His Teacher

Upon reviewing the Inferno, I've noticed something. When in the land of the Sodomites, he sees his teacher and he feels the necessity to bend down, to show that he respects the teacher. But that was Dante the Pilgrim. What about Dante the Poet? Dante the Poet put his teacher into Inferno and in a way called him a homosexual. Yet in his representation, it seemed he looked up to the man. Does Dante the Pilgrim represent Dante the Poet in anyway?

Or does Dante the Pilgrim represent someone else? Or...does he represent humanity? Maybe I could have a thesis on all the analogies that Inferno represents.

Romans

Why were the Romans traitors held in such a lower regrade? There have been many infamous traitors in the past. Some famous ones are Nero, Attila the Hun, the guy that betrayed Leonidas in Sparta and Lancelot.

Maybe Dante did see Romans in a higher light than the others. Betrayal of the first Roman Empire was just a little bit lower than the son of god. Maybe it was Dante who first believed the Romans weren't so bad and allowed the return on the arts.

The Punishments

The punishments for body sins weren't as severe as the other ones. Which leads people to think, are these sins really possible to the body? That may have led to the people's wondering "What is the body" and may have led to the Scientific Revolution.

Sorry, lost some reasons.

I could just edit my previous post

But I need another log. Returning to what I had previously said, Dante's inclusion of Roman and Greek heroes subconsciously affected the people of the Middle Ages, which in turn allowed the Renaissance, or the Return.

It would go something like, Dante writes the Inferno. Gives it to his bishop. His bishop reads it and goes "Oh wow, this is a great book for my Cardinal to read". Gives it to his cardinal. The cardinal reacts the same way. By our modern age, millions of people have read Inferno thinking, oh man those greek and romans, they lived the life. And so they began living their lives. Very few people resist the desires of the body. After all it's in the human genome.

Which makes me think, Dante may have also led the Scientific Revolution. Get to that on the next blog.

Further thesis ideas

Alas, I've finished the book and didn't bother keeping thesis logs as I had that spontaneous burst of reading power. So I'll just reflect back on thesis worthy moments. Of course the part with Lucifer is OMG! Or better yet Oh My Lucifer! Having the ultimate traitors in the deepest part of hell seems mildly surprising. We all know Lucifer betrayed God, Judas betrayed Jesus, Brutus and Cassius betrayed Caesar. Lucifer was pretty obvious, betraying God when your supposed to be his good frien...God doesn't have friends, he has angels. Judas betrayed Jesus, who supposedly loved him. But Brutus and Cassius's betrayal of Caesar was interesting... Why them? Wouldn't Cardinals who killed the Pope the become the next Pope be more of a betrayal? Musa said that Dante included these two to show his love for the Romans. (Sorta kinda). So this only reinforces my previous thesis, that Inferno isn't JUST a novel warning us of sinning, but it also maybe the birth of the Renaissance.

Another crack at a Pope?

In Canto XXVII, Dante again takes a crack at Pope Boniface. Further reading told me that in the old days, the Pope had troops, not just the Swiss Guard. For poor Guido, the devious Pope gave him a direct ticket to hell, although Pope absolution.

In a way, this canto plays down the position of the pope, maybe even the whole story. Dante may be giving the people of the Middle Century a message, "the Pope(s) are still human". All humans have the potential to sin, including the Pope.

Ulysses

Another Greek myth is visited, this time Ulysses of the Homer. Although in hell, it seems that Odysseus was still portrayed in a higher light, some how he was still a good man. The way he allowed Ulysses to speak, such dignity, even in the face of hell.

Now I begin to think, Inferno wasn't just a warning for sinners. It was an expression of art. For centuries, the Catholic Church had oppressed the ideas of the Greeks. But Dante, Dante was the one who ushered in the Renaissance, the Enlightenment. Using Inferno, he sneakily placed the Greeks in a sorta okayish term, radical for his day. But it may have been Dante, who led us into the modern era.