The Divine Comedy by Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is a work that was published in the 14th century during the Renaissance period. It represents one of the greatest classics of universal literature.
This great epic poem was written in the local dialect, Florentine. Full of symbolism and allegory, Dante criticizes philosophers, religious people and politicians who lived in his time.
Originally, the work was titled “Comedy”, and later the writer Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) included the term “Divine”.
The poem is narrated in the first person, where Dante is the narrator and also the main character. In many passages Dante speaks directly to the reader.
With great mastery and allegorical language, the author describes his journey through hell, purgatory and paradise
The work brings together 100 songs with approximately 140 verses each. The verses were written in triplets of decasyllables, with an alternating and chained rhyme scheme.
Hell is a place inside the earth formed by nine circles. The image described by Dante was based on medieval culture, where the universe was formed by several concentric circles.
The nine circles of hell are associated with the sins committed, the last being the most serious:
First Circle: Limbo (pagan virtuous)
Second Circle: Valley of the Winds (lust)
Third Circle: Mud Lake (gluttony)
Fourth Circle: Hills of Rock (greed)
Fifth Circle: River Styx (wrath)
Sixth Circle: Fire Cemetery (heresy)
Seventh circle: Phlegethon Valley (violence)
Eighth circle: the Malebolge (fraud)
Ninth Circle: Lake Cocite (betrayal)
On this journey, until they reach the gates of paradise, they meet several important personalities (philosophers, poets, writers) and mythological figures. Dante analyzes the punishment for each of the sinners who are in hell and purgatory.
According to the severity of the sins committed in life, Dante describes the punishment for each group: tyrants, traitors, flatterers, suicides, heretics, among others.
In the last part he meets Lucifer, the traitorous demon who devours the three greatest traitors in history: Judas, Brutus and Cassius.
