Divina

Commedia
By Dante Alighieri
 Durante degli Alighieri

Born Mid-May to mid-June, c. 1265

Florence, Republic of Florence

About the Died September 13/14, 1321

(aged about 56)
Author: Ravenna, Papal States

Dante Alighieri Occupation Statesman, poet, language

theorist, political theorist
Nationality Italian
Period Late Middle Ages
Literary movement Dolce Stil Novo

Dante was an Italian poet and moral philosopher best known for the epic poem The Divine
Comedy, which comprises sections representing the three tiers of the Christian afterlife:
purgatory, heaven, and hell.
This poem, a great work of medieval literature and considered the greatest work of literature
composed in Italian, is a philosophical Christian vision of mankind’s eternal fate. Dante is seen
as the father of modern Italian, and his works have flourished since before his 1321 death.
 The Divine Comedy is composed of 14,233 lines that are divided into three canticas (Italian
plural cantiche) .Composed of:

Stucture:
Story
Inferno Purgatorio Paradiso
(Hell) (Purgatory) (Paradise)

- each consisting of 33 cantos (Italian plural canti). An initial canto, serving as an introduction to
the poem and generally considered to be part of the first cantica, brings the total number of
cantos to 100.

Additionally, the verse scheme used, terza rima, is hendecasyllabic (lines of eleven syllables),
with the lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme aba, bcb, cdc, ded, ....
 Dante Pilgrim has not been a good boy. His dead love Beatrice asks the Virgin Mary to
help him see the error of his ways. Mary accepts and Dante is sent on a three-day trip through
Sypnosis: Hell, and on up Mount Purgatory on the other side of the world, and finally to Heaven in the
sky. He is spiritually lost at the beginning of the story, so he needs guides to help him along the
Divine path.

Comedy

Virgil Beatrice Saint Bernard

(1st Guide) (2nd Guide) (3rd Guide)

*(Virgil) – author *The woman he *(Saint Bernard)

of Aeneid adored while she Namesake of the
lived. loyal dog – who
takes him to see
GOD.
Inferno
[inˈfərnō]
▬a large fire that is dangerously out of control.
 Circle 1: Those in Limbo
Circle 2: The Lustful
Circle 3: The Gluttonous
Circle 4: The Hoarders
The physical aspect of Hell is a Circle 5: The Wrathful
gigantic funnel that leads to the very Circle 6: The Heretics
center of the Earth.
Structure: Circle 7: The Violent
Ring 1:Murderers, Robberers & Plunders
Ring 2:Suicides and those harmful to the world
Inferno According to the legend used by Ring 3:Against GOD, Nature & Art
Dante, this huge, gigantic hole in the Circle 8: The Fraudulent
Earth was made when God threw Trench I: Panderers & Seducers
Trench II: Flatterers
Satan (Lucifer) and his band of rebels
Trench III: Simoniacs
out of Heaven with such force that Trench IV: Sorcerers
they created a giant hole in the Earth. Trench V: Barrators
Trench VI: Hypocrites
Trench VII: Thieves
Satan was cast all the way to the very Trench VIII: Evil Counselors
center of the Earth, has remained Trench IX: Sowers of Discord
there since, and will remain there Trench X: Falsifiers
through all of eternity. Circle 9: Traitors
Region 1: Kindred
Region 2: Country
Region 3: Guests
Region 4: Lords
CANTO I The Dark worlds of Error
The Inferno follows the wanderings
of the poet Dante as he strays off
the rightful and straight path of
moral truth and gets lost in a dark
wood. And that, folks, is just the
beginning.

Dante

At the age of thirty-five, on the night

of Good Friday in the year 1300,
Dante finds himself lost in a dark
wood and full of fear.

Dante in the savage wood

CANTO I The Dark worlds of Error

Just as three wild animals threaten to attack him, Dante is

rescued by the ghost of Virgil, a celebrated Roman poet
and also Dante’s idol.

Virgil
Leopard
Lion

She-wolf

The panther at the beginning of the ascent The lion suddently confronts Dante The she-wolf appears
CANTO II The Descent

Virgil asked the deceased love-of-

Dante’s-life, Beatrice, to send
someone down to help him. And
When asked why in hell he came, Virgil voila! Virgil to the rescue! He’s an
answers that the head honchos of appropriate guide because he’s very
Heaven—the Virgin Mary and Santa much like Dante, a fellow writer and
Lucia—felt sorry for Dante. famous poet.

Beatrice

Virgil and Dante begin their Beatrice and Virgil

journey
CANTO III The Opportunists
(Gate)

Dante passes through the gate of Hell,

which bears an inscription ending with
the famous phrase "Lasciate ogne
speranza, voi ch'intrate", most frequently
translated as "Abandon all hope, ye who
enter here” Dante and his guide hear the
anguished screams of the Uncommitted.
These are the souls of people who in life
took no sides; the opportunists who
were for neither good nor evil, but
merely concerned with themselves.

Virgil and Dante at the gates of Hell

CANTO III The Opportunists
(Gate)

After passing through

the vestibule, Dante and
Virgil reach the ferry that
will take them across the
river Acheron and to Charon

Hell proper. The ferry is

piloted by Charon, who
does not want to let
Dante enter, for he is a
living being

Virgil forces Charon to

take him however, the
passage across the
Acheron is undescribed,
since Dante faints and
does not awaken until
he is on the other side. Charon on the River Acheron
CANTO IV The Virtuous Pagan
Circle 1 - Limbo

The first circle of Hell (Limbo),

considered pre-Hell, just contains all of
the unbaptized and good people born
and before the coming of Christ, who
obviously couldn’t be saved by him.

The doomed souls embarking to cross the Acheron

CANTO IV The Virtuous Pagan
Circle 1 - Limbo

The first circle of Hell (Limbo) :

Virgil resides here, along with

a bunch of other Greek and
Roman poets.

Dante encounters the poets

Homer, Horace, Ovid, and
Lucan, who include him in
their number and make him
"sixth in that high company".

Homer, the poets, and heroes in Limbo

CANTO V The Lustful
Circle 2

Minos

who judges all of those

Dante and Virgil leave Limbo and condemned for active,
enter the Second Circle — the deliberately willed sin to one of
the lower circles.
first of the circles of
Incontinence — where the He sentences each soul to its
torment by wrapping his tail
punishments of Hell proper around himself a corresponding
begin. It is described as "a part number of times.

where no thing gleams. They find

their way hindered by the
serpentine Minos.

Minos judges the transgressions and

dispatches the souls
CANTO V The Lustful
Circle 2

In the second circle,

lustful sinners are tossed
around by endless
storms.

The souls of the lustful in the infernal hurricane

CANTO V The Lustful
Circle 2 Paolo

Francesca

Dante speaks to the soul

of Francesca da Rimini, a
woman who was stuck in
a loveless, arranged
marriage and committed
adultery when she fell in
love with a dashing youth
named Paolo.
The souls of Paolo and Francesca
CANTO VI The Gluttonous
Circle 3

Cerberus - the monstrous Cerberus

three-headed beast of
Hell, ravenously guards
the gluttons lying in the
freezing mire, mauling
and flaying them with his
claws as they howl like
dogs.
Virgil feeds Cerberus in the third circle
CANTO VI The Gluttonous
Circle 3

Dante then awakes in

the third circle,
where the
Gluttonous sinners
suffer under a cold
and filthy rain.

The gluttons battered by eternal rain

CANTO VII The Avaricious and Prodigal
Circle 4

Virgil leads Dante on to the

Plutus
fourth circle, where the
Avaricious (greedy people)
and Prodigal (reckless Circle 4 –
spenders) roll heavy Guarded by Plutus.
weights in endless circles.

The souls of the avaricious and the Virgil rebukes Plutus at the
prodigal forced to roll heavy stones entrance to the fourth circle
CANTO VIII The Wrathful and Sullen
Circle 5 – The River Styx

The next stop on

the tour is the fifth
circle, where the
Wrathful and Sullen
are immersed in
the muddy river
Styx. Philippo

While they are crossing

the Styx, a sinner
named Filippo Argenti
reaches out to Dante
(presumably for help),
but Dante angrily
rejects him.
The soul of the Florentine Philippo
Argenti accosts the poets on the Styx
CANTOIX-XI The Wrathful and Sullen
Circle 5 – The Gate of Dis

Now at the gates of

a city called Dis,
Virgil takes it upon
himself to persuade
the demon guards
to let them pass.
Unexpectedly, he
fails.

Virgil and Dante disembark at the citadel of Dis

CANTOIX-XI The Wrathful and Sullen
Circle 5 – The Gate of Dis

Demon guards

This means that instead of

The walls of Dis are continuing on with the
guarded by fallen journey, Dante and Virgil
angels. must wait for an angel to
come down and force
open the gates for them.

The hideous Erinyes: Megaera, Tisiphone, Alecto The angel opens the gates
CANTOIX-XI The Heretics
Circle 6

After passing the

city of Dis, our
dynamic duo enters
the sixth circle,
where the Heretics
lay in fiery tombs.

Dante talks to
Farinata degli Uberti
Farinata degli
Uberti, who predicts
that Dante will have
difficulty returning
to Florence from
exile.
Farinata degli Uberti addresses Dante
CANTO XII The Violent against Neighbors
Circle 7

This circle houses the

Minotaur
violent. Its entry is guarded
by Minotaur.

Divided into 3 rings:

Outer ring
Middle ring
Inner ring

The Minotaur on the shattered cliff

CANTO XII The Violent
Circle 7
Outer ring
Violent against their neighbors

Middle ring
Violent against themselves

Inner ring
As they cross from
Violent against GOD
the sixth to the
seventh circle, where
the Violent are Circle 7
punished, Virgil finally
begins explaining the
layout of Hell.

*The seventh circle will

show all the violent
sinners.
CANTO XII The Violent against their neighbors
Circle 7 – Outer Ring

Outer ring –
housing the violent
against people and
property, who are
immersed in
Phlegethon – a river
of boiling blood, to a
level commensurate
with their sins.

The centaurs attack the souls in boiling blood

CANTO XIII The Violent against themselves
Circle 7 – Middle Ring

Middle ring –
In this ring are the
suicides, who are
transformed into
gnarled thorny
bushes and trees.

*The trees are a metaphor; In

life the only way of the relief
of suffering was through pain
(suicide)

The suicides in the forest

CANTO XIV-XVII The Violent against GOD, Nature and Art
Circle 7 – Inner Ring

Inner ring –
All reside in a desert
Latini
of flaming sand with
fiery flakes raining
from the sky.

Violent against:

GOD – blasphemers,
Nature –Sodomites;
Art – Usurers

Brunetto Latini accosts Dante

CANTO XVIII The Fraudulent
Circle 8 –

Finally, Dante and Virgil

ready themselves to
cross to the eighth
circle. Dante, at Virgil’s
command, summons the
beast Geryon from the
depths with a cord
wrapped around his
waist.

Virgil stays to talk with the

beast while urging Dante to
look at the last of the Violent
Geryon sinners. When Dante comes
back, they mount Geryon and
ride the beast during the
descent into the eighth circle.

Geryon, symbol of deceit The descent into the abyss on Geryon’s back
CANTO XVIII The Fraudulent
Circle 8 – Dante’s Inferno

Circle 1: Those in Limbo

Circle 2: The Lustful
Circle 3: The Gluttonous
Circle 4: The Hoaders
Circle 5: The Wrathful
Circle 6: The Heretics
Circle 7: The Violent
Ring 1:Murderers, Robberers & Plunders
Ring 2:Suicides and those harmful to the world
Ring 3:Against GOD, Nature & Art
Circle 8: The Faudulent
Trench I: Panderers & Seducers
Trench II: Flatterers
The eighth circle Trench III: Simoniacs
contains ten pouches, Trench IV: Sorcerers
Trench V: Barrators
each containing Trench VI: Hyprocrites
different types of Trench VII: Theives
sinners. Trench VIII: Evil Counselors
Trench IX: Sowers of Discord
Trench X: Falsifiers
Circle 9: Traitors
Region 1: Kindred
Region 2: Country
Region 3: Guests
Region 4: Lords
CANTO XVIII The Fraudulent
Circle 8 –

Flatterers are steeped in

human excrement.
Panderers and Seducers walk
in separate line in opposite
direction, whipped by demons.

Bolgia I : Devils and seducers Bolgia II: Paramours and flatterers in the eighth
circle
CANTO XIX-XX The Fraudulent
Circle 8 –

Simoniacs -Those who Sorcerers and false prophets-

committed simony are place they have their heads twisted
head first in holes in the rock, around on their bodies
with flames burning on the backward, so they can only see
soles of their feet. what is behind them and not in
the future.

Bolgia V Dante rebukes Pope Nicholas III i Bolgia VI: Sorcerers and false prophets
CANTO XXI-XXIII The Fraudulent
Circle 8 –

Corrupt politicians( barrators) Hypocrites listlessly walking

are immersed in a lake of along wearing gold-gilded lead
boiling pitch, guarded by cloaks.
devils, the Malebranche

lol

Bolgia V : Devils torment the barrators Bolgia VI: Hypocrites

CANTO XXIV-XXVII The Fraudulent
Circle 8 –

Thieves are bitten by snakes.

*The’re watching the flaming spirits of
Snakes bites make them Oddyseus and Diomedes
(Trojan War)
undergo various
transformations and some
resrrected after being turned
to ashes.

Evil counsellors are

encased in individual
flames

Bolgia VII : The thieves tormented by serpents Bolgia VIII: Evil Counsellors
CANTO XXVII-XXXI The Fraudulent
Circle 8 –
Groups of various sort of
falsifiers are afflicted with
The severed
head of
different types of
Bertrand de
Born speaks
diseases.
to Dante

A sword-wieldded
devil hacks at the
sowers of discord.
As their wounds heal,
the devil will tear their
bodies again.

Bolgia IX : Sowers of Dicord Bolgia X: The falsifiers and forgers tormented with itching
CANTO XXVII-XXXI The Fraudulent
Circle 8 –

As they leave,
Virgil points out the
sinning giants who
are immobilized
around them in
punishment.

Ephialtes in manacles among the giants

CANTO XXVII-XXXI The Fraudulent Virgil requests that one
Circle 8 –
of the unbound giants,
Antaneus, transport
Nimrod—who was them in the palm of his
responsible for building hand down to the last
the Tower of Babel—has circle of Hell. He
lost the ability to speak complies.
coherently. His words
are gibberish. Antaneus

Nimrod

Nimrod of the giants The giant Antaeus lowers Dante and Virgil into the last circle
CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9 – Dante’s Inferno

Circle 1: Those in Limbo

Circle 2: The Lustful
Circle 3: The Gluttonous
Circle 4: The Hoaders
Circle 5: The Wrathful
Circle 6: The Heretics
Circle 7: The Violent
Ring 1:Murderers, Robberers & Plunders
Ring 2:Suicides and those harmful to the world
Ring 3:Against GOD, Nature & Art
Circle 8: The Faudulent
Trench I: Panderers & Seducers
Trench II: Flatterers
Trench III: Simoniacs
Trench IV: Sorcerers
Trench V: Barrators
Trench VI: Hyprocrites
Trench VII: Theives
Trench VIII: Evil Counselors
Trench IX: Sowers of Discord
Trench X: Falsifiers
The ninth circle of Hell, Circle 9: Traitors
where traitors are Region 1: Kindred
Region 2: Country
punished, contains four Region 3: Guests
different zones. Region 4: Lords
CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9

Traitors, distinguished
from the “merely”
fraudulent in that their
acts involve betraying
one in a special
relationship to the
betrayer, are frozen in a
lake of ice known as
Cocytus.

The traitors frozen in the ice of Cocytus

CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9 – The Four Concentric Zones of 9th Circle

Traitors to their Kindred Traitors to their Country Traitors to their Guests Traitors to their Lords

REGION 3:
REGION 4:
REGION 1:
REGION 2: Ptolomæa Judecca
Caïna Antenora Is probably named
for Ptolemy, the
Is named for Judas
Is name for Antenor the Iscariot, Biblical
Named for Cain, is home to captain of Jericho ,
of troy,who betrayed betrayer of Christ, is
traitors to their kindered. He killed Simon
his city to the Greeks. for traitor to their
Maccabaeus and his
Lords.
sons.
CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9 – REGION 1:Caïna

REGION 1:Caïna

The souls here are

immersed in the ice up
to their necks.

Bocca degli Abati

Dante addresses the traitor Bocca degli Abati

CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9 – REGION 2:Antenora

REGION 2: Antenora

The souls here are

immersed the same Ugolino

level as those in Caïna, Archbishop Ruggierir

except they are unable
to bend their necks.

Ugolino gnaws upon the head of Archbishop Ruggieri

CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9 – REGION 3:Ptolomæa

REGION 3:Ptolomæa

Where traitors against

their guests suffer,
immobilized in ice and
their tears frozen
against their eyes.

As they cry, their tears freeze and seal their eyes shut – they are denied even comfort of tears.
CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9 – REGION 4:Judecca

REGION 4:Judecca
Dante & Virgil

In the fourth the final

Lucifer
zone, Judecca, where
traitors against their They’re so tiny.lol

benefactors are
punished, Dante
witnesses the king of
Hell, the three-headed
Lucifer, giant and frozen
at the core. In his three
mouths, Lucifer
mechanically chews on
the most evil mortal
sinners—Judas, Brutus,
and Cassius.
Lucifer, king of Hell, frozen in the ice
CANTO XXXIV Upper World

The two poets

escape and
pass through
the center of
the Earth -

- emerging in
the other
hemisphere just
before dawn on
Easter Sunday
beneath a sky
studded with
stars.
Virgil and Dante ascend to the upper world
The Guide and I into that hidden road
Now entered, to return to the bright world;
And without care of having any rest

We mounted up, he first and I the second,

Till I beheld through a round aperture
Some of the beauteous things that Heaven doth bear—

—Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.

▬ End of Inferno ▬
Purgatorio
[purɡaˈtɔːrjo]
▬any condition or place of temporary punishment,
suffering, expiation, or the like.
 The Earthly Paradise
There are seven circles of purgation
of the deadly sins, arranged in three
groupings, consisting those arising The Lustful
from a perverse desire to see others
fail or suffer, namely pride, envy, and The Gluttonous
Structure: anger (Circles 1-3);

Purgatorio that arising from inadequate desire, The Avaricious

and Prodigal
namely spiritual and intellectual sloth Purgatory
(Circle 4);
The slothful
and those arising from excessive
desire, namely avarice, gluttony, and The Envious
lust (Circles 5-7). Added to these are
the excommunicated, at the base of
the mountain, and the late-repentant The Proud
below the gate.

There are therefore nine major The Late Repentant

divisions, plus the Earthly Paradise, Ante-Purgatory The Negligent Rulers
beyond Purgatory proper, at its
The Un-absolved
summit, making ten in all.
The Indolent
The Excommunicate
CANTO I Mount Purgatory

Purgatorio
picks up right
where Inferno
left off—Dante
and Virgil have
just emerged
from their tour
through Hell.
The two
travelers find
themselves on
the island of
Mount
Purgatory at the
dawn of a new
day.
The poets behold the beauty of Venus in the morning sky
CANTO II Mount Purgatory Like these souls, Dante is about to climb
Mount Purgatory, learning lessons, and
cleansing himself of sin in preparation for
On the shores of the island, ascending to Heaven.
Dante and Virgil watch a boat
arrive. Guided by an angel, the
boat shuttles a new batch of
penitent souls to Purgatory.

The celestial pilot lands the boat

CANTO III Mount Purgatory

Before beginning
to scale the
mountain, Dante
and Virgil must
first pass
through ante-
Purgatory.

They meet a variety

of souls, most of
whom are shocked
to see that Dante
casts a shadow,
showing that he's
alive.
The company of souls upon the cliff
CANTO III-VI The Excommunicates & The Late-repentant

Along their travels they pass though the First Spur of the Indolent and the
Second Spur of the Late-Repentants.

The indolent souls beside the rock The late repenters singing the Miserere
CANTO VII

They travel to the Valley of

the Rulers and meet a
bunch of deceased kings.
In the valley, a serpent
appears at dusk, only to be
driven away by two angels.
Buonconte

Serpent

The body of Buonconte da Montefeltro in the Arno The angels drive the serpent away
CANTO VIII Upper World

The penitent souls are unable to travel in

Purgatory at night, so, although Virgil is
in a hurry, he and Dante rest until
morning.

Dante sleeps and dreams about an eagle

abducting him.

Twilight Dante, in a dream, is carried off by an eagle

CANTO IX Portals of Purgatory

When he wakes up, he finds

himself at the entrance to
Purgatory proper.

Virgil informs him that St. Lucia

came while he slept and carried
him to the gate to Purgatory.

They climb the three steps to

the gate, and the angel guarding
the entrance carves seven P’s
into Dante’s forehead.

Dante and Virgil at the portals of Purgatory

 CANTO X-XII The Proud.

Now in Purgatory proper, Dante and Virgil have seven terraces to pass through,
each of which corresponds to one of the seven deadly sins.

They come across the Prideful penitents,

On the first terrace of the who are being punished for their sin of
Prideful, Dante and Virgil pride by carrying massive weights on
observe in the wall of the cliff their backs. they reach the exit, where an
sculptures representing angel erases one P from Dante’s
humility. forehead.

The marble sculptures portraying pride The souls of the prideful, bearing heavy stones
CANTO XIII-XIV The Envious

Dante and Virgil climb to the second terrace of

the Envious.

Voices there call out examples of fraternal love.

They witness the Envious penitents being
punished by having their eyelids sewn shut with
iron wire. Voices call out examples of punished
envy.

Dante and Virgil exit the second terrace, and

another angel removes a P from Dante's
forehead.

The souls of the envious

CANTO XV-XVI The Angry

Now in the third terrace of the Wrathful,

Dante has a vision containing examples
of gentleness.
Marco Lombardo
Black smoke, the punishment of the
Wrathful, envelops them, rendering them
blind.

In the smoke, they meet a man named

Marco Lombardo, who discourses on free
will and political corruption. Dante and
Virgil meet the angel who removes the
third P from Dante’s forehead.

Dante speaks to the soul of Marco Lombardo

CANTO XVII- The Slothful
XVIII

As they travel to the fourth terrace of

the Slothful, He (Virgil) continues to
lecture on love and free will.

The Slothful penitents, meanwhile,

shout examples of zeal and show
that their punishment is to run
without rest.

The multitude of the slothful

CANTO XIX-XXI The Avaricious (and the Prodigal)

Nope.
-lying stretched
face down on the
ground and
Dante and Virgil bound by hand
ascend to the fifth and foot. The
terrace of the penitents shout
Avaricious and examples of
U ok
there
dude? Prodigal, where poverty and
they witness the Hey Virgil,
Paint me like
generosity.
one of your
french girls.
penitents'
punishment:

The poets ascend to the fifth circle

The souls of the avaricious
 CANTO XXII- The Gluttonous
XXIV

On the sixth They encounter a

terrace of the man named
Gluttonous, they Forese Donati,
encounter a who explains the
strange tree. A punishment of the
disembodied Gluttonous as
voice cites agonizing thirst
examples of and hunger.
temperance.
Forese

The gluttonous souls crying out beneath the tree Dante recognizes the shade of Forese among the gluttons
CANTO XXV- The Lustful
XXVI

Dante, Virgil, and

Statius climb to the
seventh terrace of
the Lustful.

Here among the

Lustful, however,
they witness the
punishment of the
penitents, who walk
in flames. The
Lustful shout
examples of
chastity.

The lustful pass through fire in the seventh circle

CANTO XXVII Through the flames. Virgil’s Departure

At sunset, the travelers reach the exit to

the seventh terrace, and an angel removes
Dante’s final P.

However, to leave the terrace, Dante must

first walk through a wall of flames. He
hesitates with fear, but Virgil lures him
through with the promise that he will see
Beatrice on the other side.

Past the fire, Dante sleeps. In the morning,

Virgil announces Dante’s readiness for the
Earthly Paradise.

Virgil and Dante ascend to the seventh circle through flames

CANTO XXVIII- Dante and Matilda
At the banks of the river Lethe, an
XXIX
extraordinary procession passes by, halting
before Dante. Virgil disappears, to Dante’s
distress, but Beatrice appears.

In the Earthly Paradise, Dante meets a Beatrice

woman named Matilda, who explains the

origins of wind and water in the forest of
the Earthy Paradise.
Matilda

Dante, Virgil, and Statius in the ancient forest of Dante submerged in the River Lethë Beatrice among the angels
the terrestrial paradise
CANTO XXXX The giant and the harlot

Dante witnesses
the procession's
chariot attacked
by an eagle, a
fox, the eagle
again, and a
dragon.

Then the chariot

turns into a
whore, courted by
a giant. Beatrice
prophesies God’s
vengeance on the
dragon, whore,
and giant.
The giant and the harlot in the chariot
CANTOXXXI Dante’s purification
XXXIII

At the closing of Purgatorio,

Matilda leads Dante to the river
Eunoe, and immerses him in the
water.

He is now ready to ascend to

Heaven, with Statius and Beatrice as
his guides.

Dante drinks of the River Eunoë

From the most holy water I returned
Regenerate, in the manner of new trees
That are renewed with a new foliage,

Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.

▬ End of IPurgatorio ▬
Paradiso
[paraˈdiːzo];
▬a place regarded in various religions as the abode of
God (or the gods) and the angels, and of the good
after death, often traditionally depicted as being above
the sky.
 Heaven is made up of nine spheres,
corresponding to the heavenly bodies
visible from Earth that were known in
Structure: Dante's time.

Paradiso Dante meets the souls of the dead in

each sphere, organised according to
the good works they did while on
Earth. Dante questions Beatrice on
what he sees and is questioned by the
inhabitants of Heaven as well.

The nine levels of Heaven correspond

to the Ptolemaic view of the planets'
rotation around the Earth, and in each
one Dante is shown a different
category of souls
 CANTO I-II Dante’s divine task

Paradiso opens with Dante's invocation to Apollo and the

Muses, asking for his divine task. He and Beatrice ascend
from the Earthly Paradise. Beatrice outlines the structure of
the universe.

Dante and Beatrice arrive in the First Heaven, sphere of the

Moon. Beatrice vigorously quizzes Dante and then corrects his
views on the cause of the moon spots. Dante first sees the
blessed souls as points of light.
CANTO III-IV MOON
Those who broke vows

Dante first sees the

blessed souls as points
of light. He meets
Piccarda Donati
Piccarda Donati, who
explains the souls'
happiness with their
places in Heaven. She
explains that the Moon
houses souls who
broke their vows. Beatrice explains why
Dante sees the souls in
these heavens, when
they are all located in the
Empyrean, (the Tenth
Heaven). Then she
explains vows in terms of
absolute and contingent
The first realm: Piccarda Donati and the souls whose vows had been will.
broken
CANTO V-VII MERCURY
Those who did good for personal glory

They ascend to the Second

Heaven, sphere of Mercury.
Justinian explains the history
and destiny of Rome.

He tells Dante that the souls in

Mercury were all just, but
motivated by fame. Beatrice
explains God's just vengeance
on Jerusalem.

The host of myriad glowing souls in the second realm

CANTO VIII-XI VENUS
Those who did good because of love

Charles Martel

They ascend to the Third Heaven,

sphere of Venus. Dante meets
Charles Martel, an early French
emperor, and he explains why sons
can end up so different from their
fathers.

Dante meets Cunizza da

Romano and Folco of Marseille,
who points out Rahab to Dante.

Charles Martel addresses Dante and Beatrice

CANTO XII-XIII SUN
Philosophers

Beatrice and Dante

ascend to the Fourth
Heaven, sphere of the
Sun.

St. Thomas and eleven

other souls form a
crown around our
heroes. Dante
denounces the
senseless cares of
mortals.

The rings of glorified souls in the sun

CANTO XIV-XVII MARS
The Church Militant

They ascend to the Fifth

Heaven, sphere of Mars.
The souls form an image of
the Cross.

Dante and Beatrice translated to the sphere of Mars Dante and Beatrice see the angels with Christ on the cross
CANTO XVI MARS
The Church Militant

Cacciaguida

Dante meets Cacciaguida, who

expounds on the virtue of ancient
Florence. Dante indulges in a rare
proud moment over the nobility of
his birth.

Cacciaguida talks about the noble

Florentine families. Then, he tells
Dante about his destiny of exile, but
tempers it with encouragement to
Dante to fulfill his poetic mission.

The soul of Caddiaguida speaks of Florence

CANTO XVIII JUPITER
Great rulers
Dante and Beatrice move on to the
Sixth Heaven, sphere of Jupiter.

The souls spell out the message Diligite

iustitiam, qui iudicatis terram ("Love
justice, you who judge the earth"), and
then form the Eagle.

In the sphere of Jupiter, the blessed souls circle to form letters Dante and Beatrice translated to the sphere of Jupiter
CANTO XIX JUPITER
Great rulers

The Eagle explains Divine

Justice and the inscrutability of
God's Mind.

It introduces the six spirits that

form its eye and explains why
the Emperor Trajan and Ripheus
are there.

The blessed souls form an eagle in the sky

CANTO XX-XXI SATURN
Contemplatives and monks

They continue to the

Seventh Heaven,
sphere of Saturn.

Blessed Beatrice in the seventh circle Beatrice and Dante in the sphere of Saturn
CANTO XXVI FIXED STARS
The Church Triumphant

Beatrice and Dante

ascend to the Eighth
Heaven, sphere of the
Fixed Stars. Dante gazes
down on Earth and
realizes how small and St. Peter examines Dante
petty it is. They witness on faith. Dante conveys his
the coronation and re- hope of returning to
ascension of Mary and Florence one day to be
Christ into the crowned as a poet.
Empyrean
St. James examines Dante
on hope. Dante goes blind.

St. John examines Dante

on charity. Adam answers
Dante's four questions
St. John examines Dante concerning love
CANTO XXVII- PRIMUM MOBILE OR CRYSTALLINE HEAVEN
XXVIII Angels

Dante observes the model

of the nine Angelic
Intelligences orbiting a
shining Point.
Beatrice and Dante then move on
to the Ninth Heaven, Primum
Mobile. Beatrice prophesies the
coming redemption of the world.

The heavenly host singing “Gloria In Excelsis Deo”

The scintillating host of heaven
 PRIMUM MOBILE OR CRYSTALLINE HEAVEN
CANTO XXXI
Angels

They ascend into the Tenth

Heaven, the Empyrean. Dante
sees the illusion and then real
Celestial Rose.

Beatrice disappears and is

replaced by St. Bernard. Dante
prays his thanks to Beatrice.

The saintly throng form a rose in the empyrean

CANTO XXXIII PRIMUM MOBILE OR CRYSTALLINE HEAVEN
Angels

Next, Dante gazes upon

Mary. St. Bernard explains
the placement of the
blessed in the Celestial
Rose, including that of the
innocent infants. St.
Bernard prays to Mary to
intercede to God on Dante's
behalf so that the poet may Mary approves. Dante
look upon God. looks into the Eternal
Light, and sees within it
the image of the Holy
Trinity. He ponders the
mystery of the
Incarnation. God bestows
the answer upon him in a
flash of light and Dante's
soul is, finally, at one with
God's.
The queen of heaven
Though he can't recall the rest. I am the same:
Inside my heart, although my vision is almost
Entirely faded, droplets of its sweetness come

The way the sun dissolves the snow's crust—

The way, in the wind that stirred the light leaves,
The oracle that the Sibyl wrote was lost.

▬ End of Paradiso ▬
“
The darkest places in hell are
reserved for those who maintain
their neutrality in times of moral
crisis.

▬ Dante Alighieri
 Special thanks :

Credits To coffee for keeping me awake all night. Sincerely,

exhausted college student.

To all the people who made and released these awesome

resources for free:
⊙ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
⊙ Photographs by Unsplash
 Super awesome illustrations by Gustave Doré
http://www.danshort.com/dc/?p=135
References
Inferno Summary
http://www.shmoop.com/inferno/summary.html

Paradiso Summary
http://www.shmoop.com/paradiso/summary.html

Purgatorio Summary
http://www.shmoop.com/purgatorio/summary.html
Thanks!
Got any burning questions?