{"id":1396,"date":"2021-09-13T11:32:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T18:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/why-dante-and-his-divine-comedy-remain-relevant-700-years-after-his-death\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T22:44:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T05:44:59","slug":"dante-devine-comedy-still-relevant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/dante-devine-comedy-still-relevant\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Dante and his \u2018Divine Comedy\u2019 remain relevant 700 years after his death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3547-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3547-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"Why Dante and his \u2018Divine Comedy\u2019 remain relevant 700 years after his death\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  \u201cThe world, all the universe and everyone who ever lived is potentially a part of Dante\u2019s story,\u201d says USC Dornsife historian Jay Rubenstein. (Image Sources: WikiCommons.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=arts-and-culture\">Arts and Culture<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>Why Dante and his \u2018Divine Comedy\u2019 remain relevant 700 years after his death<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Redemption. Romance. Body horror. Scholars explore these concepts and other reasons why the medieval author Dante Alighieri and his master work resonate with modern readers. \n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Margaret Crable<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">September 13, 2021<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default 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href=\"\/#email\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"E-mail\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_print\">\n              <svg height=\"12\" viewBox=\"0 0 18 12\" width=\"18\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m8.14285714 9.42857143c-.17142857 0-.34285714 0-.51428571.08571428l7.28571427 6.34285719c.3428572.2571428.6857143.2571428.9428572 0l7.2857142-6.34285719c-.0857142-.08571428-.2571428-.08571428-.4285714-.08571428zm-1.28571428 1.11428567v.1714286 8.5714286c0 .6857143.6 1.2857143 1.28571428 1.2857143h14.57142856c.6857143 0 1.2857143-.6 1.2857143-1.2857143v-8.5714286c0-.0857143 0-.0857143 0-.1714286l-7.2 6.3428572c-.7714286.6857143-1.8857143.6857143-2.6571429 0z\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" transform=\"translate(-6 -9)\"\/><\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>Dante\u2019s <em>Divine Comedy<\/em> is the second-most translated book in the world. (Only the Bible has it beat.) It\u2019s a staple on any list of the Western Canon and is standard reading fare for most college students in America.<\/p>\n<p>But, why exactly, has a deeply religious medieval text about a journey to find God, peppered with graphic depictions of sinners writhing in hell, remained so culturally relevant? It\u2019s partly, say scholars at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, because the text contains a universality that transcends Dante\u2019s own era.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a poem that seeks to encompass everything, with artistic beauty and mathematical precision,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cf\/hist\/people\/faculty_display.cfm?Person_ID=1091824\">Jay Rubenstein<\/a>, professor of <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/hist\/\">history<\/a>. \u201cThe world, all the universe and everyone who ever lived is potentially a part of Dante\u2019s story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It also offers up some of the most age-old of amusements \u2014 romance, gore and redemption \u2014 that are as captivating today as they were 700 years ago.<\/p>\n<h2>All the world\u2019s his stage<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 315px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/Dante_700Anniv_InStoryB-3547.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"315\" height=\"490\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Italian artist Michelangelo Caetani\u2019s series of engravings depict Dante\u2019s elaborate vision of the afterlife. (Image Source: WikiCommons.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The <em>Divine Comedy<\/em> might be deeply religious \u2014 Dante himself wanted people to interpret it with the same rigor as people approached the Bible \u2014 but it endures in secular times partly for how thoroughly and imaginatively it organizes the cosmos. Dante takes the chaos and uncertainty of the afterlife and the universe and turns it all into a precisely structured map.<\/p>\n<p>His studious organizing starts with the structure of the poem itself. The book is divided into 100 sections, or \u201ccantos.\u201d One canto serves as an introduction, and the remaining 99 are evenly divided among three books: <em>Inferno<\/em> (hell); <em>Purgatorio<\/em> (purgatory) and <em>Paradiso<\/em> (paradise).<\/p>\n<p>Each of these realms is composed of nine rings, into which the dead are divvied up after their demise. The nine rings of heaven correspond with the planets and stars. \u201cThe world, the universe, humanity, the angels and demons \u2014 everything is in perfect balance,\u201d says Rubenstein, who is director of USC Dornsife\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/center-for-the-premodern-world\/\">Center for the Premodern World<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Dante\u2019s structure was so compelling that in 1588, a young Galileo Galilei attempted to map out the dimensions of hell as described by Dante. The exercise eventually convinced him that Dante\u2019s fantasy could never be structurally achieved, taking an important first step, <a href=\"http:\/\/archive.boston.com\/bostonglobe\/ideas\/articles\/2011\/01\/09\/measuring_hell\/?page=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">some say<\/a>, toward theoretical physics.<\/p>\n<p>Dante\u2019s pilgrimage adds a third dimension: It is both an ascent, from the bowels of hell to the airy kingdom of heaven, and an inner journey, as Dante (and the reader) get closer and closer to meeting God. There are so many metaphysical layers to decipher that, 700 years after Dante\u2019s death, scholars still have much to ponder.<\/p>\n<h2>May the punishment fit the crime<\/h2>\n<p>Of course, visionary genius only gets you so far. Dante\u2019s work also persevered through the ages because of his penchant for captivatingly violent imagery. In his vision of hell, the condemned receive punishments that correspond with sins committed on Earth, a form of retribution dubbed \u201ccontrapasso.\u201d The deranged forms of torture put to paper by Dante would fit seamlessly into any modern horror film.<\/p>\n<p>Military leader Alexander the Great burns forever in a river of blood. Gluttons are forced to roll in stinking putrefaction, like swine in a pigpen, battered by freezing rain. Astrologers and false prophets have their heads twisted backwards as a comeuppance for leading others astray. At the very bottom of hell, the three worst sinners in history spend eternity having their skulls eaten by a three-headed Satan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal0\">It seems both medieval and modern readers share an enduring penchant for the macabre. \u201cWe like shock and violence and gore as much as Dante did,\u201d says Rubenstein.<\/p>\n<h2>Love lifts us up where we belong<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 430px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/Dante_700Anniv_InStoryC-3547.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"430\" height=\"277\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An 1883 painting by Henry Holiday depicts Dante admiring his beloved Beatrice. (Image Source: WikiCommons.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Dante wasn\u2019t just a horror fan, however. One of the reasons for Dante\u2019s enduring popularity might also be his deep romanticism.<\/p>\n<p>In the last book of the <em>Divine Comedy<\/em>, a woman named Beatrice takes Dante into paradise. (The Greek poet Virgil, Dante\u2019s original guide, can\u2019t enter the pearly gates because he\u2019s a pagan.) Beatrice leads the reader both literally and figuratively into the realm of the divine, speaking eloquently about theology along the way. It is Beatrice who brings Dante face-to-face with God himself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn my opinion, Dante\u2019s most significant contribution to medieval Christianity was reconciling romantic love with spiritual love. Whereas saints and martyrs abandoned the love of a woman for love of God, Dante showed how love could lead us to God and salvation,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/religion\/kathryn-dickason\/\">Kathryn Dickason<\/a>, a recent postdoctoral scholar in <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/religion\/\">religion<\/a> and USC\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/sofh.usc.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Society of Fellows in the Humanities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Beatrice was more than just a fictional character. She was a real woman who lived in Florence, Dante\u2019s place of birth, although her exact identity remains fuzzy.<\/p>\n<p>For Dante, even her name is significant. The literal meaning of Beatrice is the blessed one, or one who confers blessing.<\/p>\n<p>She was married to another man, and Dante only met her twice, but their brief encounters so affected him that he wrote a book of love poems for her, titled <em>La Vita Nuova,<\/em> and cast her as his guide to salvation in the<em> Divine Comedy<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2>It\u2019s all politics<\/h2>\n<p>The <em>Divine Comedy<\/em> might be primarily concerned with religion, but politics was also very much on Dante\u2019s mind. At the time, Northern Italy was dominated by complex political divisions. For a while, Dante\u2019s side was triumphant, and he began pursuing a career as a politician.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, his own party then split into opposing factions and Dante\u2019s side was defeated. Dante was banished from Florence; his political aspirations were ruined and he would never again see the beloved city of his birth. Dante\u2019s loss, however, was our gain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn terms of literature, it was a happy development. Dante would have been an obscure politician, probably, if his side had won. Instead, he had lots of time on his hands to develop his work of genius,\u201d says Rubenstein.<\/p>\n<p>His exile also inspired one of the most relatable journeys in literature. Dante began writing the<em> Divine Comedy<\/em> only after his expulsion from Florence, and it is as much an attempt to make sense of his estrangement from home (and his anger over the situation) as it is a spiritual journey to understand God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Default\">\u201cDante is lost in a dark wood, which signifies the errancy of his soul. By the end of his epic journey, he gains both the desire to do good and the willpower to do good,\u201d says Dickason. Dante concludes the <em>Divine Comedy<\/em> with these lines: \u201cHere my high imagining failed out of power; but already my desire and the will were turned, like a wheel being moved evenly, by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe clearly believed that salvation was possible even in the darkest of circumstances. I think people really resonate with this story of redemption.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dante would probably be pleased that his legacy is now so enduring that his home of Florence has spent centuries attempting to get his body back from Ravenna, Italy, where he died in 1321.<\/p>\n<p>A tomb for Dante was built in Florence in 1829, but it remains empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/percival-everett-wins-2025-pulitzer-prize-for-james\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >USC Dornsife\u2019s Percival Everett Wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/reading-can-help-overcome-loneliness-and-make-connections\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >What\u2019s in a book? Often, a good friend<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/los-angeles-times-festival-of-books-2025\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Here are the USC Dornsife faculty and alumni you\u2019ll see at the L.A. Times Festival of Books<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Redemption. Romance. Body horror. Scholars explore these concepts and other reasons why the medieval author Dante Alighieri and his master work resonate with modern readers. <strong>[6 min read]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[71,141,104],"class_list":["post-1396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","tag-history","tag-literature","tag-religion"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why Dante and his \u2018Divine Comedy\u2019 remain relevant 700 years after his death<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why the medieval author Dante Alighieri and his master work resonate with modern readers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/dante-devine-comedy-still-relevant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Dante and his \u2018Divine Comedy\u2019 remain relevant 700 years after his death\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why the medieval author Dante Alighieri and his master work resonate with modern readers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/dante-devine-comedy-still-relevant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"USC Dornsife News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uscdornsife\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-13T18:32:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" 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