Pico Della Mirandola's Oration On The Dignity Of Man

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Dante's The Divine Comedy influenced the humanistic movement of the Renaissance by depicting perversions of humanity as evil while depicting perfections of humanity as close to God. Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man takes it a step further and depicts humans of being able to become like God, and this may have been influenced by Dante's ideas about human capability.
Dante depicts the evil side of man in his Inferno, describing various sins people have committed and would be eternally punished for. However, many of these same sins, such as lust, greed, and hypocrisy, are also featured in Purgatorio, where Dante described how these sins can be removed to become more like God, which is implying that humans are capable of achieving and having enough faith to reach God's kingdom. Pico believes that humans are capable of using their God-given gifts in order to reach their maximum potential, which is consistent with Dante's idea that humans …show more content…
Greed is an excessive love for some item, especially money, that is not God. This capacity to love can be redirected to love God in Purgatory. The shades in Purgatory repent by being unable to move or look upwards and are on their way to achieving the highest good, Heaven. One shade described the punishment, "Just as our eyes, attached to worldly goods, would never leave the earth to look above, so Justice, here, has forced them to the ground. Since Avarice quenched all our love of good, without which all our labors were in vain, so here the force of Justice holds us fast" (Dante 302). As their souls are purged of this sin by receiving an equal and opposite punishment, the avaricious souls are redirected towards loving God rather than other goods. Humankind is designed for loving God and, according to Dante, through penance, they are able to become closer to
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