At the heart of Dante's poem lies the recognition by mankind of their sins and the ascent to spiritual life and to God. According to the poet, in order to find peace of mind, it is necessary to go through all the circles of hell and give up blessings, and redeem sins with suffering. Each of the three chapters of the poem includes 33 songs. "Hell", "Purgatory" and "Paradise" are the eloquent names of the parts that make up the "Divine Comedy". The summary makes it possible to comprehend the main idea of ​​the poem.

Dante Alighieri created the poem during the years of exile, shortly before his death. She is recognized in world literature as a brilliant creation. The author himself gave her the name "Comedy". So in those days it was customary to call any work that has a happy ending. "Divine" Boccaccio called her, thus putting the highest mark.

Dante's poem "The Divine Comedy", a summary of which schoolchildren pass in the 9th grade, is hardly perceived by modern teenagers. A detailed analysis of some songs cannot give a complete picture of the work, especially considering today's attitude to religion and human sins. However, an acquaintance, albeit an overview, with the work of Dante is necessary to create a complete picture of world fiction.

"The Divine Comedy". Summary of the chapter "Hell"

The protagonist of the work is Dante himself, to whom the shadow of the famous poet Virgil appears with an offer to make a trip to Dante. ).

The path of the actors begins from hell. In front of the entrance to it are miserable souls who, during their lifetime, did neither good nor evil. Outside the gate flows the river Acheron, through which Charon transports the dead. Heroes are approaching the circles of hell:

Having passed all the circles of hell, Dante and his companion went upstairs and saw the stars.

"The Divine Comedy". Brief summary of the part "Purgatory"

The protagonist and his guide end up in purgatory. Here they are met by the guard Cato, who sends them to the sea to wash. The companions go to the water, where Virgil washes away the soot of the underworld from Dante's face. At this time, a boat sails up to the travelers, which is ruled by an angel. He lands on the shore the souls of the dead who did not go to hell. With them, the heroes make a journey to the mountain of purgatory. On the way, they meet fellow countryman Virgil, the poet Sordello, who joins them.

Dante falls asleep and is transported in a dream to the gates of purgatory. Here the angel writes seven letters on the forehead of the poet, denoting the Hero goes through all the circles of purgatory, being cleansed of sins. After passing each circle, the angel erases from Dante's forehead the letter of the overcome sin. On the last lap, the poet must pass through the flames of fire. Dante is afraid, but Virgil convinces him. The poet passes the test of fire and goes to heaven, where Beatrice is waiting for him. Virgil falls silent and disappears forever. The beloved washes Dante in the sacred river, and the poet feels strength pouring into his body.

"The Divine Comedy". Summary of the part "Paradise"

Beloved ascend to heaven. To the surprise of the protagonist, he was able to take off. Beatrice explained to him that souls not burdened with sins are light. Lovers pass through all heavenly skies:

• the first sky of the moon, where the souls of the nuns are;
• the second is Mercury for the ambitious righteous;
• the third is Venus, the souls of the loving ones rest here;
• the fourth - the Sun, intended for the sages;
• the fifth is Mars, which receives warriors;
• the sixth - Jupiter, for the souls of the just;
• the seventh is Saturn, where the souls of contemplators are;
• the eighth is for the spirits of the great righteous;
• ninth - here are angels and archangels, seraphim and cherubim.

After ascending to the last heaven, the hero sees the Virgin Mary. She is among the shining rays. Dante raises his head up to the bright and blinding light and finds the highest truth. He sees the deity in his trinity.

The action of the Divine Comedy begins from the moment when the lyrical hero (or Dante himself), shocked by the death of his beloved Beatrice, tries to survive his grief, setting it out in verse in order to fix it as concretely as possible and thereby preserve the unique image of his beloved. But here it turns out that her immaculate personality is already immune to death and oblivion. She becomes a guide, the savior of the poet from inevitable death.

Beatrice, with the help of Virgil, the ancient Roman poet, accompanies the living lyrical hero - Dante - bypassing all the horrors of Hell, making an almost sacred journey from existence to non-existence, when the poet, just like the mythological Orpheus, descends into the underworld to save his Eurydice. On the gates of Hell it is written “Abandon all hope”, but Virgil advises Dante to get rid of fear and trembling before the unknown, because only with open eyes can a person comprehend the source of evil.

Hell Dante. Start

Sandro Botticelli "Portrait of Dante". (wikimedia.org)

Hell for Dante is not a materialized place, but the state of the soul of a sinning person, constantly tormented by remorse. Dante inhabited the circles of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, guided by his likes and dislikes, his ideals and ideas. For him, for his friends, love was the highest expression of the independence and unpredictability of the freedom of the human person: it is freedom from traditions and dogmas, and freedom from the authorities of the Church Fathers, and freedom from various universal models of human existence.

Love with a capital letter comes to the fore, directed not towards a realistic (in the medieval sense) absorption of individuality by a ruthless collective integrity, but towards a unique image of a truly existing Beatrice. For Dante, Beatrice is the embodiment of the entire universe in the most concrete and colorful way. And what could be more attractive for a poet than the figure of a young Florentine, accidentally met on a narrow street of an ancient city? So Dante realizes the synthesis of thought and concrete, artistic, emotional comprehension of the world. In the first song of "Paradise", Dante listens to the concept of reality from the lips of Beatrice and cannot take his eyes off her emerald eyes. This scene is the embodiment of deep ideological and psychological shifts, when artistic comprehension of reality tends to become intellectual.

Illustration for The Divine Comedy, 1827. (wikimedia.org)

The afterlife appears before the reader in the form of an integral building, the architecture of which is calculated in the smallest details, and the coordinates of space and time are distinguished by mathematical and astronomical accuracy, full of numerological and esoteric context.

Most often in the text of a comedy there is the number three and its derivative - nine: a three-line stanza (tertsina), which became the poetic basis of the work, which in turn is divided into three parts - canticles. Excluding the first, introductory song, 33 songs are allotted for the image of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, and each of the parts of the text ends with the same word - stars (stelle). To the same mystical digital series can be attributed the three colors of clothes in which Beatrice is clothed, three symbolic beasts, the three mouths of Lucifer and the same number of sinners devoured by him, the tripartite distribution of Hell with nine circles. All this clearly built system gives rise to a surprisingly harmonious and coherent hierarchy of the world, created according to unwritten divine laws.

Speaking of Dante and his Divine Comedy, one cannot fail to note the special status that the birthplace of the great poet, Florence, had in the host of other cities of the Apennine Peninsula. Florence is not only the city where the Accademia del Cimento raised the banner of experimental knowledge of the world. It is a place where nature has been looked at as closely as anywhere else, a place of passionate artistic sensationalism, where rational vision has replaced religion. They looked at the world through the eyes of an artist, with spiritual upliftment, with the worship of beauty.

The initial collection of ancient manuscripts reflected the transfer of the center of gravity of intellectual interests to the structure of the inner world and the creativity of the person himself. Space ceased to be the dwelling place of God, and they began to treat nature from the point of view of earthly existence, in it they looked for answers to questions understandable to man, and took them in earthly, applied mechanics. A new way of thinking - natural philosophy - humanized nature itself.

Hell Dante. Topography

The topography of Dante's Hell and the structure of Purgatory and Paradise stem from the recognition of loyalty and courage as the highest virtues: in the center of Hell, in the teeth of Satan, there are traitors, and the distribution of places in Purgatory and Paradise directly corresponds to the moral ideals of the Florentine exile.

By the way, everything that we know about Dante's life is known to us from his own memoirs, set out in the Divine Comedy. He was born in 1265 in Florence and remained faithful to his native city all his life. Dante wrote about his teacher Brunetto Latini and about his talented friend Guido Cavalcanti. The life of the great poet and philosopher took place in the circumstances of a very long conflict between the emperor and the Pope. Latini, Dante's mentor, was a man with encyclopedic knowledge and based his views on the sayings of Cicero, Seneca, Aristotle and, of course, on the Bible - the main book of the Middle Ages. It was Latini who most of all influenced the formation of the personality of Bud current Renaissance humanist.

Dante's path was full of obstacles when the poet faced the need for a difficult choice: for example, he was forced to contribute to the expulsion of his friend Guido from Florence. Reflecting on the theme of the ups and downs of his fate, Dante in the poem "New Life" devotes many fragments to his friend Cavalcanti. Here Dante brought out the unforgettable image of his first youthful love - Beatrice. Biographers identify Dante's beloved with Beatrice Portinari, who died at the age of 25 in Florence in 1290. Dante and Beatrice have become the same textbook embodiment of true lovers, like Petrarch and Laura, Tristan and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet.

In 1295, Dante entered the guild, membership in which opened the way for him into politics. Just at that time, the struggle between the emperor and the Pope escalated, so that Florence was divided into two opposing groups - the "black" Guelphs, led by Corso Donati, and the "white" Guelphs, to whose camp Dante himself belonged. The "Whites" won and drove the opponents out of the city. In 1300, Dante was elected to the city council - it was here that the brilliant oratorical abilities of the poet were fully manifested.

Dante increasingly began to oppose himself to the Pope, participating in various anti-clerical coalitions. By that time, the “blacks” had stepped up their activities, broke into the city and dealt with their political opponents. Dante was called several times to testify to the city council, but each time he ignored these requirements, so on March 10, 1302, Dante and 14 other members of the "white" party were sentenced to death in absentia. To save himself, the poet was forced to leave his native city. Disillusioned with the possibility of changing the political state of affairs, he began to write the work of his life - the Divine Comedy.

Sandro Botticelli "Hell, Canto XVIII" (wikimedia.org)

In the 14th century, in the Divine Comedy, the truth that was revealed to the poet who visited Hell, Purgatory and Paradise is no longer canonical, it appears to him as a result of his own, individual efforts, his emotional and intellectual impulse, he hears the truth from the lips of Beatrice . For Dante, the idea is the “thought of God”: “Everything that dies and everything that does not die is / Only a reflection of the Thought, to which the Almighty / with His Love gives life.”

Dante's path of love is the path of perception of divine light, a force that simultaneously elevates and destroys a person. In The Divine Comedy, Dante made special emphasis on the color symbolism of the Universe he depicted. If Hell is characterized by dark tones, then the path from Hell to Paradise is a transition from dark and gloomy to light and shining, while in Purgatory there is a change in lighting. For the three steps at the gates of Purgatory, symbolic colors stand out: white - the innocence of a baby, crimson - the sinfulness of an earthly being, red - redemption, the blood of which whitens so that, closing this color range, white reappears as a harmonic combination of previous symbols.

In November 1308, Henry VII becomes King of Germany, and in July 1309, the new Pope Clement V declares him King of Italy and invites him to Rome, where the new Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire is crowned magnificently. Dante, who was an ally of Henry, returned to politics again, where he was able to use his literary experience productively, writing many pamphlets and speaking publicly. In 1316, Dante finally moved to Ravenna, where he was invited to spend the rest of his days by the signor of the city, philanthropist and patron of the arts, Guido da Polenta.

In the summer of 1321, Dante, as ambassador of Ravenna, went to Venice on a mission to make peace with the Doge's Republic. Having completed a responsible assignment, on the way home, Dante falls ill with malaria (like his late friend Guido) and suddenly dies on the night of September 13-14, 1321.

According to the monk Gilarius, Dante began to write his poem in Latin. The first three verses were:

Ultima regna canam, fluido contermina mundo,

Spiritibus quae lata patent, quae praemia solvuut

Promeritis cuicunque suis (data lege tonantis). -

"In dimidio dierum meorum vadam adportas infori." Vulgat. Bible.

In the middle of N. well. road, i.e., at the age of 35, an age that Dante in his Convito calls the pinnacle of human life. According to the general opinion, Dante was born in 1265: therefore, he was 35 years old in 1300; but, moreover, from the 21st canto of Hell, it is clear that Dante assumes the beginning of his journey in 1300, during the jubilee announced by Pope Boniface VIII, in Passion Week on Good Friday - in the year when he was 35 years old, although his poem was written much later; therefore, all incidents that occurred after this year are given as predictions.

Dark forest, according to the usual interpretation of almost all commentators, it means human life in general, and in relation to the poet, his own life in particular, that is, a life full of delusions, overwhelmed by passions. Others under the name of the forest understand the political state of Florence at that time (which Dante calls trista selva, Pure XIV, 64), and by combining all the symbols of this mystical song into one, they give it a political meaning. Here, for example. as Count Perticari (Apolog. di Dante. Vol. II, p. 2: fec. 38: 386 della Proposta) explains this song: in 1300, at the age of 35, Dante, elected prior of Florence, was soon convinced amid the turmoil , intrigues and frenzy of parties, that the true path to the public good is lost, and that he himself is in dark forest disasters and exiles. When he tried to climb hills, pinnacle of state happiness, he presented himself with insurmountable obstacles from his native city (Leopard with a motley skin), pride and ambition of the French king Philip the Fair and his brother Charles of Valois (Lion) and self-interest and ambitious designs of Pope Boniface VIII (Wolves). Then, indulging in his poetic attraction and placing all his hope on the military talents of Charlemagne, lord of Verona ( Dog), he wrote his poem, where, with the assistance of spiritual contemplation (donna gentile) heavenly enlightenment (Lucia) and theology Beatrice), guided by reason, human wisdom, personified in poetry (Virgil) he goes through the places of punishment, purification and reward, thus punishing vices, consoling and correcting weaknesses and rewarding virtue by immersion in the contemplation of the highest good. From this it can be seen that the ultimate goal of the poem is to call a vicious nation, torn by strife, to political, moral and religious unity.

Dante escaped this life full of passions and delusions, especially the strife of the party, into which he had to go as the ruler of Florence; but this life was so terrible that the memory of it again gives rise to horror in him.

In the original: "He (the forest) is so bitter that death is a little more." – The ever-bitter world (Io mondo senia fine amaro) is hell (Paradise XVII. 112). “Just as material death destroys our earthly existence, so moral death deprives us of clear consciousness, the free manifestation of our will, and therefore moral death is a little better than material death itself.” Streckfuss.

Dream means, on the one hand, human weakness, darkening of the inner light, lack of self-knowledge, in a word - the lulling of the spirit; on the other hand, sleep is a transition to the spiritual world (See Ada III, 136).

Hill, according to the explanation of most commentators, it means virtue, according to others, the ascent to the highest good. In the original, Dante awakens at the foot of the hill; the sole of the hill- the beginning of salvation, that moment when a saving doubt arises in our soul, a fatal thought that the path we have been following up to this moment is false.

Vale limits. The vale is a temporary field of life, which we usually call the vale of tears and calamities. From XX Song of Hell, v. 127-130, it is clear that in this vale the flickering of the moon served as a guiding light for the poet. The moon signifies the faint light of human wisdom. Save up.

The planet that leads people on a straight path is the sun, which, according to the Ptolemaic system, belongs to the planets. The sun here has not only the meaning of a material luminary, but, in contrast to the month (philosophy), is full, direct knowledge, divine inspiration. Save up.

Even a glimpse of divine knowledge is already able to reduce in us partly the false fear of the earthly vale; but it completely disappears only when we are completely filled with the fear of the Lord, like Beatrice (Ada II, 82-93). Save up.

When climbing, the foot on which we lean is always lower. “Ascending from the lower to the higher, we move forward slowly, only step by step, only when we firmly and faithfully stand on the lower: spiritual ascent is subject to the same laws as bodily.” Streckfuss.

Leopard (uncia, leuncia, lynx, catus pardus Okena), according to the interpretation of ancient commentators, means voluptuousness, Leo - pride or lust for power, She-wolf - self-interest and stinginess; others, especially the newest ones, see Florence and the Guelphs in Bars, France and especially Charles Valois in Leo, the Pope or the Roman curia in She-Wolf, and, in accordance with this, give the entire first song a purely political meaning. According to Kannegisser, Leopard, Leo and She-wolf signify three degrees of sensuality, moral corruption of people: Leopard is an awakening sensuality, as indicated by its speed and agility, motley skin and persistence; The lion is sensuality already awakened, prevailing and not hidden, demanding satisfaction: therefore, he is depicted with a majestic (in the original: raised) head, hungry, angry to the point that the air around him shudders; finally, the she-wolf is the image of those who completely indulged in sin, which is why it is said that she was already the poison of life for many, therefore she completely deprives Dante of peace and always more and more drives him into the vale of moral death.

This terzina defines the time of the poet's journey. It, as said above, began on Good Friday in Holy Week, or March 25: therefore, around the spring equinox. However, Philaletes, based on the XXI song of Hell, believes that Dante began his journey on April 4th. - divine love, according to Dante, there is a reason for the movement of celestial bodies. - A crowd of stars the constellation Aries is indicated, into which the sun enters at this time.

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Hell

Song One

The poet tells that, getting lost in a dark, dense forest and meeting various obstacles to reach the top of the mountain, he was overtaken by Virgil. The latter promised to show him the torments of sinners in Hell and Purgatory, and said that Beatrice would later show the poet the Paradise Abode. The poet followed Virgil.

1 Once upon a time in my mature years
I went into the dense forest and got lost.
Lost was a direct and true trail ...

4 There are no such words for me to decide
The forest is gloomy and gloomy to describe,
Where my brain froze and the secret horror lasted:

7 So even death cannot frighten...
But in that forest, dressed in sinister darkness,
In the midst of horrors I found grace.

10 I got into the thicket wild; nowhere there
I did not find, embraced by some kind of dream,
A familiar path in all respects.

13 The desert was all around before me,
Where the heart sank with involuntary horror.
I saw before me then

16 The foot of the mountain. She was
In the rays of the light of a joyful day
And the light of the sun was gilded from above,

19 Driven away the involuntary fear from me.
In my soul the embarrassment was erased,
As darkness perishes from a bright fire.

22 Like a cast ashore in a wreck
An exhausted swimmer in the fight against the wave
Looks back where the sea is in a frenzy

25 He promises a painful end;
So precisely I looked around timidly,
Like a timid, weary fugitive,

28 So that once again on a terrible path sadly,
Taking a breath, take a look:
Until now, everything that is alive has died,

31 Making that impassable path.
Deprived of strength, like a corpse, exhausted
I went down quietly to rest,

34 But again, having overcome fatigue,
I directed a step forward along the steepness,
Higher, higher every moment.

37 I was walking forward, and suddenly towards me
A leopard appeared, covered with motley skin
And with spots on the arched back.

40 I, like a passer-by taken by surprise,
I look: he does not take his eyes off me
With determination, like a challenge to me,

43 And blocks the way, lying down on it,
So I started thinking about retreat.
It was morning in the sky at this hour.

46 The earth woke up after awakening,
And the sun floated in the blue sky,
That sun that in the days of peace

49 Lighted up for the first time, met all around
By the radiance of the stars, with their clear, gentle light...
Encouraged by a cheerful, bright day,

52 Ruddy and solemn dawn,
I endured the anger of the leopard without fear,
But a new horror awaited me at the same time:

55 Suddenly there was a lion in front of me.
Throwing his head back, he proudly
He walked towards me: I stood subdued.

58 He looked into his eyes so greedily and firmly,
That I trembled like a leaf then;
I look: a she-wolf's muzzle is visible behind him.

61 She was terribly thin:
Insatiable greed, it seemed
The she-wolf is always suppressed.

64
She is like their death ... She is in me
Drunk with monstrous glances,

67 And again became full of despair
My soul.

That courage is gone
Which was supposed to lead

70 Me to the top of the mountain. Like a greedy miser
Sobs, having lost capital,
In which I saw happiness, good life,

73 So before the wild beast I wept,
The path traveled losing step by step,
And again ran down the slope

76 To those abysses and gaping ravines,
Where you can't see the sun shine
And the night is dark under the eternal, black flag.

79 From rapids to rapids sliding down,
I met a man that time.
Depicting silence,

82 He seemed so accustomed to fate
To the silence that lost his voice,
Seeing a stranger in front of you.

85 In the wilderness of the dead I called loudly:
"Whoever you are - alive or a ghost,
Save me!" And the ghost answered:

88 “Once I was a living creature;
Now a dead man is standing in front of you.
I was born in Mantua in one village;

91 My father used to live in Lombardy.
I began my life under Julia and in Rome
In the age of Augustus lived a long time, finally,

94 When by their false gods
People considered idols. Then
I was a poet, I wrote poems, and they

97 Aeneas also sang of those years,
When the walls of Ilion collapsed...
And why are you striving down here,

100 In the abode of sorrow, gnashing and groaning?
Why from the path to the home of eternal blessings
Under the graceful brilliance of the sky

103 Strive for darkness irresistibly so?
Go ahead and spare no effort!”
And, blushing, I made a sign to him

106 And he asked: “Are you Virgil,
Poets of all greatness and light?
Let about my delight and strength

109 My love for you, holy poet,
Will tell my weak work and creations
And what I studied for many years

112 Your great works 1
“And what I have studied for many years / Your great works”. - Even before the appearance of the Divine Comedy, Dante was already known as the author of many works in Latin and Italian.

.
Look: I tremble before the beast,
All veins tensed. Looking for salvation

115 Singer, I'm looking for your help.
"You must look for other ways,
And I want to show this way.

118 I heard from the lips of the poet the word:
“Know, a terrible beast-monster for a long time
This path blocks everyone severely

121 And destroys, and torments all equally.
The monster is so greedy and cruel
That it will never be satisfied

124 And the victims vomit in the twinkling of an eye.
To him for death an uncountable number
Pitiful creatures descend from afar, -

127 And long will such evil live,
While the Hound Dog 2
Hound Dog- So Dante called the owner of Verona Cana Grande della Scala, known for his courage and nobility. Name Dog he received, according to his contemporaries, due to the fact that his mother had a dream during pregnancy that she was relieved of her burden by a dog. During his lifetime, he was called the Great for his exploits. It was at his court that Dante, expelled from Florence, found refuge. Since Dante began writing the Divine Comedy even before his exile, when Can was a child, commentators believe that the verses about the Hound Dog were inserted by the poet later, in those days when contemporaries placed all their hopes on Cana Grande.

Don't fight the beast
To harm no more could

130 Monster. The Hound Dog will be proud
Not by pathetic lust for power, but in it
And wisdom and greatness will be reflected,

133 And we will call it homeland
Country from Feltro to Feltro 3
"And we will call his homeland / The country from Feltro to Feltro." - Here we are talking about Verona, which on the one hand borders on Trevisaca, where the town is located Feltro, and on the other adjoins Romagna, where there is a mountain, also called Feltro.

Forces
He will dedicate Italy; we are waiting,

136 What will rise with him again from the grave
Italy, where before the blood flowed,
The blood of the virgin, warlike Camille,

139 Where Thurn and Niz found their hour of death 4
"Blood of the virgin, militant Camilla, / Where Thurn and Niz found their hour of death." – Camilla- a warlike maiden, daughter of Metab, king of the Vols, and turn- the son of Daun, king of the Ruguls, defending Latium, died in a battle with people from Troy. Courageous was killed there Bottom along with his friend Euryal.

.
Chase from hail to hail
He will be this she-wolf more than once,

142 Until she is thrown into the crater of Hell,
Where was she expelled from?
Only envy ... I need to save you

145 From these places where doom is so sure;
Follow me, you won't be hurt
I will bring out - for that I have been given the power -

148 You through the region of eternity from here,
Through the region where you hear in the darkness
Moaning and wailing, where, like a miracle,

151 Visions of the dead on earth
Second death is expected and will not wait 5
“Visions of the dead on earth / Secondary death await and will not wait ...”- The souls of sinners, condemned to hellish torments, call for the oblivion of these torments - secondary death.

And from prayer they rush to blasphemy.

154 Then they will sweep before you
jubilant ghosts on fire
In the hope that they will open up before them,

157 Perhaps the doors to heavenly side
And their sins will be redeemed by suffering.
But if you turn to me

160 With the desire to be in Paradise - that desire
For a long time already my soul is full -
That is, the soul is different: according to deeds

163 She is more worthy of me, and I
I'll give you to her at the door of heaven
And I will leave, melting my sadness.

166 I was born in a different and dark faith,
No one has been brought to insight,
And now there is no place for me in the heavenly sphere,

169 And I will not show the way to Eden.
Who is subject to the sun, these stars,
Who reigns over the ages over the world to all,

172 That abode is Paradise... In this world
Blessed are all who are exacted by him!” Became
Then I look for support in the poet:

175 "Save me, poet! I begged. -
Save me from disasters, you are terrible
And take me to the area of ​​death, so that I know

178 I am the sorrow of the shadows of the languishing, unfortunate,
And lead to those sacred gates,
Where is Peter the Holy abode of beautiful souls

181 Age guards. I wish to be there."
My guide sent steps forward,
And I followed in his footsteps.

Song Two

In the second song, the poet, after the usual introduction, begins to doubt his strength for the upcoming path and thinks that he will not be able to descend into Hell with Virgil. Encouraged by Virgil, he finally decides to follow him as his mentor and guide.

1 day went out. Dusk fell on the ground,
Calling the people of labor to rest.
Only I alone could not be dead,

4 The path is difficult, tedious doing.
All that was ahead of me -
Suffering and the charm of Paradise, -

7 That will never die in memory ...
Oh, muses, oh holy inspiration!
Now you are my only stronghold!

10 Remember, memory, every manifestation,
Which only a glance noticed!
"Say, poet! I exclaimed in excitement. -

13 My way is hard, there are a number of obstacles in the way ...
Am I capable of the feat that lies ahead?
You described just descending into Hell

16 Hero Aeneas 6
Aeneas- father Sylvia, son of Anchises, brother of Priam, conqueror of Latium, where his descendants ruled, from whom the family of Romulus, the founder of Rome, is descended.

Then still wearing
Human flesh, and came out unharmed:
The eternal God himself, who destroys evil in the world,

19 Always stood guard over him
And he honored the ancestor of Rome in him;
And we know - to this glorious Rome

22 The blessing descended invisibly...
Holy, source of good
Let there be hail, where power is tireless

25 Vicars of St. Peter!..
Aeneas descended into Hell, sung by you,
In it, who did not find a deathbed,

28 But warmed by knowledge and insight,
He carried the greatness of the popes from Hell.
Later, from this sad land

31 Paul himself was taken up into heaven,
Where he became the pillar of our salvation.
But I am embarrassed by a difficult feat,

34 I tremble at bold ambitions.
I am not the apostle Paul, not Aeneas, -
Choose their way who gave me permission?

37 That's why to appear in the world of shadows
I'm afraid with you. Am I not insane?
But you are wiser and stronger than me:

40 I submit to you in my sorrow.”
Like a man deprived of will suddenly,
In which new thoughts replaced

43 A number of past thoughts and thoughts and torments,
So for sure I began to hesitate along the way
And looked around in awe,

46 And quickly began to be replaced by timidity
My resolve. The ghost told me:
“You began to obey with low cowardice.

49 Such fear often turned away
From good deeds. So the beast is afraid of the shadow.
But I will dispel your fear. I wandered

52 Among the ghosts, and waited for the decision
Above my fate is a sentence,
Suddenly I hear - I could not help but be surprised -

55 Holy Virgin in a quiet conversation
Joined with me. Happiness without hiding
I have submitted to the Virgin since then.

58 As the stars of the sky did not live, sparkling,
Her eyes and voice sounded so
Like the singing of cherubim in the kingdom of Paradise:

61 "Oh, you are a poet whose genius has shone
And will live until the destruction of the world,
Go! On the steepness of the desert rocks

64 My friend is waiting for both support and advice,
Confused by terrible obstacles.
Is it all for him? Answer

67 I will wait: will he be saved?
Go to him and by the power of strict speech
May he be delivered from trouble.

70 My name is Beatrice; from afar
I showed up. Love led me
My love with you was looking for a meeting:

73 I was waiting for your help with prayer.
In the abode of God soon I will appear
And where every blasphemy perishes,

76 I will praise you loudly ... "
And Beatrice was silent. I said:
“I swear I won’t get tired of serving you!

79 You are a high ideal of holiness,
You are the image of a wonderful virtue!
All the joys of the earth that God has given us,

82 Bring you to the joy of heaven!
It's easy for you to obey me...
And if, O incorporeal ghost,

85 I fulfilled your will completely,
Everything would always seem to me
That I acted sluggishly, as in a dream,

88 That the thing was moving too slowly.
I could appreciate your desires,
But answer: how were you not afraid

91 Go to the dwelling of the underworld
From that holy abode above the stars,
Which you can not forget? .. "

94 "Without fear, I glide over this abyss, -
Beatrice said, - and, poet,
I can give you useful advice:

97 Believe me - when there are no evil thoughts in us,
We should not be afraid of anything.
Evil to neighbor - that's where the source of troubles,

100 And it is only evil that we all need to fear.
Good Heaven gives me a fortress,
So that I could not suffer suffering

103 And even the flames of my feet do not burn.
There in Heaven there is an All-good Virgin 7
Virgo All-good- the personification of mercy. Isn't it easier - that this is the image of the Mother of God, the Madonna? The interpreters of Dante, even in the person of Beatrice, are looking for the personification of theology, although Dante, it seems, simply recreated in her the image of his first and only love. Beatrice was the source of his still infant inspiration. It is known that when Dante was only nine years old, he fell in love with an eight-year-old, beautiful child - Beatrice Portinari, who died young. Dante remained faithful to his ideal love for Beatrice until the end of his life.

,
And to her, Omnipotent, he became pitiful,

106 Whom should you save by saving.
And to Lucia 8
Lucia- a fantastic image, apparently, the personification of heavenly grace and compassion.

She came with a prayer:
"Hurry to help you, dear,

109 who needs your hand.”
And Lucia visited that place,
Full of love and compassion

112 Where I spoke with old Rachel,
And she said: “A terrible moment has come!
What, Beatrice, you're not in a hurry

115 Save the one who has become great in the world,
Loving you? Don't you hear, or something,
A familiar cry and a cry for salvation?

118
In the fight against death, the formidable was exhausted,
Which is terrible in a crazy will,

121 Like the ocean is a mad stream ... "
No one raced faster for prey,
No one could run away from troubles,

124 How I rushed here, Beatrice,
Leaving the shelter of holy shadows,
And crying out to you alone for help.

127 You are the gift of words in the world of all the stronger,
And I'm looking for support in your words ... "
Then on me silently, without speeches,

130 She stopped her eyes in tears,
And I hurried to help you
Without delay, I am afraid of her reproaches;

133 I didn't let the she-wolf to you
And opened the way for you to the mountain ...
What are you delaying? Ile did not humble in the heart

136 Are you timid in vain anxiety?
When the three virgins in the eternal Heaven
For your life, prayers are offered to God,

139 When in me, in all my words
You find greetings and encouragement,
Doesn't your fear subside?"

142 As from the cold winds of a breath,
Flowers bend from the cold
And in the morning they rise again in an instant

145 Under the glare of the sun, full of beauty,
So I suddenly woke up from fear,
Exclaiming: "Bless you,

148 In whose compassion I was not deceived,
You, cheerfulness planted in my chest,
When my camp bent from horror...

151 And you, poet, be blessed,
Fulfilling the command of the Virgin of Paradise.
With you, I'm ready to start boldly,

154 Burning with desire for difficult deeds.
With you, I am not afraid of the abyss of evil ...
Lead me, not understanding the ways ... "

157 So I said and followed the singer.

Song three

Dante, following Virgil, reaches the doors of Hell, where both enter after reading terrible words at the entrance. Virgil, pointing out to the poet the torment that cowards deserve, leads him further. They come to a river called Acheron, where they find Charon carrying souls to the other side. When Dante crossed the Acheron, he fell asleep on the banks of this river.

1 “Behind me is a world of tears, suffering and torment,
Behind me - sorrow without borders, without end,
Behind me is a world of fallen souls and ghosts.

4 I am the justice of the supreme Creator,
Creation of power and wisdom,
Heavenly Father's creation

7 Erected before the universe.
In front of me - a trace of centuries has passed,
My destiny is eternity, eternity of punishment,

10 There is no hope for anyone behind me!”
Above the entrance to Tartarus, the inscription was black.
I read terrible words. "Poet,

13 The meaning of these words, I exclaimed timidly,
Brings fear! Virgil guessed
That my heart is frozen.

16 “There is no place for fear here,” he answered. -
We came to the abode of sorrow
Those fallen souls, - Virgil continued, -

19 That they wandered like fools on the earth" 9
"That on earth they wandered like madmen." - That is, those who on earth were smitten with madness. The word "madness" in this passage must be understood not in the sense of insanity, but as a general concept of people whose common sense is often suppressed by their passions.

.
And the singer squeezed my hand with a smile;
I became more cheerful, and now we saw

22 The abode of eternal mystery, at last,
Where in the dawnless darkness resounded
Scream and groan from end to end;

25 Everywhere groans, wherever we were,
And I cried, I could not stand it ...
We are closer - the cries of sinners merged

28 In a mixture of different languages, in one stream.
Blasphemy, curses, rabies squealing,
Terrible movements of arms and legs, -

31 Everything merged into a rumble in a general howl.
So the hurricane twists the sands of the steppes.
Roars and destroys everything, without compassion.

34 In ignorance, filled with longing,
I exclaimed involuntarily: “Oh, teacher!
Are the sins of the shadows so great

37 Shadows trapped in a terrible abode?
And who are they? "Nothing - they
In a crowd of people, the guide said. -

40 While living on earth on other days
They were considered the most miserable creatures.
They are on the ground - look around yourself -

43 Blame or praise was not given;
Now - they have entered into a host of spirits,
Which did not change the Creator,

46 But sin crushed them with the weight of fetters
And they did not have faith in Providence.
The great God cast them down from the clouds,

49 So that Heaven knows no defilement,
And even Hell didn't want to let them in:
In Hell, even crime was abhorred

52 The worthlessness and abomination of their deeds.
“What kind of torment is assigned to them?
What is their fate, my mentor?

55 Their terrible cries are piercing sounds ... "
And Virgil answered: "Deprived
They are hopes; their hands are chained.

58 In their present sorrows are so strong,
What is the worst fate, the greater torment
They should always be jealous.

61 The world has forgotten them - and there is no end to oblivion:
They are not spared, but also not executed,
Condemned to eternal contempt.

64 But turn away from them and cast your eyes forward,
Follow me tirelessly."
I took a step, but stepped back:

67 A banner passed before me,
So fast, like a whirlwind carried away
Its forward, forward unstoppable.

70 Ghosts of graves flew behind him
Uncountable string: it was scary,
That there are so many lives in the world, so many forces

73 Death turned into dumb ghosts.
One of them seemed familiar to me:
The well-known image is preserved in memory.

76 I look: yes, that's exactly who he is talking about
The people often spoke with contempt,
Who, twisting his soul and tongue,

79 High renunciation stained 10
I look: yes, it’s definitely he, about whom / The people often spoke with contempt ...– Literally translated: “I peer and recognize in her the one who dishonored himself with high renunciation.” This place is very controversial. Some suggest that Dante meant Esau who sold the birthright (an assumption more than implausible); others - Diocletian, who abdicated; Pope Celestine V, who folded the papal tiara at the intrigues of Cardinal d'Anagni, later Pope Boniface VIII; Torregiano de Cerchi, the leader of the White party, who refused to command the troops.
Given the fierceness with which Dante pursued papal power in his poem, most likely, we are talking about Celestine V, especially since the abdication of this pope happened during the life of the poet. The scandalous nature of this renunciation once struck the whole of Western Europe. It was said that every night Cardinal d'Anagny, who was seeking the papacy, hid in the temple where the pope prayed and ordered him to lay down his tiara. Celestine obeyed, taking his words for a voice from above. This explanation, like many others to which we point, is made by the translator of Dante's Inferno, Fan Dim, who commented on Dante according to the ancient dictionary Vocabolario degli Academici della Crusca.

.
Then I realized that this host of shadows
He was a collection of outcast souls,

82 Despicable for enemies and for friends.
Their life was not life, but vegetation,
And here now, in my nakedness,

85 Got these miserable creatures
On the sacrifice of insects - flies and wasps -
And they are in constant pain.

88 By their faces, interfering with the flow of tears,
Blood flowed and flowed down to their feet,
Where a lot of worms in the blood curled,

91 And that blood instantly devoured.
I turned away from them. far away
Many new ghosts stood

94 On the bare bank, crowding to the river.
“Master,” I asked, “whose shadows are these,
That the crossings seem to be waiting in anguish?

97 I can hardly see them in the dim light.”
“You will know about this,” he said,
When, - I turned pale at that answer, -

103 A big river that ran without a murmur.
Here a gray-haired old man swam up to us in a canoe.
“Oh, woe to you, criminal creatures! -

106 He shouted to Virgil and to me. -
Hope all you need to leave here,
You can't see the sky above.

109 I'm here to take you there,
Where eternal cold reigns and night
Where the flame is able to melt everything.

112 And you, - he told me, - get out of here!
There is no place for the living among the dead."
Unable to overcome curiosity

115 I didn't move. "In a different way
You will sail the way, - he added, -
And ferry to another shore

118 You boat is light ... "" You know, Charon, -
My cold-blooded companion told him, -
That you are indignant with vain anger:

121 He whose will, the law is unconditional,
So he commanded, and you must be silent.
And the huge boatman fell silent at once,

124 And ceased to sparkle with rage
His eyes in their fiery orbits,
But the ghosts, having managed to catch the words,

127 Cursed erupted; in open mouths
Their teeth began to gnash loudly;
In their dead faces, pitted with ulcers,

130 Paleness appeared. brazenly spew
They blasphemed the whole world,
Creator and ancestors began to curse

133 And the very hour that they were born.
Then, with a sob, gliding to the shore,
They rushed to a terrible crossing:

136 They cannot escape the common punishment.
They were driven by Charon, his eyes sparkling all around,
With an oar, stray ghosts are smashed.

139 As in autumn the leaves fall, flickering,
Until the branches are completely bare,
Wrapping the earth in a faded outfit,

142 So shadows on the way to deep Hell
At the call of the rower, they rushed into his boat,
Crowded and placed in a row.

145 As soon as they rushed across the stream,
How to transport the terrible again
Other ghosts have already fled.

148 "My son," said the poet, "you must know
That the souls of the condemned arrive
From everywhere to Acheron. unravel

151 They desire their future,
Rushing to swim across the stream
And forever their desires devour

154 Learn the execution that awaits them for vice.
Still no one with an uncorrupted soul
Here he could not swim across the river;

157 That's why the sleepless Charon rejected
You, my son, and blazed with anger,
I am greatly irritated by your appearance.

160 The poet was silent, and suddenly I heard
A terrible roar - the soil trembled ...
Cold sweat broke out on the body.

163 Overhead the storm groaned,
And a bloody streak in Heaven
Winding lightning flashed...

166 Some new fear gripped me,
And in one minute I lost my senses,
Unable to keep on my feet

169 And, as in a dream, he sank to the ground.

Song Four

The poet, following Virgil, descends into the first circle of Hell, where in a special bright abode he finds the ghosts of famous people of antiquity, who greet them and continue their journey with them. A number of other famous men. Virgil leads the poet further into the Kingdom of darkness.

1 I was awakened by a roll of thunder
And shuddered from his blows.
A heavy, vague dream was dispelled;

4 Opening my eyes, I looked around,
Wanting to know where I am, where I am,
And he bent over the gaping abyss:

7 From the abyss the rumble of wailing flew
To our attentive hearing, -
Below us, an eternal groan stood,

10 He was formidable, then he froze deafly,
The depth of that abyss was dark,
And if a cry could reach the ear,

13 That eye could not see the abyss of the bottom,
Though I strained my eyesight.
“Let this eternal abyss be gloomy, -

16 The poet said and turned pale in an instant, -
We will now descend into this gloomy world;
Follow me boldly without embarrassment.

19 His face changed. About
I remarked: “If you turn pale,
In my doubts, becoming my shield,

22 Can I be bold when you yourself are timid?
He replied: "In the face, in my eyes
You can't read all my feelings.

25 Now I feel not a miserable fear,
But I feel only compassion
To the fate of the shadows languishing in the dark,

28 Under the hopeless punishment of punishment.
Follow me. Our path is still far
Slowness will not bring us knowledge ... "

31 And the poet drew me along with him
To the fence of the first impenetrable abyss.
Although the cry of the shadows could not reach us,

34 But the very air of that stinking abyss,
It seemed as if he was moaning with sighs:
That was the Kingdom of grief desolate,

37 Despair without pain, where wandered
Host of ghosts - men, wives, children.
Then the guide told me:

40 “Why don’t you ask me who these
Unfortunate? You must know everything
What were these ghosts in the world,

43 Until we went forward again.
So know: they do not know the crime,
But heaven's grace is inaccessible

46 Just because the sacrament of baptism
They did not have to wash away their sins, -
They wandered in eternal delusion

49 In those days when Christ did not descend into the world.
Their faith did not soar to Heaven.
I myself once grew up in ignorance of them:

52 Ignorance alone has destroyed us,
And for him we are all condemned
For eternal desire beyond the grave,

55 Hope, my dear son, is deprived ... "
From these words, longing squeezed my heart:
All these ghosts must suffer

58 Though their brow shone with greatness.
Who will tell them what the future holds for them?
And I wanted, by all means,

61 Penetrate into the mystery of Heaven and forward
To know the limit of their bitter suffering;
And so he said: “Desire burns me,

64 Poet. Tell me: in the Kingdom of punishment
So far no one has been able to
Salvation deserve and justification

67 For the exploits and glory of former deeds?
Did no one dare to save them?”
And the teacher answered: “My destiny

70 I was also new here when I went down
Here in the darkness the Savior of the world himself
And crowned with laurels of victory.

73 Our forefather Adam was saved by him,
Both Noah and Moses are legislators,
And King David, and old Abraham,

76 Rachel, and then the Creator saved many,
And transferred to the mountain villages,
Forgiving them, Divine Punisher.

79 Until then, until the world of eternal tears
Atonement has never touched ... "
We moved on. And soon we had to

82 Cross space. ghosts,
Like a dense forest, they appeared ahead,
As elusive as dreams.

85 Leaving the entrance to the abyss behind,
I suddenly noticed a flickering light in the darkness,
And my heart fluttered in my chest.

88 I guessed that I was bright in the dusk
Shower the chosen special corner.
“My teacher! I'm waiting for you to answer

91 And called those to whom the almighty fate
Gave a bright, special abode
And I didn’t carry others into the abyss of darkness!”

94 “Their glory,” answered the guide,
Having survived them, lives until later days,
And for that, the Heavenly Almighty

97 He gave distinction in the abode of shadows.
And at the same moment we heard the word:
"Hi singer! Hello his friends!

100 He returned to the world of ghosts again ... "
Here the voice is silent. Four shadows walked
Towards us. Silent suffering,

103 Or bright, pure joy of the earth,
Or sadness hidden in the heart -
We couldn't read their faces.

106 Then the words of the poet sounded:
"Look, with a sword 11
“Look, with a sword…” – The sword here is a symbol of the wars sung once by Omir.

Here comes forward
Singer Omir: he was considered a king

109 Poetry. Horace goes with him,
And here is Lucan with Ovid. hello,
The same hello as the one

112 What I just heard from the poet,
They are worthy of everything ... "And I entered
To the assembly of great singers of light,

115 To that school where above all, like an eagle,
The king of high chants ascended...
The circle of shadows started talking to me,

118 Hailing my rising genius;
Virgil couldn't hide his smile here.
Then, following the salutation of the visions,

121 I was invited by the singers to enter
In their close circle, and was the sixth among them.
We started talking to each other

124 In agreement, like brothers. With them
I went where the pale light flickered;
And with companions, dear to the heart,

127 I saw the majestic castle,
Surrounded by seven walls;
The stream of the river wrapped around that castle.

130 And through the stream, surrounded by singers,
I crossed, as if through dry land, all of a sudden;
Through the seven gates I entered, amazed,

133 To a long yard where a green meadow bloomed.
On that meadow there were other shadows:
On their faces - calmness without torment

136 And as if strict thoughts froze.
Their appearance is imprinted with greatness;
They hardly spoke at all.

142 The whole bright meadow where the ghosts wandered.
To many glorified shadows
The satellites pointed out to me at that time

145 In the middle of a clearing. I saw her
Elektra 12
Elektra- some people think that Dante is talking about Electra - the daughter of Atlas and the wife of Carita - the king of Italy, who from Jupiter gave birth to King Dardanus, the founder of Troy. Others, in this case, recognize Electra as the daughter of Agamemnon, known for her misfortunes and mentioned in the tragedies of Sophocles.

Along with many shadows:
Here is Hector, known to all, here is Aeneas,

148 Here is Caesar with hawk eyes,
With Camilla 13
Camille Daughter of Metabus, king of the Vols.

Penthesilea 14
Penthesilea- Queen of the Amazons, killed by Achilles in the defense of Troy.

Here,
Here is the king of Latin 15
Latin- the king of the aborigines, the father of Lavinia, who was promised as a wife to Turnu - the king of the Rutuli, but later married Aeneas, which caused a war between Aeneas and Turnn.

With Lavinia before us;

151 Here is Brutus, and here is Lucretia,
Here is the ghost of the lonely Saladin 16
Saladin Sultan of Egypt and Syria

,
Shadow of Marcia 17
Marcia wife of Cato of Utica.

and Julia 18
Julia Daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey.

Rises

154 With Cornelia 19
Cornelia mother of the Gracchi.

; here is the new picture:
Around the sage 20
Around the sage...– Dante speaks of Aristotle, whose teaching was held in high esteem in his time.

Philosophers are sitting
Marveling at him and glorifying him together;

157 Plato sat with Socrates by his side.
Here are the shadows of Diogenes, Democritus 21
Democritus- An ancient Greek philosopher who attributed the creation of the world to the action of chance alone.

;
Here are familiar ghosts

160 Thales, Empedocles, Heraclitus.
Here is Zeno, and he, Dioscorides 22
Dioscorides- a native of Sicily, known for his treatise "On Medicinal Substances."

,
In which much knowledge was hidden;

163 Anaxagoras and the geometer Euclid,
Here is the ghost of Cicero and Orpheus,
Tit-Livia, Seneca; here it slides

166 The shadow of Hippocrates with the shadow of Ptolemy;
Here is Galien, the sage Averroes 23
Averroes- a native of Cordoba, was known as the best interpreter of Aristotle.

…
Unable to convey now completely I

169 All miracles that appeared before me
And I can't find words to express.
The circle of satellites disappeared in front of me.

172 From the bright shelter at that moment
My guide began to descend with me
In the sinister, gloomy world of the fall,

175 Where even the air most trembled,
Where through the darkness that nested there,
The beam of light never fell.

178 And into this world with a poet I descended.

He could not call his work a tragedy only because those, like all genres of "high literature", were written in Latin. Dante wrote it in his native Italian. The Divine Comedy is the fruit of the entire second half of Dante's life and work. In this work, the worldview of the poet was reflected with the greatest completeness. Dante appears here as the last great poet of the Middle Ages, a poet who continues the line of development of feudal literature.

Editions

Translations into Russian

• A. S. Norova, “An excerpt from the 3rd song of the poem Hell” (“Son of the Fatherland”, 1823, No. 30);
• F. Fan-Dim, "Hell", translated from Italian (St. Petersburg, 1842-48; prose);
• D. E. Min "Hell", translation in the size of the original (Moscow, 1856);
• D. E. Min, "The First Song of Purgatory" ("Russian Vest.", 1865, 9);
• V. A. Petrova, “The Divine Comedy” (translated with Italian words, St. Petersburg, 1871, 3rd edition 1872; translated only “Hell”);
• D. Minaev, "The Divine Comedy" (Lpts. and St. Petersburg. 1874, 1875, 1876, 1879, translated not from the original, in terts);
• P. I. Weinberg, “Hell”, song 3, “Vestn. Evr.", 1875, No. 5);
• Golovanov N. N., "The Divine Comedy" (1899-1902);
• M. L. Lozinsky, "The Divine Comedy" (, Stalin Prize);
• A. A. Ilyushin (created in the 1980s, first partial publication in 1988, full edition in 1995);
• V. S. Lemport, The Divine Comedy (1996-1997);
• V. G. Marantsman, (St. Petersburg, 2006).

Structure

The Divine Comedy is extremely symmetrical. It is divided into three parts: the first part ("Hell") consists of 34 songs, the second ("Purgatory") and the third ("Paradise") - 33 songs each. The first part consists of two introductory songs and 32 describing hell, since there can be no harmony in it. The poem is written in tertsina - stanzas, consisting of three lines. This penchant for certain numbers is explained by the fact that Dante gave them a mystical interpretation - so the number 3 is associated with the Christian idea of ​​​​the Trinity, the number 33 should remind you of the years of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, etc. There are 100 songs in the Divine Comedy (number 100 - a symbol of perfection).

Plot

Dante's meeting with Virgil and the beginning of their journey through the underworld (medieval miniature)

According to Catholic tradition, the afterlife consists of hell where forever condemned sinners go, purgatory- the places of residence of sinners atoning for their sins, and Raya- the abode of the blessed.

Dante details this representation and describes the device of the afterlife, fixing all the details of its architectonics with graphic certainty. In the introductory song, Dante tells how, having reached the middle of his life, he once got lost in a dense forest and how the poet Virgil, having saved him from three wild animals that blocked his path, invited Dante to make a journey through the afterlife. Having learned that Virgil was sent to Beatrice, Dante's deceased beloved, he surrenders without trepidation to the leadership of the poet.

Hell

Hell looks like a colossal funnel, consisting of concentric circles, the narrow end of which rests on the center of the earth. Having passed the threshold of hell, inhabited by the souls of insignificant, indecisive people, they enter the first circle of hell, the so-called limb (A., IV, 25-151), where the souls of virtuous pagans reside, who did not know the true God, but who approached this knowledge and beyond then delivered from hellish torments. Here Dante sees outstanding representatives of ancient culture - Aristotle, Euripides, Homer, etc. The next circle is filled with the souls of people who once indulged in unbridled passion. Among those carried by a wild whirlwind, Dante sees Francesca da Rimini and her beloved Paolo, fallen victim to forbidden love for each other. As Dante, accompanied by Virgil, descends lower and lower, he becomes a witness to the torment of gluttons, forced to suffer from rain and hail, misers and spendthrifts, tirelessly rolling huge stones, angry, bogged down in a swamp. They are followed by heretics and heresiarchs engulfed in eternal flame (among them Emperor Frederick II, Pope Anastasius II), tyrants and murderers swimming in streams of boiling blood, suicides turned into plants, blasphemers and rapists burned by falling flames, deceivers of all kinds, torments which are very varied. Finally, Dante enters the last, 9th circle of hell, intended for the most terrible criminals. Here is the abode of traitors and traitors, of which the greatest are Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius, they are gnawed with their three mouths by Lucifer, an angel who once rebelled against God, the king of evil, doomed to imprisonment in the center of the earth. The description of the terrible appearance of Lucifer ends the last song of the first part of the poem.

Purgatory

Purgatory

Having passed a narrow corridor connecting the center of the earth with the second hemisphere, Dante and Virgil come to the surface of the earth. There, in the middle of the island surrounded by the ocean, a mountain rises in the form of a truncated cone - purgatory, like hell, consisting of a series of circles that narrow as they approach the top of the mountain. The angel guarding the entrance to purgatory lets Dante into the first circle of purgatory, having previously drawn seven P (Peccatum - sin) on his forehead with a sword, that is, a symbol of the seven deadly sins. As Dante rises higher and higher, bypassing one circle after another, these letters disappear, so that when Dante, having reached the top of the mountain, enters the "earthly paradise" located on the top of the latter, he is already free from the signs inscribed by the guardian of purgatory. The circles of the latter are inhabited by the souls of sinners atoning for their sins. Here the proud are cleansed, forced to bend under the burden of weights pressing their backs, envious, angry, negligent, greedy, etc. Virgil brings Dante to the gates of paradise, where he, as someone who did not know baptism, has no access.

Paradise

In the earthly paradise, Virgil is replaced by Beatrice, seated on a chariot drawn by a vulture (an allegory of the triumphant church); she prompts Dante to repentance, and then lifts him, enlightened, to heaven. The final part of the poem is devoted to Dante's wanderings in the heavenly paradise. The latter consists of seven spheres encircling the earth and corresponding to seven planets (according to the then widespread Ptolemaic system): the spheres of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, etc., followed by the spheres of fixed stars and the crystal one, - behind the crystal sphere is Empyrean, - infinite the region inhabited by the blessed, contemplating God, is the last sphere that gives life to all that exists. Flying through the spheres, led by Bernard, Dante sees the emperor Justinian, introducing him to the history of the Roman Empire, teachers of the faith, martyrs for the faith, whose shining souls form a sparkling cross; Rising higher and higher, Dante sees Christ and the Virgin Mary, angels, and, finally, the “Heavenly Rose” is revealed before him - the abode of the blessed. Here Dante partakes of the highest grace, reaching communion with the Creator.

The Comedy is Dante's last and most mature work.

Analysis of the work

In form, the poem is an afterlife vision, of which there were many in medieval literature. Like the medieval poets, it rests on an allegorical core. So the dense forest, in which the poet got lost halfway through earthly existence, is a symbol of life's complications. Three beasts that attack him there: a lynx, a lion and a wolf - the three most powerful passions: sensuality, lust for power, greed. These allegories are also given a political interpretation: the lynx is Florence, the spots on the skin of which should indicate the enmity of the Guelph and Ghibelline parties. Lion - a symbol of brute physical strength - France; she-wolf, greedy and lustful - papal curia. These beasts threaten the national unity of Italy, which Dante dreamed of, a unity held together by the rule of a feudal monarchy (some literary historians give Dante's entire poem a political interpretation). Virgil saves the poet from the beasts - the mind sent to the poet Beatrice (theology - faith). Virgil leads Dante through hell to purgatory, and on the threshold of paradise gives way to Beatrice. The meaning of this allegory is that reason saves a person from passions, and knowledge of divine science delivers eternal bliss.

The Divine Comedy is imbued with the political tendencies of the author. Dante never misses an opportunity to reckon with his ideological, even personal enemies; he hates usurers, condemns credit as "excess", condemns his own age as an age of profit and avarice. In his opinion, money is the source of all evils. To the dark present, he contrasts the bright past of bourgeois Florence - feudal Florence, when simplicity of morals, moderation, chivalrous "knowledge" ("Paradise", the story of Cacchagvida), the feudal empire (cf. Dante's treatise "On the Monarchy") dominated. The tercines of "Purgatory", accompanying the appearance of Sordello (Ahi serva Italia), sound like a real hosanna of Ghibellinism. Dante treats the papacy as a principle with the greatest respect, although he hates individual representatives of it, especially those who contributed to the strengthening of the bourgeois system in Italy; some dads Dante meets in hell. His religion is Catholicism, although a personal element is already woven into it, alien to the old orthodoxy, although mysticism and the Franciscan pantheistic religion of love, which are accepted with all passion, are also a sharp deviation from classical Catholicism. His philosophy is theology, his science is scholasticism, his poetry is allegory. Ascetic ideals in Dante have not yet died, and he regards free love as a grave sin (Hell, 2nd circle, the famous episode with Francesca da Rimini and Paolo). But it is not a sin for him to love, which attracts to the object of worship with a pure platonic impulse (cf. "New Life", Dante's love for Beatrice). This is a great world force that "moves the sun and other luminaries." And humility is no longer an absolute virtue. “Whoever in glory does not renew his strength with victory will not taste the fruit that he obtained in the struggle.” And the spirit of inquisitiveness, the desire to widen the circle of knowledge and acquaintance with the world, combined with “virtue” (virtute e conoscenza), which encourages heroic daring, is proclaimed an ideal.

Dante built his vision from pieces of real life. Separate corners of Italy, which are placed in it with clear graphic contours, went to the construction of the afterlife. And so many living human images are scattered in the poem, so many typical figures, so many vivid psychological situations that literature still continues to draw from there. People who suffer in hell, repent in purgatory (moreover, the volume and nature of the punishment corresponds to the volume and nature of sin), abide in bliss in paradise - all living people. In these hundreds of figures, no two are the same. In this huge gallery of historical figures there is not a single image that has not been cut by the poet's unmistakable plastic intuition. No wonder Florence experienced a period of such intense economic and cultural upsurge. That keen sense of landscape and man, which is shown in the Comedy and which the world learned from Dante, was possible only in the social environment of Florence, which was far ahead of the rest of Europe. Separate episodes of the poem, such as Francesca and Paolo, Farinata in his red-hot grave, Ugolino with children, Capaneus and Ulysses, in no way similar to ancient images, the Black Cherub with subtle devilish logic, Sordello on his stone, are still produced to this day strong impression.

The Concept of Hell in The Divine Comedy

Dante and Virgil in Hell

In front of the entrance are pitiful souls who did neither good nor evil during their lifetime, including “bad flock of angels”, who were neither with the devil nor with God.

• 1st circle (Limb). Unbaptized Infants and Virtuous Non-Christians.
• 2nd circle. Voluptuaries (fornicators and adulterers).
• 3rd circle. Gluttons, gluttons.
• 4th circle. Covetous and spendthrifts (love of excessive spending).
• 5th circle (Stygian swamp). Angry and lazy.
• 6th circle (city of Dit). Heretics and false teachers.
• 7th round.
  • 1st belt. Violators over the neighbor and over his property (tyrants and robbers).
  • 2nd belt. Violators of themselves (suicides) and of their property (players and wasters, that is, senseless destroyers of their property).
  • 3rd belt. Violators of the deity (blasphemers), against nature (sodomites) and art (extortion).
• 8th round. Deceived the disbelievers. It consists of ten ditches (Zlopazuhi, or Evil Slits), which are separated from each other by ramparts (rifts). Toward the center, the area of ​​Evil Slits slopes, so that each next ditch and each next shaft are located slightly lower than the previous ones, and the outer, concave slope of each ditch is higher than the inner, curved slope ( Hell , XXIV, 37-40). The first shaft adjoins the circular wall. In the center gapes the depth of a wide and dark well, at the bottom of which lies the last, ninth, circle of Hell. From the foot of the stone heights (v. 16), that is, from the circular wall, stone ridges go to this well in radii, like the spokes of a wheel, crossing ditches and ramparts, and above the ditches they bend in the form of bridges, or vaults. In Evil Slits, deceivers are punished who deceive people who are not connected with them by special bonds of trust.
  • 1st ditch. Procurers and seducers.
  • 2nd ditch. Flatterers.
  • 3rd ditch. Holy merchants, high-ranking clerics who traded in church positions.
  • 4th ditch. Soothsayers, fortune tellers, astrologers, sorceresses.
  • 5th ditch. Bribers, bribe-takers.
  • 6th ditch. Hypocrites.
  • 7th ditch. The thieves .
  • 8th ditch. Wicked advisers.
  • 9th ditch. The instigators of discord (Mohammed, Ali, Dolcino and others).
  • 10th ditch. Alchemists, perjurers, counterfeiters.
• 9th round. Deceived those who trusted. Ice lake Cocytus.
  • Belt of Cain. Family traitors.
  • Belt of Antenor. Traitors of the motherland and like-minded people.
  • Belt of Tolomei. Traitors of friends and companions.
  • Giudecca belt. Traitors of benefactors, majesty divine and human.
  • In the middle, in the center of the universe, frozen into an ice floe (Lucifer) torments in his three mouths traitors to the majesty of the earthly and heavenly (Judas, Brutus and Cassius).

Building a model of Hell ( Hell , XI, 16-66), Dante follows Aristotle, who in his "Ethics" (book VII, ch. I) refers to the 1st category the sins of intemperance (incontinenza), to the 2nd - the sins of violence ("violent bestiality" or matta bestialitade), to 3 - sins of deceit ("malice" or malizia). Dante has circles 2-5 for the intemperate, 7th for rapists, 8-9 for deceivers (8th is just for deceivers, 9th is for traitors). Thus, the more material the sin, the more forgivable it is.

Heretics - apostates from the faith and deniers of God - are singled out especially from the host of sinners who fill the upper and lower circles, in the sixth circle. In the abyss of the lower Hell (A., VIII, 75), three ledges, like three steps, are three circles - from the seventh to the ninth. In these circles, malice is punished, wielding either force (violence) or deceit.

The Concept of Purgatory in The Divine Comedy

Three holy virtues - the so-called "theological" - faith, hope and love. The rest are four "basic" or "natural" (see note Ch., I, 23-27).

Dante depicts him as a huge mountain rising in the southern hemisphere in the middle of the Ocean. It has the shape of a truncated cone. The coastline and the lower part of the mountain form the Prepurgatory, and the upper one is surrounded by seven ledges (seven circles of Purgatory proper). On the flat top of the mountain, Dante places the desert forest of the Earthly Paradise.

Virgil expounds the doctrine of love as the source of all good and evil and explains the gradation of the circles of Purgatory: circles I, II, III - love for "another's evil", that is, malevolence (pride, envy, anger); circle IV - insufficient love for the true good (despondency); circles V, VI, VII - excessive love for false goods (covetousness, gluttony, voluptuousness). The circles correspond to the biblical deadly sins.

• Prepurgatory
  • The foot of Mount Purgatory. Here, the newly arrived souls of the dead await access to Purgatory. Those who died under church excommunication, but repented of their sins before death, wait for a period thirty times longer than the time that they spent in "strife with the church."
  • First ledge. Careless, until the hour of death they hesitated to repent.
  • Second ledge. Careless, died a violent death.
• Valley of Earthly Lords (does not apply to Purgatory)
• 1st circle. Proud.
• 2nd circle. Envious.
• 3rd circle. Angry.
• 4th circle. Dull.
• 5th round. Buyers and spendthrifts.
• 6th round. Gluttons.
• 7th round. Voluptuaries.
• Earthly paradise.

The concept of Paradise in The Divine Comedy

(in brackets - examples of personalities given by Dante)

• 1 sky(Moon) - the abode of those who observe duty (Jephthah, Agamemnon, Constance of Norman).
• 2 sky(Mercury) - the abode of the reformers (Justinian) and the innocent victims (Iphigenia).
• 3 sky(Venus) - the abode of lovers (Karl Martell, Kunitzsa, Folco of Marseilles, Dido, "Rhodopeian", Raava).
• 4 sky(Sun) - the abode of sages and great scientists. They form two circles ("round dance").
  • 1st circle: Thomas Aquinas, Albert von Bolstedt, Francesco Gratiano, Peter of Lombard, Dionysius the Areopagite, Paul Orosius, Boethius, Isidore of Seville, Bede the Venerable, Ricard, Seeger of Brabant.
  • 2nd circle: Bonaventure, Franciscans Augustine and Illuminati, Hugon, Peter the Eater, Peter of Spain, John Chrysostom, Anselm, Elius Donatus, Raban Maurus, Joachim.
• 5 sky(Mars) - the abode of warriors for the faith (Jesus Nun, Judas Maccabee, Roland, Gottfried of Bouillon, Robert Guiscard).
• 6 sky(Jupiter) - the abode of just rulers (biblical kings David and Hezekiah, Emperor Trajan, King Guglielmo II the Good and the hero of the "Aeneid" Ripheus).
• 7 sky(Saturn) - the abode of theologians and monks (Benedict of Nursia, Peter Damiani).
• 8 sky(sphere of stars).
• 9 sky(The prime mover, crystal sky). Dante describes the structure of the heavenly inhabitants (see Orders of Angels).
• 10 sky(Empyrean) - Flaming Rose and Radiant River (the core of the rose and the arena of the heavenly amphitheater) - the abode of the Deity. On the banks of the river (the steps of the amphitheater, which is divided into 2 more semicircles - the Old Testament and the New Testament), blessed souls sit. Mary (Our Lady) - at the head, under her - Adam and Peter, Moses, Rachel and Beatrice, Sarah, Rebekah, Judith, Ruth, etc. John sits opposite, below him - Lucia, Francis, Benedict, Augustine, etc.

Scientific moments, misconceptions and comments

• Hell , xi, 113-114. The constellation Pisces rose above the horizon, and Woz(constellation Ursa Major) tilted to the northwest(Kavr; lat. Caurus is the name of the northwest wind. This means that there are two hours left before sunrise.
• Hell , XXIX, 9. That their way is twenty-two district miles.(about the inhabitants of the tenth ditch of the eighth circle) - judging by the medieval approximation of the number Pi, the diameter of the last circle of Hell is 7 miles.
• Hell , XXX, 74. Baptist sealed alloy- golden Florentine coin, florin (fiormo). On its front side, the patron of the city, John the Baptist, was depicted, and on the reverse side, the Florentine coat of arms, a lily (fiore is a flower, hence the name of the coin).
• Hell , XXXIV, 139. The word "luminaries" (stelle - stars) ends each of the three canticles of the Divine Comedy.
• Purgatory , I, 19-21. Beacon of love, beautiful planet- that is, Venus, eclipsing with its brightness the constellation Pisces, in which it was located.
• Purgatory , I, 22. To awn- that is, to the celestial pole, in this case the south.
• Purgatory , I, 30. Chariot- Ursa Major, hidden over the horizon.
• Purgatory , II, 1-3. According to Dante, the Mount of Purgatory and Jerusalem are located at opposite ends of the earth's diameter, so they have a common horizon. In the northern hemisphere, the top of the celestial meridian ("half-day circle") that crosses this horizon falls over Jerusalem. At the hour described, the sun, visible in Jerusalem, was sinking, to soon appear in the sky of Purgatory.
• Purgatory , II, 4-6. And the night...- According to medieval geography, Jerusalem lies in the very middle of the land, located in the northern hemisphere between the Arctic Circle and the equator and extending from west to east by only longitudes. The remaining three quarters of the globe are covered by the waters of the Ocean. Equally distant from Jerusalem are: in the extreme east - the mouth of the Ganges, in the extreme west - the Pillars of Hercules, Spain and Morocco. When the sun sets in Jerusalem, night approaches from the direction of the Ganges. At the time of the year described, that is, at the time of the vernal equinox, the night holds the scales in its hands, that is, it is in the constellation Libraopposing the Sun, which is in the constellation Aries. In the autumn, when she “overcomes” the day and becomes longer than it, she will leave the constellation Libra, that is, she will “drop” them.
• Purgatory , III, 37. Quia- a Latin word meaning "because", and in the Middle Ages it was also used in the sense of quod ("what"). Scholastic science, following Aristotle, distinguished between two kinds of knowledge: scire quia- knowledge of the existing - and scire propter quid- knowledge of the causes of the existing. Virgil advises people to be content with the first kind of knowledge, without delving into the causes of what is.
• Purgatory , IV, 71-72. The road where the unfortunate Phaeton ruled- zodiac.
• Purgatory , XXIII, 32-33. Who is looking for "omo"...- it was believed that in the features of a human face one can read “Homo Dei” (“Man of God”), with the eyes depicting two “Os”, and the eyebrows and nose - the letter M.
• Purgatory , XXVIII, 97-108. According to Aristotelian physics, atmospheric precipitation is generated by "wet vapor", and wind is generated by "dry vapor". Matelda explains that only below the level of the gates of Purgatory are there such disturbances, generated by steam, which "follows the heat", that is, under the influence of solar heat, rises from the water and from the earth; at the height of the Earthly Paradise, only a uniform wind remains, caused by the rotation of the first firmament.
• Purgatory , XXVIII, 82-83. Twelve four venerable elders- twenty-four books of the Old Testament.
• Purgatory , XXXIII, 43. five hundred fifteen- a mysterious designation of the coming deliverer of the church and the restorer of the empire, who will destroy the "thief" (the harlot of song XXXII, who took someone else's place) and the "giant" (the French king). The numbers DXV form, when the signs are rearranged, the word DVX (leader), and the oldest commentators interpret it that way.
• Purgatory , XXXIII, 139. Account set from the beginning- In the construction of the Divine Comedy, Dante observes strict symmetry. In each of its three parts (cantik) - 33 songs; "Hell" contains, in addition, another song that serves as an introduction to the whole poem. The volume of each of the hundred songs is approximately the same.
• Paradise , XIII, 51. And there is no other center in the circle- there cannot be two opinions, just as only one center is possible in a circle.
• Paradise , XIV, 102. The sacred sign was composed of two rays, which is hidden within the borders of the quadrants.- segments of adjacent quadrants (quarters) of the circle form the sign of the cross.
• Paradise , XVIII, 113. In Lily M- The Gothic M resembles a fleur-de-lis.
• Paradise , XXV, 101-102: If Cancer has a similar pearl ...- From December 21 to January 21 at sunset, the constellation