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Daniel J. Pool

21 July 2010

Abandon Every Hope, All You Who Analyze the Christian and Pagan Faiths Demonstrated in

Dante’s Inferno

Reading the work of Dante Alighieri, one is thrust into a world of myth and wonder. The

work is a conglomerate of beliefs and ideologies, blurring the lines between social and religious

satire as well as fantasy and consciousness. Interestingly in this work is the bond between Dante

the pilgrim, a Christian, and Virgil the guide, a pagan and how their reactions illustrate the

progression of society from the ancient to the medieval world. To better understand the concepts

and attitudes of Paganism and Christianity from the two poets one should first study the histories

of the characters, and second understand the relationship of Dante and Virgil as they transverse

the Inferno, and finally how their beliefs are different and how they are similar.

Dante the pilgrim closely resembles his creator Dante the poet (Musa 21). So much so

that the pilgrim is supposed to be an earlier poet. Both were members of the aristocracy that were

later cast out of Italy (15) and both love a woman named Beatrice (19). She was the Dantes’

source of affection and benefactor in escaping Hell by convincing Virgil to help him (44).

Virgil was a pre-Christian poet, alive from seventy to nineteen BC, that Dante the poet

based his guide on (Musa 29). This is probably because the Roman poet is believed to be Dante’s

favorite writer and he identified with him. He is one of the major four classical poets along with

Homer, Ovid, and Lucan. Virgil was also an attractive decision as he was perceived as a

Christian prophet of sorts (30).

Inspecting Dante the pilgrim it evident that he is a Christian from the beginning where he

begs God to deliver him from death: “Poet, I beg of you, / in the name of God, the God you
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never knew, / save me from this evil place and worse, / lead me to the place you spoke about /

that I may see the gate Saint Peter guards / and those whose anguish you have told me of.” (1

130-35). It is shown here that this is a late Medieval Catholic world view with wording about the

“God you never knew” and the gate of Saint Peter; even though Virgil has not yet mentioned a

gate (Musa 77).

Virgil was a citizen of Rome and worshiped “the false and lying gods” of the pagan

tradition (1 71-72). Because of his stasis of being born before Christ he cannot enter Paradise but

also is not necessarily worthy of Hell either. Virgil wraps his feelings (of which I perceive as

contempt and envy) for the pilgrim being allowed to make this journey: “… because that

Emperor dwelling on high / will not let me lead any to His city, / since I in life rebelled against

His law.” (1 124-26). He obviously knows who and what God is now, but he is still denied

access to Paradise (Musa 86).

Because of this denial from Heaven, Virgil lives in a suspended state (2 52). As Musa

says, “In the Inferno Virgil is assigned to Limbo, the dwelling place of those virtuous shades not

eligible for Heaven because they were either lived before Christ’s birth or remained heathen after

the advent of Christianity.” (Musa 86). Thus Virgil is stuck between suffering and pleasure. This

is mayhap part of a cosmic joke (maybe “divinely comedic”) as that is what by and large pagans

of his time believed the afterlife was in the first place.

The differences in their beliefs can be seen when they are confronted with the monstrous

beasts of Hell. Encountering Cerberus in the Third Circle of the Gluttons, Virgil knows how to

handle the situation calmly (Musa 125). He understands the fantastic and marvelous of his time.

When Medusa arrives to torment Dante at the gates of Dis, again Virgil knows what to do and

commands Dante to overt his eyes (9 55-57). So fearful of the old gorgon magic that Virgil even
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forces the pilgrim to look away for fear of him turning to stone, “… He turned me round / and

did not trust my hands to hide my eyes but placed his own on mine and kept them covered.” (9

58-60) which Musa argues is actually an unreasonable fear of the poet saying that “(he) is quite

caught up in his world and sincerely believes that the Medusa could turn Dante into stone.”

which shows that Musa is not convinced that the gorgon could turn Dante to stone (Musa 153).

Contrasting this pair show that they do differ along what they find important based on the

society they came from. Dante is more concerned with saying the right blessings and asking the

right questions (11 73-75), but Virgil concentrates on ritual and knowing the logical questions

(11 76-78). The poet and the pilgrim are however remarkable similar (Musa 127). They share

very similar philosophies as seen in the Third Circle when the two discuss what is perfect in

regards to being keener on pleasure or pain (6 106-11).

The societies are similar in philosophies but different in their literary framing of their

logic. That is Virgil uses the same logic (Musa 174) as Dante but frames it in regards to a

cornucopia of gods and goddesses and monsters. Dante on the other hand has the order and

certainty of the Catholic Church to view the same values (Musa 47). They beliefs formulate

together as they delve deeper into the circles of Hell as they discuss why certain shades are

damned to certain circles.

Upon reaching the Sixth Circle, of heretics, both are attacked by a strong odor (11 10-12).

As they wait, they discuss what it is to be a heretic (11 28-30). To Virgil just being a Pagan was

not enough to be a heretic but rather violence to human industry (Musa 175). Together they

speak about how art is imitates Nature which imitates God, thus destroying art is a heretically act

against God (11 103-05). More importantly is the industry of man: “From Art and Nature man
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was meant to take / his daily bread to live—if you recall / the book of Genesis near the

beginning.” (11 106-08) displaying that violence against work is violence against God.

In summation, the cultures of these poets were very different but their logic transcended

time. Their aesthetic values may be based on different societies but both hold the processes to

understand and make judgments mostly the same. As Virgil answered Dante when he said in

regards to words written on the ledge above the gate to Hell: “’Master,’ he said, ‘these words I

see are cruel.’ / He answered me, speaking with experience: / ‘Now here you must leave all

distrust behind; / let all your cowardice die on this spot. / We are at the place where earlier I

said / you could expect to see the suffering race / of souls who lost the good of intellect.’” so

too must we abandon fear and hope to rely on that which is stronger than both, reason.
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Works Cited

Dante. The Devine Comedy. Volume I: Inferno. Penguin Books, New York. 2003.

Musa, M. (trans.). The Devine Comedy. Volume I: Inferno. Penguin Books, New York. 2003.