#The Life of Benvenuto Cellini

[pmamtraveller]

PERSEUS WITH THE HEAD OF MEDUSA | 1545–54 | by BENVENUTO CELLINI

The bronze statue depicts the mythological hero PERSEUS standing triumphantly over the body of MEDUSA, holding her recently severed head in one hand and his sword in the other.

CELLINI, a renowned goldsmith and sculptor of the RENAISSANCE period, was commissioned by COSIMO I DE' MEDICI to create this work in 1545. The sculpture is full of intricate details that bring the myth to life, such as PERSEUS' winged sandals for speed, and the helmet of invisibility. The base of the statue is an integral part of the composition, with figures representing MERCURY, DANAË, JUPITER, and MINERVA.

The creation of this sculpture was a remarkable technical achievement for CELLINI. The casting process was extremely complex, as he had to create a flame at a precise temperature to melt the bronze in a single casting. After cooling, the statue underwent a lengthy polishing process that lasted from 1549 to 1554, when it was finally presented in the square.

Beyond its technical mastery, PERSEUS WITH THE HEAD OF MEDUSA also had a significant political meaning in its time. The statue was seen as a representation of the power of DUKE COSIMO I, who had "CUT OFF THE HEAD" of the FLORENTINE REPUBLIC. MEDUSA symbolized the Republican experiment, and the snakes coming out of her body were interpreted as the discords that had always affected democracy.

CELLINI'S sculpture is a testament to the skill and innovation of RENAISSANCE SCULPTORS. The statue's technical complexity, intricate details, and political symbolism have made it a lasting icon of ITALIAN ART history

[ihavehisdvds]

“Man kills woman who only attacks those who attack her. Holds head up in display of cowardice with eyes turned down and uses her head as a weapon because her power, even in death, was greater than his prowess in life.” - A modern opinion.

Original piece: Perseus with the head of Medusa, c. 1571, Benvenuto Cellini

The story of Medusa is convoluted. She was either cursed by Athena, her patron in the the temple that she served the goddess, for being “allowed to be” raped by Poseidon (who Athena had a horrific grudge against) or Medusa was given power at the goddess’ blessing (still kind of a curse?) to be the most fearful monster alive to protect her.

Either way…

[meirimerens]

hii, one quastion, I was wondering if you had any pieces of canon lore attached to your vision of Andrey (and Peter I guess too) as bisexual? I remember you talked about what parts of canon made you consider Dankovsky as gay, Burakh as gay, etc but what about Andrey my friend Andrey… Is there lore or is it just pure vibes (which is good too) SORRY if it's already been asked lol

hiiii okay i probally already talked about this but doesn't hurt to talk more we love to talk Ok the two crucial points for me are

his line "You do look like a hero - from the front. But what about the other end? Bend over." addressed at a man was written to be sexually forward [source]. while many men will use sexual forwardness/bluntness not through the lenses of desire but through those of power/threat, a heterosexual man will refrain from sexual forwardness towards another man as homosexual acts are still The Great Heterosexual Male Taboo and in the heterosexual male mind, degrading in itself. tldr i think he means it this time

design documents say of him "Based on Benvenuto Cellini" and while it is pretty hard to find a Renaissance artist who did not go to bed with at the very least the Leg Of Bicuriosity, Cellini was arrested and charged Multiple Times for sexual affairs with men. called a sodomite by another sculptor to his face and all. had to be there in those times. other things appear to link Cellini & Andrey, such as the killing of the brother's killer in an act of blood revenge (which Andrey doesn't canonically do, but that sounds enough like something he would do). but the "multiple times arrested for gaysexing" is a pretty hefty thing in that lore.

tldr I see it for real.

as for peter I think it's funny. andrey hammers your head with "he and i are perfect twins" & since it's not uncommon for multiple siblings to be gay or bi That's Funny to me. also because i like to explore how fundamentally alike & fundamentally different they are, both bi & both living their bisexualities in very different ways. in my mind's eye peter got that "oh he's... 😬 sensitive 😬....." treatment as a kid but discovered himself bi later in life. andrey has lived his bisexuality openly loudly and amorously for longer, having more (multiple at once) lovers. not really a bi thing he'd be like that if he were straight regardless; i just think it contrasts with the In My Mind's Eye of peter getting no bitches before age 29. peter tried to get laid Once and it went so bad they had to kill the guy. women don't really want to deal with him. andrey insisted he come to the all-male gatherings of the capital's students to mingle with Like-Minded Men If You Know What I Mean and he just stood in the corner like that one meme. sensitive white bi boy scaring the hoes at the club. etc

[wonder-worker]

It was assumed that, as a woman and one not born to rule, (Anne de Pisseleu) was prey to passions and vengefulness, that she could have no consistent 'policy'. / *Anne’s political activity has often been described as incoherent and Anne herself as a flighty interloper in the male business of politics…whose “role in court politics under Francis I was essentially capricious, with changes of alignment according to the whim of the moment”.

*Contemporary reports are partly responsible for the interpretation. / For Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571), who saw too much of her for his own peace of mind, she personified fortuna in all its caprice. For the papal nuncio Hieronimo Dandino (1509–1559), who saw a great deal of her and noted her dislike of gossiping Italians, the king in 1543 was more a prey than ever to his lasciviousness and under her sway. He thought the secret of her success was the spirit of contradiction, always saying the opposite of what others did. For the Imperial envoy Nicolas Villey de Marnol, Anne had been légière (unstable) all her life. This was the same view as that of the Venetian envoy Marino Cavalli (d. 1572), who reported in 1545 that, despite her previous preference for peace with England, she was pressing for further war, hoping that failure would undermine Admiral Annebault, her rival. Literary views were similar; for instance, Rondabilis, the protagonist of the 1546 Tiers Livre by François Rabelais (1494-1553), views all women as frail, variable, capricious, and inconstant.

*(However,) in her political actions nothing distinguishes (Anne) from her male counterparts. Court factions resembled neither modern political parties nor social cliques. Factions formed around a central dispute—in the case at hand, around the long-standing rivalry between Brion and Montmorency over their competing desires for supremacy, or, to put it slightly differently, over their incompatible strategies for dealing with the emperor. In 1540 Montmorency, himself on shaky ground, spearheaded an effort to get Brion investigated for fraud. Begun by the chancellor Poyet in August 1540, the investigation resulted in the admiral’s conviction in February 1541. In general, other quarrels then formed around the central one, with different players joining in when they thought that to do so might further a cause of their own. Factional players changed tactics with shifts in the situation— Marguerite of Navarre and Montmorency switched sides with noticeable frequency, as did François I, Henry VIII, and the emperor—leading to an impression of constant treachery. But such side-switching is quite simply the inevitable result of factional politics, which is, by definition, the spontaneous formation of groups to promote results in the absence of overarching institutions formally invested with the authority to arbitrate. Nothing like a political ideology of the type that unites members of a modern political party and determines their response to issues motivates members of factions. As for the perception of factions as social cliques, it is even more difficult to find evidence of friendship as a motivating factor. Despite the well-known language of love that marks exchanges of the period, decisions were in a strange way also fundamentally impersonal, motivated by family interest.

-David Potter, "The Life and After-Life of a Royal Mistress: Anne de Pisseleu, Duchess of Étampes" / *Tracy Adams and Christine Adams, "The Creation of the French Royal Mistress: From Agnès Sorel to Madame Du Barry"

[tanukifucker91]

@missmassacre thank you for tagging me 💖

Favorite color: I don't really have a set favorite color, maybe red or pink? I do kind of cycle through color eras though in terms of my wardrobe and rn I'm in my burgundy era lol

Last song(s) I listed to: Been listening to the entire Viagra Boys discography tonight bc I am seeing them live tomorrow ✌️ never really listened to them before but I REALLY like them so far

Currently reading: The life of Benvenuto Cellini by Benvenuto Cellini. The real intact diary of a musician turned silversmith turned war general born in 1500. It's wild so far. I'm also still reading Jojolion bc I don't want it to end rip

Currently watching: me and @subversiveawareness have our movie list we're going thru lol we recently watched apocalypse now and trafic and also talked about either watching more Coppola or finishing Tati's filmography with his final movie Parade. I also just finished a part 5 re-watch with some irl friends (one of them is new to Jojo) and we're gonna start part 4 on Monday yay

Currently craving: summer activities. more time for writing. In terms of food… lately I just want ice cream, even though normally I'm not that much of a fan

Coffee or tea: tea. I actually love a good cup of coffee but I'm not great with caffeine and tbh there's soooo many good teas.

Tagging @konungarike and @purenguyening if you feel like it ✌️💖

[amphorographia]

So, the Pathologic 2 Artbook includes a bunch of character descriptions from the design documents and (as a pretentious literature postgrad and obesssive lover of this game and its lore) I wanted to share some of my favourites.

--

The Heroes:

“The Changeling is skin, this [story] is about contact and caress, kinaesthetic things . . . as a means to create meaning, develop the world and bring peace to it”

“The Haruspex is blood and organs . . . [this story is about] the interconnectedness of everything and restoring the connections”

“The Bachelor is about vision and the brain . . . [this story is about] comprehension and rational (analytical) interpretation”

“The Bachelor sees

The Haruspex hears (rhythm)

The Changeling talks”

--

The People:

Aglaya Lilich - “To her, contending with God, too, is a form of restoring justice and natural law.”

Commander Block - “inspired by Antonius Block from The Seventh Seal” (a disillusioned knight who returns to find the Black Plague choking his country. Tormented by his own lack of faith, he is determined to evade Death long enough to redeem himself)

Georgiy Kain - “above all, a Smith, a Sculptor. [. . .] as a rock can be turned into a statue by chiselling away the unnecessary, so can a human be turned into a superhuman.”

Grief - “He’s an ‘anti-Immortell’ who runs an ‘anti-Theatre’ at the Warehouses”

Mark Immortell - “He has no past: he is the Theatre incarnate, its spirit materialized in a carbon-based avatar. [. . .] Mark is a harlequin.”

Maria Kaina - “A mistress in the making . . . still barely more than a child, very immature” / “Das Ewig-Weibliche [the Eternal Feminine] comes to mind.”

Murky -  “she follows [the Haruspex] everywhere. Conscience itself, walking on dirty feet.”

Vlad the Younger - “His life’s goal is an attempt to turn the Kin into the Town . . . [much like] those naïve landowners who sought to ‘enlighten’ the peasants”

Foreman Oyun - “He governs the Kin on the Olgimskys’ behalf . . . like a Nazi-appointed village elder. There is an important difference, though: no one despises this elder.”

Andrey Stamatin - “an impetuous and amoral adventurer . . . based on Benvenuto Cellini” (a talented Renaissance sculptor, goldsmith, and writer who was repeatedly prosecuted for sodomy, theft, and murder)

Peter Stamatin - “Not to be turned into a drunken clown . . . This is a tragic character who must elicit sympathy and compassion.”

Stakh Rubin - “[He is] like Levi Matvei in The Master and Margarita” (a student near-crazed in his devotion to his Master, tragically unaware of his inability to fully comprehend or follow said Master’s life and teachings)

Kasper ‘Khan’ Kain - “a Kai from H. C. Anderson’s The Snow Queen” (a boy who falls victim to corrupting influences which replace his youthful innocence and sense of wonder with cold realism and rationalism)

Yulia Lyuricheva - “She’s a ‘scientific mage’ in the same sense that the Stamatins are architectural mages.”

The Rat Prophet - “A demon, a chthonic ‘thing from below’ . . . a dweller of the underside of Kain’s enlightened world.”

[fatherdmitri]

THE DMITRI / ANDREY OVERLAP. YOUR MIND... if you have things to say on the matter i would love to hear!

oh hell yeah. andrei and dmitri are the sensualists of both stories. violent, rough, but so very goodhearted.

well here are some quotes said by/about both.

stamatin: An architect by trade, but a Renaissance man by nature; an impetuous and amoral adventurer. Based on Benvenuto Cellini. A believer in neither God nor the devil, he likes taking everything life has to offer. Capable of murder. A tender guardian and protector to his twin brother, Peter. - his character description.

dmitri: "I'm a Karamazov... when I fall into the abyss, I go straight into it, head down and heels up, and I'm even pleased that I'm falling in such a humiliating position, and for me I find it beautiful. And so in that very shame I suddenly begin a hymn. Let me be cursed, let me be base and vile, but let me also kiss the hem of that garment in which my God is clothed; let me be following the devil at the same time, but still I am also your son, Lord, and I love you, and I feel a joy without which the world cannot stand and be."

stamatin: My path was called "Larger Than Life" . There isn't a single boundary I haven't broken. I've done everything I've ever wanted to. Confession of a Passionate Heart who????

dmitri: “That’s all foolery, too! Drink, and don’t be fanciful. I love life. I’ve loved life too much, shamefully much. Enough! Let’s drink to life, dear boy, I propose the toast. Why am I pleased with myself? I’m a scoundrel, but I’m satisfied with myself. And yet I’m tortured by the thought that I’m a scoundrel, but satisfied with myself. I bless the creation. I’m ready to bless God and His creation directly, but ... I must kill one noxious insect for fear it should crawl and spoil life for others.... Let us drink to life, dear brother. What can be more precious than life? Nothing! To life, and to one queen of queens!”

brothers

Andrey / Peter, Dmitri / Alyosha:

Architect Andrey Stamatin is dead for as long as his brother is. / "An angel in heaven I’ve told already; but I want to tell an angel on earth. You are an angel on earth. You will hear and judge and forgive. And that’s what I need, that some one above me should forgive. Listen! If two people break away from everything on earth and fly off into the unknown, or at least one of them, and before flying off or going to ruin he comes to some one else and says, ‘Do this for me’—some favor never asked before that could only be asked on one’s deathbed—would that other refuse, if he were a friend or a brother?” / How's my brother? Any news from him? / “No, madam, it’s the first time I’ve heard of it.” Mitya was a little surprised. The image of Alyosha rose to his mind."

Andrey / Dmitri as a protector. brothers are introverted and mellow

personality

they both love those earthly pleasures

sensualists

physical sensation focused: fighting, drinking, sex, etc

but deep down.... kind and empathetic

deep fear and insecurity

can come across as brusque and rough

love bars and taverns (joking but literally come on)

bisexual what

literally so ESTP / ESFP its almost painful

devoted and dedicated, however that manifests

often seen as so masculine they are feminine and not the "perfect man"

[bahamuts-tears]

Here is a little excerpt from Lorenzo "Loris" Altoviti's human biography. This snippet takes place in 1561 when he was still an apprentice of Benvenuto Cellini. Lorenzo is a side character I created for my ST. He was a Toreador antitribu before being consensually diablerized by his Child (Fabian) in the 1950s. If people want, I can post more writing. ~~~

At 15, Lorisino committed his first act of purposeful violence. An apprentice of another artisan had taken to speaking ill of Benvenuto during a party. The youth drunkenly spoke of him being a sodomite and an untalented hack. Later in the evening, Lorenzo confronted him while he was alone, laughing about the dinner banter which had occurred.

Without warning, he pulled his peer close, a cruel smile gracing his lips. "And what of you? What have you accomplished? What legacy could you ever hope to achieve if you're already dead." He pulled a small ornate dagger from his side, sliding it into the youth's spleen with such speed and ease that the other hadn't even realized he'd been stabbed until it was too late. Planting a gentle kiss on the dying apprentice's cheek, Lorenzo slit his throat. He knew it was unnecessary, but he wanted to know what it looked like to see blood seep out of a neck, to see life fade from someone's eyes. "Perhaps you should have thought better than to speak ill of my Master. He will be remembered. Your life is merely a footnote." He watched for what felt like hours as the youth collapsed and tried desperately to cling to life. So many emotions passing over his face as he realized that no one would save him. When all was said and done, Lorenzo chuckled softly and walked away, proud of the piece he had created.

He arrived back at Benvenuto's villa, the blood that had splashed on his clothes and face still not completely dry. Lorenzo sought out his mentor, wanting to share his triumph. Cellini was at first taken aback by the sight of him, but his eyes gleamed with pride.

[eggtrolls]

guy on the train had a huge tattoo of Benvenuto Cellini's Medusa head but she had an unlit cigarette and a hand was offering her a light. unfortunately I had just gotten on the train after taekwondo so I was slumped over mostly dead, but then I saw the tattoo and burst out of my post-taekwondo sweat-fugue to be like OH THAT TATTOO IS GREAT WOW and said guy looked terrified like a statue just came to life in front of him. sorry.

[grandpasessions]

But this attitude of exalting oneself which appears also in the life of Benvenuto Cellini who is an adventurer running all around doing everything to make himself famous, comes directly from the Middle Ages. It comes from what we saw yesterday, in the last lecture, the preoccupation of Francis of Assisi with himself, with his self-satisfaction, with some kind of dramatic demonstration of how holy he is. Once the spirit of the times had changed, this same motive became twisted into a worldly, extremely coarse self-aggrandizement.

Orthodox Survival Course Fr. Seraphim Rose

[liquid-geodes]

I think there are a few interpretations of William that I've found are most popular (amongst the more canon-inclined) and I want to know which one yours fits in best.

Benvenuto Cellini. Narcissistic Murder-Hobo who has the impulse-control of a teenager and the gall to do anything he puts his mind to. Even if it's probably going to end BADLY.

Da Vinci but with Murder. Endlessly intelligent, more endlessly poignant and straightforward, and if presented with a problem would probably just invent something to make it go away. Even if that involves human lives taken early.

Edison but horny. A forward-thinking businessman with a brilliant mind, who is willing to outdo competition in any way necessary, and who also happens to take breaks with deviant behaviour.

Henry VIII but always smart. A man who neglects both his family and morals in favour of his image and mark on history. Also endlessly horny.

This probably sounds like horoscopes, but I don't care because I'm way too high on sugar and probably tea that I'm incapable of new ideas or remorse.

These are probably also very inaccurate to actual fandom attitudes towards our favourite boi.

All of them. It depends on my mood

But also a secret fifth one: a good father, loving husband with a horrible wife. Gets divorced, dates his business partner, life is GOOD and nothing bad happens

[thelongestway]

So, the other Cellini story is necromancy. This story is fantastic, but pretty long - yet it features an important lesson in practical necromancy. As everyone knows, spirits are attracted by nice scents, and sent away by bad ones (generally a pretty common thing in European magic). So there's this moment, when they do a summoning ritual, and get more than what they bargained for, and one of the people responsible for the fumigations is just frozen in terror, and the spirits are about to do mean things to them, when... The dude responsible for making foul scents with asafoetida to make the spirits go away just shits himself. And that was sufficiently foul. Oh yeah, also this took place in the Coliseum, which was apparently fairly popular for such things at the time. Story is very long, so placing it under a cut.

"IT happened through a variety of singular accidents that I became intimate with a Sicilian priest, who was a man of very elevated genius and well instructed in both Latin and Greek letters. In the course of conversation one day we were led to talk about the art of necromancy; apropos of which I said: “Throughout my whole life I have had the most intense desire to see or learn something of this art.” Thereto the priest replied: “A stout soul and a steadfast must the man have who sets himself to such an enterprise.” I answered that of strength and steadfastness of soul I should have enough and to spare, provided I found the opportunity. Then the priest said: “If you have the heart to dare it, I will amply satisfy your curiosity.” Accordingly we agreed upon attempting the adventure.

The priest one evening made his preparations, and bade me find a comrade, or not more than two. I invited Vincenzio Romoli, a very dear friend of mine, and the priest took with him a native of Pistoja, who also cultivated the black art. We went together to the Coliseum; and there the priest, having arrayed himself in necromancer’s robes, began to describe circles on the earth with the finest ceremonies that can be imagined. I must say that he had made us bring precious perfumes and fire, and also drugs of fetid odour. When the preliminaries were completed, he made the entrance into the circle; and taking us by the hand, introduced us one by one inside it.

Then he assigned our several functions; to the necromancer, his comrade, he gave the pentacle to hold; the other two of us had to look after the fire and the perfumes; and then he began his incantations. This lasted more than an hour and a half; when several legions appeared, and the Coliseum was all full of devils. I was occupied with the precious perfumes, and when the priest perceived in what numbers they were present, he turned to me and said: “Benvenuto, ask them something.” I called on them to reunite me with my Sicilian Angelica. That night we obtained no answer; but I enjoyed the greatest satisfaction of my curiosity in such matters. The necromancer said that we should have to go a second time, and that I should obtain the full accomplishment of my request; but he wished me to bring with me a little boy of pure virginity.

I chose one of my shop-lads, who was about twelve years old, and invited Vincenzio Romoli again; and we also took a certain Agnolino Gaddi, who was a very intimate friend of both. When we came once more to the place appointed, the necromancer made just the same preparations, attended by the same and even more impressive details. Then he introduced us into the circle, which he had reconstructed with art more admirable and yet more wondrous ceremonies. Afterwards he appointed my friend Vincenzio to the ordering of the perfumes and the fire, and with him Agnolino Gaddi. He next placed in my hand the pentacle, which he bid me turn toward the points he indicated, and under the pentacle I held the little boy, my workman.

Now the necromancer began to utter those awful invocations, calling by name on multitudes of demons who are captains of their legions, and these he summoned by the virtue and potency of God, the Uncreated, Living, and Eternal, in phrases of the Hebrew, and also of the Greek and Latin tongues; insomuch that in a short space of time the whole Coliseum was full of a hundredfold as many as had appeared upon the first occasion. Vincenzio Romoli, together with Agnolino, tended the fire and heaped on quantities of precious perfumes. At the advice of the necromancer, I again demanded to be reunited with Angelica. The sorcerer turned to me and said: “Hear you what they have replied; that in the space of one month you will be where she is?”

Then once more he prayed me to stand firm by him, because the legions were a thousandfold more than he had summoned, and were the most dangerous of all the denizens of hell; and now that they had settled what I asked, it behoved us to be civil to them and dismiss them gently. On the other side, the boy, who was beneath the pentacle, shrieked out in terror that a million of the fiercest men were swarming round and threatening us. He said, moreover, that four huge giants had appeared, who were striving to force their way inside the circle. Meanwhile the necromancer, trembling with fear, kept doing his best with mild and soft persuasions to dismiss them. Vincenzio Romoli, who quaked like an aspen leaf, looked after the perfumes. Though I was quite as frightened as the rest of them, I tried to show it less, and inspired them all with marvellous courage; but the truth is that I had given myself up for dead when I saw the terror of the necromancer. The boy had stuck his head between his knees, exclaiming: “This is how I will meet death, for we are certainly dead men.” Again I said to him: “These creatures are all inferior to us, and what you see is only smoke and shadow; so then raise your eyes.”

When he had raised them he cried out: “The whole Coliseum is in flames, and the fire is advancing on us;” then covering his face with his hands, he groaned again that he was dead, and that he could not endure the sight longer. The necromancer appealed for my support, entreating me to stand firm by him, and to have assafetida flung upon the coals; so I turned to Vincenzio Romoli, and told him to make the fumigation at once. While uttering these words I looked at Agnolino Gaddi, whose eyes were starting from their sockets in his terror, and who was more than half dead, and said to him: “Agnolo, in time and place like this we must not yield to fright, but do the utmost to bestir ourselves; therefore, up at once, and fling a handful of that assafetida upon the fire.” Agnolo, at the moment when he moved to do this, let fly such a volley from his breech, that it was far more effectual than the assafetida.

The boy, roused by that great stench and noise, lifted his face little, and hearing me laugh, he plucked up courage, and said the devils were taking to flight tempestuously. So we abode thus until the matinbells began to sound. Then the boy told us again that but few remained, and those were at a distance. When the necromancer had concluded his ceremonies, he put off his wizard’s robe, and packed up a great bundle of books which he had brought with him; then, all together, we issued with him from the circle, huddling as close as we could to one another, especially the boy, who had got into the middle, and taken the necromancer by his gown and me by the cloak. All the while that we were going toward our houses in the Banchi, he kept saying that two of the devils he had seen in the Coliseum were gamboling in front of us, skipping now along the roofs and now upon the ground.

The necromancer assured me that, often as he had entered magic circles, he had never met with such a serious affair as this. He also tried to persuade me to assist him in consecrating a book, by means of which we should extract immeasurable wealth, since we could call up fiends to show us where treasures were, whereof the earth is full; and after this wise we should become the richest of mankind: love affairs like mine were nothing but vanities and follies without consequence. I replied that if I were a Latin scholar I should be very willing to do what he suggested. He continued to persuade me by arguing that Latin scholarship was of no importance, and that, if he wanted, he could have found plenty of good Latinists; but that he had never met with a man of soul so firm as mine, and that I ought to follow his counsel. Engaged in this conversation, we reached our homes, and each one of us dreamed all that night of devils."

Source for translation: https://wickpressblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/07/necromancy-in-the-colosseum-by-a-priest-how-well-do-we-really-know-our-history/ Again, this about coincides with how I remember it, but I don't have my copy on hand. And there's more down the link, but nothing quite so... Renaissance esotericism. I think Cellini reported accurately, this do be how things go down.

[driftwoodcalliope]

So, not that anyone asked but these are the novels I read this year. If any of these books catch your eye let’s be friends!

(Note: these are not in any order, I kinda just put em into a wanton list without any prior organization)

Violet’s wee reading list of 2022

1. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino

2. Butter Honey Pig Bread - Francesca Ekwuyasi

3. Autobiography of a Yogi - Paramahansa Yogananda

4. Seize the Day - Saul Bellow

5. Storm of Steel - Ernst Junger

6. Tacky - Rax King

7. Slow Days, Fast Company - Eve Babitz

8. Stoner - John Williams

9. Hard Rain Falling - Don Carpenter

10. Anniversaries - Uwe Johnson

11. Don Quixote de La Mancha - Miguel de Cervantes

12. Killing Commendatore - Haruki Murakami

13. Burning Questions - Margaret Atwood

14. The Counterfieters - André Gide

15. Growth of the Soil - Knut Hamsun

16. The Poems of John Keats - John Keats

17. Ulysses - James Joyce

18. The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster

19. The Complete Stories of Clarice Lispector - Clarice Lispector

20. Quo Vadis - Henry’s Sienkiewicz

20. The Dwelling Place of Light - Winston Churchill (not the former PM)

21. Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac

22. Dune - Frank Herbert

23. Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert

24. Children of Dune - Frank Herbert

25. God Emperor of Dune - Frank Herbert

26. Heretics of Dune - Frank Herbert

27. Chapter House Dune - Frank Herbert

28. Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky

29. The Double - Fyodor Dostoevsky

30. Moby Dick - Herman Melville

31. Middlemarch - George Eliot

32. The Complete Stories of Jorge Luis Borges - Jorge Luis Borges

33. The Collins Complete Shakespeare - William Shakespeare

34. The Banjo: A History - Laurent DuBois

35. House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski

36. Sérotonin - Michel Houellebecq

37. Pamela - Samuel Richardson

38. The Confusions of Young Törless - Robert Musil

39. The Little Friend - Donna Tartt

40. My Struggle I: A Death in the Family - Karl Ove Knausgaard

42. My Struggle II: A Man in Love - Karl Ove Knausgaard

43. My Struggle III: Boyhood Island - Karl Ove Knausgaard

44. My Struggle IV: Dancing in the Dark - Karl Ove Knausgaard

45. My Struggle V: Some Rain Must Fall - Karl Ove Knausgaard

46. My Struggle VI: The End - Karl Ove Knausgaard

47. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky

48. The Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens

49. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

50. Bleak House - Charles Dickens

51. The Old Curiosity Shop - Charles Dickens

52. Nicholas Nickelby - Charles Dickens

53. Roots - Alex Haley

54. Silas Marner - George Eliot

55. Scenes of Clerical Life - George Eliot

56. Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion

57. Iron Widow - Xiran Jay Zhao

58. Babel - R. F. Kuang

59. The Complete Father Brown Stories - G. K. Chesterton

60. Death Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases - Nissoisin

61. The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

62. The Song of Roland - Anon.

63. The Nibelungenlied - Anon.

64. Le Morte D’Arthur - Sir Thomas Malory

65. The Lais of Marie de France - Marie de France

66a. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (penguin tran.) - Anon. (The Pearl Poet)

66b. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Tolkien tran.) - Anon. (The Pearl Poet)

67. The Pearl (Tolkien tran.) - Anon. (The Pearl Poet)

68. Les Fleurs de Mal - Charles Baudelaire

69. Faust - Goethe

70. Forrest Gump - Winston Groom

71. The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini - Benvenuto Cellini

72. Here There Be Dragons - James A. Owen

73. The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio

74. The Island - Alastair MacLeod

75. The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett

76. White Teeth - Zadie Smith

77. Beautiful Losers - Leonard Cohen

78. Take Arms Against a Sea of Troubles - Harold Bloom

79. A Song for Arbonne - Guy Gavriel Kay

80. Harlem Shuffle - Colson Whitehead

81. The Interview With the Vampire - Anne Rice

82. The Vampire LeStat - Anne Rice

83. The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

84. Vile Bodies - Evelyn Waugh

85. Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh

86. Thus Were Their Faces - Silvina Ocampo

87. The Hellbound Heart - Clive Barker

88. The Collected Works of Breece D’J Pancake - Breece Pancake

89. Ben-Hur: The Story of a Christ - Lew Wallace

90. Open City - Teju Cole

91. Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Isherwood

92. The Aeneid - Virgil

93. Emma - Jane Austen

94. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

95. Persuasion - Jane Austen

96. The Portable Sixties Reader - Various, compiled by Ann Charters

97. The Innocents - Michael Crummey

98. Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen

99. The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling - Henry Fielding

100. The Pilgrim’s Progress - John Bunyan

[opera-ghosts]

OTD in Music History: Hector Berlioz (1803 – 1869) is born in France. One of the greatest of the early Romantic composers – and the first great composer in history who was not also a proficient instrumentalist! – he learned a little guitar from his physician father in his early years, and then later studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire (after dropping out of medical school to the dismay of his parents). His first great score was the famous “Symphonie fantastique” (1830), and his other major works include the operas “Benvenuto Cellini” (1837), “Les Troyens” (1858), and “Beatrice et Benedict” (1862); the program symphonies “Harold en Italy” (1834) and “Romeo et Juliette” (1839); and the choral dramas “La Damnation de Faust” (1846) and “L’Enfance du Christ” (1854). Berlioz was also one of the greatest music critics in history and one of the most important conductors of his day, and his “Treatise on Orchestration” (1843) is arguably the single most influential work of its kind ever written. PICTURED: A fair copy – written out by Berlioz in his own hand – of a celebrated letter that he received from violinist and composer Niccolo Paganini (1782 – 1840) shortly after Paganini first heard “Harold en Italie” (which he had previously commissioned from Berlioz) at a Parisian concert in December 1838. Paganini was so moved by the performance that after the concert he knelt before Berlioz in a gesture of public homage, and, two days later, he sent Berlioz this letter. Translation: “My dear friend, Beethoven is dead, there was no one but Berlioz who could bring him back to life; and I who have experienced your divine compositions worthy of a genius such as yours, believe it is my duty to beg you to be willing to accept as a sign of my homage 20,000 francs which will be handed over to you by the Baron of Rothschild on presentation of the enclosed note. Believe me to be ever your affectionate friend, Nicolo Paganini Paris 18 December 1838”

[thetldrplace]

Inferno: Cantos 15-21

Canto XV  As virgil and Dante are walking along the banks of the river, there is a mist that shades them from the fire flakes falling over the hot sand. Dante notes that the banks shield them like the Dutch building dikes to shield them from the ocean's tidal incursion into the Netherlands, and as the citizens of Padova built up levees to protect them from the overflow of the Brenta river. 

The second triplet contains the line: "Quali Fiamminghi tra Guizzante e Bruggia"; the Fiamminghi are the Flemish, (or Dutch at that time), Guizzante and Bruggia are the Italian names for the cities of Wissant and Bruges, but the names are reminiscent of Italian words related to fire: 

Fiamminghi- fiamma or flame  Guizzante- darting  Bruggia- burning 

So that this geological description which translated is: "As the Flemish, between Wissant and Bruges"; 

But it also sounds like: as the flames between darting and burning. Just great wordplay by Dante the poet. 

Anyway, as they move on, they see a group of people walking. That would mean these are among the sodomites. Several of the commentaries mention that Dante doesn't describe what exactly he means by "sodomy", and in fact, he doesn’t ever even call them out as sodomites. So what exactly the sin is, is somewhat up for grabs here. Sodomy has historically been the sin of homosexuality. But if I recall correctly, in the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, he was arrested for sodomy with a woman, which would mean, excuse the bluntness: anal sex. If this was illegal, then it would be that even among heterosexual couples, this behavior was considered sinful. Maybe that fits as being "against nature" in the sense that sex was seen as procreative, not recreation, so engaging in sodomy was a way to avoid the consequences of sex. I dunno, I'm just speculating here. The unsure attitude about what exactly sodomy would have meant to Dante is also due to the fact that there are homosexuals included in purgatory. But it may also be that some of the modern commentary is an attempt to avoid condemnation of homosexuality, since that's considered homophobic today. But Dante lived under no such constraint. My guess is he meant these as sodomites, or homosexuals, and was not afraid to condemn them. That said, his treatment is much more progressive than many of the depictions of the day, which showed highly sexualized tortures as the just punishment for their perversion.  

They see Virgil and Dante and look hard at them when one notices Dante and says: Qual maraviglia! What a marvel! 

Dante says he recognizes him as an old tutor, Ser Brunetto Latini, and Dante is astounded he is found here. Dante offers to sit with him for a bit, but Brunetto says that if he stops walking, he will have to lie for 100 years without the ability to shield himself from the burning flakes, so, ya know... best to keep moving! Brunetto asks how he has journeyed there, and Dante tells him how he had lost his way before mid-way through his life. The Italian phrase was weird for me: avanti che 'l età mia fosse piena. That looks to me like: before my age was full, which I'd understood as "before the end of my life".  But what it actually means is 'before I reached the fullest part of my life', which would be considered around 35, when he would have been established, but still in full health. Anyway, Dante says Virgil saved him and is leading him home, but through this path. 

Brunetto says he'll do well and not fail to find his glorious port, his fame and glory. He also says he would have helped Dante in his work had he still been alive. But.... "those malicious ingrates" (The leaders of Florence), and here it gets fun: "who descended long ago from Fiesole" (a town in the mountains outside Florence that was attacked by the Romans, driving the inhabitants to live as uncivilized rustics outside the city) who still retain the manners of the mountain and boulders... basically, they're still uncultured hillbillies at heart.... will make you their enemy just because you try to do right. 

Brunetto encourages Dante to stay away from them to keep himself clean. Both the white and black Guelphs will hunger for Dante's life, but may the grass be far away from the mouth: ma lungi fia dal becco l'erba. That sounds like a proverb that I believe would mean something like: may the goats (the evil Florentine leaders) not be able to get at the grass (Dante) to eat it (kill him). 

Brunetto continues saying those beasts from Fiesole can get their own straw to eat, and leave the native plants (if any would grow in their shit that litters the ground), among which lives again the holy seed of those Romans that remained even after their nest of malice was created. Clearly, Brunetto harbors some bitter feelings against the Florentines... 

Dante notes that he wishes with all his heart that Brunetto had not died, but that to know he had touched Dante deeply with his fatherly care. Dante would acknowledge Brunetto and also what Brunetto told him. He accepts what has been revealed and before they move on, Dante asks who else of note and rank is there. Brunetto gives him a few names: Priscian and Francesco d'Accorso.  

Priscian refers to a well-known Latin teacher from the sixth century. There was a traditional Medieval association of boys' teachers with sodomites. 

Francesco d'Accorso was a famous Florentine teacher of law at the universities of Bologna and Oxford. 

But of the rest, Brunetto says he has no more time and must turn back to return to his group. 

Dante finishes the canto by saying Brunetto left running after his group as one who wins a race, not as one who loses. 

Canto XVI  The first lines of this canto concern the rumbling of water that will get progressively louder as they go. It's first mentioned as being "similar to the rumble made at a beehive". 

But right away, Dante and Virgil see three shades break off from their traveling companions and run over towards them tell them to "Hold up, you who are dressed like, what seems to us, someone from our depraved land". They are Florentines. Dante recognizes them even through their burns and scars. Virgil says that if it weren't for the fire they are under, it might be better if Dante were to run to them, than the other way around. Then they perform this weird, almost dance, where they gather in a circle, and continually move around one way, while looking back the other way. They of course do this because if they stop moving, so we learned from the previous canto, they would have to lay on the sand for 100 years and not be able to sweep away the fire flakes falling on them. 

They call out to Dante and ask him who he is, that can pass through Hell in his living body. They ask if he is repulsed by their condition. Then they tell who they are: Guido Guerra, the grandson of lady Gualdrada is the first. The second is Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and the speaker is Iacopo Rusticucci, who, he says by way of introducing himself, was condemned more by his fierce wife than anything else. 

Dante then says that if he could safely jump down there and hug them, he would, but fear of being cooked by the fire overruled his desire to reunite.  

He explains that he isn't repulsed by them at all, but sorrow at seeing such noble men as them subjected to such punishment. He says he knows of each of them and their honored works and names. He then says he is commissioned to go through Hell as part of escaping his mid-life crisis, mentioned in Canto I. 

The men honor Dante and ask how things are going with their city, for they have heard negative reports from the recently come Guglielmo Borsiere. We know little more about him. 

Dante then cries out, almost to heaven, saying: 

La gente nuova e i sùbiti guadagni  orgoglio e dismisura han generata,  Fiorenza, in te, sì che tu già ten piagni  Newcomers and their recent wealth  Have generated pride and excess in you  Florence, so that you already regret it. 

The three men look at each other, seemingly grasping the truth. 

They then ask a favor of Dante: if he returns to the world of the living, please tell others about them. 

Then they break off and, as Dante says, before you could say an "Amen", they were gone. 

Virgil moves on with Dante following, this time the water so loud that they were at pains to hear each other. Then Dante moves through an extended simile about a river that descends in a deafening waterfall, to paint a picture of the volume. After that we get a metaphor... of something... 

I had a cord wrapped around me, with which  I had thought a few times about capturing  the leopard with the spotted skin.  When I had completely untied it  as my guide had instructed me,  I handed it to him wound and knotted.  Then he turned to the right  and tossed it far down over the edge of that deep chasm. 

Whatever the belt is, whatever it signifies, Virgil asks him to take it off, then chucks it over the edge. The only clue he gives us is that he thought about capturing the leopard from Canto I with it. The leopard was thought to signify 'lust', so the cord would signify something that lust could be capture with. Some have offered 'temperance' as a possibility. But I don't know why Virgil would want him to take that off for the descent. As one commentor said: perhaps the point is that one shouldn't be confident in one's own ability to conquer sin generally, and particularly, to outsmart those guilty of lies and fraud in the level below.  

Then Virgil looks over and fixes his eyes on something Dante can only understand as way outside what he would be able to fathom. And sure enough, up comes something Dante tells us is a "truth that has the face of a lie". Dante swears, "by the lines of this comedy..... that I saw someone come swimming upward through that dense and dark air". 

We'll meet this monster in the next Canto.  

But Dante's message with the 'truth that has the face of a lie'; quel ver c'ha faccia di menzogna; is that his poem, the divine comedy, is essentially a truth, even though it has the face of fiction.  

Canto XVII  Canto 17 starts off with Virgil declaring something about this beast Dante saw at the end of the last Canto: "Behold the beast with the barbed tail, flying past mountains, breaking walls and armies, behold he who stinks up the world". The beast will be named Geryon, and is symbolic of fraud. In mythology, he was a giant with three bodies, who ruled as king of Spain. It was one of Hercule's labors to slay him. Anthony Esolen, in the notes of the English translation I'm using, says tradition developed in the middle ages that he was a hypocrite that kindly invited his guests in, then killed them.  

He is described by Dante as having the face of a just man, but the body of a serpent, hairy limbs with paws, and a bifurcated tail that could sting like a scorpion. Virgil says he stinks up the world, because he corrupts what separates man from beast: he uses language, reason and intelligence to deceive. 

In the description of Geryon, Dante treats us to a name that could use some explanation.  He says of the monsters colors: 

his back, chest and both sides   were colored with knots and circlets,  Neither Turks nor Tartars used more colors  in the groundwork or embroidery of their drapes,  nor was Arachne imposed with such cloths. 

Arachne was a woman in mythology that challenged Athena to a weaving contest. Athena defeated her, and then turned Arachne into a spider for her presumption. The spider still weaves incredible designs in its web- but it also is a nice symbol, writes Esolen, for the complications and plots of liars. 

Virgil tells Dante he must go speak with the beast, and in the meantime, go and see who the third group are in the third ring: those sitting in the sand. These would be the usurers. He tells Dante to be quick though and not engage them in much conversation. Dante then heads off alone. The men sit in the sand, viciously trying to chase away the burning fire flakes that land on them. He doesn't recognize the souls personally, but there are three with purses, each emblazoned with different family crests: 

The yellow purse with the blue face and posture of a lion would be the Gianfigliazzi family- Black Guelphs.  

The red purse with the white goose would be the Obriachi family crest, Florentine Ghibellines. 

The one with the white purse with the blue sow is, most believe, Reginaldo degli Scrovegni, from Padova. He was so well-known as a usurer, that he reportedly moved his son Arrigo to endow the construction of the Scrovegni chapel, with walls decorated by Giotto's frescoes. It is one of the most beautiful interior spaces in the Western world. Each of the three men sat with their purses tied around the necks and "I loro occhi si pasca", their eyes feasted on the purses. As usurers, they were so greedy for money, that their punishment here is to sit with their purses stuck near their mouths, almost like feedbags for animals. Their low manners are revealed. 

It is Reginaldo that brusquely confronts Dante, with: "Che fai tu in questa fossa? Or te ne va", similar to "what the hell are you doing here in this dump? Now beat it". 

Then he adds something along the lines of: in case you're still living and heading back up, you can tell my neighbor Vitaliano he'll be joining me here in hell! We're not sure who this is referring to. 

Then Reginaldo continues that he is from Padova, and he's stuck in among these Florentines who are constantly telling him that "the sovereign knight comes....!", probably referring to Giovanni di Buiamonte dei Becchi, an able broker that rose to an elevated position in Florence, until he was convicted of embezzlement and forced to give his possessions to the church. Then Dante says he stuck out his tongue, like an ox that licks his nose. I don't know if Reginaldo stuck out his tongue to lick his nose, or if he did it in disrespect, but quickly Dante decides he's outta there and heads back. 

By the time he returns, he finds Virgil already mounted on Geryon's back to make the descent down to the eighth level through flight. He tells Dante to get on in front of him so Geryon's tail won't sting him, and as Dante gets on, he wants to tell Virgil to hold him tightly, but he can't muster the words. Virgil however understands and holds on to him. Geryon backs up into the sky, then heads downward. 

Dante uses a few similes: of Phaeton, losing control in the sky and scorching the earth, and of Icarus fear as he falls to earth, to relate his own fear as he loses all sight of any land. 

As they approach the landing, Dante can hear loud noise from the whirlpool, and can see flames and hear cries, and they begin to come from all sides as they come nearer to landing. Finally they do land, and Virgil and Dante dismount, only to see Geryon fly off as an arrow from the bow. 

So ends Canto 17 

Canto XVIII  The eighth circle 

There is a place in hell called Malebolge. Mala is bad/evil, bolgia is a ditch. 

If you could envision a circular pit. As Dante travels deeper into hell, the diameter of the pit gets progressively smaller. Each level is comprised of a cliff on the outer diameter, and then another cliff that drops off when it gets to the inner diameter, which would look like a deep round hole.  

In this eighth circle of hell, there are a series of 10 concentric ditches, like moats, but not filled with water. They each hold a progressively worse type of fraud. There are arched bridges over each of these ditches so that Virgil and Dante can travel over them. The slope of the entire level drains towards the center, so that the top of the first ditch is higher than the top of the second, etc.  

Virgil and Dante were dropped off by Geryon at the edge of the first of the concentric ditches. 

First ditch-  

Each of the ditches has sinners that walk one way on one side, and others that walk another way on the other side. Dante describes this as when the Romans held the year of jubilee in 1300 AD, and those crossing the bridge over the Tiber at the Castel Sant'Angelo, would have to keep to one side as they were heading towards the Castle and then Saint Peter's, while on the other side would be those crossing towards the hills of Rome. I've actually been on that bridge, and gone to the Castel Sant'Angelo and then Saint Peter's, so when I read that I thought: Wow! I know exactly what he's talking about! 

The first ditch is filled with ruffiani, which translates not to "ruffians", but more like pimps; those who sell women. Dante recognizes one, who tries to hide his face, but too late. Dante calls him out as Venédico Caccianemico, and then asks him: Ma che ti mena a sì pungenti salse? Literally: "What led you into such spicy sauce?" The man responds that he doesn't want to say, but he is compelled by Dante's clear speech. He confesses that he was the one, as the sordid tale relates, that, as a politician in Bologna, compelled his sister, Ghisolabella, into a political marriage with the Marquis Obizzo d'Este, signore of Ferrara for monetary gain. 

Venedico then states that there are many other Bolognese there with him: 

anzi n’è questo loco tanto pieno,  che tante lingue non son ora apprese  a dicer ’sipa’ tra Sàvena e Reno;  In fact, this place is so full of them  that not as many have learned   to say ‘sipa’ between the Savena and the Reno; 

What this means is that 'this place' (hell) is so full of them (Bolognese) that 'not as many have learned to say 'sipa' (this is apparently the bolognese accent for saying "Si" or Yes) between the Savena river, which runs north/south about 3 miles to the west of the city, and the Reno river, which runs north/south about 3 miles to the east of the city. If not as many have learned the accent of Bologna in Bologna, then there are probably more in hell than in Bologna itself. Caccianemico himself says that Dante can find proof of this himself if he just thinks about the reputation for avarice that the city has. 

At that point, a demon whips him and tells him to get moving since there are no women for him to pimp out here.  

Dante and Virgil move on over the bridge and Virgil tells Dante to watch those that were walking along the same direction they were moving. Virgil points out one in particular, a 'great soul' that appears to not even shed a tear even in that place. He is famous in Greek mythology as leader of the Argonauts. He was married to the sorceress Medea and sought the golden fleece. 

He is among the seducers. His sin was that he seduced Hypsipyle, queen on the island of Lemnos. The women there had neglected their worship of Aphrodite, who, in revenge, made them stink to their husbands. Their husbands, then took other women from Thrace as concubines, which angered the wives enough to kill the men in revenge. Jason seduced the queen as well as many other women. 

Second ditch 

The travelers cross the bridge to see the inhabitants of the second ditch who are the flatterers. 

There the walls of the ditch are encrusted with a mold from the vapors that rise up and Dante says the stench assaults the eyes and nose. With good reason too. The people there groan weakly and are forced to pant, or breath, with difficulty, for down in the ditch is what looks like an emptied latrine- human excrement. Dante spots one that he recognizes as Alessio Interminei from Lucca.  

Alessio sees Dante asks him why he is so busy looking at him rather than anybody else? Dante responds that he had already seen him with "dry hair", which apparently is a contrast with his current condition of being soaked in shit, or, in other words, he had known him when he was alive. 

Alessio then confesses that his own flatteries sunk him down into this shit, which, while alive, his tongue never tired of metaphorically licking... what we would today call a 'brown-noser'. 

At that point, Virgil calls attention to another soul, Thais, who he labels quella sozza e scapigliata fante, "that filthy disheveled whore". One of the commentaries on this gives this recap:  "Taide is a character in Terence's Eunuch to whom Thrason sent the pimp Gnaso to give him a slave. After his collaborator had returned, the sender asked him if she was grateful for that gift, he replied: "enormously". It is supposed that Dante heard about this passage from Cicero in De Amicitia, in which the example of flattery is given since he responds differently from "very" as we have seen; however, the poet reports in the Comedy that the person pronouncing the phrase is Taides instead of the man in charge because Cicero's text does not include the names of the characters in the dialogue." 

So it seems Dante the poet may have misunderstood the text and included Thais in the group of flatterers wrongly. 

At any rate, Virgil says they've seen enough and there end the Canto. 

Canto XIX  Eighth circle: third ditch- simonists 

This third ditch on the level of Fraud is for those guilty of simony, or using the church for financial gain. 

Dante starts off with: O Simon Magus and his miserable followers.... referring to the biblical story of Simon Magus, one of the characters in the early days of the church, who, seeing the miracles performed by the apostles through the Holy Spirit, offered to pay the apostles money to have them lay hands on him, so he too could perform some of those miracles and continue his trade as a 'miracle worker'. Peter condemns him because he thought he could 'buy they gift of the Holy Spirit'. Accordingly, this sin is named after him, Simon, as 'simony'. 

The ditch is filled with holes the size of a man. Dante mentions that they were the same size as the pits used at San Giovanni church, his home parish, for baptizing converts, and that he had actually broken one not too long ago to save a boy who had fallen in and was drowning. There may be, in this story, a symbolic meaning: access to the water in the baptismal was for the clerics only. It was off-limits to the laity. The fact that Dante broke it in order to save a life may point to an argument that some of the boundaries put up by the official church may need to be broken in order to save lives.  

In each of the holes is a sinner, upside down, with his legs exposed up to mid-thigh. Their feet were on fire, and they jerked about so strongly that they would have broken woven ropes. The flames moved over the surface of the feet as if they were covered in oil. There is a symbolism in this as well: these men had gotten things upside down. They spent their time on earth, where they were supposed to be concerned with spiritual things, instead focused so much on the earth below, that now they are turned upside down for eternity.  

Dante asks Virgil about one he sees, who is squirming more than the others, and who the flame seems to devour more. Virgil says he will take him down below where he can learn of the man and his errors. 

The go down a steep edge that is pocked with holes and is narrow and difficult to move through. Virgil keeps Dante at his side until they reach the spot. Then Dante asks the man whoever you are, planted here like a stake in the ground, if possible, can you tell us who you are? 

Then Dante says he waited like a priest who hears the confessions of an assassin, who when placed like this, suddenly remembers he had more to confess, and so asks the executioners if he can go back and tell the priest more, which is all an attempt to stave off the moment of his death. Apparently, assassins in Dante's day were planted upside down this way, then buried alive.  

The man, Pope Nicholas III, screams: Are you here already, Boniface?  (VIII, the pope who followed him) The writings, or prophecy, had said you wouldn't be here for many more years! Is your greed already so sated that you are dead? You had no fear of taking the beautiful woman,  by which he means the church, the 'bride of Christ', by deceit only to tear her apart. 

Dante says he stood there flabbergasted, and assumed the soul must be mocking him, because Dante didn't understand what was being said. Virgil gets this and tells Dante: "Tell him that you aren't who he thinks you are", and Dante does so. Then Nicholas, sighing and weeping, asks him: Then what do you want from me? Are you so on fire to know who I am, that you actually came down these banks just for that? Well, I was a pope, the 'son of the bear', meaning he was of the family Orsini, or 'little bears', and he was so eager to advance his families careers in the church, that he stashed away wealth there, only to be himself stashed away here. Then Nicholas mentions that the other simonist popes were flattened down and rest under him. And when the next one comes, Boniface VIII, which he mistook Dante for, then he too will be flattened and Boniface will be upside down with his feet being burned. 

Then he mentions that after him, an even filthier pope will come from the west (France) Clement V, who will be a shepherd (of the church) without law who would deserve to cover both of them.  Nicholas declares that Clement V will be a 'new Jason', referring to the high priest of Judea, who bought the position from Antiochus Epiphanes IV. Antiochus placed the 'abomination which causes desolation ( A statue of Zeus) in the Holy of Holies in the temple at Jerusalem, and ordered prostitute priestesses to perform their rites there.  

Dante then says: I don’t know if I was being overly harsh here, but I responded to him like this: 

OK, tell me how much money Jesus demanded from Peter when he entrusted to him the keys of the kingdom? He asked Peter only to follow him. Nor did Peter and the other apostles take gold or silver from Matthias when he was chosen to replace Judas as the twelfth apostle. You SHOULD stay here so you can be punished like you deserve. Take a look at that ill-gotten cash you got that made you burn against Charles (of Anjou). Most of the popes had gotten along with France, but Nicholas changed that, and Dante accuses him here of taking money as part of the plot against Charles. 

Dante continues his attack with a statement that is only his own respect for the position that he doesn't use even stronger words to denounce Nicholas, since his avarice worsens the world, tramples good people, and raises up the depraved ones. John the Evangelist warned about such as Nicholas when he wrote in the book of Revelation about the woman who sits over the waters and whores with kings- she had seven heads and took strength from ten horns, as long as virtue pleased her husband, the pope.  

He continues the denunciation by saying these popes made money their god, and there is no difference between the old-school idolater and them, except the old idolaters prayed to one false god, while the popes appealed to hundreds that had money. He finishes by saying that the position the popes had after Constantine as heads of the official church has been turned into a great evil, particularly with the grants of land to the church. 

Virgil looks on approvingly at this, not only for its truth, but the greatness of its poetic utterance. Then they pass up to where they can see the next 'valley' or the fourth ditch. 

Canto XX  Eighth circle: fourth ditch- diviners 

The canto starts off saying new verses are needed for new punishments, to give substance to the twentieth canto of this first poem: the inferno. Dante looks and sees people in this fourth ditch moving along at the pace of a slow, religious procession, silently weeping as they go. As he looks closer, he notices that at their necks, they are each twisted around so that their heads face backwards, and they walk as they are facing, backwards. He says that he started to weep when he saw these twisted so much, che ’l pianto de li occhi le natiche bagnava per lo fesso, "their tears fell in their buttcracks". He says he had to lean against the rocks for support so he could weep. It's possible that Dante feels himself guilty of this, and that's why he has so much pity for these. He has certainly seen people in hell suffering terrible consequences, but he doesn't always show the kind of pity for them that he does here. However, Virgil reprimands him and says: "Are you like the other fools? Then Virgil makes something of a wordplay when he says: 

Qui vive la pietà quand’è ben morta 

The word 'pietà' can mean both pity and piety, so that what Virgil means is: Pity lives here when piety is dead. In other words, Virgil implies, Dante needs to conform his will to God, and understand that this is true justice. Who could be more evil than the guy who would implicate God's own justice against these sinners and feel that they deserve pity instead? Raise up your head and look at these guys!  Virgil then notes Amphiaraus, one of the seven kings who besieged Thebes. He had foreseen that he would not survive the war, and sure enough, the ground opened up and swallowed him. 

The sin of divination, as Dante sees it, is an offense against God in that it tries to know the future, which only God can and should know. And since, being placed in the eighth circle, they are guilty of fraud, clearly Dante doesn't see divination as actually capable of seeing the future, it is an attempt to defraud. And since they wanted to see so far forward, now they are twisted and only see behind them. 

Next Virgil points out Tiresias, who, in Greek mythology, beat a pair of copulating serpents, for which the gods used him to settle an argument about which sex derived more pleasure. So he was changed into a woman. Seven years later he came across another two snakes and didn't make the same mistake a second time, which turned him back into a man. The Italian says che rïavesse le maschili penne, "he had again his male feathers", but penne- feathers, sounds very close to pene- penis, so I translated it; he reacquired his masculinity.  

Then Virgil points out Aruns, from Lucan's Pharsalia, a seer who predicts civil war, but hides his prediction in ambiguities. His cave dwelling is meant to show that he didn't look at the stars to dwell among them (in the heavens), but only to better divine what would happen on earth. 

Next Virgil points out the witch Manto, who was the namesake of his hometown of Mantua. He goes through a protracted portion of the canto explaining how she left her hometown, and came to Mantua. He traces the waters in the alps to Lake Garda, then down through Peschiera to the Mincio river, where it becomes a swamp, before running by the town of Governolo before dumping into the Po river. Mantua was an uninhabited and uncultivated land where Manto sets up with her servants. Eventually the men there build a city with no other choice but Mantua for the name. 

Virgil says it used to have more people until Alberto da Casalodi was duped by Pinamonte dei Bonacolsi into exiling the other aristocratic families. Once Casalodi was alone, Pinamonte kicked him out and took power. Then Virgil ends by swearing that it's true, and if Dante hears a different story, it's a lie that would defraud him of the truth. 

Dante responds that he is fully convinced of the truth of Virgil's story. Then he asks if Virgil would point out any in the ditch that would be worthy of notice.  

Virgil further points out Eurypylus, a seer in Greece that told them when he thought the exact moment for sailing to war would be. 

He points out Michael Scot, who had made prophecies about Italy in the court of Frederick II. 

Virgil mentions Guido Bonatti, an astrologer from Forlì, but Virgil says nothing more about him.  

He also mentions Asdente, meaning "toothless", who was a shoemaker, hence one who "understood leather and twine, and now would return, but repents too late". 

He also points out women who left their work to instead try and cast evil spells with herbs and images. 

Finally, Virgil says it's time to move on, in another baffling way: 

Ma vienne omai, ché già tiene ’l confine  d’amendue li emisperi e tocca l’onda  sotto Sobilia Caino e le spine; 

This literally is translated: 

"But come now, because already it keeps the border  of both the hemispheres and touches the waves  over Seville, Cain and his thorns." 

Uh, wut? 

So apparently the "it" is the moon. The moon was also apparently represented as Cain, carrying his thorns, as part of his punishment and banishment from Eden. So putting it all together, the moon is laying where both the hemispheres meet, just over the waves, or horizon, at Seville, to the west.  

If you understand all that.... which I didn't.... it should equate to about 6am. Well, why didn't he just say that? 

Canto XXI  Eighth circle: fifth ditch- graft (public corruption, as compared to ecclesiastical corruption with simony) 

Dante leads this canto off with an almost off-handed comment that he and Virgil, as they were walking along, talked about all kinds of things, but those topics don't concern this story, so they won't be included. Why put this into the poem? It's meant to add realism to the account, and give the impression that this journey actually happened. And just like there would be moments in any journey that wouldn't really be worth recalling, there were in this one too. 

As the travelers come to the next ditch, Dante tells us that it was really dark. He uses the images of the working on a shipyard, and using tar to seal up any gaps between the planks, to describe the boiling pitch in which the sinners are tossed in this ditch. But this inclusion of the workings of the shipyard is much more detailed, and it sort of begs the question: why did he go into explaining how the Venetian shipyards worked? The answer may be to act as a counterpoint to the sin described in this ditch. The Venetian shipyard, where each is involved in a meaningful work that contributes to the whole, contrasts the corruption of graft, where individuals pervert the working order for personal gain.  

Virgil then tells Dante to look over at a certain place, while pulling Dante back out of the way. Dante is petrified and sees a winged demon carrying a sinner by the thighs by gripping him with the claws of his feet. The demon tosses the sinner into the pitch while telling his fellow demon he is one of the elders of Santa Zita, meaning the city of Lucca. The demon is both vicious and yet somewhat humorous as he tells the other demon to stow this one below while he goes back for more, since the city is plenty stocked with bribe takers, except "Bonturo". This Bonturo was apparently the greatest bribe taker of all, even though he claimed he had cleaned up the city and the corrupt practices of his predecessors. So the demon is mocking him by saying all the officials, except Bonturo, will change their answers from no to yes for a price. Dante describes the sinner being tossed into the pitch, disappearing, the bobbing back up.  The demons sarcastically mock the guy by yelling at him that the "Holy Face", that of Jesus (they are referring to the sinner's head as looking like the wooden statue of Jesus at the San Martino church because his skin is now covered in tar), has no place here in hell. Then they taunt him that he can't go swimming here like he would in the Serchio river, where the citizens of Lucca would go swimming during hot days. They threaten that he'd better not pop his head up again or they sink their hooks into him. Then they DO stab him and mock him again saying: You'd better dance (take your bribes) in secret here and grab (the cash) in hiding. Dante notes that as cooks' helpers push the meat back down into the sauce if it floats to the surface, so these demons would push the sinners back down if they tried to come up for air.  

Virgil tells Dante to hide for a moment while he negotiates with the demons, so Dante crouches behind a rock. The Virgil presents himself before the demons, who rush out at him. But he confronts them by saying: Let none of you be malicious towards me. Before anyone tries to snag me with their hook, send out a leader to talk to me. After that, take counsel if they care to proceed. 

The demons send out Malacoda, 'eviltail', while questioning what Virgil thinks he will accomplish with this parlez. Virgil launches in on Malacoda, asking him if Malacoda things that he, Virgil, would be here unless it were the will of heaven, and favored fate? Let them pass since this is God's will, so that he can show another the savage path through hell.  

Then Malacoda, pretending to be humbled, drops his hook, and tells the other demons not to harm Virgil. Virgil calls Dante out, who quickly comes to Virgil and holds as close to him as he possibly can. 

Dante notes that he once seen soldiers that had occupied the castle at Caprona, given a pass to vacate the place as part of a plea deal. They were allowed to leave unmolested, but showed themselves to be quite afraid as they left surrounded by a hostile army. Dante himself felt like this as he saw the malicious look in the faces of the demons. In fact, one of the demons says to another, "Want me to smack him on the rump?", and the others say, "Yeah, give him one!" But Malacoda, the principle demon, told him: "Scarmiglione, (Crumplehead) don't do it!" 

Then Malacoda offers passage by telling Virgil that they can't go any further since the next bridge has been demolished. He says while that bridge is busted, there is another further on. He even gives an exact date: Yesterday, five hours later than the current one of today, and 1266 years ago, the bridge was broken. This would correspond to earthquake when Jesus came down into Hell. So, Malacoda, proposes, he was going to send some of his boys over that way anyway, to check and see if any sinners were 'displaying themselves'- popping up out of the pitch- and since they were going that way, they could accompany Virgil and Dante to make sure nothing happens to them. Malacoda promises that the demons won't trouble them at all. 

Then he calls up ten different demons, the names of which mean (loosely, according to Anthony Esolen): 

Alichino- Harlequin  Calcabrina- Tramplefrost  Cagnazzo- Larddog  Barbariccia- Curlybeard  Libicocco- Stormbreath  Draghignazzo- Dragonsnout  Ciriatto- Swinetooth  Graffiacane- Dogscratcher  Farfarello- Gobgoblin  Rubicante- Redfroth 

Then Malacoda tells the demons to take a look around the pitch (for any sinners popped up), so Virgil and Dante would be safe until the ridge which crosses over. It seems safe to assume that when he tells the demons to keep Virgil and Dante safe "until" that point, he is giving the demons permission to attack them at that point. Part of the punishment of this ditch is that these demons are tricksters. There is a constant back and forth between the grafters who committed fraud, and their demonic counterparts, so that nothing can ever be trusted. Malacoda himself deceives Virgil by sandwiching a lie(that there is another bridge over the ditch further on), between two truths, the first being that the bridge is demolished, and the second so specific- the timing of the destruction of the bridge- that it makes it easy to corroborate, and therefore accept the entirety.  

Dante is not reassured at all, and begs Virgil to refuse the escort and go alone. Virgil tells him not to worry, the demons are just happy about the possibility of poking more sinners, not about attacking them. Then a humorous incident occurs to end the canto: they demons all turn towards Malacoda and put their tongues between their teeth, signaling to him, at which point, elli avea del cul fatto trombetta, he made a trumpet of his ass. 

[kajalingale]

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