If I thought the classics we have been reading so far were unusual, Dante's Inferno is a whole different animal. I really found writer Thomas Cahill's summation of Robert Fagle's translation of The Aeneid accurate: a "miraculous beast of a text."
I agree the most with the beast part of his assessment, since I'm still wrestling with Virgil's work while I'm getting a feel for Dante's tricky swift-footed creation. This again being my first introduction to the text, it's not without trepidation. What strikes me most is how timid the character of Dante is. He worships Virgil, and is uncertain about his own courage and resolve in the first chapter, though the man who is writing the verses is anything but. I love the images that he threads together-- Hollanders' translation is so immediate to me.
Right now I have my own theories about the significance of the three beasts that Dante encounters in the beginning of the story that block his 'ascent'. "Your spirit is assailed by cowardice," Virgil tells him, after Dante says, "But why should I go there? Who allows it? I am not Aeneas, nor am I Paul. Neither I nor any think me fit for this." Self-doubt and a sense of shame have a hold of him, and I feel that the beauty of the leopard, enforces that self-doubt, making him step back, while the lion and the she-wolf, hold him in the grips of fear.
While I agree that Dante paints a very accurate portrait of humility in his fictional self, I have quite a bit of difficulty imagining the actual Dante being quite so servile in the face of his predecessors. In fact, were he given the opportunity to actually meet Virgil, I have a feeling Italy's most renowned poet would find the younger man downright irritating. Of course time travel is not yet at our disposal (if only!), so we are forced to accept Dante's version of events.
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