The Divine Comedy("Divina Commedia") - the creation that brought Dante immortality. Why Dante called his work a comedy is clear from his treatise "De vulgarie eloquentia" and from the dedication to Cangrande: the comedy begins with terrible and disgusting scenes (Hell), and ends beautiful pictures heavenly bliss. The name "divine" arose after the death of the author; the first edition in which it is called "Divina Commedia" seems to be the Venetian ed. 1516.

The Divine Comedy is something like a vision. It describes the state and life of souls after death in the three kingdoms. afterlife and accordingly it is divided into 3 parts: Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Paradise (Paradiso). Each of the sections consists of 33 cantos, so that the entire poem, including the introduction, is 100 cantos (14,230 verses). It was written in tercines - a meter created by Dante from sirventer, and is distinguished by remarkable architectonics: "Hell" consists of 9 circles, "Purgatory" of 9 rooms: the threshold, 7 terraces and the earthly paradise on the Mount of Purification, "Paradise" - of 9 ty rotating celestial spheres, above which is the Empyrean, the immovable seat of the deity.

The Divine Comedy. Hell - summary

In The Divine Comedy, Dante undertakes a journey through these 3 worlds. The shadow of the ancient poet Virgil (the personification of human reason and philosophy) appears to Dante when he tries in vain to get out of the dense forest where he got lost. She reports that the poet must follow a different path and that he is on behalf of dead lover Dante, Beatrice, will himself lead him through Hell and Purgatory to the home of the blessed, through which a more worthy soul will lead him.

9 circles of hell according to Dante

Their journey first goes through Hell (see its separate description on our website), which looks like a funnel, the end of which rests on the center of the earth; nine concentric circles in the form of steps stretch along the walls. On these steps, which the lower they become narrower, are the souls of condemned sinners. On the eve of Hell dwell the souls of the "indifferent", i.e. those who have lived their lives on earth without glory, but also without shame. In the first circle are the heroes of ancient times who lived impeccably but died without being baptized. In the following circles are placed according to the degrees of crime and punishment: voluptuaries, gluttons, misers and spenders, angry and vengeful, Epicureans and heretics, rapists, liars and deceivers, traitors to the fatherland, relatives, friends and benefactors. In the depths of hell, in the center of the earth, is the ruler of the hellish kingdom, Dit or Lucifer- the principle of evil.

(Circles of Hell - La mappa dell inferno). Illustration for the "Divine Comedy" by Dante. 1480s.

The Divine Comedy. Purgatory - summary

Rising through his body, and having passed the other hemisphere, travelers reach the opposite side the globe where Mount Purgatory rises from the ocean. On the shore they are met by Cato Utica, the guardian of this kingdom. Mount Purgatory looks like a steep body with a cut off top and is divided into 7 terraces, which are interconnected by narrow stairs; access to them is guarded by angels; on these terraces are the souls of the penitents. The lowest is occupied by the arrogant, followed by the envious, angry, indecisive, stingy and squandering, gluttons. Having passed the threshold of Purgatory and all the terraces, the satellites approach the earthly Paradise, which is at the very top.

The Divine Comedy. Paradise - summary

Here Virgil leaves Dante and Beatrice (the personification of divine revelation and theology) leads the poet from here through the third kingdom - Paradise, whose division is entirely based on the Aristotelian concepts of the universe that prevailed in Dante's time. This kingdom consists of 10 hollow, transparent celestial spheres enclosed in each other, surrounding the earth - the center of the universe. The first seven heavens bear the names of the planets: these are the spheres of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The eighth sphere is of the fixed stars, and the ninth heaven is the prime mover, which communicates motion to all the rest. Each of these heavens is destined for one of the categories of the blessed, according to the degree of their perfection, in fact, all the souls of the righteous live in the 10th heaven, the motionless sky of light, Empyrean outside of space. Beatrice, having led the poet throughout Paradise, leaves him and entrusts Saint Bernard, with whose assistance the poet is honored with the contemplation of a deity that appears to him in a mystical vision.

During the entire journey through these three worlds, conversations are constantly held with famous persons who are in the afterlife; questions of theology and philosophy are discussed and the conditions social life Italy, the degeneration of church and state, so that the poem comprehensively reflects the entire era of Dante in the coverage of his personal worldview. Particularly remarkable are the first two parts of the poem, thanks to the skillful plan, the variety and reality of the displayed faces, and the brightness of the historical perspective. The last part, distinguished more than others by loftiness of thought and feeling, can much more quickly tire the reader with its abstract content.

To clarify the allegorical meaning of both the entire poem and its particulars, they began different ways different thinkers. The ethical-theological point of view of the first commentators is the only one that can withstand criticism. From this point of view, Dante himself is a symbol of the human soul, seeking salvation from sin. To do this, she must know herself, which is possible only with the help of the mind. Reason gives the soul the opportunity, through repentance and virtuous deeds, to acquire happiness on earth. Revelation and theology open her access to heaven. Next to this moral and theological allegory is a political allegory: anarchy on earth can only be put an end to by a universal monarchy, modeled on the Roman one, which Virgil preached. However, some researchers have tried to prove that the purpose of the Divine Comedy is predominantly or even exclusively political.

When Dante began to write his great work and when individual parts of it were developed, it is impossible to establish exactly. The first two parts were published during his lifetime, "Paradise" - after his death. Divina Commedia soon circulated in a huge number of copies, many of which are still kept in the libraries of Italy, Germany, France and England. The number of these medieval manuscripts exceeds 500.

Dante "Hell". Illustration by Gustave Doré

The first attempt to illustrate Dante's "Comedy" dates back to 1481, when 19 etchings on the themes of "Hell" were placed in the Florentine edition, based on drawings by Sandro Botticelli. Of the illustrations of the New Age, the engravings by Gustave Dore and 20 drawings by German artists are the most famous.

In two greatest creations Dante Alighieri - "New Life" and in the "Divine Comedy" (see its summary) - carried out the same idea. Both of them are connected by the idea that pure love ennobles the nature of a person, and the knowledge of the frailty of sensual bliss brings a person closer to God. But the "New Life" is only a series of lyrical poems, while the "Divine Comedy" is a whole poem in three parts, containing up to one hundred songs, each of which contains about one hundred and forty verses.

In early youth, Dante experienced a passionate love for Beatrice, daughter of Fulk Portinari. He kept it for last days life, although he never managed to connect with Beatrice. Dante's love was tragic: Beatrice died at a young age, and after her death great poet saw in her a transfigured angel.

Dante Alighieri. Drawing by Giotto, 14th century

In his mature years, love for Beatrice began to gradually lose its sensual connotation for Dante, turning into a purely spiritual dimension. Healing from sensual passion was a spiritual baptism for the poet. The Divine Comedy reflects this spiritual healing of Dante, his view of the present and the past, his life and the lives of his friends, art, science, poetry, Guelphs and Ghibellines, on the political parties of "black" and "white". In The Divine Comedy, Dante expressed how he views all this comparatively and relatively to the eternal moral principle of things. In "Hell" and "Purgatory" (he often calls the second "Mountain of propitiation") Dante considers all phenomena only from the side of their external manifestation, from the point of view of state wisdom, personified by him in his "guide" - Virgil, i.e., the point of view of law, order and law. In "Paradise" all the phenomena of heaven and earth are presented in the spirit of the contemplation of a deity or the gradual transformation of the soul, by which the finite spirit merges with the infinite nature of things. Transfigured Beatrice, symbol of divine love, eternal mercy and true knowledge of God, leads him from one sphere to another and leads to God, where there is no more limited space.

Such poetry might have seemed like a purely theological treatise if Dante had not littered his journey through the world of ideas with living images. The meaning of the "Divine Comedy", where the world and all its phenomena are described and depicted, and the allegory carried out is only slightly indicated, was very often reinterpreted when analyzing the poem. under obviously allegorical images they understood either the struggle of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, or politics, the vices of the Roman church, or, in general, the events of modern history. This best proves how far Dante was from the empty play of fantasy and how he was wary of drowning out poetry under allegory. It is desirable that his commentators should be as circumspect in their analysis of the Divine Comedy as he was.

Statue of Dante in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence

Dante's Inferno - Analysis

"I think it's for your good that you should follow me. I will show the way and lead you through the countries of eternity, where you will hear the cries of despair, you will see the mournful shadows that lived on earth before you, calling for the death of the soul after the death of the body. Then you will also see others rejoicing in the midst of the purifying flame, because they hope to gain access to the habitation of the blessed through suffering. If you wish to ascend to this dwelling, then a soul worthier than mine will lead you there. She will stay with you when I leave. By the will of the supreme lord, I, who never knew his laws, was not allowed to show the way to his city. The whole universe obeys him, according to his kingdom there. There is his chosen city (sua città), there stands his throne above the clouds. Oh, blessed are those who are sought by him!”

According to Virgil, Dante will have to know in "Hell", not in words, but in deeds, all the disaster of a person who has fallen away from God, and see all the vanity of earthly greatness and ambition. To do this, the poet depicts in the "Divine Comedy" underworld, where he connects everything he knows from mythology, history and his own experience of human violation moral law. Dante inhabits this realm with people who have never sought to achieve a pure and spiritual existence through labor and struggle, and divides them into circles, showing, by their relative distance from each other, various degrees of sins. These circles of Hell, as he himself says in the eleventh song, personify the moral teaching (ethics) of Aristotle about man's deviation from divine law.

In search of harmony. Art history works different years Dmitrieva Nina Alexandrovna

Purgatory (About Dante's Divine Comedy)

August Rodin. Walking man. 1900

The idea of ​​Purgatory is close to the human soul. Purgatory is clearer than Hell and Paradise. Although Hell is easily imagined sensually because of the many similarities to it in life. Someone even expressed the idea that our earthly existence is the stage of Hell that the soul goes through.

Dante had no shortage of models of Hell, and the first edging of the Divine Comedy turned out to be the most plastic for him. But the moral sense opposes Hell, refuses to recognize it as a manifestation of Divine justice. Hence the ambivalent mood of Dante, traveling through outcast villages, his constant fluctuations between condemning sinners and pity for them, and even undisguised delight - for example, before Farinata or Ulysses. Without this duality, Dante's Hell would be worth little. Hell absolute, eternal, excluding compassion, is morally unimaginable.

On the other hand, absolute and eternal bliss - Paradise - is too contradictory to all our experience for the imagination to cope with. You can guess about it from the moments of visions, dreams, mystical insights (always - moments, and never - something long). Existence outside of time is not given even in visionary experience: there is also “first” and “later”. “But the time of sleep is rushing, and here it is fitting to put an end to it,” says the penultimate song of “Paradise”. If it rushes in Paradise, then what changes does it bring? If none, then does not “divine boredom” lie in wait for the righteous? Eternally under the bushes of the Gardens of Eden, eternally singing praises and hosannas... It seems that only the Black Monk in Chekhov's story said something different. To Kovrin’s question, what is the purpose of eternal life, the monk replied: “True pleasure is in knowledge, and immortal life will present innumerable and inexhaustible sources for knowledge, and in this sense it is said: in the house of my Father there are many abodes.

This mysterious and beautiful promise of many abodes "in the Father's house" makes one think that eternal bliss is not immobility, but only "a new earth and a new heaven." You need to believe in it, but how to imagine it? .. Both poles - Hell and Paradise - are difficult to access: the first - human heart, the second - to human understanding.

But Purgatory is proportionate to man. It quenches his thirst for justice, redemption and movement. After all, we are always on the road, always waiting. When we are young, we think we know what we are waiting for. But even in old age we continue to wait, no longer knowing what, but in essence, we are waiting and thirsting for Purgatory. What is more desirable than the opportunity to look at the past from a new height, to understand where the mistake was, to voluntarily atone for it, to pay for the bad in the firm hope of the best? Even if you just wait and endure, as in Prepurgatory, just to know that you will endure and wait.

It’s not so bad to wait at the foot of that mountain that I dreamed of in prophetic dream Dante Alighieri. A huge truncated cone rises in the middle of the ocean in the southern hemisphere of the Earth, where none of the Europeans had yet been in Dante's time. Now scientists are at a loss as to how the poet learned about the sparkling constellation of the Southern Cross, which captivated his gaze, as soon as he, following Virgil, got out of the bowels of the earth and saw the night sky - "the delightful color of oriental sapphire, accumulated in the airy height."

The entire first canto of "Purgatory" is, as it were, a deep, blissful sigh of relief. After wandering around the circles of the infernal funnel to the roar and cries of the executed, after the travelers crawled, groping their way through the thickness of the earth, clinging to Lucifer's shaggy fur with crusts of ice frozen into it - finally a light! Finally they come out of the underground hollow to Coast. The shore is deserted, but such a delightful expanse, trembling with living fires, above and around them! At this moment, Dante does not ask anything, it seems that he does not need anything - just stand, breathe, look at unfamiliar luminaries.

But now an old man with a blackish-gray beard is approaching them - Cato of Utica, an adamant Roman republican who committed suicide when the republic fell. Although he was a pagan, and even a suicide, so by all the rules his place in Hell, he "worn out by miraculous power" for his devotion to freedom and was made the guardian of the Prepurgatory, as Minos was the guardian of Hell. Severity befits the guard. Cato sternly asks the arrivals where and why they are here. Virgil answers hastily, even obsequiously, makes Dante kneel - bends him straight with his hand. It is felt that Virgil fears that Cato would not forbid them to visit the "seven kingdoms." Cato is only a watchman - but who does not know how much he sometimes depends on a simple watchman!

To appease and soften him, Virgil mentions Marcia, Cato's beloved wife, who is with him, Virgil, in Limbo, and conveys her greetings to Cato. But this does not impress Cato: he dryly says that he is now indifferent to Marcia, but if Virgil is really sent by a heavenly wife (that is, Beatrice), then there is nothing to interpret and waste time on inappropriate flattering speeches. Let Virgil gird Dante with the reed of humility and wash his face properly, and when the sun rises they themselves will see the way. With these words, the elder leaves; one can guess that he is not very pleased with the female whims of Beatrice, although he obeys them.

Virgil and Dante gleefully rush to do what they are told, tear the flexible cane, twist the belt. In the meantime, dawn is coming. The undulating surface of the sea and the path leading along the slope are more and more clearly distinguishable. Dante's keen eyes notice a flying white sheen on the sea. It's an angel "God's bird" waving huge white wings like sails, it leads a boat with newly arrived souls to the shore, singing a psalm in chorus. Having landed them on the shore, the heavenly helmsman immediately sails away, and the souls are confused: they do not know where to go. Someone asks Virgil where is the way up the mountain and how can they climb the almost sheer cliff. Virgil replies that they themselves have just arrived and everything is new to them too.

Souls examine Dante with curiosity, noticing "breath on the lips" marveling that he, alive, wormed his way among the shadows. One of them steps out of the crowd and heads towards Dante with a smile and open arms. Dante recognizes his friend, the musician and singer Casella. He wants to hug him, but his arms cover the void: Casella is incorporeal. This does not prevent them from having a friendly, joyful conversation. Dante says that he hopes to return here again (that is, after death), and Casella says that he had to wait a long time to leave for Mount Purgatory, but now the angel-pilot freely takes everyone except those condemned to eternal torment (in 1300, the anniversary of Catholic Church: remission of sins for the living and relief for the dead). It's about O anniversary year- a short explanation.

Casella does not complain and does not consider it an insult that he was not taken for a long time: he knows that the angel acts in accordance with the dictates of the highest truth. And yet - why did he have to wait so long, and not even in the Prepurgatory, but somewhere "at the mouth of the Tiber"? The poem does not explain why. According to ancient beliefs, the soul remains for some time close to the place where it was physically, and the longer, the more it is attached to the earth. Casella, endowed with the gift of chanting and who died young, was probably strongly devoted to earthly joys.

Dante asks him to sing one of those tender songs that, on earth, calmed anxiety and relieved fatigue. And Casella, without forcing himself to ask for a long time, sings “Love, in the soul talking with me…”- Dante's canzone from The Feast. Dante, Virgil and the whole crowd of shadows listen with pleasure, drinking in every sound. Really, how beautiful it is - the sunrise over the sea, the meeting of old friends, the music ...

But the stern Cato is dissatisfied. And so the order is broken by the lawless appearance of Virgil and Dante, and then there are the songs. He interrupts the singing with a grumpy shout, reproaches careless souls for delaying instead of going where they are supposed to. The shadows scatter in all directions, just as pigeons pecking at grain scatter when something frightens them.

“Our pace was also hasty…” Virgil almost runs, Dante barely keeps up with him. He sees that the teacher is embarrassed, dissatisfied with himself, reproaches himself for having listened, succumbed to the sweet temptation. Perhaps this once again reminded the poet of his pagan nature, because of which he is doomed to a foggy Limbo and will never be honored with the contemplation of the Deity. Dante, however, does not know this bitter feeling and, apparently, finds no sin in listening to Casella's singing. He runs not because we are driven by remorse, but simply trying not to lose sight of Virgil, afraid to be left without a leader.

Virgil slowed down and they walked side by side. And suddenly Dante begins to feel that he is still alone. Because he sees under his feet only one shadow - his own, and Virgil does not cast a shadow. And Dante, a living person, becomes scared; it was as if for the first time he realized that his leader and beloved teacher, walking next to him, is dead: he does not exist, he does not exist.

In hell, Dante forgot about it - there was eternal darkness and there were no falling shadows. And now, at sunlight, on solid ground ... Dante says nothing, but Virgil, noticing a look full of horror, guesses his thoughts. Yes, he says, answering the unspoken, my ashes will long rest where it is evening, in Naples. But I'm here with you. There is nothing to be surprised that I "I do not overshadow the day": for even through the circles of heaven the ray passes unhindered. Another thing is surprising: that we, incorporeal, are nevertheless subject to cold, heat and bodily sorrows. This is one of the great mysteries that the mind cannot comprehend. Not everything is accessible to the mind, it should not break through the limits set for it: let people confine themselves to knowing what There is, without asking - Why. Plato and Aristotle longed to comprehend everything with reason - and the thirst turned out to be futile, unquenchable, turned into eternal sadness, to which they are doomed in Limbo. Remembering Plato and Aristotle, Virgil bitterly falls silent, looking down. Dante does not object to him - he never argues with the teacher, but, judging by his constant inquisitive questions, he himself is not alien to the Aristotelian thirst for all understanding, all explanations and secretly hopes that the mind can be reconciled with Revelation.

Both in hell and in purgatory, Virgil answers Dante's questions as best he can - or maybe he is within reason. But as soon as the question rests on these limits, Virgil says: Beatrice will explain this to you better. The closer to the top of purgatory, the more often he sends an excessively inquisitive student to Beatrice, the bearer of Divine Revelation.

So they go on, looking for the way up, but everywhere they come across a steep cliff. Again they meet a crowd of shadows - these are no longer newcomers, they have been here for a long time, and Virgil asks them how to get through. Dante compares this crowd with a flock of sheep: "as the sheep come out of the fold..." All in a crowd follow those who are in front, and if the front ones stop - and everyone stops, if they are the first to recoil back - everyone retreats. Timid and meek, like sheep, they behaved differently on earth: there they were obstinate, but managed to repent before death, although they were excommunicated from the Church. They must now remain in Prepurgatory, at the foot of the mountain, for a period thirty times the time of their excommunication.

Among them is the handsome Manfred, the son of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, an implacable opponent of the papacy. Manfred tells his story and asks Dante to return to earth and tell his daughter Constanza that her father is not in Hell; and let her pray for him, since by the prayers of the righteous, the waiting period in Prepurgatory can be shortened. Again, a new reason for Dante's curiosity - he recalls that in one verse of the Aeneid it is said: "Do not hope to bend the imperious will of the gods with prayers" - and asks: are the hopes of waiting souls not in vain? Virgil answers: no, they are not in vain, for the prayers of Christians are effective, unlike the prayers of the pagans. However, Beatrice will explain to you better.

Virgil and Dante pass through the crevices, trudging from ledge to ledge, but still remain within the Prepurgatory. Virgil encourages Dante, saying: the mountain is arranged in such a way that at first the climb is difficult, but the higher, the easier it will be. Every now and then they meet crowds and groups of shadows, doomed to different waiting periods: here they died without repentance by a violent death, and simply “negligent”, careless, who generally thought little about repentance, although they did not sin too much. Among the latter, Dante, with cheerful surprise, sees his friend, the Florentine Belacqua, a skilled craftsman musical instruments, a notorious lazy person. Here too Belacqua sits in a pose of lazy languor, with his head on his knees, and is in no hurry: he still has to wait a long time - the term of earthly life - before the angel admits him to the ordeals. He's one of those people who doesn't mind waiting.

Others, recognizing Dante alive, surround him, bombard him with requests, give instructions to his relatives. He feels like lucky player in the dice, which, after winning, is pressed by a crowd of petitioners - “who will come in from the front, who will touch from behind, who will screw a little word for himself from the side”,- and he gets rid of them with handouts (this comparison begins the sixth canto). In the end, Dante gets into the role so much that Virgil is forced to sternly rebuke him: "Follow your own path and let the people say what they want."

They meet many more in Prepurgatory, familiar and unfamiliar, listen to the stories of their life and death, are present at the night mysteries in the valley "earthly rulers" there those who were at enmity in life sing hymns in agreement, and green-winged angels with flaming blades protect them from the ancient serpent of enmity and strife, which lies in wait for former kings here too. Then Dante falls into a deep sleep.

During sleep, Lucia, one of his heavenly patronesses, takes him to the cherished entrance to Purgatory, where he climbs three steps: white, black and scarlet - and the guardian of the threshold with a radiant face unlocks the gates in front of him, drawing seven "P" in chalk on forehead of Dante. "R" means "peccatum" - sin. In the further ascent after each circle, the next angel erases one “P” with its wing: to the top of the mountain - to the earthly paradise - the traveler comes cleansed of sins. Accompanied by the faithful Virgil and as if he were a heavenly tourist, Dante goes through all seven circles in the shortest time but purifying souls expiate their sins for a long time, for centuries. True, compared with eternity, what do centuries mean? And what does suffering mean when there is light ahead?

The expiatory sufferings in Purgatory are not at all joking: the proud wander, bent under the weight of stone slabs; envious people have their eyelids sewn up with iron thread, “as for taming they are sewn up to wild hawks”; the angry wander in thick bitter smoke; misers (as well as spenders) are defeated face to the ground ("The soul is fused to the ashes. Mine" - they sing); gluttons atone for sin with the pangs of hunger and thirst.

Virgil tells Dante that "the whole creation ... is full of love, natural or spiritual." "Natural cannot err" - that is, she strives for what is beneficial for her: for light, for food. But the second - spiritual - can be mistaken in purpose, therefore love is the source of both good and evil. The proud, the envious and the angry love "foreign evil" that is, they see in it a condition of their own happiness: they need "tread on the neighbor" or take revenge on him in order to establish himself. Another kind "bad love" love for deceitful, empty pleasures: gluttons, misers and spenders, voluptuaries indulge in it. In the middle between the two are "dismal" whose love for the good was insufficient, sluggish: they "coldly and lazily lingered in the accomplishment of good deeds", but here, in Purgatory, they do not know peace, they rush tirelessly.

The punishment of voluptuaries here is almost harder than in Hell: they walk like a wall of raging fire, through which Dante does not dare to pass for a long time, even in the name of meeting Beatrice.

However, the ordeals of Purgatory are experienced in a completely different way than the torments of Hell, and not only because they are relieved by hope. The agony of Purgatory symbolizes remorse; the penitent voluntarily surrender to what they resisted in life: the proud to self-humiliation, the gluttons to hunger. And in Hell, the executed do, in essence, the same thing as in life: they hunger, fight, bite, deceive, exchange nature with snakes. They are characterized by impenitence, so they are in Hell. As you can see, the difference between the inhabitants of Hell and Purgatory is not so much in the degree of sinfulness, but in the fact that some felt the urge to repent, sinning, while others did not. Otherwise, it is not clear why the venerable educated Brunetto Latini, Dante's teacher, ended up in Hell for sodomite sin, while others guilty of the same atone for him in the seventh circle.