I found the tales of Cu Chullain to be fascinating and enjoyable to read, despite the way that his violence is glorified and revered. He is portrayed as the ultimate Irish hero, with Herculean strength and the reckless courage of Achilles, indeed like Hercules and Achilles his name and reputation inspires fear in his enemies. It’s hard to believe so many of his courageous feats were accomplished while he was only a child, including impregnating the fierce Scottish warrior Aife.
In my opinion many of Cu Chullain’s endeavours can be defined as heroic, he rescues his friend, King Conchobor from the battle against Eogan Mac Durthact (Kinsella, 80), singlehandedly defends the woman, and men in pangs against the twenty seven marauders from Faichi with only sticks and stones (Kinsella, 81) and after killing the hound in self-defence at the feast of Conchobor, offers to stand in its place and protect Culann, which is how he came to be known as Cu Chullain, the hound of Culann(Kinsella, 83).
From an early age he displayed his strength and fearlessness, challenging three times fifty boys on the fields of Emain and defeating them with nothing but a shield made of sticks. This was presumably where he first experienced Riastrad or Warp-Spasm, a hulk like rage (Kinsella,77).
With so many incredible feats already accomplished he continues to seek fame and glory, perhaps out of Narcissism and no doubt fuelled by his Godlike strength. One day while the Druid Cathbad was teaching his students druid lore, he overhears Cathbad say, “If a warrior took up arms for the first time that day, their name would endure in Ireland as a word signifying great acts, and stories about him would last forever” (Kinsella,83-84). Upon hearing this he tricks Conchobor into giving him his weapons and thus fulfilling the druids prophecy, though Cathbad warns him that while he may achieve greatness, his life would be short, to which he replies ‘If I achieve fame I am content, though I only had one day on Earth.” (Kinsella, 85) While all of this behaviour could be described as narcissistic, I think it is rooted in his sense of servitude and desire to protect and honor his King and countrymen, perhaps he felt he alone could defeat all of their enemies.
He showed other acts of heroism too in my opinion, despite his great strength, speed and skill he also showed mercy at times. Once in surrendering to his exiled former foster father Fergus if he would agree to do the same at time of Cu Chullain’s choosing. He repeated this again with his foster brother Ferbaeth, whom was sent by Medb to meet Cu Chullain in battle. Cu Chullain begged him not to fight him, ultimately Ferbaeth chose to honor Medb’s request and forsake foster-brotherhood with Cu Chullain, leading to his death.(Kinsella, 128-130).
Ultimately, like so many mythological heroes before and after him , I think his pride and arrogance lead to his downfall. He had made so many enemies in his short life, who all conspired against him to relieve him of his spears, knowing this was the best and perhaps only way to kill him. Three times in a display of arrogance he gave up a spear by slaying one of Medb’s satirists (Kinsella, 126). Elsewhere, Cu Chullain lost some of strength after being forced to break his geas after being forced to choose between being inhospitable to a woman or eating dogs meat. In his last battle he spies Morrigan, whom had earlier prophesied about his early death, charging into battle he was poetically slain by his own spear.
Works Cited
Kinsella, Thomas. The Táin: From the Irish Epic Táin Bó Cuailnge. Oxford University Press, 2002.
Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell.
In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.
God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.
Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.
To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.
References
Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.
Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
