Questions tagged [divine-comedy]
Questions about Dante Alighieri's narrative poem 'Divina Commedia' ('Divine Comedy'), written in the years 1308 – 1320. Use this tag with the tags [dante-alighieri] and [italian-literature].
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Why is Dante's Magnum Opus Called a 'Divine Comedy'?
I can see little reason for Dante to name his work a 'divine comedy.' At least with Inferno, I can better see it as a tragedy. Why did he choose to name his work as he did?
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What did Dante mean by "Papè Satan, papè Satan aleppe" in the Inferno?
So, I was recently re-reading the Inferno, and I have come across this quote which I can't make sense of.
"Papè Satan, papè Satan aleppe," (VII.1)
It seemed rather weird that it wouldn't ...
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What is the planet that "leads men straight on every road" in Dante's "Inferno"?
At the beginning of Inferno, Dante comes across a hill, which is being lit by the rays of a "planet":
But at the far end of that valley of evil
whose maze had sapped my very heart with fear!...
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Dante Alleghieri's Divine Comedy "has been translated into the most languages in the world & top printed work after the Bible"?
There is a MOOC about Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy by the The University of Naples Federico II, in which a certain professor named Raffaele Giglio starts a video (published in September 2017) in ...
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Is there evidence that the fate of some "A Song of Ice and Fire" characters was inspired by the "Divine Comedy"'s contrapasso?
In the Inferno in Dante's Divine Comedy, sinners are punished by a process that either resembles or contrast with the major sin they committed. For example, the violent are submerged in a river of ...
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Why the phrasing "where the sun is silent" in Dante's "Inferno"?
I'm reading Dante's Inferno, and towards the beginning, I came across this line:
And as one who is eager in gaining, and, when the time arrives that makes him lose, weeps and afflicts himself in all ...
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What does "were with him when Divine Love first moved those fair things" mean in Dante's "Inferno"?
Towards the beginning of the Inferno, when the narrator encounters the leapord, lion, and wolf, we find this passage:
The time was at the beginning of the morning; and the sun was mounting up with ...
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What is the oldest non-biographical work of literature in which the author is also a protagonist?
Dante's Divine Comedy, written in the years 1308-1320, is a long narrative poem in which the poet is also a protagonist in the story. The story also includes many real characters, such as Virgil and ...
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What does Dante mean here?
When touring Limbo with Virgil, Virgil tells Dante that he and the rest of the virtuous pagans are condemned in Limbo to live eternally without hope. Dante asks his guide,
[…] "Dear sir, my master,"...
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How did Dante know so much about geography and astronomy in his Purgatorio?
This answer on the History of Science & Maths SE says that Dante's Purgatorio contains a lot of what would now be considered "worldbuilding" which seems fairly advanced for the time: ...
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How much time did one canto in Dante's Divine Comedy represent (if any)?
Dante's Divine comedy is divided up in Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise) – each of these consists of 33 cantos. Now I'm wondering if there is any indication about how ...
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Where did Boccaccio refer to Dante's Comedia or Commedia as the Divine Comedy?
The English Wikipedia article about Dante's Divine Comedy contains the following paragraph, which contains a statement that has no source (emphasis mine):
The work was originally simply titled ...
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Dante's Inferno reference in Much Ado About Nothing
My professor asked me this for an assignment. It was to identify a Dante's Inferno reference in Much Ado About Nothing. I don't know what he meant by this. Where is this reference? Does not have to be ...
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Free will in Dante's Divine Comedy
I am reading Dante's Divine Comedy. In many cantos, souls predict Dante's future, and it is said that God knows everything past, present and future and that souls can enter heaven only if they are ...
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Reference for Dante Quote
I have heard that the quote “The Devil is not as black as he is painted.” is due to Dante. Can someone please provide me a with a reference for this? I am guessing that it is somewhere in the Divine ...
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Should I read the original text or the guide to the text first?
As the title states: if you have a guide book to reading an author or a specific work, should you read it before, after, or alongside the work itself?
I've wondered this for a while in a general sense ...
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What does the poet's introduction in Dante's Inferno mean?
In part 1 one of Dante's Inferno, "The Dark Wood", the narrator is introduced to a figure:
At sight of him in that friendless waste I cried:
"Have pity on me, whatever thing you are,
...
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Who was indignant at Dante’s behaviour to the sinners in the “Inferno”?
In several places in the Inferno, the narrator, representing the poet Dante, behaves badly to the sinners suffering in hell. In Canto VIII, Dante is being ferried across the marshy Styx, in which the ...
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Who is "the Adversary of all Evil" in Dante's "Inferno"?
What's the meaning of "the Adversary of all Evil" in line 16 of Canto 2 of Inferno by Dante Alighieri, translated by John Ciardi? Here's the context (lines 13–24):
You sang how the father ...
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