Clara Chandler Takes On Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno

THE DIVINE COMEDY: INFERNO
By Dante Alighieri
Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Divine Comedy was written by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) over a fourteen-year period from 1306 – 21. It takes place between Good Friday and Easter Sunday in the year 1300.

Nine Levels of Hell

From Purgatory to Cocytus, Dante travels through the Nine Levels of Hell in search of redemption and his beloved Beatrice. For an excellent breakdown of each of the nine levels, click here.

The Movie

Hollywood cashed in on Dante’s Inferno with a 1935 film starring Spencer Tracy as a carnival barker who travels the rungs of Hell. Rita Hayworth dances (credited under the name Rita Cansino. IMDB link.

Art and Literature
Artists and writers alike have been inspired by The Divine Comedy for nearly seven hundred years. This painting, "Dante in the Underworld," painted by Anselm Feuerbach (1829-80) represents the Inferno itself.

The text, available in many languages, remains a best seller. Written originally in Italian and translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dante’s Inferno is a classic that appeals universally across generational and situational striae.

William Blake drew several renderings of aspects of the Inferno. One such drawing of Lust remains a favorite.

Web Sites
I found an informative site here. “For The Hell Of It” provides a fairly comprehensive overview of both Dante’s life and his work, and a general description of the Inferno and levels of Hell described within.

Another site shares photos the web mistress took of The Duomo in Florence here. I was able to get a real sense of the complexity of this artwork by reading her descriptions and viewing the photos. Good stuff.

Video Games
Dante couldn’t have imagined the extent of marketing available based on his poem. I found a board game based on The Divine Comedy. There was even an early Playstation game loosely based on The Inferno. It’s in its third edition by now.

Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno
Dante has successfully captured the heart, soul, and imaginations of millions through this one epic poem. Within the verse itself he acknowledges that literary works have the power to preserve the memory of individuals for all time. Some characters within the Inferno beg Dante to mention their names so they won’t be forgotten. Some he mentions; others he relegates to obscurity.

Don’t underestimate the power of the pen.

THE TEST

What inspired this column on Dante and The Divine Comedy was a test I took this week. Simply enough, it’s the Dante Inferno Test. I invite those of you brave enough to peer into your own souls and learn how you rate to take The Test and post your results in the Comments Thread below by copying and pasting the chart you’ll receive with your results.

Here are my results:
The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Moderate
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Extreme
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

I’m damned to the Seventh Level of Hell which is, the site says, “Guarded by the Minotaur, who snarls in fury, and encircled within the river Phlegethon, filled with boiling blood. The violent, the assasins, the tyrants, and the war-mongers lament their pitiless mischiefs in the river, while centaurs armed with bows and arrows shoot those who try to escape their punishment. The stench here is overpowering.

“This level is also home to the wood of the suicides- stunted and gnarled trees with twisting branches and poisoned fruit. At the time of final judgement, their bodies will hang from their branches. In those branches the Harpies, foul birdlike creatures with human faces, make their nests.

“Beyond the wood is scorching sand where those who committed violence against God and nature are showered with flakes of fire that rain down against their naked bodies. Blasphemers and sodomites writhe in pain, their tongues more loosed to lamentation, and out of their eyes gushes forth their woe. Usurers, who followed neither nature nor art, also share company in the Seventh Level.”

…I guess it could have been worse. I could have been relegated to the Tenth Level of Hell where editors constantly reject your work and give conflicting advice on how to improve it. Oops, I’m already there.




Come back next week when Clara Chandler Takes On – well, you didn’t think I’d actually TELL you what, did you?? Be prepared for a treat. And if you haven’t read this month’s story yet, click to read “The Sugar Blues” to learn which level of Hell Sally Ann goes to. Tell her Clara sentcha.