One of the greatest influencers.

What’s your favorite book? What story most resonates with your soul? It’s very likely you’ve read this book in your native language, correct? Then let me inform you on who you have to thank for that.

Dante Alighieri was a renowned Florentine writer and politician born in the late 13th century, and he revolutionized modern literature thanks to one simple but extremely important fact: he wrote the Divine Comedy in native Italian.

Seems crazy, I know, but historians say that back then, any book written in Latin was instantly considered superior. The issue was that you needed to know Latin, and in a time where less than 20% of the European population were barely literate, the amount of people who read and wrote Latin were far fewer in number. You also needed money to study, and people were very poor back then, so there’s that too.

For Dante, a fervorous Christian, this was pure hypocrisy. He believed that if someone was evil (or not Christian) it was due to the lack of a guidance or knowledge, and nothing else. By writing in Italian, many more individuals would have access to his work and therefore, his message could be easily absorbed and divulged. And as we can clearly see today, it worked. The movement Dante began gained traction in the 14th century and many authors started to follow in his stead and writing their pieces in their own native languages. This caused a boom in literation, allowing the creation of book divulging, stories, tales, now turned accessible and much more popular. And there’s more. The book Dante wrote is also one of the most influential literary artworks in the world! When most people thought of hell as a fiery landscape, with horrid demons delivering terrible punishments in rivers of blood, that’s Dante’s doing.

The first part of his book, called Hell, describes a trip of the author (Dante himself) as he follows Virgil, one of the most famous Roman poets. He describes hell as being made from 9 circles that funnel down into a cone, like a giant crater caused by Lucifer in his downfall to Earth. Each circle contains their own set of punishments, and the deeper you go, the worse it gets. Were you greedy? Well, now you’ll have to spend the rest of eternity being smashed to death by golden boulders. Did you dare read the future? Your head will be twisted backwards, and you’ll be destined to walk an endless desert. Did you kill a dude? Prepare for boiling tar pools as hellish centaurs lob arrows at you if you try to move. Forever.

Just the beginning of Dante’s work influenced countless artists throughout the ages, bands composed songs mentioning sinister depictions of hell, Dante’s doing. Modern cinema’s portrayal of hell, cartoons, even anime. Games, too. Maybe the most renown game would be Dante’s Inferno, ironically, released in 2010 by EA. In the game, you follow Dante, a returning crusader betrayed by God and sent to hell to save the love of his life. But, in contrast, you demolish everything you see in your path.

Author: GabrielGalam

Reviewer and translator: Kallastr