---
title: "Civilization #30:  Dante as the Second Coming of Homer transcript"
description: "Source-synced transcript archive for Civilization #30: Dante as the Second Coming of Homer."
source_title: "Civilization #30:  Dante as the Second Coming of Homer"
published_at: "2025-01-14"
source_class: "episode"
public_url: "https://jianglens.com/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm/transcript/"
markdown_url: "https://jianglens.com/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm/transcript.md"
text_url: "https://jianglens.com/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm/transcript.txt"
source_url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asbKjezwIJM"
data_url: "https://jianglens.com/data/lens/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm.json"
---

# Civilization #30:  Dante as the Second Coming of Homer transcript

- Source: [Civilization #30:  Dante as the Second Coming of Homer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asbKjezwIJM)
- Published: 2025-01-14, day precision
- Human transcript page: [/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm/transcript/](https://jianglens.com/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm/transcript/)
- Episode page: [/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm/](https://jianglens.com/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm/)
- Transcript Markdown: [/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm/transcript.md](https://jianglens.com/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm/transcript.md)
- Transcript text: [/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm/transcript.txt](https://jianglens.com/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm/transcript.txt)
- Episode JSON: [/data/lens/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm.json](https://jianglens.com/data/lens/episodes/predictive-history-asbkjezwijm.json)

## Transcript

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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 gonna do the Crusades, we're gonna 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 Spirit. 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 vine comedy Dante inserts us back into God which turns the equation back into a story a story that

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we are empowered to write okay and it creates the idea of infinity um 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 unrequited they never got married they never consummated their love in fact Beatrice died when she was very young but features died when she was very young but body have no knowledge

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of the I never forgot about her, and 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 Sino -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 very important part of the history of the world. And poetry is a very important part of the world. It is a unique form of writing. Poetry is meant to be memorized. So the way you learn, the way that you're educated for thousands of years in Western history is through the memorization of classical poets.

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So remember the Greeks, how did they educate themselves? They memorized Homer. The Romans memorized Virgil. And the Italians, aliens 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 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

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like mysteries it doesn't like it doesn't like contradictions okay 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 comedy is full of paradoxes which force your brain to constantly work to resolve these paradoxes um the greatest paradox within the divine comedy as we discussed the 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 formulates 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 okay does that make sense so and so the third point the most important point is what dante realized when he wrote the divine comedy is he if is that if he

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has to create a new modern brain if he has to create a new scientific romantic mind then his true enemy is actually not augustine okay it is actually virgil because at this time every educated individual um 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 to remove virgil from the brain the mind of the european he basically needs to he basically needs to um poetically do surgery okay 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 okay so so dante understands that if virgil has become the basis of your mind okay if the iniat um is the way that people find and believe

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understand the world you cannot get go into an open conflict with virgil because people will just reject you right 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 um surgery on the brain that is nuanced and subtle and sophisticated okay the way he does is 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 uh 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

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the lady beatrice in heaven to guide you through inferno 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 contradicts himself all the time and the third thing that will happen is virgil over time will become displaced by other figures including beatrice all right so it is one of the greatest literary tricks where dante understands virgil his ultimate nemesis and in order to defeat virgil he makes virgil the hero of this epic okay does that make sense all right so it's the idea of the unreliable

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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 okay once i tell you what he's doing it's not as obvious but again if you were to read divine comedy by yourself you wouldn't notice it okay but again the brain works subconsciously and the brain will slowly over time pick up these problems with virgil and construct a new world view that is anti uh virgil and pro dante okay that's a trick of the divine comedy any questions before i continue are are we clear all right so all right so virgil and dante are now going to explore in the inferno hell and they first end up in limbo okay and limbo is the outer circle of hell and it's a very nice place it's not paradise it's

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not 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 are 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 okay so virgil explains to uh dante the kindly master okay so there are all these encomiums for virgil virgil is the father to dante virgil is the master to dante all right do do you not ask who are the spirits whom you see before you i have you know before you go ahead do not sin okay these people are virtuous including himself these are people who include plato um homer um julius caesar okay these individuals are virtuous though they have merits that's not enough because they lack baptism okay the fundamental rule of heaven is you have

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to be baptized into the faith the portal of the faith that you embrace and if they live before christianity they do not worship god in fitting ways and of such spirits i myself am one okay 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 okay of course this raises a question because Dante has nothing but questions and Donna asks him this question is this an iron law of the universe or were there exceptions okay 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

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heaven and that was the death of Jesus Christ remember that he was crucified and he was crucified and he was crucified and he was crucified and he was crucified and he died before he was resurrected and then when he died he ascended into the inferno and while he was there he took the most virtuous members of the Bible okay who include Abel 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 alright and so that's what Virgil is saying okay so now that they've been through limbo what they're gonna do is they're going into the inner circles of hell and the first circle of hell are reserved for those who died who sinned because of love because of lust okay and what's gonna happen is that there's gonna be parade of

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all these souls all the gods these spirits who are burning in hell because they died for love or lust they sin out of love all right so um the first of those about whose history you want to know my master told me once ruled as empress over many nations her vice of lust became so customary that she made license elicit in her laws to free her from a scandal she had caused she is semiramis of whom we read that she was nina's wife and his successor okay that's the first person they see she held the land the sultan now commands all right but now there's a second person the other spirit killed herself for love and she betrayed the ashes of psychias the water and cleopatra follows next all right so this is interesting what's going to happen is there'll be a lot of people who are going to be killed by the spirit of

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love and she betrayed the ashes of psychias the water and cleopatra follows next all right so this is interesting what's going to happen is there'll be about there'll 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 psychias this person her name is dido who is dido dido is from the iniat right she is the leader creation of virgin this is really interesting because why is dido in the inferno 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 um when you actually read the Aeneid what you discover is that there's only one realistic character in the epic and it's

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Dido the way that she behaves her love for Aeneas it's actually it actually makes her a sympathetic character but it's her love for Aeneas that causes her to to die okay and so who is Dido who is Dido really well if she's a literary creation of Virgil's I can guess we can surmise that Dido must have existed and Dido was someone who possibly could have spited Virgil right and that's why Virgil has such venom for her right remember in the in the Ad Dido dies by flinging herself into a funeral pyre okay she burns herself to to death it's a terrible way to die and she dies driven into madness by love so you can almost make the 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 pieces go this is time actually opposed

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to what Dante did right Don T lovely actress 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 eternity okay this is that actually 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 name Ditto okay those spirits left the ranks where Ditto suffers where Ditto 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 and it's all very subtle okay okay now they go through inferno and they

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end up in purgatory purgatory is this isolated mountain that is the halfway point between inferno and paradise people have to ascend the purgatory in order to get into paradise okay and this look 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 okay this person is Cato Cato is a Roman patriarch who opposed Julius Caesar and when Julius Julius Caesar was about to win a civil war Cato killed himself he committed suicide rather submit to Julius Caesar now what's interesting about about this is that Cato and Virgil 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 is in purgatory he's left he's left limbo he's left inferno and not only that but he's become the guardian of purgatory he's the one

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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 who are you two 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 did I come through my own self there's a lady sent from heaven okay this lady's Beatrice her pleas led me to help and guide this man but since your will would have a far more full and accurate account of her condition my will cannot withhold what do you request you want to know why we're here let me explain to you

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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 heaven okay 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 okay so people are here in purgatory in order to absolve themselves of their sins so they 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

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bright on the great day so I know who you are your Cato you're the person who killed himself in Utica rather 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 o holy breast to keep her as your own for her love then inclined to us remember my wife 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 saying to Cato listen you may be the guardian of purgatory this is your 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

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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 dwells 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 you're the guardian of purgatory you're the guardian of purgatory you're the guardian of purgatory you're the guardian of purgatory 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 purgatory based on my own merit then so was Marcia and if she's not if she's not able to come with me that means that means she's not

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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 okay does that make sense again this is very very clever it's almost impossible to see unless I tell you what's happening okay all right now the question then is what makes Virgil so unreliable what is his problem and what Donnie will reveal to us is it's really Virgil's conception of love that's the issue okay remember Virgil is someone who condemned Dido into hell and it is Dante who sent Beatrice into heaven okay so these people have these two individuals have radically opposing conceptions of love so let's so we know what Dante thinks about love okay love is the God force is the God force within us that connects us with God and the entire universe and the more

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that we love the more imaginative we will be okay so 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 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

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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 ten million dollars 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 ten million dollars she will love you okay love is something that you can master and control and possess and if so turn the soul ten steadfastedly then that propensity is love it's nature that joins a soul in you anew for beauty okay you must possess her you will do you would do everything possible in order to possess her and that's what love is all right you see someone beautiful you turn her into a fantasy

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and then you chase after this fantasy until it's yours and you become a box with your love and you twist her and she will be out of this world if you love her or 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 okay so you can understand that what Virgil uses is off natural imagery okay fire so these are things beyond 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 a choice we have to process it we don't process it then we will be depressed now you can plainly

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see how deeply hidden truth is from screwness who would insist that every love is in itself praiseworthy okay 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 okay if you love a woman who loves you back that's fine but if a woman insists that you go rob a bank for ten million dollars then that's bad all right your speech in my own with that follow it I answered him this is Dante have shown me what love is but that has filled me with greater doubt if our loves offered to us from about and it's the only foot with which soul walks so going straight or crooked has no merit okay this is really interesting question if it is

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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 past 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 to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and

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gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and gathers to the earth and g both are in you just as in bees there is the honey making urge such primer will there's there's no praise it deserves no blame okay we just lust for what is beautiful that's just how we are made

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now that all other longings may conform to this first will there is in you inborn the power that counsels people 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 okay 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 okay those reasons who reach the roots of things learn of this inborn freedom the bequest that thus they left on to you to the world is ethics okay even though we allow necessity as source for every power that inflames in you the powder curve that love is still your own the power to curb that love is still your own

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we can resist we can say no we can deny our love there's no more 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 okay 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 Dante's response to this argument do you guys remember what's a response to this the response is this 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 then you know that person doesn't love you so you turn away from her and says all I care is about is your happiness if you're happier without me then

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I will leave but I certainly will not degrade you like by thinking that you're only worth $10 million to my eyes you're priceless and you you only degrade yourself if you think that you're only worth $10 million it doesn't make sense okay so love is not about possession it's about respecting the person for who she is okay that doesn't make sense right all right so let's continue so now they're climbing up the mountain of purgatory and purgatory is an isolated mountain okay there's a force field around it I protects it from natural elements But every now and then, there's an earthquake, okay? The entire mountain trembles. And the reason why is because a soul within 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 heavens celebrate this with a shake, okay? With an earthquake. Earthquake. So,

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Virgil and Donna are climbing, and they meet a man named Statius, a poet, who has just expiated himself, okay? Who's 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 one should sin instilled by divine justice. Okay? So, the people in Purgatory, 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, I'll ask you this question. If hell is a place where people go because they've sinned, and Purgatory is a place where people go because they've sinned, what is the difference? Right? Okay. And what we will learn is this. The difference is the question of will. People in Purgatory recognize that they have committed a sin, and that they must do penance before they go to heaven.

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But they're willing to admit that they've committed a sin, and they're willing to do penance. And the penance could be a thousand years. It could be one year. It doesn't matter, okay? But they're willing to commit themselves to penance. Hell is a place where you go because you refuse to admit you've committed a sin. You refuse to admit you're... 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... He has lain in the suffering 500 years. He's been here 500 years, okay?

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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 relieve 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. Stadius 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 words, may I find why you've lain here for so many centuries. Tell us who you are, okay?

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Who are you? How are you able to accomplish this? In that age, when the worthy Titus, with help from the highest king, avenged the wounds from which the blood that Judas sold had flowed. Okay, so this is about 70. And Titus is the Roman general who attacked Jerusalem, sacked it, and destroyed 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 honors most, but faith was not yet mine. So he's trying to explain who he is. So gentle was the spirit of my verse, that Rome drew me, son of Tullus, to her, and there in my brow deserved a crown of myrtle. On earth my name is still remembered, Statius. I sang of Thebes and then of great Achilles. I fell along the way of that last labor.

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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. So what inspired me is the holy fire. Who is the holy fire? We would think God, right? Nope, it is Virgil. I speak of the Iliad. 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 nurse. My work routed would not weigh an ounce. I was inspired by God. I was inspired by the Iliad 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 exile's end. I've been in Purgatory for 500 years. But if I had a chance to meet Virgil, I would stay one more year.

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That's how Virgil, that's how much I love Virgil. That's how much, 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 grew silent and said, be still, okay? He's like, shut up, man. I don't want to know who, who, 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, of the Divine Comedy, it was impossible for Merit to leave Limbo and ascend to Paradise. He told us that you have to be baptized in order to get into Heaven. Statius was not baptized, right? Statius is exactly like Virgil, a Roman epic poet. But Statius is able to ascend to Heaven.

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But Virgil is not. Does that make sense? And the reason why Statius is able to go to Heaven is Statius 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 sense? All right? So let's go to the very last passage 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, 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 through Inferno and Purgatory. I've done that, man.

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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 tremulous, trembling, wonder, dissolution. 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

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me, I turn around and to my left, just as a little child, afraid of in distress, will hurry to his mother anxiously, he's turning around. Who does he want to talk to? Virgil, right? 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 drop of my blood that does not tremble. I recognize the signs of the old flame. Virgil, it's Beatrice. I've waited decades for this moment. He wants to share this happiness with Virgil. But Virgil had deprived us of himself. Virgil, the gentlest 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.

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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 Dante wants more than anything else is for Virgil to share his happiness. What he wants more than anything else is for Virgil to ascend to heaven like Dante will. And Virgil has disappeared. And Dante knows at this point Virgil will never change. Virgil has 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.

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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 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. There just isn't. And so 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 Inead will dissipate, will dissolve itself. And we will have a new memory called the Divine Comedy come into place, which will reshape the way we see it. See the universe. Okay?

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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, no worries, no worries. Yeah.

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That's right. Okay.

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- Video timestamp: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asbKjezwIJM&t=2877s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asbKjezwIJM&t=2877s)

Yeah. Right. Okay. So how did Virgil put Dido in hell? Okay. So this goes back to the Inead, which everyone will have read. If you read the Divine Comedy, you will certainly have read the Inead. So what happens in the Inead is that Aeneas, Prince of Troy, he's going to Rome to basically found the Roman Empire. Okay? That is his divine mission sent to him by the gods. But along the way, he gets shipwrecked on Carthage. And Dido, 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 Aeneas in Carthage. They want him in Rome. Okay? So they sent Mercury, the messenger god, to tell him, hey, man, Aeneas, go to Rome. And Aeneas, because he's pious. Okay? That's what he's famous for, for being pious. He just basically says, fine.

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Okay? And Dido, he's going to Rome. of course, gets very upset. And he warns Aeneas, if you leave, I can only kill myself. I love you that much. And Aeneas is basically like, yeah, go kill yourself. Okay? So he leaves. And she kills herself. Okay? She basically throws herself into a, I can't remember. I think she just stabs herself with a sword. And then throws herself off into a fire. Okay? So, Dido is dead. Now, on the way to Rome, Aeneas has to go through hell in order to get a prophecy of the founding of Rome. And in hell, who does he meet? He meets Dido. And Aeneas 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 Dido, Dido runs away. And what's happening is that in hell, not only is she burning in hell, but she's lost the power to speak.

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Which for the Greeks and the Romans was even worse than death. You've lost the power to speak. So, that's what happens in the Aeneid. And, Darnay is continuing this idea in the Divine Comedy. He's assumed that if you're reading the Divine Comedy, you've already read the Aeneid. Which, I mean, again, the Aeneid is what you have to memorize in school. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. So, so, so yeah. So, in Virgil's cosmology, Dido has to be in hell because she's a Christian. And, Aeneas is there as well. So, Aeneas is actually in limbo and Dido is in the first circle of, of, of hell. The, the problem though is that Virgil does not acknowledge Dido. Okay. So, it's like Virgil wants to block Dido from her own, from his own mind. He, he's trying to ignore the fact that Dido is, is his creation. He, he feels kind of embarrassed about, does that make sense?

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Yeah. Okay. Did you have any questions? Oh yeah. Yeah. That's a great question. Where, where do these ideas limbo and purgatory come from? Okay. So, what's happening is that Darnay 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 without sin and he got unlucky. Right? So, they create this place called limbo for these special cases. Okay. that's where we get the idea of limbo from. And then, purgatory is another idea that was created in order to, basically, as a middle ground between hell and heaven.

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Okay. Because there are lots of special cases where, okay, this person did some sin and so doesn't can't have access to heaven but the sin doesn't qualify for purgatory. So, the genius of Dante is he's basically accessing all this cosmology and like, there are different conflicts within this cosmology. Right? And he's creating his own cosmology. All right. So, before Dante, the idea of purgatory was not that common. But after Dante, purgatory became a much more common concept in Christian theology. All right. Also, what, if you actually read the Divine Comedy, it's clear that Dante is drawing a lot of his ideas from Gnosticism. Okay. 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.

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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 Dante 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. Okay. The death of Jesus was so shocking that it forced us to look ourselves in the mirror and to see the sin within us. Okay. So, it was an act of education, it was an act of inspiration rather than an act of redemption. Okay.

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That's right.

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Yeah. The other thing that we didn't really discuss is that at this point in European history, this year, about 1300, 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 theologian named Thomas Aquinas 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 millennials. When Augustine was around, Rome was at the height of its 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 more self -reflection going on. And so, if you look at the ideas of Thomas Aquinas and Dante, they align very closely.

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But, what's important for us to understand is philosophy is not as effective as poetry. Philosophy is about ideas and you can debate these ideas. But, poetry goes into your subconscious and they become the building blocks of your psyche. Okay. poetry is language. And, as we discussed, it was very common back then. It was actually a great practice for people to memorize poetry. They didn't actually know what they were memorizing but they just memorized 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 any 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 God. Right? And, how do you access God? Through the Bible. Right? You don't need a priest to be the middleman because if there's a middleman priest all sorts of problems are being created.

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Corruption is a huge issue but also orthodoxy. And, so the idea of the Protestant Reformation is that you can access God through the Bible itself. Okay? And, why that's and why you're able to do that is because God is within you and you're within God. And, therefore through self -study, So, that's the main idea of the Protestant Reformation. Does that make sense? Okay. And then, when we talk about the Second Revolution, the main idea of the Second Revolution is the institutionalization of doubt. 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 do we get this idea from? Because, in heaven Peter and Daniel are arguing all the time. It's divine to doubt. It's divine to experiment. All right? Remember, the father of the Second Revolution is Galileo.

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