The Divine Comedy

"'From a little spark may burst a flame'"The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri. This story was started in 1308 and finally completed in 1320, just one year before Dante's death in Revenna. Dante Alighieri work weaves together Christian history, medieval politics and the religious climate at the time of writing

Summary
In this series of poems Dante (or Pilgrim) travels through Hell(Inferno), Purgatory(Purgatorio) and Heaven(Paradiso) with the helpings of Virgil and then Beatrice.

Inferno
This begins on the night before Good Friday, lost in a dark wood (understood as sin), and assailed by beasts (a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf) Dante cannot evade, and unable to find the "straight way" also translatable as "right way" – to salvation. Dante is at last rescued by Virgil, and the two of them begin their journey to the underworld. Each sin's punishment in Inferno is a contrapasso, or in layman's terms "suffer the opposite"

Purgatorio
Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of Hell to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world. The Mountain is on an island, the only land in the Southern Hemisphere, created by the displacement of rock which resulted when Satan's fall created Hell. The mountain has seven terraces, corresponding to the seven deadly sins or "seven roots of sinfulness." The end of Purgatorio is the end of Dante's path with Virgil since he is forever in limbo and cannot enter Heaven.

Paradiso
After an initial ascension, Beatrice guides Dante through the nine celestial spheres of Heaven. The first seven spheres of Heaven deal solely with the cardinal virtues. At the end Dante meets and talks with several great saints of the Church. Afterwards it finishes with Dante seeing God.

The Author
Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence, but was exiled in 1302.

Dante was part of the Guelphs; a group who favored the Papacy over the Holy Roman Emperor, but the Florence's Guelphs split into the White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs.

Dante was among the White Guelphs who were exiled by the Lord-Mayor Cante de' Gabrielli di Gubbio, after troops entered the city, at the request of Pope Boniface VIII who supported the Black Guelphs. This exile, which lasted the rest of Dante's life, shows its influence in many parts of the Comedy, from prophecies of Dante's exile to Dante's views of politics, to the eternal damnation of some of his opponents.

Florence has asked for Dante's remains many times and Ravenna says no each time because it was Florence that exiled him.

Regardless of religious views this is an interesting look into the past, especially knowing that this book has had a lasting impact on other books, TV shows and movies.

"'There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery.'"