Pier Della Vigna x Cat o of Utica

two suicides from Dante’s Divine Comedy

Abstract

Through the analysis of two cases of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy (1998): that of Pier Della Vigna (Canto XIII of Hell) and that of Cato of Utica (designated to be guardian of Pur- gatory, Canto I), this study aims to verify in which way and from which philosophic al - theological precepts, the two suicidal char acters are represented by one of the masterpieces of universal liter- ature. In the first case, according to Vittorio Sermonti (2018), the poet agrees with the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest exponent of the period of Scholastic philosophy, in which those who commit suicide betray God, who have granted man the grace to entrust him, in very first instance, his own life. That is why suicides are condemned to soul - body split, in the circle of the violent in the tortuous infernal jungle. In the seco nd, Erich Auerbach (1989) observes that Cato – although suicidal and pagan – was acquitted by Dante, being assigned to Purgatory, be- cause it would bring together all the characteristics capable of making him an extraordinary "fig- ure" of Christ, since his d eath voluntary would be heroic, in choosing martyrdom to rescue Rome from the bondage of Caesar.