Brothers in Arms. Week 24: Dante's Divine Comedy, Inferno

This week it’s Dante, and it will be amazing. Full stop. Of all the classics you could read, The Divine Comedy may be one of the most intimidating, but it’s also one of the most necessary. In this episode I’ll break it down and share how to make the journey approachable. You can do this.

We begin with Dante’s early autobiographical work, the Nuovo Vitae (“New Life”), a short book of prose and poetry reflecting on his youth and his great love, Beatrice. It’s tender, romantic, and surprisingly fun, especially because Dante explains his own poems. For me, it echoed Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy with its mix of prose and verse, but here the focus is entirely on poetry itself.

From there, we step into The Divine Comedy, starting with Inferno. This vast poem of 100 cantos (divided among Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso) is written in tercets, here translated by Mark Musa into smooth iambic pentameter. His translation is highly readable and captures the poem’s rhythm without forcing rhyme.

The journey begins when Dante the Pilgrim finds himself lost “halfway through the journey of our life.” Guided by Virgil, he descends through the nine circles of Hell, encountering mythological figures, historical personages, and unforgettable imagery. The punishments fit the crimes (the doctrine of *contrapasso*): the lustful are blown by winds, fortune tellers walk with twisted heads, flatterers choke forever on filth.

I’ll share tips for reading Dante without getting bogged down: read quickly, jot a one-line summary of each canto, sketch a map of Hell, and above all, focus on Dante’s evolving relationship with Virgil. More than an epic, Inferno is a story of finding yourself in darkness and but not staying there—and having a friend to help you. Next to the Odyssey and the Bible, this is one of the books that merits your effort.

This is a year-long challenge! Join me next week for Purgatorio.

LINKS

Ted Gioia/The Honest Broker’s 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!)

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