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

Reaching an epiphany after a lengthy, perilous journey whitethorn seem like the content pertinent for mythological legends. However, the epic poems of St. Augustine, Virgil, and Dante fortune similar themes and have an important relevance to Christianity. Virgils The Aeneid follows the story of Aeneas who encountered hardships and travels to the underworld to keep his destiny of establishing Rome.Dantes booby hatch follows a spiritually indigent Dante through the ball club rings of inferno with the purpose of realizing simplicity and reuniting with his wife in heaven. Finally, St. Augustines Confessions are an autobiography that details the life of its author in search of a spiritual awakening. An exploration of Dantes Inferno comprises inspirations and influences from the other two pieces of belles-lettres abundantly in setting and subject proposition.Virgils InfluenceVirgils The Aeneid influences Dantes work through a description of a inferno that is composed of multiple stages and punishment intensities for its unfortunate inhabitants. Dantes Inferno reveals a journey through the nine rings of hell (Hunt et al. 369). through and through his journey, Dante identifies different parts in hell where people are execrable from different punishments Minervino 2 based on their sins. In this hell, he journeys more(prenominal) in-depth into the rings to the pit that holds the most villainous characters in religious memoir such as Judas and Lucifer (Dante, Longfellow, and Dore 212).Comparably, Virgil had developed this narrative in his whole caboodle, which were pen 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 brilliant torture (Virgil and Fagles 189). Virgils formation of the under world has recognizable bearings on Dantes explication of hell. The structural and working(a) similarity is an affirmation 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). in addition, Dante follows the ghost of a deceased poet called Virgil (Dante, Longfellow and Dore 4). bingle significant similarity between the guides is their wisdom and strength (Puchner et al. 1465). They are fatal 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 illumination of the Sybil.St. Augustines InfluenceSt. Augustines Confessions also has a notable influence on the subject matter shown in Dantes Inferno. U nlike Virgils work, these two pieces of literature detail colossal ramifications concerning religion. Dante and St. Augustines works are journeys to spiritual clarity (Enright Minervino 3 33).Dantes Inferno originates with a unconnected Dante wandering in a dark forest (Dante, Longfellow and Dore 1). However, he is ineffectual 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 mercenary 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 influe nce on Dantes work. Virgils The Aeneid developed a conceptualization of hell that Dante later adapted to his work. The visualization of a portioned hell that caters to sins other than 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.?