Dante however is mere mortal suffering for redemption for an unspecified sin. Dante is searching for his great love and the love of God. His journey begins when he finds himself lost in the dark forest, more symbolism, symbolic of his being lost in life and having strayed from righteousness and the path of God. Dante spots the sun shining upon a mountain, symbolism again for light, goodness, and redemption. Dante attempts to climb it as a means to find his way out of the dark forest when he is stopped by a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf who will not allow him passage.
He is at a loss to get past these three who keep him from reaching the mountain and finding his way out of the darkness. When the great love that he has been denied in life sees him from her place in heaven, she along with two other women sends Virgil the great Roman poet to guide him through Hell showing him the consequences of sin so that he might understand the importance of finding his way.
Virgil is a symbol of reason throughout their journey and at the same time, Virgil is to Dante as Enkidu is to Gilgamesh. Virgil takes Dante through the Circles of Hell showing Dante all of the horrific fates these souls suffer for their sins and that the punishments sentenced to these souls are equivocal to the sins they committed on earth. It seems that the method of classification speaks to Dante’s Catholic faith.
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This becomes a battle of good and evil to save Dante’s soul. But it seems Dante not only seeks eternal life after death in Heaven but wishes to attain immortality on another level as well as evidenced when he dares to cite himself amongst Horace, Ovid, Virgil, and others, advancing his literary legacy among the best poets of all time.
He hopes including himself he will be able to attain immortality on this level. This is evidenced again in Canto XXIV when in his description of the thief’s punishment, he asserts that he has exceeded both Ovid and Lucan in his ability to write and depict metamorphosis and transformation.
On a side note, regarding Dante’s unspecified sin, I opine it is Dante’s love for Beatrice that is his sin. Dante was promised in marriage to Gemma di Manetto Donato, daughter of Manetto Donato, a member of the powerful Donato family, and was denied his great love for Beatrice. It is reasonable to think that in life Beatrice married the same as Dante. Was Dante coveting another man’s wife? Was that his great sin? There is no indication that Beatrice married when she was on earth but did she?
Virgil proves to be Dante’s saving grace. Upon Virgil showing Dante the circles of Hell and the punishments assigned to each sin, their journey is complete to show Dante what he will face if he does not find his way back to the path of righteousness.
Finally, the two at the end of our story find they are on earth, Dante having survived. Having survived this struggle of good and evil Dante has found his way back to the right path. I find the ultimate conclusion to be a bit underwhelming as it is vague in what becomes of Dante having come out of Hell and what his life becomes having gone through the experience he has. The vagueness of what Dante takes away from his experience is a bit frustrating in the same way that the reader can only guess what sin Dante committed to having strayed from the path of righteousness.
Gilgamesh seeks and finds Utnapishtim who is known to have survived the great flood and is thought to have found immortality. When Gilgamesh finds Utnapishtim, he shares with Gilgamesh the secret of immortality but in the end, he fails the task required to achieve mortality. Upon failing the only option available to him and returning home to Uruk, Gilgamesh experiences an awakening and finds a new appreciation for his home and the pleasures in life to be enjoyed. The conclusion to the Epic of Gilgamesh is a more satisfying ending for me than that of Dante’s Inferno. However, having enjoyed this story, as any good book does, it leaves this reader yearning for a little more.
Both books have been made into films. There is a 2011 film based on the epic in Arabic but to my knowledge, there has not been an American film based on the epic. This is a book that would translate beautifully to film. Dante on the other hand was made into a silent film in 1911. This was a silent film adaptation of the first section of Dante’s Divine comedy and held the distinction of the longest and most expensive film ever produced in Italy at that time. There is a film currently in production that is expected to be released in 2018. This is “Inferno by Dante”. The release date is set for December 24 this year and filming has taken place in Florence and Tuscany Italy. In conclusion, many of the similarities in these works are obvious, some, not so much but the biggest difference I would note would be the presentation.
Paradise Destruction. (2022, Aug 15). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paradise-destruction/
