What the hell is the point?

Never in my life have I read something (or heard of anything for that matter) so intricate, detailed and lengthy. As the book goes on we learn name after name and sin after sin of countless people. Dante seems to playing god as he describes which sins are  more dastardly (>>>>>>>>>). Which seems odd and a bit contradictory since one of his motives of "Inferno" seems to be to humiliate and tarnish the name of those who defy god.
This may be a stretch, but isn't he actually committing a sin by judging others when the one true judgement of people that matters comes from God? Let me know your thoughts on this.

Now for my main point, what is his motive for all of this?

Is he trying to entertain people by offering a description of what is perhaps one of the most mysterious and important circumstances of humanity?

Do you think that he truly believed that his depiction is exactly what hell is like?

Was he simply trying to further a political agenda by "exposing" all of the sins of his enemies and people who didn't share his beliefs?

A combination of things? Or something else? I look forward to reading y'all's ideas and explanations for this wacky and twisted masterpiece.
-Cam

Dante's Sympathy Or Scorn

    

          In the Inferno, Dante distinguishes between the different people he encounters in Hell. He is extremely scornful to some, but pities others. In the Wood of Suicides, Dante meets one of the tree trunks, Pier de Vigne, who was “unjustly blamed” in his service to Emperor Frederick II and committed suicide to avoid torture (Canto 13, line 69). (See also the footnote, which reveals that Pier was famous for his mastery of Italian poetry; was Dante biased because of this?). Similarly, Brunetto Latino is in circle seven, where Dante finds him and is eager to spend time with him. Dante wants “with all [his] soul” to have Brunetto walk with him for a bit (Canto 15, line 34). He is not at all scornful to these men.

            However, he reacts much differently in other sections. Perhaps some of this is due to the fact that he is progressing into “worse” layers of punishments, but this is not the only reason. Speaking to Pope Nicholas III, who is in the Simoniac layer (for corrupting the things of God), Dante declares, “stay as you are; this hole well fits you” (Canto 19, line 91). In the same way, Dante yanks out the hair of Bocca delgi Abbati, an unrepentant traitor in circle nine. Dante is adamant about some people being awful, while others he feels compassion for.

            Why does Dante (and Virgil) differentiate between the people he meets? Could he have personal or political reasons? One thing I noted was that Dante, as he distinguishes between those who should be pitied and those who should be scorned, makes a judgement call about the severity of their sins. He wishes some were not punished so severely, but he adds to the punishment of others. Dante puts himself in a position to “judge for [himself]” the sentences of the people he meets (Canto 33, line 21). Is Dante acting as a judge when he pities some and not others? Or is he simply reacting – as any human would – to what he sees?

 Image: https://scholarsandrogues.com/2013/10/30/dantes-inferno-and-contrapasso/    

Dante's Inferno

I think this story has a lot we all can relate to. In the beginning of the first canto Dante gets lost on a path, that leads him going to hell. In a way I think we all can relate to getting lost on a path and us going to a place we call hell, but not literally hell. We all get lost in life, and we think it takes us to the worst place possible. In reality when we get lost it is just because something does not play out how we thought it would. In the case of Dante he literally gets lost and ends up in hell going through the layers.
I think that Dante going through the nine circles of hell can relate to people going through something personal in their head or in real life. Granted I know people do not actually go to hell, but each circle represents something that someone could be struggling with. For example the second ring of hell is lust and a lot of people these days lust after people, ans we see lust on T.V.. In a weird way lust is in all out lives everyday weather we feel it, or we see it on T.V. lust impacts us everyday. Another great example of how we can all relate to Dante's Inferno is the third and fourth circle of hell are Gluttony and Greed. I think we all become guilty of these things weather it be greed of money, or trying to have the best and most liked Instagram photos. Two more of the rings in Hell include anger and violence, which I am 100% positive that we can all agree that we have definitely felt anger towards something or someone, and have witnessed anger.
I also come to believe that each of these circles has a lesson to teach Dante and the rest of us. No matter how much all of us try, there is no way for any of us to be perfect, this story teaches us that to reach heaven seems impossible. There are very little things in life that can set us off our path in life, and cause us to get lost. Some of the things that can set us off in life are the rings in Hell. I am not saying that because we get lost in life over these things that we are going to Hell I am saying I am simply just saying I think there is a deeper reason for this story.
Below I have decided to include a picture of the 9 circles of Hell in the story as a reference for people to see.

The Readings

The readings.

Listen, we all know the readings have gotten progressively easier as they've become more and more modern, but with the story of Landval and the Lay of Chevefoil, the ease of reading has become increased dramatically. Then we come to Dante's inferno. With the inferno the ease fo reading has been set back to Iliad levels, at least in my opinion. Its over saturated with heavy language, extreme similes, and the pettiness of the greeks. My belief is that Dante resumes this over saturation as a way to model the greeks similar way of being extreme about everything, following in the steps of the Romans for stealing works of the greeks, and following in his hero, Virgil's, footsteps.

To Hell and Back

I find that The Divine Comedy is one the greatest pieces of literature ever written. The text is full of references and culture to extents that I have yet to encounter in any other literature. In this text alone, we see the collision of Greek, Roman, and Christian culture, and I believe that this is what makes the text so rich. In none of the texts we've read so far have we seen so many references in one text. The crossing of these cultures is interesting because it once again drudges up the question of how the hell these texts get crossed without modern communication! It's a question that bothers me even though I know that I'll probably never get a straight answer or any answer at all.

Another thing about The Inferno that I find quite interesting is the idea that people born before Christ are stuck in Hell. Here's one question I pose: Is this fair? Should these people be given the chance to accept Christ in the after life? No matter what you think, the bottom line is that they don't have this opportunity -- or at least most of them don't. Along with this, it is worth discussing the fact that there are a few Biblical characters that ascend to Purgatory. In my opinion, this is fair because they did something significant to allow for the to get out of Hell and into Purgatory.

I leave you all with these questions to ponder:

1. Why/How do you think these cultures got crossed in such a way?
2. What is the importance of having Virgil guide Dante through Hell? Is it comparable to anything else you have read?
3. Why has The Inferno, or even The Divine Comedy, stood the test of time?

Here upon this pillow, made of reed and willow...

Does anyone else here happen to listen to the Decemberists? For those who don’t, they’re known for making a lot of music with historical and folklore references. So of course, naturally they have a 5 part, 20+ minute long song entitled....The Tain! The music video is a simple stop motion recreation of the major events that unfolded throughout the epic. I’ll include the link here for anyone who is interested: https://youtu.be/UOYZuaLg0J0

I found the imagery to be quite helpful in understanding the overall story, and I noticed in the comments that some students even had to watch this for assignments in their own classes that were studying The Tain. (This is good because now I can be sure it’s valid and relevant to share..)

Anyway, this brings me to the topics of discussion that I want to set up: First, use of imagery is an important way to better understand literature. This is probably part of why we must include it as an aid to our posts. I thought about this as we’ve read this story, because on its pages we can see a number of very basic brush stroke illustrations of figures that accompany the text. They appear ancient, although they are not, but were purposefully done this way as a less is more approach. Did you find them effective or ineffective aids which contributed to your ability to picture the events? Would you have preferred more detailed illustrations or do you agree with the translator and illustrator that it would have taken away from it and not allowed enough room for imagination?

Second: Like the Inanna Cycle, The Ulster Cycle is another case of several fragments of ancient text that a translator had to work incredibly hard to make into a cohesive and coherent piece of literature. So my final question is, although of course it’s wonderful that we have these translations, we must also accept that there is a great deal lost with each one. Do you ever think about how many of the pieces of the puzzle we’re missing when reading works like this? Whether in regard to certain language itself and it’s inability to be directly translated, fragments of the events that weren’t found or had to be filled in with each translator’s personal discretion, or even what changes when an epic goes from oral to written: is what we gain worth what must be given up when something is modernized? At what point does it just become a new story? In what ways do you think The Tain in particular differed when it first came about compared to now?

To Relate or to not relate.. That is all up to you.

Through my journey into reading The Tain, I found multiple situations in the story that were so similar to the previous stories read in this class that I couldn't help but to bring them all to your attention. It is always a fun little joy of mine to find things while reading that relate to another piece of literature or related to something in real life. Especially when they are such different pieces of work, like these.

To begin, the scene in which Ailill sends a "fool" to trick the opposing warriors into thinking it was him was unbelievably similar to Achilles's story with the death of Patroclus. I found myself with my mouth wide open at how funny it was to see the parallel to the stories. Of course these two scenes did have important differences though. For example, Patroclus stole Achilles's armor without him knowing and the fool was forced to dress up in the disguise by Ailill. Along with that, although they both died in the end, Patroclus successfully passed as Achilles and was killed because he was thought to be Achilles. The fool was killed because the plan failed and they knew that Ailill was trying to pull a fast one on them. Better luck next time Ailill.


Another parallel that I found from The Tain was with Inanna's Decent to the Underworld. In Inanna's story, we go through a long description of the stages Inanna took in order to enter the underworld. We followed her through every gate and watched her take off another piece of clothing or accessory. I see two scenes in The Tain that reminded me of that through description of Inanna's undressing. For example, we read a long and thorough section just devoted to Cuchulainn getting dressed for his battle. We know that Inanna's undressing was symbolic and important, that makes me wonder how important this preparation for battle was? The other scene that reminded me of Inanna was the death of Etarcomol. The author found it important to point out every little part of his death. First he cut off his clothes, then hair, then right in half. I think what makes me want to relate both these scenes back to Inanna is the attention to the small details. It makes me, and probably some of you, feel the need to pay attention because it seems so important.

My question for all of you would be, have you found anything in the story that can be related to another piece of writing you have ever read? Can you agree with my ideas or disagree?