Well, I've been working on Dante's Inferno for a while, what with my storybook being about Dante and Virgil's adventures through Hell, so I figured why not do this unit to get more background to make writing in my storybook easier! This won't be very long, just cause I want to save my writing for the storybook and storytelling, but there are a couple things I'd like to hit on from the unit!
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One thing you have to realize when dealing with Dante is that he was an extremely knowledgeable writer. All of the characters throughout his writing are either real people, or real legends that would have been popular or at least somewhat known throughout his lifetime. Take Cerberus and Plutus for example. Cerberus is one of the most famous beasts of the underworld, described as a dog with three heads, with a snake's tail and lion's claws. Dante ties all these characters into his epic seamlessly, with not a one seeming out of place.
Pretty impressive depiction of Cerberus
Done by: DeviantArt user GENZOMAN.
Dante also created a new rhyme form when he was writing The Inferno, the first in his series, The Divine Comedy (untranslated as Divina Commedia in Italian). Dante decided to write the entirety in his new form, Terza rima. According to that Wikipedia article, the scheme is as follows: a-b-a, b-c-b, c-d-c, d-e-d. There is no set rhythm, but iambic pentameter is preferred. Pretty interesting stuff!
I attempted to read the 'Divine Comedy' in it's entirety at one point in time and couldn't keep up with it. For one, I don't like to have to think to much when I'm reading (unless it's a scientific article or similar), so having to scratch my head after each stanza was too much for me. I commend you for diving deeper into your research and tackling this beast head-on! It's certainly no easy task.
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