# The Divine Comedy — Character guide

> Key figures in The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

- [Dante Alighieri](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/dante_alighieri.md): Dante is the pilgrim and narrator, a middle-aged exile with a poet's ambition and a sinner's need for grace. Terrified and self-doubting at the outset, he depends on guides he cannot always understand and on a love he ca
- [Virgil](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/virgil.md): Virgil is Dante's master and guide, the voice of human reason at its noblest, and a shade who will never enter the heaven he describes. He commands demons, rebukes Dante's fear, and answers almost every question with pat
- [Beatrice](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/beatrice.md): Beatrice is the woman Dante loved on earth and lost, transformed into a guide whose beauty increases with every heaven she ascends. She rebukes his straying, commands his repentance, and then smiles him upward past the l
- [Jesus Christ](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/jesus_christ.md): Christ never appears as a speaking character, yet he is the axis on which the whole Comedy turns: the reason Beatrice can descend, the reason a sinner can climb, the name on which every oath and every hope rests. Virgil 
- [St. Francis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/st_francis.md): Founder of the Franciscan order, praised in the Sphere of the Sun.
- [Thomas Aquinas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/thomas_aquinas.md): Dominican theologian who appears in the Heaven of the Sun.
- [Pope Boniface VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/pope_boniface_viii.md): Corrupt pope condemned in Hell for simony.
- [Count Ugolino](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/count_ugolino.md): Traitor frozen in Cocytus, who gnaws on Archbishop Ruggieri's skull.
- [Corso Donati](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/corso_donati.md): Florentine political leader, mentioned in Purgatory.
- [Sordello](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/sordello.md): Sordello appears in Purgatory among the late-repentant, and his sudden, fierce embrace of Virgil on hearing the word 'Mantua' becomes the poem's great rebuke of Italy's warring cities. He is proud, affectionate, and quic
- [St. Peter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/st_peter.md): Keeper of the keys to Heaven, examines Dante on faith.
- [Constantine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/constantine.md): Roman emperor whose Donation is criticized in the poem.
- [Cacciaguida](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/cacciaguida.md): Cacciaguida is the one ancestor Dante meets face to face, a knight of the old Florence who speaks in a dialect already archaic and boasts of a city still pure. He answers Dante's questions about his lineage and the decli
- [Farinata degli Uberti](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/farinata_degli_uberti.md): Ghibelline leader who rises from a tomb in Hell.
- [Ciacco](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/ciacco.md): Florentine glutton who prophesies future strife in Hell.
- [Brunetto Latini](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/brunetto_latini.md): Dante's former teacher, punished among the sodomites in Hell.
- [Francesca da Rimini](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/francesca_da_rimini.md): Lover condemned to the second circle for adultery.
- [Ulysses](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/ulysses.md): Greek hero who recounts his final voyage in the eighth circle.
- [Pope Nicholas III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/pope_nicholas_iii.md): Simoniac pope punished head-down in a hole in Hell.
- [St. Bernard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/st_bernard.md): Bernard belongs to the great chain of contemplatives whose burning love for the divine outruns mere doctrine, and in the poem's final cantos he replaces Virgil and Beatrice as Dante's last guide. His devotion is so total
- [Piccarda Donati](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/piccarda_donati.md): Blessed soul in the Heaven of the Moon, explains lesser vows.
- [Justinian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/justinian.md): Byzantine emperor who recounts Roman history in the Heaven of Mercury.
- [Statius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/statius.md): Statius is the Latin epic poet of the Thebaid who, in Dante's imagining, was secretly baptized and thus saved, though his hidden faith kept him circling Purgatory for centuries. When he finally joins the two travelers he
- [Matilda](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/matilda.md): Lady who prepares Dante for ascent to Paradise in the Earthly Paradise.
- [Forese Donati](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/forese_donati.md): Dante's friend, purging gluttony on the terrace of Purgatory.
- [Guido Guinizzelli](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/guido_guinizzelli.md): Poet purging lust, hailed as father of the dolce stil novo.
- [Arnaut Daniel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/arno_daniel.md): Provencal poet purging lust in Purgatory.
- [Peter Damiano](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/peter_damiano.md): Monk and cardinal who appears in the Heaven of Saturn.
- [Benvenuto da Imola](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/benvenuto_da_imola.md): Early commentator on the Divine Comedy.
- [Charles Martel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/charles_martel.md): Crowned prince of Hungary who appears in the Heaven of Venus.
- [Folco of Marseille](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/folco_of_marseille.md): Troubadour turned bishop, appears in the Heaven of Venus.
- [Cunizza da Romano](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/cunizza_da_romano.md): Blessed soul in the Heaven of Venus, sister of Ezzelino.
- [Solomon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/solomon.md): Biblical king who speaks on the resurrection in the Heaven of the Sun.
- [Hugh of St. Victor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/hugh_of_st_victor.md): Mystical theologian, appears in the Heaven of the Sun.
- [David](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/david.md): Biblical king and psalmist, appears in the Heaven of Mars.
- [Judas Maccabeus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/judas_maccabeus.md): Jewish warrior, appears in the Heaven of Mars.
- [Charlemagne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/charlemagne.md): Holy Roman Emperor, appears in the Heaven of Mars.
- [Godfrey of Bouillon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/godfrey_of_bouillon.md): Crusader leader, appears in the Heaven of Mars.
- [Trajan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/trajan.md): Roman emperor saved by Gregory's prayers, appears in the Heaven of Jupiter.
- [Ripheus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/ripheus.md): Trojan hero saved by grace, appears in the Heaven of Jupiter.
- [Peter the Sinner](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/peter_the_sinner.md): Benedictine monk, appears in the Heaven of Saturn.
- [St. Benedict](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/st_benedict.md): Founder of Western monasticism, appears in the Heaven of Saturn.
- [Romualdus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/romualdus.md): Hermit and founder of Camaldolese order, appears in the Heaven of Saturn.
- [St. John the Evangelist](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/st_john_the_evangelist.md): Examines Dante on charity in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars.
- [Adam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/adam.md): First man, appears in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars.
- [The Virgin Mary](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/the_virgin_mary.md): Mary stands at the summit of the poem's hierarchy of intercession, the figure whose compassion sets in motion the whole journey from the dark wood to the empyrean. Where other characters argue and explain, she acts throu
- [St. Lucia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/st_lucia.md): Saint who aids Dante's journey, sending Beatrice to Virgil.
- [Cato of Utica](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/cato_of_utica.md): Guardian of Purgatory's shore, a symbol of moral freedom.
- [Casella](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/casella.md): Musician friend of Dante who sings on the shore of Purgatory.
- [Belacqua](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/belacqua.md): Lazy friend of Dante, purging in Ante-Purgatory.
- [Jacopo Rusticucci](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_divine_comedy_se/characters/jacopo_rusticucci.md): Florentine sodomite encountered in the seventh circle of Hell.

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