ABSTRACT
The journey accordng to Dante’s poem would not have begun untl the next stage, when the vstor would walk from the courtyard nto the shade of the hall of a hundred columns – a representaton of the ‘dark wood’ n whch Dante finds hmself at the begnnng of hs poem (see the quotaton at the begnnng of ths analyss) and of the poem’s one hundred cantos. Terragn’s archtecture, although ‘modern’ n ts lack of ornament, s replete wth references to ancent archtectures. The labyrnth entrance may be a reference to that at the Necromanteon n western Greece (5, see Analysing Architecture, 3rd edton, page 214). The columned hall s remnscent of both the Egyptan hypostyle hall and of the Greek Telesteron (hall of the mysteres) at Eleuss (6 and 7, see Analysing Architecture, 3rd edton, page 175). The columned hall was lt through narrow gaps n the floor of Paradse above, dvded nto squares each supported by one of the ‘canto’ columns. It would have made a geometrc verson of sunlght filterng through a dense canopy of leaves.
