TheDivine Comedy has been a source of inspiration for artists, musicians, and authors since its appearance in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Works are included here if they have been described by scholars as relating substantially in their structure or content to theDivine Comedy.
In 1373, a little more than half a century after Dante's death, the Florentine authorities softened their attitude to him and decided to establish a department for the study of theDivine Comedy.Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) was appointed to head the department in October 1373, and he sponsored its organization. In January 1374, Boccaccio wrote and delivered a series of lectures on theComedy. In addition, Boccaccio is included in the workOrigine, vita e costumi di Dante Alighieri, where his treatiseTrattatello in laude di Dante provides a biography of Dante.[5]
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400) translated, adapted, and explicitly referred to Dante's work.[6]
"A Complaynt to His Lady," an early short poem, is written interza rima, the rhyme scheme Dante invented for theComedy.
Anelida and Arcite ends with a "compleynt" by Anelida, the lover jilted by Arcite; thecompleynt begins with the phrase "So thirleth with the poynt of remembraunce" and ends with "Hath thirled with the poynt of remembraunce," copied fromPurgatory 12.32, "la punctura di la rimembranza."
The House of Fame, a dream vision in three books in which the narrator is guided through the heavens by an otherworldly guide, has been described as a parody of theComedy. The narrator echoesInferno 2.32 in the poem (2.588–592).
The Monk's Tale fromThe Canterbury Tales describes (in greater and more emphatic detail) the plight ofCount Ugolino (Inferno, cantos 32 and 33), referring explicitly to Dante's original text in 7.2459–2462.
The beginning of the last stanza ofTroilus and Criseyde (5.1863-65) is modelled onParadiso 12.28–30.[7]
John Milton finds various uses for Dante, whose work he knew well:[8]
Milton refers to Dante's insistence on the separation of worldly and religious power inOf Reformation, where he citesInferno 19.115–117.
Beatrice's condemnation of corrupt and neglectful preachers,Paradiso 29.107–109 ("so that the wretched sheep, in ignorance, / return from pasture, having fed on wind") is translated and adapted inLycidas 125–126, "The hungry Sheep look up, and are not fed, / But swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw," when Milton condemns corrupt clergy.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who translated theDivine Comedy into English, wrote a poem titled "Mezzo Cammin" ("Halfway," 1845), alluding to the first line of theComedy,[10] and asonnet sequence (of six sonnets) under the title "Divina Commedia" (1867); these were published as flyleaves to his translation.[11]
Karl Marx uses a paraphrase ofPurgatory (V, 13) to conclude the preface to the first edition ofDas Kapital (1867), as a kind of motto: "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti" ("follow your own road, and let the people talk").[12]
Lesya Ukrainka's poem "The Forgotten Shadow" (1898) is a feminist reinterpretation of Dante and Beatrice. Theforgotten shadow in the poem is Gemma Donati, Alighieri's wife.[13]
InJorge Luis Borges's 1945 short storyThe Aleph, the protagonist mourns the recent death of Beatriz Viterbo, whom he loved, at the beginning and meets his cousin Carlos Argentino Daneri, whose name originated from combining Dante Alighieri's name and last name. Also, the Aleph is found in the nineteenth step in the basement, which matches the XIX canto ofParadise, which contains a description similar to that of the Aleph.
Turkish poetCahit Sıtkı Tarancı's famous poem "Otuz Beş Yaş" (lit. "Thirty Five Years") is beginning with the verses which contains a citation ofInferno: "Yaş otuz beş! Yolun yarısı eder /Dante gibi ortasındayız ömrün" ("Age thirty five! It is half of way / We are in the middle of life like Dante") won the Best Turkish Poem Prize in 1946.[19]
Primo Levi cites Dante'sDivine Comedy in the chapter called "Canto of Ulysses" in his novelSe questo è un uomo (If This Is a Man) (1947), published in the United States asSurvival in Auschwitz, and in other parts of this book; the fires of Hell are compared to the "real threat of the fires of the crematorium."[20]
Malcolm Lowry paralleled Dante's descent into hell with Geoffrey Firmin's descent into alcoholism in his epic novelUnder the Volcano (1947). In contrast to the original, Lowry's character explicitly refuses grace and "chooses hell," though Firmin does have a Dr. Vigil as a guide (and his brother, Hugh Firmin, quotes theComedy from memory in ch. 6).[21]
The seventh and last chapter fromLeopoldo Marechal's first novel,Adam Buenosayres (1948), is a parody of the Inferno, entitled "Journey To The Dark City Of Cacodelphia", wherein the titular character meets several of his literary contemporaries (including his guide).[22]
PoetDerek Walcott, in 1949, publishedEpitaph for the Young: XII Cantos, which he later acknowledged as influenced by Dante.[17]
Jorge Luis Borges, who wrote extensively about Dante,[17][23] included two short texts in hisDreamtigers (El Hacedor, 1960): "Paradiso, XXXI, 108" and "Inferno, I, 32," which paraphrase and comment on Dante's lines.[24][25]
African-American authorLeRoi Jones, in 1965, published the novelThe System of Dante's Hell, in which a young African-American man lives nomadically in the Southern United States, struggling with segregation and racism. The book correlates the man's experience with Dante's Inferno, and includes a diagram of the fictional hell described by Dante.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's novelThe First Circle (1968) takes its title from the Inferno. Set in a special Gulag for scientists, it parallels Dante's First Circle (Limbo) where virtuous philosophers of antiquity are separated from God and humanity but not punished in any other way.[26]
James Merrill published hisDivine Comedies, a collection of poetry, in 1976; a selection in that volume, "The Book of Ephraim", consists "of conversations held, via the Ouija board, with dead friends and spirits in 'another world.'"[27]
AuthorsLarry Niven andJerry Pournelle wrote a modern sequel to theInferno,Inferno (1976), in which a science fiction author dies during a fan convention and finds himself in Hell, whereBenito Mussolini functions as his guide. They wrote a subsequent sequel to their own work,Escape from Hell (2009).[28][29]
Gloria Naylor'sLinden Hills (1985) uses Dante'sInferno as a model for the trek made by two young black poets who spend the days before Christmas doing odd jobs in an affluent African American community. The young men soon discover the price paid by the inhabitants of Linden Hills for pursuing the American dream.[30]
Steve Tidrick used the nine circles of Dante's hell as an analogy to explain the United States federal budget in his cover story inThe New Republic entitled "The Budget Inferno" (May 29, 1995), which was republished in The New Republic Guide to the Issues: the ‘96 Campaign (Basic Books, 1996).[32]
Mark E. Rogers used the structure of Dante's hell in his 1998comedic novelSamurai Cat Goes to Hell (the last in theSamurai Cat series), and includes the trope of a gate to hell with an "abandon hope" inscription.[33]
Irish poetSeamus Heaney published a poem, "A Dream of Solstice", on the front page of theIrish Times (18 January 2000) that begins with a translation ofParadiso 33.58–61 as "Like somebody who sees things when he's dreaming / And after the dream lives with the aftermath / Of what he felt, no other trace remaining, / So I live now".[34][35]
Nick Tosches'sIn The Hand of Dante (2002) weaves a contemporary tale about the finding of an original manuscript of theDivine Comedy with an imagined account of Dante's years composing the work.[36]
Inferno byPeter Weiss (written in 1964, published in 2003) is a play inspired by theComedy, the first part of a planned trilogy.[37]
The Dante Club is a 2003 novel byMatthew Pearl that tells the story of various American poets translatingThe Divine Comedy in post-civil warBoston, who must also investigate murders being committed based on the punishments in the text, due to their desire to protect Dante's reputation and the fact that only they have the necessary expertise to understand the murderer's motivations.[36]
Óscar Esquivias in his trilogy of novelsInquietud en el Paraíso (2005),La ciudad del Gran Rey (2006) andViene la noche (2007) shows his personal vision of Dante'sDivine Comedy.[38]
In the novelThe Tenth Circle (2006) byJodi Picoult, the main character's comic strip,The Tenth Circle, is based on theInferno.[39]
Dante himself is a character inThe Master of Verona (2007), a novel byDavid Blixt that combines the people of Dante's time with the characters of Shakespeare's Italian plays.[40]
Dale E. Basye's book seriesHeck: Where the Bad Kids Go (began in 2008) features a modified version of the nine circles of hell.
S.A. Alenthony's novelThe Infernova (2009) is a parody of theInferno as seen from an atheist's perspective, withMark Twain acting as the guide.[41]
Auguste Rodin's sculptural groupThe Gates of Hell draws heavily on theInferno. The component sculpture,Paolo and Francesca, representsFrancesca da Rimini andPaolo Malatesta, whom Dante meets in Canto 5.[44] The version of this sculpture known asThe Kiss shows the book that Paolo and Francesca were reading. Other component sculptures includeUgolino and his children (Canto 33) andThe Shades, who originally pointed to the phrase "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'entrate" ("Abandon all hope, ye who enter here") from Canto 3.[44] Sculptures ofGrief andDespair cannot be assigned to particular sections of theInferno, but are in keeping with the overall theme. The famous component sculptureThe Thinker, near the top of the gate, and also produced as an independent work, may represent Dante himself.[44]
Timothy Schmalz created a series of 100 sculptures, one for each canto, on the 700th anniversary of the date of Dante’s death.[45]
Stradanus prepared a series of illustrations ofInferno.[48]
A commentary byLa Comedia di Dante Alighieri con la nova esposizione written byAlessandro Vellutello and printed in 1544 byFrancesco Marcolini, was illustrated with 87 engravings, possibly by Giovanni Britto.[49]
John Flaxman's set of one hundred and eleven illustrations were influential across Europe on artists such asGoya andIngres, because of their radically minimalist style.[50]
Gustave Doré made the most famous illustrations in the 19th century; the plates were drawn in 1857, and published in 1860 withHenry Francis Cary's translation.[52]
ThePalacio Barolo inBuenos Aires, completed in 1923, was designed in accordance with the cosmology of Dante'sDivine Comedy, motivated by Italian architectMario Palanti's admiration for Dante.[64]
Edward Watson andSarah Lamb asDante andBeatrice in "Paradiso", the final section ofThe Dante Project, 2021In 2021, theRoyal Opera House put onThe Dante Project, choreographed byWayne McGregor to new music composed and conducted byThomas Adès, with set and costumes byTacita Dean. It was danced byThe Royal Ballet, led by its principal dancerEdward Watson as Dante, in his final appearance after 20 years working with and interpreting McGregor. The music was performed live by an orchestra of 75 musicians. Sarah Crompton called the work "bold, beautiful, emotional and utterly engaging".[66] The dance is in three sections. "Inferno" shows Dante's journey to hell, guided by Virgil, in "remarkably free and inventive"[66] choreography, "rich in feeling".[66] "Purgatorio" shows Dante meeting two incarnations of his young self, and three of the woman he loves,Beatrice. Watson dances with the living Beatrice (Francesca Hayward) "in lovely, poetic flow",[66] and then with the heavenly Beatrice (Sarah Lamb) "all unfolding limbs and ethereal gestures".[66] "Paradiso" has Dante in heaven with the dancers skittering about the stage all in white, in what Crompton calls a mood "of abstracted joy, deep but dazzling".[66]
InClaudio Monteverdi's 1607 operaL'Orfeo, the title character is bombarded with the famous lineLasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate[67] as he attempts to enter the underworld.
Numerous mainly 19th centuryoperas treat the story ofFrancesca da Rimini, many of them including those byPellico (1818),Strepponi (1823), Carlini,Mercadante, Quilici, Generali,Staffa, Manna, Fournier, Tamburini, Borgatta,Morlacchi, Papparlardo, Nordal, Maglioni, Bellini, DeVasinis, Meiners (1841), Cannetti, Brancaccio, Rolland, Ruggieri, Pinelli, Franchini, Meiners (again, this time in 1860), Gilson, Sescewich, Boullard, Marcarini, Moscuzza,Goetz,Cagnoni, Thomas, Impallomeni, Gilson,Nápravník,Rachmaninov (in 1906), Leoni,Zandonai (1914, based onthe 1901 play byGabriele D'Annunzio), and Henried (in 1920) all having that same title.[69]
Benjamin Godard'sDante et Béatrice from 1890 depicts Dante not as a famous poet, but as a young man implicated in political and love intrigues in his quest for Beatrice.[70]
Lucia Ronchetti's 2021 operaInferno is based on theInferno section ofThe Divine Comedy. Itslibretto consists mostly of Dante's original writing as compiled by the composer.[73]
The first of three themes inLiszt'sDante Symphony for the Gates of Hell. It begins in D minor and ends ambiguously on G♯, a tritone higher.
By 1995, theDivine Comedy had been set to music over 120 times;Gioacchino Rossini created two such settings. Only 8 of the settings are of the completeCommedia, "the most famous"[69] beingLiszt's symphony; others have composed music for some of Dante's characters, while yet others have set passages of theCommedia to music.[69]
Franz Liszt'sSymphony to Dante's Divina Commedia (completed 1856) has two movements: "Inferno" and "Purgatorio." A concluding "Magnificat" is included at the end of the "Purgatorio" movement and replaces the planned third movement, which was to be called "Paradiso" (Liszt was dissuaded byRichard Wagner from his original plan).[74] Liszt also composed aDante Sonata (started 1837, completed 1849).[75]
The text of the short prayer from the opening lines of Canto 33 of Paradiso was set to music for a cappella women's voices byGiuseppe Verdi. Composed between 1886 and 1888, "Laudi alla Vergine Maria" (Praises to the Virgin Mary), the third movement of hisFour Sacred Pieces[77] was one of the last pieces written before his death.
Henry Barraud's cantata for five voices and 15 instruments,La divine comédie, based on Dante's text, was composed in 1972.[78]
Dutch composerLouis Andriessen's 2008 film opera in five partsLa Commedia incorporates texts fromVondel and theOld Testament, in addition toThe Divine Comedy. The five parts are "The City of Dis, or The Ship of Fools", "Racconto dall'Inferno", "Lucifer", "The Garden of Delights", and "Luce Etterna".[79]
The song "Canto IV (Limbo)" fromProgressive music groupDiscipline's 1997 albumUnfolded Like Staircase describes the sorrow of those souls who never knew a deity.[80]
Tangerine Dream has released albums setting all the three parts ofThe Divine Comedy to music:Inferno is a recording of a live performance at the St. Marien zu Bernau Cathedral in 2001, andPurgatorio andParadiso are studio albums from 2004 and 2006 respectively.[81]
GermanDark Electro bandyelworC has made two albums of a trilogy based on the threecanticas of the Divine Comedy,Trinity, released in 2004 from material partially composed in the 90s, andIcolation, released in 2007.[82][83]
Brazilian metal bandSepultura’s 2006 albumDante XXI is a concept album based on the Divine Comedy, which lead vocalistDerrick Green had read in high school and suggested to the band.[84]
American singer-songwriterEthel Cain's debut albumPreacher's Daughter (2022) contains the song "Ptolomaea", named after one of the four concentric rings of the Ninth Circle of Hell, as depicted in theInferno.[87]
Irish MusicianHozier's third studio albumUnreal Unearth (2023) is inspired byInferno. Each song signifies Dante's journey through one of the nine circles of Hell and his ascent on the other side.[88]
The song 'Seven Circles' by the band 'Quantum Quasar' is inspired by the seventh circle of hell, the circle of the violent and canto 28, the punishment of Bertran de Born.
South Korean boy bandCIX's discography and storyline is heavily based on the Divine Commedy, with numerous music videos being based on different parts of the poem. These include the music video for their 2020 single 'Jungle', which based onInferno, their 2022 single '458', which is based onPurgatorio, and their 2025 single 'Wonder You', which is based onParadiso.
Inferno Revisited, a modernised interpretation of Dante written byPeter Howell, was first broadcast onBBC Radio 4 on 17 April 1983.[89]
Between March and April 2014, the BBC adaptedThe Divine Comedy for Radio 4, starringBlake Ritson andJohn Hurt playing younger and older versions of Dante.[90]
Krzysztof Kieślowski planned to create a new trilogy inspired byDante'sThe Divine Comedy after finishingThe Three Colors Trilogy (1993–1994). This intention, however, was abandoned after his death in 1996 untilTom Tykwer decided to shoot the filmHeaven in 2002, using Kieslowski's original screenplay.[96] In 2005, Bosnian directorDanis Tanović directedHell (French) based on Kieslowski's screenplay sketches. The screenplay was completed byKrzysztof Piesiewicz, Kieslowski's screenwriter.[97]
Ridley Scott's 2001 filmHannibal has Hannibal Lecter as a medievalist lecturing on Dante'sDivine Comedy, and to some extent echoing the work in his murderous methods.[99]
Jean-Luc Godard's 2004 filmNotre musique is structured in three parts, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise respectively, alluding to theDivine Comedy.[100]
The filmDante's Inferno (2007) is based onSandow Birk's contemporary drawings of theDivine Comedy. The film accurately retells the original story, but with the addition of more recent residents of Hell such asAdolf Hitler andBoss Tweed.[101][102]
The 2014 horror filmAs Above, So Below draws heavily fromThe Divine Comedy, particularly Inferno, as its characters descend into theCatacombs of Paris in search of the philosopher's stone. The journey mirrors Dante's descent through the nine circles of Hell, with the characters confronting personal sins and symbolic torments that parallel punishments described in Inferno. In the film's final stages, the surviving characters must symbolically repent and descend further before finding an escape, echoing Dante's spiritual transformation and eventual ascent.[citation needed]
The 2015 Chinese documentaryBehemoth (Chinese: 悲兮魔兽; pinyin: bēixī móshòu), directed byZhao Liang, is loosely based on Dante Alighieri'sDivine Comedy and is about the environmental, sociological, and public health effects ofcoal-mining in China'sInner Mongolia Autonomous Region.[103]
The 2016 mystery thrillerInferno makes many references toThe Divine Comedy and to theDivine Comedy Illustrated by Botticelli including hiding a word puzzle in a version of the paintingMap of Hell with the levels of Hell rearranged. There's a clue in an email that refers to a passage fromParadiso and the virus that serves as the catalyst for the film's plot is named "Inferno."[104]
Dave Sim'sCerebus in Hell satirically utilizesGustave Doré's engravings for theDivine Comedy, such as this one of Dante and Virgil in the Inferno, as backgrounds.[107]
Neil Gaiman'sThe Sandman comic series, running from January 1989 to March 1996, features a heavily Dante-inspired Hell, including the Wood of Suicides, the Malebolge, and the City of Dis; Lucifer is imprisoned in Hell.[112]Mike Carey's spin-off seriesLucifer, also fromDC/Vertigo Comics, was based on characters fromThe Sandman. It features aspects of a Dante-inspired Hell and Heaven, particularly the Primum Mobile and the Nine Sections.[113]
In the 1996 Spanish comicEl infierno, part of theSuperlópez series, the titular character travels to Hell to prevent a demonic contract from being fulfilled. The search reveals a structure identical to the one in the Divine Comedy. Dante is also namedropped many times in the album.[114]
In theGuardian Devil story arc of Marvel Comics'Daredevil, some of Doré's engravings ofDivine Comedy, as well asParadise Lost and the Bible can be seen in several borderless panels and gutters.
Dante's Inferno: The Graphic Novel (2012) by Joseph Lanzara utilizesGustave Doré's 1857 illustrations of theDivine Comedy in the form of acomic book inspired by the poem.[115]
The Cartoon Network's debut miniseries,Over the Garden Wall (November 2014), corresponds to the structure of theInferno; it stars a lost poet guided by a woman named Beatrice.[116]
Dave Sim's sequel series to his comicCerebus,Cerebus in Hell? (2017) satirically utilizesGustave Doré's engravings for theDivine Comedy as backgrounds and plot devices.[107]
Dante's Inferno is a series of sixcomic books based on the same video game. Published byWildStorm from December 2009 through May 2010, the series was written byChristos Gage with art byDiego Latorre.[119]
The video gameUltrakill is partially inspired by Dante's Inferno, with the games setting being a Hell divided into distinct layers like in the Divine Comedy. Though some layers, like Limbo and Wrath, share themes with The Divine Comedy's version of Hell, some, such as Greed, present ideas not originating from Dante's Inferno.
Limbus Company is a 2023gacha game developed by South Korean studio Project Moon. The protagonist, a manager referred to as "Dante", has a guide named "Vergilius". The game is divided into sections named after parts of The Divine Comedy (as of current, only Inferno has been reached), with its chapters being referred to as "Cantos".[120]
Several aspects of the Divine Comedy could have influenced many tabletop role-playing games: visiting ordered parallel worlds on a planar crawl, a gamified progression by trials and levels towards salvation, or using deciphered symbolism to acquire knowledge that gives more power to characters.[121]
ThePlanescape setting, in particular, borrows many elements from the book (some wholesale, some piecemeal), and much of the expanded cosmology, with dimensions for the dead based on alignment and most dimensions having many separate layers, are inspired by those seen in theInferno. The planecrawling gameplay of Planescape and early setting of D&D could be heavily inspired by the structured travel of Dante through the layers of the planes of the Divine Comedy.[121]
Acheron Games publishedInferno, a tabletop role-playing game heavily inspired by the depiction of hell as found in the Divine Comedy.[124]
One of the food items listed inSCP-261's experiment log is a package of nine distinct circular, concentric biscuits labeled "Dante's", and the tagline on the packaging reads "Tastes like hell!".[125]
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^Fugelso, Karl (2011). "Tom Phillips' Dante". In Richard Utz; Elizabeth Emery (eds.).Cahier Calin: Makers of the Middle Ages. Essays in Honor of William Calin. Studies in Medievalism. Kalamazoo, Michigan: not stated. pp. 62–64.
^abcRoglieri, Maria Ann (1995). "From "le rime aspre e chiocce to la dolce sinfonia di Paradiso": Musical Settings of Dante's "Commedia"".Dante Studies (113):175–208.JSTOR40166513.
^Maria Ann RoglieriDante and Music: Musical Adaptations of the Commedia 2001 "Benjamin Godard's Dante et Beatrice, like Carrer's opera, is a fantasy. Godard's work also features a full-blown romance between Dante and Beatrice but includes a slightly more coherent and comprehensive treatment of Dante's text"
^Welle, John P. (2004). "Early Cinima, Dante's Inferno of 1911, and the Origins of Italian Film Culture". In Iannucci, Amilcare A. (ed.).Dante, Cinema, and Television. University of Toronto Press. pp. 36,38–40.ISBN0-8020-8827-9.
^Workman, Chris; Howarth, Troy (2016).Tome of terror horror films of the silent era (1895-1929. Baltimore: Midnight Marquee Press. p. 275.ISBN978-1-936168-68-2.OCLC1083765034.
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