INFERNO CANTO 2 explained
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- čas přidán 22. 08. 2024
- PLAYLIST LINK to ALL the 100 VIDEOS IS HERE (save it!): • DIVINE COMEDY 100 Cant...
Synopsis and analysis of Canto II of Dante’s Inferno with an explanation of the main elements.
English translation used in this video: Mark Musa, The Divine Comedy Vol. I: Inferno
www.amazon.com...
1. Canto II: Introduction
2. "The day was fading"
3. Aeneas and St. Paul
4. The three heavenly ladies: Mary, St. Lucy, Beatrice
5. Dante finds his courage back
NOTE: Aeneas and St. Paul are NOT the only two examples of journeys to hell in ancient literature, but in Dante’s times they were the most renowned ones.
If you want to hear a wonderful reading of Canto II in Italian by Vittorio Gassman, one of the greatest Italian actors, you can find it here: • Vittorio Gassman legge... (Starts at minute 4:00)
I will keep trying to upload at least one video every week.
“Prayer is combat”, Pope Francis
Recently picked up Divine comedy. Was intimidated at first, but with your video, i feel at ease. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. You're Godsent !!
@@melonadex Very happy to hear that! When I made these videos I didn’t have any microphones and I would suggest speeding it up at least to 1.25x, but it’s great that many people found them useful.
dude OH MY GOD this was brilliant. please make more if you can this was a great experience!!!!
Ah thanks so much, glad you found it useful. I’ve made 85 so far, they are all in my playlist, should finish all 100 by April.
I've read the divine comedy twice ( with notes of course). However, I always felt like I couldn't really grasp all of what was going on. Thanks for this series, your explanations are fantastic.
Thanks Aranya, I’m really glad you find them useful. 🙏🏻
Are Aranya koi sahi si translation book ka PDF bhej do lol
Longfellow ka translation me jo words h wo bohut oldish and complicated ho jate h
Thank you so much for creating these podcasts! Our book club is beginning The Divine Comedy, and we appreciate your excellent work.
You’re so very welcome. I’m not a teacher but I hope my endless love for this book comes through.
I’ve received a separate message from you here but now it disappeared. Sometimes CZcams does these things so I thought I’d mention.
This is perfect. This is the format that these great works should be taught in and yet are almost impossible to find.
Thank you 🙏🏻 In addition to this playlist of 100 videos in English, I have started another one, same cantos but this time in Italian (with subtitles).
This is SOOOOO good! As I said in my comment on your intro, I also prefer the Muso translation. I think that bit where Beatrice says she'll sing Virgil's praises is part politeness, as in "I'll pray for you," but also serves as a moment of hope for readers to think "oh good, despite the fact that they say Virgil can't go to heaven because he was born too early (before Jesus) maybe there's still a chance." This was the effect on even an old heathen like me (although I was raised Catholic). In the narrative I think it serves to give even more hope to the fearful Dante, e.g. miracles can happen. I'm so glad I found you early in this project (thanks to Ros at Scallydandling).
Thank you!! I think you’re right about that comment. In fact, Dante expresses this wish (that Virgil be somehow admitted into heaven) in Canto 4. I should be able to upload that video in the next couple of days.
The “not me, I’m not worthy” from Dante reminds me a bit of Moses in the book of Exodus. Both contrast with Isaiah’s response so well.
The idea that it is not Dante’s doing that he is worthy to take the journey really interested me on my last reading. The idea of imputing value to others has been a theme in my reading for the past two years.
I wasn’t aware of Dante’s prodigious memory. This has been a great way to experience the Comedy.
Once I started to understand how many things he is doing at the same time , sometimes only within a couple of lines (references, quadruple meanings, layers, etc.) I realized that it makes sense... only someone with that type of memory could pack so much into his words. He had to be able to keep a huge matrix of interconnected elements in mind and, a bit like a computer, access them pretty much at will in order to write this incredible poem.
And thanks for the Moses reference, I’ll go look it up.
That was a great yet brief explanation of canto3.
Thank you
What a wonderful summary and explanation helping me to mine so much gold dust! Thank you!
You’re very welcome. So much gold in the Commedia!
Thanks, Tom. Second time through the Divine Comedy but first time with you on Inferno and Purgatorio. I love you insight and passion! V
That's wonderful! Not sure if this can be useful, but I have just started a new 100-videos series on the Comedy, this time in Italian. However, the videos have English subtitles. I've just completed the first 6 of Inferno, so I got 94 more to go : ) Doubling down on this folly!
@@tomlabooks3263 Yes, I will check it out. I have a little more insight after having been through it once and I can only imagine that your insight continues to grow with each reading as well. I think am now getting 15% of its meaning (hahaha). V
Wonderful illuminations, thank you so much!
Thank you for your interest!
Great Talk. I truly appreciate you observations.
Thanks, William!
Thank you SSSOOOOO much. After many years of owning translations but not engaging in them, I now love this, my, new journey with him. Thank you again...
👋🏼🙏🏻
I am a new scholar to Dante's Devine Comedy. Your words help with finding understanding of the Cantos. Thank you.
Thank you for connecting here! And welcome to this discussion.
Every line is packed with context. Brilliant, Tom!
Btw, I don’t know if you have heard about Santa Lucia celebration in Sweden. It is one of the most loved Swedish traditions to in early morning of December 13th attend a Lucia concert in some of Sweden’s catedrals and churches. A small Lucia concerts are held in schools, hospitals, workplaces and malls during the whole week before the 13th. This is one example: czcams.com/video/MLycexat2xk/video.html
The music is fantastic. And it blows my mind that St. Lucia is celebrated in Sweden as well! Dec. 13th is the saint’s celebration date in Italy as well. Kids are supposed to leave plates with some food for her donkey outside of the house entrance, and she will replace that with small gifts. The more I learn about the world, the more I realize that everything is connected, much more than I thought. Thanks Dario, I hope you had a good Xmas.
Hi Tom. I found the balancing of the heavenly women to the 3 creatures of the previous canto to be quite interesting.
Thanks for watching. Look forward to hearing your thoughts about Mandelbaum’s translation.
I'm so glad I found your videos, they are invaluable as I work through the book! Thank you.
this is great. Thankyou for this
You’re very welcome
Excellent Video!!
Thank you so much.
I love the parallel process happening - definitely would not have embarked on the journey without help either! Brilliant to have you shining the light on the layers Tom. It's not the original, but I do love the line "called all earth's creatures to their evening quiet.."
Thank you : ) There are so many verses in the Comedy that you could isolate and enjoy by themselves purely for their poetic beauty and power, like this one.
@@tomlabooks3263 I think I might be doing that alot, out of beauty.. and to avoid being overwhelmed by the epic-ness!)
I am loving having Virgil as a character. I think anyone who has read the Aeneid feels a bit like they know him as a person. Thank you for being our Virgil for this journey through the DC. I particularly appreciate that you can also speak about the Italian original where a translation may miss some of the nuance.
That’s great! I’ll keep that in mind and try to highlight translation changes where I can spot them. As for your comparison with Virgil ... I love it ! I studied the Aeneid at school but would love to pick it up again.
@@tomlabooks3263 a question. You are obviously very comfortable reading the original Italian by Dante. An English book of the same period such as Chaucer is barely comprehensible for the average reader. Most people will need to read a modernised edition. Has Italian changed less than English or is it that you have studied it so long that it is now familiar?
@@scallydandlingaboutthebook2711 Ros this is a fantastic question that would deserve a full lecture to do it justice (by a specialist, not me). Let me just say that for today’s Italians, in general the Divine Comedy is not immediately understandable. Dante wrote other works (i.e. “La vita nuova”) that are in prose and much easier to read for an Italian. I guess the number of times I went over it helps me make sense of it, but it’s not an easy text. The Italian he used is, in fact, something that didn’t exist at the time, he “made it up”, sourcing from the language spoken by the common people of his times in Tuscany, from latin and from other languages of neighboring countries. So as you can see it gets complicated very fast : D
@@tomlabooks3263 now that is fascinating. Yes of course Italy must have been full of distinct dialects at that point. I didn't realise Dante had to more or less construct a version for himself. It must have been important in starting to codify a more universal literary Italian.
@@scallydandlingaboutthebook2711 That’s right - you could say that Italian literature more or less starts with Dante (technically, some time before, but not much). By the way thank you for the good PR for my channel : ))
There is so much information packed in these videos, this is the third time watching this, and each time, I get something new. The history that you are giving us throughout makes it so much more profound, and helps people like myself understand why it is considered one of the greatest works produced.
I’m really glad you find it useful! Have you read Purgatory yet? It’s my favorite Canticle and if you haven’t read it, it will surprise you.
@@tomlabooks3263 I have, but it was about 8 or 9 years ago, so a reread is due!
thank you for these videos! they’re much appreciated and my partner and i are reading through inferno together and it’s fun to see what we might have missed after discussing it. we watch your videos in the evening after each chapter :)
Thanks so much, Vanessa. It’s a great pleasure for me, and I think it’s impossible to understand every detail of the Divine Comedy if you read it through quickly only once. If you like puzzles, Purgatorio and Paradiso will be even more interesting for you. Happy 2022!
Oh my gosh, this was such a wonderful synopsis, I’m going to read Canto 2 again! 😆
Hi Tom, again thanks for this commentaries, they are really useful. I didn't know that St Paul also descended to hell.
The notes on my edition say that Dante was a devote of St Luzia because he had some sort of problem if his sight and after praying for her it got better
That's a great point, Carolina - thanks for sharing. I think I found that same information (somewhere) after recording this video : ) I guess that if you were someone who read all the time like Dante, in an era with no electricity and only candlelight at night, your eyesight would deteriorate very quickly!
Oh my. I have now got a copy and can catch up. A couple of cantos tonight and then a daily dose!
Haha no worries this is going to be a slow burner!
@@tomlabooks3263 I meant weekly of course. Late night typing is a mistake!
Thank
My favorite quote from canto 2 is when Beatrice says (88) a man must stand in fear of only the things that can have the power to harm us. All the rest- no big deal. Was this a commonly held belief at the time? There are so many biblical and mythological references that you mention are in this text but I wouldn’t know them.
That is such a great quote , one of the most beautiful moments of this canto. As far as I know, this was not a commonly held belief. In fact, most “common” people suffered from many irrational fears that sometimes were generated by bad clergy.
This is really helpful. There's a lot of references that I would have missed or would have had to look up.
The next canto is where the real “action” starts : ) Thanks for watching.
@@tomlabooks3263 I'm looking forward to the "action"!
Your comment for my Nov. wrap up isn't showing up for me to reply to. Normally when this happens, it's in my potential spam. In this case, I'm not seeing it there. Fortunately, I did get a notification and email, so I'll answer here. You're welcome for the shout-out, I'm glad to have someone to read this with. I got the copy of Gold at thriftbooks. I hope you can find a copy somewhere.
Did Dante ever have to create new words or put new endings on existing words so that he could attain his terza rima? Or just another example of proof of his genius. I am fascinated by this rhythmic structure.
Yes! He definitely did. Most of his neologisms are found in Purgatorio and Paradiso, but some are in Inferno as well. examples: “intuare” = “to inyou” “inluare” = “to inhim”
I read canto 1
And thanks to u I can understand it completely
Or I can say the main context
I wish if u can go more and more depth to these cantos + adding subtitles of what you reading in Robert Pinsky translation
I can't afford to buy one and was able to buy the cheapest translation of Longfellow
And it becomes harder to read while u recite so please add subtitles of Robert Pinsky for future learners!!
Thank you once again
Thanks Ujjwal.
hello, thank you very much for making this knowledge accessible. I want to ask you about the meaning of lines 77-78 in john ciardi's translation:
''above all other works God's will has placed
within the heaven of the smallest circle ''
I read in the annotations that it literally means the Moon, therefore paradise in its astronomical sense which confused me.
I also read in the French version another meaning explaining how “theological light elevates man above all beings of earthly creation. Such is the meaning of this invocation of Virgil to Beatrix''
I’m not sure about that translation, but the meaning of those verses is : “Oh lady, whose virtues are the ones (faith, love and hope, but mainly love) that elevate the human race above everything else that is contained below the smallest circle of heaven”. Heaven is made of 9 concentrical spheres, in the Middle Ages’ understanding. So under the “lowest” one, which is the sphere of the Moon, there is Earth. And the human race, being made in the image od God, has the POTENTIAL to reach the highest heaven thanks to love. I hope this clarifies.
What do you think of Dr. Anthony Esolen’s translation of the Comedy?
I think it’s one of the best ones! Very lyrical and accurate.
@@tomlabooks3263 thanks for your reply, and for these excellent videos. I am doing laundry and really enjoying listening. I am currently in Canto Twenty-Two in my reading, but just came across your videos. Thank you!