Year of writing: 1307-1321

Genre: poem

Main characters: Dante, Virgil

This work is difficult for children to understand, it leaves a lasting impression and is useful for general development, but its volume is not feasible for everyone, so we offer a summary of the poem “The Divine Comedy” for the reader’s diary.

Plot

Dante meets Virgil, an ancient poet who offers to go to the other world. They end up in hell, which consists of 9 circles going down. In each circle, souls are tormented for a certain sin. On the 9th circle they saw the devil himself. Then the travelers ended up in Purgatory and went through 7 circles of it. Then they rose into the sky and began to cross the circles of heaven - the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, etc., meeting the souls of the righteous, until they reached the highest point of the Universe, where the Almighty was located. Dante then returned to Earth.

Conclusion (my opinion)

Having seen what awaits a person after death and how severe the torment of sinners is, the hero rethought a lot. The Almighty sees everything and watches them, He is All-Knowing, and only He knows what is good in life and what is evil. By following his orders and being wary of his prohibitions, we will achieve happiness in both worlds.

Medieval literature contributed to the strengthening of church power throughout the Old World. Many authors praised God and bowed before the greatness of his creations. But a few geniuses managed to dig a little deeper. Today we will find out what is the “Divine Comedy” about, who wrote this masterpiece, let's reveal the truth through the abundance of lines.

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Master's Immortal Feather

Dante Alighieri is an outstanding thinker, theologian, writer and public figure. The exact date of his birth has not been preserved, but Giovanni Boccaccio claims it to be May 1265. One of them mentions that the main character was born under the sign of Gemini, starting on May 21st. On March 25, 1266, at baptism, the poet was given a new name - Durante.

It is not known exactly where the young man received his education, but he knew the literature of Antiquity and the Middle Ages very well, knew the natural sciences perfectly, and studied the works of heretical authors.

The first documentary mentions of him are by 1296-1297. During this period, the author was actively involved in social activities and was elected prior of the Florentine Republic. Quite early he joined the White Guelphs, for which he was subsequently expelled from his native Florence.

The years of wandering were accompanied by active literary activity. In the difficult conditions of constant travel, Dante conceived the idea of ​​writing the work of his life. While parts of the Divine Comedy were completed in Ravenna. Paris incredibly impressed Alighieri with such enlightenment.

The year 1321 cut short the life of the greatest representative of medieval literature. As the ambassador of Ravenna, he went to Venice to make peace, but on the way he fell ill with malaria and died suddenly. The body was buried in its final resting place.

Important! Contemporary portraits of the Italian figure cannot be trusted. The same Boccaccio depicts Dante as bearded, while the chronicles speak of a clean-shaven man. In general, the surviving evidence is consistent with the established view.

The deep meaning of the name

“Divine Comedy” - this phrase can be viewed from several angles. In the literal sense of the word, this is a description of mental wanderings across the expanses of the afterlife.

The righteous and the sinners exist in different planes of existence after death. Purgatory serves as a place for the correction of human souls; those who end up here get a chance to be cleansed of earthly sins for the sake of a future life.

We see the clear meaning of the work - the mortal life of a person determines the future fate of his soul.

The poem abounds allegorical inserts, For example:

• three beasts symbolize human vices - insidiousness, gluttony, pride;
• the journey itself is presented as a search for a spiritual path for every person surrounded by vices and sinfulness;
• “Paradise” reveals the main goal of life - the desire for all-consuming and all-forgiving love.

Time of creation and structure of “Comedy”

The writer managed to create an extremely symmetrical work, which consists of three parts (edges) - “Hell”, “Purgatory” and “Paradise”. Each section has 33 songs, which is equal to the number 100 (with an introductory chant).

The Divine Comedy is filled with the magic of numbers:

• the names of the numbers played a large role in the structure of the work, the author gave them a mystical interpretation;
• the number "3" is associated with Christian beliefs about God's Trinity;
• “nine” is formed from “three” squared;
• 33 – symbolizes the time of the earthly life of Jesus Christ;
• 100 is the number of perfection and universal harmony.

Now let's see during the years of writing The Divine Comedy and publication of each part of the poem:

1. From 1306 to 1309 The process of writing “Hell” was underway, editing lasted until 1314. Published a year later.
2. “Purgatory” (1315) lasted for four years (1308-1312).
3. "Paradise" was published after the poet's death (1315-1321).

Attention! The narration process is possible thanks to specific lines - terzas. They consist of three lines, all parts ending with the word “stars”.

Characters of the poem

A striking feature of the writing is identification of the afterlife with the mortal existence of man. Hell is raging with political passions, here eternal torment awaits Dante's enemies and enemies. It is not for nothing that the papal cardinals are in Hell of Fire, and Henry VII is at the unprecedented heights of a blooming Paradise.

Among the most striking characters are:

1. Dante- a genuine one, whose soul is forced to wander through the expanses of the afterlife. He is the one who longs for atonement for his sins, tries to find the right path, to cleanse himself for a new life. Throughout the journey, he observes a host of vices, the sinfulness of human nature.
2. Virgil– a faithful guide and assistant to the main character. He is an inhabitant of Limbo, so he accompanies Dante only through Purgatory and Hell. From a historical point of view, Publius Virgil Maro is the Roman poet most beloved by the author. Dante's Virgil is such an island of Reason and philosophical Rationalism, following him to the end.
3. Nicholas III- Catholic prelate, served as Pope. Despite his education and bright mind, he was condemned by his contemporaries for nepotism (he promoted his grandchildren up the career ladder). Dante's holy father is an inhabitant of the eighth circle of Hell (as a holy merchant).
4. Beatrice- Alighieri's secret lover and literary muse. She personifies all-consuming and all-forgiving love. The desire to become happy through sacred love forces the hero to move along a thorny path, through the abundance of vices and temptations of the afterlife.
5. Gaius Cassius Longinus- Roman leader, conspirator and direct participant in the assassination of Julius Caesar. Being of a noble plebeian family, he was susceptible to lust and vice from a young age. He is given the place of a conspirator in the ninth circle of Hell, which is what Dante’s “Divine Comedy” speaks about.
6. Guido de Montefeltro- mercenary soldier and politician. He entered his name into history thanks to the fame of a talented commander, a cunning, insidious politician. A summary of his “atrocities” is told in verses 43 and 44 of the eighth den.

Plot

Christian teachings say that eternally condemned sinners go to Hell, souls who atone for guilt go to Purgatory, and blessed souls go to Paradise. The author of The Divine Comedy gives a surprisingly detailed picture of the afterlife and its internal structure.

So, let's begin to carefully analyze each part of the poem.

Introductory part

The story is told in the first person and tells about the lost in a dense forest, a man who miraculously managed to escape from three wild animals.

His deliverer Virgil offers help on his further journey.

We learn about the motives for such an act from the lips of the poet himself.

He names the three women who patronize Dante in heaven: Virgin Mary, Beatrice, Saint Lucia.

The role of the first two characters is clear, and the appearance of Lucia symbolizes the morbidity of the author's vision.

Hell

According to Alighieri, the stronghold of sinners is shaped like a titanic funnel, which gradually narrows. For a better understanding of the structure, we will briefly describe each of the parts of the Divine Comedy:

1. The vestibule - here rest the souls of insignificant and petty people who were not remembered for anything during their lifetime.
2. Limbo is the first circle where virtuous pagans suffer. The hero sees the outstanding thinkers of Antiquity (Homer, Aristotle).
3. Lust is the second level, which has become home to harlots and passionate lovers. The sinfulness of all-consuming passion, clouding the mind, is punished by torture in pitch darkness. An example from the author's real life is Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta.
4. Gluttony is the third circle, punishing gluttons and gourmets. Sinners are forced to rot forever under the scorching sun and freezing rain (analogous to the circles of Purgatory).
5. Greed - spendthrifts and misers are doomed to endless disputes with their own kind. The guardian is Plutos.
6. Wrath - Lazy and intemperate souls are forced to roll huge boulders through the Styk Swamp, constantly getting bogged down, fighting with each other.
7. The walls of the city of Dita - here, in the red-hot graves, heretics and false prophets are destined to reside.
8. The characters of The Divine Comedy are boiling in a bloody river in the middle of the 7th circle of Hell. There are also rapists, tyrants, suicides, blasphemers, and covetous people here. Representatives of each category have their own torturers: harpies, centaurs, hounds.
9. Sinisters await bribe-takers, sorcerers and seducers. They are subjected to reptile bites, evisceration, immersion in feces, and scourging by demons.
10. Ice Lake Katsit is a “warm” place for traitors. Judas, Cassius and Brutus are forced to rest in the ice until the end of time. Here is the gate to the circles of Purgatory.

Purgatory

Place of atonement for sins presented in the form of a truncated mountain.

The entrance is guarded by an angel who draws 7 R on Dante's forehead, a symbol of the seven deadly sins.

The circles of Purgatory are filled with the souls of the proud, careless, greedy and angry.

After completing each level, the hero is ready to enter the heavenly palaces.

The narrative of The Divine Comedy is coming to its logical conclusion.

Paradise

The meaning of the “Divine Comedy” comes down to the passage of the last seven spheres (planets) encircling. Here the hero sees Beatrice, who convinces the poet to repent and unite with the Creator.

Throughout the journey, Dante meets Emperor Justinian, sees the Virgin Mary and Christ, angels and martyrs for the faith. Ultimately, the “heavenly Rose” is revealed to the main character, where the souls of the blessed rest.

Dante's Divine Comedy - brief overview, analysis

The richness of colors and realistic descriptions make this work stand out from others.

We must not forget about the deep meaning of the work - the search for a spiritual path is important not so much in the afterlife as in earthly life. According to Dante's worldview, every person must realize that the moral principles and principles that are sacredly revered during life will become exemplary virtues in Hell, Paradise and Purgatory.

Dante's poem is presented in the translation by M. L. Lozinsky - the best of all existing Russian translations. The work flow looks like this:

• The Divine Comedy consists of three parts: hell, purgatory and heaven.
• Hell has 9 circles, purgatory is divided into 9 parts, and heaven is divided into 9 spheres.
• Each part contains 33 songs of equal length.
• The first song is also included in the book, which contains a total of 100 songs.
• Each part ends with the word "stelle", which means "stars".
• The poem consists of terza - stanzas consisting of three words.
• There are 14,233 verses in the work.

In the first part of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, The Inferno, the spirit of the Roman poet Virgil guides Dante's alter ego through the circles of hell, where they witness the terrible punishments that sinners have inflicted on themselves. In purgatory, he saw the path of redemption and liberation of people from material needs and their perfection. The poet describes the nature of paradise as harmony, the unity of man and the cosmos and love that moves everything.

It is quite difficult to summarize the poem. But you can understand the theme and essence of the work and make your own analysis and conclusions based on this abbreviation.

Dante's Inferno

In the middle of his human life, at the age of 35, Dante gets lost in the forest and after a whole night of wonder at what is happening around him, he wakes up on the top of a hill, where he encounters three dangerous animals: a lion, a panther and a wolf. He was scared and started to run. Along the way, he meets Virgil, who promised to save him, but before that he will have to go through hell, purgatory and heaven.

Finally, Dante and Virgil approached the doors of hell, and Dante saw a sign that read, “Abandon hope, all who enter here.” They had not yet entered, but they had already heard terrible screams, curses and screams. The travelers saw a large crowd of souls running along the river in panic. They thought only about themselves in their lives. Now they were forced to flee because they were being pursued by bees and hornets.

Dante and Virgil finally reached the Acheron River, where the unfortunate souls waited to be ferried to the other side by Charon, the ferryman. Seeing Dante, who was not dead, Charon became angry and refused to take him to the other side. Virgil reassured him by saying that Dante's arrival was God's wish. Suddenly the ground began to shake and Dante lost consciousness. He woke up on the other side, in the first circle of hell . Here is a brief description and characteristics of each circle:

• ​First circle (Limbo). It is inhabited by the souls of noble but unbaptized people, including pagans and infants. Dante has the honor of walking with the company of the great ancient poets, including Ovid, Lucan and Horace.
• In the second circle (Lust) they saw Minos, half man and half animal. He was a guard who listened to all the confessions and sent them to his circle. Dante went to the second circle and met sinful lovers. All the souls in this part of hell have been tormented by the endless wind, which does not allow them to find peace. Dante found Cleopatra, Paris, Tristan and other lovers. The poet was so impressed that he lost consciousness.
• When Dante finally woke up, he was at the entrance to the third circle of hell (Gluttony), where sinners spend eternity in the mud and swamp. They are forced to lie in the vile slush that is created by the endless freezing rain. The vile slush symbolizes the personal degradation of one who abuses food, drink and other worldly pleasures. Gluttons and alcoholics, as examples of those found here, are guarded by Cerberus, a three-headed dog who tears them apart.
• Fourth circle (Greed). Here travelers see the souls of greedy people. The greatest number of sinners were here. They are divided into two groups: those who saved money and those who were too wasteful. They compete with each other using large weights as weapons, pushing them with their chests, symbolizing their selfish desire for luck in life. There are many clergy here, including cardinals and popes.
• The fifth circle (Wrath) is where the angry are punished for their sins. Dante and Virgil, crossing Phlegias on a boat, see furious people fighting each other on the River Styx. The poets meet here Filippo Argenti, a famous Florentine politician who confiscates Dante's property during his exile from Florence.
• The sixth circle (Heresy), represents Dante and Virgil of heretics lying in fiery tombs. Dante talks to Farinata degli Uberti, who predicts that Dante will have difficulty returning to Florence from exile.
• The seventh circle (Violence) is divided into three rings. In the First Ring, the souls of those who have abused others are plunged into the Phlegethon, a great river of burning blood. Phlegethon is populated by bloodthirsty warlords such as Alexander the Great and Attila the Hun. The second ring stores the souls of suicides. They were turned into a grove of twisted trees to be constantly pursued by the harpies. In the Third Ring, souls who have committed violence against God, Nature and Art are burned. They are known as blasphemers, sodomites and moneylenders. These souls are stranded in a vast desert with scorching sand falling upon an eternal storm of fire.
• The travelers arrived in the eighth circle (Fraud) on the back of Geryon, a flying monster with a changeable appearance, just like a fraud. This circle of hell is divided into 10 crevices or rocky ditches with bridges between them. In gap 1, Dante sees pimps and seducers. In slot 2 he finds flatterers. After crossing the bridge through gap 3, he and Virgil find themselves where the Simonists (people who use money to get high positions in the Church) have their heads buried in the ground and their feet are on fire. Crossing another bridge between the moats to Crack 4, they find sorcerers and false prophets. In Crevice 5, in which corrupt politicians are torn apart by demons and plunged into a river of boiling gas, Virgil boldly approaches the merciless demons and demands safe passage across the river. When the sinister demons see that he is sent by God, the chief of them, Malacoda, informs Virgil that the nearby bridge has been destroyed and appoints 10 demons to escort him to the next bridge. In crack 6 are the hypocrites, and in the remaining 4 ditches Dante finds thieves whose hands have been cut (crack 7), crafty advisers (crack 8), instigators of discord (crack 9) and various falsifiers such as alchemists, false witnesses and forgers who suffered from terrible diseases (slot 10).
• Finally they reached the ninth circle (Betrayal), where the biggest sinners are. The Ninth Circle is divided into 4 belts depending on the severity of the sin. Those here froze to death in the icy Cocytus River. Belt 1 is named after Cain, who killed his brother Abel, Belt 2 is named after Antenor Troy, who was Priam's advisor during the Trojan War, Belt 3 is named after Ptolemy (son of Abubus), and Belt 4 (Giudecca) is named after Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus. Below, Dante and Virgil saw Lucifer, who had three faces: red, yellow and black. His three mouths chewed on the three biggest traitors - Judas, Brutus and Cassius. Lucifer had six wings, which he constantly flapped. Bloody saliva came out of his mouth. Virgil and Dante grabbed the hair on Lucifer's ribs and walked towards the exit from Hell.

Purgatory is the second chapter of the poem. It is depicted in the poem as a mountain in the Southern Hemisphere, at the bottom of which there is Purgatory, and then 7 levels of suffering, the meaning of which is personification of the seven deadly sins. There is also spiritual growth on levels. Finally, at the top of the mountain is the Earthly Paradise. The journey to the top is accompanied by discussions about sin, virtue, morality and religion. There is a fundamental concept that all sin comes from love and the wrong or misunderstood aspects of it.

After leaving hell, the travelers are interrogated by Cato from Utica. Virgil explains what their journey is about and Cato tells him to perform a cleansing ritual, which he does. At dawn, on the shores of Purgatorio, Dante sees a red glow approaching, which turns out to be a boat driven by an angel. She carries the souls of the redeemed, who meet Dante and Virgil as religious songs are sung.

As they begin the difficult climb, the protagonist is puzzled by the position of the sun, then Virgil explains that they are in the Southern Hemisphere. Continuing their journey, they see the souls of the lazy and souls who managed to repent in the last minutes of their lives.

Virgil asks the medieval poet Sordello about the best way to continue climbing the mountain. Sordello offers to lead them, but also explains that night is coming, so they will have to stop, since they are not allowed to rise without sunlight. They spend the night in the Valley of the Princes, where two angels from Paradise come to guard the valley from the serpent. Later they reach the gate of Purgatory where there are 3 steps leading to the entrance. The first is white, then black, and finally the red step on which the guardian angel stands.

The angel opens the gate and the travelers enter. On the walls they see carvings illustrating the virtue of humility. They then encounter the souls of the Proud Ones. The next images they find represent the vice of pride. The angel symbolically removes pride from Dante, who is then able to climb up with less effort.

On the next terrace they reach the virtue of Generosity and its corresponding vice, Envy. As they move from the second to the third terrace, the bright light emanating from the angel surprises the poet, but Virgil tells him that he will soon get used to it. As their ascent continues, the travelers see the souls of the miserly, and Dante speaks with Pope Adrian V. One morning, as Dante awakens feeling ready to continue, Virgil speaks of Dante's moral progress and reports that he no longer needs him as a guide. .

Dante walks through the forest and comes across a woman singing and picking flowers. She tells him that he has arrived in the Garden of Eden. Further encounters include a group of twenty-four elders and an elderly man who wrote the Book of Revelation. Beatrice appears among a large group of angels. It is at this moment that Dante realizes that Virgil is no longer with him. Beatrice punishes Dante for straying from the path to Truth and wasting his talents. Dante repents and admits his guilt.

The poet finds himself in front of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is barren due to the actions of Adam and Eve. The end of the middle part of the Divine Comedy brings Dante to the end of his suffering and finds that he has been cleansed of his sins.

After reading this gorgeous book, I formed the opinion that: in the world there are many ideas about what happens to a person or his soul after death. Some believe that the soul dies with the body, some believe that the soul remains to wander the world, invisible, and some believe in the existence of hell and heaven.

Ukraine, Kyiv

Paradise is the last part of Alighieri's long narrative poem. In it, Beatrice accompanies Dante as he travels through the nine levels or spheres of heaven, which are represented by various celestial bodies . In each section, Dante's guides try to teach him different lessons:

• In the first sphere, represented by the Moon, Dante meets Piccarda Donati, who explains why the souls held here are so happy in heaven. Beatrice asks about the reason for the spots on the moon and explains how the waxing and waning moon are associated with inconsistency. Thus, there are souls on the Moon who cannot be trusted with their word and who lack courage.
• The second level of heaven, represented as a sphere, is where Dante and Beatrice meet Justinian, who explains the history and fate of Rome. Since Mercury is difficult to observe due to its proximity to the sun, this sphere of heaven represents those who have performed good deeds due to the desire for recognition and glory. Therefore, Justinian's explanation of this kingdom focuses on Caesar's desire for power and glory and how such vain desires have nothing to do with heaven.
• The Sphere of Venus is the third level of heaven where Dante meets Charles Martel of Anjou. Martel reminds him that the key to a functioning, inclusive society is the inclusion of people from all walks of life. The two also meet another man, the composer and poet Folke de Marcel, who talks to them about the temptations of love.
• The fourth level of Paradise is depicted as the sphere of the sun. Here the main character encounters examples of prudence, wise souls who help illuminate the earth intellectually. 12 bright lights, representing the souls of 12 people, surround Beatrice and Dante. Another 12 lights surround the couple, including St. Dominic, who warns Dante of the dangers of rushing to judgment.
• The fifth level of heaven is the sphere of Mars. Since this planet is usually associated with the god of war, the poet recognizes this sphere as the home of the warriors of faith who sacrificed their lives for the sake of God. Here, Dante encounters a huntress who discusses the dignity of Florence, lamenting how the city has shrunk in recent years. She comments on the noble Florentine families and informs Dante of the importance of his exile. He must fulfill his poetic mission by telling the world what he saw in hell, purgatory and heaven.
• The sixth level of heaven, Jupiter, is usually associated with the king of the gods. Dante depicts this planet as the home of the gods who exercise justice. They pronounce a Latin phrase that in English translates to “treasure justice, thou who judgest the earth,” and then form a giant eagle that speaks to the poet about divine justice and incomprehensibility.
• The seventh level of heaven, the sphere of Saturn, was defined by Dante as the home of those who embody temperance and devote their lives to prayer. He suggests that these people are climbing up and down the golden ladder. It is here that he meets the poet St. Peter Damian, who speaks of the corruption of the church as well as the doctrine of predestination.
• Still accompanied by Beatrice, Dante enters the eighth level of heaven, also known as the sphere of the stars, which is the realm of the constellation Gemini. Here the couple finds the Virgin Mary, as well as other biblical saints such as John and Peter, who test Dante's hope, love and faith. The poet also sees Adam, who tells how long he lived in Eden and why he incurred the wrath of God.
• The ninth and final level of heaven, also known as the prime mover, is the final realm of the physical universe. It is directly controlled by God, and any action or movement in this realm affects all realms below it. It is here that the angels live, and where Dante sees the first glimpses of God as a brightly illuminated point of light surrounded by nine rings of angels. As they slowly ascend towards the Empyrean, Beatrice shares with Dante the story of creation and the story of the angels, while touching on the creation of the universe.

Once they reach the Empyrean, Dante and Beatrice are ascended to a realm beyond physical existence where God lives. Throughout Paradise, Beatrice was a metaphor for theology. Now she has been transformed and is more beautiful than ever. Dante is enveloped in light, allowing him to see God.

As Paradise and the Divine Comedy end, Dante tries to understand how the three circles he sees, representing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, interact together. In an instant he becomes more and more convinced of God's eternal love.

I bought this book mainly because of the movie Inferno. It was interesting to read Dante's view of Hell himself. It turned out that there are not only the circles of Hell, but also purgatory and heaven. The book is not easy to read; you have to constantly refer to the explanations and comments at the end of each chapter, since you don’t know all the personalities mentioned here. To do this you need to be either an Italian or a powerful historian. But I found the characters and the punishment they suffer for their actions interesting to read.

Russia, Saint-Petersburg

Film adaptation of the poem

Considered by many to be his masterpiece, Dante Alighieri's poem has become a source of inspiration for various directors. Some examples of famous films are listed here:

• The 1911 silent film Inferno was directed by Giuseppe de Liguoro. The film was released on DVD in 2004 with audio.
• The 1935 motion picture Inferno, directed by Harry Lachman, written by Philip Klein and starring Spencer Tracy, is about an attraction based on the film Inferno. The film features a 10-minute genre fantasy sequence depicting Dante's Inferno.
• In the film Seven (1995), the characters of actors Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are two detectives who investigate a series of ritual murders inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins. There are many references to Dante's work in this film.
• The film "Dante's Inferno" (2007), the plot of which is based on modern drawings by Sandow Birk "The Divine Comedy". The film faithfully retells the original story. But the interesting fact is that it adds later residents of Hell such as Adolf Hitler and Boss Tweed.
• The film Pandorum (2009) makes several allusions to the poem.
• A 3D trilogy based on the three parts of the poem is in the process of being written and developed by a company known as Master Films Productions and directed by Boris Acosta. It features people who worked on films like The Lord of the Rings.

Reading this book was like driving a car along a wavy line, I kept stumbling here and there. In my case, the book had many links (namely links, not footnotes), which were all given at the end of the book. In general, the work is not simple; it can be understood in different ways. Metaphors are present everywhere here too, if you start looking for them.

Russia, Saint-Petersburg

It may not sound that funny, but the author gave the name comedy to his epic poem because, unlike the genre of tragedy, which starts on a high note and ends tragically, comedies start out bad but end well.

The poem does end well with the main character, also named Dante, reaching his desired destination - heaven - a place of beauty and tranquility, light and absolute goodness.

Dante Alighieri

"The Divine Comedy"

Hell

Halfway through life, I - Dante - got lost in a dense forest. It’s scary, there are wild animals all around - allegories of vices; nowhere to go. And then a ghost appears, who turns out to be the shadow of my beloved ancient Roman poet Virgil. I ask him for help. He promises to take me from here to wander through the afterlife so that I can see Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. I'm ready to follow him.

Yes, but am I capable of such a journey? I became timid and hesitated. Virgil reproached me, telling me that Beatrice herself (my late beloved) came down to him from Heaven to Hell and asked him to be my guide in my wanderings in the afterlife. If so, then you cannot hesitate, you need determination. Guide me, my teacher and mentor!

There is an inscription above the entrance to Hell that takes away all hope from those entering. We entered. Here, right behind the entrance, the pitiful souls of those who did neither good nor evil during their lives groan. Next is the Acheron River. Through it, the ferocious Charon transports the dead on a boat. We are with them. “But you’re not dead!” - Charon shouts angrily at me. Virgil pacified him. Let's swim. A roar was heard from afar, the wind was blowing, and flames flashed. I lost my senses...

The first circle of Hell is Limbo. Here the souls of unbaptized babies and glorious pagans languish - warriors, sages, poets (including Virgil). They do not suffer, but only grieve that they, as non-Christians, have no place in Paradise. Virgil and I joined the great poets of antiquity, the first of whom was Homer. They walked sedately and talked about unearthly things.

At the descent into the second circle of the underworld, the demon Minos determines which sinner should be cast into which place of Hell. He reacted to me in the same way as Charon, and Virgil pacified him in the same way. We saw the souls of voluptuaries (Cleopatra, Helen the Beautiful, etc.) carried away by a hellish whirlwind. Among them is Francesca, and here she is inseparable from her lover. Immense mutual passion led them to tragic death. With deep compassion for them, I fainted again.

In the third circle, the bestial dog Cerberus rages. He started to bark at us, but Virgil pacified him too. Here the souls of those who sinned with gluttony are lying in the mud, under a heavy downpour. Among them is my fellow countryman, the Florentine Ciacco. We talked about the fate of our hometown. Chacko asked me to remind living people about him when I return to earth.

The demon guarding the fourth circle, where spendthrifts and misers are executed (among the latter there are many clergy - popes, cardinals) - Plutos. Virgil also had to besiege him in order to get rid of him. From the fourth we descended into the fifth circle, where the angry and lazy suffer, mired in the swamps of the Stygian lowland. We approached some tower.

This is a whole fortress, around it there is a vast reservoir, in the canoe there is an oarsman, the demon Phlegius. After another squabble we sat down with him and sailed. Some sinner tried to cling to the side, I cursed him, and Virgil pushed him away. Before us is the hellish city of Deet. Any dead evil spirits prevent us from entering it. Virgil, leaving me (oh, scary alone!), went to find out what was the matter, and returned concerned, but hopeful.

And then the hellish furies appeared before us, threatening us. A heavenly messenger who suddenly appeared and curbed their anger came to the rescue. We entered Deet. Everywhere there are tombs engulfed in flames, from which the groans of heretics can be heard. We make our way along a narrow road between the tombs.

A mighty figure suddenly emerged from one of the tombs. This is Farinata, my ancestors were his political opponents. In me, having heard my conversation with Virgil, he guessed a fellow countryman by the dialect. Proud, he seemed to despise the entire abyss of Hell. We argued with him, and then another head poked out from a neighboring tomb: this is the father of my friend Guido! It seemed to him that I was dead and that his son was also dead, and he fell on his face in despair. Farinata, calm him down; Guido is alive!

Near the descent from the sixth circle to the seventh, above the grave of the heretic Pope Anastasius, Virgil explained to me the structure of the remaining three circles of Hell, tapering downwards (towards the center of the earth), and what sins are punishable in which zone of which circle.

The seventh circle is compressed by mountains and is guarded by the half-bull demon Minotaur, who roared menacingly at us. Virgil shouted at him, and we hastened to move away. They saw a stream boiling with blood, in which tyrants and robbers were boiling, and from the shore centaurs were shooting at them with bows. The centaur Nessus became our guide, told us about the executed rapists and helped us ford the boiling river.

All around there are thorny thickets without greenery. I broke some branch, and black blood flowed from it, and the trunk groaned. It turns out that these bushes are the souls of suicides (violators of their own flesh). They are pecked by the hellish birds Harpies, trampled by the running dead, causing them unbearable pain. One trampled bush asked me to collect the broken branches and return them to him. It turned out that the unfortunate man was my fellow countryman. I complied with his request and we moved on. We see sand, flakes of fire fly down on top of it, scorching sinners who scream and moan - all except one: he lies silent. Who is this? King Kapanei, a proud and gloomy atheist, struck down by the gods for his obstinacy. He is still true to himself: he either remains silent or loudly curses the gods. “You are your own tormentor!” - Virgil shouted over him...

But the souls of new sinners are moving towards us, tormented by fire. Among them I hardly recognized my venerable teacher Brunetto Latini. He is among those who are guilty of same-sex love. We started talking. Brunetto predicted that glory awaits me in the world of the living, but there will also be many hardships that must be resisted. The teacher bequeathed to me to take care of his main work, in which he is alive - “Treasure”.

And three more sinners (the sin is the same) dance in the fire. All Florentines, former respected citizens. I talked to them about the misfortunes of our hometown. They asked me to tell my living fellow countrymen that I saw them. Then Virgil led me to a deep hole in the eighth circle. A hellish beast will bring us down there. He's already climbing towards us from there.

This is the mottled tailed Geryon. While he is preparing to descend, there is still time to look at the last martyrs of the seventh circle - the moneylenders, tossing about in a whirlwind of flaming dust. From their necks hang colorful wallets with different coats of arms. I didn't talk to them. Let's hit the road! We sit down with Virgil astride Geryon and - oh horror! — we are gradually flying into failure, to new torments. We went down. Geryon immediately flew away.

The eighth circle is divided into ten ditches called Zlopazuchami. In the first ditch, pimps and seducers of women are executed, in the second - flatterers. Pimps are brutally scourged by horned demons, flatterers sit in a liquid mass of stinking feces - the stench is unbearable. By the way, one whore was punished here not for fornication, but for flattering her lover, saying that she felt good with him.

The next ditch (third cavity) is lined with stone, mottled with round holes, from which protrude the burning legs of high-ranking clergy who traded in church positions. Their heads and torsos are pinched by the holes in the stone wall. Their successors, when they die, will also kick their flaming legs in their place, completely pushing their predecessors into stone. This is how Pope Orsini explained it to me, at first mistaking me for his successor.

In the fourth sinus, soothsayers, astrologers, and sorceresses suffer. Their necks are twisted so that when they sob, they wet their backsides with their tears, not their chests. I myself burst into tears when I saw such a mockery of people, and Virgil shamed me; It’s a sin to feel sorry for sinners! But he, too, with sympathy, told me about his fellow countrywoman, the soothsayer Manto, after whom Mantua, the birthplace of my glorious mentor, was named.

The fifth ditch is filled with boiling tar, into which the devils Gripes, black, winged, throw bribe takers and make sure that they do not stick out, otherwise they will hook the sinner and finish him off in the most cruel way. The devils have nicknames: Evil-Tail, Crooked-Winged, etc. We will have to go through part of the further path in their creepy company. They make faces, show their tongues, their boss made a deafening obscene sound with his backside. I've never heard anything like this before! We walk with them along the ditch, the sinners dive into the tar - they hide, and one hesitated, and they immediately pulled him out with hooks, intending to torment him, but first they allowed us to talk with him. The poor fellow, by cunning, lulled the vigilance of the Grudgers and dived back - there was no time to catch him. The irritated devils fought among themselves, two of them fell into the tar. In the confusion, we hastened to leave, but it was not to be! They are flying after us. Virgil, picking me up, barely managed to run across to the sixth bosom, where they are not the masters. Here the hypocrites languish under the weight of lead and gilded clothing. And here is the crucified (nailed to the ground with stakes) Jewish high priest, who insisted on the execution of Christ. He is trampled underfoot by hypocrites weighed down with lead.

The transition was difficult: along a rocky path - into the seventh bosom. Thieves live here, bitten by monstrous poisonous snakes. From these bites they crumble into dust, but are immediately restored to their appearance. Among them is Vanni Fucci, who robbed the sacristy and blamed it on someone else. A rude and blasphemous man: he sent God away, holding up two figs. Immediately the snakes attacked him (I love them for this). Then I watched as a certain snake merged with one of the thieves, after which it took on his appearance and stood on its feet, and the thief crawled away, becoming a reptile. Miracles! You won’t find such metamorphoses in Ovid either.

Rejoice, Florence: these thieves are your offspring! It's a shame... And in the eighth ditch live treacherous advisers. Among them is Ulysses (Odysseus), his soul is imprisoned in a flame that can speak! So, we heard the story of Ulysses about his death: eager to know the unknown, he sailed with a handful of daredevils to the other side of the world, was shipwrecked and, together with his friends, drowned far from the world inhabited by people.

Another speaking flame, in which the soul of the evil adviser, who did not call himself by name, is hidden, told me about his sin: this adviser helped the Pope in one unrighteous deed - counting on the Pope to forgive him his sin. Heaven is more tolerant of the simple-minded sinner than of those who hope to be saved by repentance. We moved to the ninth ditch, where the sowers of unrest are executed.

Here they are, the instigators of bloody strife and religious unrest. The devil will mutilate them with a heavy sword, cut off their noses and ears, and crush their skulls. Here are Mohammed, and Curio, who encouraged Caesar to civil war, and the beheaded troubadour warrior Bertrand de Born (he carries his head in his hand like a lantern, and she exclaims: “Woe!”).

Then I met my relative, angry with me because his violent death remained unavenged. Then we moved to the tenth ditch, where the alchemists suffer from the eternal itch. One of them was burned for jokingly boasting that he could fly - he became a victim of denunciation. He ended up in Hell not for this, but as an alchemist. Those who pretended to be other people, counterfeiters and liars in general are executed here. Two of them fought among themselves and then argued for a long time (Master Adam, who mixed copper into gold coins, and the ancient Greek Sinon, who deceived the Trojans). Virgil reproached me for the curiosity with which I listened to them.

Our journey through the Sinisters ends. We approached the well leading from the eighth circle of Hell to the ninth. There are ancient giants, titans. Among them were Nimrod, who angrily shouted something to us in an incomprehensible language, and Antaeus, who, at the request of Virgil, lowered us to the bottom of the well on his huge palm, and immediately straightened up.

So, we are at the bottom of the universe, near the center of the globe. In front of us is an icy lake, those who betrayed their loved ones were frozen into it. I accidentally hit one on the head with my foot, he screamed and refused to identify himself. Then I grabbed his hair, and then someone called his name. Scoundrel, now I know who you are, and I will tell people about you! And he: “Lie whatever you want, about me and about others!” And here is an ice pit, in which one dead man gnaws the skull of another. I ask: for what? Looking up from his victim, he answered me. He, Count Ugolino, takes revenge on his former like-minded person who betrayed him, Archbishop Ruggieri, who starved him and his children by imprisoning them in the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Their suffering was unbearable, the children died in front of their father’s eyes, he was the last to die. Shame on Pisa! Let's move on. Who is this in front of us? Alberigo? But, as far as I know, he didn’t die, so how did he end up in Hell? It also happens: the villain’s body still lives, but his soul is already in the underworld.

In the center of the earth, the ruler of Hell, Lucifer, frozen in ice, cast out from heaven and hollowed out the abyss of the underworld in his fall, disfigured, three-faced. Judas sticks out of his first mouth, Brutus from the second, Cassius from the third, He chews them and torments them with his claws. The worst of all is the most vile traitor - Judas. A well stretches from Lucifer leading to the surface of the opposite earthly hemisphere. We squeezed through, rose to the surface and saw the stars.

Purgatory

May the Muses help me sing of the second kingdom! His guard, Elder Cato, greeted us unfriendly: who are they? How dare you come here? Virgil explained and, wanting to appease Cato, spoke warmly of his wife Marcia. What does Marcia have to do with this? Go to the seashore, you need to wash yourself! We are going. Here it is, the distance of the sea. And there is abundant dew in the coastal grasses. With it, Virgil washed away the soot of abandoned Hell from my face.

From the distance of the sea, a boat controlled by an angel is sailing towards us. It contains the souls of the deceased who were lucky enough not to go to Hell. They landed, went ashore, and the angel swam away. The shadows of the arrivals crowded around us, and in one I recognized my friend, the singer Cosella. I wanted to hug him, but the shadow is insubstantial - I hugged myself. Cosella, at my request, began to sing about love, everyone listened, but then Cato appeared, shouted at everyone (they weren’t busy!), and we hurried to the mountain of Purgatory.

Virgil was dissatisfied with himself: he gave a reason to yell at himself... Now we need to reconnoiter the upcoming road. Let's see where the arriving shadows will move. And they themselves just noticed that I am not a shadow: I do not let light pass through me. We were surprised. Virgil explained everything to them. “Come with us,” they invited.

So, let's hurry to the foot of the purgatory mountain. But is everyone in a hurry, is everyone so impatient? Over there, near a large stone, there is a group of people who are not in a hurry to climb up: they say, they will have time; climb the one who is itching. Among these sloths I recognized my friend Belakva. It’s nice to see that he, even in life an enemy of all haste, is true to himself.

In the foothills of Purgatory, I had the opportunity to communicate with the shadows of victims of violent death. Many of them were serious sinners, but when they said goodbye to life, they managed to sincerely repent and therefore did not end up in Hell. What a shame for the devil, who has lost his prey! He, however, found a way to get even: not having gained power over the soul of the repentant dead sinner, he violated his murdered body.

Not far from all this we saw the regal and majestic shadow of Sordello. He and Virgil, recognizing each other as fellow-country poets (Mantuans), embraced brotherly. Here is an example for you, Italy, a dirty brothel, where the bonds of brotherhood are completely broken! Especially you, my Florence, are good, you can’t say anything... Wake up, look at yourself...

Sordello agrees to be our guide to Purgatory. It is a great honor for him to help the venerable Virgil. Conversing sedately, we approached a flowering, fragrant valley, where, preparing to spend the night, the shadows of high-ranking persons - European sovereigns - settled down. We watched them from afar, listening to their consonant singing.

The evening hour has come, when desires draw those who have sailed back to their loved ones, and you remember the bitter moment of farewell; when sadness takes hold of the pilgrim and he hears how the distant chime cries bitterly about the irrevocable day... An insidious serpent of temptation crawled into the valley of rest of earthly rulers, but the angels who arrived drove him out.

I lay down on the grass, fell asleep and in a dream was transported to the gates of Purgatory. The angel guarding them inscribed the same letter on my forehead seven times - the first in the word “sin” (the seven deadly sins; these letters will be erased one by one from my forehead as I ascend the purgatory mountain). We entered the second kingdom of the afterlife, the gates closed behind us.

The ascent began. We are in the first circle of Purgatory, where the proud atone for their sin. In shame of pride, statues were erected here that embody the idea of ​​​​a high feat - humility. And here are the shadows of the purifying proud: unbending during life, here they, as punishment for their sin, bend under the weight of the stone blocks piled on them.

“Our Father...” - this prayer was sung by the bent and proud people. Among them is the miniaturist Oderiz, who during his lifetime boasted of his great fame. Now, he says, he has realized that there is nothing to boast about: everyone is equal in the face of death - both the decrepit old man and the baby who babbled “yum-yum”, and glory comes and goes. The sooner you understand this and find the strength to curb your pride and humble yourself, the better.

Under our feet are bas-reliefs depicting scenes of punished pride: Lucifer and Briareus cast out from heaven, King Saul, Holofernes and others. Our stay in the first circle ends. An angel who appeared erased one of the seven letters from my forehead - as a sign that I had overcome the sin of pride. Virgil smiled at me.

We went up to the second round. There are envious people here, they are temporarily blinded, their formerly “envious” eyes do not see anything. Here is a woman who, out of envy, wished harm to her fellow countrymen and rejoiced at their failures... In this circle, after death, I will not be cleansed for long, because I rarely and few envied anyone. But in the past circle of proud people - probably for a long time.

Here they are, blinded sinners, whose blood was once burned by envy. In the silence, the words of the first envious man, Cain, sounded thunderous: “Whoever meets me will kill me!” In fear, I clung to Virgil, and the wise leader told me bitter words that the highest eternal light is inaccessible to envious people, carried away by earthly lures.

We passed the second circle. The angel appeared to us again, and now only five letters remained on my forehead, which we have to get rid of in the future. We are in the third circle. A cruel vision of human rage flashed before our eyes (the crowd stoned a meek young man). In this circle those possessed by anger are purified.

Even in the darkness of Hell there was no such black darkness as in this circle, where the rage of the angry is humbled. One of them, the Lombardian Marco, got into a conversation with me and expressed the idea that everything that happens in the world cannot be understood as a consequence of the activity of higher heavenly powers: this would mean denying the freedom of human will and absolving man of responsibility for what he has done.

Reader, have you ever wandered in the mountains on a foggy evening, when you can hardly see the sun? That's how we are... I felt the touch of an angel's wing on my forehead - another letter was erased. We climbed to the fourth circle, illuminated by the last ray of sunset. Here the lazy are purified, whose love for good was slow.

Sloths here must run quickly, not allowing any indulgence in their lifetime sin. Let them be inspired by the examples of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, as we know, had to hurry, or Caesar with his amazing efficiency. They ran past us and disappeared. I want to sleep. I sleep and dream...

I dreamed of a disgusting woman who, before my eyes, turned into a beauty, who was immediately put to shame and turned into an even worse ugly woman (here is the imaginary attractiveness of vice!). Another letter disappeared from my forehead: it means I have conquered such a vice as laziness. We rise to the fifth circle - to the misers and spendthrifts.

Stinginess, greed, greed for gold are disgusting vices. Molten gold was once poured down the throat of one obsessed with greed: drink to your health! I feel uncomfortable surrounded by misers, and then there was an earthquake. From what? In my ignorance I don’t know...

It turned out that the shaking of the mountain was caused by rejoicing that one of the souls was purified and ready to ascend: this is the Roman poet Statius, an admirer of Virgil, rejoiced that from now on he will accompany us on the path to the purgatory peak.

Another letter has been erased from my forehead, denoting the sin of stinginess. By the way, was Statius, who languished in the fifth round, stingy? On the contrary, he is wasteful, but these two extremes are punished together. Now we are in the sixth circle, where gluttons are purified. Here it would be good to remember that gluttony was not characteristic of Christian ascetics.

Former gluttons are destined to suffer the pangs of hunger: they are emaciated, skin and bones. Among them I discovered my late friend and fellow countryman Forese. We talked about our own things, scolded Florence, Forese spoke condemningly about the dissolute ladies of this city. I told my friend about Virgil and about my hopes of seeing my beloved Beatrice in the afterlife.

I had a conversation about literature with one of the gluttons, a former poet of the old school. He admitted that my like-minded people, supporters of the “new sweet style,” had achieved much more in love poetry than he himself and the masters close to him. Meanwhile, the penultimate letter has been erased from my forehead, and the path to the highest, seventh circle of Purgatory is open to me.

And I keep remembering the thin, hungry gluttons: how did they get so thin? After all, these are shadows, not bodies, and it would not be fitting for them to starve. Virgil explained: the shadows, although incorporeal, exactly repeat the outlines of the implied bodies (which would become thin without food). Here, in the seventh circle, the voluptuaries scorched by fire are purified. They burn, sing and praise examples of abstinence and chastity.

The voluptuaries, engulfed in flames, were divided into two groups: those who indulged in same-sex love and those who knew no limits in bisexual intercourse. Among the latter are the poets Guido Guinizelli and the Provençal Arnald, who elegantly greeted us in his dialect.

And now we ourselves need to go through the wall of fire. I was scared, but my mentor said that this was the way to Beatrice (to the Earthly Paradise, located on top of the purgatory mountain). And so the three of us (Statsius with us) walk, scorched by the flames. We passed, we moved on, it was getting dark, we stopped to rest, I slept; and when I woke up, Virgil turned to me with the last word of parting words and approval, That’s it, from now on he will be silent...

We are in the Earthly Paradise, in a blooming grove resounding with the chirping of birds. I saw a beautiful donna singing and picking flowers. She said that there was a golden age here, innocence flourished, but then, among these flowers and fruits, the happiness of the first people was destroyed in sin. Hearing this, I looked at Virgil and Statius: both were smiling blissfully.

Oh Eva! It was so good here, you ruined everything with your daring! Living lights float past us, righteous elders in snow-white robes, crowned with roses and lilies, walk under them, and wonderful beauties dance. I couldn't stop looking at this amazing picture. And suddenly I saw her - the one I love. Shocked, I made an involuntary movement, as if trying to press myself closer to Virgil. But he disappeared, my father and savior! I burst into tears. “Dante, Virgil will not return. But you won't have to cry for him. Look at me, it's me, Beatrice! How did you get here?” - she asked angrily. Then a voice asked her why she was so strict with me. She answered that I, seduced by the lure of pleasure, was unfaithful to her after her death. Do I admit my guilt? Oh yes, tears of shame and repentance choke me, I lowered my head. "Raise your beard!" — she said sharply, not ordering him to take his eyes off her. I lost consciousness and woke up immersed in Lethe - a river that grants oblivion of committed sins. Beatrice, look now at the one who is so devoted to you and so longed for you. After a ten-year separation, I looked into her eyes, and my vision was temporarily dimmed by their dazzling brilliance. Having regained my sight, I saw a lot of beauty in the Earthly Paradise, but suddenly all this was replaced by cruel visions: monsters, desecration of sacred things, debauchery.

Beatrice deeply grieved, realizing how much evil was hidden in these visions revealed to us, but expressed confidence that the forces of good would ultimately defeat evil. We approached the Evnoe River, drinking from which strengthens the memory of the good you have done. Statius and I washed ourselves in this river. A sip of her sweetest water poured new strength into me. Now I am pure and worthy to rise to the stars.

Paradise

From the Earthly Paradise, Beatrice and I will fly together to the Heavenly Paradise, to heights beyond the comprehension of mortals. I didn’t even notice how they took off, looking at the sun. Am I really capable of doing this while still alive? However, Beatrice was not surprised by this: a purified person is spiritual, and a spirit not burdened with sins is lighter than ether.

Friends, let's part here - don't read further: you will disappear in the vastness of the incomprehensible! But if you have an insatiable hunger for spiritual food, then go ahead, follow me! We are in the first sky of Paradise - in the sky of the Moon, which Beatrice called the first star; plunged into its depths, although it is difficult to imagine a force capable of placing one closed body (which I am) into another closed body (the Moon).

In the depths of the Moon we encountered the souls of nuns kidnapped from monasteries and forcibly married off. Not through their own fault, but they did not keep the vow of virginity given during tonsure, and therefore higher heavens are inaccessible to them. Do they regret it? Oh no! To regret would mean to disagree with the highest righteous will.

But still I am perplexed: why are they to blame for submitting to violence? Why don't they rise above the sphere of the Moon? It is not the victim who should be blamed, but the rapist! But Beatrice explained that the victim also bears a certain responsibility for the violence committed against her, if, while resisting, she did not show heroic fortitude.

Failure to fulfill a vow, Beatrice argues, is practically irreparable with good deeds (too many need to be done to atone for guilt). We flew to the second heaven of Paradise - to Mercury. The souls of ambitious righteous people live here. These are no longer shadows, unlike the previous inhabitants of the underworld, but lights: they shine and radiate. One of them glowed especially brightly, rejoicing in communicating with me. It turned out that this was the Roman emperor, legislator Justinian. He realizes that being in the sphere of Mercury (and not higher) is the limit for him, for ambitious people, doing good deeds for the sake of their own glory (that is, loving themselves first of all), missed the ray of true love for the deity.

Justinian's light merged with the dance of lights - other righteous souls. I thought about it, and the train of my thoughts led me to the question: why did God the Father sacrifice his son? It was possible just like that, by the supreme will, to forgive people for the sin of Adam! Beatrice explained: the highest justice demanded that humanity itself atone for its guilt. It is incapable of this, and it was necessary to impregnate an earthly woman so that the son (Christ), combining the human with the divine, could do this.

We flew to the third sky - to Venus, where the souls of the loving are blissful, shining in the fiery depths of this star. One of these spirit-lights is the Hungarian king Charles Martell, who, speaking to me, expressed the idea that a person can realize his abilities only by acting in a field that meets the needs of his nature: it is bad if a born warrior becomes a priest...

Sweet is the radiance of other loving souls. How much blissful light and heavenly laughter there is here! And below (in Hell) the shadows grew joyless and gloomy... One of the lights spoke to me (troubadour Folko) - he condemned the church authorities, selfish popes and cardinals. Florence is the city of the devil. But nothing, he believes, will get better soon.

The fourth star is the Sun, the abode of the sages. Here shines the spirit of the great theologian Thomas Aquinas. He greeted me joyfully and showed me other sages. Their consonant singing reminded me of a church gospel.

Thomas told me about Francis of Assisi, the second (after Christ) wife of Poverty. It was following his example that the monks, including his closest disciples, began to walk barefoot. He lived a holy life and died - a naked man on bare ground - in the bosom of Poverty.

Not only I, but also the lights - the spirits of the sages - listened to Thomas's speech, stopping singing and twirling in the dance. Then Franciscan Bonaventure took the floor. In response to the praise given to his teacher by the Dominican Thomas, he glorified Thomas’s teacher, Dominic, a farmer and servant of Christ. Who now continued his work? There are no worthy ones.

And again Thomas took the floor. He talks about the great merits of King Solomon: he asked God for intelligence and wisdom - not to solve theological issues, but to intelligently rule the people, that is, royal wisdom, which was granted to him. People, do not judge each other hastily! This one is busy with a good deed, the other with an evil one, but what if the first one falls and the second one rises?

What will happen to the inhabitants of the Sun on the day of judgment, when the spirits take on flesh? They are so bright and spiritual that it is difficult to imagine them materialized. Our stay here is over, we have flown to the fifth heaven - to Mars, where the sparkling spirits of warriors for the faith are arranged in the shape of a cross and a sweet hymn sounds.

One of the lights forming this marvelous cross, without going beyond its limits, moved downwards, closer to me. This is the spirit of my valiant great-great-grandfather, the warrior Kachchagvida. He greeted me and praised the glorious time in which he lived on earth and which - alas! — has passed, replaced by worse times.

I am proud of my ancestor, my origin (it turns out that you can experience such a feeling not only on the vain earth, but also in Paradise!). Cacciaguida told me about himself and about his ancestors, born in Florence, whose coat of arms - a white lily - is now stained with blood.

I want to find out from him, the clairvoyant, about my future fate. What lies ahead for me? He replied that I would be expelled from Florence, in joyless wanderings I would learn the bitterness of other people's bread and the steepness of other people's stairs. To my credit, I will not associate with unclean political groups, but I will become my own party. In the end, my opponents will be put to shame, and triumph awaits me.

Cacciaguida and Beatrice encouraged me. Your stay on Mars is over. Now - from the fifth heaven to the sixth, from red Mars to white Jupiter, where the souls of the just soar. Their lights form letters, letters - first into a call for justice, and then into the figure of an eagle, a symbol of the just imperial power, unknown, sinful, tormented earth, but established in heaven.

This majestic eagle entered into conversation with me. He calls himself “I”, but I hear “we” (fair power is collegial!). He understands what I myself cannot understand: why is Paradise open only to Christians? What is wrong with a virtuous Hindu who does not know Christ at all? I still don’t understand. And it’s true,” the eagle admits, “that a bad Christian is worse than a good Persian or Ethiopian.”

The eagle personifies the idea of ​​justice, and its main thing is not its claws or beak, but its all-seeing eye, composed of the most worthy light-spirits. The pupil is the soul of the king and psalmist David, the souls of pre-Christian righteous people shine in the eyelashes (and didn’t I just mistakenly talk about Paradise “only for Christians”? This is how to give vent to doubts!).

We ascended to the seventh heaven - to Saturn. This is the abode of contemplatives. Beatrice has become even more beautiful and brighter. She did not smile at me - otherwise she would have completely incinerated me and blinded me. The blessed spirits of the contemplators were silent and did not sing - otherwise they would have deafened me. The sacred luminary, theologian Pietro Damiano, told me about this.

The spirit of Benedict, after whom one of the monastic orders is named, angrily condemned modern self-interested monks. After listening to him, we rushed to the eighth heaven, to the constellation Gemini, under which I was born, saw the sun for the first time and breathed the air of Tuscany. From its height I looked down, and my gaze, passing through the seven heavenly spheres we had visited, fell on the ridiculously small globe of the earth, this handful of dust with all its rivers and mountain steeps.

Thousands of lights burn in the eighth sky - these are the triumphant spirits of the great righteous. Intoxicated by them, my vision intensified, and now even Beatrice’s smile will not blind me. She smiled wonderfully at me and again prompted me to turn my gaze to the luminous spirits who sang a hymn to the Queen of Heaven - the Holy Virgin Mary.

Beatrice asked the apostles to talk to me. How far have I penetrated into the mysteries of sacred truths? The Apostle Peter asked me about the essence of faith. My answer: faith is an argument for the invisible; mortals cannot see with their own eyes what is revealed here in Paradise, but may they believe in a miracle without having visual evidence of its truth. Peter was pleased with my answer.

Will I, the author of the sacred poem, see my homeland? Will I be crowned with laurels where I was baptized? The Apostle James asked me a question about the essence of hope. My answer: hope is the expectation of future deserved and God-given glory. Delighted, Jacob was illuminated.

Next up is the question of love. The Apostle John asked it to me. In answering, I did not forget to say that love turns us to God, to the word of truth. Everyone rejoiced. The exam (what is Faith, Hope, Love?) was successfully completed. I saw the radiant soul of our forefather Adam, who lived briefly in the Earthly Paradise, expelled from there to earth; after the death of one who languished in Limbo for a long time; then moved here.

Four lights glow before me: three apostles and Adam. Suddenly Peter turned purple and exclaimed: “My earthly throne has been captured, my throne, my throne!” Peter hates his successor, the Pope. And it’s time for us to part with the eighth heaven and ascend to the ninth, supreme and crystal. With unearthly joy, laughing, Beatrice threw me at

Hell

My name is Dante. One day I got lost in the forest and began to ask for help from the ghost of the poet Virgil who appeared. After he told me that my beloved, the now deceased Beatrice, asked him to guide me through the afterlife, I decided to go. We entered Hell, where I heard the groaning of the souls of people who had not done good or evil during their lifetime. A strong wind was blowing, there was a roar, and flames were sparkling.

Limbo is the first circle of Hell, in which there are the souls of unbaptized babies, pagans. These souls do not suffer, but only grieve that they did not find a place in Paradise. Before the descent into the second circle stands the demon Minos, who decides to which place of Hell the sinner must be assigned. The third circle collected souls who, during their lifetime, sinned overeating and was guarded by Cerberus.

Plutos is the demon who was responsible for the fourth circle. Spendthrifts and misers were punished here, among them were popes and cardinals. The fifth circle is for the evil and lazy. In the sixth circle the tombs of heretics burned.

The seventh circle was guarded by the half-bull demon Minotaur. I saw rapists, tyrants and robbers boiling in a boiling river. We were surrounded by thorny bushes, which turned out to be the souls of suicides.

The eighth circle was divided into nine ditches. The first is for pimps and seducers of women. The second ditch is for the flatterers who were in the liquid mass of feces. The third ditch for torturing high-ranking confessors who traded church positions. The fourth ditch (sinus) is intended to punish witches, soothsayers, and astrologers. The fifth ditch with boiling tar, where the devils threw bribe-takers. In the sixth bosom we met hypocrites. Once in the seventh ditch, I saw how thieves were punished with poisonous snakes. The eighth ditch for punishing treacherous advisers. The sowers of unrest were executed in the ninth bosom. Their noses and ears were cut off and their skulls were broken. We moved into the tenth ditch, reserved for alchemists, counterfeiters and liars.

In the ninth circle of Hell there was an icy lake into which souls who betrayed their loved ones were frozen.

Lucifer, the ruler of Hell, is frozen into the center of the earth. In his first mouth stuck Judas, in the other Brutus and in the third Cassius.

Purgatory

In Purgatory, I communicated with the shadows of victims of violent death. They did not end up in Hell because they managed to repent before death.

In the first circle of Purgatory, the proud atoned for their sins by chanting the prayer “Our Father... The second circle gathered envious people. The third circle is for sinners who have been cleansed of their anger. The fourth circle is for the purification of the lazy, who during their lifetime were in no hurry to reach for good. The fifth circle is a gathering of misers and spendthrifts who were obsessed with such vices as greed and greed for gold.

The sixth circle is for the purification of gluttons. Having passed it, we are on the way to the seventh circle of Purgatory, the highest circle. Here the voluptuaries undergo purification by fire. In order to get to Paradise, we also had to go through the wall of fire.

In Paradise, I heard the beautiful chirping of birds, and in front of us lay a grove, all in flowers. I admired everything that surrounded me. Elders in white robes passed by. And here she is before me - my beloved Beatrice. With her appearance, my guide Virgil disappeared.

Paradise

From the Earthly Paradise, my beloved and I flew to the heavenly heights. The first sky of Paradise is the Moon. Here we met the souls of nuns who, against their will, did not keep their vow of virginity and were forcibly married off. In the second heaven of Paradise - Mercury, the souls of the righteous gathered, they shone and emitted light. Venus is the third heaven of heaven. The souls of lovers live here.

The fourth Star is the Sun, it united the sages. The fifth heaven is Mars. The spirits of the warriors gathered here, and the sound of the anthem could be heard. From Mars we flew to Jupiter, the sixth heaven. The souls of the just lived here. Then we flew to the seventh heaven, where the contemplatives lived. The eighth heaven is the constellation Gemini and the abode for the spirits of the righteous. Then Beatrice took me to the ninth heaven, supreme and crystalline.

The Divine Comedy (“Divina Commedia”) is the creation that brought Dante immortality. Why Dante called his work a comedy is clear from his treatise “De vulgarie eloquentia” and from the dedication to Cangrande: the comedy begins with terrible and disgusting scenes (Hell) and ends with beautiful pictures of heavenly bliss. The name “divine” arose after the death of the author; the first edition, in which it is called "Divina Commedia", seems to be a Venetian edition. 1516

The Divine Comedy is something of a vision. It describes the state and life of souls after death in the three kingdoms of the underworld and, accordingly, is divided into 3 parts: Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Paradise (Paradiso). Each section consists of 33 cantos, so that the entire poem, including the introduction, is 100 cantos (14,230 verses). It is written in terzas - the meter created by Dante from Sirventer, and is distinguished by its remarkable architectonics: “Hell” consists of 9 circles, “Purgatory” of 9 rooms: the vestibule, 7 terraces and earthly paradise on the Mount of Purification, “Paradise” - of 9 these rotating celestial spheres, above which is the Empyrean, the motionless seat of the deity.

The Divine Comedy. Hell - summary

In The Divine Comedy, Dante travels through these 3 worlds. The shadow of the ancient poet Virgil (the personification of human reason and philosophy) appears to Dante as he tries in vain to get out of the deep forest where he is lost. She reports that the poet must take a different path and that, on behalf of Dante’s deceased beloved, Beatrice, he himself will lead him through Hell and Purgatory to the dwelling of the blessed, through which a more worthy soul will lead him.

9 circles of Hell according to Dante

Their journey first goes through Hell (see its separate description on our website), which looks like a funnel, the end of which rests on the center of the earth; Nine concentric circles in the form of steps stretch along the walls. On these steps, which the lower, the narrower they become, are the souls of condemned sinners. On the eve of Hell live the souls of the “indifferent,” that is, those who lived their lives on earth without glory, but also without shame. In the first circle are the heroes of ancient times who lived impeccably, but died without receiving baptism. In the following circles are placed according to the degrees of crime and punishment: sensualists, gluttons, misers and spendthrifts, angry and vindictive, Epicureans and heretics, rapists, liars and deceivers, traitors to the fatherland, relatives, friends and benefactors. At the depths of hell, in the center of the earth, there is the lord of the infernal kingdom, Dit or Lucifer- the principle of evil.

(The Circles of Hell - La mappa dell inferno). Illustration for Dante's "Divine Comedy". 1480s.

The Divine Comedy. Purgatory - summary

Climbing up his body and passing the other hemisphere, travelers reach the opposite side of the globe, where Mount Purgatory rises from the ocean. On the shore they are met by Cato Uticus, the guardian of this kingdom. Mount Purgatory looks like a steep building with a cut off top and is divided into 7 terraces, which are connected by narrow stairs; access to them is guarded by angels; on these terraces are the souls of penitents. The lowest are occupied by the arrogant, followed by the envious, angry, indecisive, stingy and wasteful, and gluttons. Having passed the threshold of Purgatory and all the terraces, the satellites approach the earthly Paradise, located at the very top.

The Divine Comedy. Paradise - summary

Here Virgil leaves Dante and Beatrice (the personification of divine revelation and theology) leads the poet from here through the third kingdom - Paradise, whose division is entirely based on the Aristotelian concepts of the universe that were dominant at the time of Dante. This kingdom consists of 10 hollow, transparent celestial spheres enclosed in each other, surrounding the earth - the center of the universe. The first seven heavens are called planets: these are the spheres of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The eighth sphere is the fixed stars, and the ninth heaven is the Prime Mover, imparting motion to all the others. Each of these heavens is intended for one of the categories of the blessed, according to the degree of their perfection, but in fact, all the souls of the righteous live in the 10th heaven, the motionless sky of light, Empyrean, located outside of space. Beatrice, having escorted the poet throughout Paradise, leaves him and entrusts him to Saint Bernard, with whose assistance the poet is awarded the sight of a deity who appears to him in a mystical vision.

During the entire journey through these three worlds, conversations are constantly held with famous persons located in the afterlife; issues of theology and philosophy are discussed and the conditions of social life in Italy, the degeneration of the church and state are depicted, so that the poem comprehensively reflects the entire era of Dante in highlighting his personal worldview. The first two parts of the poem are especially remarkable due to the skillful design, the variety and reality of the characters depicted, and the vividness of the historical perspective. The last part, more distinguished than others by its sublimity of thought and feeling, can much more quickly bore the reader with its abstract content.

Different thinkers began to explain the allegorical meaning of both the entire poem and its particulars in different ways. The ethical-theological point of view of the first commentators is the only one that can withstand criticism. From this point of view, Dante himself is a symbol of the human soul seeking salvation from sin. To do this, she must know herself, which is possible only with the help of reason. Reason gives the soul the opportunity, through repentance and virtuous actions, to achieve happiness on earth. Revelation and theology give her access to heaven. Next to this moral and theological allegory comes a political allegory: anarchy on earth can only be put an end to by a universal monarchy modeled on the Roman one, which Virgil preached. However, some researchers have tried to prove that the purpose of the Divine Comedy is primarily or even exclusively political.

When Dante began to write his great work and when individual parts of it were developed, it is impossible to establish exactly. The first two parts were published during his lifetime, while “Paradise” was published after his death. "Divina Commedia" was soon distributed in a huge number of lists, many of which are still preserved in the libraries of Italy, Germany, France and England. The number of these medieval manuscripts exceeds 500.

Dante's Inferno. Illustration by Gustave Doré

The first attempt to illustrate Dante's Comedy dates back to 1481, when the Florentine edition included 19 etchings on the themes of Inferno, based on drawings by Sandro Botticelli. Among the illustrations of the New Age, the most famous are the engravings of Gustave Doré and 20 drawings by German artists.