CENTAURI, MINOTAURI E LA DUALITÀ COSTITUTIVA DEL CITTADINO MODERNO

Abstract

Medieval monastic literature fixed permanently in Western culture the framework that articulates guilt and innocence according to a tripartite structure: it incorporated, between the land of the damned and that of the saved, a place where men can purify themselves and regain their lost innocence. Dante reworks this idea of intermediary space, giving it a new topography and an original meaning. Illuminating this space with the four stars of the cardinal virtues, prudence, fortitude, justice and temperance, he transforms it into the model of an earthly justice different and almost antithetical to the divine.