History
Crusades
Beatrice was Dante's fiance, who waited for him to return home from his services during the Crusades. Before Dante was summoned to join the third crusade, she gave herself to him but Dante was forced to join the crusades so she asked him to protect her brother Francesco who also joined Dante in the Crusades, and gave him her cross. While Dante was fighting in the crusades, Beatrice made a bet with Lucifer, if Dante kept his promise during the Crusades, Lucifer would ensure that he return home safely, but if Dante slept with another woman, she would have to give her soul to Lucifer.
But while Dante was gone, he slept with a Slave Girl offering him "comfort" in exchange to be free, making Beatrice lose the bet and was sent to hell to be married to Lucifer. About three years later, Dante's father, Alighiero, had given up hope on his son and tried to persuade Beatrice into believing it as well, in the hope that she will sleep with him, but before he can get his chance, the slave girl's "brother" breaks into the house. Dante's father and the man began to have a sword fight that ends with his father getting stabbed in his right eye by the golden cross he wore. Beatrice tries to escape but she is also killed when the man throws Alighiero's sword at her, impaling her in the chest. He pulls out the sword from behind, making her fall, then stabs her once more and reveals he is actually the slave girl's husband, not her brother. Beatrice dies only minutes before Dante arrives to see her and her spirit is taken away by Lucifer himself. Beatrice is taken to a church where she is put on a pedestal and covered in a holy energy. She is found moaning as if sexually assaulted, and asks why Dante broke his promise, much to his confusion. She disappears again, leaving a crucifix-shaped patch of holy energy for Dante's cross to absorb.
Nine Circles of Hell
When Beatrice arrives in Hell she asks Virgil to help Dante try to save her, which he does. Beatrice is seen before Dante as he arrives in Acheron; she is dressed in all red and blood is streaming down her face. She told Dante that she belonged to him and was soon taken away by Lucifer. When Dante enters the second floor of the Lust Tower, Beatrice is seen again briefly in a devil-like dress wearing make-up, sitting on a bed, and is lifted up to the top of the Tower. Before Dante fights with Marc Antony, Beatrice is seen again sitting on the same bed with Lucifer. Beatrice asks Dante to look into her eyes and saw how Dante broke his promise and is pulled down by Lucifer and they disappear. She is seen again with Lucifer during Dante's battle with Phlegyas, asking why Dante broke his promise. After Dante finished his fight with Phlegyas, she told him that when he had his way that girl, he gave her to Lucifer. After Lucifer thanked Dante, he gives Beatrice a pomegranate which turns into three seeds. Though Dante begs her not to eat them, she eats them against his will, and is transformed into a demonic creature looking almost nothing like her former self. Lucifer and Beatrice proceed to kiss passionately as Lucifer stares at Dante, picks her up and flies away. In the eighth circle, Beatrice is seen once more sitting on a throne of bones being carried by four demons without Lucifer. She expresses her anger towards Dante by calling him a fraud, saying that he belongs in the eighth circle while flying around and sends a flaming Malacoda to kill Dante, though it is easily defeated. She then forces Dante to traverse through the ten ditches of Fraud. As the minions of hell are unleashed all at once upon Dante, she watches his progresss with contempt. Upon reaching the end of the Eigth ditch, she yells at Dante for what he has done, calling him the biggest fraud of all. When Dante finishes all ten ditches of Fraud, she yells at him more and even mentions what Dante did to her brother, Francesco. Dante tells her he gives up on trying to help her and he shows Beatrice the cross she gave him before she was taken to hell. The hold of Lucifer is weakened enough for the power of the cross to absolve her by expelling the evil energy in her soul, much to her and Dante's surprise. Her soul now pure again, she is taken to heaven by Gabriel the Angel, who promises Dante that he will see her again soon, though he must complete his journey, which is more important than Dante yet knows.
Beatrice is last seen at the end of Inferno in a vision, no longer under Lucifer's control. When Dante reseals Lucifer back into his icy prison, they both are seen in a smoky area naked, though she is covered from the waist down by smoke, they both grab hands and a bright light flashes around them and both Dante and Beatrice vanish.
Trivia
- The actual Beatrice Portinari met Dante Alighieri in 1274 at the age of eight. Nine-year-old Dante was immediately smitten by her, and remained so even after she married in 1287 and eventually died in 1290 at the age of 24. Believing her to be the incarnation of beatific love, Dante wrote many poems about her, mainly among them La Vita Nuova. Even after he himself was married, Dante continued to be inspired by Beatrice, eventually writing her as his guide in the final third of The Divine Comedy, "Paradiso," written over 10 years after her death. Though Dante never gave a clear reason why he was so in love with her, considering their minimal contact throughout her life, evidence within his writings show that he believed her to be the perfect example of purity and virtue, and he often refers to her as his "salvation."
- When Beatrice eats the pomegranate seeds, it is a reference to the Greek myth of Persephone. Persephone is Demeter's daughter and is taken to the Underworld by Hades after he falls in love with her.
- After a few days she eats six pomegranate seeds, and because of eating food of the dead Persphone has to stay in the Underworld for six months of every year for each of the pomegranate seeds she ate. In the game, Lucifer instead uses the "Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil", from the story of Adam and Eve. Some scholars believe that the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden was a pomegranate, and not an apple (as it is commonly assumed/believed).
- In the film, Beatrice had also been pregnant with Dante's child while he'd been fighting in the Crusades, but the child was born stillborn.
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