Biblical Parallels in Canto I

Dante’s Divine Comedy is known for its commentary on and reflection of Medieval Theology.  Inferno, the first book of The Divine Comedy contains many such references.  In my readings of scripture I have noticed many passages that remind me of passages in Inferno, and vice versa.  One such passage is Ephesians 4:17-19: “Having lost all sensitivity, they [the Gentiles] have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.”  This reminds me of Dante’s description of the she-wolf in Canto I, lines 94-99.  He writes, “she has a nature so evil and cruel that her greedy desire is never satisfied, and after feeding she is hungrier than before.”  The she-wolf thus seems to be a personification of the appetite for sin.  The Bible is full of passages that describe the inability of sin to satisfy the soul, despite the pleasure it gives for a moment.  Verses such as Hebrews 11:25 describe the “pleasures” of sin as “fleeting”, and Jesus, in response to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, who had lived life in adultery, said “Everyone who drinks this water [the water in the well] will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.”  Drinking the water from the well in this passage symbolizes satisfying one’s physical cravings.  Physical cravings can only be quenched in the short term (“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.”)  One who lives by “living water” on the other hand, which Christ gives and represents the Holy Spirit “will never thirst”.  The living water satisfies the soul, whereas the “physical water” quenches the fleshly desire for a time, only for it to return again.  The juxtaposition in this passage between physical water and living water is often said to represent the difference between indulging in sin – seeking to fill the soul with sinful pleasure – versus receiving the Holy Spirit, the living water of Christ, which satisfies the soul and quenches  thirst.

With the above scriptures in mind the passage in Inferno comes to life.  After “feeding” the she-wolf is “hungrier than before” and her greedy desire is never satisfied.  One further Biblical parallel for this passage is 2 Peter 2:9-14.  “The unrighteous”, Peter writes, “…and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority… like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed… will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing.  They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime…They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin.  They entice unsteady souls.  They have hearts trained in greed…”  The she-wolf is portrayed in Canto I as an “irrational animal”, a “creature of instinct”, with “greedy [i.e., insatiable] desires”, and will later be destroyed by the greyhound (lines 97-99).

          The parallels continue into lines 100 – 106 as Dante introduces the greyhound, who “shall come” and put an end to the she-wolf (“make her die in pain”).  The greyhound “will feed on neither earth nor pelf, but on wisdom, love, and power…”  In light of the passage from John 4, the greyhound is one that does not live by well-water (it feeds “on neither earth nor pelf”), but rather by “living water” which Dante alludes to with “wisdom, love, and power.”  These three represent the Trinity, which is similar to Jesus’ own meaning of “living water”, which John identifies in John 7:38-39 as the Holy Spirit.  Just as the well-water is a symbol for the things or acts one might consume or engage in to satisfy a craving, so Dante’s “earth” and “pelf” relates to the things or ways in which the she-wolf seeks to satisfy her greed.  The statement that the greyhound will feed "neither on earth nor pelf" seems to come from nowhere, and thus it appears to have a symbolical meaning and imply that the she-wolf does feeds on them.  The "earth nor pelf" juxtaposition with “wisdom, love, and power” (which the greyhound feeds on) is therefore reminiscent of Jesus’ juxtaposition of drinking water in the well with drinking “living water”.  Taking this parallel into account imbues the text with a spiritual meaning and seems to fit the narrative of lines 91-111 very well.  Perhaps Dante even had in mind Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman when he composed this passage.
 
Ephesians 4:17-19
Hebrews 11:25
John 4
2 Peter 2