z

Exams

 Average grade 60%

 Quite low compared to previous years

 Highest score 37/40 – so some students are doing well

 Those with low scores will need to work hard on presentations and
the other assessments to improve their average
 Read the materials carefully and review the class slide. Use the
additional materials provided on ecourse.
z
A Thousand+ Years Later

Dante
The Inferno (1308-
1320)
 z
Time Jump! THE DARK AGES
 Ovid died in 16 C.E. – Dante was born
1265. Why the 1200 year jump?
 Well, there are important texts – New
Testament Bible, Beowolf, The Koran,
The Story of the Grail.
 But arguably not the greatest literature…
 Roman Emperors messed with the
Empire, while Christianity, and
monotheism, became increasingly
powerful – St. Augustine merged Greek
Philosophy with the Bible.
The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted c. 1562
 Music, art and poetry were not
encouraged unless celebrating God
z
The Middle Ages or Medieval
Period (500-1500 C.E.)
 400 A.D. The Roman Empire became Christian, and
monotheistic.
 Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey) became the Eastern
capital, linking the Middle-East and Islamic knowledge
with Europe.
 The Koran and Islam became powerful from around 700
C.E.
 Around this time the One Thousand and One Nights
was composed (includes the story of Aladdin)
 Latin main language in Europe, Arabic in Islamic world
The Garden of Earthly Delights by
Hieronimous Bosch c. 1490-1510
z
Crash Course Dark Ages

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNCw2MOfnLQ
z
450 C.E.
z
1190 C.E.
 z
The Crusades

 Started in 1095 C.E. An attempt by Europeans to reclaim

Jerusalem as the center of Christianity, against Islamic powers.
 History, myth, national identity and religion begin to combine in
works of literature, usually in the epic poem form, such as
Beowolf.
 Romance was the other genre that emerged – seen as feminine
and based around the lady and her lover, but became
associated with the heroic role of the Knight, and chivalry.
 DANTE ALIGHIERI
z

 Born in Florence, Lived from 1265

to 1321.
 His family was of noble origin, but
was no longer wealthy.
 He likely spent a year at the
University of Bologna, studying the
Trivium and the Quadrivium,the
typical Medieval curriculum.
 (Grammar, logic and rhetoric) –
(arithmetic, geometry, music, and
astronomy)
 DANTE ALIGHIERI
z

 Started Divine Comedy in 1309

 Diplomat who spoke the local vernacular (Italian not Latin)

 Christian who knew the importance of the Roman and Greek

Classics
 Philosopher who wanted his work to be enjoyed

 Entertainer who wanted his work to teach a lesson

 Politician who practiced ETHICAL LEADERSHIP

 Boy who never outgrew his attraction to Beatrice Portinari

 Sad old man dealing with a mid-life crisis

 z BEATRICE
 As customary, Dante had an  Dante met Beatrice when he
arranged marriage in his youth was nine and she eight, at his
to Gemma Donati. father’s home, most likely for
 But Dante’s greatest love, and a May Day festival.
the greatest single influence on
his work was a woman named  Beatrice married another
Beatrice. man about 1287, and died in
1290 at the age of 25.
 z BEATRICE

•Beatrice was Dante’s angel. He

could not touch her, because this
was the age of ‘Courtly’ love, where
relationships and marriages were
closely controlled.

•Dante’s life and work were

dedicated to her.

•Dante’s muse and inspiration—

the female aspect behind the
genius.
 DANTE’S MEDIEVAL WORLD
z

 Dante’s world was divided into

 The Middle Ages was
three spheres of power: dominated by the struggle
between
 The world of politics

 The world of theology

The PAPACY
 The world of learning And
The EMPIRE
 His Comedy utilizes all three; these
areas are interdependent, so that it  Both thought that they were of
is impossible to say that one was divine origin and indispensable
to the welfare of mankind.
more important than the other.
 z
THE PAPACY

The Vatican
Rome, Italy

One of the few remaining city-states in the world.

 THE (HOLY ROMAN)
CONSTANTINE
z I EMPIRE

WHERE CHURCH AND STATE

WERE FIRST IN CONFLICT.
 CAUSE OF THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE PAPACY AND THE EMPIRE
z

 In the 8th Century the Papal claim to

temporal power was justified by the  When visiting Rome a group
“DONATION OF CONSTANTINE” loyal to the Pope took over
which stated that the emperor had Dante’s city of Florence
given the power of the empire to the  Dante had to spend the next
Pope before leaving for Byzantium.
twenty years separated from
 Later this was discovered to be a
his wife and four children,
FORGED DOCUMENT!
 This claim created great strife and discord in the
living in exile
empire.
 z THE IMPORTANCE OF VIRGIL
• In the Middle Ages Virgil was regarded as a
sage and necromancer. People thought he
prophesized the birth of Jesus. He
Represents reason for Dante.

• His poems were opened in a manner of

divination called Sortes, similar to the
Taoist I Ching.

• The book was opened at random and a

verse was selected as an answer to some
question.
Does this sound like a Quija Board or the I Ching?
z
Virgil is considered Rome’s greatest
poet, and he was an inspiration to
Dante.

In the poem he serves as Dante’s

guide and mentor, as Dante even
refers to how much he has been
influenced by him.

But he also sets himself apart –

using more accessible language.

Most importantly an identifiable

narrator
 STRUCTURE OF
THE DIVINE
z COMEDY
 Dante believed in the
mystical correspondences
and power of numbers,
stars, and stones
 Events of history contained
a mystical significance.
Originally titled “Comedy” – the ‘divine’ was added
later by another writer, Boccaccio.
 Dante’s numerical symbolism:
 3 a symbol of the holy trinity
 9 three times three.
 33 a multiple of 3
 The 7 days of creation
 10 considered in the medieval
period a perfect number
 100, the multiple of 10.
 z
BIG THEME!
 THE AFTERLIFE
 Dante was fascinated by
death, and considered what
happens in the afterlife.
 Other themes include:
 The nature of ‘sin’
 Sin? - an immoral act
considered to be a
transgression against divine
law.
 Spiritual transformation
– can we purge
ourselves of sin?
 Politics: corruption
 Poetry – can it be a
force for good?
 How can one live the
good life – and enter
heaven?
 THREE SECTIONS OF THE DIVINE COMEDY
INFERNO, PURGATORIO, AND PARADISO

3 was a holy number

to Dante—
suggesting the Holy
Trinity – Father, Son
and Holy Ghost.
 STRUCTURE OF
THE DIVINE COMEDY
z
 Each section has 33 cantos (small  Three major divisions of sin:
division of poetry, like a chapter;  Incontinence
canto means “song.”)
 Violence
 The Inferno includes an introductory  Fraudulence
canto, which makes 100 cantos total
 Symbolized by the three beasts?
(100 representing the idea of
 By the time you finish reading, you will
perfection or spiritual enlightenment
achieved after the journey). know which circle of hell you may find
yourself in!
 Dactylic Hexameter (again!)
 Three-line poetric structure:
 But 11 syllables per line:
hendecasyllables ‘Terza Rima’
 z
Katabasis - Descent
<Who’s life? –
Dante’s and ours –
this work is clearly
In the middle of our life's way allegorical

I found myself in a wood so dark

Terza Rima
That I couldn't tell where the straight path lay.
the first and third lines of each
tercet rhyme with each other
and with the central line in the
antecedent terzina (aba bcb
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita cdc and so on), producing
the effect of two steps
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, forward and one step back.
Italian is a great language for
rhyming in this way.
chè la diritta via era smarrita.
 Dante’s Use of Terza Rima
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.
Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura!
Tant’ è amara che poco è più morte;
ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai,
dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ho scorte.
Io non so ben ridir com’ i’ v’intrai, 10
tant’ era pien di sonno a quel punto
che la verace via abbandonai.
Ma poi ch’i’ fui al piè d’un colle giunto,
là dove terminava quella valle
che m’avea di paura il cor compunto,
guardai in alto e vidi le sue spalle
vestite già de’ raggi del pianeta
che mena dritto altrui per ogne calle.
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
I cannot well repeat how there I entered,10
So full was I of slumber at the moment
In which I had abandoned the true way.
But after I had reached a mountain's foot,
At that point where the valley terminated,
Which had with consternation pierced my heart,
Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,
Vested already with that planet's rays
Which leadeth others right by every road.
 THE INFERNO

THE SIGN ABOVE THE GATES TO THE ENTRANCE TO HELL

 z The Spiraling Inferno
 Dante’s hell is a huge funnel
 Its regions are arranged in a
shaped pit – like a big toilet! series of descending circular
staircases that diminish in
circumference the deeper
 The center is located beneath Virgil and Dante travel.
the city of Jerusalem, seen
as the center of the spiritual
 The higher up a sinner, the
universe. lighter the sin, the deeper the
sinner, the darker and more
terrible the sin.
 The nine regions are
designated for particular sins.
DANTE’S
FUNNEL
SHAPED
HELL
 Circle of Hell Sin
Vestibule Uncommitted
Acheron River
Circle I—Limbo Virtuous Unbaptized
Circle II Lustful
Circle III Gluttonous
Circle IV Prodigal, Avaricious
Circle V (Styx) Wrathful
City of Dis: Capitol of Hell

Circle VI Heretics
Circle VII: Violence
•Against Neighbors,
•Self, God, Nature
Abyss (Geryon)
Circle VIII: Malebolge Fraud
(Evil Ditches) •Panderers, Seducers, Flatterers,
•Simonists, Soothsayers, Grafters
•Hypocrites, Thieves, False Counselors,
• Counterfeiters, Falsifiers

Circle IX (Cocytus) Traitors to:

Kindred, Country, Guests, Masters
AT THE BOTTOM OF THE INFERNO

DANTE’S
SATAN

The Epitome
of evil,
The fallen
Angel

William Blake’s Painting of Satan

 z
The Devil - Satan

 Greek Myth: Hades

 Roman Myth: Pluto – Originally Dīs Pater – Dante shortens to Dis

 Bible: Satan, also Lucifer. Was an Angel of Light who tried to take
God’s power.
 In The Inferno Satan is portrayed as a giant demon, frozen mid-
breast in ice at the center of Hell. Satan has three faces and a pair
of bat-like wings affixed under each chin.
z
Satan

The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous / From his mid-

breast forth issued from the ice; /And better with a giant I
compare / Than do the giants with those arms of his; /
Consider now how great must be that whole, / Which unto
such a part conforms itself. / Were he as fair once, as he
now is foul, / And lifted up his brow against his Maker, /
Well may proceed from him all tribulation. / O, what a
marvel it appeared to me, / When I beheld three faces on
his head! / The one in front, and that vermilion was;
 CONCEPT OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION
z
 Punishments in hell are
regulated by the law of
retribution.
 These punishments are
related to the sins either by
analogy or antithesis.
 As one sinned in life, so he
or she is punished in death.
 Contrapasso: “suffer the
opposite”—punishment of
souls by a process either
resembling or contrasting
with the sin itself –
 consider the punishments
– do they ‘fit the crime’?
 z POINTS TO REMEMBER

 The Inferno is part of a  It is also an allegory

larger work called The (story with a hidden
Divine Comedy. meaning).
 In the middle ages
‘comedy’ meant some  The moral purpose is
human experience that to point out to those
began in tragedy and still living the error of
ended in happiness. their ways and to put
(Not Lysistrata!) them on the path of
salvation.
z
Course Hero Summary

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOmnzy_GRAE

 Symbols -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeLTBGNN9O4
 Themes -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtCR2Lo1fWk
 Characters -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1sKKwrerFg
 Fun Facts -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpAZcvrvQy0
z
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=gp8JGQk0CFQ
THE FINAL
GOAL:
SALVATION:
Finding God, or the
truth – symbolized
by
the sun at the top
of the mountain-

Earth was the center of the universe in 1300 C.E. – that would soon change with
the Copernican Revolution around 1500 C.E.
 Cantos 1-2
The Dark Wood
Three Beasts:
Leopard
Lion
She-wolf

Virgil as Guide

Three Blessed Women:

Virgin Mary
St. Lucia
Beatrice
It the evening before Good Friday
Canto 1:
– the day of Jesus’ crucifixion.
Dante, the speaker, suddenly finds Mid-Life Crisis
himself lost in a dark forest. The Call
Meeting with the Mentor
He tries to climb up a hill but he is
blocked by three beasts: a leopard, a
lion, and a she-wolf, so he is
trapped.

He is alone in the dark valley when

suddenly a spirit appears. This is
Virgil, the Roman poet.
When Dante asks about the beasts, Virgil tells him that the
she-wolf will kill anyone who tries to pass her, but someday the
great Greyhound will come and destroy her and send her back
to Hell.

Because of the beasts, Virgil tells Dante that he must take a

different path and that he will guide Dante.

Virgil also tells Dante that they must first pass through Hell and
see the eternal punishment of the sinners before being able to
reach Heaven.

Then Virgil sets out on the journey and Dante follows behind
him.
Symbol: The Shadowed
Forest represents the
dark time in Dante’s life.
He has come to a
crossroads, perhaps a
mid-life crisis (he is 35 –
half the average life-
span as stated in the
Bible), where he is
questioning good and
evil and the purpose and
meaning of his life.
 The Three Beasts by Priamo della Quercia (1444-1452)
Symbols: The three beasts (leopard, lion, and she-wolf) are symbols that
represent the three divisions of sin (fraud, violence, and incontinence). These
are the sins that were believed to have caused the downfall of humankind, and
since Dante is at a crossroads in his life, this journey is intended to make him
question his life and what punishment might await him for the sins he has
committed.
Symbolism and Allusion: The
three beasts might also symbolize She-Wolf by
Gustave Dore
the politics of the day. Because of
the conflict between the Pope and
the Emperor, leadership was
continually in question. The
Greyhound was believed to be an
Lion by Gustave
allusion to the hope for a future Dore
leader who would come to save
Italy.
 z
Limbo
 Limbo (Latin limbus, edge or boundary, referring to the "edge" of Hell)
is a speculative idea about the afterlife condition of those who die in
original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. Medieval
theologians of western Europe described the underworld ("hell",
"hades", "infernum") as divided into four distinct parts.
 In the Divine Comedy poem Inferno, Dante depicts Limbo as the first
circle of Hell. The virtuous pagans of classical history and mythology
inhabit a brightly lit and beautiful—but somber—castle which is
seemingly a medieval version of Elysium. They include Hector, Julius
Caesar, Virgil, Electra, and Orpheus. Virtuous non-Christians, such as
the Muslim Saladin, were also described as among its residents.
 Canto 2:

Dante’s Refusal of
the Call
&
Beatrice Calls for
Help
 Paraphrase of Canto 2
Dante calls on the Muses, the ancient goddesses of art and inspiration, to ask them to help him tell
his story.
“O Muses, o high genius, help me now. . .”

As he begins to tell his story, he thinks that he is not strong enough to face the terrors of Hell. He
knows of only two other men who have returned after their journeys to the afterlife—the Apostle
Paul (“the successor of Peter”) and Aeneas (“the one who fathered Sylvius”). He does not feel
worthy of the greatness of either of these two:
“But why should I go there? Who sanctions it?
For I am not Aeneas, am not Paul;
nor I nor others think myself so worthy.”

He reminds Virgil that he was even too cowardly to face the hill and the beasts who blocked his way.
When Virgil found him, Dante had already given up and had started downhill.

Virgil tells Dante that his feelings of cowardice are common to man, but then he tells him about how
he came to be his guide:
“I was among those souls who are suspended;
a lady called to me, so blessed, so lovely
that I implored to serve at her command.”
Virgil has been assigned to the outer edge of Hell—Limbo, that is (we’ll learn more about this
later). Beatrice came down from Heaven to Limbo to ask Virgil for help. Beatrice was Dante’s
unrequited love from life. She learned about Dante’s suffering from St. Lucia (a 4 th century saint
of sight and grace) who was also in Heaven and who had heard about Dante from the Virgin
Mary.

These three women—Beatrice, St. Lucia, and Mary—are all looking out for Dante, and Virgil
questions why Virgil hesitates with such fear when these women put such faith in him and
Beatrice was crying and begging Virgil to help.

Dante seems to feel reassured after hearing about Beatrice:

"O she, compassionate, who has helped me!
And you who, courteous, obeyed so quickly
the true words that she had addressed to you!

This gives Dante the strength to continue on the path with Virgil:
Now go; a single will fills both of us:
you are my guide, my governor, my master."
These were my words to him; when he advanced

I entered on the steep and savage path.

 The
Nine
Muses
Dante and Beatrice ascend to the Heaven of the Moon (Giovanni di Paolo 1540)

Allusion to the Muses: The Muses are the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory); they are
the goddesses of literature, music, dance and other intellectual pursuits.

Dante invokes the muses to gain poetic inspiration to tell the story of his journey through Hell with
Virgil.

The allusion is important as a poetic device. The invocation of the Muses is a common motif that
appears in classical poetry.
Allusion to St. Paul
St. Paul is considered one of the most
influential of Christ’s followers and early
missionaries of Christianity. His conversion
on the road to Damascus is the most
famous story about him. He is also
responsible for writing the Epistles in the
New Testament. Fourteen of these
epistles are believed to be written by him.

Dante refers to him when he hesitates

before following Virgil through the gates
to Hell. Dante feels inferior in comparison
to St. Paul and Aeneas, who are the only
men Dante knows of who have returned
from a journey to Hell.
The Three Women
Allusion: Beatrice, The
Virgin Mary, and St. Lucy
are all believed to be
watching over Dante.
Beatrice intervenes on
behalf of Dante and begs
Virgil to help him in his
time of suffering.
 Word Choice
and Imagery:

Rugged pass, deathless

world, dark air, battle,
dark land, shadows,
phantoms, fires
flaming, wars,
Canto 2 Passage Analysis

She said: "You, Beatrice, true praise of God,

Why have you not helped him who loves you so
That for your sake he’s left the vulgar crowd?

Do you not hear the anguish in his cry?

Do you not see the death he wars against
upon that river ruthless as the sea?”

No one within this world has ever been so

quick to seek his good or flee his harm as
I—when she had finished speaking thus—

to come below, down from my blessed station;

I trusted in your honest utterance,
which honors you and those who’ve listened to you.’
When she had finished with her words to me,
she turned aside her gleaming, tearful eyes,
which only made me hurry all the more.

And, just as she had wished, I came to you”

I snatched you from the path of the fierce beast
that barred the shortest way up the fair mountain.

What is it then? Why, why do you resist?

Why does your heart host so much cowardice?
Where are your daring and your openness

as long as there are three blessed women

Concerned for you within the court of Heaven
and my words promise you so great a good?”
 Canto 3
Gates of Hell
Vestibule
“Abandon all hope ye
who enter here.”
Cowards
The Indecisive Angels

Punishment:
They are stung by insects
and endlessly chase
banners.

Acheron River
Charon
 Canto 4
Circle 1: Limbo

The Unbaptized and

Virtuous Pagans
Punishment:
Boredom
Forever separated
from God
Virgil, Homer, Horace, Ovid,
Socrates, Plato
 Canto 5
Circle 2

Lust
Punishment:
The lustful souls are blown
about in a violent storm,
without hope of rest.

Achilles
Minos
Francesca da Rimini
and her lover Paolo
 Canto 6
Circle 3

Gluttony
Punishment:
They are forced to live in vile
freezing slush, guarded by
Cerberus.

Ciacco of Florence
Florentine Politics
Last Judgment
 Canto 7
Circle 4

Avarice
Prodigality
Punishment:
The Miserly and Spendthrift push
great heavy weights together,
crashing them time and time
again

Plutus
Fortuna
 Cantos 7-8
Circle 5

Wrath
Sullenness
Punishment:
The Wrathful fight each
other on the surface of the
River Styx, while the Sullen
gurgle beneath it.

Phlegyas
Filippo Argenti
Fallen Angels
 Cantos 8-9
City of Dis

Lower Circles of Hell

Circles 6-9

Furies and Medusa

Harrowing of Hell
Theseus
Hercules
 Canto 10
Circle 6
Heresy
Punishment:
Heretics are trapped
in flaming tombs

Farinata
Cavalcanti
Guelphs and Ghibellines
Epicurus
 Canto 11
Tomb of Pope Anastasius

The Stench

Intermission

Virgil pauses to explain the

structure of Lower Hell and
God’s plan outlined by
Aristotle in his
Nichomachean Ethics.
 Cantos 12-17
Circle 7
Violence:
Punishment:
Murderers: They drown in the river Phlegethon,
filled with boiling blood, while the Minotaur
guards them, and if they attempt to escape, they
are shot with bows and arrows by centaurs.
Suicides: They have become stunted and gnarled trees
with poisoned fruit and twisting branches from which
their bodies will hang while the Harpies, foul birdlike creatures with
human faces, make their nests.
Blasphemers, Sodomites and Usurers: They are showered with
flakes of fire that rain down against their naked bodies, while they
are stretched, running, or huddled on burning sand. Sodomites
can't stop running just as they couldn't stop their passions. Usurers
have to stare at the money they made on earth with fire raining
down on them.
 Cantos 18-22
Circle 8 ‘Malebolge’
Bolgia (ditch) 1-5
Fraud
Panderers and Seducers: They are forced to march, single
file around the circumference of their circle, constantly lashed
by horned demons.
Flatterers: They are immersed forever in a river of human
excrement, like what their flatteries were.
Simonists: They are turned upside down in large baptismal
fonts cut into the rock, with their feet set ablaze by oily fires.
The heat of the flames burns according to the guilt of the
sinner.
Astrologists, seers, sorcerers , diviners: Their heads have
been twisted around to face backwards, and thus they are
forced to walk backwards around the circumference of their
circle for all of time.
Grafters : They are thrown into a river of boiling pitch and tar.
If they try to escape the pitch, a horde of demons armed with
grappling hooks and barbs stands guard over them, ready to
tear them to pieces.
 Cantos 23-30
Circle 8 Bolgia 6-10
Fraud
• Hypocrites : They are forced to wear heavy lead robes as they walk
around the circumference of their circle. The robes are golden and
resemble a monk’s cowl but are lined with heavy lead, symbolically
representing hypocrisy.
• Thieves: Serpents, dragons, and other vengeful reptiles torture the
thieves endlessly. The bites of some of the snakes cause the thieves
to spontaneously combust, only to regenerate their bodies for further
torment in a few moments. They are pursued by the monstrous fiery
Cacus (three headed monster).
• Deceivers: They are constantly ablaze, appearing as nothing so
much as living, speaking tongues of flame. (Ulysses)
• Creators of discord and scandal: They are forced to walk around
the circumference of the circle bearing horrible, disfiguring wounds
inflicted on them by a great demon with a sword.
• Falsifiers: They endure different degrees of punishment based on
horrible, consumptive diseases such as rashes, dropsy, leprosy and
consumption.
 Cantos 31-34
Circle 9
Betrayal

Caïna—Traitors to kindred: (from ‘Cain’ in the Bible). They

are immersed in ice up to their faces.
Antenora—Traitors to country/political entities: They are
immersed in ice and forced to eat out the skull of another sinner or
have their skulls eaten by another sinner.
Ptolomaea—Traitors to their guests: They lie supine in the ice,
which covers them, except for their faces. Their bodies on Earth
are immediately possessed by a demon, so what seems to be a
walking man has reached the stage of being incapable of
repentance.
Judecca—Traitors to their lords and benefactors (from
Judas): They are completely encapsulated in ice, distorted in all
conceivable positions. Satan (a giant beast – fallen angel, Dante
calls ‘Dis’) appears upside down in the ice with three faces, and in
each mouth eternally being eaten are Brutus, Cassius, and Judas
Iscariot.
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 Virgil and Dante begin their escape from Hell by clambering down
Satan's ragged fur, feet-first.
 When they reach Satan's genitalia, the poets pass through
the center of the universe and of gravity from the Northern
Hemisphere of land to the Southern Hemisphere of water. Virgil
indicates that the time is 7:30 a.m. of the same Holy Saturday which
was just about to end.
 Dante is confused as to how, after about an hour and a half of
climbing, it is now apparently morning. Virgil explains that as a result
of passing through the Earth's center into the Southern Hemisphere,
which is twelve hours ahead of Jerusalem, the central city of the
Northern Hemisphere (where, therefore, it is currently 7:30 p.m.).
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 Virgil explains how the Southern Hemisphere was once covered with
dry land, but when Lucifer fell from Heaven it was replaced by the
ocean. The inner rock Lucifer displaced as he plunged into the
center of the earth rushed upwards to the surface of the Southern
Hemisphere to avoid contact with him, forming the Mountain of
Purgatory.
 This mountain – the only land mass in the waters of the Southern
Hemisphere – rises above the surface at a point directly opposite
Jerusalem.. The poets finally emerge a little before dawn on the
morning of Easter Sunday (April 10, 1300 A.D.) beneath a sky
studded with stars.
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