ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE. - Zane Duke
Hello friends and welcome again (if you're even actually reading this) to another interesting late-Monday-night blog post extravaganza.
I am not drinking chocolate milk, (vanilla rootbeer in fact) but I am thoroughly interested in Dante's Inferno, so let's get down to business.
"I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE. /I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE. / I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW. / SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT./ I WAS RAISED HERE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE, / PRIMORDIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT. / ONLY THOSE ELEMENTS TIME CANNOT WEAR / WERE MADE BEFORE ME, AND BEYOND TIME I STAND. / ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE."
(Dante, Canto III.)
Guys. Charon is freaky.
Dante's Inferno is both fascinating and at the same time horrifically disturbing. This carving stood out to me the most not because of the enormous capital letters and the fact that the very last line of the second stanza is an "audible" in my favorite Carolina Crown show... (only band kids will get that reference) but just its simplicity and dreariness. It is a miserable, malicious and harsh set of stanzas that lay such heavy, heavy blows in such simple language.
Imagine seeing this being standing before you, claiming to be "the way into the city of woe." I would be pretty darn scared in Dante's shoes, especially considering that a part of his fate is to go through all seven circles of hell. Reading through Dante's journey into the depths of hell is both scary and satisfying because of all of the intense dark imagery and sadness and grief. This is all sickening to my happy little heart but at the same time, I am satisfied because I see the eternal punishments of these sins and they make sense to me. For instance, the Third Circle of Hell where Cerberus is tearing apart all the souls of the lazy and those who cared for nothing more than food and sleep and never used their gifts for God lay waste in this wet, cold landfill where they are treated like the trash that they spent their lives producing. There is so much justice in that punishment because they have to spend eternity embodying the waste that they laid unto the world, they are now the consequence of their own sin. It's a beautiful and just but yet a terrifying and dark picture of a place I never hope to see.
I love Dante's writings, but this mans is messing with my emotions. Until next time, friends.
p.s. I done did comment on Joshua and Kayla's posts.
I find it interesting that the three things that can withstand time are (basically) unlimited power, unconditional love, and unending knowledge (like my alliteration?). God, in his ultimate power, love and knowledge created hell and the entrance to it why? Because it was NECESSARY. Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteThese lines stood out to me too, and like you, it kind of freaked me out. I also felt somewhat satisfied like you said with the punishment. They get what they deserve, yet at the same time it makes me grateful that God gave us the option to stay away from a place that could potentially be like this.
ReplyDeleteDante ought to find a rest stop in hell and just wait for Charon to leave. Eventually she'll get tired of yelling and go back to her hole in hell (tried to rephrase to fit the no cursing policy c:). But seriously the fact that he's only gone this far and he has already been confronted by woe's gate keeper, Dante needs a vacation from all this madness. Perhaps a trip to Paradiso would suffice.
ReplyDelete