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Dante Alighieri's Inferno Mythology

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Dante Alighieri’s poem Inferno relies heavily on the usage of topography to closely mimic the sins and characterizations of the characters involved in the poem. The poem compares and contrasts many landscapes in order to emphasize an idea or concept of each canto. Oftentimes, the landscape where described using humanlike characterizations, connecting the landscape to prominent characters of each canto. In canto I, the reader encounters a lost Dante struggling to overcome the guardians and forest protecting the mountain of joy. The poem contrasts the joyful landscape of the mountain to the bleak and dismal landscape of the forest to emphasize the idea that one’s own fear and inability to overcome their primal instinct hinders their to ability …show more content…

Dante connects and emphasizes the importance of the three animals through the use of alliteration, because in Italian the animals translate to “lonza, leone, and lupa” (I.pg.36). Each animal embodies a different quality, which Dante believes inhibits man from truly reaching Intelligence. Dante describes the leopard as “swift [and] covered with spotted fur” implies that leopards are quick thinkers and are mysterious since their spots cover most of their fur, qualities that are similar to those who commit fraud (I. 31). The poem appears to shun at the idea of fraud since it involves the misuse of one’s intelligence to trick someone. The poem, on the other hand, personifies the air claiming that it “appeared to tremble” at sight of the lion’s ferocity (I.47). Violence inhibits the use of knowledge since during times of extreme anger, one often falls on emotions rather their understanding to determine their reactions. The poem catches the reader’s eye when it uses the contradiction to describe a wolf that becomes “hungrier” after it finishes “feeding” (I.98-99). Interestingly, Dante connects the sins with animals suggesting that fraud, violence, and greed are more of natural instincts, forcing humans to remain in a primal state of mind. Only through containment of these primal instincts can one escape the dark forests of ignorance and enter the mountain of

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