Divine Comedy Justice

But in 1905 the archeologist, Ludwig Pollack, discovered the original right arm of Laocoön and it was reconstructed in 1957-60 (“The Vatican” 185). The style of this sculpture is immediately classified as Hellenistic, because of the motion on the bodies of Laocoön and his sons. The agony on their faces portrays the anguish they were feeling at the time of their death, and the bulging muscles, and veins stick out as they try to free themselves of the snakes. The legend says that Laocoön was a Trojan priest of Apollo. The Greeks who had been trying to sack the city of Troy for years were unsuccessful, and devised a new plan. They created the Trojan horse to offer the city of Troy as a promise to stop the fighting. Laocoön saw that this was a trap and tried to warn his fellow Trojans of the danger. When he approached the alter of Poseidon to pray, the Gods Athena and Poseidon depending on which version you read, favored the Greeks and decided to punish Laocoön for his treachery by sending two giant snakes to kill him and his sons. However, there was one Trojan who heeded the warning, his name was Aeneas. Aeneas, fled Troy and this eventually led to the founding of Rome (“Musei Vaticani – sito ufficiale”). There are a lot of different theories just on this one story. I have seen that the snakes were sent by Athena, Poseidon, and even Apollo. There is also debate on whether the Trojan horse was a gift to the city of Troy or an offering to the gods.

In Dante 's divine comedy, there are countless references to all forms of sins and the punishments of those who committed them. Dante goes into great detail when describing these sins and their consequences. Each punishment is perfectly fitting to the crime itself, so that the sinner desereves exactly what he is facing. Dante 's work teaches the reader that sin is to be despised, and yet simultaneously weaves his own symbolism and meaning into his book.

What goes around comes around. When sinners reach hell they are forced to experience the counter-suffering of contrapasso. For each sin, Dante gives a specific punishment relating to that sin. Some of these sins include violence towards self, violence towards God, sorcery, and hypocrisy. For the despicable lives they lived on earth, they are doomed to suffer relating consequences for all of eternity.

Dante's Inferno explores the nature of human suffering through a precautionary light. As Dante and Virgil move through the Inferno, Dante sees what has become of people who overindulged in things such as, lust, gluttony, violence, and bribery. Few of the punishments described in the Inferno have a direct correlation to the sin that the souls committed while they were living. Rather, they are a representation of what happens when we commit those crimes against ourselves and others. We create hells for not only ourselves, but those who we have sinned against. These hells are almost impossible to come back from as most of these sins cannot be taken back or undone. Some of the punishments that were clear representations were the punishments of

The Minotaur, half man half bull, lived in Crete. Trapped in a labyrinth, constructed by the great Daedalus, the king of Crete, King Minos, demanded a tribute of seven boys and seven girls from Athens to satisfy the Minotaur’s savage hunger. But one year, Minos was deceived, for a new hero arose, Theseus, son of Aegeus, Prince of Athens. He won over the heart of Minos’s daughter, Ariadne, and used her ball of string to venture into the labyrinth to slay the Minotaur. After a hard-fought grapple within the lair of the minotaur, the beast fell to the sword of Aegeus, which Theseus had smuggled into the maze. Using the string, he found his way back out. The Labyrinth went underground, void of life, never to be seen again.

Moreover, the vision of Dante’s emphasizes how distorted love or excess is punished, because distorted love is a form of hubris. The hubris or exaggerated pride is punished because it alters the ascent to love or communion with God. Therefore, Dante’s pilgrim travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven to see the perfection of God’s justice and journey towards a higher understanding of love. In order to understand God’s justice, Dante the pilgrim must first understand the degradation of man and the punishments of sin. However, the torment of sinners causes Dante to question how a loving God would allow people to suffer, but as Allan H. Gilbert asserts, “Dante’s answer is that these sufferings counteract man’s tendency

Dante’s divine comedy focuses on the journey of a Pilgrim by the name of Dante from Italy in which he travels through the circles of Hell, the terraces of Purgatory and the spheres of Paradise. Dante the Pilgrim has lived his life the wrong way, in a way that goes against how God would live life and through this journey the pilgrim hopes to find a way to return to the path he was once on: the right path. Throughout his journey he encounters numerous souls who have either been placed in Hell, in Purgatory or in Paradise. At first the Pilgrim felt sympathy and compassion towards the souls for the punishments they had to endure but those feelings soon went away as he continued on. He no longer felt sympathy or compassion but instead felt merciless and hatred towards the souls. It then becomes apparent that Dante the Pilgrim changed as a human being because the way he saw others changed, as well as how he saw life.

The snakes makes their debut on the coattails of Laocoön’s concerns over the Greek’s horse. As it was he who questioned the trust the Trojans had in the Greek’s gift of the wooden horse, functionally, the death of Laocoön and his sons can first be read as a plot driven decision because upon their deaths, there would be no one of authority to question their judgements. The killing of Laocoön and his sons by the snakes was therefore swift and ruthless, as they “Ensnared the man as he ran up/With weapons: coils like cables looped and bound him...Sending to heaven his appalling cries/Like a slashed bull escaping from an altar/The fumbled axe shrugged off,” (2.295-303).

Dante is a poet who wrote an epic poem called The Divine Comedy. This epic poem is about Dante’s journey as he goes through 3 levels, which he calls Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. In the Inferno, he meets Virgil, his guide throughout his voyage. They both pass through the nine circles of Hell, where they witness many different punishments for those who have done awful things in their past. Good versus evil is a major theme that occurred throughout Hell. In the Inferno, there are times where Dante sees good and evil and also represents it himself.

consequence as a method to show the sinners what it feels like to be deceived as they did to the world in their lives. There is one sinner, however, that suffers more than the others. Caiaphas, who was a high priest in his life on Earth, is violently crucified to the ground as a symbol for betraying the church in hypocrisy. The way he is crucified forces him to lay on the ground directly in the path of the other robed sinners, in a manner so that they are forced to walk on him whilst donning their heavy robes. The subtle violence of the consequences contrived to see the effects of hypocrisy that the sinners caused to their friends, family and strangers was ultimately done unto themselves. Seeing the pain they caused other people causes great pain to the sinners physically as well as emotionally. Throughout the Inferno there are numerous examples of violence and brutality, presenting Dante’s purpose with clarity and precision. The violence is placed in the poem specifically for reason, to show that the souls that are in Hell are there for a good reason. It also shows that the worse the sin was, the worse the sinner’s punishment would be, causing them the pain that they caused the world through different ways of violence. Some of these are physical and others mental violence. However, most of the

Inferno, the first part of Divina Commedia, or the Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, is the story of a man's journey through Hell and the observance of punishments incurred as a result of the committance of sin. In all cases the severity of the punishment, and the punishment itself, has a direct correlation to the sin committed. The punishments are fitting in that they are symbolic of the actual sin; in other words, "They got what they wanted." (Literature of the Western World, p.1409) According to Dante, Hell has two divisions: Upper Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of incontinence, and Lower Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of malice. The

Dante Alighieri went on a journey that was motivated by acrimony, revenge and retribution. The Divine Comedy is a story of Dante’s expedition through the afterlife with the help from a Roman poet, Virgil. In the Divine Comedy living in Hell is the same as living on earth in poverty today. Today, there are many politicians who are trying to help with the welfare of poverty, but they never follow through with their goals. Throughout Dante’s life on earth he witnesses the corruption of the church and power given to higher authorities because of their image. Many of the journeys that Dante has experienced in his journey through Hell are just like what we have experienced on earth whether you are rich or poor. However, there are significant differences between the two through symbolic signs and other non-religious meanings.

Laocoon and His Sons is a marble sculpture representing a scene that is a part of the tale of the siege and invasion of Troy. Laocoon was the protagonist in a play by Sophocles that is now lost. He was also written about by Virgil. The statue itself is one of the most famous sculptures of Greek and Roman antiquity, its subject is Laocoön, a Trojan high priest, who, along with his two sons, is – according to legend - attacked and killed by two snakes, or sea serpents. The tale is known as myth, but its content may have symbolic roots in actual

As it is known, the work is divided into three parts – Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Hell for the author does not represent an embodied place. It is rather a state of the soul of the man with sins who is tormented restlessly by repentance. The poet populated the circles of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise guided by his antipathies and sympathies, perceptions and ideals. In my opinion, Heaven in The Divine Comedy personifies beauty and love. Readers meet Beatrice for the first time in this part. For me, this girl is a symbol of worship, eternal goodness, and divine love not attained by human wisdom. The author is greatly inspired by the height that he manages to reach and this feeling is transmitted to me. Dante, looking at Beatrice, rises from heaven to heaven. He does not feel the flight but only sees that his companion’s face has become even more beautiful. I have felt such a feeling of delight as well. It is possible to notice that in Hell and Purgatory Dante’s journey resembles earthly wanderings. However, in Heaven, he is travelling in a completely miraculous way and it is very inspiring.

The Divine Comedy is an epic about Dante’s journey through the three hells. It begins with Dante lost in a forest with monsters chasing after him. Virgil’s spirit, an influential Roman poet, appears and guides Dante out of the forest and through the gates of the Inferno (Alighieri). The Divine Comedy is made up of three parts: the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradise. Critics say that the Inferno is the most compelling and brings about