A long journey in the next world, a long journey of the soul
The Divine Comedy is the most important
italian poem of all times. It was written by
Dante Alighieri at the end of the Middle Ages
(1308 – 1321 ).
Dante and the next world
Dante’s statue in Verona
The Divine Comedy is, at the same time, a very real journey:
a journey of the soul from sin (Hell), through awareness,
grief and repentance (Purgatory), to knowledge and salvation
(Heaven); a journey that gradually takes man from the
Hell
darkness of Hell to the light of Heaven.
Purgatory
Paradise
THE INCIPIT (the beginning) OF THE COMEDY
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
Che la diritta via era smarrita
When I was middle aged
I found myself in a dark wood
Cause I have lost my way
The dark wood
The dark wood symbolisez the soul crisis the poet experienced when he got to
middle age: when he was about 35 years old he actually realized he was a
sinner. a lustful, proud and mean person. So Dante began his long and difficult
spiritual journey through the realms of after life.
At the beginning, on the way, Dante meets three animals: a she-wolf, a lion
and a lonza (an imaginary animal similar to a leopard). The she-wolf is the
symbol of lust; the lion represents pride and the lonza represents greed.
While in Hell, in Purgatory and in Heaven Dante meets the souls of men and
women who really lived in the past: they tell their life to the poet and
explain the reasons why they are there. Dante thinks over all these stories,
he reflects upon good and evil in mankind and his understanding of human
nature gets deeper and deeper until the final contemplation of God and the
salvation of his soul.
Hell’s souls
Paradise’s souls