In Canto IV of the "Inferno", Dante and his guide the Roman poet Virgil have been taken across the River Acheron by Charon the ferryman and have enterd the first circle of Hell, known as "Limbo". Dante is surprised to find there no tormenting demons and only sighs of disappointment rather than screams of agony and despair. Virgil explains the nature of this particular circle. Only baptised Christians, Dante is told, could enter Paradise, and this obviously excludes all those born before the time of Christ (including, of course, Virgil himself), or those living in very remote parts of the world. To inflict torment on such people, when they have themselves lived virtuous lives, would be unjust, so they are spending eternity here. They sigh because they know that Paradise is forever beyond their reach.
To place this idea in context, the "12th century renaissance" had occurred a couple of generations before Dante's time, when educated Europeans had rediscovered the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, via translations from the Arabic in Moslem-ruled Spain, and had been enthralled by what they read. Attempts were made by Thomas Aquinas and others to reconcile Aristotle with Christianity. The poets of ancient Greece and Rome were also read and admired. It seemed impossible to someone like Dante that such great minds should suffer eternal torment for not being Christians when that was obviously an impossibility.
Therefore, Dante creates for us in Limbo a kind of Elysian Fields, where he finds a vast array of figures from classical antiquity, ranging from Plato, Aristotle and Euclid, through Cicero and Julius Caesar to the Homer and the heroes on both sides of the Trojan War. He never appears to wonder whether such famous men could be considered virtuous in their own lives; he merely assumes it!
Interestingly enough, three famous Moslems are included: Avicenna and Averroes, philosophers from Spain, and Saladin. Such men obviously did have the opportunity of choosing Christianity, but The first two were responsible for introducing Aristotle's ideas to western Europe, whereas Saladin was admired for his chivalrous conduct in his wars against the crusaders. It is all rather illogical, but humane.
A plan of Hell. Limbo is the first circle at the top.
The great poets and philosophers in Limbo.
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