Dante's Divine Comedy
「神曲」では、最初にダンテは地獄へ、そして煉獄を経て、天国へと旅します。そこには歴史上や神話、聖書に出てくる人たちが登場し、ダンテや同伴者と対話します。数多くの神や化け物や詩人や哲学者、貴族、市民まで登場し、また全世界に影響を与え続けている作品です。西洋美術を鑑賞するときに、その知識があると解釈がとても豊かになるでしょう。(English) In The Divine Comedy, Dante travels first to Hell, then through Purgatory to Heaven. There, historical, mythological, and biblical figures appear and interact with Dante and his companions. Numerous gods and monsters, poets, philosophers, aristocrats, and even citizens appear in this work, which also continues to influence the whole world. When appreciating Western art, knowledge of it will significantly enrich your interpretation.
Welcome to the world of Dante's Divine Comedy! Synopsis of the author Dante Alighieri
A)
1)
The composition consists of three parts: the Inferno, Purgatory, and Heaven.
Each is a work of three lines of rhyming verse (or Terza rima) and 33 songs.
It is based on the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
*The Trinity is a Christian concept that refers to
1. Father (= God the Father, God the Father)
2. Son (= Son of God, Christ the Son)
3. Spirit (= Holy Spirit, Holy God)
The teaching that the three are "one (=Only God, One God)."
*Three-rhyme phraseology refers to the form in which three lines form one series, and the middle rhyme of the previous series is repeated at the beginning and end of the next series.
It is a magnificent poem with a total of 14,233 lines and is constructed by repeating this all the way through.
B)
2)
The first world Dante goes to is Hell.
The story is about Dante's journey from there, through purgatory, to heaven.
The setting is not about Dante after his death, but Dante was able to experience that world while he was still alive.
During his journey, many historical, mythological, and biblical characters appear.
Each speaks about his life and thoughts, and Dante and his companion interact with each of them.
3)
The original title translates as 'Divina Commedia' or 'Sacred Comedy.'
Dante himself named it 'Commedia.'
It is a so-called comedy.
However, literary works of the time had either a happy ending (comedy) or an unhappy ending (tragedy).
This work is a comedy because it is about Dante, who sees heaven at the end, so the ending is not unhappy.
It was Bocaccio who added 'Divina' (= sacred).
3)
Synopsis - Hell.
The Italian word for 'hell' is 'inferno.'
It describes the 'hell' of the afterlife, divided into nine major areas.
It depicts various historical and mythological figures, sometimes recently deceased in Dante's time, depending on the sins they committed during their lives.
The story opens with 35-year-old Dante waking up in a dark forest.
He meets the ancient poet Vergilius, whom he looks up to as his teacher, and follows his directions to visit Hell in stages.
4)
In Hell, the punishment to be received is determined according to the sins committed during life.
For example, the soul of a person who indulged in the sin of lust before birth is drifting in the wind.
Those who have saved or spent too much money are forever clashing with each other, going back and forth along the same path.
Suicides are made to look like twisted trees.
Each is depicted as receiving a punishment that will never be released forever.
5)
Overall, nine valleys are formed in total, in the form of a staircase, wider at the top and narrower towards the bottom.
At the bottom is the circle of those who have committed the most sinful and treacherous acts, and at the center of this circle is the dreaded Satanic Great Lucifer.
*Lucifer is a 'fallen angel.'
Long ago, he was the holiest angel in the service of God.
But he was cast to earth for rebelling against God.
The world of 'hell' is the big hole made by the impact of Lucifer's being dropped.
And what was created when the impact lifted him on the other side is the 'purgatory' that appears next.
6)
Having left the depths of Hell, the pair struggled up the precipice, through the center of the earth, to the planet's surface.
When they finally made it through and saw the starry sky, it was: 'Purgatory.'
C)
7)
"Purgatory" is "Purgatorio" in Italian.
It is an intermediate world where ordinary people go, who cannot go to Heaven, but not so much to hell.
It refers to a world where people can gain the right to enter Heaven by undergoing various sufferings and punishments to purify their sins in life.
The souls in this place are those who converted and prayed to God before death or were saved because of their excellent conduct during life.
Nevertheless, they are imperfect souls and must be cleansed of their sins as they climb the paths around the steep mountains.
The system is such that if their family and acquaintances offer prayers for their souls in this life, they can reach the top of the mountain much quicker.
*convert
=To recognize the wrongness of past deeds and attitudes and change one's mind. Conversion. Contrition.
8)
On the way, an angel appears and inscribes seven 'P's (=peccato = sin) on Dante's forehead.
These Ps represent the seven deadly sins: pride, jealousy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust.
The souls in purgatory are cleansed of these sins as they ascend the mountain path.
As Dante progresses, the angel gradually erases the letter P on his forehead, and his body becomes lighter with each erasure.
Finally, he meets Beatrice at the "Paradise on Earth" summit.
Here the guiding role changes from Vergilius to Beatrice.
After hearing a mysterious prophecy of future events from her, we continue to the Paradise section.
D)
9)
The Italian word for 'heaven' is 'Paradiso.'
Dante himself has told his readers that the Heaven Psalm is difficult.
The previous 'Inferno' and 'Purgatory' are full of descriptions of scenes and personal stories of the characters.
That was easy to imagine concretely and often in a conversational style.
However, in 'Heaven,' there is a more extended period in which Beatrice, the guide, is solely explaining and lecturing Dante's questions.
Beatrice and the characters in the story have very long lines, so much so that some songs end with one person's lines.
10)
Heaven is made up of the following ten heavenly realms.
Moonlight heaven
Mercury heaven
Venusian Heaven
Solar Heaven
Mars heaven
Jupiter heaven
Saturn heaven
Sidereal Heaven
Primeval Heaven
Supreme Heaven (= "Empyreo" is Esperanto. It means 'supreme heaven' in ancient astronomy, also 'heaven.')
11)
In this order, Beatrice takes us to meet the souls of wise souls, the souls of warriors who fought for Christianity, and the saints.
In the book's second half, there is also a dictated theological consultation by the saints.
After clearing one after another, Dante comes to a scene in the highest Heaven, where a group of angels and blessed ones sit in a circle like roses.
Beatrice has somehow returned to her seat among them and is crowned with eternal light.
Dante sends Beatrice his utmost thanks for her help and hard work and wishes her future blessings.
12)
From that point onwards, St. Bernard(= Bernard of Menthon) takes over as a guide, and finally, Dante catches a fleeting glimpse of God.
He said the figure's description could not be put into words, nor could it be committed to memory.
It is like a person who has dreamt a dream, where only strong impressions remain in mind, but the specifics of the invention cannot be recalled.
But although she cannot remember the image, the sweet feeling she got at that time is firmly etched in her mind.
13)
The final line concludes, "God is the love that moves the sun and other stars."
14)
It sometimes jokes that Heaven is so dazzling that you can't keep your eyes open.
Indeed, throughout the entire chapter, there are many descriptions of vital, shining, and white objects, and the images that come to mind are often pure and lofty.
E)
15)
Why is the Divine Comedy so important?
In the 13th and 14th centuries, when Dante lived, books were usually written in Latin, the common language of intellectuals.
Such books could only be read by those who were relatively wealthy and of high social standing.
Most ordinary people had nothing to do with them at all.
However, Dante wrote the Divine Comedy in the Tuscan dialect that was spoken at the time.
And this language is believed to have been the source of the standard Italian commonly used in Italy today.
So modern Italians can read the original text as written by Dante and understand the meaning.
So Dante is considered the "father of the Italian language."
16)
Embodied worldview.
Dante's concrete and detailed descriptions, especially of 'hell,' had a significant impact on people.
Until then, we had somehow understood the afterlife in the Bible.
However, they were confronted with concrete descriptions of the afterlife, such as: "This person was like this in life, so this is what will happen to them, and people who have done terrible things will suffer terrible things like this."
17)
Furthermore, the Divine Comedy is not only about God and the biblical stories about him.
Apart from gods and saints, there are ancient poets and philosophers such as Aristotle and Wergilius, actual popes, aristocrats and citizens, gods and monsters from Greek and Roman mythology, and even knowledge of astronomy.
The work was meticulously constructed based on this broad and deep knowledge, so it was able to appeal to the sensibilities of many more people.
18)
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 -1375) was a great admirer of Dante and wrote commentaries and lectures on the Divine Comedy.
Michelangelo represented Dante's Inferno when he painted The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel.
As well as art, Tchaikovsky composed a piece called 'Francesca da Rimini' about the tragic love story in the Inferno.
In Japan, the Divine Comedy has influenced many famous people, including Soseki Natsume and Nakaya Nakahara.
The Divine Comedy is a work that continues to influence not only Italy but also all of Europe and Asia, including Japan, and has had a vast influence from that time to the present day.
When appreciating Western art, knowledge of it will significantly enrich your interpretation.
Welcome to the world of Dante's Divine Comedy! Synopsis of the author Dante Alighieri
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-33325774
Tchaikovsky, Francesca Da Rimini op.32 (Bernstein, NYP)
Divine Comedy - Wikipedia
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A5%9E%E6%9B%B2