St. Augustine and Virgil’s Influence in Dante’s Inferno

Reaching an epiphany after a lengthy, perilous journey may expect like the content pertinent for mythological legends. However, the epic poems of St. Augustine, Virgil, and Dante share similar themes and have an important relevance to Christianity. Virgils The Aeneid follows the story of Aeneas who encountered hardships and affects to the underworld to maintain his destiny of establishing Rome.Dantes perdition follows a spiritually indigent Dante through the nine go of hell with the purpose of realizing simplicity and reuniting with his wife in heaven. Finally, St. Augustines Confessions are an autobiography that details the manners of its author in search of a spiritual awakening. An exploration of Dantes Inferno comprises inspirations and influences from the other two pieces of literature copiously in setting and subject matter.Virgils InfluenceVirgils The Aeneid influences Dantes charm through a definition of a hell that is composed of multiple stages and punishment intensi ties for its unfortunate inhabitants. Dantes Inferno reveals a journey through the nine rings of hell (Hunt et al. 369). Through his journey, Dante identifies different parts in hell where people are suffering from different punishments Minervino 2 based on their sins. In this hell, he journeys more in-depth into the rings to the pit that holds the most villainous characters in religious history such(prenominal) as Judas and Lucifer (Dante, Longfellow, and Dore 212).Comparably, Virgil had developed this narrative in his works, which were write before Dantes. Virgils The Aeneid shows Aeneas travel through different avenues of hell such as the Field of Mourning where adulterous suffered a horrid punishment (Puchner et al. 999). As they travel deeper into the underworld, Aeneas and Sybil come across a fortress where Rhadamanthus punishes the evilest people with intense torture (Virgil and Fagles 189). Virgils formation of the underworld has recognizable bearings on Dantes explication of hell. The structural and operational similarity is an affidavit of Virgils The Aeneids influence on Dantes Inferno.Moreover, Virgils narrative necessitates the assistance of a spiritual guide, a trope that Dante incorporated into the Inferno. The Aeneids protagonist, Aeneas, follows a Sybil also referred to as a priestess through the underworld (Virgil and Fagles 172). Similarly, Dante follows the ghost of a deceased poet called Virgil (Dante, Longfellow and Dore 4). One signifi washbasint similarity between the guides is their wisdom and strength (Puchner et al. 1465). They are decisive and very powerful such that they can travel around hell with little culmination to themselves and their special formulations. Dantes comparison of Virgil is an satirical guidance of Virgils clarification of the Sybil.St. Augustines InfluenceSt. Augustines Confessions also has a notable influence on the subject matter shown in Dantes Inferno. Unlike Virgils work, these two pieces of literature de tail colossal ramifications concerning religion. Dante and St. Augustines works are journeys to spiritual clarity (Enright Minervino 3 33).Dantes Inferno originates with a lost Dante wandering in a dark forest (Dante, Longfellow and Dore 1). However, he is unable to reach the light prompting him to turn back where he meets a guide, who promises to help him achieve righteousness and see his wife in heaven. Similarly St. Augustine travels the world without much purpose other than engaging in materialistic pleasures such as sexual exploration (Puchner et al. 1127).However, upon reaching the garden in Milan, he achieves clarity and conversion (St. Augustine and Pusey 106). Dante also achieves a similar epiphany upon exiting hell into the earth. This understanding suggests that St. Augustines Confessions had a profound ramification on Dantes Inferno.ConclusionSt. Augustine and Virgils works of literature had a profound influence on Dantes work. Virgils The Aeneid developed a conceptualiz ation of hell that Dante later suitable to his work. The visualization of a portioned hell that caters to sins differently based on their intensity appears prominently in either authors work. On the other hand, St. Augustines Confessions has an important influence on Dantes subject matter of a journey to redemption and eventual spiritual empowerment. Therefore, St. Augustine and Virgils works were important in developing the Epic poem Dantes Inferno.?