“A Little Hell-p from My Friends”: Pagan Influence on Dante’s Inferno

“I couldn’t have done it without him.”

“She was my inspiration.”

Famous people, when asked the question, “What is the reason for your success?” often answer with the name of a person who helped, encouraged, or inspired them in their endeavors and achievements. This person could be a parent, a friend, a singer, an actor, or perhaps a famous figure in history. In his poem Inferno, the first installment of the Divine Comedy, fourteenth-century poet Dante Alighieri gives his readers particular insight into the identities of three individuals who helped inspire and direct his authorship. These people are the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato and the Roman poet Virgil. Although these three thinkers were pagans, Dante held them in very high esteem, believing that they each had something crucial to offer regarding the subjects on which he wrote, including the topic of salvation emphasized in his characteristically Judeo-Christian work Divine Comedy. In fact, Dante uses a teaching from Aristotle to build the structure of Hell, expounds upon an idea of Plato to describe a particular section of Hell, and imitates and even borrows from the poetry of Virgil to form the poetry of Hell.

In our first example of Inferno’s pagan influence, Dante utilizes a teaching of the Greek philosopher Aristotle when he establishes the different types of sins and the varying degrees of punishment they incur. He also shows honor to Aristotle, placing him in a setting where others show him reverence. In Canto Four, Aristotle appears in Limbo as one of the virtuous pagans—those who led noble lives, yet lacked the grace of baptism (Dante 4.35). Limbo is the very first section of Hell, and although Limbo is not Heaven, it is portrayed as a pleasant place, with a “lovely stream” (Dante 4.108) and a “fresh green field” (Dante 4.111). Dante lauds Aristotle with the title “master of all those who know” (Dante 4.131) and writes that all the other inhabitants of Limbo regard Aristotle with respect (Dante 4.133). Later, in Canto Eleven, Dante  and Virgil discuss the structure of the last three rings of Hell. Dante wonders why the incontinent souls are not confined to these lower, more environmentally dreadful rings (Dante 11.73-74). Virgil exclaims, “Don’t you remember your Philosopher?” (Dante 11.79), designating Aristotle as an authority on the hierarchy of sin. In his work Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle writes that lack of self-restraint, or incontinence, is “not unqualifiedly base” (Aristotle 1151a24-25). He also writes that those who commit the sin of treachery––one of the sins punished in the three lower rings––are “more unjust” (Aristotle 1149b13). Virgil paraphrases Aristotle, telling Dante that “incontinence / offends God less, is taxed with lesser blame,” and explains that it is for this reason that the punishment of the incontinent is less severe than that of the souls in the final three rings (Dante 11.83-84). Even though Aristotle was a pagan, Dante learned important principles related to sin from Aristotle’s writings and uses them to guide his own hamartiological interpretation and the way in which he structures Hell.

Dante uses a conception of another pagan thinker, Aristotle’s teacher Plato, when he creates the environment of Limbo. In his description of Limbo, Dante illustrates a concept from the Greek philosopher’s work, Apology. Towards the end of Apology, Socrates speaks to those who have decided to put him to death. He tells them that he is not grieved by their vote of condemnation (Plato 36) and explains the reasoning behind this conviction. He tells them, “Those of us who think that death is an evil are in error” (Plato 39). He continues his explanation by posing the question that if death is a journey to a place where one can converse with other thinkers, writers, and philosophers in the search for true knowledge, “what good … can be greater than this?” (Plato 40).? Plato proposes a concept of the afterlife which Dante borrows and exemplifies in Inferno. In Canto Four, Dante sees in Limbo “men of great distinction” (Dante 4.44), among whom are the poets Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan (Dante 88-90), along with philosophers Cicero, Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle (Dante 4.131-141). The souls of these thinkers and poets honor and greet Virgil, doing the same for Dante before proceeding to walk as a group, conversing together, to a “place high and free and filled with light” (Dante 4.80-116). Dante was so inspired by what Plato wrote that he honors Plato’s thoughts by putting a scene containing Plato’s idea into his own poetry. Dante, as a Christian, recognizes the same human need that the pagan philosopher Plato acknowledged to daily “converse about virtue” (Plato 37). This need and its desired fulfillment was so imprinted on the mind of Dante that he uses Plato’s description to guide the fate he writes for Plato and his fellow philosophers. And that fate is a fairly gentle one when compared with that of the souls in the lower rings. However, Dante also recognizes that wisdom and reasoning brought Plato and his colleagues close to the target but not quite to the target’s center because these pagan sages lacked that greatest and highest virtue, which is to know and love our Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30, ESV). Because of their deficiency of knowledge regarding the divine, Dante places Plato and his fellow righteous pagans in Limbo.

Among Limbo’s pagan inhabitants is the poet Virgil, who is temporarily allowed to leave Limbo in order to guide Dante throughout Hell. Virgil acts not only as Dante’s guide, but also as his advisor and protector in the often confusing and dangerous environment of Hell. Dante refers to Virgil with great affection and awe throughout the poem, calling him the “good Teacher” (Dante 29.100) and the “highest prince of poetry” (Dante 4.80). Virgil constantly advises Dante over the course of the poem. He shows him which paths to take and prompts him to move on when he becomes distracted (Dante 10.115). Virgil also heroically protects Dante from danger, holding him in his arms and shielding him from harm (Dante 17.96). In Canto One, Dante tells Virgil, “you … are the one from whom I took the style whose loveliness has honored me” (Dante 1.86-87). Not only does the style of Dante’s poetry echo that of Virgil, but Dante’s work Inferno also contains scenes that are strikingly similar to scenes from Virgil’s epic poem, The Aeneid. For example, in Canto Three, when Dante and Virgil first enter the gates of Hell, the air is full of “moans and utter wailing” (Dante 3.22). Dante, terrified, begs Virgil for an explanation: “My Teacher, what are all these cries I hear?” (Dante 3.32). In The Aeneid, the hero Aeneas journeys through the Underworld. Like Dante, Aeneas hears groans and other sounds of torment and is frozen with fear (Virgil 6.649). He asks his guide, the Sibyl, “Why such wailing echoing in the air?” (Virgil 6.652). Dante pointedly references Virgil’s Aeneid again in Canto Thirteen when the poets enter the second round of the seventh circle. Here, the souls of those who committed suicide are trapped inside trees (Dante 13.37). At Virgil’s prompting, Dante breaks off a branch from one of the trees (Dante 13.31-32). The tree immediately cries out and begins to bleed profusely (Dante 13.33-35). Likewise, in Book Three of Virgil’s Aeneid, Aeneas, in an attempt to collect wood to build an altar, breaks some branches off of a thicket (Virgil 3.30-31). To his horror, Aeneas sees blood oozing from the sundered stalks and hears a wrenching groan come from the soul imprisoned within the branches (Virgil 3.39-47).These examples show us that Dante saw points of special spiritual significance in the writing of even a pagan poet like Virgil, using Virgil’s own work to help illustrate the absolutely horrific effects of sin on human souls. Perhaps Dante used Virgil’s illustration of the crying, bleeding tree to signify the atrocity of the act committed by those who raise their hands against their own bodies, the bodies which God had given them, causing the Holy Spirit dwelling within them to cry out (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, ESV). These substantial references, along with Dante’s use of Virgil as a character in his poem, show the absolutely vital contributions of the pagan poet towards Dante’s Christian work.

Dante’s use of Aristotle’s teaching in his structuring of Hell, his use of Plato’s idea of the afterlife in his creation of Limbo, as well as his characterization of Virgil and imitation of his poetic art, clearly demonstrate that the posthumous participation of these pagans was imperative in the creation of Dante Alighieri’s authoritative opus. Through his scholarship and utilization of the works, thoughts, and ideas of these men called “pagans,” Dante sends a message to Christians that there is much to learn from our pagan predecessors. There is nothing wrong with citing any of these deep thinkers as inspiration, nor are the things they offered to be discounted simply because they were not believers in Christ. The instruction and guidance that they offered and the virtues of which they spoke have great meaning and value and can offer lessons of vital importance to the mental and moral growth of contemporary Christians. St. Augustine of Hippo writes in his work entitled On Christian Doctrine, “If those who are called philosophers … have said anything that is true and in harmony with our faith, we are not only not to shrink from it, but to claim it for our own use” (Augustine 2.40). Dante must have taken this advice to heart when he wrote Inferno. In Inferno, Dante takes the philosophies and ideas of these pagans and uses them to create something beautiful in its study of humanity and the afterlife. This work of profound metaphysical and eschatological insight has had huge impact, influencing and facilitating deep Christian thought for centuries. In fact, Dante’s influence was so great that twentieth century poet and essayist T. S. Eliot proclaimed—in an essay titled “Dante”— “Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them; there is no third” (Eliot 25). If T. S. Eliot could ask Dante the reason for his tremendous influence and success as a poet, he would likely name the pagan thinkers Aristotle, Plato, and Virgil, and say, “I couldn’t have done it without them.”