It is an amazing story with powerful, terrifying, and wonderful images, however taking the time to understand the politics and theology behind it greatly enhances the experience. It’s the ultimate midlife crisis with a happy ending.
Midway through his life Dante wakes up in a dark wood, alone.
How he got there is a mystery, when he arrived is unknown, and his body and soul are seized by fear. Dante searches for a way out and begins to run toward a hill in the distance. Suddenly his path is blocked by Leopard. He sprints away, only to have his path now cut off by a lion followed by a ravenous wolf approaching from the other direction. Panicked, Dante flees back into the dark wood and falls to the ground, terrified.
Out of the fog, a shade, or ghost of a man appears and approaches Dante. As Dante begs for mercy, the shade introduces himself as the poet Virgil who offers to lead Dante out of the dark wood. Unfortunately the way out is through Hell. Having little choice, Dante follows Virgil, beginning his journey.
Next– Do I really want to do this?
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nice site, I like the concept.
Cheers!
I'm under the impression that Dante's "Inferno" is the "Divine Comedy". Are they not
one and the same book?. and why was the name changed to "Inferno" - so gruesome sounding.
I was well into reading
the "Divine Comedy" and my brother threw the book out. I'll never know how he gets to Heaven.
Oh well, nice site. Dante was great and the book should be required high school reading.
Quite interesting. Nice picture, but I dont see where his path is blocked..
In response to #2, Mary Dare:
Inferno is only the first part of the Divine Comedy & is the part that most people are familiar with ... the other two parts are Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso (Paradise).
Each of the three books/poems is divided into "cantos" - there are 34 cantos in Inferno and 33 each in Purgatorio and Paradiso ... so it totals up to 100 in all, a nice round number! :)
I found this site through facebook - awesome site! keep up the work - perhaps take a look at my virtual tour of the Inferno here: http://foxtwin.com/inferno and use it at your will - i'll be checking back here for sure!
After life dramas and comedies are always interesting.