Is there anything I should read before dante's divine comedy except the bible?

Maybe the instruction manual to God of War 2, also House of Leaves

Dante never read Homer through

from homer to aquinas...

Yes, but Dante was a genius, just like ChateauBriand, Victor Hugo, Flaubert, Balzac, Pascal, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Joyce, Musil etc.

They were exceptions, but for we, mere mortals, born without the gift given by God, we have to read extensively and copy those men. Homer is the one above all, the one that gave birth to several literary techniques and the one all of us, ordinary men, should strive to be like.

But OP asked what he had to read to understand Dante, not write like him

You're right, I misread the thread. I'm sorry.

Everyone should read Homer regardless

You should read Dante's first stilnovist poems. It might be considered banal but, the author's evolution from young love poetry (still beautiful btw) to the most important and dense-of-meaning work of western poetry, is quite impressive.

Start with the Greeks.

Aeneid

bare minimum
>iliad and odyssey
>aeneid

would be great if you read
>aristotle
>maybe some other medieval lit like beowulf and augustine
>some aquinas

>iliad and odyssey
But why

For Virgil. They're required reading anyway.

Yeah that's certainly true

Can you read the Aenied before the Odyssey?

>but for we
wtf man i almost believed you

Nobody's stopping you, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Shitty answer desu, does Virgil heavily reference things in the Odyssey?

>Arma virumque cano
The first 2 words reference, respectively, the Iliad and the odyssey

The greeks unironically

Fuck man I just wanna read dante

>Not much is known about Dante's education; he presumably studied at home or in a chapter school attached to a church or monastery in Florence. It is known that he studied Tuscan poetry and that he admired the compositions of the Bolognese poet Guido Guinizelli—whom in Purgatorio XXVI he characterized as his "father"—at a time when the Sicilian school (Scuola poetica Siciliana), a cultural group from Sicily, was becoming known in Tuscany. His interests brought him to discover the Provençal poetry of the troubadours, such as Arnaut Daniel, and the Latin writers of classical antiquity, including Cicero, Ovid and especially Virgil.[8]

Just read it then. A lot will probably go over your head though.
You can always reread it later too when you are better read.

>Homer is the one above all
>not Dostoevsky
You have to go back

I shit you not, I actually have read both of those in my lifetime.

Aeneid, Metamorphosis (he got all the myths from it), Thomas Aquinas, but you may just dive into him head on, there are allusions in the work that are lost in time.

>there Minos stands.
>he sits
Dorè you hack

Also read up on the history of Florence in the 13th century. Like half the people mentioned are Dante's contemporaries he didn't like.

He's at least 3 people high, he could lay and still be standing compared to dante

Don't listen to the imbeciles in this thread. The depth of Dante's poem comes from itself, not from the literature it references. Get a nice edition with a lot of footnotes (Italian editions usually have footnotes that cover half the page) and be aware that there are four levels of interpretation. You should be fine for the most part.

I know, right? I was fully erect until I noticed that.

Just a sign that the chosen one is close at hand, I guess.

>Ovid - Metamorphoses
>Aeneid
Those two along with the bible make up ~80% of what you need, at least on a reference level. Familiarity with the Iliad and the Odyssey help too.

If you get a good edition with copious notes (like Durling or Singleton), not really. Reading Homer, Virgil, La Vita Nuova, Aristotle, Aquinas, and Psalms (you're going to run into the latter three a lot) will help, though.