Cantos 1-5

"When I had heard those afflicted souls, I lowered/my head and held it so till I heard the voice/Of the poet ask "What are you thinking?" I answered,
"Alas – that sweet conceptions and passions so deep/Should bring them here!"

This passage is fascinating because it shows how even someone whose only crime is purity of love can still be doomed to the third ring of hell. I actually did a little research and found out that the two lovers – now in shade-form – came together in an adulterous love affair, which explains considerably more about why they are now spending their days in Hell. But it is still interesting. I suppose Dante is somewhat of a stickler for rules, and since in the Bible it says something to the effect of "thou shalt not commit adultery" he felt is necessary to send even the purest of adulterous lovers straight to hell. Another interesting twist is the fact that the narrator, whom we get all of our information from, actually sympathizes with the damned lovers, which would appear to be in contrast with the opinion of the writer himself, who either did not pity them or shelved his pity in the face of a greater authority – God's commandments.

Page 33 – "I saw Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, Cornelia;/And sitting at a distance separately/ I saw lone of Saladin of Arabia.//I raised my eyes a little, and there was he/Who is acknowledged master of those who know,/sitting in a philosophic family//Who look to him and him do honor. I saw/Nearest him, in front, Plato and Socrates./I saw Democritus, who strove to show//That the world is chance; Zeno, Empedocles,/Anaxagoras, Thales, Heraclitus,/Diogenes. The collector of qualities/Of things, Dioscorides. And Orpheus,/Cicero, Linus, Seneca the moralist,/ Euclid the geometer, Ptolemy, Hippocrates."

In a vein similar to the previous passage, this passage depicts a group of people who ostensibly made great contributions to humanity during their mortal lifetimes, and yet they were still damned to hell, albeit one of the more cushy sections of hell. It just goes to show that, in Dante's eyes, everyone is a sinner, and no one is eligible for forgiveness unless they accept God. It's a rather strict outlook. Someone like Euclid, who did so much foundational work in Geometry in his lifetime, and how is he repaid? By spending eternity in the first circle of hell. It is significant that their hell is merely a "green meadow," which is not bad, all things considered. This suggests that God still holds some reverence for the intellectuals of humankind – just not enough reverence to give them free tickets to heaven.

In the process of researching, I came across this ----> article on the translator, Robert Pinsky. It was kind of interesting. Basically, he's tried to make Dante as accessible as possible, and, in addition to that, retain the rhythm of the original words. It's funny because, as I was reading, I had music playing, and I could feel the words complementing the music, moving in a similar rhythmic pace. So I guess he did a good job. Random thoughts.