Esta es una de mis publicaciones viejas, escrita a finales del 2021. Más que una crítica o reseña del poema, es un intento de vendérselo al público general. Me da un poco de cringe el estilo con el cual escribía antes, pero igual decido publicarla. Más importante, evité ahondar en el tema de la religión para hacer la publicación más acogedora para el público general, algo que nunca haría hoy.

"But the stars that marked our starting fall away. We must go deeper into greater pain, for it is not permitted that we stay."

—Dante Alighieri, Inferno

Introduction

Dante's Divina Commedia was written in 1320, and 700 years later its ability to comprehensively cover all of human experience within a single narrative remains unmatched. Drawing from the teachings of Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae, Dante outlines the universe as a sphere, one in which God is its circumference and Satan its center. Thus, the value of any given thing can be determined simply by establishing how close it is to the boundaries of the sphere, and how far away it is from its center. But this model is much more than that, and its genius lies in the fact that it is capable of covering the order of the literal universe, Christian experience, and morality all within a single model, outlined from the Inferno to the Paradiso. It deals with the physical understanding of the world, since (under the Ptolemaic system of the times) the Earth was the center of the universe, which meant that Hell was the origin point of the universe. It deals with Christianity, because it takes Readers through the recognition of sin (Inferno), its complete rejection (Purgatorio), and the soul's ascent to God (Paradiso). It deals with morality, because it explores questions like what makes a bad man and what does it take to become a good man. Above all, the Commedia is comprehensive, since it manages to encompass so much of what it means to be human, regardless of whether these lived in antiquity, the Middle Ages or the twenty-first century.

With this model in mind, it is the Inferno which presents the universe's damnation and wretches, that which is closest to the center. Too involved in terrestrial affairs and thus found guilty of acedia, Dante first finds himself helpless in the Dark Wood of Error. With the help of his guide, Virgil the poet, he must venture into the Nine Circles of Hell to know what it truly means to sin, so that he can later know how to reject it.

What follows is a journey that covers all faults in human behavior, and the brilliance of the Inferno (and of the Divina Commedia as a whole) is the fact that Dante does so by example, relating to the past, present and future of humanity. He comments on the sins of historical figures like Ulysses and Alexander the Great. He talks with Farinata on the state of Florentine politics and its everlasting conflicts. He cautions Pope Boniface VIII on the fate that awaits him and others like him were they to continue perverting the holiness of the church. Through the Nine Circles, each of these figures is masterfully placed according to Dante's universal sphere, which itself comments on their moral value. The Inferno, then, is an organization of all wrong that men do. It is the journey of Dante, yes, but the true goal of Dante (the narrator) is to take you on the same journey, so that you too can learn to recognize and reject the wrong.

Thoughts

The Inferno has been a teacher to me. Generally I think people do know how the people of the Middle Ages lived and died, including myself, but it wasn't until after the Inferno that I began to understand why they lived the way they did. From the faint light in Dark Wood of Error to the perversion of the Holy Trinity in the ninth and final circle of Hell, Dante has packed the poem with all sorts of metaphors, symbols and historical references that reveal to the modern Reader what went on inside the heads of medieval men, including both the sharpest minds and the average peasants'. In essence, most people who have not read the Inferno can expect to have their views on Christianity, morality, antiquity and the Middle Ages built anew.

By categorizing sin into a set of nine descending circles, Dante draws a critique on the darker side of morality, on what is irrefutably wrong, even outside of Christian doctrine. It is a critique I learned a lot from, and think many could benefit from too. Most of all, this categorization of sin from worse to worst allows us not to learn, but to recognize what we already know deep down: we are all capable of enacting great evil, including you, me, and your average Joes and Janes. The poem forces you to recognize all sorts of evils, sometimes those that you yourself have not only enacted, but taken pleasure in doing so. One must, however, attune themselves to the medieval understanding of evil, which for them was individual and personal, not entirely collective and based upon how harmful an action is towards others. Gluttony, for example, often harms no one other than the perpetrator, yet it is still an evil action. Likewise, methodical fraud is found below incontinent violence in Hell because it involves a greater usage of free will. Crime (the modern moral compass) involves destruction. Sin involves first and foremost self-destruction. In the end, all evil we enact is only ever reflected unto ourselves, and Dante makes a clear point that this is true in both life and afterlife, not merely a matter of divine punishment. The Law of Hell dictates that it is the sinners who in life have voluntarily chosen their own eternal suffering. Thus, as they harmed themselves in life, they harm themselves eternally in the afterlife.

How this Law manifests itself throughout the poem is perhaps the richest and most stimulating metaphor in the Inferno, especially because Dante utilizes real or mythological figures to devise clever punishments that reflect on the nature of the sinners' sin. Take, for example, the Violent Against Neighbor, found in the seventh circle of Hell. Their torment is that they are thrown into a river of boiling blood, symbol of the blood they spilled in the physical world. Yet not all suffer equally, for every sinner's suffering is perfectly attuned to their wretchedness. The pettier get to be only ankle deep in the river, while the bloodthirsty like Alexander the Great drown with the blood up to their eyelashes. Dante's clever punishments keep you on the edge, curious to know how the sins of the sinners will turn on them and become their punishment. You know now how the violent are punished, but how do you suppose lustful have their sin reflected on them? The gluttonous? The greedy? Your interest is piqued, isn't it, Reader?

Finally, while there is great value in the references to great historical figures such as Alexander, Cleopatra and Caesar, there is something equally charming about Dante's more personal references to the characters of his Florence. Every medieval character Dante meets has a story to tell, one that places us right in Dante's time and allows us to learn more about how different the world was back then. Sometimes you get to learn about the politics of the time, like stereotypes of the city of Bologna being one of panderers and seducers and Lucca, of grafters, and others you get to learn about the personal lives of its people, like the woeful tale of Ugolino and his death, but they all allow you to get a sense of what life was like in the then-present, of who were the people of the Medieval Ages and what they stood (and fell) for. The Inferno's masterful presentation of antiquity, morality and Christianity already made it rich in substance, but these more personal references make the poem that much better.

I know my writing could never do the Inferno the justice it deserves, so while I'm about to be more specific with whom I recommend the poem to in a moment, I actually think anyone can benefit from reading the Inferno. The past is truly an alien civilization, its wisdom is almost completely disconnected from modern thought and is, in many ways, simply better than it. I am of the belief that the seeds of our future are sown in our past, and the Inferno is yet another reason to believe it to be so.

A note on Ciardi's translation

On Ciardi's translation in particular, I can vouch for its quality and do highly recommend it, though it would be imprudent to compare it to other translations without having read these. I will say, however, that from the quick research I did before choosing this version, Ciardi's translation appears to prioritize the poem's phonetics over its literal translation when compared to others and also stands out for its notes. I can attest to both of these facts, as though I'm used to prose and may have felt a bit disoriented at times, the poem's beauty is always clearly front and center, and any misinterpretation is always cleared up in the excellent notes anyways. In any case, the particular quirks between translations aren't as important as it is to actually read any version of the Inferno (and the Divina Commedia, for that matter).

Who I recommend this to

Readers interested in morality and religion: It comes as no surprise that these readers are often the first to pick up the Inferno. Rest assured, this poem has a lot to teach you about zeal, morality, and their dark counterparts, and you will undoubtedly benefit from its wisdom.

Readers interested in history: There is something special about getting to see Julius Caesar, Homer, Socrates, Cleopatra and many other historical figures within the same narrative. History aficionados will undoubtedly enjoy reading Dante's profound knowledge on the subject throughout the pages of the Inferno, perhaps learning a thing or two along the way.