Below I provide a very brief outline of the first book of Dante's
Divine Comedy. This work is of enormous importance. It has been
translated several times into English verse. The version drawn on
below is one in which the author used Dante's own intricate rhyme
scheme. Her introduction is some sixty pages long and she has many
notes, several apendices and a forty five page glossary.

As this year progresses, it is hoped this Solarguard section will flesh
out the Dante material, perhaps allotting it its own subsection. The
work, impressive in its own right, as the widely judged best poetry in
Italian, has greater significance. It may be seen as perhaps summing up
Medieval Christianity on the threshold of the Renaissance, hence
providing a clear backdrop to later Renaissance attitudes and deeds.

One of the future articles for the Solarguard Dante subsection will be
a personal commentary by Michael McKenny on the work at several levels,
including both a general spiritual one and one connected to the current
human geopolitical situation.

The brief outline below is only a promise of more to come, more even
than brief outlines of the remaining two volumes.

Dante, The Divine Comedy v. 1, Hell, transl. Dorothy Sayers, Penguin,
Harmondsworth, 1949

I Dante, losing his way in midlife, emerges from a dark wood to a
glorious mountain. Wild beasts block him. He meets Virgil who offers to
guide him another way.

II Dante hesitates, doubting. He asks why Virgil wants to guide him.
Virgil tells him Beatrice intervened on Dante's behalf. Dante reassured
follows.

III They see the entrance to Hell, those who chose neither good, nor
evil and the ferry. The boatman refuses Dante. Virgil insists it's
God's will.

IV They pass through Limbo meeting the unbaptized, great Classical
figures, and Saladin and Averoes.

V They reach those condemned for lust. Dante hears Francesca da Rimini
tell of her and her husband's brother Paolo.

VI They pass the gluttons.

VII They pass the tightfisted and the spendthrifts.

VIII They are rowed past the wrathful, including the Florentine,
Filippo Argenti. They find the gates of Dis closed.

IX Virgil assures Dante that he has travelled here before and knows the
way. A great one from above breaks open the gates of Dis. They see the
tombs of the hersiarchs.

X They meet Epicureans, including Cavalcante dei Cavalcanti who says
those here have knowledge of past and future, but Earth's present is
but dimly known. Cavalcanti inquires of his son Guido, a friend of
Dante's.

XI They pause to get used to the stench coming up from below. Virgil
outlines what lies down there. Usury is condemned as contrary to nature
and true labour.

XII They meet centaurs and see tyrants.

XIII They pass through the wood of suicides.

XIV They see those arrogant against God.

XV They see Sodomites: Dante converses with Brunetti Latini.

XVI They meet three famous Florentines who ask if it's true things are
getting worse in Florence. Virgil tosses Dante's belt over a bank and a
strange creature rises.

XVII They see usurers and mount the creature to speed their journey.

XVIII They pass panderers, seducers and flatterers.

XIX They meet simoniacs, including Pope Nicholas III.

XX They see fortune tellers and magicians.

XXI They pass barrators.

XXII They continue past barrators.

XXIII They meet hypocrites, including Catalano and Loderingo.

XXIV They meet thieves, including Vanni Fucci.

XXV They meet more thieves, some in the form of snakes stealing the
human shapes of their fellows.

XXVI They meet those who counselled deceit, including Ulyses.

XXVII Another who counselled deceit, Guido da Montefeltro, speaks to
them. Pope Boniface VIII prodded him, promising absolution, but the sin
with papal blessing got its just desert.

XXVIII Some who caused division address them.

XXIX They see fraudsters transforming metals, or pretending to.

XXX They see falsifiers, including one who made false Florentine
florins and Sinon who swore a false oath to have the wooden horse
brought into Troy.

XXXI They travel on and see giants, one of whom, Antares, lifts them
down further.

XXXII They pass traitors.

XXXIII They pass those who dealt treacherously with relatives and those
who slew guests.

XXXIV They pass the worst traitors, including Judus, Brutus and
Cassius. They climb up Lucifer's leg towards purgatory.


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