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Posted by Virgil on May 28, 19100 at 09:40:28:
In Reply to: ? aboot dante's infernal inferno posted by chessyrecat on May 27, 19100 at 04:30:25:
Actually ... Dante's devil (which the poet calls Dis) actually has only one head ... but he does have three faces, and each one is a different color: red, yellow, and black.
Three is a magical number for Dante, and much of the DIVINE COMEDY utilizes threes in interesting ways. So it shouldn't surprise us that the ugly devil (who was once the most beautiful of creatures) has three faces ... three times as ugly, is one way to look at it. Most Dante authorities (and I am not one! though I agree with them here) agree that the three faces of Dis represent a perversion of the Holy Trinity (the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost -- the three persons in one God idea of Catholicism). This makes a great deal of sense. The three faces are also, as Dorothy L. Sayers (a Dante scholar and translator) suggests, "...undoubtedly, a blasphemous anti-type of the Blessed Trinity: Hatred, Ignorance, Impotence against Love, Wisdom, Power."
Sayers also comments on the three colors: "The three faces, red, yellow, and black, are thought to suggest Satan's dominion over the three races of the world: the red, the European (the race of Japhet); the yellow, the Asiatic (the race of Shem); the black, the African (the race of Ham)." This particular explanation may prove a bit unpopular amongst some in today's politically correct world, but in Dante's day it could have made perfect sense, especially to a hard-core Medieval Christian.
In any case, though numerous interpretations of the three faces exist, as translator John Ciardi suggests: "What is essential to all explanations is that they be seen as perversions of the qualities of the Trinity." Good enough?
Hey ... keep looking at the stars!