving a lot of this.

The scene was extremely disturbing, like something out of Dante's Inferno.

Yeah, Dante, you're referring to Inferno, which he describes the descent into hell.

my favorite book is the divine comedy and at the end of the divine comedy Dante Pierce is the skin of the universe and comes face to face with the love that moves the sun and the other stars

I believe that there is a love that moves the sun and the other stars I believe in Dante's vision

my favorite book is the divine comedy. Then at the end of the divine comedy, Dante pears as the skin of the universe and comes face to face with the love that moves the sun and the other stars. I believe that there is a love that moves the sun and the other stars.

my favorite book is the divine comedy and at the end of the divine comedy Dante Pierce is the skin of the universe and comes face to face with the love that moves the sun and the other stars I believe that there is a love that moves the sun and the other stars I believe in Dante's vision

If you read Dante's in Ferno you'll know that at the very bottom of the deepest deepest part of hell it's actually underneath well you get to the deepest part of hell in Dante's in Ferno it's actually not hot it's cold there's a lake of ice and at the very very deepest part of the inferno of hell is Judas the wickedest person ever lived the worst person ever lived and there he is being divided by Satan

there's a point in the divine comedy that Dante's divine comedy his this great master piece of Italian literature when he's leaving purgatory you know it takes his journey through a hell purgatory and he's going into paradise and the last thing he does as he leaves purgatory now he's gonna he's preparing to go into the presence of God and there are two rivers he waits through and drinks from the first river comes from great mythology it's Lathy which is the river of forgetfulness and when he drinks from the river Lathy he forgets all his sins all the negatives of his life he forgets them then he goes to a river that Dante invents is called the river of you know not you know but EU and OE and it means good memory or good mind and he drinks from that one and every good thing he ever did in his life all the good all the positives he remembers so now all sins all negatives all mistakes forgotten and all good remembered he is prepared now to enter into the presence of God