Commentary

Inferno 1: The Dark Forest

Last updated 06/26/2022.

The pilgrim awakens.

1 In the middle of the journey of our life
2 I found myself again in a dark forest,
3 for I had lost the pathway straight and right.

4 Ah how hard it is to describe, this forest
5 savage and rough and overwhelming, for
6 to think of it renews my fear before it!

7 It is so bitter, death is little more;
8 but to discuss the good I found, I’ll say
9 the other things I witnessed there before.

1 Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
2 mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
3 ché la diritta via era smarrita.

4 Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
5 esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
6 che nel pensier rinova la paura!

7 Tant’ è amara che poco è più morte;
8 ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai,
9 dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ho scorte.

1

In the middle: The first words of the Comedy recall the first words of the Bible (“In the beginning”), as well as the classical ideal expressed by the Roman poet Horace (Ars Poetica, 148) that the epic poet should begin his tale in medias res (“in the middle of things”).

our life: Dante does not write “my life” nor “our lives”—thus he immediately establishes that his journey belongs to each of us.

This first line alludes to Psalm 90:10 (89:10 in the Greek numbering), where it is suggested that the typical lifespan of a man is “threescore and ten years.” The implication is that Dante, in the middle of his life, is half that age (35 years old). Since Dante was born in 1265, this dates the poem in the year 1300 (we will encounter stronger evidence of the timeline as the poem progresses).

This line also recalls a phrase in Isaiah 38:10, “In the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of hell.”

Genesis 1 (Vulgate)
Ars Poetica (Latin)
Psalmi 89:10 (Vulgate)
Isaias 38:10 (Vulgate)

2

found myself again: This can also mean “came to myself,” as if Dante is waking up. But my translation emphasizes the contrast between “found” (“ritrovai”) and “lost” (“smarrita,” line 3).

dark forest: Darkness is the key feature here. Light corresponds to knowledge and wisdom. Dante finds himself in a state of sin—a dark place, as it were—and lacks the moral wisdom to get himself out.

3

See Proverbs 2:13 (“Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways”) and 2 Peter 2:15 (“Leaving the right way they have gone astray”).

4

Here for the first time, Dante calls attention to himself as a poet. Critics and commentators have established a useful distinction between Dante the pilgrim, the protagonist of the story who is presently experiencing the journey, and Dante the poet, the author of the poem who has already experienced the journey and now struggles to describe it in sensible terms.

The hill at sunrise.

10 How I got there, I cannot rightly say,
11 I was so full of sleep at that point still
12 at which I had abandoned the true way.

13 But where that valley ended which had filled
14 my heart with fear, I came upon a slope;
15 and standing at the bottom of that hill,

16 I looked on high, and saw its shoulders clothed
17 already in that planet’s rays of light
18 that yet leads others straight on every road.

19 My fear was calmed a little at the sight,
20 though the lake within my heart endured the dread
21 while I’d passed with such pity through the night.

22 And as a man, who with exhausted breath
23 emerges from the deep onto the shore,
24 turns to the dangerous waters he has left,

25 so, as it fled away, my mind once more
26 turned back to look again upon the pass
27 that no one living ever left before.

10 Io non so ben ridir com’ i’ v’intrai,
11 tant’ era pien di sonno a quel punto
12 che la verace via abbandonai.

13 Ma poi ch’i’ fui al piè d’un colle giunto,
14 là dove terminava quella valle
15 che m’avea di paura il cor compunto,

16 guardai in alto e vidi le sue spalle
17 vestite già de’ raggi del pianeta
18 che mena dritto altrui per ogne calle.

19 Allor fu la paura un poco queta,
20 che nel lago del cor m’era durata
21 la notte ch’i’ passai con tanta pieta.

22 E come quei che con lena affannata,
23 uscito fuor del pelago a la riva,
24 si volge a l’acqua perigliosa e guata,

25 così l’animo mio, ch’ancor fuggiva,
26 si volse a retro a rimirar lo passo
27 che non lasciò già mai persona viva.

14

slope: John Freccero, in his essay, “Dante’s Prologue Scene,” argues convincingly that this slope (later, also called a “hill” and a “mountain”) is an allegorical figure for Neoplatonic Philosophy (as a simplification, one could take the hill to represent pagan philosophy in general).

17

that planet: The sun, considered to be one of the seven planets of Ptolemaic astronomy. In the Ptolemaic model of the cosmos, which was widely accepted in Dante’s time, the earth is an immobile sphere at the center of the universe and the seven planets reside in invisible spheres circling around a common center (the center of the earth and the universe). In order from lowest to highest, the planets are: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Beyond Saturn is the sphere of the Fixed Stars, which moves in perfect revolutions around the earth, and against which the planetary spheres experience relative motions; and beyond that is the Primum Mobile (First Mover), the outermost sphere whose motion gives rise to the motion of the lower spheres. Beyond the Primum Mobile is the Empyrean (from Ancient Greek empyrus, “in fire”), the realm of light in which God resides.

The sun is also a symbol of God, and the sunlight which illuminates the earth is a symbol of God’s intellectual light which illuminates the mind. See Dante’s Convivio 3.12: “Nothing perceptible by the senses in all the world is more worthy of being considered an image of God than is the sun, which illuminates with sensible light first itself and then all the celestial and elemental bodies: likewise, God illuminates with intellectual light first himself and then the celestial and other creatures endowed with intellect.”

22-27

This first simile, in which Dante likens his mind to a man who has escaped from dangerous waters, anticipates and helps to shape a key feature of the poem’s allegory: the literal journey of Dante the pilgrim, a man struggling to escape from a dangerous place, is an allegorical figure for the mind’s journey away from sin.

27

that no one living ever left before: This can also read, “that never left anyone alive before.” However, my rendering emphasizes the journey of salvation as a process of death and rebirth as typified by Jesus Christ: only when the old sinful self is dead can the new self be resurrected and saved (see Romans 6).

The firm foot.

28 I paused my weary body to relax,
29 then took the way along the desert slope,
30 the firm foot always lower on the path.

28 Poi ch’èi posato un poco il corpo lasso,
29 ripresi via per la piaggia diserta,
30 sì che ’l piè fermo sempre era ’l più basso.

29

Dante climbs up the hill in an attempt to get out of the dark forest and closer to the sun. Assuming we have identified the allegorical figures correctly, the allegorical interpretation is clear: Dante is attempting to escape the darkness of sin by using pagan philosophy to get closer to God. It is noteworthy that the hill is finite and could not take Dante all the way up to the sun even if he were to climb to the top.

30

firm foot: The best interpretation of this enigmatic phrase comes from John Freccero’s essay, “Dante’s Firm Foot and the Journey Without a Guide;” but to understand it requires a bit of philosophical background. According to Aristotle’s On the Heavens II.2, all motion of animate things begins from the right side, while the left acts as a stationary pivot to provide thrust—this was said to be true of all moving things, from animals walking to the revolutions of the cosmos. In this sense, the right foot was considered agile (hence the word dextrous, from a Latin root meaning “on the right”), while the left foot was considered firm. Thus as Dante ascends around the desert slope, his left foot (“the firm foot”) is “lower on the path.”

Meanwhile, in Aristotle’s On the Soul, the Philosopher proposes that the soul is divided into various faculties. The nutritive faculty (the power to grow and decay) is shared by plants, animals and humans. The sensitive (the power to receive sensory input from the world), locomotive (the power to move), and appetitive (including the will, or the power to desire) faculties are shared by animals and humans. And finally, the rational faculty (the intellect, or the power to reason) is possessed by humans alone. Adapting an ancient metaphor which assigned body parts to these Aristotelian faculties of the soul, the Christian tradition held that the intellect was the soul’s right foot and the will was the left foot, since the intellect moves first and the will follows. The original sin of Adam was said to have wounded the left foot (the will) with incontinence (lack of self-restraint against evil), and to have wounded the right foot (the intellect) with ignorance (lack of knowledge of good), so that the figure of the fallen soul was that of a limping man. Thus Dante’s ascent around the hill is hindered by his wounded soul, and he cannot escape the darkness of sin on his own.

Finally, as John Freccero explains in his essay, “Dante’s Pilgrim in a Gyre,” Aristotle envisions the cosmos as upside down in the northern hemisphere (see Aristotle’s On the Heavens II.2). If motion begins on the right, and the motion of the heavens begins in the east, then east is right and west is left. Aristotle reasoned that the top of the world must therefore be towards the south pole, and the bottom towards the north pole (imagine laying down on the equator with your head towards the south—the east will be on your right, and the west on your left). Furthermore, Aristotle assigned directions to the motions of the heavens: the stars and planets were moving to the right, since they began in the east (on the right) and circled back to the east (rightward) over the course of a day; while retrograde motion (revolving in the opposite direction, as the planets were sometimes observed to do) was motion to the left. In a tradition going back to antiquity, rightward motions were considered good or lucky (hence “righteous”), while leftward motions were considered bad or unlucky (hence “sinister,” which means “left” in Latin).

We are finally in a position to analyze Dante’s ascent around the mountain. Dante climbs the hill with his left foot always lower than his right—thus his path must be a spiral up and around the hill, with the center of the hill at his right. Since Dante is in the northern hemisphere, his path circles around the hill in the same direction (rightward) as the heavens; but since the north pole is the bottom of the world, his ascent up the mountain is paradoxically downward relative to the cosmos. Therefore to Dante in the northern hemisphere (upside down relative to the cosmos), his climb is a sinister (leftward) ascent; while in Aristotle’s absolute cosmological frame of reference, it is a righteous (rightward) descent. Allegorically, this means that Dante’s attempt to reach God using pagan philosophy is sinister by appearance (a sinister ascent to the disoriented man in the northern hemisphere), but in actuality is righteous if in the wrong direction (a righteous descent to the man oriented with the cosmos).

Three beasts.

31 And behold, just where the hill begins to slope,
32 a leopard light and lithe and very fast,
33 and covered over with a spotted coat;

34 she did not leave before my face, but had
35 my journey so impeded as I climbed,
36 that most times I was turned and driven back.

37 The beginning of the morning was the time,
38 and the sun was mounting upwards with those stars
39 that had been with it when the Love divine

40 had first moved those beautiful things afar;
41 so that, despite the beast with the dappled coat,
42 the hour of time and the sweet season are

43 occasion nonetheless to have good hope;
44 but not so much that I was not afraid
45 when there appeared a lion on the slope.

46 Against me he appeared to make his way,
47 with his head high and with furious hunger,
48 so that the air itself appeared to quake.

49 And then a wolf, who seemed to be encumbered
50 with every craving, looking lean and light,
51 and she’s made wretched lives for many others—

52 with the fear that issued from her very sight,
53 she put upon me such a heavy strain
54 that I lost hope of getting to the height.

55 And as is he who willfully makes gains,
56 and the time comes that causes him to lose,
57 who weeps in all his thoughts and grieves with pain;

58 so then that peaceless beast had made me too,
59 who, moving towards me, little by little came
60 to drive me back to where the sun is mute.

31 Ed ecco, quasi al cominciar de l’erta,
32 una lonza leggera e presta molto,
33 che di pel macolato era coverta;

34 e non mi si partia dinanzi al volto,
35 anzi ’mpediva tanto il mio cammino,
36 ch’i’ fui per ritornar più volte vòlto.

37 Temp’ era dal principio del mattino,
38 e ’l sol montava ’n sù con quelle stelle
39 ch’eran con lui quando l’amor divino

40 mosse di prima quelle cose belle;
41 sì ch’a bene sperar m’era cagione
42 di quella fiera a la gaetta pelle

43 l’ora del tempo e la dolce stagione;
44 ma non sì che paura non mi desse
45 la vista che m’apparve d’un leone.

46 Questi parea che contra me venisse
47 con la test’ alta e con rabbiosa fame,
48 sì che parea che l’aere ne tremesse.

49 Ed una lupa, che di tutte brame
50 sembiava carca ne la sua magrezza,
51 e molte genti fé già viver grame,

52 questa mi porse tanto di gravezza
53 con la paura ch’uscia di sua vista,
54 ch’io perdei la speranza de l’altezza.

55 E qual è quei che volontieri acquista,
56 e giugne ’l tempo che perder lo face,
57 che ’n tutti suoi pensier piange e s’attrista;

58 tal mi fece la bestia sanza pace,
59 che, venendomi ’ncontro, a poco a poco
60 mi ripigneva là dove ’l sol tace.

32…45…49

leopard…lion…wolf: The three beasts which impede Dante’s ascent up the hill are taken from Jeremiah 5:5-6, “I will go therefore to the great men, and will speak to them: for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God: and behold these have altogether broken the yoke more, and have burst the bonds. Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the evening hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions are strengthened.”

In the biblical passage, the three beasts are the ruin of the sinners of Jerusalem. The allegorical interpretation of the beasts in Dante is the same as that in the Bible: they represent predispositions toward sin. It is Dante’s predisposition to sin which ultimately prevents him from ascending the hill and escaping the dark forest. Dante implicitly connects the three beasts with the three sinful dispositions discussed by Aristotle in his Nichomachean Ethics VII: the wolf is incontinence (lack of self-restraint against evil), the lion is bestiality (animal-like insensitivity to evil), and the leopard is malice (deliberate will to evil). This connection will become clearer as the poem progresses. The three sinful dispositions will be discussed further in Inferno 11, where Dante outlines the ethical system of Hell.

37-40

This is the first clear reference to the time of the journey. Theologians believed the sun was in the astrological sign of Aries (just after the spring equinox) when God created the universe and “first moved” the stars. So now we know Dante’s journey takes place in early spring. Incidentally, the Incarnation (conception) of Jesus Christ was also traditionally believed to have occurred when the sun was in the sign of Aries (March 25, nine months before December 25, Jesus’ traditional birth date), as was the Crucifixion (also March 25; see, for example, Hippolytus’ Commentary on Daniel 4.23.3).

39

Love divine: That is, God. In my translation, I have followed the English-language convention of capitalizing the various terms for God; but it is worth noting that they are not capitalized in the Italian.

42

the hour of time and the sweet season: Morning and springtime.

54

It is ultimately the wolf (incontinence) which causes Dante to lose hope of reaching the summit, and which drives him back down the slope.

55-60

This comparison reads like a simile, but instead of comparing two different things, the comparison moves from the general to the particular (Charles Singleton calls it a pseudosimile). Dante employs such pseudosimiles throughout the poem. Here and perhaps elsewhere, it seems to call attention to the pilgrim’s double purpose as a literal man and an allegorical figure.

60

where the sun is mute: An auditory adjective (mute or silent) is used to describe a visual quality (dim or dark). This mixing of the senses, known as synesthesia, is a commonly used technique throughout the Comedy.

Virgil appears.

61 And then before my eyes a figure came,
62 as I was falling to a lower place,
63 who through a long silence seemed dim and faint.

64 When I saw him in the great deserted waste,
65 “Miserere me,” I cried through the expanse,
66 “whatever you may be, a man or shade!”

67 He said: “No man, yet once I was a man,
68 and both my parents were Lombards, and they
69 were Mantuan by their native fatherland.

70 I was born sub Julio, though it was late,
71 and lived in Rome under good Augustus’ reign
72 in the time when the false and lying gods were praised.

73 I was a poet, and it was I who sang
74 of Anchises’ righteous son, who came from Troy
75 after proud Ilium went up in flames.

76 But why do you turn back, just to rejoin
77 such trouble? why not climb the lovely mountain
78 which is the source and cause of every joy?”

61 Mentre ch’i’ rovinava in basso loco,
62 dinanzi a li occhi mi si fu offerto
63 chi per lungo silenzio parea fioco.

64 Quando vidi costui nel gran diserto,
65 «Miserere di me», gridai a lui,
66 «qual che tu sii, od ombra od omo certo!».

67 Rispuosemi: «Non omo, omo già fui,
68 e li parenti miei furon lombardi,
69 mantoani per patrïa ambedui.

70 Nacqui sub Iulio, ancor che fosse tardi,
71 e vissi a Roma sotto ’l buono Augusto
72 nel tempo de li dèi falsi e bugiardi.

73 Poeta fui, e cantai di quel giusto
74 figliuol d’Anchise che venne di Troia,
75 poi che ’l superbo Ilïón fu combusto.

76 Ma tu perché ritorni a tanta noia?
77 perché non sali il dilettoso monte
78 ch’è principio e cagion di tutta gioia?».

62

The moral-allegorical significance of this line should be clear.

63

Literally, the “long silence” is either the closing distance between Dante and the figure, or the length of time before the figure silently comes close enough to be recognizable in the darkness. We will soon discover that the figure is the Roman poet Virgil; and with this knowledge, the “long silence” also indicates the thirteen centuries that have passed since Virgil lived and wrote. Furthermore, the poem will gradually reveal that Dante and Virgil are allegorical figures of the will and the intellect, respectively; and with this knowledge, the “long silence” takes on yet another character—Dante’s will has not heard the voice of reason for a long time.

65

Miserere me: Here the poet combines the Latin word miserere with the Italian words di me (likewise, I combined miserere with English me). The phrase is deliberate reference to Psalm 51 (50 in the Greek numbering), which begins, “Miserere mei, Deus” (“Have mercy on me, O God”).

66

The phrasing of this line recalls Aeneas’ address to his mother Venus in Aeneid I.327-330. Thus, the pilgrim Dante’s first spoken line alludes both to the Bible and the Aeneid—biblical and classical, church and empire.

shade: Dante goes on to use this term to refer to the disembodied souls in the afterlife.

68…69

Lombards…Mantuan: Lombardy is one of the major regions of northern Italy, bordered by Romagna to the south and the Alps to the north. Mantua is one of the great cities in Lombardy. According to tradition, Virgil was born near Mantua in the village of Andes (modern Virgilio).

70

sub Julio: This is Dante’s second use of Latin words (see note to line 65). The phrase means “under Julius,” that is, during the time of Julius Caesar. Virgil was born in 70 BC, when Julius Caesar was thirty years old.

though it was late: Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, before Virgil had begun writing the poems which would make him famous under Caesar Augustus. The phrase becomes ironic after we learn that Virgil is among the damned because he lived before the birth of Jesus Christ—he came too late for Caesar, but too early for Christ.

71

Rome: The city of Rome is the capital of modern Italy and the seat of the Catholic Church. As expressed in his political treatise, Monarchy, Dante views the early Roman Empire (of which Rome was the capital) as the ideal political state: a universal monarchy to govern the temporal (practical) affairs of mankind. He advocated for a return to the idealization of ancient Rome: in his view, the Holy Roman Empire should have universal temporal power over the world (and no spiritual power), while the Holy Roman Church should have universal spiritual power (and no temporal power). Dante’s political ideal may seem hopelessly impractical and antiquated today; but in his time, when the two major players in Europe were the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church, whose back-and-forth contests over territory and authority were the stimulus for most of the bloodshed on the continent, Dante saw the separation of the two powers as a logical necessity. Moreover, Dante believed that a universal monarchy was necessary to prevent the kind of political infighting and skirmishing characteristic to Tuscany and northern Italy, where independent cities held control over various regions, and ruling parties were continually vying for local and regional power; under a single leader and with a single purpose as a universal society, Dante reasoned, such power struggles would be irrelevant.

Augustus: Caesar Augustus, born Gaius Octavius in 63 BC, reigned as the first Roman Emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus marked the beginning of the Pax Romana (“Roman Peace”), an era of relative peace for the Roman Empire which would last about two hundred years. Dante believed that the universal peace enjoyed by the world under Augustus was a necessary prerequisite to the coming of the Christ (what Paul describes as “the fullness of time” in Galatians 4:4); as Dante puts it, “a perfect monarchy existed” under Augustus, “the state of humanity which the Son of God either awaited, or himself chose to bring about, when he was on the point of becoming man for the salvation of mankind” (Monarchy, 1.16).

Augustus commissioned Virgil to write the Aeneid, his most famous epic poem about the foundations of Rome; and the Aeneid in turn is a tribute to Augustus in many ways, including prophecies of Rome’s future and the heroic deeds of Augustus and his ancestors (see, for example, Aeneid VI.777-807). Augustus even had Virgil recite parts of the poem to him and his court. After finishing the poem, Virgil planned on taking another three years to revise it, but died before he got the chance. He supposedly left behind instructions to have the manuscript destroyed if he were to die before his revisions were complete; but Augustus ordered the executors of his will to disregard Virgil’s instruction. Thus, tradition credits Augustus for commissioning the Aeneid in the first place, and saving it from its own creator.

72

false and lying gods: In the Middle Ages, the pagan gods were sometimes characterized as demons deceiving mankind (see 1 Corinthians 10:20). The pagan poet’s condemnation of them is rather striking.

74

Anchises’ righteous son: Anchises was the cousin of King Priam of Troy, and his son Aeneas is the protagonist of Virgil’s Aeneid (the title means “poem about Aeneas”). The Aeneid picks up where Homer left off in the Iliad. It tells of the Trojan Horse, how the Greeks ransacked and burned the city of Troy, and how Aeneas escaped the burning city with his father on his back and his son at his side. After meeting up with other Trojans who had fled, Aeneas wanders the earth on a god-given mission to reestablish his people in their ancestral home in Italy. His father dies along the way, but Aeneas visits the underworld to see him one last time. In the underworld, Anchises reveals the great descendants of Aeneas, including Romulus the founder and first king of Rome (his namesake), as well as the line of Julius Caesar and his grandnephew Augustus.

After leaving the underworld, the Trojans land in Italy and settle in Latium (modern Lazio), the region where Rome will be founded. The latter half of the poem depicts Aeneas’ struggle with Turnus, king of the Rutulians (a people native to Latium), over the daughter of Latinus, king of the Latins. The poem ends with Aeneas executing Turnus after crippling him in single combat.

Troy: Troy was a city in Asia Minor (the Anatolian peninsula in modern Turkey), and the site of the Trojan War, made famous by Homer’s Iliad. The destruction of Troy at the end of the Trojan War is depicted in Book II of Virgil’s Aeneid.

75

Ilium: Another name for Troy. Ilium is the namesake of the city’s founder, Ilus; while Troy is the namesake of Tros, the father of Ilus.

74-75

who came from Troy after proud Ilium went up in flames: Notice that Dante chooses to use two different names here for the same city, and only Ilium receives the epithet “proud” (“superbo”), recalling the same phrase, “proud Ilium” (“superbum Ilium”), in Aeneid III.2-3. There is a subtle implication that the city lived on while its pride was destroyed in the fire. In fact the Aeneid is a kind of resurrection story: out the ashes of Ilium the Trojans were reborn, able to shed their old pride and become Romans in the fullness of time.

77-78

Virgil’s identification of the “lovely mountain” as the “start and cause of every joy” clearly emphasizes its allegorical interpretation (a literal mountain would not be the source of every joy). But if we take the mountain as an allegorical figure of Neoplatonic Philosophy (or philosophy in general), then Virgil’s statement reveals more about him than the mountain. Virgil believes happiness (“every joy”) is to be found at the summit of the mountain—that is, happiness is reached through philosophy. Such a belief is exactly what we would expect from a pagan intellectual before the advent of Jesus Christ. But Catholic doctrine holds that God is the true summit, the cause of every joy; and the path to God is not through philosophy but conversion. Conversion does not begin with an ascent, but instead with an inward journey and a confrontation of one’s own sin—a descent in humility analogous to the Christ’s descent from Heaven to earth.

Like Dante the pilgrim, a novice reader may have no reason to distrust Virgil, and perhaps will take him at his word. But a seasoned reader of the Comedy may note that even this early dialogue establishes Virgil’s limitations as a pagan. And as we come to understand Virgil as an allegorical figure for the intellect (or reason), we can interpret the allegorical significance of his limitations as well: not all knowledge can come from the intellect alone. The intellect by itself cannot guide the soul to God—the summit of the mountain is the best it can do.

Dante recognizes Virgil.

79 “Then are you that same Virgil and that fountain
80 who spills out speech in such a fluent brook?”
81 I answered him with shame upon my brow, then.

82 “O light and honor of the poets, look—
83 may the long study and the great love garner
84 your favor, which have made me search your book.

85 You are my master and you are my author;
86 you are alone the one from whom I take
87 the beautiful style that has brought me honor.

88 You see the beast for which I turn away;
89 help me to get beyond her, famous sage,
90 for she has made my veins and pulses quake.”

79 «Or se’ tu quel Virgilio e quella fonte
80 che spandi di parlar sì largo fiume?»,
81 rispuos’ io lui con vergognosa fronte.

82 «O de li altri poeti onore e lume,
83 vagliami ’l lungo studio e ’l grande amore
84 che m’ha fatto cercar lo tuo volume.

85 Tu se’ lo mio maestro e ’l mio autore,
86 tu se’ solo colui da cu’ io tolsi
87 lo bello stilo che m’ha fatto onore.

88 Vedi la bestia per cu’ io mi volsi;
89 aiutami da lei, famoso saggio,
90 ch’ella mi fa tremar le vene e i polsi».

79

Virgil: The Roman poet Virgil, born Publius Vergilius Maro in 70 BC, whose major works include the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the Aeneid, three of the most famous poems of Latin antiquity. For Dante, Virgil is an exemplar of the highest summit to which a pagan mind can take itself. Aeneas, the protagonist of his greatest poem, the Aeneid, is eminently moral despite being a pagan, and driven above all by a religious devotion to his god-given quest to reestablish the Trojans in Italy (“pious Aeneas” is Virgil’s epithet for Aeneas).

Although Virgil died nineteen years before the birth of Jesus, the story of Aeneas resounds with Judeo-Christian themes: Aeneas, the righteous son of a divinity, leads his people away from foreign persecution and into a divinely promised land. Similarly, Virgil’s Eclogue IV describes a child, a “son of Jupiter,” who will soon be born and become divine, and reign over a peaceful earth with the powers of his father. Many Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages have interpreted the fourth Eclogue as a prophecy of the Christ whom Virgil would not live to know.

In the Comedy, Virgil becomes Dante’s guide through Hell and Purgatory. One of the most important questions of the poem is: Why Virgil? There are many reasons. First of all, Virgil wrote the Aeneid, the national epic of the Roman Empire. In Dante’s ideal world, the Roman Empire and the Roman Church function as the body and soul of civilization, with the Empire presiding over temporal affairs and the Church over spiritual affairs. The Holy Bible is the great text of the Church, telling of mankind’s fall from pride at the beginning of human history, and how Jesus Christ led mankind to its resurrection and redemption in the fullness of time (in the Bible, the full history of mankind thus parallels the life of Jesus Christ, who descended in humility to a mortal body, died, and resurrected to ascend to Heaven again). The Aeneid is the great text of the Empire, telling how the “high pride of the Trojans” (Inferno 30.14) died with Troy in the beginning of Roman history, and how Aeneas led the people of Troy to a resurrection as Romans in Italy. Both great texts serve as models for Dante’s Comedy, which is likewise a resurrection story: the death of the old sinful self, and Dante’s rebirth as a Christian.

At the risk of digressing, I will add here that St. Augustine’s autobiographical Confessions completes the trinity of texts which serve as the major models for Dante’s Comedy (it is not a stretch to suggest that the Aeneid, the Confessions, and the Bible correspond to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in this regard). The Confessions is the great text of the Christian self, telling the personal story of Augustine’s conversion to Christianity: his death in baptism, and his resurrection in Christ. The paradoxical doctrine that death is a prerequisite to life comes from St. Paul, and is neatly expressed in Romans 6:6-8: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer. For he that is dead is justified from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ.” The Comedy is an autobiographical conversion story after Augustine, formulated in the high epic tradition of Virgil, written in the low humble style of the Bible—even on a superficial level, Dante adapts elements from all three sources.

In the autobiographical vein of Augustine, many of Dante’s choices as a poet arise from a personal consideration first (and perhaps Dante would argue that any historical, moral-allegorical, or spiritual interpretations of his choices must follow providentially). So again we ask the question: Why Virgil? As the poem goes on, a shrewd reader gets the sense that Virgil’s Aeneid must have literally saved Dante (in his real, personal life) from the state of mind represented in the poem by the dark forest. Although I can only speculate, I imagine Dante becoming steeped in classical philosophy to the point of deluding himself, believing he can attain all knowledge through philosophy if he only pursues it doggedly enough; then, rereading the Aeneid with its myriad poetic truths, Dante realizes how much more there is for the mind than what philosophy can possibly offer (as Hamlet says, “There are more things in heaven and earth… than are dreamt of in your philosophy”). In other words, Virgil is Dante’s guide (in the poem) because he was Dante’s guide (in real life).

Finally, we come to Virgil’s significance as an allegorical figure. It is far from obvious at this point in the poem, but throughout the Inferno it will become increasingly obvious (though perhaps only to the reader who is already aware) that Dante and Virgil are, respectively, allegorical representations of the will and the intellect of a human soul. Dante’s physical journey to God over the course of the poem is an allegorical representation of the metaphysical journey of the soul (or mind) to God during the process of conversion to Christianity. Just as Virgil guides Dante, so the intellect guides the will of a just soul. From this perspective, Virgil is also a perfect choice as Dante’s guide. The greatest pagan thinkers could never reason their way into Christian truths, because the central doctrines of Christianity are mystical rather than logical. Virgil’s limitations as a pagan—his bewilderment in response to Christian mysteries, his inability to travel into the heavens, his occasional subtle misinterpretations, and even his perfectly logical doubts when facing certain obstacles to the journey—these limitations of the man reflect allegorically the limitations of the intellect.

I must stress that allegory in the Comedy does not work the same way as allegory in, say, Orwell’s Animal Farm, where the pigs are not pigs but merely stand-ins for the Russian communists. Dante patterned his allegory on the concept of biblical typology, the idea that allegorical representations could be superimposed on real historical figures and events—essentially, because history is like a book written by the Author of all things, literary devices can be read into it, and people and events can function as words or symbols of one another. Typology does not undermine the literal significance of things—the real episode of Abraham and Isaac (real in the context of Genesis) does not become unreal just because it apparently prefigures another real event, the crucifixion of Jesus. Similarly, the fact that Virgil is an allegorical figure for the intellect does not in any way undermine his reality as a historical person—Virgil is Virgil, and an allegory for the intellect.

82

light: Light is a common metaphor for reason or the intellect—ignorance is darkness, and reason is illuminating.

84

your book: The Aeneid. Robert Hollander notes that, other than his use of the word here, Dante only uses Ital. volume (“book” or “volume”) to describe the Bible.

85

my author: The word “author” (“autore”) rings with the sense of “authority.”

87

beautiful style: The high tragic style characteristic of Virgil’s epic. In his treatise on language, De Vulgari Eloquentia (Eloquence in the Vernacular), Dante distinguishes three styles, the tragic, the comic, and the elegaic (De Vulgari Eloquentia 2.4). Dante’s fame as a poet was already well established by 1300 (the date of the present journey); included among his famous poems were his canzoni (odes), which he consciously wrote in the tragic style. Three of Dante’s canzoni are collected in his unfinished philosophical treatise, Convivio (Banquet), whose chapters are each centered around a particular canzone; the treatise would have included eleven more canzoni had it been finished according to Dante’s original plan.

88

the beast: The wolf (lines 49-60).

90

for she has made my veins and pulses quake: Literally, this is an expression of the fear Dante felt when confronted by the wolf. But the same physiological response can also be attributed to lust, which befits the allegorical interpretation of the wolf as incontinence. Sins of incontinence result when the will is led by the lower faculties of the soul (the passions) rather than reason: love and hate, desire and aversion, delight and sorrow. In his youth, Dante was famous for his passionate love poetry—if he is driven beyond reason by any of his lower passions, it is lust.

Prophecy of the greyhound.

91 “There is another path that you must take,”
92 he answered when he saw me shedding tears,
93 “if you want to survive this savage place;

94 for this beast, for which you’ve cried out in tears,
95 allows no man to pass across her path,
96 but so impedes him that it kills him here;

97 and has a nature so wicked and bad,
98 that she can never glut her greedy will,
99 but has more hunger after the repast.

100 She weds with many creatures, and she still
101 shall breed with more, until the greyhound first
102 arrives, who painfully will have her killed.

103 He shall not feed on pewter nor on earth,
104 but on wisdom, love and virtue, and soon
105 between felt and felt will be his nation’s birth.

106 For that low Italy he’ll be a boon
107 for which the virgin Camilla is deceased,
108 and Euryalus, Turnus and Nisus died of wounds.

109 Through every city will he hunt the beast,
110 until he sends her back to the Inferno,
111 where she, by primal envy, was released.

91 «A te convien tenere altro vïaggio»,
92 rispuose, poi che lagrimar mi vide,
93 «se vuo’ campar d’esto loco selvaggio;

94 ché questa bestia, per la qual tu gride,
95 non lascia altrui passar per la sua via,
96 ma tanto lo ’mpedisce che l’uccide;

97 e ha natura sì malvagia e ria,
98 che mai non empie la bramosa voglia,
99 e dopo ’l pasto ha più fame che pria.

100 Molti son li animali a cui s’ammoglia,
101 e più saranno ancora, infin che ’l veltro
102 verrà, che la farà morir con doglia.

103 Questi non ciberà terra né peltro,
104 ma sapïenza, amore e virtute,
105 e sua nazion sarà tra feltro e feltro.

106 Di quella umile Italia fia salute
107 per cui morì la vergine Cammilla,
108 Eurialo e Turno e Niso di ferute.

109 Questi la caccerà per ogne villa,
110 fin che l’avrà rimessa ne lo ’nferno,
111 là onde ’nvidia prima dipartilla.

94-95

The wolf is the most deadly of the three beasts, because humans are most susceptible to incontinence.

96

kills: Allegorically, this refers to the death of damnation, rather than eternal life in Heaven (death in sin, as opposed to life in Christ).

98-99

These lines speak to the most ensnaring mentality about sins of incontinence. As Augustine puts it, “‘Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.’ For I was afraid that You would hear my prayer too soon, and too soon would heal me from the disease of lust which I wanted satisfied rather than extinguished” (Confessions 8.7).

101

the greyhound: The greyhound seems to signify the universal monarch (or emperor) of Dante’s political ideal. In Monarchy, Dante argues that since a universal monarch already has dominion over everything, he cannot be corrupted by greed (notably a sin of incontinence), and is therefore in a natural position to be a just ruler. The prophecy of the greyhound, however, is famously obscure, and many different opinions have been floated by different commentators as to who or what the greyhound signifies, including an emperor, a pope, the Second Coming of Christ, Dante himself, Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII, Cangrande della Scala, and others.

102

painfully: This qualification (Ital. con doglia, “with pain”) seems a bit excessive, and therefore begs the question as to why Dante would include it. A simple answer, though not entirely satisfying, is that sins of incontinence die hard—lust, for instance, cannot be eradicated without mental anguish. The similarity with Engl. dog is likely coincidental (see note to line 105).

103

pewter…earth: Money and land. This points to the greyhound signifying an emperor, since (as noted above) Dante believed that a universal monarch would have no incentive for greed (for land or money).

104

wisdom, love and virtue: Spiritual as opposed to material food. The three spiritual goods seem to directly counterbalance the three beasts (sinful dispositions), and also to point to the Holy Trinity.

105

between felt and felt: Various explanations of this enigmatic phrase have been proposed. It could suggest “between Castor and Pollux,” the twins of the constellation Gemini, who were typically shown wearing felt (pileus) caps in ancient art; in that case, the greyhound (or his nation) would be born under the sign of Gemini (as was Dante himself). It could suggest the felt which lined Florentine voting urns in Dante’s time, in which case the greyhound’s nation would be “born in a ballot box,” as it were (Holy Roman Emperors had to be elected King of the Romans before they could be crowned by the Pope). Finally, the phrase (“tra feltro e feltro” in Italian) could refer to Feltre and Montefeltro—a town and a historical region of Italy, respectively. Roughly speaking, this would put the birthplace (or nation) somewhere in the Italian regions of Veneto or Romagna.

Many commentators argue that the latter interpretation points to Cangrande della Scala as the identity of the greyhound. Cangrande (whose name means “big dog,” and who enjoyed hunting—hence “greyhound;” though the name can also be interpreted as “great khan”) was a lord of Verona, a city in the Veneto region of Italy (hence between Feltre and Montefeltro). Cangrande was a renowned warrior and ruler, and a loyal supporter of the emperor. Dante likely met Cangrande when he went to Verona in 1304, shortly after his exile from Florence, as a guest of Cangrande’s older brother Bartolomeo, then-ruler of Verona. Nearly a decade later, Dante returned to Verona, where he lived and worked on the Comedy for about five years under the patronage of Cangrande (who by then was the city’s ruler). In a letter to Cangrande (generally, but not universally, accepted as authentic), Dante dedicated Paradise, the third canticle of the Comedy, to Cangrande. If Dante saw Cangrande as an imperial hopeful, then the phrase “tra feltro e feltro” could have a neat double meaning: between the felt sides of the voting urn, and between Feltre and Montefeltro. Unfortunately, Cangrande was not a Gemini, which excludes the other possible meaning.

his nation’s birth: Ital. sua nazion, which could mean “his nation” or “his birth(place).” I’ve used a hybrid rendering to suggest both meanings.

106

low Italy: Ital. umile Italia, which recalls Virgil’s “humilem… Italiam” in Aeneid III.522-523. In Virgil, the phrase refers specifically to the geography of the Italian coast (“low-lying Italy”), which Aeneas and his crew are approaching by ship. In Dante, the phrase seems to carry a moral connotation (in the opposite senses of either “lowly” or “humble”). In the moral sense, the phrase would refer to Italy in general; but in the geographical sense, especially given the connection to the Aeneid, the phrase refers to the area of Italy near Rome (Latium, roughly speaking) where Aeneas fought to establish a new home for the Trojans.

107

Camilla was a warrior princess of the Volscian tribe in southern Italy, who fought alongside Turnus in his war against Aeneas. Her fighting prowess, and her death at the hands of Arruns, is described in Aeneid XI.

108

Euryalus and Nisus were Trojans who fought under Aeneas against Turnus. In Aeneid IX, Virgil describes how the two young friends and comrades died together, after a night raid on the Rutulian camp (patterned by the night raid of Ulysses and Diomedes in Homer’s Iliad X).

Turnus was the king of the Rutulians who waged war against Aeneas. The Aeneid ends with his death in single combat at the hands of Aeneas.

107-108

Two of these four warriors fought with Aeneas, and two fought against him. What’s more, Dante alternates between friend and foe as he names them: Camilla (foe), Euryalus (friend), Turnus (foe), Nisus (friend). Dante’s indifference to the allegiance of the four warriors foreshadows a more general indifference to political and familial allegiances later in the poem. Politics become irrelevant in the afterlife.

110

the Inferno: The Italian name for Hell.

111

where she, by primal envy, was released: See Wisdom 2:23-24: “For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his own likeness he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world.”

Virgil offers to guide Dante.

112 It’s best if you, as I think and discern, will
113 now follow me, and I will be your guide,
114 and I will bring you through a place eternal,

115 where you will hear the hopeless desperate cries,
116 and you will see the ancient spirits suffer,
117 who all scream out for second deaths to die;

118 and you’ll see those who are content to suffer
119 in fire, because they hope that they will reach,
120 whenever it may be, those blessed others.

121 If you’ll then want to climb as high as these,
122 there is a soul much worthier than I:
123 I’ll leave you with her, when I take my leave;

124 because that Emperor who reigns on high,
125 since I rebelled against His law, declares
126 that in His city, through me, none arrive.

127 From there He rules, and governs everywhere;
128 there is His city, and there the high seat:
129 oh happy, those He chooses to be there!”

112 Ond’ io per lo tuo me’ penso e discerno
113 che tu mi segui, e io sarò tua guida,
114 e trarrotti di qui per loco etterno;

115 ove udirai le disperate strida,
116 vedrai li antichi spiriti dolenti,
117 ch’a la seconda morte ciascun grida;

118 e vederai color che son contenti
119 nel foco, perché speran di venire
120 quando che sia a le beate genti.

121 A le quai poi se tu vorrai salire,
122 anima fia a ciò più di me degna:
123 con lei ti lascerò nel mio partire;

124 ché quello imperador che là sù regna,
125 perch’ i’ fu’ ribellante a la sua legge,
126 non vuol che ’n sua città per me si vegna.

127 In tutte parti impera e quivi regge;
128 quivi è la sua città e l’alto seggio:
129 oh felice colui cu’ ivi elegge!».

114

a place eternal: That is, Hell.

117

second deaths: In Revelation 20, the souls in Hell are said to suffer a “second death” after the Last Judgment (see especially Revelation 20:14). With the biblical allusion, the meaning of the phrase in Dante is fairly certain: the souls in Hell scream for the Last Judgment, perhaps for fear of it, or perhaps out of morbid desire. However, in another sense, the phrase could mean that the souls in Hell scream for an end to their suffering: a more permanent death, rather than an eternity in Hell.

118-119

those who are content to suffer in fire: The souls in Purgatory, the subject of the second canticle.

120

those blessed others: The souls in Paradise, the subject of the third and final canticle.

122

a soul much worthier than I: We will not find out who this second guide is until late in the second canticle (although some readers may guess).

124

that Emperor who reigns on high: To name God, Virgil cites the highest authority he knew—the emperor is the secular analogue of God, who dwells in the Empyrean (the tenth heaven) and rules over all the universe.

125

since I rebelled against His law: Virgil lived as a pagan before the time of Jesus. His “rebellion” against God’s law was only out of ignorance.

126

His city: Heaven, of course; but from the context, Virgil seems to be suggesting a heavenly Rome, the seat of power from which the Emperor rules. The phrasing also alludes to Augustine’s City of God, in which Augustine pits paganism against Christianity, and argues (among other things) that belief in the pagan gods cannot lead to eternal life.

Dante accepts Virgil as guide.

130 And I to him: “Poet, I ask you please—
131 by that same God whom you had never known,
132 so, from this evil and worse, I may flee—

133 to lead me to the place of which you spoke,
134 that I might see the gateway of Saint Peter
135 and those whom you make out to be so low.”

136 Then he moved on, and I kept after the leader.

130 E io a lui: «Poeta, io ti richeggio
131 per quello Dio che tu non conoscesti,
132 acciò ch’io fugga questo male e peggio,

133 che tu mi meni là dov’ or dicesti,
134 sì ch’io veggia la porta di san Pietro
135 e color cui tu fai cotanto mesti».

136 Allor si mosse, e io li tenni dietro.

132

from this evil: The dark forest, Dante’s temporal state of sin.

and worse: Hell, the eternal state of damnation.

134

the gateway of Saint Peter: St. Peter was given “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” by Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:19). Traditionally, this is viewed as Jesus giving papal authority to Peter. Thus St. Peter (representative of the Church) is the symbolic gatekeeper of Heaven. The “gateway of Saint Peter” is therefore the gateway into Paradise (in the Comedy, the literal gateway turns out to be in Purgatory).

135

those whom you make out to be so low: The damned in Hell.

136

Dante has accepted Virgil as his guide, and now follows after him. Allegorically, this represents the first step of the soul towards justice—the will follows the intellect, as it should in a just soul.

 | Inferno 2