(I’m sorry this is really late, I was one of those having technical difficulties)
I found the presentation today on the shape of dreams to be very interesting. I especially found the difference between the types of figures the gods chose to express themselves intriguing. The presenters pointed out that the dreams in Homer and Vergil’s epics both involved speakers who took the form of people the dreamers knew. In Dante’s dreams, on the other hand, the figures who interact with the dreamers are figures known to Dante because of their ties to God. The Greeks and Romans believed the figures in their dreams because they were people whom they trusted in their waking lives. Then on the other side, Dante must have trusted the figures in his dreams to be helping him because they were related to God and therefore must be there to help him. The Greeks and Romans did not have the same liberty of knowing for certain that their gods would only send dreams to help them.
The discussion of appearance in dreams also made me think more about what compels people to take action. It was shown that the Greeks were encouraged to take action when the figure appeared just as beautiful as in life but sad because something had not been done, and the Romans were coerced to do something by the horrendous appearance of those who appear to them in their dreams. If you follow the idea that Dante’s katabatic experience is a dream, then you can also see how he believed people would be more likely to do the right thing if they were presented with a horrible image of what happened to those who did not. It is the horror of what will happen to him in inferno if he does not return to the path of God that helps push him in the correct direction.
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“If you follow the idea that Dante’s katabatic experience is a dream, then you can also see how he believed people would be more likely to do the right thing if they were presented with a horrible image of what happened to those who did not. It is the horror of what will happen to him in inferno if he does not return to the path of God that helps push him in the correct direction.”
–I definitely agree with this statement, since I think it makes sense. It is like telling children stories with a moral at the end. The children may be frightened by the bogey-man, but if they does what mom tells them to do, the bogey-man won’t get them. Well, that sounded quite juvenile and degrading to what Dante was trying to get at, but I think you can kind of understand what I am getting at?
Thanks for the discussion on our dialogue, Kathleen.
Comment by Midori 12.03.06 @ 8:30 am