NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

One of the presenters at the "Primus Circumdedisti Me: Claves de la Primera Globalizacion" conference focused primarily on the life of those who traveled with Magellan on his voyage. What were the things that they ate? How much did they get paid? What were the rules on these ships? What was the hierarchy like? Were captains the lords over these ships and the men like slaves? Or was there some democracy as we see on pirate ships? Much of this presentation I was already familiar with from my own study and even from the numerous pirate based video games that I enjoy playing. But there was one part that I found particularly interesting, about how men passed the time on the voyages, or what they did for fun. Trade voyages to the other side of the world, followed known routes, but still took months and years to complete, the level of ennui on these journeys must have been severe on small ships without may diversions, and a crew too poor and too cramped in to bring much with t

One of my favorite poems is The Divine Comedy by Dante. It contains three sections, Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradisio. They chronicle the tale of someone closely based on the author himself who travels into the bowels of the world, through hell, up to purgatory and finally up into the heavens. He meets a wide range of historical figures along the way and also people from his own time. In one way The Divine Comedy is similar to the "burn book" from the movie Mean Girls. Dante fills his version of hell with all those who hates and can't stand, devising tortures and torments for them. People who wronged him, got in his way, whom he didn't agree with, all end up in one of the suffering circles.  Inferno is generally the most favorite of the three parts because of the vivid and brutal imagery that Dante uses to portray the punishment of sinners. Their is always some irony and some tragedy to where they end up and how they suffer given the sins that put them there. M