The Divine Comedy: Sexuality and the Intellect

The following is a multimedia assignment for my graduate course covering Dante's The Divine Comedy. The narration follows the terza rima, when translated means "third rhyme', first used by Dante. The rhyming scheme follows the following structure:

a, b, a
b, c, b
c, d, c

The topic covers images of sexuality in both the Inferno and Purgatorio as it relates to the relationship between the will and the intellect.

Video Script:

Dante is startled to realize that he is in the Dark Wood of Error.
He gets a glimpse of where he wants to go but all he can do is stare
with no route other than the one beset by three beasts and is left in terror.

The She-Wolf of Incontinence would drive Dante back into the wood in despair.
Virgil, representing Reason, is sent to Dante to show where he’s been,
a much longer route which will lead him through Hell but did not know where.

By way of Hell, Dante is exposed to the sinfulness of sin
which leads him to see it for what it really is, a smell
and twist of beauty, agony, regret, and the tearing of skin

The continual impressions which he received in Hell
drove him further and further from seeing the rust
as if it were gold, no longer worth the mind to dwell

Francesca and her lover Paolo locked in eternal lust
for one another, wrapped in pleasure’s pretext
as they were alive, a betrayal of their marriage trust

Dante encounters the minotaur, a reminder of violence and perversity of sex,
how a woman developed an unnatural lust for a bull to induce
and hiding herself in a wooden cow… I think you know what happened next

Myrrha, in an act of fraud, disguised herself to seduce
her father, obtaining a momentary incestuous thrill
now with madness and thoughts which only insanity could produce

In all these cases the intellect did lead that will
informed by that which seemed the greater in that place
and driven by interior principle and intellective skill

From here Dante is brought to purgatory through divine grace
where he seeks the removal of seven P’s placed upon his head
leaving it all behind and turn from sin without a trace

He dreams of a siren whom appears broken and dead
bending its image accordingly as one great to behold
an allurement of the temptress to reduce him to bread

Once with skin which was pale and terribly cold
blinding now with beauty and seductive look
a woman so divine, more precious than gold

Dante finds himself mesmerized and caught up on her hook
Virgil draws his attention back to his sense
she again became a mangled body all dirty and crook

A heavenly woman stands tall and speaks a word against
heaping ridicule upon the pride of one so vain
thinking one self to be the epitome of lust immense

What we can learn from all these words is plain
We must follow reason as far as the mind will go
in order to keep our intellect from going insane

Don't take a step beyond the path or you will slide down below
into that pit where sin ensnares and the mind will stray
even the blackest night as pitch will begin to glow

What we apprehend as the good will deceive and betray
and our will, craving as it does, the rational appetite
moved towards that very thing, it can be no other way

Our intellect must be informed by what is truly right
to accurately perceive and know the proper greater good
leading our thoughts to a much more pleasant flight

Dante progressed by reason and grace just as he should
Virgil will soon leave him with Beatrice, a glorious lady above
for he had taken Dante as far as he could