Luke Diamond on Dante's "Inferno"/Fall 2016

Luke Diamond

 11/2/16

Writing and Literature I, School of Visual Arts

Dante’s Battle Against War

            As Dante and Virgil travel through the First Ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell, boiling blood flows through Phlegethon, one of the many rivers of Hell; landslides, caused by earthquakes, break rocks along the slope of the ravine; a gargantuan minotaur guarding the entrance chews in rage at his own hide; a trio of centaurs, Chiron, Pholus and Nessus, fire arrows at screaming, bloodied, burning souls. Nessus, one centaur, leads the poets through the ring aboard a gondola. They pass Alexander the Great, Dionysius, and Obizzo II d’Este, along with others guilty of violence against neighbors. Dante’s writing displays no mercy for these murderers, war-makers, plunderers and tyrants, as they drown in the blood they have spilled. These souls are forced to be submerged in the blood, for if they swim up and reach too high, they are shot with the centaurs’ arrows. Raised during a time of war within Italy, Dante illustrates a morbid form of torture to those who kill for power, such as the Black and White Guelphs of his time. Dante attempted to convince people to live peacefully through his writing in the epic poem Inferno.

            Dante was a White Guelph, or an Italian who supported equal power for the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor. During the 12^th and 13^th centuries, Italy was divided into two factions, the Guelphs and Ghibellines: people who supported the Pope’s absolute power, and people who supported the Holy Roman Emperor’s absolute power, respectively. After the Guelphs defeated the Ghibellines in 1289, a schism occurred between the Guelphs due to the destruction of Palestrina by Pope Boniface VIII, who can be found in the Eighth Circle of Hell for simony. The Black Guelphs were in favor of the Pope’s power, while White Guelphs believed that the Pope and Emperor should share the power, as they did before the parting of the factions. Dante and his family were known to be White Guelphs, people who did not agree with the outcome of the Guelph and Ghibelline battles. Dante fought for the Guelph Cavalry at the Battle of Campaldino, which led to the reformation of the Florentine Constitution in 1289. Even with the Guelphs’ triumph and reformation of government, the distribution of power between the Pope and the Emperor remained almost identical to how it was prior to the wars. Dante may also despise the war because of his exile from Florence by the Black Guelphs. This may have shifted Dante’s idea of war, and may have led him on his path towards writing Inferno.

            Within the First Ring, Dante and Virgil witness the violent souls being punished with the boiling blood of those they have slain. Nessus, one of the centaurs, has punished one violent man prior to his own death, Hercules. The myth of Hercules, Deianira, his wife, and Nessus ends in the death of both the centaur and the god. After Hercules defeats the Hydra, he and Deianira find themselves attempting to cross a swollen river, where Nessus decides to assist Deianira across. While Hercules is preoccupied with throwing his weapons to the other side of the river, Nessus runs off with Deianira. Hercules responds by firing an arrow tipped with Hydra’s poisonous blood into Nessus’ spine. With his dying breath, Nessus advises Deianira to give his bloodstained shirt to Hercules if she ever fears of him losing faith in their love. Years later, when Hercules is rumored to have a love to rival his wife, Deianira gifts the shirt to him. The shirt – still stained with the Hydra’s blood – poisons Hercules. He then dies as his flesh tears itself from his body as an effect of the poison. The blood of Hercules’ victories bring him to his own downfall, much like the souls within the First Ring. Dante’s mention of these characters further establishes his distaste for violence.

            During Dante and Virgil’s tour of the First Ring, Nessus asserts that “Lust for plunder gripped/ [the souls] once, and now it got them where they are/ They now regret as you can hear” (James, 12.104-106). Nessus informs the poets that power is not to be fought for, as the souls regret the power while in hell. The death count of each tyrant contributes to their own demise and punishment. In juxtaposition to the inconsequential outcome of the war between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, this could contribute to the idea that power belongs to God, and is not meant to be fought for by mortals. After passing Obizzo II d’Este, who was choked to death by his own son during his tyranny, Nessus adds that “Down here, what takes his breath away / Flows from the things he did, not those done / To him” (12.114-116). This quote can translate to the idea that a person must face consequences for their actions, which in Obizzo II d’Este’s case was his continuous warfare. These tyrants are all faced with the blood that they have spilled, as these are their consequences. Those who fight on behalf the power of God are then punished by the true powers of God.

            The epic poem Inferno was Dante’s form of protest against the Guelph and Ghibelline schism during his lifetime. Hercules’ victory over Nessus is much like the Guelphs’ victory over the Ghibellines: triumphant only to be ironically defeated in the end by Hercules’ own weapon. Similarly, the Guelphs were defeated by their own people, as in the Black vs. White Guelphs. Dante’s epic poem served as an attempt to convince the Guelphs to end these battles between their own people. Dante continues this motif of conflict between one’s own people through the next two circles of Hell, as they deal with fraud and betrayal.  Inferno may well be a device to assist people in realizing that they are all human, and should not commit crimes against each other, but live in peace.