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“The 9 Circles of Hell for Moms”

October 27, 2015 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“My mom-brain has turned to mush! Between my own job and my job as a mom, there’s not much time left in the day to read a book or the newspaper. Even the Singapore Math my son does for first-grade homework confounds me. It’s only a matter of time until I’m not smarter than my fifth-grader.

“In anticipation of my kid learning things that I’ve long since forgotten or never cared about in the first place, I’m trying to brush up on my long division, my algebra and those dreaded classics. Sure, most of my brushing up involves me Googling or Wiki-ing the Cliff’s Notes. But if I were to actually sit down and reread Shakespeare or Chaucer, I’m fairly certain I’d have no time left for feeding and clothing my kids.

“In my studies I came across Dante’s Inferno, which is the beginning of the epic poem Divine Comedy. Inferno, as it turns out, is Italian for ‘hell.’ The 14th-century epic poem tells the story of the writer suffering through the nine circles of hell located within Earth. Kinda sounds like motherhood, no?

“Let’s face it, some parts of motherhood are downright hellish. And while it seems like those sleepless nights with infants or days spent comforting a teething child are hell, they’re not. That’s because those phases end quickly. The real nine circles of hell for moms last longer and make even the most patient woman feel like she is in the middle of an Italian classic.”   –Meredith Gordon, Mom.com (May 14, 2015)

Read the full article here.

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How to Cite

Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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