The Divine Comedy

<p><em>Inferno</em> begins with Dante lost in a dark wood assailed by beasts he cannot evade and unable to find the straight way to salvation. Conscious that he is ruining himself and that he is falling into a dark place Dante is at last rescued by Virgil and the two of them begin their journey to the underworld. Allegorically the <em>Inferno</em> represents the Christian soul seeing sin for what it really is and the three beasts represent three types of sin: the self-indulgent the violent and the malicious.</p><p><em>The Divine Comedy</em> represents a vision of the afterlife of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14<sup>th</sup> century. The narrative describes Dante's travels through Hell Purgatory and Paradise while allegorically the poem represents the soul's journey towards God. The poem is widely considered to be the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature.</p>