Night of Thursday, April 7 through dawn of Good Friday,
April 8, 1300. The Dark Wood.
At the age of thirty-five Dante realizes
that he is lost in the dark wood of worldliness, ignorance and sin. He tries to
escape by climbing a sunlit mountain—an ascent which may signify his quest for
enlightenment, or, less likely, his hopes for a better life through philosophy
or even a successful career. His advance is blocked by three beasts which
represent evil tendencies: the leopard (lust), the lion (pride), and the wolf
(avarice). These will later correspond to the three divisions of Hell where the
sins of incontinence, bestiality, and fraud are punished. In the course of the
poem Dante personally admits to the first two.
As Dante is being driven back down the
mountain he meets the shade of Virgil, his ideal poet. This representative of
reason—blurred and dim from long silence, both in the world and in Dante's
consideration—declares that the only route of escape is back down through Hell.
That is, one must comprehend evil before one can master it. He also foretells
the coming of a world redeemer, a Hound which will drive the wolf of
covetousness back into Hell. The identity of the Hound is a subject of critical
debate, but the most common interpretation is that it is Dante's future
benefactor, Can Grande della Scala ("great dog"), ruler of Verona
from 1308 to 1329 and an Imperial viceroy, whose birthplace, Verona, lies
between Feltre and Montefeltro. However, the prediction may have been less
specific, referring to an Emperor who would come at the end of the world to
restore justice and balance. A third possibility - if one takes the word feltro
to mean felt or coarse cloth— is that salvation would come from those who wear
the robes of poverty. There are several other possibilities, and it is likely
that Dante intended both a historical and spiritual meaning.
Virgil offers to lead Dante through Hell
and Purgatory, after which "a soul more worthy" than he would become
his guide, for Virgil is not permitted into Heaven. Dante accepts, and they set
off on the journey.
Canto I hints at many themes which will
be developed in the Comedy, not the least of which is its physical division
into the wild and dark wood (2), corresponding to Hell, the lonely slope (29),
corresponding to Purgatory, and the sunlit mountain (16, 77), corresponding to
Heaven.
Thus begins this journey which is at
once personal—a voyage of discovery and revelation for the sake of Dante's
salvation— and universal— a moral and spiritual education for all men and
women.
Earth's surface — the dark wood________________•
Vestibule
................................................... River Acheron
Circle I, limbo
Circle II, carnal
sinners
Circle III,
gluttons
Circle IV, prodigal and avaricious
Circle V, wrathful and sullen
.......................................Marsh of Styx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Walls of Dis
The canto begins with Dante trying to
prepare himself for the difficult journey. Lacking confidence, he compares
himself to the two figures who had previously visited the realms of the dead:
Aeneas, who visited the lower world in the sixth book of the Aeneid, and St.
Paul, who tells us in 2 Cor. 12 that he traveled to Paradise. The former's experience
prepared the way for the Empire, and the latter's was fundamental in
strengthening the Church. By comparison, Dante asks, why should an ordinary man
like himself, without a comparable mission, be granted visions of the
afterlife? (Of course in this way Dante is comparing himself with these two.)
Note that this is the first of many
instances in which Dante balances scriptural and classical illustrations,
Church and Empire. Also, the easily overlooked words "You say
that..." (13) may indicate that Dante did not accept the literal truth of
Virgil's account but looked for a deeper poetic truth, just as he expects the
reader to do in his own epic.
In order to bolster Dante's courage,
Virgil must give arguments which go deeper than reason. Virgil himself is not
the source of his own action. God has sanctioned Dante's rehabilitation, and
Virgil, as an embodiment of reason, is only the messenger and agent. Virgil
describes how the Virgin Mary, distressed at Dante's situation, summons Lucia
(probably St. Lucia of Syracuse), who in turn summons Beatrice, who enlists the
aid of Virgil. Mary is traditionally the embodiment of mercy and compassion;
Lucia, or "light", seems to have been held in particular veneration
by Dante (98); and Beatrice, whose name signifies blessedness, represents
revelation, and is the core link in Dante's journey to salvation. Among their
many poetic and spiritual functions, these three ladies serve to counter the
three beasts in Canto I.
Dante's journey thus has its origin not
in the dark wood but in Mary's act of pity, and the culmination of the journey
will be back at its source, in Heaven.
Virgil finishes his account by asking
why, with three such blessed ladies supporting him, as well as Virgil's own
encouragement, Dante still does not have enough confidence to set out
(121-126). Dante's strength revives, and he declares that Virgil is now his
guide and master for the journey.
The inscription above the open Gate of
Hell is made especially ominous by the repetition of the words, "Through
me," three times. Dante is here made aware of the judgmental nature of
God. Virgil immediately cautions him against cowardice (14-15), for unlike the
sinners they will witness, Dante still has the intellect with which to see
clearly and achieve salvation.
The Vestibule of Hell houses those who
were lukewarm in life, neither good nor bad, contributing nothing to human
life. Appropriately, the shades rush eternally after an aimlessly whirling banner
or standard (52). Both Heaven and Hell reject them, and Dante shows his
particular disdain by mentioning none of them by name. Even the "cowardly
creature" who "opts to decline" greatness (59-60) is too obscure
to identify with complete certainty. The stinging of wasps and hornets (66)
indicates the pettiness of what irritated them in life, and, like the whirling
banner, is an example of contrapasso, the appropriate, often ironic punishment
or retribution engendered by the sin itself.
The river Acheron ("joyless")
flows between the Vestibule and Hell proper. Like the other rivers of Hell,
Dante took its name from Virgil, who took it from Homer. The banks of Acheron
are crowded with souls waiting to be ferried across by Charon, the classical
boatman. Virgil explains their eagerness to cross as the product of divine
justice working automatically in them, driving them to their eternal doom
(124).
Charon recognizes that Dante is not one
of the damned but one of the elect, and refuses to take him across. Thus he
orders him to "take a lighter boat," (91) referring to the vessel
piloted by an angel to Mount Purgatory, which carries souls destined for
Heaven. Virgil chides Charon (93-96), in the first of many explanatory threats
which he will deliver to obstinate figures in Hell.
A sudden earthquake, reminiscent of the
one which preceded the descent of Christ into Hell, shocks Dante into a swoon,
so that he will awaken in Canto IV on the other side of Acheron, without having
experienced the crossing.
This canto owes much to the sixth book
of the Aeneid, in which Aeneas visits the world of the dead. However, Dante is
much more dramatic than Virgil, whose tone is sublime, even, and melancholy. In
addition, the spells and tokens of magic which are instrumental in Aeneas'
journey are here replaced by reason and spiritual forces.
Earth's surface — the dark
wood_______________________
A thunderclap awakens Dante on the other
side of Acheron. From the abyss below he hears wailing, and misinterprets
Virgil's look of pity for one of fear. Theybegin their descent to the first
circle of Hell.
Limbo was invented by the early Church
fathers to serve as the abode of two groups: unbaptized children and the
virtuous patriarchs of the Old Testament.The former, having neither sinned nor
believed in Christ, were to remain in Limbo forever. The latter, believers in
Christ by anticipation, were released by Christ when he descended to Hell
between the crucifixion and the resurrection. The Church called this the
Harrowing of Hell, an event witnessedby Virgil, but interpreted by him as the
coming of "one who was mighty andpotent," (53) since he could not
understand the significance of Christ.
Dante takes the radical step of adding
to these infants and ancient Hebrews a third group, the virtuous pagans. These
worthy figures abide in a splendid castle representing natural wisdom without
Christian faith, from which emanates the light of human genius. Among the
honorable pagans are the five ancient poets whom Dante most esteemed. Their
acceptance of him as their sixth signifies Dante's claim to equality, but the
fact that they must remain in Limbo while he advances demonstrates his claim to
an even higher ranking.
This is one of the most difficult cantos
for a modern reader to agree with. Although Dante is careful to show the
greatest respect and admiration for the poets, philosophers, scientists and
others who reside in the magnificent castle, he nevertheless indicates that
because they were ignorant of Christ, they cannot progress to Purgatory or
Heaven. Even Aristotle, to whom all show admiration (133), and whose philosophy
is so instrumental in the Church's own cosmology, is precluded from advancing.
In addition, many readers cannot accept the perpetual condition of unbaptized
infants in Limbo, although there is no other choice, given the logic of Dante's
medieval scheme.
Finally, Limbo is obviously modelled on
Virgil's Elysian Fields in Book vi of the Aeneid.
Earth's surface — the dark
wood_______________________
The sins of Circles II through V are in
the general category of incontinence,(as distinct from those of violence and
fraud, in lower circles). With this canto begins Hell proper, which we confront
immediately in the figure of Minos. This is one of the pagan figures, not
necessarily evil, whom Dante utilizes, often turning them into demons. In Book
xi of the Odyssey Minos, the king of Crete, is the judge of the dead. Book vi
of the Aeneid continues the tradition. Dante has transformed him into a hideous
icon of cruelty and guilt. It is he who decides to which station each sinner
will be damned for eternity, indicating this by the twists of his tail (11).
The lustful are blown about forever in
darkness, a fitting contrapasso to the blind, uncontrolled passion they allowed
to dominate them in life. Their sin is not that they pursued the natural
instinct of sex, but rather (39) that they "put reason under lust's
command." Unlike the sinners below, they are presented without
grotesqueness, and with a near compassion never repeated in lower circles. This
can be attributed to Dante's inexperience at this initial stage of the journey,
to the lightness of the sin compared with others below, or perhaps to an
affinity and sympathy which Dante—whether traveller or poet— felt with these
sinners. While many shades are named and commented upon, one example is
portrayed in detail.
Dante's meeting with Paolo and Francesca
is perhaps the most widely known episode in the entire Comedy. Indeed, even in
this century, seven hundred years after the poem's appearance, a play,
Francesca da Rimini by d'Annunzio, and an opera by Zandonai based upon the
play, were written about the figure who inspired one of Dante's most convincing
creations. (The more popular orchestral work by Tchaikovsky, Francesca da
Rimini, was composed in 1876.) The particular contrapasso portrayed here has an
ironic perfection impossible to improve upon. Illicit lovers in life, Paolo and
Francesca are condemned to an eternity of exactly what they would hope
for—floating on the wind in each other's arms. Dante's attitude toward
Francesca has been a matter of debate among critics for centuries. In some
readings, Dante the pilgrim, but not the poet, is taken in by Francesca's
genuine grace and smooth talk. In others, the poet himself is seen to be
charmed by her. The most convincing view is that Dante the poet was truly moved
by Francesca's plight, but used the insight of his sympathy to present a
precise picture of her sin, whose sadly damning nature he never lost sight of.
Just as the poet swooned in Canto III
and was mysteriously transported by higher powers across Acheron, so he swoons
here and awakens in the next circle.
Earth's surface — the dark
wood_______________________
Gluttony, the second sin of
incontinence, has none of the potential charm of lust. It makes beasts of men,
deprives them completely of their individuality, and is punished by eternal
groveling in mire and filth. Whereas lust has the possibility of companionship,
here each is alone in his degradation, cold and miserable.
Cerberus, guardian of this circle, is
taken from the mythological, three-headed dog which guards the threshold of
Hades. As always, the guardian himself is the personification of the sin he is
guarding—in this case gluttony—and Virgil distracts him by throwing earth down
his gullets.
One shade, Ciacco, sits up as Dante and
Virgil pass. The name itself means "pig" or "piggish," and
it is his image which leaves a lasting impression of gluttony upon us. At the
same time he demonstrates the strange capacity of souls in Hell to see into the
future but not the past. In reponse to questioning by Dante, he describes some
of the political events Florence is soon to experience, (see footnote to line
64), and informs him that several men about whom he has inquired are further
down in Hell. The courteous, almost respectful tone which Dante adopts toward
Ciacco should not be surprising. There are at least two explanations for it.
First, Dante is still a novice pilgrim in Hell, not yet disgusted with the
sinners nor personally distant from them. And second, he may have cleverly
understood that this was the best way to draw the glutton into revealing what
he wanted to know.
After Ciacco falls down to join his
companions, apparently exhausted from the strain of talking to a real person,
the canto continues with Virgil and Dante engaging in conversation. The only
part of this which is revealed to us is Virgil's proof to Dante that the
sinners in Hell will feel increased torment after the day of Judgment.
Unlike previous beasts, Plutus, guardian
of the next circle, appears in the last line of the canto devoted to this sin,
but this is appropriate to a personification of the prodigal and avaricious,
who always hunger for more than they are entitled to.
Earth's surface — the dark
wood_______________________
Plutus, the classical god of wealth,
guards those who loved money, and their insubstantiality is portrayed by his
immediate and total collapse at Virgil's admonition. The two poets now
encounter the indistinguishable mass of misers and spendthrifts, those who were
so extreme in their use of worldly goods that they have lost all individuality
and are submerged in their sin. Virgil explains this precisely in lines 51 to
54. The misers or hoarders are on the poets' left, signifying the more despised
of the two groups, for their avarice was more inhuman. The clergy, whose
betrayal of Christianity always rouses Dante's fiercest reproach, comprise a
good many of these.
The two groups—apparently opposite but
really two sides of the same sin—perform a mutual dance which creates one
broken circle from their separate semi-circles. Rolling huge weights in a
futile, incomplete shifting of substance back and forth, they demonstrate how
in life they hindered the operation of Fortune, an angellic intelligence whose
purpose is to circulate goods among people and power among nations. These
sinners prevented the flow of goods by hoarding or squandering, and their just
contrapasso is to parody the complete circle which they never fostered in life.
The poets descend to the fifth circle where Dante, following the Aeneid,
portrays the second river of Hell, Styx, as a marsh. Here the fourth rank of
the incontinent—the wrathful—are punished. On the surface are muddy figures
furiously attacking each other, while the more sullen ones, those who kept
their wrath bottled up inside themselves, are sunk beneath the surface in filthy
slime. The division into these two groups derives from classifications by
Aristotle and Aquinas, and neatly parallels the earlier division into two in
the circle above.
Earth's surface — the dark
wood_______________________
For the first time Dante is mistaken for
one of the damned. Phlegyas, personification of anger and fury, races across
the water in his skiff in order to ferry the next wrathful soul to its place in
Styx. Virgil tells him to calm down, and as Phlegyas stews in his own
frustrated anger, the two poets enter his boat to be taken onward. The prow
sinks lower than usual under Dante's weight, for the shades in Hell, while
visible and tangible, have no mass.
A muddy figure rises up out of the
slime, irate with Dante for having come to Hell before his death. This is
Filippo Argenti degli Adimari, a nobleman of Florence whose family was
reputedly opposed to Dante. However, Dante's fierce response should not be
attributed entirely, or even primarily, to personal antagonism. Nor is he
simply being affected by the influence of the marsh, that is, taking on the
attributes of the sin he is observing. He is somewhat uncontrolled when he
says, "Weep in Hell," but he is still a novice traveller, and hasn't
yet learned to feel the proper indignation without succumbing to it. Virgil,
perhaps still remembering Dante's less than perfect response to Francesca, is
pleased at the progress he is making, and congratulates him on being
appropriately indignant (43-45). It has been suggested that Filippo Argenti
represents a new class of Florentines whom Dante holds reponsible for the
city's social and political problems. The attack would not be on the individual
but rather on the social class he represents. The travellers now confront a
great wall which encloses the city of Dis, marking the boundary between upper
and lower Hell. The sinners they have seen so far have been guilty of sins of
incontinence, lack of restraint on their passions, but the sins of those below
are more significant and permanent. Just within the walls, in the sixth circle,
they will meet the heretics, who are not merely impulsive like the sinners
above, but evilly disposed. Violent sinners will be encountered in the seventh
circle, and the fraudulent sinners in the eighth and ninth.
The approach to the city in Phlegyas'
boat is ominous. The long, circuitous route, the red glow, the boatman's
shouting, the thousand ferocious spirits at the entrance—all of this makes a
terrifying introduction for the poet. Worse, it seems as if his progress is to
be blocked, for the angry spirits defy Virgil and slam the gate in his face. On
an allegorical level one can say that the inquiring soul, probing evil, comes
to a fearful stop and cannot advance without assistance higher than reason.
Indeed, the soul even fears that reason, its only guide backward now that its
advance seems blocked, will abandon it (100). But Virgil assures Dante that he
will not leave him, and that their passage is guaranteed. At that very moment
help is on the way.
Earth's surface — the dark
wood_______________________
This entire canto is dominated by the
sense of fear. In terror when the canto opens, Dante watches Virgil's apparent
uncertainty and begins to doubt whether reason can guide him securely through
Hell. Virgil assures him that he has descended to the lowest and darkest depths
of Hell, and can remember every inch of the way.
While they are waiting for divine aid,
the three Furies suddenly appear at the top of a tower and summon Medusa to
turn Dante to stone. Virgil covers Dante's eyes and warns him against looking
at the Gorgon, and at this point in the canto Dante asks the reader to be alert
to the teaching buried in his words. Although many interpretations of this
direct address to the reader have been offered, perhaps Dante is simply asking
us to see that the Furies represent remorse, Medusa despair, and that the soul
will be paralysed without the help of grace. Of course the reference may be to
the insufficiency of reason to accomplish the journey, or there may be an even
larger referral to the poem as a whole.
A divine messenger arrives, opening the
gate with his wand and confronting the insolence of the damned with disdain.
Immediately inside the walls are the arch-heretics and their disciples. They
occupy a circle separate from the main division into three, for they have
sinned neither from weakness of flesh or mind, as have the incontinent above,
nor from violence or malice, as have those below. Because these sinners denied
Christianity, they are punished outside the Christian framework of sin. Their
sin is more significant than the sins of incontinence, and lies below them. But
it is a sin of intellect and not a source of sinful action, and thus lies above
the more pernicious sins Dante is yet to meet.
It is particularly ironic that those who
denied the reality of a future life, contending that the soul died with the body,
should spend that future life in tombs, which normally signify death.
The sin of heresy is the only sin
punished in Hell which is specifically Christian. All others are potential
moral failings for any human.
Earth's surface — the dark wood_______________________
While all heretics are punished here,
Dante writes only of Epicurus and his followers. At the time,
"Epicurean" was applied to freethinkers who, esteeming nothing higher
than comfort in this life, denied the immortality of the soul.
The participants in the drama of this
canto are three Florentines: Dante, Farinata, and Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti. As
the poets walk along and Virgil explains why the Epicureans are here, Farinata
suddenly stands upright in his tomb and calls out to Dante, whose Tuscan accent
he recognizes. This Ghibelline leader, who died the year before Dante's birth,
had saved Florence from destruction after the Ghibellines had defeated the
Guelphs at Montaperti. It is for this great act that Dante approaches him
deferentially, even using the respectful "voi", which he uses only
for Farinata, Cavalcante and Brunetto Latini in the entire Inferno.
Farinata's haughtiness is conspicuous in
his question, "Who were your ancestors?" (42), and in his disregard
for Cavalcante's interruption, continuing his speech as if nothing had
interceded (76). Farinata reveals to Dante that he will be exiled, and explains
that the damned can see into the future, know nothing but what they are told of
the present, and will no longer see anything at the day of judgment.
Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti is the father
of Dante's "first friend," Guido. The family were noble Guelphs of
Florence, and the choice of this figure not only juxtaposes a Guelph and a
Ghibelline— thus asserting that heresy cuts across party lines—but has the
further symmetry of Guido's being Farinata's son-in-law. Cavalcante's placement
in this circle is made plausible by Boccaccio, who in his commentary on the
Comedy says that both he and his son were well-known Epicureans.
Cavalcante, consumed with family pride
and the genius of his son, demands toknow why Dante is not accompanied by Guido
on his journey. In a stanza whose meaning is much debated, Dante tries to
indicate that perhaps Guido lacked something required for the journey (61-63).
When Dante uses a verb in the past tense—"felt" —an alarmed
Cavalcante asks if Guido is still alive. Dante hesitates to answer, aware that
Guido is ill and dying in Florence, and Cavalcante, taking his lack of response
as an affirmation of his son's death, falls back into the tomb.
Earth's surface — the dark
wood_______________________
At the edge of the high bank leading
down to the seventh circle the poets encounter the tomb of Pope Anastasius II.
Dante places him here because for centuries he was erroneously thought to have
permitted Photinus, a deacon of Thessalonica, to take communion, even though
Photinus was a follower of the Acacian heresy which denied the divinity of
Christ.
Most of this undramatic canto consists
of Virgil's outlining for Dante the plan of Hell. The classification of sins is
based upon Aristotle (Ethics, vii), and Cicero (De Officiis, i, 13). Aristotle
divides bad conduct into incontinence (uncontrolled appetite), bestiality
(perverted appetite), and malice (abuse of reason). Cicero wrote that wrong
might be done by force or fraud, fraud being the more contemptible. Dante
adapts these two sources to classify sins into those of incontinence (Circles
II-V), violence (Circle VII), and fraud (Circles VIII & IX). To these sins
of wrong behavior he adds, as we have seen, two circles of wrong belief, one
for the unbelievers (Circle I, Limbo) and one for the heretics (Circle VI).
The circle of violence is subdivided
into three rounds, comprising those who do harm to others, to themselves and to
God. The first contains assassins, thieves and tyrants; the second contains the
suicides; the third contains blasphemers, sodomites and usurers. While
blasphemers are clearly appropriate, the other two deserve some explanation:
sodomites do violence against Nature, God's minister;usurers do violence to
human industry, the offspring of Nature.
Circle VIII, the circle of simple fraud
or malice, Malebolge, is divided into ten bolgia, or pockets. The sinners in
eight of these are mentioned here, while "filthy vultures" suffices
for the other two, the fraudulent counselors and sowers of scandal and schism
(60). Circle IX, the circle of complex fraud or malice, is divided into four
regions.
After his outline, Virgil has to explain
to his pupil why the sins of incontinence are punished outside the walls of the
city. He does this by reminding Dante of Aristotle's description, in the
Ethics, of the three conditions revolting to Heaven (79-84).
Note that although they have already
passed through Circles I and VI, Virgil makes no reference to them, for the
sins of these circles are not covered by this system; that is, they are not
sins of incontinence, violence, or fraud. Observing the stars, Virgil declares
that they must be moving on.
Earth's surface — the dark wood_______________________
The canto begins with the Minotaur,
another of Dante's mythical guardians who portray the sin of their circle to an
extreme degree. His fury at Virgil's confrontation symbolizes the impotence of
brutishnes before the challenge of reason.
The intellectual nature of the previous
canto is replaced by the largely physical quality of this one. The sinners,
guilty of violent, bloody acts,fulfill the law of contrapasso by their
immersion in a river of boiling blood, the seriousness of their sin dictating
how deeply in it they are sunk. Yet the sinners themselves are much less
prominent in this canto than their guards, the Centaurs. These half-human,
half-animal creatures are appropriate to the bestial nature of the sinners they
guard, yet they are depicted with grace and dignity. Indeed, Virgil trusts them
enough to temporarily relinquish his leadership to them. Their contradictory depiction
may be Dante's comment on the outward calm and courtesy of Italian courtly
life, which underneath is vulgar and brutish.
Just as Virgil for a time takes second
place (112-113), so Dante removes himself from center stage by saying nothing
throughout the canto. He is an observer more than a participant, and his
perceptions serve to convince us, by their precision and realism, that the
fantastic world he is describing is tangible and true.
Earth's surface — the dark
wood_______________________
The canto opens with six instances of
"no" or "not" in the first seven lines, indicating the
inherent negativity of suicide. The dark, thorny wood is home to despairing
souls who, having separated themselves from their bodies before the time
designated by God, now live in sub-human bodies for eternity. It is fitting
that, having destroyed their corporeal selves by using a mobility and freedom
unknown to plant life, they should now be clothed in that lower form. It is
also fitting that as soon as the suicides have heard Minos' sentence they fall
into the wood at random, in no predetermined spot, for they have put themselves
beyond God's plan by revolting against it. The image of the wood is clearly
influenced by lines 32-43 in Book III of the Aeneid.
The example Dante chooses to represent
the suicides is Pier delle Vigne, chancellor of the Emperor Frederick II. The
choice is subtle and daring,—as many of Dante's choices are—accentuating the
specific sin against the contrasting background of a fine character. For Pier
displays an obvious sense of self-worth and dignity. Indeed, he did not kill
himself out of misery, but out of disdain for the disdain of others (70-71),
thus foolishly putting reputation above the injunction against suicide. To some
extent Pier is a reflection of Dante himself—a poet and politician brought low
in the world's eyes—and thus is bound to generate sympathy in him. But Dante
did not succumb to the temptation of suicide or any other ultimate sin, and
sees clearly the eternal damnation which an otherwise excellent man brought
upon himself. Dante perhaps chose to write about Pier as a warning to himself,
housing him eternally in a wood which recalls the wild and dark wood where
Dante himself was lost in Canto I.
By medieval times suicide had a long
history—at least since Augustine—of being considered a crime as serious as
murder in Christian eyes. Both were attempts to shorten the term of life
assigned by God, and were acts of insubordination against Him.
Together with the suicides are the
profligates or squanderers, whose violence to their own earthly goods was a
form of self-ruination or suicide. They are differentiated from the prodigal of
the fourth circle, who were merely wasteful without being violent. Two of them
are pursued by swift black bitches (126) who seem to symbolize the violence
which drove these sinners in their lives and now chases them for eternity.
Earth's surface — the dark
wood_______________________
The lowest round of the seventh circle
consists of a sandy plain rained upon by eternal fire, clearly signifying the
wrath of the God the sinners defied. In one of three categories, all the
sinners here went against the divine plan for human existence. Those who were
violent against God himself, the blasphemers, lie prostrate, facing the Heaven
they scorned. The sodomites, who sinned against God's child, Nature, run
ceaselessly, driven by the restlessness of their passion in life. The usurers,
sinners against art or industry, God's grandchild, crouch forever over their
moneybags. (In many lesser, supporting ways the theme of antagonism to God's
plan permeates the canto. For instance, Cato and Alexander are mentioned not
merely for the historical analogy they offer, but because they pitted
themselves in vain against God's larger scheme.)
The first group is the smallest, overt
blasphemy being unusual. Surprisingly, its main representative is a pagan,
Capaneus. One of the seven kings who attacked Thebes, he challenged Jove and
was killed by a thunderbolt. Now, for eternity, he rages uncontrollably and
pretends not to be bothered by the fire, a picture of furious, arrogant
impotence.
Crossing the hot, sandy plain is a
stream of blood, carried in a channel whose bed and banks are made of stone.
Virgil tells Dante that since they arrived in Hell he has witnessed nothing as
great as this stream, which quenches the fire falling upon it and makes it
harmless (85-87). His appetite for knowledge whetted, Dante begs to know more,
and Virgil tells him the story of the Old Man of Crete.
In antiquity the island of Crete—in the
Mediterranean between Egypt (the old world) and Greece (the new)—was thought of
as the cradle of Trojan (Roman) civilization, the central location of the
Golden Age. The image painted by Virgil derives from Nebuchadnezzar's dream in
Daniel 2:31-33, modified to fit the poem's needs. While Daniel interprets the
figure of gold, silver, brass, iron and clay as prophesying four kingdoms, here
it represents four degenerating stages of humanity. Only the gold head—
representing the condition of Adam and Eve before the fall—is free from the
crack down which flow the tears of man's sinful history. This stream of misery
descends to Hell to torment the sinners who originally caused it, emerging as
Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, and Cocytus.
The poets leave this ring by walking
along the cool margins of the river. The river's ability to lessen the heat
could not be merely a device to permit the poets to exit this circle. Perhaps
Dante wants the stream of human agony to soften the harsh Christian vision of
divine retribution.
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Brunetto Latini was a prominent figure
in Florence in the generation preceding Dante's. Older than the poet by about forty-five
years, he was a respected civic leader, scholar, translator of Cicero,
intellectual and moral authority.
In 1260, while returning from the court
of Alfonso X of Castile, where he had been sent as ambassador, he learned of
the Guelph loss at Montaperti. Prudently remaining in France for the next six
years, he wrote his encyclopedia, Li livres dou Trésor, in French, and a shorter didactic, allegorical
work, the Tesoretto, in Italian. When the Ghibellines were defeated at
Benevento in 1266 he returned to Florence, serving in various public offices,
and dying in 1294.
While the majority of critics have
assumed that Dante had some private information indicating Brunetto's
homosexuality, a significant minority hold that sodomy is not Brunetto's sin. A
convincing case is made for a more intellectual vice, a mental violence against
Nature. Indeed, Brunetto shows no confidence in the potential goodness of man,
and as a thinker completely lacks the benefit of the kind of grace bestowed
upon his protegé, Dante. His desire is for worldly fame and influence, and the
very last lines of the canto show him fit for—and trapped in—exactly such an
ungodly achievement.
A third critical perspective holds that
Brunetto's particular sin is much less important than the fact that he has
sinned at all. Dante's surprise at finding him in Hell (29-30) demonstrates
that even those friends and figures we consider morally and intellectually
sound are fallible. He represents another self- warning to Dante, another
semblance of himself which failed.
A fourth evaluation of Brunetto—held by
a very small minority of commentators—is that he sinned in exalting a language
other than his own (French) above his native tongue.
Aside from the question of his precise
sin, Brunetto represents the deterioration of Florence and the bankruptcy of
his generation's legacy. The city is even more corrupt now than it was before.
In this Brunetto is a counterpart to the Old Man of Crete in the previous
canto—specifically a symbol of deterioration for Dante's own time. Thus his
portrayal implies that Dante's poetic effort is the only true salvation for
Florence, and indeed Brunetto's own praise for the younger man unknowingly
proclaims this.
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Dante hears the distant roar of a
waterfall, which grows louder as he and Virgil advance. Three Florentine shades
recognize his dress and come to converse with him, continually turning together
like a wheel. These well-known citizens of Florence ask for news of their city,
and Dante delivers an invective against the degeneracy of their mutual home.
Throughout the scene there is a stark contrast between the respect which these
honored citizens draw from Dante, and the sin for which they are eternally
condemned.
Toward the end of the canto Dante
cultivates a sense of mystery. Virgil requests the rope around Dante's waist
and flings it down into the pit. He then reads Dante's thoughts, and, as both
wait expectantly, a strange creature approaches which Dante assures the reader
was actually there before his eyes. Commentators do not agree about the
significance of the cord. There is an unsubstantiated story that the young
Dante became a novice of the Franciscan Order and later left it. The cord would
symbolize external discipline against worldly temptations, and its being thrown
away would mean that Dante no longer needed this restraint of vows but now had
sufficient internal control and development. It is more likely that the rope
represents some quality which Dante no longer relies upon and which he can
fling as bait to the creature coming into view. One candidate would be the
quality of unfounded, egocentric self-confidence. This might serve to satisfy
and ensnare the creature which in the next canto is portrayed as the very image
of fraud and deceit. Dante himself would no longer need this flimsy support,
but rather base himself in humility and correct knowledge.
The entire canto is concerned with
language, its plausibility and veracity. The model from which the episode of
the cord derives —Virgil's account of Lacoon in Book II of the Aeneid—is itself concerned with the mistrust of a spoken
truth. Dante, complimented by the three Florentines (80-81) on his clarity of
speech, soon afterward (123-136) feels compelled to promise the reader that the
fantastic story he is about to tell is true. Of course in asserting that what
is patently imaginary is indeed the truth, Dante preempts us from disbelieving
him. We go along with a fiction which presents itself as truth, for the sake of
uncovering the truth concealed in the circles of Fraud and in the monster of
deception we are about to confront.
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Virgil sends Dante to investigate the
usurers, while he convinces the beast Geryon to carry them down to the eighth
circle. The usurers are on the lip of the chasm, at the limit of the third
round, just as usury at the time was not quite fraudulent but on the edge of
fraud. Some commentators think Dante believed it was a sin to profit by lending
money, but the examples show that what was being punished was deceitful usury
by men of wealth. This was antagonistic to true industry, "God's
grandchild". Note that Dante is unable to recognize any of these sinners,
for the love and pursuit of gold has worn away their human individuality,
leaving them identified only by the moneybags which hang about them through
eternity. Members of aristocratic families, they are known by the animal
emblems they wear. As the final sinners of violence, yet with an asect of
fraud, they make fitting transitions to the next circle, where fraud dominates.
Geryon is another figure adapted from
classical mythology. He was a giant with three bodies who possibly ruled Spain,
fed the flesh of his guests to his sheep, and was slain by Hercules. Dante's
particular creation undoubtedly derives from Revelation 9:7-11 and to Pliny's
description of a beast called a Mantichora, which had the face of a man, body
of a lion, and tail with a scorpion-like sting (Historia Naturalis, viii, 30).
Albert Magnus and Brunetto Latini also describe such beasts. Ultimately,
ancient Egypt is the source (e.g. the sphynx), although Dante was probably
unfamiliar with Egypt directly.
The transition to the eighth circle,
where the sins of fraud and their punishments are even more severe than those
Dante has witnessed, is accomplished on the back of this personification of
fraud, Geryon. His "face of an honest man" (10) is clear to every
reader, and has historical roots in the common medieval belief that scorpions
had attractive faces. This is one of the few cantos in the entire Commedia in
which Dante is completely silent. Indeed, he seems mesmerized into silence by
the amazing and frightening figure of Geryon, and too disdainful of the usurers
to say anything to them. His single attempt at speech (94) is stifled by fear.
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The canto begins with a plain statement
that "there is a place called Malebolge in hell," as if to reveal the
simplicity of fraud beneath all its intricate deceptions. Its iron-colored
stone leaves no doubt that the sinners we find in the next thirteen cantos are
prisoners of their own twisted, morally insensitive devices. Malebolge—evil
pouches or pockets —is composed of ten concentric ditches or bolgias, with
ridges across them like spokes of a wheel.
In the first bolgia a file of pimps is
circling one way and another file of seducers the other, driven by horned
demons— horns being the traditional icon of adultery. The comparison of this double
file with the crowds in Rome during the Jubilee year is more than mere imagery,
for Pope Boniface VIII issued a Papal Bull which granted indulgence to all
pilgrims who stayed in Rome for fifteen days, visited St. Peter's and St.
Paul's, and confessed and repented their sins.
Dante's disgust with the flatterers in
the second bolgia is reflected in the briefness with which he talks to them as
a pilgrim, or describes them here as a poet.
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The quiet contempt which Dante
demonstrated in the previous canto changes to righteous anger when he deals
with the sin of simony, the trafficking in sacred things. The very first words
of the canto are an invective against Simon Magus, the magician after whom the
sin is named.
The use of one's ecclesiastical position
for personal profit was regarded as an offense against the Holy Ghost, but to
fit it into his scheme Dante puts it into the category of fraud. The sinners are
upside down, symbolizing the perverse nature of their sin, and since they have
specifically betrayed God's trust—even more than man's, which is secondary—they
are burned by the fire of God's anger on the soles of the feet.
For Dante, three of the popes who were
his contemporaries exemplify the sin at its worst. Nicholas III, down in one of
the holes (compared in lines 13-19 with baptismal fonts), mistakes Dante for
Boniface VIII, his successor in the hole. Aware in advance of when Boniface is
supposed to arrive, he cries out "this was not the plan," (51). He
then reveals that Clement V will be the third in this perverse analogy to
apostolic succession (81-88).
The narrative of Nicholas is delivered
to Dante like a confession (49), the layman receiving the Pope's account but
certainly not absolving him.
Reason occupies a particularly prominent
place in this canto, as portrayed by Virgil's actually carrying Dante down to
interview Nicholas and then back up again. Dante is operating under the guidance
of not just his own reason, but of Reason itself. Furthermore, Virgil
represents the Empire, which we know from Dante's views in De Monarchia had a
responsibility to guard its own area of jurisdiction from the encroachment of
the Church.
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Although Dante makes use of astrological
images throughout the Comedy, he follows Aquinas in his condemnation of
astrology or any other system of divination to foretell or control the future.
Dante believes sorcery, augury or any other magical activity is sinful, a view
which in fact was unpopular in medieval times, being confirmed by only the
Bible and Aquinas. While the stars might have some influence on human dispositions,
he holds, such effects were minor and certainly unpredictable. It was
fundamentally the Will of God which determined the course of the universe.
The contrapasso is effected by having
the faces of those who attempted to look into the future permanently fixed
toward the rear. Dante, moved to tears by this distortion of the human figure,
is rebuked by Virgil for showing pity, for such a response can only question
God's judgment. It is possible that Dante's compassion derives from his once
having appreciated the arts of divination, so honored by the ancient poets he
valued.
It is typical of Dante's sense of drama
to use daring illustrations. Here he selects one soothsayer from each of the
great Latin poems he admired: Virgil's Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Statius'
Thebais, and Lucan's Pharsalia. He seems to be saying to his contemporaries
that the poetic charm and skill of these works has deluded them into ignoring
the sinful nature of divination.
In the medieval mind, Virgil was
regarded as a magician, and his writings were even utilized in a method of
divination called "sortes virgilianae." (Virgil still has this
reputation in Naples.) Dante is clearly using this canto to dissociate his
master from this popular misconception. Mantua is not founded by Manto but
merely named after her, and there was no augury in its naming (93). Virgil is
very clear about denying any rumors to the contrary (97-99). And he is also
quite devoid of sympathy in naming and describing to Dante the sinners in this
circle.
Interestingly, the account of Mantua's
founding in this canto is different from the one which Virgil himself describes
in the Aeneid, Book X, which concerned a different Manto. Dante had heard of
the Theban Manto, and must have believed Virgil's original story was wrong.
With grace and irony, he lets Virgil deliver the correct version.
A reader of the entire Comedy might
notice that in Purgatory XXII Virgil places "the daughter of
Tiresius" in Limbo, rather than here in the fourth bolgia of Malebolge. Perhaps
Dante wrote this present canto first, with Virgil's original Manto in mind, but
later changed to Tiresius' daughter and forgot to correlate it with Purgatory
XXII.
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The unusual amount of space devoted to
the grafters—the next three cantos—can perhaps be attributed to a personal
motive. The standard accusation of graft while Dante was in office was so
absurd that not even his enemies really believed it. He himself did not deign
to respond to it, and these cantos may be the reply he withheld at that time.
The farcical, slap-stick manner in which the grafters and their demon
tormentors are presented was perhaps the most appropriate as well as personally
satisfying way Dante could deal with the issue.
The grafters are sunk in boiling pitch,
corresponding to the dark, secretive atmosphere in which they used to do their
dirty work. The way they scheme and cheat in the attempt to outwit and evade
their tormentors is also a continuation of their previous behavior.
Dante and Virgil watch the demons attack
a senator from Lucca, after which Virgil hides Dante from the demons while he
goes to negotiate with them. Holding off their attack with his words, Virgil
obtains a safe-conduct from Malacoda, the leader. He thereupon calls Dante out
of hiding, but soon discovers that the nearest bridge across the sixth bolgia
is shattered. Malacoda tries to entrap them by informing them that there are
other bridges ahead still intact, and, like the perfect, wily official who
disguises his lies in a web of exactitude, tells them that this bridge
collapsed exactly 1266 years plus nineteen hours ago. Malacoda provides for
them an escort of ten demons, absurdly comic to the reader, but so frightening
to Dante that he suggests to Virgil that the two of them run off and find their
own way, since Virgil has already been here.
The episode continues in the next canto.
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Dante sees many grafters submerged in
the pitch like frogs in water up to their muzzles. When the demons—the
Malebanche— appear, the sinners duck down below the surface. One unidentified
Navarrese is hooked by the demon Grafficane, and as he is being torn by
Rubicante and others, Virgil questions him. He reveals that below in the pitch
are Fra Gomita and Michele Zanche. He promises to lure some of his fellow
sinners to the surface if the demons will hide. Cagnazzo is suspicious, but
Alichino goes along with the plan, and as soon as the Malebranche have turned
away, the sinner dives down and escapes. Alichino pursues him futilely and then
Calcabrina races after Alichino, with whom he has a fight above the pitch so
that the two of them tumble in. Barbariccia organizes their rescue, and in the
confusion, Virgil and Dante slip away.
In his riotous account of the grafters
and their tormentors, Dante seems to be dispensing with both his earlier
accusors (the tormentors) and those with whom he was falsely accused of
collaborating (the grafters). However, while many commentators see a personal
tone to the description of this bolgia, others feel that such a view is purely
speculative.
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Virgil and Dante feel in danger from the
angry, fooled Malebranche, and slide down the slope to the sixth bolgia, just
ahead of their pursuers.
Dante observes a line of weeping
sinners, clothed in golden cloaks lined with lead. Two of these hypocrites
identify themselves as Jovial Friars. Just as Dante begins to speak with them
(110) he notices the shade of Caiaphas, crucified and transfixed by three
stakes to the floor, so that every sinner here must tread on him. The image is
clear: he bears the weight of all the world's hypocrisy, as Christ voluntarily
bore the pain of the world's sin. Similarly crucified are Annas and the other
false counselors who wanted to sacrifice Christ, really crucifying their own
souls as they crucified His body.
The Jovial Friars reveal that the
travellers have to climb up a rockslide in order to go on, and Virgil realizes
that Malacoda lied to him about the bridges over the sixth bolgia, all of which
were destroyed in the great earthquake at the moment of Christ's death.
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The travelers complete a difficult
ascent up the ruins of the fallen bridge. Dante loses his breath and sits down,
but Virgil encourages him onward. From the bridge over the seventh bolgia they
hear confused sounds from below, and at Dante's request Virgil leads him down
into the pit. Here serpents coil about the sinners, binding their hands behind
them and knotting themselves through the loins. The analogy is clear: thieves
are like serpents or reptiles, and their hands, which are the usual agents of
their thievery, are here bound. Dante sees a serpent fly toward a sinner and
pierce the jugular vein, at which the sinner bursts into flame, collapses to ashes,
and takes shape once more (96-104). Again, just as thieves take away the
property of their victims, so they themselves repeatedly undergo disintegration
throughout eternity.
Dante is surprised to find Vanni Fucci
in this bolgia, for in life he was known for his anger and brutality. As
insolent as he is, the character is ashamed to confess that beneath his
savagery—of which he is proud—was the even worse offense of stealing from the
sacristy, for which he is being punished.
Deeply embarrassed at his admission,
Fucci vents his malicious rage against Dante by predicting terrible strife in
Tuscany and the dashing of Dante's political hopes.
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In a crescendo of rage, Vanni Fucci
makes an obscene gesture at God, and is immobilized by tightly coiling serpents.
The centaur Cacus then speeds by angrily, carrying serpents and a
fire-breathing dragon on his back.
The rapid betrayals of the dog-eat-dog
world of thieves, the perpetual, reciprocal stealing, is represented by the
animal-human transformations of Agnello and Cianfa, and the interchange of form
between Buoso and Francesco. The occasional alternation in tense between
present and future supports the sense of transformation.
Dante displays a somewhat disdainful
attitude toward the use of similar metamorphoses by Lucan and Ovid. He is not
just claiming to have done a better portrayal of transformation, but to have
displayed something deeper, the exchange of higher and lower qualities between
man and beast. This was necessary, for the sin of thievery utilizes human
powers in the service of brute material possession.
Everything in this canto works toward a
sense of reptilian coldness, a lack of humanity, the absence of all feeling.
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The deceivers or evil counselors are
those who in life used their glibness and eloquence to mislead others. Because
they possessed and misused higher human capacities than those of previous
sinners, such as the thieves of the preceding canto, they have sinned more
severely and are placed deeper in Hell. The sinners are wrapped in tongues of
fire, which conceal them just as in life their speech concealed their thought.
It is possible that this particular representation was suggested by the Epistle
of James, which says that "...the tongue is a fire, an unrighteous world
among our members.. ..setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by
hell."
The narrative of Ulysses occupies nearly
half the canto. The great, colorful, wily Greek voyager is surely another of
those figures with whom Dante identifies, the victim or perpetrator of a sin
into which Dante himself might have fallen. Indeed, Dante perhaps represents
the quest for universal knowledge more than any other person of his time, and
as such would sympathize with the hunger for understanding which drove Ulysses
to his final doom. Deceiver from the start—his accomplishments in the Trojan
war were the result of guile—he finally smooth-talks, cajoles and inspires his
followers on a disastrous voyage westward in search of experience. Like Dante,
the reader feels awe before a character brave and adventurous enough to risk
death on such a journey of discovery. And just as the reader relishes the
relief of this mini-epic in the midst of the horrors of Hell, so, we might
assume, did Dante appreciate the opportunity to describe it.
The tale of this final voyage is, of
course, Dante's invention, although it is not completely without precedent.
There was at least one ancient tradition that Ulysses sailed through the
pillars of Hercules and founded Lisbon, and there were other tales of voyagers
to the Atlantic. The authenticated explorations of the Portuguese were still
two centuries in the future.
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After the departure of Ulysses and
Diomed, another flame, having recognized Virgil's Lombard accent, approaches
and asks the poets for news of Romagna, his native land. This is Guido Da
Montefeltro, a renowned Ghibelline general who later became a friar but
betrayed his vows when he urged Pope Boniface VIII to use fraud against the
Colonna family. Boniface VIII—whom we know from Canto XIX is due to arrive in
Bolgia III—managed to trick the otherwise shrewd Guido, by the promise of
absolution, into providing counsel toward his evil ends. This occurrence has
been independently confirmed, and thus is not Dante's invention. What Dante did
imagine was the battle for Guido's soul after his death. St. Francis of Assisi
is unsuccessful in claiming the soul, which is taken by one of the black
cherubim (112-113). That is, even though the Pope had absolved him in advance,
Guido's lack of true repentence nullified the absolution. By contrast, Guido's
son (Purgatory V) undergoes a moment of genuine repentence and is saved,
despite having lived an unreligious life until then. In the two contrasting
stories Dante illustrates that the state of the soul at death is the crucial
factor in determining its eternal fate.
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The sowers of scandal and schism are
divided into three categories: sowers of religious discord, political discord,
and discord between kinsmen. All are appropriately hacked to pieces by a demon
with a bloody sword, reconstituted, then hacked to pieces again and again for
eternity.
A modern reader is likely to be offended
at the way Dante treats Mohammed and Ali, his son-in-law. At the time, Islam
was regarded as the primary agent of Antichrist, some even believing that
Mohammed had originally been not just a Christian but a cardinal who aspired to
the papacy. Thus to the medieval mind he was a symbol of the worst schism
possible, the fracturing of the Church. As an early follower of Mohammed and a
future Caliph, Ali shared responsibility for this alleged break with the
Church. Dante may have been aware that Ali was the leader of a schism within
Islam itself, thus reinforcing his status as a sower of schism. It is clear
that in the early fourteenth century Dante could not have had sufficient
knowledge of Islam to judge it properly.
Among the other sowers of schism
punished in this bolgia is one who would have been particularly significant to
Dante or any other Florentine. This is Mosca Dei Lamberti, whose advice to kill
a Buondelmonte bridegroom who jilted a lady of the Amidei family
instigated—according to local tradition—the ongoing, bloody feud between the
Guelphs and Ghibellines.
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Dante, who would remain and weep over
the misery of the ninth bolgia, and particularly over the plight of Geri del Bello,
a relative, is reproved and coaxed onward by Virgil, the voice of reason.
The tenth bolgia is filled with a
confusion of falsifiers. The ones described fall into four categories:
falsifiers of metals (alchemists), of persons (impersonators), of coin
(counterfeiters), of words (liars). All suffer from diseases which change their
appearance, just as they themselves tried to change the appearance of things
and events in the world.
Only the alchemists are dealt with in
this canto. It should be noted that Aquinas distinguished two types of alchemy.
To seek a method of transforming lower metals into silver and gold was
acceptable, but the alchemical charlatanism which played on others' ignorance
and greed was not. This, of course, is the alchemy for which Griffolino and
Capocchio are being punished.
Dante erroneously thought that lepers
were subject to a terrible itch. The sinners' ceaseless scratching was meant to
mimic their continual petty deceptions in the world.
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This canto deals with the three
remaining categories of falsifiers: impersonators, counterfeiters and liars.
Unlike all other sinners in Hell, the falsifiers are tortured from within
themselves, rather than from without. (We speak of the immediate agent of
torture, not the ultimate contrapasso punishment, which in all cases is
engendered by the sin within the sinner.) As the alchemists in the previous
canto were afflicted with leprosy, so the impersonators are mad, the
counterfeiters have dropsy, and the liars have a fever which makes them smell.
These sinners, who falsified nature, themselves, money or language, have
basically corrupted their own souls, which are diseased for eternity.
The two illustrations of madness with
which Dante begins the canto are an ironic contrast to the madness of Schicchi
and Myrrha. The first of these classical torments was inflicted by the goddess
Juno, and the second by fortune, while the sinners portrayed here brought about
their own punishment through petty greed and cunning.
Master Adam, the counterfeiter, suffers
from eternal thirst, and is fittingly more parched by his own images of running
water than by the disease dessicating his face (64-68).
When one of the liars, Sinon the Greek,
gets into an argument with Master Adam, Dante watches with great interest until
Virgil rebukes him, as he did at the beginning of the previous canto. Dante
blushes at once, for he knows that sympathetic curiosity is an unworthy stance
toward such low behavior; nevertheless he needs Virgil to break his
fascination. The incident adds a final metaphor to the theme of the canto, for
Dante is being captured by this utterly spurious quarrel, briefly falling prey
to its falsity. Indeed, through this display of curiosity he leaves Malebolge with
a fitting tribute to the subtle power of fraud.
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Crossing from Malebolge to the central
pit—a well at the bottom of which lies Cocytus, the ninth circle—Dante seems to
see a city in the distance (21-22). As he comes closer he sees that what he took
for towers are in fact giants, visible above the rim of the well from the waist
up. Only a few of the giants are specifically named. Ephialtes and Briareus
were prominent at Phlegra, when the giants threatened the gods. Ovid, Statius
and Lucan all mention this incident.
The giants are personifications of
pride, and in this they are exceeded only by Satan himself, whom they attend
eternally. Ephialtes and Briareus dared to challenge the Greek gods, Nimrod
tried to build a tower to heaven, and the mentioned Tityos and Typhon insulted
Jove. Lines 54-57 sum up the severe threat posed by the giants, who combine
evil will with both mental and physical power. These are no longer local,
individual examples of incontinence, violence or fraud, whom the poets have met
in earlier circles, and who affect only themselves and those around them. These
are stupendous quantities of nearly unstoppable evil, able to challenge the
rulers of creation. Indeed, the enormity these giants and their potential
influence is represented by our inability to measure their physical size, or to
get a full view of them at any single moment.
Among other items to note is the use of
the word "tower" several times. In equating the frightening giants
with towers, Dante may have been commenting on the proliferation of fortresses
in his day. For him these were symbols of arrogance and violence, physical
manifestations of the pride of the warring noble families.
Also note the absurd futility attributed
to the giants. After their various unsuccessful attempts at assuming ultimate
power, they stand impotent and defeated. Only Nimrod speaks, and he babbles in
a language which, appropriately, no one else can understand. His blast of the
horn has no more meaning than a childish need to make noise, and he is stupid
enough to forget that the horn is hanging around his neck, right against his
chest.
Finally, note that Antaeus, while not
chained like the other giants—for he did not participate in the assault upon
the gods— has a savage reputation in classical tales and is just as dumb as the
others in this circle. For by promising that Dante can spread his fame above in
the world, Virgil easily convinces the vain giant to lower them in the palm of
his hand to the floor of Hell.
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Circle IX, Cocytus, Rings I and II, Caïna and
Antenora
The traitors to kin and country
The river flowing from the fissure in
the Old Man of Crete (Canto XIV), into Malebolge (Canto XVIII), now freezes in
a circular plain at the bottom of Hell. The metaphor is clear, for the heart of
the traitor was the coldest heart of all. (Punishment by ice was not
unprecedented in previous visions of Hell, as in the Visio Alberici. See the
footnote to line 2 of this canto.) Cocytus, the lake thus formed, is divided
into four concentric sections. Caïna, named for Cain, contains traitors to
kindred; Antenora, named for the Trojan Antenor, contains traitors to country
or party; Ptolomea, probably named for Ptolomy, a captain of Jericho, contains
traitors to guests; Judecca, named for Judas, contains traitors to benefactors.
The traitors in Cocytus differ from all
previous sinners in not wanting news of themselves delivered to the world above
(95-96). Such reports would only increase the infamy in which they are already
held by the living. Although they attempt to conceal their own identity, they
eagerly betray the names and stories of those around them.
In the first three sections the sinners
are buried in the ice up to their necks, while in the last they are completely
submerged. In Caïna, the traitors to kin are permitted to lower their faces,
letting them not only conceal their identities, but also shield themselves
somewhat from the cold wind and prevent their tears from freezing their eyelids
shut. In Antenora, where the treacheries have been against the public welfare
and thus are more serious than the private treacheries of Caïna, the sinners'
necks are held firmly in the ice and they cannot lower their heads. In Ptolomea,
where the sinners violated a chosen friendship—as distinct from an inherited
bond of family and country—treachery is punished even more severely, with the
head bent uncomfortably back. Finally in Judecca, where the traitors to
benefactors have in essence defied the entire structure of human relations,
nothing is visible above the ice.
At the end of this canto the poets
witness two sinners crammed into the same hole, one of them gnawing on the
other. Their story is left for the next canto.
Earth's surface — the dark
wood_______________________
Circle IX, Cocytus, Rings II and III, Antenora
and Ptolomea
Traitors to country; traitors to guests and
friends
The story told by Ugolino moves the
reader to sympathize with the sinner the way Francesca's tale in Canto V did,
or Ulysses' account in Canto XXVI. Indeed, in all three instances the poet is
challenging both the reader and himself to accept and understand God's ultimate
condemnation, in spite of the human response the story evokes. In another sense
Ugolino's story parallels Francesca's, for she is forced to exist through
eternity with the one she loved, while Ugolino shares the same hole forever
with the one he hates. Remember that Ugolino is being punished for betraying
his party, the Guelphs. For commentary on his story, see the footnote to line
14.
Treachery to guests and friends is
punished by having one's soul sent down to Ptolomea while one's body remains in
the world. This may have been suggested by Psalms 55: "....let them go
down to Sheol alive....men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their
days..." or John13:27, speaking of Judas: "Then after the morsel,
Satan entered into him."
Ruggieri, often forgotten in the drama
of Ugolino's narrative, is being punished for his treachery toward Ugolino, who
was once his friend. Having withheld food from Ugolino, he is now himself eaten
by his victim. In order to acommodate the two kinds of treachery, they must be
buried at the unmarked boundary between Antenora and Ptolomea.
To deceive a traitor was not only
permissible, but admirable, and those who had betrayed their guests or friends
certainly had no claim to humane treatment. Thus Dante feels no qualms about
betraying his own promise of lines 115-117. Note that this promise is cleverly
worded—that is, Dante is well aware that his downward journey will go beneath
the ice. In this way he deceives the traitor not only in failing to do what
he'd "promised," but through the words themselves.
Earth's surface — the dark
wood_______________________
"The banners of the King of Hell
advance," Virgil begins, parodying a medieval hymn as the two poets
approach the figure of Lucifer, himself a gross parody of the Godhead.
The traitors buried under the ice in
this final section, Judecca, are entirely out of communication with humanity,
and we never even know who they are. Only the greatest traitor of all—the
rebellious angel Lucifer—and the three souls he crunches in his jaws, are
identifiable.
Cast down from Heaven for rebelling
against God, Lucifer (Satan, Dis, Beelzebub) is fixed for eternity with his
upper body protruding into Hell. A parody or negative mirror of God, his three
faces are the opposites of God's love, wisdom and power. Like the seraphim of
Isaiah 6:2, and the four beasts around God's throne in Revelation 4:8, he has
six wings, a pair beneath each face. From the wings under the face of hatred
proceeds the wind of fraud or malice; from the pair under the face of ignorance
comes the wind of violence; and from the pair under the face of impotence comes
the wind of incontinence.
Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ,
is chewed by the red face of hatred. As he sold Christ for silver, he is even
worse than the simonists, and receives an analogous, although more severe,
punishment, his head is stuck into one of Satan's jaws with his legs outside.
(There is also a similarity to Lucifer's own position in relation to Hell.)
Brutus and Cassius, betrayers of the Empire through their assassination of
Julius Caesar, are only slightly less abominable, and are placed in the black
face of ignorance and the whitish yellow face of impotence, with their heads
out.
Virgil announces (69) that they have
seen all of Hell and that it is time to leave. Using the "stairs" of
Satan's hairy flanks, Virgil leads Dante down through a crack in the ice and out
the other side. From this point they no longer descend, for they have passed
through the center of the earth, but face an upward climb to the base of the
Mountain of Purgatory. Without stopping to rest, they pursue a winding path
toward the earth's surface, and just before dawn on Easter Sunday they emerge
again to see the stars.
Earth's surface — the dark
wood_______________________