Tag Archives: Sin

The Garden of Eden

Dante is in awe when viewing the Earthly Paradise which is a garden, also dark “which never lets sun or moon shine through” with fresh May branches and streams. He meets a solitary lady who he also calls beautiful (beautiful donna) and she is singing to herself by the riverbank while picking flower from flower and Dante tries to listen. The lady is known as Matelda. According to the notes in the book Purgatorio page 484 it says, “Embodying the innocent happiness of Eden, Matelda is a kind of nymph of the wood or protective spirit of the place.” She sees that Dante and Virgil are new dwellers and Matelda explains the nature and history of the Earthly Paradise. Metelda tells Virgil and Dante that the garden is known as the Garden of Eden, once intended for the eternal peace of humankind but was then abandoned because of sin. Matelda says, “he highest Good, who alone pleases himself, made man good and for the good, and this place he gave as a token to him of eternal peace” (canto 29 lines 91-93). Its trees and plants are created by God, and the weather is pleasurably everlasting. Two rivers, Lethe and Eunoe, cross the Earthly Paradise. Matelda states, “On this side it descends with the power to take away all memory of sin; on the other it gives back the memory of every good deed. Here it is called Lethe, as on the other side Eunoe” (canto 29 lines 127-131). Therefore, if one drinks from the water of Lethe, their sins would be forgotten, but if a soul drinks from the water of Eunoe, the soul will have remembrance of their virtuous deeds. In Greek and Roman mythology Lethe, according to the  notes in the book Purgatorio page 490, is a river that flows through Hell. Those who drink from it, forget both their past deeds as well as their entire life on earth. Dante, however, creates his own version of the river of Lethe by encouraging the sinner to be forgetful of theirs sin but still allows the drinker to still remember everything else, including their earthly lives. The river, Eunoe, doesn’t exist in classical mythology, but is created by Dante. Both Lethe and Eunoe rivers come from a single source and flow through the Garden of Eden which is how it is represented in the Bible. This canto also has important ties with the forest of Inferno1 and Inferno13. The dark wood of the beginning of Inferno is set at the foot of the “delightful” mountain and the pilgrim wants to climb it but is dangerous. Therefore, the first dark wood mentioned in Inferno1 represents the moral struggle while the forest in canto 13 represents how the souls refused the divine plenitude of integration of body and soul. While the wood of suicides is filed with thorns, poison and filth, garden of Eden has flowers, singing and liveliness.

 

In relation to the Met paintings from last week, this canto (canto 29) reminds me of the painting called “Expulsion from Paradise.” God created man to be deathless and to share his own happiness (cf. Par. 13. 57-60), “good and for the good”; but Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden into hardship and mortality because they disobeyed God and ate the apple from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the painting the garden’s radiance is surrounded by flowers, plants, and trees which symbolizes the purity and sinless behavior of mankind before the Fall. In the painting Adam and Eve are being discharged from the garden by a graceful angel. Because this angel whose nudity is seen to have human-like characteristics’: thin, fragile, petite, then this angel has a deep understanding and sympathizes mankind after the fall from grace although mankind (Adam and Eve) made unethical decisions.

In regards to my final paper I have thought about two options: one is to discuss the violence in Inferno and as the reader progressively moves downward in the Inferno the sins become worse becoming more violent than the previous circle.

OR

I wanted to write about Paolo and Francesca and how they are still in love so their sin is still on-going + this idea of the will vs the intellect.

 

 

 

Progression of the Recognition of Sin

Sandro Botticelli, Canto XVIII, colored drawing on parchment, C.1480

Dante and Virgil Traversing the first two Boglia of the Eighth Circle

Early in the Inferno, we can see the idea of recognition and remembrance of sinners. Dante’s interactions early in the Inferno with Francesca and Paulo, as well as his later interactions with Brunetto Latini show that the sinners of the higher Inferno are more focused on their own sufferings and past lives on Earth. Francesca, Paulo, Ciacco, and the other sinners Dante encounters before lower hell even actively want to speak to Dante and tell him of their plight, or ask him about the living.

However as we enter the 8th circle, we’re welcomed by a new caliber of sin, and a new attitude towards Virgil and Dante. Where sinners like Farinata or Cavalcante in the 6th circle wanted to speak to the pilgrim, we’re now met by Venedico Caccianemico, and Alessio Interminei of Lucca. Both of these sinners respond in a similar way, and both reside in the first and second (respectively) Boglia of the 8th circle.

Venedico is initially recognized by Dante as he “thought to hide by lowering his face,”(46-47) and when prompted by Dante, concedes: “Unwilling I say it, but your clear speech compels me, reminding me of the former world.”(52-54) Venedico is so ashamed by his actions in the real world, in which he pimped his own sister. Unlike sinners in higher hell, Venedico shows a higher level of regret for his actions and his state in society that he attempts to avert even the gaze of Dante. Alessio too feels this shame, and a strange perspective on his own sin. He says to Dante: “Why are you so hungry to look more at me than the other filthy ones? . . . I am submerged down here by the flatteries with which my tongue was never cloyed.” (118-126) Alessio not only feels shame, but also uses the metaphor of being “submerged down here by the flatteries with which my tongue was never cloyed,” in which he describes that he’s surrounded by excrement, something his tongue was never disgusted by as a flatterer.

The idea that these sinners now wish to not be recognized for their sin is interesting, not only because of the idea that these sinners are starting to regret their own actions while alive, but also because of the contrast between these circles and the anti-inferno of Canto 3. In the anti-inferno we’re introduced to the neutrals: angels who allied themselves to neither God or Satan, and humans with a lack of affiliation. These souls are punished, but unlike the other souls of the Inferno receive no infamy or praise. Those in Hell, while punished, also receive a degree of infamy and the possibility of remembrance. Those in the anti-inferno are briefly touched upon in the 3rd canto, and not one is recognized. The contrast between this canto and the 8th circle where sinners start to wish to remain unidentified is interesting to me. It really illustrates the idea that both calibers of sin are punished in almost an equal regard. Both wish for the opposite, one hoping for recognition, and the other anonymity.

I found this parallel fascinating, because I feel that this exemplifies Dante’s idea of contrapasso, only in this example across the circles of hell. A contrapasso of punishments rather than a contrapasso of sin and punishment. Though I’m unsure if sinners in the anti-inferno would prefer to be punished in the 8th circle, they certainly want the recognition the Inferno and God’s divine plan give to other sinners, whereas the opposite is true for the sinners in the 8th circle.