Heroes of Dante's Divine Comedy list. How to read Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy: a guide to Hell

“The Divine Comedy” is the most brilliant work of the great Italian poet and thinker Dante Alighieri. It is his last piece, which reflected the poet’s worldview. The poem consists of three parts: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, and describes the state of the soul that finds itself in the afterlife after death. Everyone who finds himself in the kingdom of this world must repent and admit his sins, go through all the circles of Hell in order to enter the kingdom of heaven and appear before the Creator. Main character“The Divine Comedy” is Dante himself, who went through all the circles of Hell and ascended to enlightenment.

Characteristics of the heroes of “The Divine Comedy”

Main characters

Minor characters

Dante's Divine Comedy involves a huge number of characters who find themselves in the afterlife, and in order to understand the philosophical depth of this brilliant work, it is necessary to study it in its entirety. The work gives food for thought and makes every person think about how to live their life.

"The Divine Comedy" - immortal work With philosophical meaning. In three parts the plot is revealed about the purpose of love, the death of the beloved and universal justice. In this article we will analyze the poem “The Divine Comedy” by Dante.

The history of the poem

Analysis of the composition of “The Divine Comedy”

The poem consists of three parts called cantics. Each cantik contains thirty-three songs. One more song was added to the first part; it is a prologue. Thus, there are 100 songs in the poem. The poetic meter is terza.

The main character of the work is Dante himself. But, when reading the poem, it becomes clear that the image of the hero and the real person are not the same person. Dante's hero resembles a contemplator who only observes what is happening. He is different in character: hot-tempered and pitiful, angry and helpless. The author uses this technique to show the whole range of emotions of a living person.

Beatrice is the supreme wisdom, a symbol of goodness. She became his guide to different areas, showing love in all forms. And Dante, being captivated by the forces of love, obediently follows her, wanting to achieve heavenly wisdom.

In the prologue we see Dante at the age of 35, who stands at a crossroads in his life. An associative series is created: the season is Spring, he met Beatrice also in the spring, and God’s world was created in the spring. The animals he meets on his way are symbolic of human vices. For example, lynx - voluptuousness.

Dante shows through his hero both his own tragedy and the global one. Reading the poem, we see how the hero loses heart, resurrects and seeks consolation.

He also encounters sleepy crowds. These people did neither good nor bad deeds. They look lost between two worlds.

Description of the Circles of Hell by Dante

Analyzing the poem “The Divine Comedy”, one can see that Dante’s innovation occurs already when he passes through the first circle of Hell. The best poets languish there together with old people and babies. Such as: Verligius, Homer, Horace, Ovid and Dante himself.

The second circle of Hell is opened by a half-dragon. How many times will he wrap his tail around a person and he will end up in that circle of Hell.

The third circle of Hell is spiritual torment, which is more terrible than earthly.

In the fourth circle are the Jews and spendthrifts, whom the author has endowed with the epithet “vile.”

The fifth circle contains angry people for whom no one feels pity. Afterwards the path to the city of devils opens.

Passing through the cemetery, the path to the sixth circle of Hell opens. It is home to all the political haters, among them there are people who are burning alive.

The most terrible circle of Hell is the seventh. There are several stages in it. Murderers, rapists and suicides suffer there.

The eighth circle is deceivers and the ninth is traitors.

With each lap, Dante opens up and becomes more realistic, rough and reasonable.

We see a significant difference in the depiction of Paradise. It is fragrant, the music of the spheres sounds in it.

Summing up the analysis of Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” it is worth noting that the poem is filled with allegories that allow us to call the work symbolic, biographical, and philosophical.

"The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri is one of the most famous works world literature. It was written at the beginning of the 14th century, but people still read it and try to understand the meaning that the famous native of Florence put into it.

I will try to tell you how I understood the first song of the Comedy. The first song is introductory. And, in my opinion, it is the most autobiographical in the entire poem. Like the whole poem, it is symbolic images talks about various events in the real and spiritual life of Dante himself.

Dante's wanderings through the afterlife begin in a dense forest, when the poet himself is already about 35 years old; Around 1300 Dante began to write his great work:

Having completed half my earthly life,

I found myself in a dark forest...

After the death of Beatrice in 1290, whom Dante loved all his life, he, in his figurative expression, became lost, “having lost the right path in the darkness of the valley.” The beginning of the 1300s, when Dante began writing his Comedy, is also associated with political unrest in Florence, as a result of which the poet, who held a high position in the Florentine Republic, was convicted and expelled from his beloved homeland. These years are so difficult for Dante that he does not want to talk about them in detail:

I don’t remember how I got there...

Dante saw a high hill in the middle of the forest and, after resting a little, went there, seeking salvation. After all, from above you can see where to go. And any height brings a person closer to God, that is, to salvation:

When I gave my body a break,

I went up...

But three terrible wild animals prevent Dante from escaping from the “wild, dense and threatening forest”: a lynx, a lion and a she-wolf. Dante's poem is still more symbolic than realistic. These animals symbolize three human vices that were fully characteristic of Dante himself:

... Agile and curly lynx,

All in bright spots of a motley pattern...

This is the description of the lynx, “an animal with whimsical fur,” which symbolizes lust, the desire to satisfy sexual desire. For Dante, this is a terrible sin, because his beloved Beatrice died, but he could not resist and courted other women. Saves the poet from this sin " Divine Love”, which revealed itself as the rising sun:

It was early, and the sun was clear in the firmament

Accompanied by the same stars again,

What is the first time when their host is beautiful

Divine Love moved.

Trusting the happy hour and time,

The blood in my heart was no longer so tight

At the sight of an animal with whimsical fur...

Pride, arrogance and love of money and power are much more important for Dante. terrible sins. They are symbolized by a lion and a she-wolf:

A lion with his mane raised came out to meet him.

It was as if he was stepping on me,

Growling with hunger and becoming furious

And the very air is filled with fear.

And with him a she-wolf, whose thin body

It seemed that he carried all the greed within himself...

Terrible beasts-sins push Dante to the abyss, to the death of his soul. But Beatrice protects Dante throughout his life. And after death, her “most worthy soul” becomes an angel and does not leave Dante in his wanderings on earth. Beatrice, seeing the suffering of the poet, sends to him the help of Virgil, the famous Roman poet, who:

...entrusted with chants,

How the son of Anchises sailed into the sunset

From proud Troy, dedicated to burning.

Dante's contemporaries revered Virgil, and for the poet himself he was “a teacher, a beloved example”:

You are my teacher, my beloved example;

You alone gave me my inheritance

A wonderful style, praised everywhere.

It is Virgil who will protect Dante on his travels through the world of the dead:

Follow me and to the eternal villages

I will bring you from these places,

And you will hear screams of frenzy

And the ancient spirits in distress there,

ABOUT new death futile prayers...

There are many versions of why Dante chose Virgil as his guide. For example, the reason, perhaps, was that Virgil described in his “Aeneid” the wanderings of the hero Aeneas through the underground kingdom of the dead. It seems to me that this is not the only reason. After all, Odysseus’s wanderings through Hades were also described by Homer, who was always a very revered poet. But Virgil is also Dante’s fellow countryman, a Roman, and therefore an ancestor of the Italians:

I am bringing down my family from the Lombards,

And Mantua was their dear land...

Halfway through life, I - Dante - got lost in a dense forest. It’s scary, there are wild animals all around - allegories of vices; nowhere to go. And then a ghost appears, who turns out to be the shadow of my beloved ancient Roman poet Virgil. I ask him for help. He promises to take me from here to wander through the afterlife so that I can see Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. I'm ready to follow him.

Yes, but am I capable of such a journey? I became timid and hesitated. Virgil reproached me, telling me that Beatrice herself (my late beloved) came down to him from Heaven to Hell and asked him to be my guide in my wanderings in the afterlife. If so, then you cannot hesitate, you need determination. Guide me, my teacher and mentor!

There is an inscription above the entrance to Hell that takes away all hope from those entering. We entered. Here, right behind the entrance, the pitiful souls of those who did neither good nor evil during their lives groan. Next is the Acheron River. Through it, the ferocious Charon transports the dead on a boat. To us - with them. “But you’re not dead!” - Charon shouts angrily at me. Virgil pacified him. Let's swim. A roar was heard from afar, the wind was blowing, and flames flashed. I lost my senses...

The first circle of Hell is Limbo. Here the souls of unbaptized babies and glorious pagans languish - warriors, sages, poets (including Virgil). They do not suffer, but only grieve that they, as non-Christians, have no place in Paradise. Virgil and I joined the great poets of antiquity, the first of whom was Homer. They walked sedately and talked about unearthly things.

At the descent into the second circle underground kingdom the demon Minos determines which sinner should be cast into which place of Hell. He reacted to me in the same way as Charon, and Virgil pacified him in the same way. We saw the souls of voluptuaries (Cleopatra, Helen the Beautiful, etc.) carried away by a hellish whirlwind. Among them is Francesca, and here she is inseparable from her lover. Immense mutual passion led them to tragic death. With deep compassion for them, I fainted again.

In the third circle, the bestial dog Cerberus rages. He started to bark at us, but Virgil pacified him too. Here the souls of those who sinned with gluttony are lying in the mud, under a heavy downpour. Among them is my fellow countryman, the Florentine Ciacco. We talked about the fate of our hometown. Chacko asked me to remind living people about him when I return to earth.

The demon guarding the fourth circle, where spendthrifts and misers are executed (among the latter there are many clergy - popes, cardinals) - Plutos. Virgil also had to besiege him in order to get rid of him. From the fourth we descended into the fifth circle, where the angry and lazy suffer, mired in the swamps of the Stygian lowland. We approached some kind of tower.

This is a whole fortress, around it there is a vast reservoir, in the canoe there is an oarsman, the demon Phlegius. After another squabble we sat down with him and sailed. Some sinner tried to cling to the side, I cursed him, and Virgil pushed him away. Before us is the hellish city of Deet. Any dead evil spirits prevent us from entering it. Virgil, leaving me (oh, scary alone!), went to find out what was the matter, and returned concerned, but hopeful.

And then the hellish furies appeared before us, threatening us. A heavenly messenger who suddenly appeared and curbed their anger came to the rescue. We entered Deet. Everywhere there are tombs engulfed in flames, from which the groans of heretics can be heard. We make our way along a narrow road between the tombs.

A mighty figure suddenly emerged from one of the tombs. This is Farinata, my ancestors were his political opponents. In me, having heard my conversation with Virgil, he guessed a fellow countryman by the dialect. Proud, he seemed to despise the entire abyss of Hell. We argued with him, and then another head poked out from a neighboring tomb: this is the father of my friend Guido! It seemed to him that I was dead and that his son was also dead, and he fell on his face in despair. Farinata, calm him down; Guido is alive!

Near the descent from the sixth circle to the seventh, above the grave of the heretic Pope Anastasius, Virgil explained to me the structure of the remaining three circles of Hell, tapering downwards (towards the center of the earth), and what sins are punishable in which zone of which circle.

The seventh circle is compressed by mountains and is guarded by the half-bull demon Minotaur, who roared menacingly at us. Virgil shouted at him, and we hastened to move away. They saw a stream boiling with blood, in which tyrants and robbers were boiling, and from the shore centaurs were shooting at them with bows. The centaur Nessus became our guide, told us about the executed rapists and helped us ford the boiling river.

All around there are thorny thickets without greenery. I broke some branch, and black blood flowed from it, and the trunk groaned. It turns out that these bushes are the souls of suicides (violators of their own flesh). They are pecked by the hellish birds Harpies, trampled by the running dead, causing them unbearable pain. One trampled bush asked me to collect the broken branches and return them to him. It turned out that the unfortunate man was my fellow countryman. I complied with his request and we moved on. We see sand, flakes of fire fly down on top of it, scorching sinners who scream and moan - all except one: he lies silent. Who is this? King Kapanei, a proud and gloomy atheist, struck down by the gods for his obstinacy. He is still true to himself: he either remains silent or loudly curses the gods. “You are your own tormentor!” - Virgil shouted over him...

But the souls of new sinners are moving towards us, tormented by fire. Among them I hardly recognized my venerable teacher Brunetto Latini. He is among those who are guilty of same-sex love. We started talking. Brunetto predicted that glory awaits me in the world of the living, but there will also be many hardships that must be resisted. The teacher bequeathed to me to take care of his main work, in which he is alive - “Treasure”.

And three more sinners (same sin) dance in the fire. All Florentines, former respected citizens. I talked to them about the misfortunes of our hometown. They asked me to tell my living fellow countrymen that I saw them. Then Virgil led me to a deep hole in the eighth circle. A hellish beast will bring us down there. He's already climbing towards us from there.

This is the mottled tailed Geryon. While he is preparing to descend, there is still time to look at the last martyrs of the seventh circle - the moneylenders, tossing about in a whirlwind of flaming dust. Multi-colored wallets with different coats of arms. I didn't talk to them. Let's hit the road! We sit down with Virgil astride Geryon and - oh horror! - we are gradually flying into failure, to new torment. We went down. Geryon immediately flew away.

The eighth circle is divided into ten ditches called Zlopazuchi. In the first ditch, pimps and seducers of women are executed, in the second - flatterers. Pimps are brutally scourged by horned demons, flatterers sit in a liquid mass of stinking feces - the stench is unbearable. By the way, one whore was punished here not for fornication, but for flattering her lover, saying that she felt good with him.

The next ditch (third cavity) is lined with stone, mottled with round holes, from which protrude the burning legs of high-ranking clergy who traded in church positions. Their heads and torsos are pinched by the wells stone wall. Their successors, when they die, will also kick their flaming legs in their place, completely pushing their predecessors into stone. This is how Pope Orsini explained it to me, at first mistaking me for his successor.

In the fourth sinus, soothsayers, astrologers, and sorceresses suffer. Their necks are twisted so that when they sob, they wet their backsides with their tears, not their chests. I myself burst into tears when I saw such a mockery of people, and Virgil shamed me; It’s a sin to feel sorry for sinners! But he, too, with sympathy, told me about his fellow countrywoman, the soothsayer Manto, after whom Mantua, the homeland of my glorious mentor, was named.

The fifth ditch is filled with boiling tar, into which the devils Gripes, black, winged, throw bribe takers and make sure that they do not stick out, otherwise they will hook the sinner and finish him off in the most cruel way. The devils have nicknames: Evil-tailed, Slant-winged, etc. Part further path we will have to go through in their terrible company. They make faces, show their tongues, their boss made a deafening obscene sound with his backside. I've never heard anything like this before! We walk with them along the ditch, the sinners dive into the tar - they hide, and one hesitated, and they immediately pulled him out with hooks, intending to torment him, but first they allowed us to talk with him. The poor fellow, by cunning, lulled the vigilance of the Grudgers and dived back - they did not have time to catch him. The irritated devils fought among themselves, two of them fell into the tar. In the confusion, we hastened to leave, but it was not to be! They are flying after us. Virgil, picking me up, barely managed to run across to the sixth bosom, where they are not the masters. Here the hypocrites languish under the weight of lead and gilded clothing. And here is the crucified (nailed to the ground with stakes) Jewish high priest, who insisted on the execution of Christ. He is trampled underfoot by hypocrites weighed down with lead.

The transition was difficult: along a rocky path - into the seventh sinus. Thieves live here, bitten by monstrous poisonous snakes. From these bites they crumble into dust, but are immediately restored to their appearance. Among them is Vanni Fucci, who robbed the sacristy and blamed it on someone else. A rude and blasphemous man: he sent God away, holding up two figs. Immediately the snakes attacked him (I love them for this). Then I watched as a certain snake merged with one of the thieves, after which it took on his appearance and stood on its feet, and the thief crawled away, becoming a reptile. Miracles! You won’t find such metamorphoses in Ovid either.

Rejoice, Florence: these thieves are your offspring! It's a shame... And in the eighth ditch live treacherous advisers. Among them is Ulysses (Odysseus), his soul is imprisoned in a flame that can speak! So, we heard the story of Ulysses about his death: eager to know the unknown, he sailed with a handful of daredevils to the other side of the world, was shipwrecked and, together with his friends, drowned far from the world inhabited by people.

Another speaking flame, in which the soul of the evil adviser, who did not call himself by name, is hidden, told me about his sin: this adviser helped the Pope in one unrighteous deed - counting on the Pope to forgive him his sin. Heaven is more tolerant of the simple-minded sinner than of those who hope to be saved by repentance. We moved into the ninth ditch, where the sowers of unrest are executed.

Here they are, the instigators of bloody strife and religious unrest. The devil will mutilate them with a heavy sword, cut off their noses and ears, and crush their skulls. Here is Mohammed, who encouraged Caesar to civil war Curio, and the headless warrior-troubadour Bertrand de Born (he carries his head in his hand like a lantern, and she exclaims: “Woe!”).

Then I met my relative, angry with me because his violent death remained unavenged. Then we moved to the tenth ditch, where the alchemists suffer from the eternal itch. One of them was burned for jokingly boasting that he could fly - he became a victim of denunciation. He ended up in Hell not for this, but as an alchemist. Those who pretended to be other people, counterfeiters and liars in general are executed here. Two of them fought among themselves and then argued for a long time (Master Adam, who mixed copper into gold coins, and ancient Greek Sinon, who deceived the Trojans). Virgil reproached me for the curiosity with which I listened to them.

Our journey through the Sinisters ends. We approached the well leading from the eighth circle of Hell to the ninth. There are ancient giants, titans. Among them were Nimrod, who angrily shouted something to us in an incomprehensible language, and Antaeus, who, at the request of Virgil, lowered us to the bottom of the well on his huge palm, and immediately straightened up.

So, we are at the bottom of the universe, near the center globe. In front of us is an icy lake, those who betrayed their loved ones were frozen into it. I accidentally hit one on the head with my foot, he screamed and refused to identify himself. Then I grabbed his hair, and then someone called his name. Scoundrel, now I know who you are, and I will tell people about you! And he: “Lie whatever you want, about me and about others!” And here is an ice pit, in which one dead man gnaws the skull of another. I ask: for what? Looking up from his victim, he answered me. He, Count Ugolino, takes revenge on his former like-minded person who betrayed him, Archbishop Ruggieri, who starved him and his children by imprisoning them in the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Their suffering was unbearable, the children died in front of their father’s eyes, he was the last to die. Shame on Pisa! Let's move on. Who is this in front of us? Alberigo? But, as far as I know, he didn’t die, so how did he end up in Hell? It also happens: the villain’s body still lives, but his soul is already in the underworld.

In the center of the earth, the ruler of Hell, Lucifer, frozen in ice, cast out from heaven and hollowed out the abyss of the underworld in his fall, disfigured, three-faced. Judas sticks out of his first mouth, Brutus from the second, Cassius from the third, He chews them and torments them with his claws. The worst of all is the most vile traitor - Judas. A well stretches from Lucifer leading to the surface of the opposite earthly hemisphere. We squeezed through, rose to the surface and saw the stars.

Purgatory

May the Muses help me sing of the second kingdom! His guard, Elder Cato, greeted us unfriendly: who are they? How dare you come here? Virgil explained and, wanting to appease Cato, spoke warmly of his wife Marcia. What does Marcia have to do with this? Go to the seashore, you need to wash yourself! We are going. Here it is, the distance of the sea. And there is abundant dew in the coastal grasses. With it, Virgil washed away the soot of abandoned Hell from my face.

From the distance of the sea, a boat controlled by an angel is sailing towards us. It contains the souls of the deceased who were lucky enough not to go to Hell. They landed, went ashore, and the angel swam away. The shadows of the arrivals crowded around us, and in one I recognized my friend, the singer Cosella. I wanted to hug him, but the shadow is insubstantial - I hugged myself. Cosella, at my request, began to sing about love, everyone listened, but then Cato appeared, shouted at everyone (they weren’t busy!), and we hurried to the mountain of Purgatory.

Virgil was dissatisfied with himself: he gave a reason to yell at himself... Now we need to reconnoiter the upcoming road. Let's see where the arriving shadows will move. And they themselves just noticed that I am not a shadow: I do not let light pass through me. We were surprised. Virgil explained everything to them. “Come with us,” they invited.

So, we hurry to the foot of the purgatory mountain. But is everyone in a hurry, is everyone so impatient? Over there, near a large stone, there is a group of people who are not in a hurry to climb up: they say, they will have time; climb the one who is itching. Among these sloths I recognized my friend Belakva. It's nice to see that he, even in life an enemy of all haste, is true to himself.

In the foothills of Purgatory I had the opportunity to communicate with the shadows of the victims violent death. Many of them were serious sinners, but when they said goodbye to life, they managed to sincerely repent and therefore did not end up in Hell. What a shame for the devil, who has lost his prey! He, however, found a way to get even: not having gained power over the soul of the repentant dead sinner, he violated his murdered body.

Not far from all this we saw the regal and majestic shadow of Sordello. He and Virgil, recognizing each other as fellow-country poets (Mantuans), embraced brotherly. Here is an example for you, Italy, a dirty brothel, where the bonds of brotherhood are completely broken! Especially you, my Florence, are good, you can’t say anything... Wake up, look at yourself...

Sordello agrees to be our guide to Purgatory. It is a great honor for him to help the venerable Virgil. Conversing sedately, we approached a flowering, fragrant valley, where, preparing to spend the night, the shadows of high-ranking persons - European sovereigns - settled down. We watched them from afar, listening to their consonant singing.

The evening hour has come, when desires draw those who have sailed back to their loved ones, and you remember the bitter moment of farewell; when sadness takes hold of the pilgrim and he hears how the distant chime cries bitterly about the irrevocable day... An insidious serpent of temptation crawled into the valley of rest of earthly rulers, but the angels who arrived drove him out.

I lay down on the grass, fell asleep and in a dream was transported to the gates of Purgatory. The angel guarding them inscribed the same letter on my forehead seven times - the first in the word “sin” (seven deadly sins; these letters will be erased one by one from my forehead as I ascend the purgatory mountain). We entered the second kingdom of the afterlife, the gates closed behind us.

The ascent began. We are in the first circle of Purgatory, where the proud atone for their sin. In shame of pride, statues were erected here that embody the idea of ​​high feat - humility. And here are the shadows of the purifying proud: unbending during life, here they, as punishment for their sin, bend under the weight of the stone blocks piled on them.

“Our Father...” - this prayer was sung by the bent and proud people. Among them is the miniature artist Oderiz, who during his lifetime boasted of his great fame. Now, he says, he has realized that there is nothing to boast about: everyone is equal in the face of death - both the decrepit old man and the baby who babbled “yum-yum”, and glory comes and goes. The sooner you understand this and find the strength to curb your pride and humble yourself, the better.

Under our feet are bas-reliefs depicting scenes of punished pride: Lucifer and Briareus cast out from heaven, King Saul, Holofernes and others. Our stay in the first circle ends. An angel who appeared erased one of the seven letters from my forehead - as a sign that I had overcome the sin of pride. Virgil smiled at me.

We went up to the second round. There are envious people here, they are temporarily blinded, their formerly “envious” eyes do not see anything. Here is a woman who, out of envy, wished harm to her fellow countrymen and rejoiced at their failures... In this circle, after death, I will not be cleansed for long, because I rarely and few envied anyone. But in the past circle of proud people - probably for a long time.

Here they are, blinded sinners, whose blood was once burned by envy. In the silence, the words of the first envious man, Cain, sounded thunderous: “Whoever meets me will kill me!” In fear, I clung to Virgil, and the wise leader told me bitter words that the highest eternal light inaccessible to envious people, carried away by earthly lures.

We passed the second circle. The angel appeared to us again, and now only five letters remained on my forehead, which we have to get rid of in the future. We are in the third circle. A cruel vision of human rage flashed before our eyes (the crowd stoned a meek young man). In this circle those possessed by anger are purified.

Even in the darkness of Hell there was no such black darkness as in this circle, where the rage of the angry is humbled. One of them, the pawnshop Marco, got into conversation with me and expressed the idea that everything that happens in the world cannot be understood as a consequence of the activities of higher heavenly powers: this would mean denying the freedom of human will and removing responsibility from a person for what he has done.

Reader, have you ever wandered in the mountains on a foggy evening, when you can hardly see the sun? That's how we are... I felt the touch of an angel's wing on my forehead - another letter was erased. We climbed to the fourth circle, illuminated by the last ray of sunset. Here the lazy are purified, whose love for good was slow.

Sloths here must run quickly, not allowing any indulgence in their lifetime sin. Let them be inspired by examples Holy Virgin Mary, who, as you know, had to hurry, or Caesar with his amazing efficiency. They ran past us and disappeared. I want to sleep. I sleep and dream...

I dreamed of a disgusting woman who, before my eyes, turned into a beauty, who was immediately put to shame and turned into an even worse ugly woman (here is the imaginary attractiveness of vice!). Another letter disappeared from my forehead: it means I have conquered such a vice as laziness. We rise to the fifth circle - to the misers and spendthrifts.

Stinginess, greed, greed for gold are disgusting vices. Molten gold was once poured down the throat of one obsessed with greed: drink to your health! I feel uncomfortable surrounded by misers, and then there was an earthquake. From what? In my ignorance I don’t know...

It turned out that the shaking of the mountain was caused by rejoicing that one of the souls was purified and ready to ascend: this is the Roman poet Statius, an admirer of Virgil, rejoiced that from now on he will accompany us on the path to the purgatory peak.

Another letter has been erased from my forehead, denoting the sin of stinginess. By the way, was Statius, who languished in the fifth round, stingy? On the contrary, he is wasteful, but these two extremes are punished together. Now we are in the sixth circle, where gluttons are purified. Here it would be good to remember that gluttony was not characteristic of Christian ascetics.

Former gluttons are destined to suffer the pangs of hunger: they are emaciated, skin and bones. Among them I discovered my late friend and fellow countryman Forese. We talked about our own things, scolded Florence, Forese spoke condemningly about the dissolute ladies of this city. I told my friend about Virgil and about my hopes of seeing my beloved Beatrice in the afterlife.

I had a conversation about literature with one of the gluttons, a former poet of the old school. He admitted that my like-minded people, supporters of the “new sweet style,” had achieved love poetry much more than he himself and the masters close to him. Meanwhile, the penultimate letter has been erased from my forehead, and the path to the highest, seventh circle of Purgatory is open to me.

And I keep remembering the thin, hungry gluttons: how did they get so thin? After all, these are shadows, not bodies, and it would not be fitting for them to starve. Virgil explained: the shadows, although incorporeal, exactly repeat the outlines of the implied bodies (which would become thin without food). Here, in the seventh circle, the voluptuaries scorched by fire are purified. They burn, sing and praise examples of abstinence and chastity.

The voluptuaries, engulfed in flames, were divided into two groups: those who indulged in same-sex love and those who knew no limits in bisexual intercourse. Among the latter are the poets Guido Guinizelli and the Provencal Arnald, who elegantly greeted us in his dialect.

And now we ourselves need to go through the wall of fire. I was scared, but my mentor said that this was the way to Beatrice (to the Earthly Paradise, located on top of the purgatory mountain). And so the three of us (Statsius with us) walk, scorched by the flames. We passed, we moved on, it was getting dark, we stopped to rest, I slept; and when I woke up, Virgil turned to me with the last word parting words and approval, That’s it, from now on he will be silent...

We are in the Earthly Paradise, in a blooming grove resounding with the chirping of birds. I saw a beautiful donna singing and picking flowers. She said that there was a golden age here, innocence flourished, but then, among these flowers and fruits, the happiness of the first people was destroyed in sin. Hearing this, I looked at Virgil and Statius: both were smiling blissfully.

Oh Eva! It was so good here, you ruined everything with your daring! Living lights float past us, righteous elders in snow-white robes, crowned with roses and lilies, walk under them, and wonderful beauties dance. I couldn't stop looking at this amazing picture. And suddenly I saw her - the one I love. Shocked, I made an involuntary movement, as if trying to press myself closer to Virgil. But he disappeared, my father and savior! I began to cry. “Dante, Virgil will not return. But you won't have to cry for him. Look at me, it's me, Beatrice! How did you get here?” - she asked angrily. Then a voice asked her why she was so strict with me. She answered that I, seduced by the lure of pleasure, was unfaithful to her after her death. Do I admit my guilt? Oh yes, tears of shame and repentance choke me, I lowered my head. "Raise your beard!" - she said sharply, not ordering him to take his eyes off her. I lost consciousness and woke up immersed in Lethe - a river that grants oblivion of committed sins. Beatrice, look now at the one who is so devoted to you and so longed for you. After a ten-year separation, I looked into her eyes, and my vision was temporarily dimmed by their dazzling brilliance. Having regained my sight, I saw a lot of beauty in the Earthly Paradise, but suddenly all this was replaced by cruel visions: monsters, desecration of sacred things, debauchery.

Beatrice deeply grieved, realizing how much evil was hidden in these visions revealed to us, but expressed confidence that the forces of good would ultimately defeat evil. We approached the Evnoe River, drinking from which strengthens the memory of the good you have done. Statius and I washed ourselves in this river. A sip of it sweetest water poured new strength into me. Now I am pure and worthy to rise to the stars.

Paradise

From the Earthly Paradise, Beatrice and I will fly together to the Heavenly Paradise, to heights beyond the comprehension of mortals. I didn’t even notice how they took off, looking at the sun. Am I really capable of doing this while still alive? However, Beatrice was not surprised by this: a purified person is spiritual, and a spirit not burdened with sins is lighter than ether.

Friends, let's part here - don't read further: you will disappear in the vastness of the incomprehensible! But if you have an insatiable hunger for spiritual food, then go ahead, follow me! We are in the first sky of Paradise - in the sky of the Moon, which Beatrice called the first star; plunged into its depths, although it is difficult to imagine a force capable of placing one closed body (which I am) into another closed body (the Moon).

In the depths of the Moon we encountered the souls of nuns kidnapped from monasteries and forcibly married off. Not through their own fault, but they did not keep the vow of virginity given during tonsure, and therefore are no longer available to them. high skies. Do they regret it? Oh no! To regret would mean to disagree with the highest righteous will.

But still I am perplexed: why are they to blame for submitting to violence? Why don't they rise above the sphere of the Moon? It is not the victim who should be blamed, but the rapist! But Beatrice explained that the victim also bears a certain responsibility for the violence committed against her, if, while resisting, she did not show heroic fortitude.

Failure to fulfill a vow, Beatrice argues, is practically irreparable with good deeds (too many need to be done to atone for guilt). We flew to the second heaven of Paradise - to Mercury. The souls of ambitious righteous people live here. These are no longer shadows, unlike the previous inhabitants the afterlife, and the lights: shine and radiate. One of them glowed especially brightly, rejoicing in communicating with me. It turned out that this was the Roman emperor, legislator Justinian. He realizes that being in the sphere of Mercury (and not higher) is the limit for him, for ambitious people, doing good deeds for the sake of their own glory (that is, loving themselves first of all), missed the ray true love to the deity.

Justinian's light merged with the dance of lights - other righteous souls. I thought about it, and the train of my thoughts led me to the question: why did God the Father sacrifice his son? It was possible just like that, by the supreme will, to forgive people for the sin of Adam! Beatrice explained: the highest justice demanded that humanity itself atone for its guilt. It is incapable of this, and had to be fertilized earthly woman, so that the son (Christ), combining the human with the divine, can do this.

We flew to the third heaven - to Venus, where the souls of the loving are blissful, shining in the fiery depths of this star. One of these spirit-lights is the Hungarian king Charles Martel, who, speaking to me, expressed the idea that a person can realize his abilities only by acting in a field that meets the needs of his nature: it is bad if a born warrior becomes a priest...

Sweet is the radiance of other loving souls. How much blissful light and heavenly laughter there is here! And below (in Hell) the shadows grew sad and gloomy... One of the lights spoke to me (troubadour Folko) - he condemned the church authorities, selfish popes and cardinals. Florence is the city of the devil. But nothing, he believes, will get better soon.

The fourth star is the Sun, the abode of the sages. Here shines the spirit of the great theologian Thomas Aquinas. He greeted me joyfully and showed me other sages. Their consonant singing reminded me of a church gospel.

Thomas told me about Francis of Assisi - the second (after Christ) wife of Poverty. It was following his example that the monks, including his closest disciples, began to walk barefoot. He lived a holy life and died - a naked man on bare ground - in the bosom of Poverty.

Not only I, but also the lights - the spirits of the sages - listened to Thomas's speech, stopping singing and twirling in the dance. Then Franciscan Bonaventure took the floor. In response to the praise given to his teacher by the Dominican Thomas, he glorified Thomas’s teacher, Dominic, a farmer and servant of Christ. Who now continued his work? There are no worthy ones.

And again Thomas took the floor. He talks about the great merits of King Solomon: he asked God for intelligence and wisdom - not to solve theological issues, but to intelligently rule the people, that is, royal wisdom, which was granted to him. People, do not judge each other hastily! This one is busy good deed, he is evil, but what if the first one falls and the second one rises?

What will happen to the inhabitants of the Sun on the day of judgment, when the spirits take on flesh? They are so bright and spiritual that it is difficult to imagine them materialized. Our stay here is over, we have flown to the fifth heaven - to Mars, where the sparkling spirits of warriors for the faith are arranged in the shape of a cross and a sweet hymn sounds.

One of the lights forming this marvelous cross, without going beyond its limits, moved downwards, closer to me. This is the spirit of my valiant great-great-grandfather, the warrior Kachchagvida. He greeted me and praised the glorious time in which he lived on earth and which - alas! - passed, replaced by worse times.

I am proud of my ancestor, my origin (it turns out that you can experience such a feeling not only on the vain earth, but also in Paradise!). Cacciaguida told me about himself and about his ancestors, born in Florence, whose coat of arms - a white lily - is now stained with blood.

I want to find out from him, the clairvoyant, about my future fate. What lies ahead for me? He replied that I would be expelled from Florence, in joyless wanderings I would learn the bitterness of other people's bread and the steepness of other people's stairs. To my credit, I will not associate with unclean political groups, but I will become my own party. In the end, my opponents will be put to shame, and triumph awaits me.

Cacciaguida and Beatrice encouraged me. Your stay on Mars is over. Now - from the fifth heaven to the sixth, from red Mars to white Jupiter, where the souls of the just soar. Their lights form letters, letters - first into a call for justice, and then into the figure of an eagle, a symbol of just imperial power, unknown, sinful, tormented earth, but established in heaven.

This majestic eagle entered into conversation with me. He calls himself “I”, but I hear “we” (fair power is collegial!). He understands what I myself cannot understand: why is Paradise open only to Christians? What is wrong with a virtuous Hindu who does not know Christ at all? I still don’t understand. And it’s true, the eagle admits, that a bad Christian is worse than a good Persian or Ethiopian.

The eagle personifies the idea of ​​justice, and its main thing is not its claws or beak, but its all-seeing eye, composed of the most worthy light-spirits. The pupil is the soul of the king and psalmist David, the souls of pre-Christian righteous people shine in the eyelashes (and didn’t I just mistakenly talk about Paradise “only for Christians”? This is how to give vent to doubts!).

We ascended to the seventh heaven - to Saturn. This is the abode of contemplatives. Beatrice has become even more beautiful and brighter. She did not smile at me - otherwise she would have completely incinerated me and blinded me. The blessed spirits of the contemplators were silent and did not sing - otherwise they would have deafened me. The sacred luminary, theologian Pietro Damiano, told me about this.

The spirit of Benedict, after whom one of the monastic orders is named, angrily condemned modern self-interested monks. After listening to him, we rushed to the eighth heaven, to the constellation Gemini, under which I was born, saw the sun for the first time and breathed the air of Tuscany. From its height I looked down, and my gaze, passing through the seven heavenly spheres we had visited, fell on the ridiculously small globe of the earth, this handful of dust with all its rivers and mountain steeps.

Thousands of lights burn in the eighth sky - these are the triumphant spirits of the great righteous. Intoxicated by them, my vision intensified, and now even Beatrice’s smile will not blind me. She smiled wonderfully at me and again prompted me to turn my gaze to the luminous spirits who sang a hymn to the Queen of Heaven - the Holy Virgin Mary.

Beatrice asked the apostles to talk to me. How far have I penetrated into the mysteries of sacred truths? The Apostle Peter asked me about the essence of faith. My answer: faith is an argument for the invisible; mortals cannot see with their own eyes what is revealed here in Paradise, but may they believe in a miracle without having visual evidence of its truth. Peter was pleased with my answer.

Will I see, author sacred poem, homeland? Will I be crowned with laurels where I was baptized? The Apostle James asked me a question about the essence of hope. My answer: hope is the expectation of future deserved and God-given glory. Delighted, Jacob was illuminated.

Next up is the question of love. The Apostle John asked it to me. In answering, I did not forget to say that love turns us to God, to the word of truth. Everyone rejoiced. The exam (what is Faith, Hope, Love?) was successfully completed. I saw the radiant soul of our forefather Adam, who lived briefly in the Earthly Paradise, expelled from there to earth; after the death of one who languished in Limbo for a long time; then moved here.

Four lights glow before me: three apostles and Adam. Suddenly Peter turned purple and exclaimed: “My earthly throne has been captured, my throne, my throne!” Peter hates his successor, the Pope. And it’s time for us to part with the eighth heaven and ascend to the ninth, supreme and crystal. With unearthly joy, laughing, Beatrice threw me into a rapidly rotating sphere and ascended herself.

The first thing I saw in the sphere of the ninth heaven was a dazzling point, a symbol of the deity. Lights rotate around her - nine concentric angelic circles. Those closest to the deity and therefore smaller are seraphim and cherubim, the most distant and extensive are archangels and simply angels. On earth we are accustomed to thinking that the great is greater than the small, but here, as you can see, the opposite is true.

Angels, Beatrice told me, are the same age as the universe. Their rapid rotation is the source of all the movement that occurs in the Universe. Those who hastened to fall away from their host were cast into Hell, and those who remained are still ecstatically circling in Paradise, and they do not need to think, want, or remember: they are completely satisfied!

Ascension to the Empyrean - the highest region of the Universe - is the last. I again looked at the one whose growing beauty in Paradise lifted me from heights to heights. Pure light surrounds us. There are sparkles and flowers everywhere - these are angels and blessed souls. They merge into a kind of shining river, and then take the form of a huge paradise rose.

Contemplating the rose and comprehending overall plan Raya, I wanted to ask Beatrice something, but I saw not her, but a clear-eyed old man in white. He pointed upward. I looked - she was shining in an unattainable height, and I called out to her: “O donna, who left a mark in Hell, granting me help! In everything I see, I recognize your goodness. I followed you from slavery to freedom. Keep me safe in the future, so that my spirit, worthy of you, may be freed from the flesh!” She looked at me with a smile and turned to the eternal shrine. All.

The old man in white is Saint Bernard. From now on he is my mentor. We continue to contemplate the rose of the Empyrean. The souls of virgin babies also shine in it. This is understandable, but why were there souls of babies here and there in Hell - they couldn’t be vicious, unlike these? God knows best what potentials - good or bad - are inherent in which infant soul. So Bernard explained and began to pray.

Bernard prayed to the Virgin Mary for me - to help me. Then he gave me a sign to look up. Looking closely, I see the Supreme and brightest light. At the same time, he did not go blind, but gained the highest truth. I contemplate the deity in his luminous trinity. And I am drawn to him by Love, which moves both the sun and the stars.

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 poetry in order to record it as specifically as possible and thereby preserve the unique image of his beloved. But here it turns out that her immaculate personality is already not subject to death and oblivion. She becomes a guide, the savior of the poet from inevitable death.

Beatrice, with the help of Virgil, an 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 trepidation of the unknown, because only with open eyes can a person comprehend the source of evil.

Sandro Botticelli, "Portrait of Dante"

Hell for Dante is not a materialized place, but a state of soul of a sinned 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: this 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 “L” comes to the fore, aimed not at the realistic (in the medieval sense) absorption of individuality into a ruthless collective integrity, but towards the unique image of the truly existing Beatrice. For Dante, Beatrice is the embodiment of the entire universe in the most concrete and colorful image. And what could be more attractive to a poet than the figure of a young Florentine woman, accidentally met on a narrow street? ancient city? This is how 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 is unable to take his eyes off her emerald eyes. This scene is the embodiment of deep ideological and psychological shifts, when artistic comprehension of reality strives to become intellectual.

Illustration for The Divine Comedy, 1827

The afterlife appears before the reader in the form of a solid 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, complete numerological and esoteric overtones.

The number three and its derivative, nine, appear most often in the text of the comedy: a three-line stanza (terzina), which became the poetic basis of the work, which in turn is divided into three parts - cantics. Minus the first, introductory song, 33 songs are devoted to the depiction of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, and each part of the text ends with the same word - stars (stelle). To the same mystical number series one can also include the three colors of clothes in which Beatrice is clothed, three symbolic beasts, three mouths of Lucifer and the same number of sinners devoured by him, the triple distribution of Hell with nine circles. This entire clearly constructed system gives rise to a surprisingly harmonious and coherent hierarchy of the world, created according to unwritten divine laws.

The Tuscan dialect became the basis of the literary Italian language

Speaking about Dante and his “Divine Comedy”, one cannot help but note the special status that the great poet’s homeland – Florence – had in a host of other cities of the Apennine Peninsula. Florence is not only the city where the Accademia del Chimento raised the banner of experimental knowledge of the world. This is a place where nature was looked at as closely as nowhere else, a place of passionate artistic sensationalism, where rational vision replaced religion. They looked at the world through the eyes of an artist, with elation and worship of beauty.

The initial collection of ancient manuscripts reflected a shift in the center of gravity of intellectual interests to the device inner world and the creativity of man himself. Space ceased to be the habitat of God, and they began to treat nature from the point of view of earthly existence, they looked for answers to questions understandable to man, and took them in earthly, applied mechanics. New look thinking - natural philosophy - humanized nature itself.

The topography of Dante's Hell and the structure of Purgatory and Paradise arise from the recognition of fidelity and courage 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 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 loyal to his hometown all his life. Dante wrote about his teacher Brunetto Latini and 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, the Bible - general ledger Middle Ages. It was Latini who most influenced the development of the personality of Buddhism. a great Renaissance humanist.

Dante's path was replete with obstacles when the poet faced the need difficult choice: So, he was forced to contribute to the expulsion of his friend Guido from Florence. Reflecting on the theme of the vicissitudes of his fate, Dante in the poem “ New life» dedicates many fragments to his friend Cavalcanti. Here Dante created the unforgettable image of his first youthful love - Beatrice. Biographers identify Dante's lover with Beatrice Portinari, who died at the age of 25 in Florence in 1290. Dante and Beatrice became the same textbook embodiment of true lovers as Petrarch and Laura, Tristan and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet.

Dante spoke to his beloved Beatrice twice in his life

In 1295, Dante entered the guild, membership in which opened the way for him into politics. Just at this time, the struggle between the emperor and the Pope intensified, so that Florence was divided into two opposing factions - the “black” Guelphs, led by Corso Donati, and the “white” Guelphs, to whose camp Dante himself belonged. The Whites were victorious and drove their opponents out of the city. In 1300, Dante was elected to the city council - it was here that the poet’s brilliant oratory abilities were fully revealed.

Dante is more and more started more oppose themselves to the Pope by participating in various anti-clerical coalitions. By that time, the “blacks” had stepped up their activities, burst into the city and dealt with their political opponents. Dante was summoned several times to testify before the city council, but each time he ignored these demands, so on March 10, 1302, Dante and 14 other members of the “white” party were sentenced in absentia to death penalty. To save himself, the poet was forced to leave hometown. Disillusioned with the possibility of changing the political state of affairs, he began to write his life's work - The Divine Comedy.

Sandro Botticelli "Hell, Canto XVIII"

In the 14th century, in The Divine Comedy, the truth 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, an idea is the “thought of God”: “Everything that will die and everything that will not die is / Only a reflection of the Thought to which the Almighty / With His Love gives existence.”

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 placed special emphasis on color symbolism the universe he depicts. If Hell is characterized by dark tones, then the path from Hell to Heaven 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 are allocated: white - the innocence of the baby, crimson - the sinfulness of the earthly being, red - redemption, the blood of which whitens so that, closing this color series, white appears again as a harmonious combination of the previous symbols.

“We do not live in this world for death to find us in blissful laziness.”

In November 1308, Henry VII became King of Germany, and in July 1309 new dad Clement V declares him king of Italy and invites him to Rome, where the magnificent coronation of the new emperor of the Holy Roman Empire takes place. Dante, who was an ally of Henry, returned to politics, 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 city's lord, philanthropist and patron of the arts, Guido da Polenta.

In the summer of 1321, Dante, as ambassador of Ravenna, went to Venice with a mission to make peace with the Doge's Republic. Having completed an important 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.