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thetldrplace · 1 year ago

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Inferno: Cantos 7-14

Canto VII

This canto starts off with some puzzlers, including the very first line:

«Pape Satàn, pape Satàn aleppe!» uttered by Plutus.

Dante doesn't explain what it means, and no one really knows. It could be that Dante meant it to be just babble, but as one translator said: certainly Dante knew it would be a mystery, so we'll just leave it as it is, since we weren't meant to understand it.

Virgil and Dante enter this level of hell and are met with Plutus, Virgil tells Plutus to shut up, since Dante has been sent there by God's will. But he says of this:

Vuolsi ne l’alto, la dove Michele fé la vendetta del superbo strupo.

This is wanted from on high, where Michael

revenged the proud 'strupo'...

"strupo" is unknown. It may be Dante twisting the word stupro to make it rhyme with cupo, but stupro, which means 'rape' doesn't quite fit the context, which is clearly Satan's revolt against heaven. The general consensus seems to be broaden 'rape' to 'violence', and as such, it can be understood as prideful violence, or arrogant revolt or something to that nature.

Dante likes to use word pictures, and he uses two in this canto.

The first is when Plutus is confronted by Virgil, Dante says:

Quali dal vento le gonfiate vele caggiono avvolte, poi che l’alber fiacca, tal cadde a terra la fiera crudele. Just as sails swollen by the wind fall in folds if the ship’s mast breaks, the cruel creature fell to earth.

The second is the description of the fourth circle, which I'll give in its place.

Fourth circle This circle of hell is where the avaricious or greedy are sent. In the first verses, Virgil addresses Plutus with these words: Quiet, damned wolf!

This can probably refer back to the wolf Dante encountered in the first canto, and it is widely understood to be referring to the Church of the day- the political machinery, not the faith itself, for which Dante had plenty of animosity.

In this fourth circle, the damned the avaricious- divided into two camps: the hoarders and the spenders, who are pushing huge rocks around with their chests, in opposite ways.

Here Dante likens them to: Come fa l’onda là sovra Cariddi, che si frange con quella in cui s’intoppa, così convien che qui la gente riddi. As the waves around the Charybdis crash together over the whirlpool, so here must the people whirl around.

They block each other, then curse the other for blocking their paths, screaming: perché tieni?? "Why hold on?"; perché burli?? "Why waste?". Burli isn't exactly 'waste', it means 'to mock'. But in context it can be understood as 'frittering away' money. This goes on endlessly. These weights are a metaphor for the material goods they chased after in life. Dante says that he should probably recognize some of these condemned souls, and notices that many of them have the bald spot clipped out on their heads, marking them as clerics. Virgil tells him to let it go. Their sin is such that it has erased them to the point of being unrecognizable.

Dante asks about Fortune, and why it holds the worlds goods so tightly?

Virgil chides Dante for his ignorance and explains that Fortune distributes goods for many to enjoy, not just a few. Fortune, then, is seen as a sort of deaf goddess responsible for distributing earthly goods as needed among men.

Then Dante and Virgil come across a spring that falls down a passage into the river, or marsh, Styx.

Fifth Circle This leads to the fifth circle, where those who were consumed by anger were condemned. As in the previous circle, this sin is divided into two camps: the outwardly angry, who each other endlessly; and the inwardly angry- the sullen.

The sullen are condemned to live under the water in the swamp, where they complain. But they can't quite get the words out clearly since they are underwater. The words bubble up into an indistinct turmoil that stir the surface. They were not grateful for God's creation and provision, but grumbled about their lot.

The canto ends with Virgil and Dante coming to the foot of a tower.

Canto VIII Still on the fifth level, Dante backtracks a bit to before he came to the foot of the tower mentioned at the end of Canto seven. He notes two lights at the summit of the tower, then another signaling from afar. The single light appears to have been Phlegyas, the helmsman of the boat that would carry them across the Styx. Phlegyas was the son of Ares, god of war, in Greek mythology. He burned the temple of Apollo at Delphi because Apollo killed his daughter. For this Apollo shot him with arrows and condemned him to punishment in the underworld. In the Aeneid, he is shown tormented in Tartarus and warning others not to despise the gods. Phlegyas threatens them, but Virgil shuts him down.

One commentor explained that Phlegyas role was more of one who would roam the waters looking for those trying to escape. The reason he screams at Virgil and Dante is that he mistakenly thinks he has caught some souls trying to escape.

There is another interesting description:

My guide descended into the boat, then had me enter next to him; and only when I was onboard did the boat seem loaded.

It was mentioned that since the others are spirits, they have no bodily substance, no weight. But when Dante gets on board, the boat seems loaded.

While crossing, they encounter one who appears from out of the slime. It is Filippo Argenti, unnamed at first, though Dante says he recognizes him, even through all the filth he is covered with. Argenti challenges him for being there before his time. Dante responds that he is there, but not staying, and then asks how he was made so ugly? Argenti replies that he is one who weeps. But Dante tells him it's fitting, and that he is a cursed soul. Argenti 'extends his hands to the boat', apparently to try and tip it over, but Virgil shoves him away and tells him to join the other dogs.

Virgil's response is interesting. After Dante calls out Argenti, Virgil grabs Dante, hugs him and kisses his face, and says Alma sdegnosa, indignant soul, Blessed is she who gave birth to you! This is an instance of righteous anger, which was considered important as a proper response to sin. Up until now we've seen Dante mostly react in pity to the damned, but here, he is indignant at it.

Virgil then explains that Argenti's arrogance on earth landed him here, and though on earth he acted like a great king, here, he is a pig in the mud, suffering indignities.

Dante expresses that he would love to see Argenti dragged into the muck before he went. At which point the others in the river yell: Get Filippo Argenti, and lay into him to torture him.

Filippo Argenti was a member of the Black Guelphs, opposed to Dante's White Guelphs. The Black family, the Adimari, profited from the sale of Dante's family's confiscated goods. Boccaccio mentions him in the Decameron as having a rash temper. He was tall, burly, and famous for his iron fists.

Sixth Circle Now Virgil and Dante draw near to a walled city called Dis. Dis is supposed to represent the counterpart of the new Jerusalem, housing the most depraved sinners. It is conceived as a medieval city with sinners swallowed up in moats. Its turrets are minarets of mosques, the sacred places of Christendom's fiercest enemy- Islam.

As they approach, thousands of demons appear and confront Virgil and Dante. Virgil pulls them aside for a conference apart from Dante. They respond that Virgil alone can come and Dante can return by himself back to where he came from, if he dares.

Dante is freaked out by this prospect and begs Virgil not to leave him alone. Virgil tells him not to worry, and goes to speak with the demons. The conference doesn't last long, and the demons beat a hurried retreat to within the walls of their city.

Virgil returns to Dante as tells him not to worry if he, Virgil, appears upset. Virgil explains that he must overcome a test against whoever it is inside that is defending the entrance. But that this is not new.

The demons tried this once before at a more prominent gate. This is apparently a reference to when the crucified Christ entered into hell and led the captives their out. Virgil says even now the bars that once guarded it are no longer there, and that Dante himself had seen the inscription written there.

Virgil announces that even now, someone was on the way that would open the gates.

Herein is another interesting point: Virgil is the representation of reason. And up until this point, they had been opposed, but Virgil could recite the formula that Heaven wanted this, so get out of our way, and it worked. The monsters would cede way. But now, the demons refuse. It speaks of the limits of reason. Reason is good to a point, but it can't prevail all on its own.

Canto IX Dante and Virgil are still on the banks of the Styx waiting to get in to the city Dis. Dante says he turns pale when he sees Virgil turn back and try to disguise his frustration. Virgil mutters that "we MUST win this fight, if not...." And here he seems to check himself and change his tune so that Dante won't be so alarmed. Virgil switches gears and notes that one from heaven has offered to help, but then Virgil adds out loud that his coming seems very slow! Dante then tries to ask in a politically expedient way, if anyone from the first circle has ever made it to this particular level? Virgil understands that Dante is essentially wanting to know if he, Virgil, actually knows where they're going? Virgil tells him that yes, he has been down that way once before, when he was requisitioned by the witch Erichtho to fetch a soul for her.

Erichtho was a mythological witch, noted for her horrifying appearance and necromancy. She could apparently restore life to dead unburied soldiers.

After Virgil assures Dante that he does indeed know the path well, he says something that I'm unsure of:

Questa palude che ‘l gran puzzo spira cigne dintorno la città dolente, u’ non potemo intrare omai sanz’ira, This swamp that sends up a great stink around the city of woe, we can’t enter without anger.

I translated it pretty straightforwardly: where we can't enter without anger. The modern Italian interpretation of it renders it as: "we can't enter without recourse to force". And another Italian source interprets sanz'ira (without anger) as without defeating ourselves (with good).

So I'm unsure as to how to understand it: do they need to get mad to enter in? Do they need force to get in? Or do they need to conquer their anger with good?

How they actually get in is one of the coolest things I've read, and I can't narrate the story without getting choked up, but more when we come to that point.

At that point, the three furies from Greek mythology show up on the top of the wall and threaten Virgil and Dante that they'll get the Gorgon Medusa and turn them into stone. Virgil takes this very seriously and turns Dante away, telling him not to look or he'll stay down there forever. Just to make sure, he covers over Dante's eyes with his own hands. Now, if we take Beatrice's words from the earlier Canto 2, where she explains that nothing in Hell can hurt her, so she has no fear, we can suppose the furies threats to be impotent. But Virgil doesn't think so.

Then... we get a triplet that is an enigma:

You who have sound reasoning, note the doctrine that is hidden under the veil of the strange lines.

No one is exactly sure what these lines refer to. There is some hidden doctrine in the lines..... the lines after? The lines before? What is the doctrine? We don't know.

But now comes the cool part. Over the water comes an angel that will help them. This is such a powerful scene! As the angel approaches, the demons that had defied Virgil and Dante entrance, scatter like frogs when their enemy the snake shows up. They get clear of the angel because they know they cannot stand in his presence. The angel arrives at the gate, almost bugged that he has to come down here and deal with these idiot demons, and holds out a small sword, and pushes the gate open. Then he calls out to the demons and asks where the arrogance to pull such a stunt came from? Why would they attempt to resist a will that can't be stopped, AND, has already increased their pain when they've tried it in the past? Then he turns around, and without a word to Virgil and Dante, but looking like he has other more important things to do, heads off.

Virgil and Dante then enter the city unopposed, where they find a vast countryside filled with open tombs that are on fire, some hotter, some less hot.

The poem mentions some names that I needed clarification on:

As at Arlés, where the Rhone stagnates, And as at Pula, near the Kvarner which baths and encloses Italy,

Arlés is in modern France where the Rhone stagnates before it empties into the mediterranean. There, we find the tombs of the soldiers of Charlemagne where he held off the Muslim invaders.

Pula is in modern Croatia, near the Kvarner bay where there is another great burial ground. "which baths and encloses Italy"; the modern border of Italy ends at Trieste, but Italy, in Dante's time still held territory slightly to the south of Trieste in modern-day Croatia.

But as Dante and Virgil enter in to the city and see the open tombs, Virgil explains that these are the tombs of the arch heretics, each with their followers, and that there are many more than Dante would believe buried here. Virgil says they're buried together, like with like, and that some tortures are hotter than others. Then they turn to the right, and pass between tortures and high towers, or battlements. This is where Canto 9 ends.

Canto X As Virgil and Dante continue through level six, Dante asks Virgil if he can talk to some of the people being tortured in the open graves all around. Virgil says their graves are open for now, but they will be closed when they 'return her from Jehosephat', referring to the biblical mention of the last battle at the Valley of Jehosephat. The graves, Virgil informs Dante, are here the graves of the Epicureans, who were materialists and said everything, including the soul, dies. Virgil also says his question will be answered very soon, and....another one he (Dante) wants to ask, but isn't saying out loud. Dante responds that he's trying to stay quiet since Virgil has already reprimanded him a few times for speaking out of turn.

Just then, someone pops up and addresses Dante, recognizing Dante's accent as a fellow Tuscan. It is Manenti degli Uberti, who was called Farinata. He was a Ghibelline leader who ousted the Guelphs in 1248. But they returned in 1251 after Frederick II died. If you don't remember, Ghibellines supported the Holy Roman Emperor in Germany, while Guelphs supported the Pope in Rome. After 7 years of strife, they Ghibellines were driven out in 1268.

Dante turns around and notes Farinata's pride and bearing. Virgil gives Dante a gentle shove towards Farinata and tells Dante to make his words count. As Dante moves towards Farinata, Farinata questions him about who his family was? Dante tells him and Farinata remembers that he had twice banished them from Florence. Dante responds that they also returned twice, which Farinata's family hadn't when they were banished.

At that point, someone else showed his face, looking around for someone else, then asking if Dante had come down to hell through some ingenious mechanism, and why wasn't his son with Dante?

Dante recognizes who this is, Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, who was a fellow Guelph, and the father of Dante's friend and fellow poet, Guido Cavalcanti, and mentions that his son, Guido, perhaps held such a thing in disdain. At this, the father noted that Dante spoke of his son in the past tense, and intuited that his son was already dead, at which point he fell back and was gone.

Though Cavalcante and Farinata were on opposite sides originally, they are placed in the same grave by Dante because in order to resolve differences between the two families and factions, Guido married Farinata's daughter Beatrice. The fact that they share the same tomb would irk both men.

Farinata resumed his speech, as if nothing had happened, saying that if his family hadn't returned from exile, he was more tormented by that knowledge than he was by his torture in hell. Then he utters this strange saying that needs some interpretation:

The face of that woman who reigns here will not be seen fifty times before you’ll know how heavy that art is.

The 'woman who reigns here' is persephone, queen of Pluto, god of the underworld, who was identified with the moon. So.... 'the face of that woman' was the full moon, which means that not fifty full moons, or roughly, 'fifty months' would pass before Dante himself would know how heavy banishment without return was.

Then Farinata asks why 'those people' meaning the Florentines, were so resistant to his family and laws? Dante responds that the slaughter, undefined in the text, but referring to what the Ghibellines enacted in 1260 at the battle of Montaperti, caused them to do so.

Farinata explains that he wasn't the only one who wanted the battle, nor was it without reason. But it was, in fact, him alone, who, in his view, had proudly resisted the Guelph attempts to reassert themselves.

Dante then says to Farinata that if his family hopes to have any peace, he can answer a question Dante has: Why can those in hell know the future, but not the present?

Farinata responds that they see dimly those things far away, which is still some grace that is given them by God, but that as events approach in time, they dim to nothing, so that they can't know what is actually happening unless someone from the world brings them news.

Dante asks, as an afterthought, for Farinata to let Cavalcante know that his son isn't dead yet, it's just that Dante hesitated because he was thinking about this other thing he wanted to know, which the father interpreted as Dante not wanting to tell him his son was dead.

At this point, Virgil calls Dante to continue, and Dante quickly asks Farinata who else is there with him. Farinata says Frederick II is there, and 'the Cardinal', referring to Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, who reportedly said: "If there is a soul, I've lost it for the Ghibelline party". After this, Farinata refuses to speak any more.

Finally Dante moves on with Virgil, who tells him to remember everything that is spoken against him while here, and that when he finally gets to "that sweet radiance of she whose lovely eye sees all", Beatrice, she'll reveal answers to him. Then they leave the outer wall and journey towards the center where they are met by an awful stench.

Canto XI Still in the sixth circle, the first inside the hellish city of Dis, and containing the heretics, they had journeyed inward towards the edge of the descent to the next level. As they come to the rim, they are hit with an overwhelming stench coming from down below. They withdraw aways from the edge and hide behind the cover of an open tomb that reads: here lies Pope Anastasius, led away from truth by Photinus.

Virgil suggests it would be best to proceed bit by bit, so their senses can get used to the stink and not be overwhelmed. Dante agrees and adds that they should redeem the time during their delayed descent. Accordingly, Virgil begins to explain the structure of hell with its various levels.

He says there are three more rings, each smaller as they go down, just like the ones they've been through already. Virgil starts his explanation of this structure by stating that the end of all malice that men bear is an injustice, and these occur through either force, meaning violence, or fraud. Since fraud is "man's own evil", his peculiar vice because it depends on reason, as one commentor explains, it is considered worse than force, and therefore is assigned lower in hell.

Virgil explains that the seventh circle is for the violent, but since violence can be against self, others, or God, and in each of those categories, can be subdivided further as either against them, or against their things, there are multiple rings within the seventh circle.

Against others, is violence leading to death or serious injuries. But against others things, one can commit ruin, arson, or extortion. So in the first ring are killers, the malicious, plunderers and predator... and these are each tormented according to rank.

Against self, one can commit sins either against his own body, or against his goods. In the second ring, people repent, but there is no help for them. Sinning against one's own goods would be gambling or wasting one's wealth, or complaining when one should have been joyful.

Against God, one sin in 'violence' against him personally by denying Him or blaspheme Him, but also disparage his possessions: nature and its goodness. Here Virgil says the smallest ring seals (marks them as such) Sodom and Cahors. Sodom is relatively easy to understand. It comes from the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed as being particularly wicked, and the sin associated with Sodom is that when the Angels showed up to rescue Lot, the men of the city demanded to have sex with the angels, who appeared to them to be just other men.

So sodomy is essentially anal sex, either homosexual or hetero. Both were, I believe, condemned in medieval Italy at that time. Cahors was unknown to me, but it references a city in France well-known for its money lending and usury.

It probably seems a little weird to us at this point in time to understand Dante's breakdown of violence against God and his possessions. But in Dante's view, God's first possession is his 'daughter', nature; while his second possession is God's 'grandchild', human skill or endeavor. This will be explained a little more later.

Proceeding to the eighth and ninth circle of hell are those who sinned through fraud. Virgil says that fraud "ond'ogne coscienza è morsa", 'where every conscience is bitten', is divided into two types.

I am struggling to really convey the sense of that, because translating it literally doesn't really do that. I landed on "Fraud, the sign of a seared conscience...". Another Italian translation said it corrodes every conscience. The basic idea is that the one who commits this do so with knowledge of what he is doing. He plans it, it is committed with a purpose and an end, and as such, the conscience, which should be telling him what he is doing is wrong, becomes 'bitten' or corroded or seared, as we say in contemporary christian culture.. But anyway, carrying on, Virgil had said fraud consisted of two types: against one who trusts you, and against one who does not. Virgil says the latter 'severs the bond that nature makes', referring to friendship. The eighth circle then is filled with those who defrauded those who had no special reason to trust them: hypocrites, flatterers, those that bewitch, fakes, thieves, simony, or those that sold church privileges, ruffians, barterers, and 'similar filth'.

But in the lowest, or ninth, circle, are those that committed fraud against those that trusted them- the betrayers. They are endlessly consumed.

Dante acknowledges the clarity of the outline, but asks why those outside the city of Dis in the first five circles aren't they being punished inside the city, if God is angry with them. And if he isn't, why are they here at all?

Virgil chides him and tells him to 'remember his Ethics', apparently referring to Aristotle's work of the same name. Virgil reminds him that Aristotle wrote there were three things heaven wouldn't stand for: incontinence, or lack of restraint, malice, and 'deranged bestiality' (which was called 'brutishness' in one commentary). Virgil recalls that in the Ethics, simple lack of restraint offends God less, and is therefore punished less. He tells Dante to consider those in the levels above and then he would see why their punishment was less severe.

Dante then, somewhat comically in my mind, says, 'Oh sun that cures every troubled thought, I'm so content when you resolve things, that doubting is no less pleasing than knowing." Which is the flowery part before the "But....", which comes up as Dante continues on with "But..... can we go back just a bit?"

He wants to know why Virgil said usury offends God's goodness.

Virgil responds that philosophy notes how nature flows from God's intellect. As such, nature is like God's child. He tells Dante to recall another work by Aristotle, Physics, that says human 'art', or endeavor, which follows nature, is therefore, in the same way, the child of nature, and therefore, the 'grandchild' of God, by way of: God > nature > human endeavor.

Virgil then references the first part of Genesis (ch. 3), which many believe refers to God's command that after the expulsion from the garden, man should live by the sweat of his brow. The usurer, however, attempts to live, not by the sweat of his brow, but by making money off the work of others.

The canto ends with a few lines that I would have NEVER understood without help. It literally reads

But follow me now, I’d like to move on; for the Fish dart over the horizon and the Car lies over the Chorus, and the way down the ridge leads over that way.

Uh... wut?

The Fish is i Pesci, in the original and refers to the star constellation Pisces, and states that its position is moving close to the horizon, and then 'l Carro tutto sovra 'l Coro giace,; Carro is apparently Ursa Major, another constellation and 'lies over the Chorus', means it is in the northwest. Coro is literally chorus, which was the Latin name of a wind that blew from the northwest. All this is a stellar (wink, wink) way of telling us it's nearly dawn. But when I first saw those two lines I was utterly lost.

Anyway, Virgil basically says: it's almost dawn, so let's get moving.

Canto XII Seventh Circle: First Ring

Dante and Virgil come to the edge of a cliff, the place where they would descend down to the next level, and are here met with two distressing obstacles. The first is that the path down has been broken apart as if it were a landslide, and the second is a nasty Minotaur guarding the entrance. The minotaur is called the 'infamy of Crete.. The one conceived in an imitation cow'.

So, short break to tell the story of the minotaur, which I'll relay from wikipedia. In Greek mythology, Minos was one of several brothers competing for the throne of Crete. He prayed to Poseidon to send him a white bull as a sign of favor, which he would then sacrifice in honor of Poseidon. But Minos thought the bull so beautiful, he decided to keep it. Poseidon punished Minos by causing his wife, Pasiphae to fall in love with the bull. She had Daedalus make a hollow wooden cow, which she climbed into and allowed her to mate with the bull. She then bore Asterius, the minotaur- having the head and tail of a bull, but the body of a man. Since the minotaur was the unnatural offspring of a woman and beast, it had no natural source of nourishment and thus devoured humans. Minos constructed a giant labyrinth to hold the Minotaur.

One of the myths surrounding the minotaur was that young men and women would be sacrificed. Theseus, the Athenian prince, volunteered to kill the minotaur, and the way he was able to escape the labyrinth was, Minos daughter, Ariadne, fell in love with him and gave him a ball of thread, which allowed him to retrace his path out.

Now back to Virgil and Dante. Virgil taunts the Minotaur by telling him:

My sage yelled towards him: “Perhaps you believe that the duke of Athens is here, the one who killed you up in the world? Depart beast, for this one does not come as one taught by your sister, but he comes to see your punishments”.

The minotaur loses his mind in anger and thrashes about, allowing the travelers to get an moment to make a dash for the opening and start down the path.

This canto is significant in that Dante doesn't utter a word. But Virgil reads his thoughts about the landslide, and mentions that it wasn't always like this. The first time he journeyed here, it was a clear path, but when Jesus "raided Dis (The city in Hell) and carried off the spoils (the Old Testament saints) from the first ring (of Hell), the entire place shook, and the landslide occurred then. The poem contains some lines that were incomprehensible to me without explanation:

this entire deep and fetid valley shook such that I thought the universe felt love, for which there are those that believe the earth fell back into chaos; and at that point, this ancient cliff, here and elsewhere, came down.

The idea that 'the universe felt love, for which there are those that believe the earth fell back into chaos', was incomprehensible. Apparently it refers to the doctrine of Empedocles, a Sicilian philosopher who believed the universe was born when chaos, the confused mass of all the matter in the world, was energized by Strife and separated into distinct components. Love would recombine these into the original chaos. Strange as that sounds to our ears, it was clearly a thing, and maybe even a thing that Virgil believed. But of interest also is the idea that when Jesus came through, even the structural integrity of Hell was not above Him. He rolled through and left a mark on even the order of Hell.

Continuing on, the pair arrive down at the valley and see a river of boiling blood, in which 'those who harmed others through violence' are tortured. So those whose blood boiled over into violence are punished eternally by boiling blood. The moat, or river, of blood forms a wide semi-circle, and around the edge are centaurs, who shoot their arrows into any that attempt to free themselves from their allotted level of punishment.

As Virgil and Dante make their way down, they are noted by the centaurs who stop what they're doing and confront the travelers, demanding to know who they are and why they've come, or else get shot.

Virgil says he'll speak only to Chiron, their leader. Then Virgil relates who three of them are: Nessus, Chiron, and Folo. Chiron speaks to the others and notes that wherever Dante steps, the ground actually moves, meaning he isn't a spirit, he's alive. Virgil tells him that he is very much alive, and his journey through hell isn't for pleasure, but was mandated from heaven by "one who left off singing Hallelujah to commit this new mission to me", referring to Beatrice. He then asks Chiron to lend him one of his centaurs to carry Dante and lead the way. Chiron lends them Nessus and they start off along the bank.

They see men up to their eyebrows, and Nessus explains that here are "Alexander", likely Alexander the Great, but it's not specified; and "the fierce Dionysus" who was a particularly evil governor over Sicily in Roman times. Azzolino, who was a Ghibelline rule that earned the nickname son of Satan. He is said to have one time burned eleven thousand citizens of Padova. Then Nessus mentions Opizzo II d'Este of Ferrara, who was killed by his illegitimate son.

At this point Dante writes: "I turned to the poet, but he said, 'Let him speak for now, I'll speak after'."

Which one commentor states that it seems like Dante had a hard time believing that Opizzo would be numbered among these others, but was told to hold his peace for now.

As they head further along the moat, the depth isn't as great, and we come to those in up to their throats. The only one mentioned here is one who "cut, right in the lap of God (a church) a heart that still drips in the Thames river". This is referring to Guy de Montfort, who murdered Prince Henry in the Tuscan town of Viterbo. The heart still dripping means the murder remained unavenged.

Further on, those in the river up to their waists are seen, where Dante says he knows a lot of them, but refrains from name-dropping.

Nessus the centaur notes that the spring is becoming shallower, as they can see, but that it is deeper on the other half, and there he would find Attila, Pyrrhus and Sextus (Sextus Pompeius, son of Pompey the Great, whose piracy was put down by Octavian and Anthony), and then Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo, two contemporary highwaymen, Ghibellines, who had attacked and killed a bishop and most of the clergymen in the entourage.

At this point, they turn and cross the swamp... and the canto concludes.

Canto XIII Seventh Circle: Second Ring

At the end of the last canto, Virgil and Dante had turned to cross the swamp with Nessus, but this canto starts with them not yet on the other side when they find themselves in a dark forest unmarked by any path. The foliage isn't green, but dark, with knotted and tangled brush.

I found the third triplet really difficult to sort through:

Non han sì aspri sterpi né sì folti quelle fiere selvagge che ’n odio hanno tra Cecina e Corneto i luoghi cólti.

Literally that translates as:

They don't have such bitter shrub, nor so thick those wild beasts that in hate they have between Cecina and Corneto the cultivated places.

That is essentially incomprehensible to me. After wrestling with it, and consulting lots of Italian translations and explanations, I arrived at the more comprehensible:

The land between Cecina and Corneto, with wild boars that avoid cultivated land, didn’t have such dense, tangled brush.

The wilds mentioned are the Tuscan Maremma, which is a dense expanse of stunted trees and thickets inhabited by wild animals, but to the real point: it is understood that Dante was purposefully mangling his syntax to give a feel for the dense and tangled nature of the forest our travelers found themselves in. Whew... I thought it was ME!

Anyway, continuing, Virgil stops Dante and says, before you go on, you need to understand this is the second ring. Keep your eyes open because you're going to see some crazy stuff here. Dante is hearing voices crying out, but sees no one, so he is thinking they should maybe hide, but Virgel prods him to break a branch off of one of the trees. When Dante does, the tree screams "why did you break me?", and blood issues from the plant.

The plant tells Dante that he was once a man. Virgil speaks to the plant and apologizes, telling the plant that unless Dante had done that, he would never have believed it, but now, in exchange for some more info, Dante will return up to the land of the living and tell people his story. The plant says he "held both the keys of Frederick's heart. (II , Holy Roman Emperor), and that he was so close that he knew the secrets of nearly all who came to see the emperor. This would turn out to be Pier della Vigna, one of the finest poets of the Sicilian school, who was a trusted aid to Frederick from 1230 until his death.

The plant says that a 'harlot', meaning envy, goaded others in the court to seek his downfall, and in turn, 'inflamed Caesar (Frederick himself) against me'. In prison, della Vigna killed himself. Here he stops, and Virgil prompts Dante to ask him more. But Dante is so overwhelmed by the story he begs Virgil to ask for him. Virgil asks the plant to explain how a human soul comes to be held in hell as one of these knotted plants.

He says that whenever a person commits suicide, it is sent by Minos down to this section. It falls wherever it may land, and sprouts there. This is symbolic. Their bodies are carelessly thrown down just as they carelessly took their own lives. The Harpies chew on its leaves, which causes it pain, and also creates a window for pain. Like everyone else at the judgment, they'll return for their bodies, but will be unable to put them back on, since it would unjust to give them back what they themselves took off.

Right at this point, they hear crashing through the brush, two men, naked and completely scraped by having run through the woods. The one in front says Death! Run for it!, and the second says "Lano, your legs didn't move so quickly at your joust on the river Toppo.

At this point we switch from dealing with those who committed violence against their bodies through suicide, to those who committed violence against themselves through squandering their wealth. "Lano" would be Lano da Squarcia of Siena, who belonged to the "Squanderer's Brigade. Reduced to poverty in life, he sought death. Now he seeks it forever in vain.

The other is Jacopo da Sant'Andrea. There are a bunch of stories of his nihilistic self-destructiveness, one of which was stuffing one of his houses with his own goods and setting it on fire so his guests could behold something truly magnificent.

Anyway, the men are running when the one behind throws himself behind a bush and tries to cover himself with it. But they were being pursued by a pack of black hell-hounds, and they sniffed him out and tore him limb from limb, then carried off the pieces while they were still feeling pain.

The bush who had been torn to cover the man gave away who it was by asking why HE had to suffer for Jacopo's evil life. The plant then asks Virgil and Dante to collect some of the leaves that hard been torn off and scattered by the dogs' attack and lay them back at the base of the plant. He then mentions that he himself was from:

...the city that changed the first patron to the Baptist, and for this

he will always make her sad through his art; and if there were not on the bridge over the Arno, still remaining some view of him, those citizens that then rebuilt her over the ashes the remained after Attila, they would have labored in vain. I made myself a gallows of my house

The first patron of Florence was the god Mars. But after Christianity, they ditched him for John the Baptist. For this, the soul speaking claims Mars, the god of war, will continually work against Florence to bring strife, so that even after the raids by Attila the Hun, attempts to rebuild would be in vain.

We don’t know who the soul speaking is.

Canto XIV Dante says that love for his native land gripped him after hearing from the unknown suicide whose branches were torn in the previous canto. He gathers up the leaves and lays them at the base of the shrub. Then they come to the transition from the second to the third ring.

Seventh Circle: Third Ring

Dante describes it as a wasteland with no plants, made of arid sand. Flocks of naked souls weep there. Some lay flat on the sand, others sit huddled, and others move continually. Those that move were the most numerous, and those that were lying flat wailed the loudest. Broad flakes of fire rained down on them continually, which the people tried to shake off in what Dante calls an 'unending dance, and what flakes fell on the ground were like a match on kindling, so that their pain was doubled.

This section of the inferno is for those that committed violence against God: first against him, then against his possessions- nature. Those that lie on the sand are the blasphemers, those that sit are the usurers, and those that walk are the sodomites.

Dante asks Virgil who the man is who lies, insolent and bent, but acts as if the fire doesn't harm him?

The man hears and answers himself that he is now just what he was in life. This boast is meant to underline that he is unrepentant, he will not allow even the punishments of hell to change him. But his follow up speech left me scratching my head. So I had to look up what the references meant. First off, here is what he said:

If Jove were to tire his blacksmith, from which he angrily took the sharpened lightning bolt where on my last day I was struck; or if he wore out the others, one by one, at the black forge in Mongibello calling ‘Good Vulcan, help, help!’ as he did at the battle of Phlegran, and puncture me with all his force: he’ll get no joy out of his vengeance.

We'll find out from Virgil that this is Capaneus, one of the seven kings that besieged Thebes. He had boasted that his god was his own manhood, and that fear was what fashioned the gods. While scaling the walls, he threatened war against Jove himself, provoking the god to strike him with a lightning bolt.

He falls, scorning the lightning even as it kills him, and hurling blasphemies to the last.

So the first triplet is:

If Jove were to tire out his blacksmith, Vulcan, from whom he took the lightning with which he struck me, which killed me making it my last day;

The second is:

Or even wore out all the other Cyclopes together with him, by forcing them to work in continuous shifts in the forge at Mongibello, asking for their help

The third triplet:

As he did in the battle against the Titans at Phlegra, when they tried to scale Mt Olympus. And hurled everything he had at me with all his force, I'd still not give him the pleasure of seeing me bowed!

Vulcan was the smith of the Greco-Roman gods, who is said to have his forge beneath the volcano Mt Etna. Mongibello is an old name for Mount Etna, coming from the Arabic Jabal. This was changed to Mons Gibel, and then to Mongibello.

But Virgil calls out to him and tells him that it is unrepentant pride and rage that fittingly completes his torture.

Virgil then tells Dante to keep close and watch that he doesn't step on the sand. They arrive at a spring that he likens to the Bulicame, a hot spring near Viterbo, Italy.

Like the stream that issues from the Bulicame, which sinning women divide amongst themselves, so this stream ran down through the sands.

I've read, and I would probably guess, that 'the sinning women', le peccatrici, referred to prostitutes, who would use these hot springs to bathe since they were denied entrance to the public baths.

The stream is said to be so red, or of such a red, that Dante is still horrified by it, just thinking about it.

Virgil says 'since they've come through the gates at whose entrance no one is denied (Hell itself),

Dante will not have seen anything so notable as this river "which douses all the flames above it".

He then tells him about an island, Crete, now broken, but that used to be well run, where there is mountain called Ida. There Virgil says, is a guard... by which me means a statue, that has it's back turned to 'Dammiata', referencing an ancient city on the Nile delta, and symbolizing Egypt, and faces Rome. Then he describes the makeup of the statue that roughly corresponds with the statue Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream in the book of Daniel. The statue represents the history of the kingdoms of the world, and there is a crack in the statue that weeps tears, which collect at the base of the statue, run out through the cavern, and become the rivers Acheron, Styx, and Phlegeton. What he is describing is human suffering, through tears, are the basis of the rivers of Hell. Hell flows literally with human tears.

The description of the statue shows a degeneracy of mankind, from gold down to the frail terra cotta. The statue, the old man, is depicted as leaning on one foot more than the other:

da indi in giuso è tutto ferro eletto, salvo che ’l destro piede è terra cotta; e sta ’n su quel, più che ’n su l’altro, eretto. From there down it is choice iron, except for the right foot, which is baked clay; and on that foot, more than the other, he stands.

Virgil notes to Dante that this river starts in the world above.

Dante asks where the Phlegeton and Lethe rivers are. Virgil says he's already seen the one, but the Lethe will be seen later outside of here, where souls go to wash themselves when their repented sins have been removed.

At the end of the canto, Virgil says it is time to move on.

#dante #inferno

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