What prerequisite readings (specific literature) are needed to appreciate all the allusions in The Divine Comedy?

What prerequisite readings (specific literature) are needed to appreciate all the allusions in The Divine Comedy?

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>le '19 year old loser who thinks reading The Divine Comedy will make him a sophisticated, deep, and cultured' man

You'll still be ugly

All wikipedia articles on greek mythology, Illyad, Odysey, Aeneid, the bible....

The Greeks, especially Aristotle.

>all this projecting

>You'll still be ugly

not OP but you are a real little shit and you should just hang yourself off the nearest tree branch

Just pick a good anotated copy and you won't not need a thing. If you need to delve into books before you delve into books, start with Bible, then immediately go to Virgil. He is present as major character, and there are allusions to his work. Second of note are Italian politics with emphasis on Fiorentine Guelph and Ghibelline conflict. Good luck in finding work on that basis. Most connections that we have today come from Boccacios study of Dante. The rest are lost to time.

Dante didn't read Greek. Had only a passing knowledge of them, and even made some errors regarding them in the comedy.

What the fuck is your problem? Do take the advice of not OP and make a world a better place.

Pirate pic related and get the Mark Musa translation which has excellent notes.

Alternatively, take Borges' advice:
>I would like to insist that no one has the right to deprive himself of this pleasure ―the Commedia―of reading it in an open way. Later come the commentaries, the desire to know what each mythological allusion means, to see how Dante took a great line of Virgil and perhaps improved it by translating it. In the beginning we must read the book with the faith of a child, abandoning ourselves to it; then it will accompany us to the end. It has accompanied me for so many years, and I know that as soon as I open it tomorrow I will discover things I did not see before. I know that this book will go on, beyond my waking life, and beyond ours.

Take the redpill. The academia-industrial-complex is jewing you

>Take the redpill. The academia-industrial-complex is jewing you

PLEASE STOP ROLEPLAYING. If you are gonna RP as a poltard at least go their and learn how they speak because you aren't doing a good job mr "redpill" man. Also you aren't funny.

>"go back to /pol/, you bigot!!"

This isn't your hugbox safe-space, sweetheart

What are you doing on this board if you don't read?

Why is it that people from /pol/ sound like parrots. I swear to god that I've read this same post 4 times already.

lmao nigga maybe he just wants to read the book

i have bad days, too, user

s a v a g e
But
>not being an ugly loser
Why are you even in a literature board?
Just go be regular Chad, I would if I wasnt an ugly loser desu

>Borges not being an asshole
What is this?
Anyways, pretty good advice, I would suggest doing the same for any "difficult" work

he isn't from pol he is a notorious lit poster who shitposts as a poltard. All he does is say "take the redpill" even though people don't even really say that.

I don't quite get this reputation of Borges being a dick that I've seen posted around here a few times. What's spurred it on? The fact that some people see his literature as showing off how well read he is?

anime pussy

I don't know about the Musa translation, but if you want notes Hollander is your guy. Also Borges is 100% right.

>All he does is say "take the redpill" even though people don't even really say that.

archive.4plebs.org/pol/search/text/take the redpill/

May as well post the chart guide for anyone interested. Complimentary to you, I'm ignorant of Hollander's edition, but based on the image you're right in theory. Musa notes are very helpful for beginners (speaking from experience), but from the sounds of it not as extensive as Hollander.

and I forgot the chart.

>Dante didn't read greek

He read Nichomachean ethics. And called Aristotle the emperor and pope of ethic

Okay thats not really what I meant. I mean that not every single post a poster makes in a thread is that garbage but this guy just responds with pure retardation and awful parroting.

Yeah, Hollander definitely isn't for beginners. There are sections where he has notes for every other line.

Just out of interest are they footnotes or endnotes?

I've got the ebook version and they're endnotes.

this guy probably fucks

>Dante didn't read Greek. Had only a passing knowledge of them, and even made some errors regarding them in the comedy.

Dante read everything noteworthy that had been written by his time.

that's the explanation I've heard. It's so frustrating, it's like people taunting the hunger artist for being a faker--the precise reason Borges is so enjoyable is that he is so UNPRETENTIOUS.

Pseuds probably smell this and it annoys them so they hate.

I may understand why you'd think that from an American perspective but (as much as I love him) Borges was a contrarian asshole just for laughs.
If you see any interview of him in spanish or know some stories about him you'd understand why we believe that.

Hell, one time someone was praising him for being one of the best writers of the 20th century and he replied along the lines: "so? What can I say? It's been a pretty mediocre century"

What's so assholish about that? I agree with him.

>All this rage and angst

Is it posible to say, that reddit is a better option for actual dicusion on literature?

I mean... yeah. Pretty much, yes.

Just a basic understanding of Christian theology
You'll definitely need annotations because half of the appearances are very specific to Dante's life and virtually unknown in the larger picture of history
So you don't really need to read anything before hand
Just be familiar with Greek mythology and how those myths turned into Roman mythology

Reposting the answer I got when I asked the same question a few days ago:

dante based divine comedy a lot on aquinas, and aquinas was heavily influenced by aristotle, so it would be good to read the greeks, I would say at least iliad, odissey (several references on these 2) some plato and some aristotle. then the essential romans, especially virgil's aeneid (this is a must-read, virgil is actually dante's guide through inferno) and maybe some medieval literature, like beowulf. if you like theology, would be nice to read some augustine, if not just read compendium of summa theologica (its a concise summa, about 300 pages long, written by aquinas himself). of course, would be nice to read the bible too but only if you want to

He said something mean about Lorca.

How big is the complete summa? And was Tomas a spaniard?

Homer
Virgil
The bible