Whether you’re religious or not, and regardless
of what religion you happen to be, thanks to pop culture, we all have a mental image
of what heaven and hell physically look like. Like that heaven is in the clouds and has
pearly gates. But when I ask you to imagine hell, you won’t
be drawing on anything from the bible. Aside from a few descriptions of fire and
gnashing teeth, there isn’t much to work with. Instead, what you’ll inevitably describe
comes from Dante’s Inferno. Christian fan fiction from 700 years ago that
was so important it has completely shaped our pop culture myths about hell to this day. This video is brought to you by Skillshare. Dante Alighieri was a poet from Florence,
which was part of Italy, Italy didn’t exist yet, it was still just a bunch of independent
city-states. Great, we’re already off track, good start. He was already a pretty well-known poet, but
in 1300 he started writing the Divine Comedy, which is actually three books in one, Inferno,
Purgatorio, and Paradiso, and would take him another 20 years to complete. A record I’m sure will soon be broken. Almost all poets at the time wrote exclusively
in Latin, keeping literature behind an upper class education barrier. But Dante broke this mold by releasing the
Divine Comedy in Italian. The fact that it was written in Italian rather
than Latin, opened literature up to the commoner in a way that wouldn’t be topped until the
printing press a century later. Dante didn’t write this in order to describe
his adventures in heaven, hell, and purgatory. It was a piece of political commentary which
was especially negative towards the Catholic Church. But Dante wasn’t stupid, he didn’t want
to be excommunicated or burned at the stake. So he wove that criticism into a piece of
fiction where he says things about politics without actually saying it, and published
it in Italian so the common person could read it. Over the decades and centuries, that satirical
element faded away. To the point that many of the things Dante
wrote regarding heaven and hell, as a work of fiction, became Christian doctrine. Dante drew from St. Thomas Aquinas, and then
the church drew from Dante. Imagine if years after a book was released,
someone wrote some fan fiction based on it, that then grew to become just as important…
why am I turning shades of gray? Or imagine if years later, someone were to
tweet that they used to make poop disappear with magic… and now that’s canon. That’s what happened with many of the things
Dante flat out made up in the Divine Comedy, it became canon – especially from the first
book, Inferno. Inferno starts with Dante being lost in the
woods, where he gets found by Virgil a classical Roman poet who was sent to guide him through
hell. Yes, the city superintendent from ODST and
all the audio logs are loosely based on Inferno – but that’s just a theory, a ga- Dante
is a huge fan of Virgil, which, I mean if I was going to write about my adventures through
the Youtube Rings of Demonetization, I’d probably pick an old sage to accompany me
too. So Dante fangirls for a bit and is then treated
to a personal guided tour. As they enter the gates of hell, they see
the now infamous inscription “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Yes, in this case it really is pronounced
yee, not thee – it’s complicated. Then they come upon the first circle, which
isn’t really the first circle… again, it’s complicated. Complication is going to be a theme. If I were to ask you how many circles there
are in hell, I’m going to get a wide range of answers. Officially, there are nine. But the first one, known as the Vestibule
of Hell or Circle Zero, brings the total number to ten. So most Dante scholars describe it as nine
plus one. It’s similar to the answer to how many states
there are: fifty… and DC. For all intents and purposes, it’s a state,
it even has electoral votes. Making it 50 plus one. So, there are nine plus one circles in hell,
though in truth it gets even more complicated when you realize that several of the circles
have multiple circles within them, making it more like 24, but whatever, nine plus one. This zeroth circle is for the Uncommitted. People who didn’t pick a side in life, cowards
and outcasts… and angels who didn’t pick a side during Lucifer’s Rebellion of Angels. Which is a whole thing we’ll get into some
other time. These people are left unclassified, neither
good nor evil; they’re not in hell, but they’re not not in hell. Though they’re technically inside the gate
so… Their punishment is to forever chase after
an elusive banner, symbolic of what they didn’t do in life, all the while being stung by wasps
and hornets. Sure sounds like hell to me, I’ll run into
traffic to get away from a wasp if I have to. Then they come upon the River Acheron, the
first of the five rivers from the Greek Underworld. Which is another common theme, Dante mixes
Christian theology with Greek and Roman mythology constantly. Christians kind of have a habit of incorporating
previously pagan beliefs into their own, it’s the reason Christmas is in December and Easter
involves bunnies and eggs. They’re ferried across the river by Charon,
another figure from Greek mythology. And they reach the first official circle,
Limbo, for the guiltless damned and the virtuous non-Christians, people who were never baptized
or died before the time of Christ. A lot of pop culture mixes this up with Purgatory,
but no, that’s a separate place. There is no punishment here, this is just
a holding area for good people who didn’t or couldn’t choose Christ. And this is where Virgil lives since he died
20 years too early. Dante also meets a few of his other favorites
here, like Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato. Virgil tells Dante about the Harrowing of
Hell, the one and only time anyone was taken from Limbo, when Jesus died and came to hell
to save a select few. Including Adam, Noah, Moses, and Abraham – all
the biblical greats. Everyone else was left to just sulk over their
non-choice, which is actually kinda sad when you think about it… The second circle of hell is where the fun
begins. First, you’re greeted by Minos, who wraps
his tail around you to judge your sins, the number of times his tail circles around you
is what circle you’re damned to for eternity. Makes sense that he’s here instead of at
circle zero because how would-? Yeah. People are sentenced to the second circle
for sexual lust, specifically consensual mutual indulgence, not rape – that’s violence
and they go somewhere else. So this is for people like Helen of Troy and
Paris, who started the mythical Trojan war. Their punishment is to be forever blown over
by hurricane force winds, symbolic of how they let their sexual desire hold sway over
them in life. No, they can’t just lay down, they’re
tortured if they do, they have to stand up and be blown over forever. Dante also meets his first Florentine political
figure here; he does this several times and we won’t talk about all of them. But it does turn hell into a real place for
his readers. Then they come to the third circle of hell,
which is guarded by Cerberus. You know, the three headed dog that guards
the Underworld for Hades… you know, from Greek mythology. This circle is for the gluttonous, people
who gave into their desire for food or drink, or even drugs – all addictions really. They’re constantly bombarded with an icy
rain… or sleet? I don’t actually know what sleet is. Anyway, this turns into an icy muddy slush
and the people are so ravenous to feed their addiction that they eat it by the handful. The fourth circle is for people whose attitude
towards wealth was well outside the norm. Both hoarders and squanderers, which he calls
spendthrifts, which is a word we should definitely bring back. These two groups push giant boulders back
and forth while yelling at each other – why do you hoard? And why do you waste? They’re so busy with their punishment they
don’t stop to talk to Dante, which is good because we need to hurry this along. The fifth circle is the River Styx. Probably the only river from the Greek Underworld
you’re aware of. Every time you see this depiction, it’s
the fifth circle of hell, reserved for the wrathful. They just fight each other in the river forever,
it’s not that exciting. The Styx serves as a moat around the walls
of Dis… Dis is the City of Hell… and dis is a ferret,
dis is two ferrets. The walls of Dis are guarded by fallen angels,
those who chose Lucifer’s side during the rebellion against God. Dante also encounters Medusa here, because…
why not? Everything within the walls of Dis is known
as Lower Hell and contains all the crimes of malice, including violence and fraud. Heretics are put in the sixth circle of hell. You see, agnostics are out there in the zeroth
circle with the uncommitted, but atheists? They’re here in flaming tombs. Anyone who doubts or denies church doctrine
ends up here. He talks to a few more people he knows and
discovers that in this circle, they can see the distant future back on Earth, but not
the present. So at the end of time, they won’t be able
to see anything at all. The seventh circle is for violence and contains
within it three separate rings for different types of violence. It also happens to be guarded by a minotaur. The first ring is the River Phlegethon, which
is apparently made of boiling blood. People are put here for violence against others
and are submerged depending on how much of that they caused. Alexander the Great and Atilla the Hun are
completely underwater, or under blood I guess. Dante allows for different degrees of punishment
based on the offense, warmongers are completely submerged while people guilty of manslaughter
or punching a kid on the playground are not… Kevin… with that smug smile. You know what you did. They’re just up to their shins or ankles
in boiling blood forever. They’re guarded by centaurs who punish anyone
who attempts to rise out of the blood more than what their guilt will allow. This is also the first time anyone notices
that Dante is the only one affected by gravity, he leaves footprints whereas everyone else
is apparently weightless. The second ring is the Wood of the Suicides. People guilty of violence against themselves
are forever turned into trees and feasted on by harpies. Since they took their bodies for granted in
life, they are deprived of human form for eternity. Dante puts a rather interesting Florentine
politician here: someone who killed himself after he was convicted of a crime that would
have put him in a much worst circle, implying that Dante doesn’t really think he was actually
guilty. Imagine if he put OJ in the thieves’ circle
rather than the murderers’ circle, what message would that be sending? People who wasted their lives rather than
their bodies, run through the suicide forest being chased by vicious female hellhounds. I wish for health, happiness, and hella bitches. That’s fitting. You don’t have to censor it if you’re
actually talking about dogs! The third ring of the seventh circle is just
a desert plain that rains fire, and there are three different groups of people who are
punished here for unnatural and sterile actions. Violence against God, against Nature, and
against Art. Blasphemers just lay on the burning sand,
forever singed by the raining fire. They’re different from heretics who just
doubt or deny, these people actively spoke out against God. Sodomites run in circles under the burning
rain forever… like that one music festival in the desert. Yes, Dante includes that one group you’re
thinking of here. Money lenders and loan sharks are simply huddled
and weeping in the middle of the burning plain. Dante was a big fan of the Crusades. So he was offended by anyone charging interest
to those who went to the Holy Land to defend the Faith. Which Dante considers to be a form of art,
in its own way. They hitch a ride on a giant wyvern-scorpion
hybrid to the eighth circle which is… just a mess. This is the circle of Fraud and there are
ten circles, or bolgia, within it. The panderers and seducers play tug of war
across a giant ravine. Mind the gap. The flatterers, who abused language to play
on fears and desires are submerged up to their necks in excrement. As they spewed it in life, they are now up
to their necks in literal bulls**t. I mean that’s gotta be the most fitting
punishment right there. People who sold ecclesiastical favors, holy
relics, and indulgences are buried upside down with their feet set on fire. There are several popes here, and remember,
this is 200 years before Martin Luther. The sorcerers, magicians, fortune tellers,
and astrologers are a bunch of bad bunnies who had their spines broken and their heads
put on backwards. They’re forced to walk in circles, unable
to see what’s in front of them for all eternity. Corrupt politicians are next, anyone who made
money by granting political favors, and as you might have guessed, Dante puts a lot of
his contemporaries here. But the best part of this circle are the guards,
the Malebranche. They serve as a weird comedic relief, with
names like scumbag, dogbreath, and snotnose, and when they set out to march, their trumpet
was a literal fart. The sixth bolgia of the eighth circle belongs
to the hypocrites. They walk around wearing a robe that looks
pretty nice from the outside but on the inside, is actually extremely heavy and weighted down. Again, Dante recognizes more friars and priests
here. This shows that Dante was already well aware
of the abuses of the church and disgusted by the idea of buying your way into heaven
or purgatory well before Protestant Reformation. In fact, it’s entirely possible that through
this political satire, Dante inspired Martin Luther. Thieves are chased around by snakes and large
lizards that occasionally bite them and cause them to turn into inanimate objects or burst
into flame. As they stole in life, their identities are
repeatedly stolen here. The next bolgia is for people who counselled
others to do fraud rather than doing it themselves and they’re encased in a pillar of fire. Ulysses is here for that Trojan Horse idea. This next one is kind of brutal, sowers of
discord are torn apart by demons, forced to drag their bodies around the circle as they
slowly heal, and then the process is repeated all over again, for all eternity. People responsible for family breakups, civil
strife, and religious schism. I’m going to pull an OSP here and not tell
you the most prominent figure that Dante recognizes… or the fact that his son is also here for
causing a schism in that religion, the affects of which we’re still seeing in the Middle
East today. The Catholic Church was basically the only
game in town at the time, but I’m sure Dante would have put Martin Luther in there too. The final group in the eighth circle are the
falsifiers: the alchemists, counterfeiters, imposters, even those guilty of perjury. As they were a disease on society, they are
now diseased… with all of them, all the diseases. The Ninth and final circle of hell is the
frozen River Cocytus, guarded by giants embedded in the ice up to their waist – including
Nimrod, who built the Tower of Babel. He talks a bunch of nonsense and no one can
understand him. Traitors to their family are frozen up to
their neck, traitors to their country are frozen up to their head, and traitors to their
guests lay on top of the ice, all while enduring a freezing wind… the north remembers. It’s here that Dante meets someone who is
still alive on Earth, apparently, when you commit treachery, your soul goes to hell immediately
while your body remains alive on Earth, possessed by an imp. This was back when they still thought disease
was caused by evil spirits, so… Dante and Virgil pass by the traitors to their
lords, who are completely frozen in various contorted positions, and finally arrive at
the center of hell. The traitors to God. Lucifer is frozen up to his waist and he still
has his wings, six of them in fact, though rather than angelic, they’re more bat-like. Most modern pop-culture depicts him without
his wings. He also has three faces, each a different
color, symbolic of the three races of man. Yellow for Asian, black for African, and red
for… European. In each mouth, he is chowing down on a different
traitor, Judas, of forty pieces of silver fame, Brutus, of et tu brute? fame, and Cassius of… apparently he was
part of the Caesar thing too. These are the three worst people in history
according to Dante, well, four if you include Lucifer. Which leaves me with a lot of questions, what
was Lucifer doing before Julius Caesar? Did he always have three faces? Has he grown more faces since then? What color are they? To continue on with the tour, Dante and Virgil
climb down Lucifer’s legs, and then about halfway down, they have to reverse direction
and start climbing up… towards his toes. Because that’s how gravity works! This is the world according to Dante, there
are only three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa, everything else is just open ocean. Yes, they knew the world was round. But, they didn’t orient the world like this,
with north on top, they typically used east. I’m serious, here are two different maps,
note the Earthly Paradise on top. So Dante gets lost in the woods somewhere
in Italy and ends up underground in the various circles of hell, with Lucifer in the middle. When God cast him down after the Rebellion
of the Angels, he crashed into Earth and became the center. All of the land displaced by his fall pushed
out the other end of the Earth and became Mount Purgatory, a protuberance on the other
side of the world with the Earthly Paradise, better known as the Garden of Eden, on top. This is what Columbus poetically wrote that
he was sailing towards that one time… this is where that pear-shaped thing comes from,
Dante, not Columbus. Anyway, Dante and Virgil travel up the River
Lethe and reach… Purgatory is never mentioned in the bible
and didn’t even exist as a concept until about the year 1100. The idea of prayer for the dead and indulgences
rose out of the invention of Purgatory. You see, the Church oversaw the storehouse
of righteousness, and for a small clerical fee, could help you transfer that to a soul
stuck in Purgatory. Which then led to the Protestant Reformation,
even Martin Luther was against the idea of religious microtransactions. Today, the Catholic Church is a little iffy
as to whether Purgatory is an actual place or just a state of mind. But for several centuries, they accepted Dante’s
version. Which looks like a mountain in the middle
of the ocean, rather than the white nothingness which you see in popular media. This isn’t bad… it’s not that good,
but it’s not that bad. It’s so-so. Where the hell am I? You’re dead, Cody. I’m sorry. This depiction is sometimes referred to as
the “afterlife antechamber” and appears in a lot of movies and tv shows with religious
undertones. We know that Purgatory is in the Eastern hemisphere
rather than the South pole because here, the sun travels directly overhead. If that ever happens at the South pole, something
has gone terribly wrong. Because of that, Dante notices that he casts
a shadow, while everybody else does not. There’s also a strange rule in Purgatory
that you can only make your way up the mountain in sunlight, the sun being symbolic of God’s
divine grace. Purgatory is where souls go to be purged of
the vices and inclinations that cause sin. Hell is more for actions rather than thoughts,
but thoughts can still be sinful, so Purgatory is like a temporary Hell, or Heaven’s waiting
room. Depending on whether you’re a glass half
full or half empty type of person. Purgatory has seven terraces corresponding
to each of the Seven Deadly Sins, with the summit being the Earthly Paradise and the
bottom level being somewhat of a holding area. So nine levels total, Dante has a thing for
the number nine. The first area is known as Ante-Purgatory
and it’s where late-repentants and excommunicates sit around and wait to get into Purgatory
proper. Late-repentants have to wait a lifetime, whereas
excommunicates have to wait thirty lifetimes. Though their sentences can be reduced through
prayers and offerings from the living – so light a candle and get your wallet out. Late-repentants are people who, for one reason
or another, weren’t able to repent before they died or weren’t read their last rites. Excommunicates on the other hand are a bit
tricky. In the Catholic church, excommunication can
vary from just a finger wag to we’ve decided that you’re not going to Heaven… and we’ve
told God about our decision. Dante putting excommunicates here rather than
Hell might be in preparation for what he thinks is coming his way. Dante arrives at the gate to Purgatory and
has 7 P’s carved into his forehead, symbolizing the seven sins he must cleanse himself of
during his trek up the mountain. Peccatum is the latin word for sin. The first terrace is where people purge themselves
of pride, they have to carry large stones around while looking at statues of people
being humble, all while reciting a prayer. Each terrace has their own incantations and
we’re not going to talk about all of them. Like in Hell, he talks to a bunch of people
who want updates on real life and even ask him to deliver messages when he gets back
home. The Angel of Humility comes along and removes
one of the Ps from his forehead so that he can continue up the mountain. The second terrace is for envy, people walk
around in boring grayish cloaks and have their eyes sewn shut so they can’t covet. They have nothing and they learn to want nothing. This terrace is watched over by the Angel
of Charity, presumably so nobody stumbles off the edge, who then removes a P from Dante’s
forehead. Every level, an angel removes a P so he can
move on, I hope that’s established now. Wrath is purged on the third terrace by having
everyone walk through a blinding smoke, symbolic of how they let rage blind them in life. The Angel of Peace comes along and removes
a- The fourth terrace is for sloth, the people
here are so busy running that nobody stops to talk to Dante, because ain’t nobody got
time for that. I don’t know how they’re able to go all
day, I can only make it like twenty or thirty minutes. It’s by far the shortest terrace of the
book, which is fitting, the Angel of Zeal does their thing and Dante moves on. Are you catching on yet? I’ve got things to do, let’s go! Avarice or greed is cleansed in the next terrace
with everyone laying on the ground with their backs to the sky, symbolic of how they turned
their backs on God in life. There’s another pope here, along with a
poet who tells Virgil what a big fan he is. There’s an earthquake while they’re on
this terrace, which lets everybody know that a soul has successfully purged themselves
of sin and is ready for heaven. This terrace is protected by the Angel of
Moderation, which sounds like the most boring angel to be. The sixth terrace is designed to cleanse gluttony,
but to me, just sounds like another circle of hell. People walk around starving with delicious
fruit just out of reach. Dante notices that the shades are starving
and asks Virgil how it’s even possible for shades to be starving… which is an interesting
philosophical question. That Virgil doesn’t have an answer for. The Angel of Temperance is likewise stumped
and urges them on to the next terrace which is for lust. Again, Purgatory is for lustful thoughts,
not actions, acting on lust will send you to the second circle of Hell. People purge themselves of their burning sexual
desires by running back and forth through a wall of fire while being watched over by
the Angel of Chastity which… I take back what I said, that sounds like
the most boring angel to be. And finally, they reach the summit, the Earthly
Paradise or the Garden of Eden, they see a bunch of allegorical representations of things
from the bible, but whatever, that’s not important. What is important is that Virgil can’t go
any further, aww. Being condemned to Limbo for all eternity,
he lacks the divine grace to accompany Dante to Heaven, so instead, Beatrice shows up. Who’s Beatrice? Hah, you don’t know? She’s just some girl that Dante creeped
on a few decades before he wrote this, she’s not an angel, she’s not his wife. Just some girl married to a banker across
the street. It’s somewhat less romantic when you find
that out, but anyway, with his new companion, this painfully slow escort quest continues
towards… The first thing to understand about Dante’s
Heaven is that he actually makes it pretty realistic. Rather than being some other dimension in
the clouds, it’s rooted in science… Well, the accepted science at the time. They travel through nine different spheres,
which could be interpreted as shells around the Earth, or more commonly, the planets. Though, not the planets as you know them,
this is the year 1300 after all. The first three spheres are referred to as
“lesser heaven” and are for people who are deficient in certain righteous qualities. The Moon is first and belongs to the Inconstant. People who, for one reason or another, wavered
in their vows to God, or in some cases, abandoned them completely. The Moon waxes and wanes just as their faith
waxed and waned in life. These people were deficient in fortitude,
but not enough that they don’t get to be in Heaven. It’s still pretty awesome, it’s just not
as awesome. The second sphere is Mercury, for the ambitious,
people deficient in justice, who did good deeds out of a desire for fame rather than
altruism. Just as their glory pales next to God, Mercury
pales in the light of the Sun. Venus is for the lovers, for people who enjoyed
sex just a little too much. They lack discipline… and temperance. I don’t know where the line is between heaven
lust, purgatory lust, and hell lust… is there an acceptable decibel level? A question for the philosophers I suppose. It’s also for people who loved anything
else more than God, like their country… or learning things on Skillshare… what,
too early? Now we move on to actual Heaven, for people
with positive virtues. The fourth sphere houses the exemplars of
prudence, the wise, the philosophers and theologians, the scientists and mathematicians. And they reside on the Sun. Copernicus hadn’t come along yet, so people
still believed in the geo-centric model, the fourth sphere out from the center isn’t
Mars, it’s the Sun. Just as the Sun illuminates the Earth with
light, the wise illuminate the living with knowledge. Mars is the fifth sphere and also happens
to be the Roman god of war, as a result it’s home to the warriors, exemplars of fortitude. Specifically crusaders, granted special passage
by the Pope. So all the Christian soldiers and martyrs
live here, along with a lot of Dante’s family members. That explains why Dante was such a fan. I know I’m not saying much about what these
places are like, because there just isn’t much to say, everyone just dances around or
turns into a ball of light and spells things out in the sky. There’s no punishments, everyone is just
happy. By the way, our modern depictions of angels
in the clouds didn’t come about until the Renaissance. Painters just started putting wings on babies
and then that was it. The next sphere is Jupiter, the Roman king
of the gods and some would say the king of the planets. It also happens to be the home of the rulers,
exemplars of justice. The seventh sphere, Saturn, is home to the
contemplatives, monks and other thinky people who serve as examples of temperance. And that’s it, those were the only known
planets at the time. Once they get here, Beatrice becomes so beautiful
that if she were to smile, Dante’s very soul would be consumed. Apparently, the closer to God she gets, the
more angelic and innocent she becomes. The eighth sphere is where things finally
get interesting and Dante starts to meet some legit celebs. This is for the Church Triumphant, shining
examples of faith, hope, and love. This sphere is made up of all the fixed stars
which rotate around the Earth, all of the constellations and everything. This is reserved for people with beatific
vision, direct communication with God. Here he comes across the Virgin Mary, who
actually plays a huge role in the prayers in Purgatory and the Catholic Church in general. She is the immaculate conception, not Jesus,
because she was the only person born without sin. He also meets Saint Peter, who questions him
on faith and then denounces the current pope, saying that as far as he’s concerned, the
Papal See stands empty. Don’t blame Dante, he’s not the one who
said it. But by far the most interesting person he
speaks to is Adam, the first human ever. He starts to ask him questions, but Adam has
been asked them so many times that Dante doesn’t even have to say them out loud, he just runs
through the FAQ. Like, why did he get kicked out of Eden? Apparently, the original sin wasn’t physically
eating the apple or taking the knowledge it granted, it was trespassing a boundary created
by God. How old is Adam? He was 930 when he died, he spent 4302 years
in Limbo, and at that point, 1266 years in Heaven, so, 6498 years old. So according to Dante, creation was 7217 years
ago in 2019. Dante also asks what language he spoke, which
must have been a big deal at the time. If I only had a limited number of questions
to ask the first human ever, that wouldn’t even make it in the top ten. The answer was Hebrew, but languages change
and die over centuries, his version of Hebrew was dead long before the Tower of Babel, so
just don’t worry about it. Adam really does say that, don’t worry about
it. The ninth sphere is somewhat difficult to
explain, even Dante struggles to find the words. So, here’s the Earth as Dante knew it. Dang, that is a sweet Earth you might say
– Wrong. Because it’s the center of the universe
instead of the Sun and has a weird protuberance coming off the side. But then we pass the lower Heavens – the
Moon, Mercury, and Venus. Followed by the Sun… sigh… then Mars,
Jupiter, and Saturn. Then we pass through the Fixed Stars, which
looks kind of like a celestial globe. And here we are at the ninth sphere – the
Primum Mobile, which is basically the black sphere encasing the entire universe, this
is the event horizon, the border where time and space cease to exist. Once outside, we are in the proper, other-dimensional
Heaven, known as the Empyrean. Things get somewhat abstract here and Dante
sees a giant white rose, which is home to all the souls in Heaven. Including Eve, just in case you were worried,
she’s safe. Beatrice leaves Dante to go pollinate the
rose or whatever and he’s now escorted by Saint Bernard. I would make a dog joke here, but OSP beat
me to it. In the Empyrean Rose, along with all the souls
of heaven, Dante notices millions and millions of babies. Any unbaptized baby from before Jesus and
any baptized and circumcised baby from after Jesus. Dante goes on a rant about how unfair it is
that these innocent babies are given a free ticket to the highest sphere of Heaven, while
virtuous pagans like Virgil sit in Limbo forever. How is that fair to all of the Indians and
Ethiopians who’ve never even heard of Jesus? It’s not like these babies have earned their
place! … to which St. Bernard says: Yeah, sometimes it be like that. And that’s it, there’s no further discussion! Dante goes on a rant about this rule that
he just made up being unfair and then settles it with a one liner about God always being
right. Dante is then enveloped in light so he can
go see God. Who appears as three bright lights in one,
surrounded by nine rings of angels. Each ring representing a different level of
the angelic hierarchy, which again is a story for another time. But just to be clear, people don’t turn
into angels, angels are their own thing. Dante then meets God and struggles to understand
what it is he’s seeing or even put it into words… But you don’t have to struggle to understand
what you’re looking at if you go to skl.sh/knowingbetter6. Skillshare is an online learning community
with over 25,000 courses taught by contemplatives in their sphere. Take this course in creative writing so you
can learn how to structure your own adventures through mythological planes of existence. Who knows, your work might even get canonized
someday. Or this course in backpacking – Dante might
never have gotten lost in the woods if he knew what to bring along. You can learn this, and much more for less
than $10 a month. But if you head over to skl.sh/knowingbetter6,
you can get 2 months of unlimited access to all of Skillshare’s courses for free, you’ll
also be supporting the channel when you do. Dante does eventually figure out what it is
he’s looking at and describes it as best as he can. But your mortal soul isn’t prepared to hear
it. The Divine Comedy is one of the most important
written works in history, so if you want to know how it ends, I guess you’ll just have
to check it out for yourself. Links in the description, for those of you
who are interested. This work of political satire helped sparked
the Protestant Reformation by putting a spotlight on the many abuses and hypocrisies of the
Catholic Church. But over time, the satirical element faded
into the background and we were left with an adventure through Heaven and Hell. It’s worth noting that many Protestants
don’t believe in hell as a physical place and almost none of them believe in Purgatory
at all. But the people who do believe in these places
are heavily influenced by Dante. Dante took Christian doctrine, mixed it with
Greek and Roman mythology, and created his own world in order to criticize the Church. Which eventually became doctrine itself. So the next time somebody tells you that you’re
going to hell, you’ll know exactly which circle and what to expect, because now, you
know better. So what circle or sphere are you headed to? Let me know down in the comments. Would you like to add your name to this list
of lost souls? Head on over to patreon.com/knowingbetter. Don’t forget to canonize that subscribe
button, follow me on twitter and facebook, and join us on the subreddit.
Love the shout out to OSP. I’m a big fan of that channel as well.
This was such a high quality video wow!!!!
That makeup looked great did KB do it himself (or does he have a girlfriend now???)
Seriously though this was an amazing video I was hooked all the way through.
Did you use the Tetris song during the Purgatory section of the video?
Edit: I finished watching the video and it was confirmed in the comment section. So I guess the next time I notice something in a video and think I'm a genius, I'll know better.
Well done, really enjoyed the video, especially as a theology enthusiast myself!
While the Divine Comedy may have had a minor influence on Martin Luther's call for reformation as you said, by far his largest influence comes from a contemporary Dutch author named Erasmus.
If you have the time and want to know how people built upon Dante's framework of Heaven and Hell, check out some of Erasmus' work as it definitely takes heavy cues from Dante. Julius Excluded from Heaven is a great one in particular that involves Pope Julius II threatening to declare war on God if he isn't let into Heaven (a reference to Julius' warmongering during his time as Pope).
What's icing on the cake was that even though Luther cited Erasmus as an influence, Erasmus went to great lengths to distance himself and even refute Luther's teaching.
Senpai didn't notice him, I guess.
Nice “End of Ze World” reference.
One of your best vids yet. Also I might be overthinking it but I have a feeling that you might’ve made a longer video. I love watching them and so does your audience, so don’t be afraid to go into further depth. If that’s not the case, the video was well put together with its duration, and it worked out quite well anyway.
Any chance of a follow up to this?
My understanding was that Auguste Rodin (the sculptor) always carried a copy of Dante's Inferno in his pocket. Sad that he spent so much time creating the unappreciated Gates of Hell (inspired by Dante).
Super surprised at the devilface paint.