After one actually goes to Hell and experiences it -- then I would like to hear them make this statement-- from my research that wouldn't be happening....Dante basically made the Devil the "hero" of his writing The Inferno..."better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven" heroic type statements etc...so I wouldn't use it as proof of what is in fact the reality of things-- Earth is in no way even close …More
After one actually goes to Hell and experiences it -- then I would like to hear them make this statement-- from my research that wouldn't be happening....Dante basically made the Devil the "hero" of his writing The Inferno..."better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven" heroic type statements etc...so I wouldn't use it as proof of what is in fact the reality of things-- Earth is in no way even close to what Hell is....
@Georgia59 "After one actually goes to Hell and experiences it -- " Have you? ;-) I'm curious whether your criticism is based on personal experience or just abstract theory. "Dante basically made the Devil the "hero" of his writing The Inferno." Just one little problem with that... Dante didn't write the "The Inferno". Dante wrote "The Divine Commedy". This is important for several reasons as you …More
"After one actually goes to Hell and experiences it -- "
Have you? ;-) I'm curious whether your criticism is based on personal experience or just abstract theory.
"Dante basically made the Devil the "hero" of his writing The Inferno."
Just one little problem with that... Dante didn't write the "The Inferno". Dante wrote "The Divine Commedy". This is important for several reasons as you will see.
"better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven" heroic type statements etc.
You are confusing Dante Alighieri with John Milton. The quote you cited comes from Milton's "Paradise Lost".
Dante's fictional visit to the lowest circle of Hell occurs in Canto 34 of the Divine Comedy and, while there, the Devil doesn't actually say anything. He has three heads and in his mouths are stuffed the traitors Judas, Brutus and Cassius.
You're correct that Milton tried to make the Devil seem noble, what literature calls an "antihero". But Milton wasn't the author of the quote I gave either.
Now that we've established where the quote didn't come from and who didn't write it, let's discuss where it does come from and who did. :D
"Dante's Inferno" is the title of a movie. Specifically, it's the title of three different movies, one made in 1935 another in 2007 and the last in 2010.
My quote comes from the latter. The screenplay writer was a fellow named Brandon Auman. He's better known for his work on cartoon series like Star Wars: Resistance and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. :D
Mr. Auman's quote, may not be "great literature" but there's some deep truth to his words and they're echoed by the plea we offer to the Blessed Mother in the Salve Regina.
To thee do we cry, Poor banished children of Eve; To thee do we send up our sighs, Mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
The prayer pre-dates Dante Alighieri by several centuries and Auman by nearly a millenium, but the "Valley Of Tears" does evoke the unhappy lands of which they wrote.
