The Afterlife in the Classical and Italian Traditi

After listening to Friday’s discussion, I thought that this verse from this song really provided a good topic. In both the classical and the Italian traditions, one main concept is that mortals are not equivalent to the gods or to God. The only exception of a mortal becoming immortal is Herakles, in the Classical tradition. Many times, we as mortals become too proud, and we think that we are as good if not better than God/the gods. If we do start to think that, we will be punished-in both traditions.

Both traditions use saints, prophets, or priests/priestesses to speak to the mortals. In the Christian traditions, there were apostles such as Peter or Paul. In the Classical tradition, there were priestesses such as the Cumaen Sybill of Apollo. Like we discussed on Friday, these apostles or priestesses really are the mouthpiece of God/the gods. They are provided to guide us or lead us in the right direction. They actually do act as a guide to us.

In Par. 6, Dante not only engages in a remarkable celebration of the Empire; he is attempting at something that no one had dared to do before him, not even Virgil. He is attempting to give a representation of history that accounts for God’s will or Providence and even for Predestination, “the obscure rationale that regulates Providence.” With Dante, for the first time since the Old Testament, we have a perfectly coherent representation of history as God’s creation. This is a daunting task indeed, because it not only entails that one must convincingly demonstrate that history is crafted by the hand of God; it must also account for the mysterious rationale that has been moving that hand from the beginning of time until the very end of times. Dante knows that and delivers all the way, from the simplest to the most intricate theological issue. His providential history is air-tight, although it does have a few grey areas (… after all being God is not a piece of cake); what is more, it also accounts for pagan antiquity in its extraordinary inter-cultural embrace. Dante’s history is truly the history of histories. Of course, for us readers of Hegels and Marx, it may be difficult to believe him, but this is not the point. What matters is the fact that for seven hundred years Dante’s historiographical model has remained something to be confronted, and contended with by those who have followed him, including Hegels and Marx; and this, I guess, includes us too.

Last year in Ancient Tragedy we read the whole of the Aeschylus trilogy the Orestia. In the last of these plays the Eumenides, the Furies are conquered by the wills of Athena and Apollo. They are denied Orestes, but in return are given the honor and respect of all Athenians. They are turned from gods of justice through revenge into gods of justice who prosecute those who break the law. (They are also connected with sustaining the productivity of the fields and harvest.) However, this does not mean the Furies have been tamed, far from it. They are revered and honored with sacrifices but mostly this respect verges on fear. When sacrificing to the Eumenides one made a sacrifice and then quickly leaves their sacred precinct, this area was to remain as undisturbed as possible. There was still the potential of wrath of the Furies to strike down those who enter their grounds.

Similarly in the Divine Comedy, the Furies have been placed into a hierarchy of justice; specifically they carry out the punishment of divine justice. However, as witnessed by Dante’s encounter with them, the Furies are still very protective of their sacred areas. In the Inferno the Furies have been given rule over Dis and like the classical tradition attack those who disturb this area, which they consider their own. Once again we can see that while the Furies are in a way conquered, they are far from powerless.

I found it interesting that Dante took after Vergil’s concrete measurement of time in the “lower levels” of the journey, but when he enters paradiso, time becomes nebulous and immeasurable, just like the afterlife is with Homer. Dante is embracing both the Greek and Roman literary tradition by allowing time the two possiblities to express time in the afterlife (according to the greeks and romans) to exist in his epic katabatic poem. It is almost a compromise– but, moreso, he is acknowledging those that came before him who also wrote epic poetry about the katabatic experience. Although these elements of time progression are embraced, the time progression of the souls has been altered due to the christian culture that was very much established before Dante lived. Progression is dependent on good works and prayer, and it’s all relative and unique for each soul– as opposed to the souls in antiquity which all had a fixed set of years on the banks of the river, or a fixed set of years until they could enter a new set of bodies. Ultimately, Dante, by acknowledging both vergil and homer’s sense of time in the afterlife, and also including his christian values to the progression of the soul, he embraces the past and his present.

During our discussion today of Dante’s new approach to love poetry - and criticism of previous forms - I was thinking of Paolo and Francesca in Inferno canto 5, and their sin (and deaths) from reading Arthurian romance. I imagine whatever they were reading wasn’t quite the genre of the poets in Purgatorio 24, but the Provenal troubador poetry we mentioned as a source for the dolce stil novo poets definitely would include Arthurian romances, presumably of that sort. This is another critique from Dante of previous styles of writing about love, isn’t it? Even though Francesca’s an unrepentant sinner and perhaps not the most trustworthy of sources, Dante the poet has her point out the unrealistic and even potentially dangerous nature of some poetry.

I found Friday’s in class discussion to be very interesting. While thinking more about it afterwards, I realized that the concept of time is depicted differently by each of these three authors, Vergil, Dante, and Homer.

Vergil limits the time that Aeneas has in the Underworld. Whenever he gets caught up with something, whether it is talking to Deiphobus, the son of Priam, or if he has just stopped to observe what is happening in the Underworld, the Sibyl is always there to remind him that time is running out. On the other hand, as we can see, Odysseus has all the time in the world to find his way back to Ithaka. He wants so badly to go home to see his wife and son, yet interference continues to ruin this for him. It takes him approximately ten years to finally complete his journey and reunite with his family. In comparison to this, Aeneas has a specific amount of time to visit his father, Anchises. He does not have plenty of time to spare. If he does happen to dawdle, the Sibyl is immediately at his side pressing him forward. If Odysseus comes across an obstacle such as Circe, or even his own crew, he has no immediate assistance to guide him.

Dante has even more time than the Aeneas or Odysseus. He states in Inferno “forever through that turbid, timeless air”. However, Dante also has a guide to help him and lead him through Hell in the Inferno. As Dante progresses through Hell, he has as much time as he needs. He meets all kinds of souls including those of Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. Each author portrays time in a different way.

The discussion today was really interesting, and I was thinking about it again just now and came up with an interesting similarity between all three authors - none of the characters are really in control of what they’re doing or where they’re going. Dante and Vergil use time to sort of control their characters (to force them to move forward), but Homer seems to use the lack of time to show that there is no control whatsoever. In Homer, the souls are all “stuck” in a sense and unmoving (besides mindless flitting) in separate, timeless areas of the underword. This makes his underworld very finite and also very eternal and very changeless. The ability to really go anywhere, or even to think consciously and clearly is removed from the souls and in the process their own personal will is also removed, which causes them to be forced to stay wherever it is they happen to be, which causes and is caused by the lack of definite time.

In vergil, on the other hand, time very definite, to the point that Aeneas has but a day to make his way throughout the underworld. This forces him to move forward at different points even though he isn’t done speaking to someone. The souls in the Aeneid are also found (at least in part) to have their personal wills, to move from one level to another, and to be able to think and speak consciously and clearly. This aftelife is presented as more infinite and perhaps as less eternal. It seems less like an ending and more like a second journey after one has finished the Earthly journey. In Homer, the souls were pretty much resigned to wherever level they were, but in Vergil’s Aeneid, Anchises shows Aeneas a bunch of souls that are waiting in line to be born again. This is a much different kind of existence, but at the same these souls do not have control over whether they go back, or where they go to, or in what level they end up. These things are all determined for them, though they do have the ability to think and speak clearly (at least in part).

Now, Dante’s Divine Comedy shows just about everyone with a mostly conscious and clear mind, seeking to find a way to move forward in their existence. Time, here, is used as a tool - the souls must undergo punishment for so many years (or even for eternity) - that allows the souls to actually move to a new level of the afterlife. In this case, the souls are all very conscious, have their own wills, and do their best to move from level to another, while time is still used as a way to control them in where they go and when they get there. Also, with the idea of prayers happening BEFORE a soul can be elevated, time again forces these events to happen in a certain order and thus controls the requests of the souls Dante meets (many ask for prayers).

In all three examples, though time is used differently (or nonexistent), it is still used to control not only the living as they forray into the underworld, but the souls themselves, to keep them where they should be, or to allow them to move onward under very specific circumstances. I also found it interesting that in the finite, eternal underworld described by Homer, time does not exist, but in the infinite, not-so-eternal underworld described by Vergil and Dante, time exists rather clearly. It would seem that although one might think time itself is infinite, the nature of time is to create finity, i.e. time only exists when there are beginnings and endings, finite elements, and thus time could not really exist in an infinite realm such as the underworld as a rule to which that world is bound.

Now you can legitimately incorporate Greek words into your text using a Unicode version developed by our magnificent Instructional Technology Specialists.

Simply go to “write a post” and click on the Ω on the WYSIWYG bar to the far right (after the html, the question mark, the “omega”).

There should also be an “omega” sign on the WYSIWYG for comments!!

After the discussion on guides last Friday I was looking at the first canto of Inferno, where Dante meets Vergil. Although Dante-the-character is overjoyed to meet Vergil, whom he admires immensely as a poet, I think Dante-the-poet makes it clear that at least in some ways, he intends to surpass his hero.

Amid Dante-the-pilgrim’s excitement (he gushes: l. 82 and following) at seeing Vergil, one of the first things Vergil says is that he was born in “the season of the false and lying gods.” (l. 72) And again, while he can help Dante through Hell and Purgatory, “a soul more worthy” will have to guide him in Paradise. (l. 122)

There’s definitely pathos in Dante’s admiration, as both poet and pilgrim, for Vergil, and the fact that Vergil can never attain Paradise - as Abi pointed out. But Dante-the-poet also makes it plain that, since he can reach greater heights through the combination of faith with reason, his poem will be correspondingly more ambitious. I think there’s a bit of a literary game here, as well: as Vergil elaborated on Homer’s structure and stories, Dante doesn’t just want to rewrite Vergil’s vision of the afterlife, he wants to do it better. But, as Vergil’s protective care for Dante-the-character and Dante’s admiration show, it’s only with divine aid that Dante can go farther.

After Friday’s discussion I began to think about how Virgil and Beatrice are considered as guides, how they facillitate Dante’s goal(s?) and also how they exit La Commedia. Beatrice from the outset in Inferno is a goal in and of herself for Dante,both literal and allegorical: As a man in love, he seeks his one true love and also she represents the true moral path from which he had strayed and in following her he would be united with The One.

Summoned by Beatrice, Virgil intercedes to facillitate Dante’s journey to enlightenment. Although reason allows him to guide Dante almost to the peak of Purgatorioto, he is unable to receive divine grace and therefore is obliged to return to Limbo. Virgil’s departure slips under the radar barely noticed until Dante seeks out his ‘father’ for reassurance when he is overwhelmed by the arrival of Beatrice: “But Virgil deprived us of himself, Virgil, the gentlest father, Virgil, he to whom I gave myself for my salvation” Purg.30 v. 49-51. It is an achingly poignant moment for Dante who has to say goodbye but I feel sad too for Virgil who cannot proceed further. However, Dante is once again compelled to move onwards and upwards and not to ‘weep’ because greater delights are in store for him.

In Paradiso, Beatrice is his guide to the Truth, however it emerges by Canto 31 that she is neither the end result, nor the ultimate guide. In Empyrean, Beatrice hands Dante over to St. Bernard who takes Dante all the way! However, whilst Beatrice slips silently away, just as Virgil, when Dante looks for her he is reassured by seeing her smile down at him: “If you look up and to the circle that is third from that rank which is highest, you will see her on the throne her merits have assigned her.” Par. 31 v 66-69. So while she is no longer by his side, her presense is still felt. Also her ‘resting place’ is one of eternal bliss, unlike that of Virgil’s which is one of eternal longing. So the final destination for one of Dante’s ‘hero’ guides makes me feel even sadder for the other by the end of the poem. Poor old Virgil!!!!