Explain Dante’s use of numbers in the Divine Comedy

Please provide the best answer for the statement.


The ideal response would include the following:
The rhyme scheme of the Divine Comedy is terza rima—an interlocking three-line pattern invented by Dante that goes a/b/a, b/c/b, c/d/c, and so on. Just as Satan has three heads, just as there are three consummate sinners in his jaws, the three-line stanza is part of a numerological pattern in the poem. Each of the three books is composed of 33 cantos, to which Dante has added an introductory canto, for a total of 100—a number signifying perfection. There are nine circles of Hell (three squared), nine circles of penitents in Purgatory, and nine spheres of Heaven.

Art & Culture

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