Comparing the Struggle in Dante’s Inferno and Book VI of The Aeneid

What is Hell? During the fourteenth century, Dante Alighieri was exiled from his home in Florence, Italy and wrote The Devine Comedy: The Inferno while in exile. In this text, Dante gives detailed descriptions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. He wrote this poem in order to get revenge on the political figures who had banished him. Walter Scott explained this perfectly in his book, The Heart of Midlothian, “Revenge, the sweetest morsel to the mouth that ever was cooked in hell” (Scott). In many ways, The Inferno was designed as a type of memoir to depict the sins that surrounded him in Florence. In Dante’s Inferno creates an imaginative connection between a soul’s sinner on Earth and the punishment the sinner receives in Hell.

In Dante’s Inferno, the relationship between Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil the Guide is an ever-evolving one. By analyzing the transformation of this relationship as the two sojourn through the circles of hell, one is able to learn more about the mindset of Dante the Poet.  At the outset, Dante is clearly subservient to Virgil, whom he holds in high esteem for his literary genius. However, as the work progresses, Virgil facilitates Dante’s spiritual enlightenment, so that by the end, Dante has ascended to Virgil’s spiritual level and has in many respects surpassed him. In Dante’s journey with respect to Virgil, one can see

When you think of Hell, what do you see, perhaps a burning pit full of criminals and crazed souls? Or maybe you’re like Dante and have a well organized system of levels in correspondence with each person’s sins. In Dante Alighieri’s epic The Inferno, Dante and his real life hero, Virgil, go on an adventure through a rather elaborate version of Hell. In this version of Hell numerous thoughts and ideals are brought to the attention of the readers. Through Dante’s use of both imaginative and artistic concepts one can receive a great visual impression of how Dante truly views Hell, and by analyzing his religious and philosophical concepts the reader can connect with the work to better understand how rewarding this work was for the time period.

Dante’s descent into Hell in Inferno, the first part of his Divine Comedy, tells of the author’s experiences in Hades as he is guided through the abyss by the Roman author, Virgil. The text is broken into cantos that coincide with the different circles and sub-circles of Hell that Dante and Virgil witness and experience. Inferno is heavily influenced by classic Greek and Roman texts and Dante makes references to a myriad of characters, myths, and legends that take place in Virgil’s Aeneid, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Some of the most important references, however, are the most obvious ones that are easily overlooked simply because of the fact that they are so blatant. Dante is being escorted through Hell by the

In this way, Dante was able to transform the Inferno into a small catalogue of famous characters and events, creating a mini-history that is different from the somewhat one-dimensional portrait of hell that is presented in the Bible. These references to mythological figures and events also serve to firmly situate the Inferno as a work of fiction, where much of the focus was to create an enduring work of art and not necessarily to provide an accurate representation of what Christians at that time thought hell would look like. Thus, by using the Bible as a starting point, but drawing from as many other sources available to him at the time (and especially contemporary events), Dante was able to construct a version of hell that is a hybrid of

As an epic journey to Hell and back, The Inferno clearly traces its ancestry, in part, to The Aeneid. As an "autobiographical" record of a spiritual struggle, it also has equally obvious roots in Augustine's Confessions. We come to this book, then, uniquely well-versed in its literary antecedents. Where do you see the influence of The Aeneid in Dante's poem? Of Confessions?

There are many similarities between Dante’s The Inferno and Virgil’s The Aeneid, be it their characterizations or descriptive imagery, but foremost in their ideas of what the afterlife consisted of. Each each epic hero in the works here have descended in to the depths of hell, with The Inferno depicting Dante’s descent into the depths of hell and with Virgil in Book VI of The Aeneid depicting Aeneas’s decent into hell. It can be argued that although different, the knowledge acquired by each character’s descent was equally important to accomplishing their greater tasks at the ends of their journey. Had their descent into hell been skipped their outcomes would have concluded in a different way because their voyages to Hell each played a crucial role in the advancing each narrative.

Inferno, the first part of Divina Commedia, or the Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, is the story of a man's journey through Hell and the observance of punishments incurred as a result of the committance of sin. In all cases the severity of the punishment, and the punishment itself, has a direct correlation to the sin committed. The punishments are fitting in that they are symbolic of the actual sin; in other words, "They got what they wanted." (Literature of the Western World, p.1409) According to Dante, Hell has two divisions: Upper Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of incontinence, and Lower Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of malice. The

Dante Alighieri, an Italian poet and writer of the 13th century, creates a fictional account of his visions of his journey through Hell. His background as a Catholic influences his life and his writings, including The Inferno. He uses the historical and political events of his lifetime to influence his writings as well. Dante is educated and very familiar with the history and literature of the classical world. In The Inferno, he expresses his admiration for Greco-Roman history, literature, mythology, and philosophy, but he also places limitations on the ability of the classical world to gain salvation as taught and believed in Christian doctrine.

Dante is a poet who wrote an epic poem called The Divine Comedy. This epic poem is about Dante’s journey as he goes through 3 levels, which he calls Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. In the Inferno, he meets Virgil, his guide throughout his voyage. They both pass through the nine circles of Hell, where they witness many different punishments for those who have done awful things in their past. Good versus evil is a major theme that occurred throughout Hell. In the Inferno, there are times where Dante sees good and evil and also represents it himself.

Abe Cheung Professor Crofton Civilization 1 18 April 2018 As an epic journey to Hell and back, The Inferno clearly traces its ancestry, in part, to The Aeneid. As an "autobiographical" record of a spiritual struggle, it also has equally obvious roots in Augustine's Confessions. We come to this book, then, uniquely well-versed in its literary antecedents. Where do you see the influence of The Aeneid in Dante's poem?

Shakespeare’s King Lear and Dante’s inferno touch on several major points that was important in the past but is still just as important in today's society. Although they differ in nature they both have the same understanding and perspective when it comes to human suffering. Suffering is inevitable because we are subject to the human condition therefore almost making it impossible to make the right choices. Shakespeare and Dante agree that the reason for suffering is a result of making wrongful decisions due to the human conditions of imperfection, both assertions speak truth about the human condition however inferno transmits an aspect of hope that king Lear does not.

The beginning lines of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri indicate a pragmatic journey through the dark woods. It is soon evident that The Divine Comedy is in terms of an allegory. Midway through his life, Dante finds himself lost and in darkness. He is confused and unaware of how he has ended up in these dark woods. Dante soon comes across Italian poet Virgil, who will guide him through the Nine Circles of Hell. Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy: Inferno portrays Dante’s life and adventure through Hell which allegorically represents a much broader subject: man’s journey through life to salvation.

Many protagonists in ancient Roman and Medieval works face some sort of dilemma that makes achieving their goal much more challenging. Works such as Virgil’s Roman epic poem, The Aeneid, and Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy: Inferno of the medieval period in Europe demonstrates prime examples of the central characters’ difficulties. Both problems themselves differ greatly in the sense of the types of trials the character’s face and what their confrontations say about the priorities and values of each protagonist’s culture. Nevertheless, the characters still have valuable lessons to learn as they try to overcome their dilemmas.

Dante Alighieri, a poet from the turn of the 14th century, wrote in the Inferno of his journey through hell. Virgil, an ancient roman poet of the Augustan period, wrote the Aeneid that tells the legendary story of Aeneas. Within both of these poems there was a visit to the underworld, creating a skewed picture of the underworld. THESIS