Inferno (Canto 1-10): Beasts, Values, and Epic form

Because the epic genre is defined by the meter, Inferno is not "officially" an epic. However, I think that Dante, while obviously doing a little bit of Aeneid fan fiction, has significantly different purpose from those of the Homeric and Virgilian epics. Dante opens Inferno more or less in media res, in contrast to the extensive background of family feuds, divine bickering, and fates often provided in epic. Immediately, this points the focus to the individual rather than the city-state. Though of course the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid all generally follow one character, they address a far broader scope and more perspectives than does Inferno. Notably, this is also the first fiction written in first person that we've read, a perspective which in a way serves to combine the story of personal journey, introspection, and discovery of Confessions with the more sensationalist backdrop of a mystical world pulled from Virgil's Aeneid.

An interesting motif that prevails throughout the first ten songs (and I expect through the entire book) is the role of beasts. In Book 1, Dante encounters the leopard, lion, and hound, then later Minos and Cereberus. Out of these, all fulfill the stereotypical characterization of the brutality and inhumanity of beasts. However, they also hold significant and important jobs: Minos delegates souls to the circles of hell, and Cereberus is a guard to one of the circles. The prevalence of unfavorable described creatures holding important roles in the underworld seems to serve two purposes: to echo the dismal, basal state to which the souls have returned and thus to emphasize the horrors of hell (perhaps in a Christian, didactic way), and possibly to pervert the normal social order of the upper world for the sake of making a comment on the condition of the real world at the time of Dante's writing.

It is also notable which characteristics are condemned and which are valued within the paradigm of a Christian as opposed to a Greek underworld. Right before Dante enters the underworld, he says "I myself prepared alone to undergo the battle" (2.4), with "battle" alluding to the Homeric culture of war and accompanying pursuit of glory. Even in a culture so removed from ancient Greece, it is difficult to avoid a little self-glorification: the pursuit of renown, whether in battle or in memorialization through literature (or, as we see here, a conflation of both), seems universally and inescapably human.

In Book 3, the ante-inferno, there is a related condemnation of "those who lived without disgrace and without praise" (3.36). The idea that neutrality in life is unacceptable echos the pursuit of renown, but recasts the homeric idea as an action necessary in avoiding hell. 

I noticed one other interesting development of values in the description of Virgil's fear, when "the poet, who was deathly pale, began" (4.14). This depiction of Virgil's fear and decision to continue anyway brings to mind a definition of bravery that I've heard before (though I can't remember where...probably some children's book): bravery is not the absence of fear, but is persevering despite fear.

On a final note, I think there are some subtle (and some not-so-subtle) parallels to Augustine's Confessions here.  Francesca says "there is no greater sorrow than thinking back upon a happy time in misery" (5.121). This echoes Augustine's discussion in Book 10 about the uniquely human capability to remember emotions without re-experiencing them, or even while experiencing the opposite emotion. Though Augustine marvels at this, in Inferno the ability to lament joys passed compounds souls' misery, casting this human capacity in a less positive light. Another parallel lies in Augustine and Dante's treatment of individuality. Augustine discusses the universal human pursuit of joy in truth, and desire for a happy life, eliminating consideration of individual character in this equation. In Dante's underworld, people are characterized only by the nature of their sins, "the undiscerning life which made them filthy now renders them unrecognizable "(7.53). Dante's underworld physically depicts the loss or absence of individuality that I understand from Augustine to be part of belief in a Christian god.