Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "Classics Summarized: Dante's Inferno" video.
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Canto IV
>"il maestro di color che sanno" ("the master of the ones that know") Aristotle, Greek.
>"Omero, poeta sovrano" ("Omer, sovereign of the poets"), Greek.
Dante used the characters of the Omeric poems in the Inferno not because he despised Greeks, but because, other than the contemporary characters, for contrast, he needed characters that were not contemporary but still well known by the people, and that, in Dante's time, meant saints and characters of Greek mitology. But he couldn't put saints in hell, so he had to overuse Greeks.
BTW, the oldest surviving complete translation of both the Iliad and the Odissey in latin is that of the Calabrian scholar Leontius Pilatus, whose works were known both by Petrarch and Boccaccio.Dante missed him by half a century more or less.
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@dreamerthief2216 It's significative that Dante previously put both Averroes and Saladin (a muslim scholar and a muslim general, Dante does nothing by chance, he wanted to depict them there) among the not-baptized virtuous. Averroes with the likes of Socrat and Aristotle, Saladin, the man that took away Gerusalem from the Christianity, with the likes of Caesar. Because for Saladin, to fight Christians was his work, and he did it in an honorable way.
Mohammed instead is among the schismatics for having divided Christianity, and Ali, at that point, for having divided Islam. The point was not Christian or Islamic religion, but to have caused discord.
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@deathknight75 Not really.
Dante put Averroes and Saladin among the not-baptised virtuous. Averroes between the philosophers, with the likes of Aristotle and Plato. Saladin with the likes of Caesar. It had not been by chance. Saladin was the man that took Gerusalem away from Christianity, but he did it in an honorable manner, so he was not at fault more than Caear was at fault for being a pagan.
Mohammad was put among the schismatics because Dante believed to the tale, diffused in medieval Europe, that Mohammed was a Christian bishop who created a new religion "mixing that of Moses with that of Christ". He's among the bearers of discord because he brought discord into Christanity. The Muslim's Saladin job happened to be to fight Christians, so he was not at fault in doing that. While Mohammad's job was not to create a new religion "dividing the Christians", so he's among the schismatics.
Mind that Alì is there for the same reason. To have caused a schism, this time among the Muslims. for Dante it didn't count Christians or Muslims. counted if one brought discord or not.
Greek heroes are there only because, to make the comedy interesting, Dante needed popular figures, alternating between the well known contemporaries and the well known historical figures (IE, in Canto XXVI there is Odysseus, in canto XXVII Guido da Montefeltro). But well known historical figures in middle age Europe were saints and characters of greek mithology. He couldn't put saints in hell, so...
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