From The New Yorker, January 1998
Contributed by Dennis Looney
Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
A Marine’s letter home, with its frank description of life in “Dante’s inferno.” —Time Magazine, October 6, 2006
“The game revolves around P.I. (Private Investigator) Dante and his one-man devil hunting agency ‘Devil May Cry’, which he runs in hopes of finding and killing the demons that killed his mother. Dante also has a twin brother named Vergil, whom we learn very little about during the course of the game. The story alludes to The Divine Comedy in the game’s areas (roughly resembling and representing inferno, purgatorio, and paradiso) as well as in some of the character names; however it is purely an aesthetic similarity, and indeed the game borrows from a very wide range of sources for inspiration. After a less than proper introduction, a woman named Trish, who bears a striking resemblance to Dante’s mother, convinces Dante to help her defeat Mundus, the Emperor of the Underworld, who is the leading antagonist of the game. The duo then sets off to Mallet Island, where Mundus’s resurrection is about to take place, and where the majority of the game plays out.” [. . .] —Wikipedia
See Also: devilmaycry.com and devilmaycry.org
Contributed by Charlie Russell-Schlesinger (Bowdoin, ’08)
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In Shin Megami Tensi 3 players also encounter the persona Dante from Devil May Cry and reference to the circles of hell.
Contributed by RJ Chatellier (Clemson University ’23)
This Nike ad from a 1983 magazine shows Dante and Virgil in the Infernal circle of the Simonists, browsing for shoes.
Contributed by Dennis Looney
“This is Iced Earth’s heaviest album, but it still retains powerful symphonic sounds and heart-twisting acoustic passages. It also has all sorts of song structures, time changes, and cool stuff packed everywhere. Iced Earth had some long songs on the previous albums, but on this one they show their ability to create a full-fledged epic. ‘Dante’s Inferno’ takes us through the Nine Planes of Hell for sixteen minutes, each plane something new and demonic. This album was written during angry times — and it shows.” —Iced Earth
Lyrics include: “Damned, the wrathful and the vain / Suffer the fifth plain / Cross the river Styx / Heed your crucifix / The muddied corpses cry / Howling to the sky / Reach the other side / Open wide the gate!”
Cited in Loudwire’s “11 Metal Songs Inspired by Dante’s Inferno” by Katie Irizarry (August 15, 2018).
All submissions will be considered for posting. Bibliographic references and scholarly essays are also welcome for consideration.
Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.