Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Civilization #30 - Dante as the Second Coming of Homer

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Civilization #30 - Dante as the Second Coming of Homer

Okay, good morning, so we finished Dante today, and this will be our last session before the semester breaks. We'll come back in a month and we'll start the second semester. Second semester will be very exciting. We're going to do the Crusades, we're going to do secret societies, we'll do basically the rest of human history. Okay, so before we begin, let's review what we learned last class. The first point is that there are secrets, mysteries, and paradoxes embedded into Dante's divine comedy. And the ultimate secret of the universe is that we are in God and God is in us. And that's the ultimate secret.

And it breaks apart the idea of the Holy Trinity. Remember, the idea of the Holy Trinity is that it's an equation that makes God exclusive from us. And at the end of the Vain Cominy, Dante inserts us back into God, which turns the equation back into a story, a story that we are empowered to write. Okay? And it creates the idea of infinity. The idea behind this, and this goes back to Homer, is for Dante, love is the unifying force of the universe. Remember that God is the force within us that enables us to love and connect with others. And then the imagination is the animating force of the universe.

The more we love, the more we can imagine. and it is our responsibility, it is our legacy, it is our gift that we are able to imagine the universe and continue the work of God. And the prime example of this is, of course, Dante. What inspires Dante to create the universe that is the divine comedy is his love for Beatrice. It is unrecreated. They never got married. They never consummated their love.

In fact, Beatrice died when she was very young. But Dante never forgot about her. And it was this love for Dante, sorry, it was this love for Beatrice that would inspire him to create the divine comedy, which is the greatest literary achievement in human history. And as we discussed, the second point is that the divine comedy, it is historically significant because it becomes an actual blueprint for the Renaissance, for the Protestant Reformation,

and the Senate Revolution. And then you ask yourself, wait a minute here. When I read the Divine Comedy, I don't really understand what's going on. So how did it come to be so historically significant? And the answer is this. The answer is that it is poetry.

And poetry is a unique form of writing. Poetry is meant to be memorized. So the way you learn, the way that you're educated for thousand years in Western history is through the memorization of classical poets. So remember the Greeks, how did they educate themselves? They memorize Homer. The Romans memorized Virgil, and the Italians memorize Dante. And poetry is uniquely designed in order to be memorized.

And so that's the first step. And then the second step is this. Think of poetry as a superfood for the brain. You are what you eat. And your brain thinks the way that. it has consumed information. And so poetry is this extremely dense, nutritious food that the brain will use in order to formulate its understanding of the world. Okay? And what's really interesting is the brain actually works 99% subconsciously, meaning we are not

not consciously aware of what the brain is doing most of the time. And what the brain is doing most of the time is trying to figure out the patterns of the universe. The brain does not like paradoxes. It does not like mysteries. It doesn't like contradictions. So it's always trying to resolve these contradictions in order to formulate a coherent understanding of the world.

That's why paradox is so powerful within the divine comedy. As we discussed last class, the divine comity is full of paradoxes, which force your brain to actually work to resolve these paradoxes. The greatest paradox within the divine comity, as we discussed last class, is the fact that we are within God. And that creates a paradox for the brain to slowly resolve. And once it resolves, it formates a new understanding of the world. And because of that, this new understanding will become the Renaissance brain, the scientific

brain, which will power the rise of modernity. Does that make sense? And so the third point, the most important point is what Dante realized when he wrote the Divine Comedy is that if he used to create a new modern brain, if he has to create a new scientific romantic mind, then his change. true enemy is actually not Augustine. Okay? It is actually Virgil. Because at this time, every educated individual was educated through Virgil. It was Virgil's understanding the world that captured the imagination of the European mind. And so Dante, when he

writes the Divine Comedy, his mission is to supplant Virgil. It is just a plant Virgil. It is to remove Virgil from the brain, the mind of the European. He basically needs to, he basically needs to poetically do surgery. And the way, and so what I'll do is this. First I'll explain the thesis and explain what he's trying to do, and then we'll study the divine comedy to see how he does that. So Dante understands that if Virgil has become the basis of your mind, if the INIAT is the way that people fundamentally understand the world, you cannot go into an open conflict with Virgil because people will just reject you. People will choose their customs, their habits first.

And so if you threaten their habits and customs, then they will see you as a threat. They will reject you. So Dante has to perform surgery on the brain that is nuanced and subtle and sophisticated. Okay? And the way he does that, it's very clever. Dante makes his arch-nemesis Virgil, the hero. of the Divine Comedy. Okay?

Virgil is the guide, the narrator, the protagonist of the Divine Comedy. What happens is that we start off with Dante, the poet, Lost in the Woods. And it's a symbol or metaphor for his midlife crisis. He doesn't know where he's going, he's confused by the world, and suddenly Virgil appears before him

and says, I am Virgil the poet, and I've been sent by the Lady Beattie. by the Lady Beatrice in heaven to guide you through infernal and for purgatory where you will learn the secrets of the universe, where you will learn the truth about the world, and I am your guide. I will tell you the truth. Okay? So right from the start, we learn that Virgil is the hero, the guide. That's the first thing that happens. And the second thing that happens is Dante turns him into an unreliable guide. We will discover that Virgil does not speak the truth.

In fact, Virgil conjures himself all the time. The third thing that will happen is Virgil over time will become displaced by other figures, including Beatrice. So it is one of the greatest literary tricks where Dante's understands Virgil, his ultimate nemesis. And in order to defeat Virgil, he makes Virgil the hero of this epic. Does that make sense?

All right. So it's the idea of the unreliable narrator. All right. So we're going to study some passages from the Divine Comedy to see how Dante does this. And it's very clever. It's almost impossible to spot, unless you recognize what Dante is trying to do. Once I tell you what he's doing it's

known as obvious. But again, if you were to read the divine comedy by yourself, you wouldn't notice it. But again, the brain works subconsciously. The brain will slowly over time pick up these problems with Virgil and construct a new worldview that is anti-Virgil and pro-Dante. That's a trick of the divine comedy. Any questions before I continue? Are we clear? All right. So, Virgil and Dante are now going to explore the infernal, hell.

And they first end up in Limbo. And Limbo is the outer circle of hell. And it's a very nice place. It's not paradise. It's that great. It's still part of hell. But it's a place specifically for virtuous pagans who were born before the time of Jesus. You can only be saved by Jesus if you were baptized into the faith.

And so if, unfortunately, you were born before the time of Jesus, you are put in limbo. And that's where Virgil is. So Virgil explains to Dante, the kindly master. So there are all these encomiums for Virgil. Virgil is the father to Dante. Virgil is the master to Dante. All right? Do you not ask who are the spirits whom you see before you? I have you know before you go ahead. They not sin. These people are virtuous, including himself. These are people who include Plato, Homer, Julius Caesar.

These individuals are virtuous. Though they have merits, that's not enough, because they lack baptism. The fundamental rule of heaven is is you have to be baptized into the faith, the portal of the faith that you embrace. And if they live before Christianity, they did not worship God in fitting ways. And of such spirits, I myself am one. This is why I'm here in limbo. I am as virtuous as can be.

But because I was not baptized in the faith, I am stuck here. Of course, this raises a question, because Dante, has nothing but questions. And Daly asks him this question, is this an iron law of the universe? Or were there exceptions?

So he asked, did any ever go by his own merit or others from this place towards blessedness? Were they able to ascend into heaven based on his or her own individual struggle and merit? And this is what Virgil says. There was only one time in the entire history of the universe when it was possible for people in limbo to ascend into heaven. And that was the death of Jesus Christ.

Remember that he was crucified, then he died before he was resurrected. And then when he died, he ascended into the infernal. And while he was there, he took the most virtuous members of the Bible, who include... Adam Noah Moses Abraham David Israel he took all of them into heaven but that was it okay and that was a rare event right because Jesus God only dies once but that's it all right and so that's what Virgil is saying okay so now that they've been for Limbo what they're going to do is they're going into the inner circles of hell

And the first circle of hell are reserved for those who died, who sin because of love, because of lust. Okay? And what's going to happen is that there's going to be parade of all these souls, these spirits, who are burning in hell because they died for love or lust. They sin out of love. All right. So the first of those about whose history you want to know, my master told us. me once ruled as empress over many nations. Her vice of lust became so customary

that she made license listed in her laws to free her from a scandal she had caused. She is Semiramis, of whom we read that she was needed his wife and his successor. Okay, that's the first person they see. She held the land the Sultan now commands. But now there's a second person. The other spirit killed herself for love, and she betrayed the ashes of Psychiase. The water and Cleopatra follows next. Alright? So this is interesting. What's going to happen is there will be about a thousand spirits

who are parading before Dante and Virgil. And what's interesting is that Virgil names every one of them except this person. The other spirit killed herself for love and she betrayed the ashes of Psychiast. This person, her name is. person her name is Ditto. Who is Ditto? Ditto is from the Inniak, right? She is the later creation of Virgil. This is really interesting because why is

Ditto in the infernal? Because Virgil put her there. And not only does he put her there he does not even bother to acknowledge and name her this is a complete contrast to the relationship between Dante and Beatrice now when you actually read the Inniad what you discover is that there's only one realistic character in the epic and it's stiddle the way that she behaves her love for in the innius it's actually makes her a sympathetic character but it's a love for Innius that causes her to to die okay and so who is Ditto who is Ditto really well if she's a literary creation of Virgil's I can guess we can surmise that Ditto must have existed

and Ditto is someone who possibly could have spited Virgil, right? And that's why Virgil has such venom for her. Right? Remember in the Inaad, Diddle dies by fling herself into a funeral pyre. She burns herself to death. It's a terrible way to die. And she dies driven into madness by love. So you can almost make these argument that you can surmise Virgil really hates this person and she wanted he wanted to punish her for refusing him in real life and this is interesting for us because this goal this is diametrically opposed to what Dante did right Dante loved Beatrice but he could not he could not possess Beatrice so what

he does is he creates the divine comedy so that Beatrice can be in paradise for the rest of her for all of eternity okay this is that much we opposed so right away in the from this we can understand that Dante and Virgil have opposing perspectives on love these are not friends these are enemies all right now let's continue Virgil refuses to name Ditto okay but what Dante will do is is name Diddle. Okay? Those spirits left the ranks where Diddle suffers.

Where Dido suffers. Virgil, you refuse to acknowledge your creation, but I will. Because she deserves our mercy. She deserves our charity and our generosity. So you can see how within the poetry, there's this massive conflict going on between Virgil and Dante. It's all very subtle.

Okay? Okay. Now, they go through Inferno and they end up in Purgatory. Purgatory is this isolated mountain that is the halfway point between Inferno and Paradise. People have to send the Purgatory in order to get into paradise. Okay? And these are the first lines of Purgatory.

I saw a solitary patriarch near me. His aspect worthy of such reverence that even son to father owes no more. This person is Cato. Cato is a Roman patriarch who opposed Julius Caesar, and when Julius Caesar was about to win a civil war, Cato killed himself. He committed suicide rather to submit to Julius Caesar. Now, what's interesting about this is that Cato and Virtue are contemporaries.

They knew each other in Rome. And when they died, they went to limbo, right? What's interesting is this. Where's Cato now? Cato isn't progatory. He's left limbo. He's left inferno. And not only that, but he's become the guardian of progatory.

He's the one who controls access into purgatory. So Virgil is wrong. Remember, Virgil said it's impossible to leave limbo regardless of your merit. And this right away tells us, no, Virgil is not a reliable narrator. Cato has left. Okay? Now, you would imagine that because Cato and Virgil know each other, they're like good friends okay so Virgil so Cato says to Virgil and Donna like

who are you to how are you able to escape from from hell okay and then Virgil says let me do the talking because I know this guy okay we're friends right I do come through my own self there's a lady sent from heaven okay this lady's Beatrice her please let me to help and guide this man But since your will would have a far more full and accurate account of our condition, my will cannot withhold what you request. You want to know why we're here? Let me explain to you why we're here.

This man had yet to see his final evening. He's not dead, but for his folly, little time was left before he did. He was so close to it. He was facing a midlife crisis. As I've told you, I was sent to him for his deliverance. The only road I could have taken was the road I took. I had to take him through hell. And that's why we're here.

I showed him all the people of perdition. Now I intend to show him to him those spirits who in your care, remember Cato is the guardian of purgatory are bent on expiation. So people are here in purgatory in order to absolve themselves of their sins so that they may ascend into heaven. Now, this is what Virgil says to Cato. You know it who in Utica found death for freedom was not bitter. when you left the garb that will be bright on the great day.

So I know who you are, you're Cato. You're the person who killed himself in Uticaa, rather than submit to the tyranny of Julius Caesar. Eternal edicts are not broken for us. This man's alive, and I'm not bound by Minos, but I am from the circle where the chaste eyes of your Marcia, your wife are. I know your wife.

And she still prays to you, oh holy breast, to keep her as your own, for her love then inclined to us. Remember Marcia, your wife. Allow our journey for your seven realms. I shall thank her for kindness you bestow if you would let your name be named below. So what Virgil is doing is Saint-Mecado, listen, you may be the guardian of purgatory.

This is your master of this realm, but I have power in hell. So I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna be nice to your wife Marcia. Right? So give me some face here, man, you know? And this is what Cato says. While I was there within the other world, Marcia so pleased my eyes.

He then replied, each kindness required I satisfied. Now that she dwell beyond the evil river, she has no power to move me any longer. Such was the law decreed when I was freed. So Cato is upset with this. Cato says to Virgil, how dare you bribe me how dare you do this marcia is back in limbo which means she is no longer as pure in my eyes as I used to think if I'm able to ascend into

proletory based on my own merit then so was Marcia and if she's not if she's not able to come with me that mean that means she's not as virtuous as I once thought okay so you can see right away that Virgil is not reliable. He has no authority over Cato. Cato does not respect him, even though they know each other very well. Does that make sense? Again, this is very, very clever.

It's almost impossible to see unless I tell you what's happening. All right. Now the question then is, what makes Virgil so unreliable? What is this problem? And what Dante will reveal to us is it's really Virgil's conception of love. That's the issue. Remember, Virgil is someone who condemn Ditto into hell. And it is Dante who sent Beatrice into heaven.

So these two individuals have radically opposing conceptions of love. So we know what Danty thinks about love, okay? Love is the God force within us that connects us with God and the entire universe. And the more that we love, the more imaginative we will be. So you have to direct this love at someone, but it doesn't really matter that person loves you back. That's not relevant, okay? What's relevant is that you love. So let's look at Virgil's understanding of it.

love the soul which is quick to love to respond to everything that pleases just as soon as beauty wakens it to act okay so the first thing we have to understand is that we are animals with souls that respond to beauty if I see a beautiful woman across the street I stop and I chase her okay that's the first thing he says the apprehension draws an image from a real object and expands upon that object until soul has turned toward it. But then you're like, but you don't know this beautiful woman. And what Virgil says is, what happens next is your imagination will take over and you will turn this woman into a fantasy woman that you can now control. Okay? So let's go back to the example

from last class where you meet this beautiful woman and you say, I want to marry you because you're so beautiful. And she says, I will. if you give me $10 million. Now, if you think about it, she's clearly saying no to you. But it is your imagination that tricks you into believing that as long as you give her $10 million, she will love you.

Her love is something that you can master, and control, and possess. And if so turn, the soul ten said fastedly, then that propensity is love, it's nature that joins a soul in you a new fruit beauty. You must possess her. You will do everything possible in order to possess her. And that's what love is.

You see someone beautiful, you turn her into a fantasy, and then you chase after this fantasy until it's yours. That's what love is. Then, just as flames ascend because the form of fire was fashioned to fly upward toward the stuff to its own spear where it lasts longer. So you can understand that what Virgil uses is a lot of natural imagery, okay? Fire. So these are things beyond our control. Right? We are consumed by our lust and our love for this woman. So does the soul when sees move into longing,

emotion of the spirit, never resting till the beloved thing has made it joyous. We have to possess it. If we don't possess it, then we will be depressed. Now you can plainly see how deeply hidden truth is from scrutinus who would insist that every love is in itself praiseworthy. There's some people who believe that love is beautiful. No, no, no. It depends on who you love, okay? And they are led to error by the matter of love because it may seem always good, but not

each seal is fine, although the wax is. If you love a woman who loves you back, that's fine. But if a woman insists that you go rob a bank for $10 million, then that's bad. All right? Your speech in my own wit that follow it, I answered him, this is Dante, have shown me what love is, but that has filled me with greater doubt. If love's offered to us from about,

and it's the only foot with which soul walks, soul going straight or crooked has no merit. This is a really interesting question. If it is true that when we see someone beautiful, we must have her, then we have no free will. We have no free choice. We're just all animals. And this is what Virgil says.

What reason can see here I can impart, pass that for truth of faith, it's Beatrice alone you must await. Every substantial form at once distinct from matter and conjoined to it and gathers the force that is distinctly its own. A force unknown to us until it acts. It's ever shown except in its effects, just as green boughs displayed the life in plants. So it is true that our soul wants to possess things that are beautiful, okay? That's what love is.

And thus man does not know the source of his intelligence or primal notions and is tending towards desire's primal objects. So we are not aware of the lust within us. We are not aware of how our soul works. Both are in you just as in bees there is the honey making urge. Such primal will, there is no praise. It deserves no blame. We just lust for what is beautiful.

That's just how we are made. Now that all other longings may conform to this first will, there is in you, inborn, the power that counsels, keep of the threshold of your assent. This is the principle of which your merit may be judged for it garners and winnows good and evil longings. So what we can do, our choice, our free will in the matter, is to resist our temptation, to say no.

That's what Augustine would say, right? We just say, no, no, no. Yes, I want her, but it's bad for me, so I will stop myself from doing so. Those researchers who reach the roots of things learn of this inborn freedom, the bequest that, thus, they left onto the world is ethics. Even if we allow necessity as source

for every power that inflames in you, the power to curb that love is still your own. The power to curb that love is still your own. We can resist. We can say no. We can deny our love. There's noble power is what Beatrice means by free will. Therefore, remember it if she should ever speak of it to you.

Okay? So this is the conception of love from Virgil. Does that make sense? Love can be good or it can be bad. It's you. who must decide if it's bad for you then you must resist and so what is stante's response to this argument do you guys remember what what's the response to this okay the response is this the response is if you truly love someone then you only want what's best for that person and so if the person

says to you i will only marry you if you give me 10 million dollars then you know that person doesn't love you you so you turn away from her and says all I care is about is your happiness if you're happier about me then I will leave but I certainly will not degrade you like by thinking that you're only worth ten million dollars to my eyes you're priceless and you you only to go it yourself you think that you're only worth ten million dollars it doesn't make sense okay so love is not about possession It's about respecting the person for who she is. Does that make sense?

All right, so let's continue. So now they're climbing up the mountain of Purgatory. And Purgatory is an isolated mountain. There's a force field around it that protects it from the natural elements. But every now and then, there's an earthquake. entire mountain trembles and the reason why is because a soul without that mountain has cleansed himself or herself of her sins she's absorbed herself of her sins and therefore he or she now has access to heaven and the

heaven celebrate this with with a shake okay with an earthquake so So, Virgil and Don are climbing and they meet a man named Statius, a poet, who has just expedited himself, who just released himself from his sins. And he's so excited because he's going to heaven. All right. And this is what he says. So had the will to climb before, but that will was opposed by longing to do penance as wants to sin instilled by divine justice.

So the people in proletary are those who have committed a sin and they need to do penance before they go to heaven. Now this is really important. Why? Because actually this question. If hell is a place where people go because they've sin and procuratory is a place where people go because they sin, what is the deference? Right?

Okay. And what we will learn is this. this the difference is the question of will people in proletory recognize that they have committed a sin and that they that they must do penance before they go to heaven but they're willing to admit that they've committed a sin and they're willing to do the penance and the penance could be a thousand years it could be one year it doesn't it doesn't matter okay but they're willing to commit themselves to penance how is a place where you go because you we feel

to admit you've committed a sin. You refuse to admit you're wrong. If you refuse to admit you're wrong, you can never do penance. You can never absolve yourself of your sins. And that's the difference. Guys, that's the only difference, okay? In terms of like crime, in terms of sin,

it's the same. But the difference is those in purgatory have committed themselves to redeeming themselves. So let's continue. And I, and this is Stadius, by the way, who have lain in the suffering 500 years. He's been here 500 years, okay?

And more, just now have felt my free will for a better threshold. Thus, you have heard the earthquake and the pious spirits throughout the mountain as they praise the Lord, and may he send them speedily upward. So if you are able to release yourself from your sin, you are now, there's an earthquake, and now you have access to heaven. So did he speak to us, and just as joy is greatest when we quench a greater thirst,

the joy he brought cannot be told in words. Status is the happiest person in the universe at this point, because he has found paradise. And my wise guide, and this is Virgil, I now can see the net impeding you how one sips food and why it quakes here and what makes you all rejoice. And now may it please you to tell me who you were in your own world, may I find why you've lain here for so many centuries tell us who you are okay who are you how are you able to accomplish this in that age when the worthy Titus with help from the highest king avenge the wounds from which the blood that

Judas soul had flowed okay so this is about 70 and this and Titus is the Roman general who attacked Jerusalem sacked it in the show of the temple and the Christians saw this as revenge for the killing of their Savior Jesus. At sufficient fame beyond that spirit replied, I bore the name that lasts the longest and honest most, but faith was not yet mine. So he's shown to explain who he is.

So gentle was the spirit of my verse that Rome drew me, son of tallest, to her, and they were my brow deserved a crown of myrtle. On earth my name is still remember Statius. I sang of Thebes and then of great Achilles. I fell along the way of the world. that lost labor, okay? So he's an epic poet, just like Virgil.

The sparks that warm me, the seeds of my ardor were from the holy fire, the same that gave more than a thousand poets light and flame, okay? So what inspired me is the holy fire. Who is the holy fire? We would thank God, right? Nope, it is Virgil, okay? I speak of the Inniak.

It is Virgil who is the Holy Fire. It is Virgil who is God. When I wrote verse, it was mother to me, it was nursed, my work routed would not weigh an ounce. I was inspired by the Inniad and Virgil to write my poetry. Virgil is the god, the mother, who nursed me. And to have lived on earth when Virgil lived, for that I would extend by one more year the time I owe before my exiles end. I've been in Pergna, for 500 years. But if I had a chance to meet Virgil,

I would stay one more year. That's how Virgil, that's how much I love Virgil. That's how important Virgil is to me. He doesn't know that the person sitting next to him is Virgil, okay? These words made Virgil turn to me and as he turned, his face, his face through silence said, be still, okay? He's like, shut up, man.

I don't want to know who I am. All right? So what's going on here? Well, what's really important for us to understand is that this shows us that Virgil was lying. Virgil told us in the beginning of the divine harmony it was impossible through merit to leave limbo and ascend to paradise. He told us that you have to be baptized in order to get into heaven. Status was not baptized, right? Status is exactly like Virgil.

a Roman epic poet but status is able to ascend to heaven but Virgil is not does that make sense and the reason why status is able to go to heaven is

status wants to okay he's willing to admit there are flaws in his thinking he's willing to admit that his understanding of the world is flawed and he needs to undergo

introspection reflection to improve himself Virgil is not does that make chance all right so let's go to the very last passage and we'll and then we'll end and this is this is Canto 30 and this is when Beatrice is ascending from heaven okay no she's sorry this she's descending from heaven on a chariot and it is and she's beautiful okay and at this point if you're Virgil you might be like, wow, this is my chance to get out of limbo and go to heaven, right? Because Beatrice, who's in heaven, asked me to do her a favor. Guide, Dante, Fu, Inferno, and Proetory.

I've done that, man. Now she owes me. Now here's my chance to say to Beatrice, hey, could you do me a favor and, like, get me into heaven? That's all he has to do, right? That would make sense. Let's see what happens. So this is Beatrice descending from heaven, and Dante is enraptured, okay? He's just completely, she's completely focused on Beatrice.

Within her presence, I had once been used to feeling trembling, wonder. That's the solution, but that was long ago. Still, though my soul, now she was veiled, could not see her directly by way of hidden force that she could move. I felt the mighty power of old love. All right, so it's been decades since he last saw her, but he still feels for her. He's trembling, okay? He's completely enraptured by Beatrice. As soon as that deep force had struck my vision, the power that when I had not yet left,

my boyhood had already transfixed me, I turned around and to my left, just as a little child, afraid off in distress will hurry to his mother anxiously. He's turning around. Who does he want to talk to you? Virgil, right? He's, there are butterflies in his stomach. He's excited, he's trembling. He said, Virgil, Virgil, it's Beatrice. Okay? He sees Virgil as his father. He wants to share his joy with Virgil. All right? And where is Virgil? To say to Virgil, I am left with less than one of my blood that does not tremble. I recognize the signs of the old Virgil, it's Beatrice. I've waited decades for this moment. He wants to share this happiness with Virgil. But Virgil had to prop us of himself, Virgil, the generous father, Virgil, he to whom I gave myself for my salvation, Virgil has run away. At this climax, at this moment when Dante is finally reunited with Beatrice,

The moment that Virgil has completed his quest, Virgil has run away. Okay? He's ran, he's run away. He's disappeared. No one knows where he is. And even our ancient mother lost was not enough to keep my cheeks, though washed with dew, from darkening again with tears. What Donnie wants more than anything else is for Virgil to shift. share his happiness. What he wants more than anything else is for Virgil to ascend to heaven like Dante will. And Virgil's disappear and Dante knows at this point Virgil will never change. Virgil's run away because he refuses to admit he is wrong. You understand? Once Virgil sees the love between

Beatrice and Dante, then Virgil knows his conception of love is wrong. Because never once did Dante possess Beatrice. But never once did Dante stop loving Beatrice. So love is not about possession. It's about trust. It's about faith. That's what love is. And so rather than admit he is wrong and go to heaven, by the way,

Virgil is like, screw this, I'm going back to hell because I'm happy there. I'd rather burn in hell for eternity than admit I'm wrong. Dante, though Virgil is leaving you, do not yet weep, do not weep yet. You'll need your tears for what another sword must yet inflict. Beatrice says to Dante, let him go.

Let him go. You can't save him. You have to save yourself. There's no point in trying to save those who don't want to be saved. It just isn't. And so that this is the last we will see of Virgil. And as you can understand, at this point, in our hearts, we've also learned to let Virgil go. And this means that slowly from our minds, the Inniad will dissipate, will dissolve itself. And we will have a new memory of the divine convalue.

many coming to place which will reshape the way we see the universe okay does that make sense guys is this clear all right any questions about this yeah go ahead no no no no I'm finished yeah yeah yeah no no Yeah, that's right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Okay. So how did Virgil put Dido in hell? Okay. So this goes back to the Inniath, which everyone will have read. If you read the Divine Combinate, you will certainly have read the Inniad. So what happens in the Inniad is that Ineus, Prince of Troy, he's going to Rome to basically found the Roman Empire. That is his divine mission sent to him by the gods. But along the way, he gets shipwrecked on Carthage. And Diddle, who is the queen of Carthage, welcomes him and his people,

and they fall in love. And then they get married, they have sex and all that. But then the gods get angry because they didn't want atheists in Carthage. They want him in Rome. So they sent Mercury, the messenger God, to tell him, hey man, Innius, go to Rome. And Ineus, because he's pious, okay? That's what he's famous for, for being pious. He just basically says, fine, okay? And Diddle, of course, gets very upset. And he warns Ineus, if you leave, I couldn't kill myself. I love you that much. And Ineus is basically like, yeah, go care yourself, okay? So he leaves, and she kills herself. Okay, she basically froze. herself into a I can't remember I think she just stops herself with a sword and then

throws herself off into a fire okay so diddle is dead now on the way to Rome in the end is to go through hell in order to get a prophecy of the founding of Rome and in hell who does he meet he meets diddle and in this is kind of it's awkward for him and he's like hmm I just go say hi okay but the moment he tries to say hi to ditto diddle runs away and what was happening is that in hell not only she burning in the hell but she's lost the power to speak which for the Greeks and the Romans was was even worse than death you've lost the power to speak so that's what

happens in the Inniad and Donne is continuing this idea in the divine comedy he's assumed that if you're if you're reading the divine comedy you've already read the Inniad, which, I mean, again, the Inead is what you have to memorize in school. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. So, yeah. So, in Virgil's cosmology, Ditto has to be in hell because she's a pagan.

And Ineus is there as well. So Ineus is actually limbo, and Ditto is in the first circle of hell. The problem, though, is that Virgil does not acknowledge Diddle. So it's like Virgil wants to block Diddle from his own mind. He's trying to ignore the fact that Ditto is his creation. He feels kind of embarrassed about all this. Does that make sense? Okay.

Did you have any question? Oh yeah, yeah, that's a great question. Where these ideas limbo and purgatory come from? Okay, so what's happening is that Donny is dealing with an entire cosmology of Christian thought. Okay, because throughout Christian history, there have been a lot of problems. One big problem is, let's just say that you're a baby and you are born before the time of Christ, okay? and you die because you're sick okay well that makes no well then according to Christian theology then the baby would burn in hell that's doesn't make any sense right because because it's a baby

he or she is about sin and he got unlucky right so they create this place called limbo for these special cases okay does that make sense right so that that's that's where we're the idea of limbo from And then purgatory is another idea that was created in order to, basically as a middle ground between hell in heaven. Because there are lots of special cases where, okay, this person did some sin and so can't have access to heaven, but the sin doesn't qualify for hell, right? So they created proletory. The genius of Dante is he's basically accessing all this cosmology. And there are different conflicts within this cosmology, right?

And he's created his own cosmology. So before Dante, the idea of Purgatory was not that common. But after Dante, Percretory became a much more common concept in Christian theology. Also, if you actually read the Divine Comedy, it's clear that Dane is drawing a lot of his ideas from Nostasis. So in other words, what's happening is that even though the Catholic Church is trying to impose orthodoxy on the European population, most people are actually resisting, especially the educated elite. They're resisting, and they're creating their own theology in opposition to the Catholic Church. So they all believe in Jesus, but the interpretation of Jesus is different. Okay? So one major difference in the Divine Comedy is that it's orthodoxy that Jesus died for our sins.

But when Beatrice and Donnie talk about Jesus, Beatrice tells Dante, no, Jesus died to awaken us, to educate us, to our own flaws. Because otherwise, we could not look ourselves in the mirror. The death of Jesus was so shocking that it forced us to look ourselves in the mirror. and to see the sin within us. So it was an act of education, it was an act of inspiration rather than an act of redemption. Okay?

That's right. Yeah. The other thing that we didn't really discuss is that at this point in European history, this year about 1,300, right? As Doug says, there's a lot of reflection going on. Like people within the Catholic Church hierarchy understand that Augustine, his theories,

his theology are problematic okay and so what happens is that a new theology named Thomas Aquinas comes it comes and his orthodoxy starts to replace that of Augustine and Aquinas is a much more enlightened much more open-minded individual than Augustine is okay they're basically dealing with two different social malleos when Augustine was around Rome was at the height of power. The Catholic Church was an empire. But obviously a few hundred centuries later, there was the Arabian conquest and there was the Mongolian conquest as well. So there was a lot of more self-reflection going on. And so if you look at the ideas of Thomas Aquinas

and Dante, they align very closely. But what's an important for us to understand is philosophy philosophy is not as effective as poetry. Philosophy is about ideas, and you can debate these ideas. But poetry goes into your subconscious, and it become the building blocks of your psyche. Does that make sense? Because poetry is language. And as we discussed, it was very common back then.

It was actually a great practice. For just people to memorize poetry. They didn't remember, they didn't actually know what they were memorizing. but they just memorize it, and it made them much more fluent in language and much more fluid in thought. Okay, and that's a cultural practice that we no longer do to our detriment, basically. Right? Okay, so are there more questions before we? That's right.

Right, okay. Okay, so the key idea of the Protestant Reformation is that you have direct access to golf. right and how do you access God through the Bible right you don't need a priest to be the middleman because because if there's a if there's a middleman priest also the problems are being created corruption is a huge issue but also orthodoxy and so the idea of the present Reformation is that you can access God through the the Bible itself okay and why that's and what and why you're able to do this that is because God is within you and you're within God and therefore through

self-study you're able to access truth yourself okay so that's a main idea of the process of reformation does that make sense okay and then when we talk about the Second Revolution the main idea of the Second Revolution is the insulization of doubt all right what does that mean it means we encourage you to ask questions we encourage you to debate because that's what God wants and where we get this idea from because in heaven Beasers and Dona are arguing all the time it's divine to ask questions it's divine to doubt it's divine to experiment all right remember the father of the site of revolution is Galileo

where's Galileo from Florence right so Galileo grew up immersed in the divine comedy. All right? These things aren't accidental, okay? Right? All right. Does that make sense? But I will go into these topics and themes

much more specifically next semester. Any more questions? Okay, great. So I will see you guys next semester then.