Greeks had a rich culture because they had the wise artists in various genres. This was observed by Virgil, Rome’s greatest poet in 70-19 B.C. He wrote “The Aeneid”, which presents an intellectual and a more profound view of “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” both by the blind Greek poet Homer, as requested by the emperor Augustus (Perry 113). Thus, he is considered to be Homer’s counterpart. Later in 1300’s as Dante Alighieri, an Italian writer, took his place in the literary realm the former became the latter’s epitome of a writer and this explains why Dante has the Roman poet as his guide and adviser in his masterpiece “Divine Comedy” and why his themes in it appear similar with Virgil’s in “The Aeneid”.
“The Aeneid” depicts the adventures of one of Troy’s great leaders – Aeneas, who was able to survive due to his hunting outside Troy as the Greek enemies burnt the place. He is a cousin to Hector and Paris. Aeneas like Odysseus in “The Odyssey” underwent wanderings and difficulties as he was trying to realize his destiny, founder of a Roman civilization, which is revealed by his father, Anchises, as they meet in the Underworld. The goddess Juno was accountable for Aeneas’ sufferings as she avenges her embarrassment to a Trojan, Paris’ kind. This is in connection with the “apple” incident. Aeneas’s encounter with Queen Dido of Carthage made the latter fall in love with him but brought her death as her love is refused by the hero. Aeneas proceeds with his adventure, meets enemies along the way but manages to reach King Latinus’ place and marries the king’s daughter, Lavinia. Nonetheless, the antagonist – Turnus, gets in the way and fought with him for fair Lavinia’s love. Aeneas as he is helped and guided by Venus wins the fight and eventually is able to found the civilization, which his father prophesied, Rome.
The “Divine Comedy”, on the other hand, speaks of Dante’s adventure to Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. In this novel, Dante travels from one place to another with Virgil explicating everything they see and meet as they explore each place. Hell is presented as cone-shaped and comprises of nine rings . Residing the rings are sinners who suffer different forms of punishment depending upon the intensity of their sins. As the poets descend the level of the rings Dante discovers that the greater is the intensity of the sin committed by the residents. This explains why Satan is situated at the lowest ring. Purgatory is the place wherein souls, which are not destined to Hell or to Paradise, proceed. Purging is undergone by the souls as their family members on Earth pray for them. And as they are purged they may proceed to Paradise. Virgil leaves Dante as they reach the boundary between Purgatory and Paradise. Dante meets Beatrice along the way and she guides him as he pursues his journey to Paradise wherein souls of great and benevolent people are met by the poet. Here, Dante realizes that salvation can be attained by people who had accepted God and lived in accordance to His commandments. The novel ends as Dante faces Satan in the Underworld and the problem of escaping from the place.
Comparing the work of Virgil with Dante’s leads the researcher to realizing the latter’s adoption and adaptation of the former’s ideas, which are explicitly reflected in Dante’s journey to Hell. Dante undertakes the journey with a companion, Virgil who defends Dante against the evil spirits which they meet along the way whereas Aeneas does it with the Sybil whom Zeus gives the duty of protecting the hero against the diabolical characters in the Underworld. Both heroes’ time to stay in the underworld is limited, however, both are able to have their inquiries on
matters concerning hell answered by the souls they meet in the place. Dante’s “Divine Comedy” was conceived centuries after Virgil’s creation of “The Aeneid”. Virgil was politically motivated as the emperor requested him to write the selection patterned after the latter’s adventures and accomplishments whereas Dante as he was in the Medieval Era was religiously stimulated during his completion of his masterpiece. Virgil’s purpose was to praise the emperor as he narrates each adventure and fight confronted by Aeneas. According to Perry, “Virgil’s poetry expressed his optimism that Rome’s destiny was to bring the blessings of peace and stability to the Mediterranean world” (113). This motive imparts an idea why souls met by Aeneas in the Underworld are mostly of political figures. They are the souls of the queens like : Dido and Pasipahe; of the kings such as : Adrastus and Capys; of warriors like: Tydeus and Thersilochus; and sons of kings like : Deiphobus (Priam), Glaucus (Antenor) and Numitor (Proca). Both Virgil and Dante emphasized the separation of good and evil in their works as more sinful souls are given heavier punishment than the less sinful ones. Dante deviated from Virgil’s view of hell, sins and punishments as the former labeled distinctively each ring of his Hell based on the intensity of the sin and the punishment to which each sinner is entitled. For example, the first level is for those who had been good when alive but were not able to receive God or refused to do so. Souls of babies which had not been christened as well as of those who lived before Christ are included in the group and they receive no punishment but had to wait until the second coming of Christ. Here, Dante’s belief in the bible, beatification and salvation for those who believe in God and about the second coming of Christ becomes evident as proven by the following lines :
Replied: "I was a novice in this state,
When I saw hither come a Mighty One,
With sign of victory incoronate (IV.52-54)
When I saw hither come a Mighty One,
With sign of victory incoronate (IV.52-54)
Hence he drew forth the shade of the First Parent,
And that of his son Abel, and of Noah,
Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient (IV.55-57)
And that of his son Abel, and of Noah,
Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient (IV.55-57)
Abraham, patriarch, and David, king,
Israel with his father and his children,
And Rachel, for whose sake he did so much, (IV.58-60)
Israel with his father and his children,
And Rachel, for whose sake he did so much, (IV.58-60)
And others many, and he made them blessed;
And thou must know, that earlier than these
Never were any human spirits saved" (IV.61-63).
And thou must know, that earlier than these
Never were any human spirits saved" (IV.61-63).
Like Dante, Virgil also believed in the second life as Anchises tells Aeneas of its possibility for those souls which wander around the place. This belief by Virgil mirrors a doctrine of transmigration by a Greek thinker, Pythagoras who believed that the “souls of men are immortal” and that there is a probability of their coming to life again should there be a body to occupy (luchte.wordpress.com).
At the second level of Dante’s novel, the place for infidels and lascivious people is provided and
their punishment is the lightest of all. Hence, Dante believed that sinning out of love is human nature. Souls here receive the lightest of all the punishments, which is whipping by a hellish storm. The third level’s residents are those who had indulged themselves too much to eating, a sin called gluttony in the bible. Their punishment is endless eating of rotten food. These are just few of the seven sins – gluttony, extravagance, treachery, lasciviousness, nonconformity, fraudulence, wrathfulness identified by Dante in his work, a belief which reflects the teachings of the Christians. Nobody ever said that the poet was wrong about this idea for Jesus Christ in the
New Testament said as he preached to his disciples of being clean and unclean.
“What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean’” (New International Version, Mark 7.20-23).
Here Jesus Christ did not directly use the word “sins” to refer to the concepts presented yet based on his use of the word “unclean” it can be concluded that he meant sin.
Dante’s presentation of ideas in the novel is allegorical in nature, a method used by poets of his time in expounding biblical thoughts. Hence, Dante earned criticisms by scholars for this method of writing for they find it hard to grasp especially for those who have been accustomed to literal reading. According to Green, Medieval Period is historically broad in terms of extent that allegorical expressions may not be understood fully by those who have inadequate knowledge of the events and people of the era (118). For example, Hell allegorically means Dante’s society
and all the temptations and sufferings that he experienced as the black Guelphs worked on the white Guelphs’(to which Dante belonged in real life) elimination from the society in which both the white and the black Guelphs reside. On the other hand, Virgil employed apostrophe in “The Aeneid”, a technique which requires the writer/author to speak to an object which cannot respond to what is being said or to talk to a person who is not within the vicinity of the one speaking. Hence, the person spoken to cannot give his/her response. This technique could be the reason why readers/researchers find it hard to figure out who speaks in books I and II of “The Aeneid.”
Similarities between Dante’s and Virgil’s works impress the idea of Dante’s admiration and great respect to the Roman poet and his desire to come up with a literary piece that features his religious convictions and personal experiences to which people can relate with. Differences, on the other hand, explicitly tell of their gaps, physically, culturally and spiritually. Both believed in the second life but the way each of them present the belief, contrasting outlooks of it surfaces. Dante’s presentation in its deeper sense is radical as he tries to unfold his real life experiences with the use of figurative language whereas Virgil’s exemplifies his view of the Roman’s conquest and its effect to the conqueror and the Mediterranean world as a whole. He meant to uplift Augustus’ reputation as a conqueror and as an emperor.
Referenes :
Alighieri, Dante. “The Divine Comedy.” Trans. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. May 7, 2011
Green, Richard Hamilton. “Dante’s Allegory of Poets and the Medieval Theory of Poetic
Fiction.” Comparative Literature 9.2 (1957) :118-128. Web.11 May 8, 2011.http://www.jstor. org/stable/1768878
Luchte, James. “Wandering Souls : The Doctrine of Transmigration in Pythagorean Philosophy.”
Philosophy. April 16,2008. <http://luchte.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/wandering-souls-
the-doctrine-of-transmigration-in-pythagorean-philosophy/New International Version. [Colorado Springs]: 1984. International Bible Society. Print.
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