THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2021

Online Event in English via Zoom

at 6:30 pm PST

From Orpheus & Eurydice, Virgil’s Aristaeus, Ovid’s Metamorphoses up to Homer’s Odyssey & to the over 50 other different versions of the journey of a man through the three Realms – Inferno, Purgatory & Paradise (including Bonvesin de la Riva’s Libro delle Tre Scritture) – the myth of a man who has to face an initiating and painful mystical travel in the afterlife is a recurring theme in the entire Western literature.

 

Dante was the first writer to depict human beings as the products of a specific time, place & circumstance as opposed to mythic archetypes or a collection of vices and virtues: therefore it could be rightly said that Dante has actually started all the modern fiction. 

From that assumption comes the everlasting charm & the evergreen appeal of the adventures of Dante’s journey as a still powerful magnet that can everlastingly gain an incredible interest all over the world: from popular videogames (Dante’s Inferno) to cartoons & movies… the journey of a hero in Hell is still the most wonderful, modern & relevant story to be told.

 

Homer’s Odyssey (750 BC), Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (1320 AD) & Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979 AD) are more tightly connected than what we think: the concept of “νόστος” (nostos) that together with “ἄλγος” (algos) creates the sense of “nostalgia” or the unspeakable longing to an ideal & primeval place, the travel through our own fears & inner monsters as an initiating passage to a different level of knowledge & conscience, the tale of our earthly journey with all its madness, its pain and its pleasure… those are the key, immortal elements that keep the human’s Western narrative fatally tied to the concept of infinite journey.

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Admission: FREE for Dante Society's members - $10 fee for non-members

Become a member! Annual membership: $30.00 – See membership benefits here

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To register and receive the Zoom link: RSVP here

To make your donation via e-transfer email to: info@dantesocietybc.ca