Canto IV

Canto IV- Limbo

Ln 34-40: “they did not sin; and if they have merits, it is not enough, because they did not receive baptism, which is the gateway to the faith that you believe. And if they lived before Christianity, they did not adore God as was needful: and of this kind am I myself”.

The word limbo means “edge” and here we have the first circle of hell but not exactly where hell proper and punishments begin. Virgil himself resides here and so does the unbaptized and the virtuous pagans such as Homer, Ovid, Horace, Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato. Virtuous pagans are a concept in Christian theology where it encompasses those who lived a virtuous life before Christ so therefore cannot be considered damned nor saved. Therefore, they are here in Limbo because they could not choose Christ but instead chose human virtue. There is not really a contrapasso here besides the fact that these souls died before they were able to accept Christ into their lives, therefore not being able to repent to be saved. (KD)

Ln: 52-61: “I saw a powerful one come, crowned with a sign of victory. He led forth from here the shade of our first parent, of Abel his son, and that of Noah, of Moses”.

Virgil points out that Christ came down from heaven into Limbo to retrieve a group of destined souls that include Adam, Abel, Noah, Moses, etc. These are souls that you see in the Old Testament of the bible, and I find it interesting that Dante even places them in Limbo in the first place, yet we never see them because they were resurrected. Barolini exclaims that “Dante stands alone in the history of the idea of Limbo in opening this palliative space to virtuous non-Christians: adults of non-Christian faiths” (Barolini, 4.4). This goes again into what I was saying about Dante’s critical analysis of the Inferno. He takes a lot from historical and Christian references, but he also creates his own realm and way of thinking in which cannot be traced back anywhere historically. (KD)

“We came to the foot of a noble castle, seven times encircled by high walls, defended all around by a lovely little stream… we came into a meadow of fresh green” (4.106-111, 75-76)

To describe the Elysian Fields, Dante calls to mind a locus amoenus, a literary topos depicting a pleasant place with at least a tree, a meadow, and a stream (Curtius 195). Descriptions such as “lovely little stream” and “meadow of fresh green” pose a stark contrast to what the pilgrim will find within hell-proper. The illustrious pagans are given by Dante their own version of an afterlife, and though it is within Christian limbo, its almost arcadian depiction signals Dante’s reverence for the ancient poets. (MC)

"Therefore we drew to one side, to a place open, bright, and high, whence all of them could be seen. There opposite, on the bright green grass, all the great spirits were shown to me, so that I am still exalted within myself at the sight." (IV.115-120)

This section of Limbo closely resembles the Underworld described by Virgil in the sixth book of the Aeneid. In Virgil's poem, Aeneas meets with his father in a sprawling green meadow. His father points out a multitude of souls that he says will be reborn as Aeneas' ancestors and help found Rome in the future. (CV)

“Whom I recognized Hector and Aeneas” (4.122, 130)

Aeneas is a Trojan hero from Greek and Roman Mythology. Aeneas is the product of Aphrodite, a Greek goddess, and Anchises, a mortal cattle farmer. Aeneas is mentioned in Homer’s The Iliad, but his story is written further in Virgil’s The Aeneid. Aeneas is one of few remaining Trojans who was not enslaved or killed. (MB)

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