Peter’s Reviews > Inferno / Hölle > Status Update

Canto XXVI was the most surprising one for me. Never had I expected to find Odysseus so deep in hell. I can understand that in the Christian view his deceit with the Troyan Horse catategorizes as a sin. But why is his eagerness to go where noone has gone before (i.e. beyond the Columns of Heracles) count among those? That would mean the end to science in general. Strange.

Finished Canto XXIII. In XIX Dante gets so aggitated with the corruption of the clerics, that he exclaims: "Tell me, how much money wanted the Lord from St. Peter for the keys to heaven." Splendid. Cantos XXI and XXII are untertaining in a different way. The funny-named demons and their fights fell like a scene from a Commedia dell'Arte piece.

Canto XII finished. It is a great pleasure to read the Divine Comedy, much more than I expected. Some chants (e.g. IX, when even Vergil did not manage to enforce the entrance to the city of hell and required heavenly assistance) have even a separate arc of suspense. I am astonished who much personnel from the Greek mythology is employed in the Christian hell.

Finished Canto VI. My favourite part so far was the tragic story of Francesca da Rimini. There are wonderful paintings on this topic. More and more I sense the beauty of Dante's text and imagination.

Reading the Divine Comedy has been a dream for a long time. I found a Goodreads group going for in in the first quarter of 2020. So now is the time. I chose a (German) prose translation with the Italian original side by side. This way I can compare and get a flavour if the melody and rhythm of the terzinas.