Recognition After Death In Dante's Inferno

The answer to the question of mankind’s purpose is centered around a culture’s or individual's personal beliefs. Dante’s The Inferno is one cantiche, or part, of a three-part epic poem called the Divine Comedy, a poem that sends its author on a journey through all three outcomes of what theologists believed to be the afterlife — the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. In The Inferno, Dante follows his poet icon, Virgil, on a journey through the nine realms of Hell to represent the journey from a life filled with sin to finding faith and finding God. The poem spirals through the Inferno, or Hell, proving that many men and women, even those that were once mighty, can fall to the fate of all mankind if they do not live wisely and correctly according

In the third circle of Hell where the gluttonous reside, Dante runs into a Florence-native named Ciacco, who asks him to remind the people on Earth of who he is (lines 88-90). This is an example of how important recognition after death is in the Medieval Age, when The Inferno was created. Recognition after death is seen as an accomplishment, meaning the soul has left an impact on the Earth. Although Ciacco is not remembered in the best of ways, being damned in Hell, he still asks for Dante to mention him on Earth, as if that would lessen his suffering. In my opinion, I believe Christian theologists viewed the souls damned in Hell as still being able to receive prayer, as in their suffering might lessen if someone remembers the good they did on Earth. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enkidu knows that his fate is death after he falls ill. While dying, he begins to grow worried due to the dreams he has of Gilgamesh not saving him from danger as he thought he would. His worry causes him to curse those who love him, like Shamhat, a woman who turned him from a beast into a human, and gave him Gilgamesh. Enkidu then immediately regrets the curses he puts on Shamhat after an unidentified voice, similar to God, explains that Shamhat has given him Gilgamesh, and Gilgamesh, “will have the people of Uruk shed bitter tears for [him once he passes], [and] he will make the pleasure-loving people burdened down for [him]. (lines 99-100).” This is a form of reassurance to calm his fear. Enkidu has lived his life successfully enough to be remembered and honored by someone as great as Gilgamesh, who, at first, only seemed to care about