ABSTRACT
This chapter reveals the truth of the pilgrim's confident assertion of the human need to live as a citizen on earth. Cities, and the relationships which human beings have with them, provide Dante with a fundamental source of inspiration in his works, and, in particular, in the Commedia, where the city becomes an almost constant point of reference for the poet. The centrality of the notion of the city for Dante is made possible by the plurality of associations which the city carries, and by its polysemous nature as a symbol. Dante carries over into his vision of the afterlife the city's teeming population of thieves and prostitutes, wheeler-dealing nouveaux riches, corrupt clergymen and crooked politicians, saints and philosophers, poets and lovers. Dante carries over into his vision of the afterlife the city's teeming population of thieves and prostitutes, wheeler-dealing nouveaux riches, corrupt clergymen and crooked politicians, saints and philosophers, poets and lovers.
