“The love that moves the sun and the other stars.” This is how the Christian God is described by someone who claims to have seen him with his own eyes. Florence-based poet Alighieri Dante (1265-1321) should have known, for he was granted the privilege to view the Trinity while still alive. This, in any case, is the fiction of a work which undoubtedly ranks among the most influential in world literature.
It took Dante almost 14 years to write his masterpiece, which he entitled ‘Comedia’, meaning ‘comedy’. To us, the book is actually not funny, and the author felt that he had to explain in his dedication how he wanted the title to be understood: The story begins terrible and ends well, spanning more than 14,000 verses. About 600 mythical or historical figures appear, ranging from Ulysses to Judas, from popes to princes; one aspect unites them all: They are all dead.
In an incredibly artful and intoxicating way, Dante describes a fictitious vision in which various leaders – the first being Roman poet Virgil – guide him first through Hell (Inferno), then the Mount of Purgatory (Purgatorio) up to heavenly Paradise (Paradiso). He owes this experience to his deceased mistress Beatrice and her desire to show him how he could lead a less sinful life.
The frightening side makes the first part of her program, comparable to the shocking pictures on modern cigarette packs. It is not for nothing that the ‘Inferno’ that Dante passes is pictured as the most graphic, most thrilling and most impressive part of the ‘Comedy’. No other literary work is so meticulous in dissecting every nuance of human misconduct, nowhere are sinners so painstakingly punished as here: Murderers are boiled in a scalding blood stream, thieves are tormented by snakes before turning into snake-like hybrids, traitors were considered the most degenerated of all beings, ranking below the animals and lacking human emotion of any kind. Apart from their agonies, everything around them is frozen to ice.
In Dante’s days, the evaluation of betrayal was particularly topical. The people of Florence were divided into followers of the pope and those loyal to the emperor; a civil war raged and split up families and clans. Whoever fears that only a Medievist can enjoy Dante’s ‘Comedy’ is absolutely wrong. Ultimately, all themes revolve around the right behavior of man. How to lead a decent life that is even pleasing to God? The bottom line of the imaginative scenes of agony and punishment are universal charges: murder and treason, deceit and theft, avarice and lust, usury and irascibility. When Dante exposes his noble peers, who lend money at usurious interest, he does not state any names. No, he is much clearer: He unmistakably describes the families‘ coat of arms on their purses!
The text is so multifaceted that one can always discover something new: numerical symbolism, theological concepts, historical interludes, reinterpretations of the ancient myths ... Dante’s original aim was to give general moral and uplifting tips for life beyond the mere literal meaning. This has rarely been accomplished on such high an artistic level. It is important to note in this regard that it was this work with which Dante created the Italian written language in the first place. His fellow poet, Giovanni Boccaccio, enlarged the title of ‘Comedy’ by ‘Divine’, realizing: An opus like this was never to be created again.
