Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
“His original name was going to be Alucard, which is Dracula spelled backward, but it took quite a bit of convincing from Rudolph and the other roommates to deem it an unwise decision. After a few moments debate, they decided to call him Dante, after the famous poet who wrote the Divine Comedy.” –Kathryn Coffey, The Decaturian, February 25, 2019
“Á haustdögum kom út þýðing Einars Thoroddsen á Víti eftir ítalska skáldið Dante Alighieri. Bræðurnir Einar og Jón Thoroddsen ræða um glímuna við að staðfæra Gleðileik Dantes yfir í íslenska ljóðahefð. Verða lesnir kaflar úr Víti og þýðingar úr ýmsum tungumálum bornar saman við frumtexta. Einnig mun Sólveig Thoroddsen leika á ítalska barokkhörpu.
Þýðingin á Víti Dantes er ein sex bóka sem tilnefndar eru til Íslensku þýðingarverðlaunanna sem veitt verða í febrúar næstkomandi. Dómnefndin segir um þýðingu Einars Thoroddsen á Víti Dantes, í ritstjórn Jóns Thoroddsen: ‘Gleðileikurinn guðdómlegi eftir Dante Alighieri er eitt áhrifamesta bókmenntaverk allra tíma. Fyrsti hluti þessa sjöhundruð ára gamla söguljóðs, Víti, birtist nú í fyrsta skipti í heild sinni í bundnu máli á íslensku. Áralöng glíma þýðandans, Einars Thoroddsen, við ítalska rímformið, tersínuháttinn, sem hann setur sér að vinna eftir, er virðingarverð og reynir verulega á þanþol tungumálsins. Þótt þýðandinn beri ætíð virðingu fyrir upprunaverkinu verður þýðingin á köflum gáskafull og fjörug með óvæntum og oft grínaktugum tilvísunum í íslenskan sagnaarf og þjóðsögur.'” —Stofnun Vigdísar Finnbogadóttur í Erlendum Tungumálum, January 29, 2019
“Limbo: Reserved for those who observe the mess that climate science has become, subservient as it is to politics, and wonder whether redemption and a return to a true science-serving path is ever possible.
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“Sixth Circle: Miscreants in the Sixth Circle of Hell should be forced to sit while unable to move or speak and repeatedly watch others being lauded in their place for their work, stolen and used without attribution.” –Anthony Watts, WUWT, December 27, 2012
“While there is debate about the extent to which the Italian writer Dante was exposed to Islamic influences, it is very likely he knew The Book of Mohammed’s Ladder (translated into Castilian, French and Latin), which describes the Prophet’s ascent to heaven. The Divine Comedy, with its account of Dante’s imagined journey from Inferno to Paradise, was following in this tradition.
“Dante very likely heard lectures from Riccoldo da Monte di Monte Croce, a learned Dominican who spent many years studying Arabic in Baghdad before returning to Florence around 1300 and writing about his travels in the lands of Islam. Dante may have criticised Muslim teaching, but he was aware of its vast influence.” —, The Conversation, July 14, 2019
“The contemporary reimagining of the 14th century poem is among the first projects being developed by head of originals Lauren Corrao.
“The Freeform take follows Grace Dante, who thought her life sucked. Between parenting her drug-addict mother and her troubled brother, the twenty-something hero has had to give up all her dreams. Then one day everything changes and her dreams start magically coming true — school, career, love … but the godfather of all this good fortune is the devil himself. And to outwit him, Grace will have to journey through Dante’s Inferno, a contemporary reimagining of the 14th century poem set against the demonic underworld of present-day Los Angeles.” —, The Hollywood Reporter, October 28, 2019
“Allowing for translation, those are the immortal opening lines of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Here, some seven centuries later, are some of Lynn Darling’s opening lines from her new memoir, Out of the Woods: ‘The summer my only child left home for college, I moved from an apartment in New York City, to live alone in a small house at the end of a dirt road in the woods of central Vermont.'” —Maureen Corrigan, Connecticut Public Radio, January 9, 2014
Learn more about Lynn Darling’s 2014 book Out of the Woods here.
“First Circle—The Virtuous Heathens: Those who care strongly about liberty in one particular sphere (e.g. freedom of speech, freedom of religious practice, the drug war, etc.) but don’t care much about it other spheres. These people are infuriating for their lack of general theory underlying their politics, but at least they’ve sorta got the right idea and can make themselves somewhat useful. This circle contains members of the NRA, ACLU & other such single-issue organizations, and is guarded by John Stuart Mill.
“Second Circle—The Lustful: Those who fall madly in love with a dim vision they have of a more egalitarian society and then hastily rush off to elope with it, without giving much thought about just how much promise there really is in the relationship. These people’s hearts are often in the right place but they show a frightening lack of concern for whether or not the policies they endorse are actually likely to accomplish the goals they desire. This circle is filled with innumerable bleeding-hearts and is guarded by Thomas Sowell. [. . .] –Matt McIntosh, The Distributed Republic, June 30, 2007.
Read the full list of the “Libertarian circles of Hell” on the Distributed Republic.
“Hell on Earth: A concept that has fascinated many for millennia, an attempt to place divine punishment on the same plane of existence humans live in. [. . .] Religions across the world speak of portals that connect the living with the dead and the terrible creatures that guard this fiery pit. Where are these gates to Hell?
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“Along the road of Lake Averno in Italy, we find one of the oldest roads that lead to the underworld. Over two thousand years ago, Grotto della Sibilla was once a Roman military tunnel connecting Lake Averno to Lake Lucrino. Here, Aeneas with Sibyl at his side embarked on a journey into Hades.“ —Eduardo Limón, Cultura Colectiva, August 2, 2016
“There, Dante encounters real historical characters such as Cleopatra of Egypt who had two children with Mark Anthony of the Roman Empire, and various personalities in the Greek mythology like Helen, earth’s most beautiful woman, who was married to King Menelaus of Sparta but was abducted by Paris of Troy; and Achilleus, the hero of the Trojan War – all consumed by sexual desires.” — Dr. Jose Mario Bautista Maximiano, Inquirer, August 29, 2019
