Dante's verses: Lust and Truth

It had two claws, hairy to the armpit,

and the back, chest and both sides were

brightly painted with circles and bows.

due branche avea pilose insin l'ascelle;

lo dosso e 'l petto e ambedue le coste

dipinti avea di nodi e di rotelle.

(Inferno XVII, 13–15, translated by Philalethes)

The Divina Commedia was a provocation. Dante had dared to present the sacrosanct facts of faith with the "beautiful lies" of poetry. He claims that it is not enough just to know to believe. The philosophical and theological masters of discourse of his time had to feel hit. This should mean Thomas Aquinas, among others ("the use of images and parables is not appropriate for science [of the Holy Scriptures]", Sum. Theol. 1,1.9). Dante gave Beatrice a damning verdict: "Your school of thought is as far removed from the divine path as the earth is from the highest heaven" (Purg. XXXIII, 85-90). Since her appearance at the end of the purgatory, she has therefore also appeared as a phrasebook: “This is how you have to address your mind, because it can only perceive sensually,what then proves to be worthy of the understanding ”(Par. IV, 40). And just as the hereafter opens up to him, step by step, the future poet of Commedia also reveals step by step the discreet way of speaking - which his world poem has already practiced from the beginning.

The spectacular seventeenth song, the middle of the inferno, sets the scene as an initiation: Virgil takes the belt of his robe from “Dante”, throws it into the mouth of hell and thus brings the monstrous Geryon onto the stage of the place of sin of lies and deceit (the At the start of this series on April 30, FAZ showed a picture of the trio on the front page). Nothing is accidental with Dante. For at second glance it also affects the illusion of art and its cause, the power and superiority of the imagination. Those who think with it are seduced into ruthlessly disregarding the barriers of truth with which the intellect holds them together. But if a world beyond, divine love, heavenly bliss (and their damned faults) could be credibly conveyed to this world,without trusting the iconoclasm of the imagination? But their sinful lust for debauchery? This dilemma is carried out on the basis of the chimerical monster.

It's about fundamentals. Dante depicted his anthropology in "The Beast". The poisonous tail of a scorpion alludes to the sting of the flesh, the libido. If she is let go, her desires penetrate "over mountains, through walls and tanks" and end in hubris. Icarus and Phaeton, who wanted to aim high, brought them down. The head at the other end of the monster, on the other hand, shows the face of a "righteous person" with a sympathetic appearance; human reason, on the other hand, does not seem alien to him. Behind this is a hidden punchline: Dante recognizes the seductive passions as a part of human nature that can no longer be excluded and has to solve the problem of how their contradicting nature - Novalis will say "Dividuum" - can be cleared up in the sense of salvation.

Geryon's appearance is based on this answer. Virgil sets the tone; he had called him. Such offspring of the imagination can evidently be allowed if they are tamed by the - ancient - artistic understanding. Yes, they are absolutely necessary for poets. Because the two psychic world travelers demonstratively take a seat on his back. The seating arrangement is informative: Virgil sits down in front of the tail claw in order to protect “Dante” in front of him with his science from the dangerous attacks of an unleashed imagination. He gives him cultural support so that he can look ahead, to the head of the multifaceted being, to where the imagination should take on reason and humane traits - on the condition, however, that they are overwritten by him in Christian terms.The placement of the two between head and tail, thinking and desire, is a signal: it is poetry that offers the means to bring creatural desire close to moral understanding. Geryon, their guided guide, underlines it in his vivid way. The aerial swimmer transfers the earthly guests from one cliff to another, thereby visually pointing to the transferred manner of speaking, the basis of the "allegoria dei poeti". His body is, moreover, with iridescent markings (The aerial swimmer transfers the earthly guests from one cliff to another, thereby visually pointing to the transferred manner of speaking, the basis of the "allegoria dei poeti". His body is, moreover, with iridescent markings (The aerial swimmer transfers the earthly guests from one cliff to another, thereby visually pointing to the transferred manner of speaking, the basis of the "allegoria dei poeti". His body is, moreover, with iridescent markings (

) embodies the imaginations to which human imagination has access.

Last but not least, does Dante want to make it clear through him: Libido is the true beginning of knowledge, imagination is your way of thinking, images your language, but poetry is the love language of truth that moves the universe?

Much later, the philosopher Wittgenstein will say: "One should actually only write philosophy."

Winfried Wehle

is chairman of the German Dante Society.

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