Skip to main content

I Have Some Concerns-Rachael Gregson

 


According to Dante's Inferno, Hell is made up of nine circles that descend in order of severity-Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery. After reading Cantos 1-5, I have a lot to say to Dante here, but before I go off on my main rant, there's a side note I'd like to make. First off, while suicide is the murder of one's self, I'm not sure I believe that that would immediately send someone to Hell. Nine times out of ten people who do this usually have a chemical imbalance in their brain upon their death, and while this was unknown about the body back then, God sure as heck knew. So why in the heck does Dante put suicide victims on that sketched map, turning them into a wood with harpies (what the heck is harpies)?  I don't understand and I'd like to say more, but that would make my post long-winded even before I got to the meat of it.

Moving from the seventh circle back down to the circles closer to the beginning, I find the circumstances of the third circle-Lust- a bit amusing, if not a subtle chauvinist jab. In medieval Christianity, it was common to associate lust with women. Men could not tempt women, but women could darn sure tempt men; if a  couple fell into sin, it was always the "seductress's" fault rather than both of theirs. In this circle, we find plenty of historical female figures. To name one who actually deserved to be down there, there's Semiramis who legalized all sorts of sexual immorality. However, it's surprising to see Helen, Helen who got two sides fighting because she was abducted by Paris because of her beauty. Am I missing something? 

I commented on posts by Hailey Morgan and Madalyn Dillard. 

Comments

  1. Madalyn DillardMarch 14, 2021 at 2:24 PM

    I completely agree with your take on suicide in The Inferno. If I remember correctly, Helen had no choice considering her own body, so it definitely says something about the culture bias of the time Dante wrote his famed books.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jamie PetersMarch 15, 2021 at 7:36 PM

    With Helen, much early discussion revolving around her blamed her for the entire Battle of Troy. I am not sure how much access Dante had to it, but I wrote a paper last semester on how Aeschylus blamed her in "The Oresteia". From a modern, largely feministic perspective, we see that Helen was at the mercy of the men that owned her. From a medieval perspective, however, women were considered dangerous, especially if they distracted men from their duties.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oedipus’ Children/Siblings—Lily Caswell

Ok, so Oedipus is a bit of a train wreck to say the least. I love the fact that even after Oedipus found out about his less-than-appealing relationship with his mother, he still tried to look after his children/siblings. After he gouged his eyes out, his children came to him at which point Oedipus talked about how that when they were old enough to marry, no one would want them due to them being products of incest. He said for the people not to condemn them based on what their father had done. Even after he knew what he had done and what his children were, he still wanted the best for them. I commented on Logan’s and Ian’s posts.
3 comments
Read more

Aristotle Might Not Like Me...Or Jesus//Haylee Lynd

      Aristotle says that the man who does not get angry at the things he should be angry at "is thought unlikely to defend himself; and to endure being insulted and put up with insult to one's friends is slavish" (Aristotle 41). While he states that passivity is preferred to excessive anger, he still gives great criticism to it.  In contrast to Aristotle, the man who Christians believe to be the most just is Jesus who states in Matthew 5:39-40, "...do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well." Essentially, arguing that one is not to respond in anger when insulted or hurt, to not defend one's self. Most individual's are unable to achieve this. Our natural instinct is to defend ourselves, especially in physical cases. However, Christians strive to be like Jesus in this way. I would also argue that it is a very admirable wa...
2 comments
Read more

One shall stand, One shall fall // Ian Blair

      I usually have a little introduction into my thoughts about the reading for this week before I start with the actual blog part of my post, but I can't help but think about the bone-chilling realization that awaits us in Book VIII, so my introduction this time will be brief. It is my personal opinion that if people are imperfect, then we are only capable of imperfect systems and societies consequentially. However, this does not mean that we must not aim for the closest system to perfect that we can achieve.      The realization I wrote of earlier is the suggestion by Socrates that tyranny stems from the system we know as democracy. At first I disagreed, it is anarchism that causes  tyrannical reign as a byproduct of fulfilling its purpose of overthrowing the current power and not establishing another system. All anarchism does is create a power vacuum for another power to take over and the cycle repeats itself, right? ...Right? Quic...
1 comment
Read more