WEEK 14: The Inferno; Canto 19 + 26

In Canto 19, there is some judgment and hypocrisy, thus fraud by the Catholic Church as we noticed some members of the church are in hell, Dante faces Pope  Nicholas III, as he is buried in hell for committing the crime of simony. This give us a clear understanding that no matter what level in society you are, if you do wrong things in life, you will end up in hell. Popes sin too and are fake to profess God’s word, instead they pretend and fail to comply to be “holy”. This shows how morality is important in life, like the Pope, if you fail you end in hell for your bad actions. We also noticed Dante’s verbal attacks to this Pope, which we can interpret as a reflection to who Dante’s resentment  is, this case the church.

In Canto 26, Dante recognizes Ulysses and Diomedes, from Florence, who committed fraud too during the Trojan War.  They are responsable for the Trojan horse and the destruction and looting of the Palladium (Athena’s temple). This shows how Ulysses and Diomedes went against their morals since they betrayed their country and their people. Therefore, in Canto 26 Dante witnesses the consequences of bad morality, either for profit or revenge, he is now seeing that taking revenge will only make him be in hell and that he will suffer greatly for this action. Dante needs to embrace his good morality and not let anger win, regardless what other people have done.

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