Divine Liturgy

The leopard, lion, and the she-wolf are meant to symbolize the three major types of sins. The leopard represents fraudulence, the lion symbolizes violence, and the she-wolf represents immoderation. The animal that seems to pose the greatest problem for Dante is the she-wolf. Even though Dante states that it was the leopard that caused him “more than once she me turn about to go back down”, it was the sight of the she-wolf that made Dante loose all hope as he thought at first sight, “Then, a grim…

Plato’s Position on Justice in Comparison to Dante and Machiavelli Plato asserts his position on justice throughout “The Republic.” His views constitute a model for how society should behave based on the values presented by Socrates in the dialogue. From Plato’s teachings we can infer that to establish justice, we must establish several principles in our lives including proper education, moderation, and courage. Although Plato describes how to live a just life through the metaphorical…

The Divine Comedy is a three part series, written by Dante Alighieri, which describes the frustrations he felt, while in exile, pertaining to Florentine politics. The first part in the series, The Inferno, depicts Dante’s pilgrimage into the underworld of Hell. The epic describes Dante’s descent in an attempt to get back on a spiritual path. The Inferno was created with the purpose of telling the politics of Florence and combining ideas of Pagan and Greek religion (“Literary Background”).…

popular Hinduism idea of karma is a natural law that explains how our universe is governed. The belief of karma is that there is a balance in life between actions and consequences. In other words, what goes around comes around. Literary devices in The Divine Comedy help in the development of themes in the Novel. Dante Alighieri’s book tries to convey the message of karma. There is never a wayward action that goes without punishment in the book. The use of plot, conflict, imagery, juxtaposition,…

many people have different convictions of where death will take them. Specifically, christians believe that there is a heaven and a hell and depending on how they carry out the Great Commission will determine their fate. Alluding to a part of the Divine Comedy, Inferno, by Dante Alighieri, it is illustrated to the readers in this poem that people who have partaken in a certain sin are placed into a region of hell that is specifically characterized for that sin. On the other hand, in reference to…

never committed any sin, but he was non-Christian. Satan is the most sinful creature of God. Virgil represents limbo. It is a place for souls, who lived before the Christ, and died without being baptized. The punishment for them is not having the divine love and are unable to achieve salvation. Virgil is a guide for Dante in hell, but as a non-Christian he doesn’t qualify for the salvation. Limbo is illuminated by human reason, and is thus the highest state man can achieve without god. Virgil…

A hero is often defined as, “one who exhibits extraordinary bravery, firmness, fortitude or greatness of soul, in any course of action, or in connection with any pursuit, work, or enterprise” (Oxford English Dictionary). When going on a journey, the hero must express the inner strength needed to continue on for a greater good. In The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, a poet named Dante ventures on a journey through Hell in order to find Enlightenment. Although this was a difficult but rewarding…

Heaven is for the people who have done good in the world. Hell is where the sinners are found. It is up to the individual to earn their ticket to heaven. In Dante’s inferno Dante writes about his travels in Dante wrote about his travels through his own Hell that was built in his mind. The nine levels that he had in his own Hell were- limbo, lust, gluttony, avarice, anger, heresy, violence, fraud, and betrayal. The things Dante saw were horrific and grand. This made me ruminate about Hell.…

If someone has done multiple major sins, where would they be positioned in the inferno according to Dante? Dante’s greatest work, The Inferno, tells the story of many individuals who have sinned, and it categorizes them into different levels depending on what they did. Using his guidelines, many stories of people could be placed into the inferno. Sometimes it is quite easy to see where someone would be placed, for instance, if they committed a murder, they would be drowning in a river of blood.…

In many places in his Inferno, the reason for Dante the poet’s placement of certain souls is murky at best. Nowhere is this problem so compounded as in Canto IV, where Dante the pilgrim meets the souls in Limbo. Dante the poet’s choice of whom to include among the “virtuous pagans” seems inconsistent and his removal of the pre-Christian monotheists from Limbo leaves questions about what it means, in his mind, to believe in God and to live a righteous life by His laws and the rules of the church,…