Tomorrow May 28th 2020 at 10am UK time, we’ll launch the new Dante series with the Journey through Inferno! Just $2 pr. month, at http://patreon.com/ancientworld!
New series from the beginning of the Divine Comedy!
We’ll have 10-15 minute long episodes for each chapter, and mainly focus on the bigger picture and context of the whole Comedy, while looking at specific highlights from each canto as well as the “plot” as the story evolves. Major themes will be the poetic beauty and allegorical wisdom, and the several layers of meaning and interpretation of the whole work.
Dante’s Inferno gives even more substance for thought when contrasted with the worlds of Purgatory and Paradise, and underlines Dante’s explicit purpose of his work as stated in the Epistle to his Patron Can Grande della Scala:
“15. The purpose of the whole and the part could be multiple, that is both remote and proximate. But leaving off subtle investigation, we can say say briefly that the purpose of the whole as well as the part is to remove those living in this life from the state of misery and to lead them to the state of bliss.“
In the original Latin:
“15. Finis totius et partis esse posset multiplex, scilicet propinquus et remotus. Sed omissa subtili investigatione, dicendum est breviter quod finis totius et partis est, removere viventes in hac vita de statu miseriae et perducere ad statum felicitatis.”
The allegorical subject of the Comedy is, in Dante’s words how one is rewarded or punished as consequences of the exercise of the free will. This is a very important aspect of the Divine Comedy – that this is a free choice for humans, to live in a state of Inferno, Purgatory or in the happiness of Paradise.
And thus, the Journey begins..
Enjoy! 😀