What was comedic about the Divine Comedy?

As I have said before, one of the ways a stroll is fulfilling, is due to the people you meet along the way. I bumped across @aakriti_j8 , she curates some amazing content at @wordigraphy and is an etymology enthusiast like me. As conversations go, we got to talking about comedy and errors. No, not of the Victorian variety, but that of the being exiled out of Florence and ending up writing the most horrific account of hell and calling it a Comedy kind.
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Dante’s Divine Comedy for starters, is a paragon of what AJ Cronin calls deceptive appearances. The only hilarious thing about his Inferno is how he created the entire thing out of pettiness and, for he was betrayed, decided that the most gruesome punishments (of being nibbled on by a three-headed Satan) was reserved for the poster-boy of treachery – Judas. This is what Aakriti on why it is called a “Comedy”. ⁣
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“So, whosoever said “Tragedy + Time = Comedy”, was not that wrong. Both the words, “tragedy” and “comedy” are derived from the Greek word ‘ode’ meaning ‘song’ or ‘to sing’ (the same “ode” we see in “rhapsody” which literally means “wrapping, or weaving” a song). Other words it spawns are parody, melody and ⁣
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Domenico di Michelino's Dante Illuminating Florence With His Poem.

 

At one point, the word ‘comedy’ even meant a poem’ in Old French. Somewhere around the late 14th century, comedy started to be defined as narrative with a happy ending. Since Dante started with Inferno and ended in Paradise, and had successfully threw shade at everyone who annoyed him, Aristotle, Socrates, Brutus, the works. It was a happy ending. Thus, Comedy. ⁣
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The word “tragedy” on the other hand, is a story that ends unhappily. In literal terms, it means “a goat song” (from Greek “tragos”, meaning goat or buck). Said so because it’s traced to the song performed before rituals, where goats were sacrificed, or to competitions where the "singers competed for a goat as a prize". You’re free to choose what’s sadder.”

Of seeing Red and taming shrews

The colour Red means many things to many people. It signifies luck and fertility in the East. To the Westerners, it is entirely religious, associated with the nobles and the clergy. It was some bad luck of the Church, or just foreshadowing then, that the colour of the robes worn by its celibate elites (Cardinals) was one associated with carnal desires. ⁣
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As with everything etymology though, that’s just the half of it. The actual symbolism that the Church wanted to signify from the Cardinal red, was that of Christ. You see, there was a light pink, flesh-coloured, ever-blooming flower called the “carnation”, named so because “kar-” in PIE literally means “cut”, like a piece of flesh, meat, or like the cut of the carnation flower, which gave it a peculiar shape. This shape resembled a crown, thus, we also got “coronation”. But I digress (yet, am not apologetic for it). ⁣
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The piece of flesh, held great symbolism (His blood and His flesh). It is from here that the concept of incarnation (to be born in the flesh), gets its bearings. So, no wonder the Church wanted etymology on their side. ⁣

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It didn’t turn out too well though, obviously. Soon, the cardinal colour began to be associated more and more with the flesh, rather than “His flesh”. “Carnation” spawned off the word “carnal”. Which meant “human, or related to flesh”. So, a carnal need, was anything but. Someone who couldn’t control such desires, and fed on them, was “carnivorous”. A celebration of this entirely sinful activity which made a lot of people happy, was a “carnival”. The Church didn’t give up though. It continued to push its propaganda that this beautiful word they’d picked up was their own, and anyone who said otherwise would suffer from His “carnage” (a massacre involving cutting or slaughter of flesh). But even then, it didn’t work out. In fact, Carnage to people now, is a cheap red Venom-knockoff, and not some fury that Hell hath not seen. ⁣
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Moral of the story, etymology is no one’s bi– shrew!  I meant shrew. Because you can’t tame it.⁣
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If you want peace, prepare for war

 

Law of the jungle is that what’s beautiful, is dangerous. That wisdom did not come about by itself. From the PIE root “deu-“ sprung about “belle”, which in Latin means a “woman” and my third-favourite Disney princess. The same PIE root also gave rise to “bell-“ which means “war” or “warlike”.

 

 

 

The Romans, in what can only be an epiphany, decided that their deity of war is most definitely a woman, called Bellona. Bellona then went on to lend her name to all things war, including, to “Voldemort’s last, best servant” (Bellatrix Lestrange). Time is divided on the basis of wars, with ante-bellum (before), and post-bellum (after). The rules which governed the conditions which demanded a declaration of war in Rome were called “jus ad bellum” (“ad” means towards, so the rule in place while nations are nearing towards a war, to this day are called so). The code of law in place while the war went on was “jus in bello”. Those with an inclination towards fighting are termed “bellicose”, and those actually, belligerents. A beautiful irony, with the Red Cross picking up on the lingo of the deities of war.

Drop-dead gorgeous

 

If you want to make an animated character look beautiful, you draw them with big, bulging eyes with dilating pupils. But it is a more Italian concept than Japanese. During the 1590s, the city of Florence had recently started promoting prostitution as a way of preventing sodomy (!). the Florentine women used a “trick of trade” to appear “wide-eyed beautiful”, more inviting to the Enlightened bachelors and infidels strutting about the streets. They used a kind of oil in their eyes, extracted from a flower, with the known property of diluting the pupils, and restricting your body’s nervous systems in general. Which means no sweating (so your make up stays on longer), no urination and salivation, and increased heart rate to help with “faking it” with the customers. 

 

 

 

It didn’t take long for people to realise how deadly those side-effects could be. And soon, this oil became famous as the “fair lady poison”. As Italians were, they decided to name it so. And thus the flower was called Belladonna. From “bella-“ (beautiful) and “donna” (woman, as also seen in words like prima donna, and Madonna). Since then this deadly nightshade has found mentions by Shakespeare, macho Elizabeth who rarely took a bath, conniving ophthalmologists, and the Witches Three. Point is, “drop dead gorgeous” is foreshadowing, and the next time somebody tells you that, take the hint and go wash your face or something.