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Dante's Inferno |
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Malebolge, The Eighth Circle of Hell Dante, Inferno Cantos XVIII-XXXIV
Inferno Canto XVIII:1-21 The Eighth Circle: Malebolge: Simple Fraud
There is a place in Hell called Malebolge, all of stone, and coloured like iron, as is the cliff that surrounds it. Right in the centre of the malignant space, a well yawns, very wide and deep, whose structure I will speak of in due place. The margin that remains, between the base of the high rocky bank and the well, is circular, and its floor is divided into ten moats. Like the form the ground reveals, where successive ditches circle a castle, to defend the walls, such was the layout displayed here. And as there are bridges to the outer banks from the thresholds of the fortress, so, from the base of the cliff, causeways ran, crossing the successive banks and ditches, down to the well that terminates and links them. We found ourselves there, shaken from Geryon's back, and the Poet kept to the left, and I went on, behind him. TopInferno Canto XVIII:22-39 The First Chasm: The Pimps and SeducersOn the right I saw new pain and torment, and new tormentors, with which the first chasm was filled. In its depths the sinners were naked: on our inner side of its central round they came towards us, on the outer side, with us, but with larger steps. So the people of Rome, in that year, at the Jubilee, because of the great crowds, initiated this means to pass the people over the bridge: those on the one side all had their faces towards Castello Sant' Angelo, and went to St Peter's: those on the other towards Monte Giordano. On this side and on that, along the fearful rock, I saw horned demons with large whips, who struck them fiercely, from behind. Ah, how it made them quicken their steps at the first stroke! Truly none waited for the second or third. Inferno Canto XVIII:40-66 The Panders: Venedico de' Caccianemico
As I went on, my eyes encountered one of them, and instantly I said: This shade I have seen before.' So I stopped to scrutinise him, and the kind guide stood still with me, and allowed me to return a little. And that scourged spirit thought to hide himself, lowering his face, but it did not help, since I said: 'You, who cast your eyes on the ground, if the features you display are not an illusion, you are Venedico Caccianimico : but what led you into such a biting pickle?' And he to me: 'I tell it unwillingly, but your clear speech that makes me remember the former world, compels me. 'It was I who induced the fair Ghisola to do the Marquis of Este 's will, however unpleasant the story sounds. And I am not the only Bolognese that weeps here: this place is so filled with us, that as many tongues are no longer taught to say sipa for sì , between the Savena's stream that is west, and the Reno's, that is east of Bologna. If you want assurance and testimony of it, recall to mind our avaricious hearts.' And as he spoke, a demon struck him with his whip, and said: 'Away, pander, there are no women here to sell.'
Inferno Canto XVIII:67-99 The Seducers: JasonI rejoined my guide: then in a few steps we came to where a causeway ran from the cliff. This we climbed very easily, and, turning to the right on its jagged ridge, we moved away from that eternal round. When we reached the arch where it yawns below to leave a path for the scourged, my guide said: 'Wait, and let the aspect of those other ill-born spirits strike you, whose faces you have not yet seen, since they have been going in our direction.' We viewed their company from the ancient bridge, travelling towards us on the other side, chased likewise by the whip. Without my asking, the kind Master said to me: 'Look at that great soul who comes, and seems not to shed tears of pain: what a royal aspect he still retains! That is Jason , who, by wisdom and courage, robbed the Colchians of the Golden Fleece. Inferno Canto XVIII:100-136 The Second Chasm: The FlatterersWe had already come to where the narrow causeway crosses the second bank, and forms a buttress to a second arch. Here we heard people whining in the next chasm, and blowing with their muzzles, and striking themselves with their palms. The banks were crusted, with a mould from the fumes below that condenses on them, and attacks the eyes and nose. The floor is so deep, that we could not see any part of it, except by climbing to the ridge of the arch, where the rock is highest. We came there, and from it, in the ditch below, I saw people immersed in excrement, that looked as if it flowed from human privies. And while I was searching it, down there, with my eyes, I saw one with a head so smeared with ordure, that it was not clear if he was clerk or layman. He shouted at me: 'Why are you so keen to gaze at me more than the other mired ones?' And I to him: 'Because, if I remember rightly, I have seen you before with dry head, and you are Alessio Interminei of Lucca: so I eye you more than all the others.' And he then, beating his forehead: 'The flatteries, of which my tongue never wearied, have brought me down to this!' At which my guide said to me: 'Advance your head a little, so that your eyes can clearly see, over there, the face of that filthy and dishevelled piece, who scratches herself, with her soiled nails, now crouching down, now rising to her feet. It is Thais , the whore, who answered her lover's message, in which he asked: "Do you really return me great thanks?" with "No, wondrous thanks." And let our looking be sated with this.' Inferno Canto XIX:1-30 The Third Chasm: The Sellers of Sacred OfficesO Simon Magus ! O you, his rapacious, wretched followers, who prostitute, for gold and silver, the things of God that should be wedded to virtue! Now the trumpets must sound for you, since you are in the third chasm. Already we had climbed to the next arch, onto that part of the causeway that hangs right over the centre of the ditch. O Supreme Wisdom, how great the art is, that you display, in the heavens, on earth, and in the underworld, and how justly your virtue acts. On the sides and floor of the fosse, I saw the livid stone full of holes, all of one width, and each one rounded. They seemed no narrower or larger, than those in my beautiful Baptistery of St John, made as places to protect those baptising, one of which I broke , not many years ago, to aid a child inside: and let this be a sign of the truth to end all speculation. From the mouth of each hole, a sinner's feet and legs emerged, up to the calf, and the rest remained inside. The soles were all on fire, so that the joints quivered so strongly, that they would have snapped grass ropes and willow branches. As the flame of burning oily liquids moves only on the surface, so it was in their case, from the heels to the legs.
Inferno Canto XIX:31-87 Pope Nicholas III
I said: 'Master, who is that, who twists himself about, writhing more than all his companions, and licked by redder flames?' And he to me: 'If you will let me carry you down there by the lower bank, you will learn from him about his sins and himself.' And I: 'Whatever pleases you is good for me: you are my lord, and know that I do not deviate from your will, also you know what is not spoken.' Then we came onto the fourth buttress: we turned and descended, on the left, down into the narrow and perforated depths. The kind master did not let me leave his side until he took me to the hole occupied by the one who so agonised with his feet. I began to speak: 'O, unhappy spirit, whoever you are, who have your upper parts below, planted like a stake, form words if you can.' I stood like the friar who gives confession to a treacherous assassin, who, after being fixed in the ground, calls the confessor back, and so delays his burial. And he cried: 'Are you standing there already, Boniface , are you standing there already? The book of the future has deceived me by several years. Are you sated, so swiftly, with that wealth, for which you did not hesitate to seize the Church, our lovely lady, and then destroy her?' I became like those who stand, not knowing what has been said to them, and unable to reply, exposed to scorn. Then Virgil said: 'Quickly, say to him, "I am not him, I am not whom you think." ' And I replied as I was instructed. At which the spirit's legs writhed fiercely: then, sighing, in a tearful voice, he said to me: 'Then what do you want of me? If it concerns you so much to know who I am, that you have left the ridge, know that I wore the Great Mantle , and truly I was son of the Orsini she-bear, so eager to advance her cubs, that I pursed up wealth, above, and here myself. The other simonists, who came before me, are drawn down below my head, cowering inside the cracks in the stone. I too will drop down there, when Boniface comes, the one I mistook you for when I put my startled question. But the extent of time, in which I have baked my feet, and stood like this, reversed, is already longer than the time he shall stand planted in turn with glowing feet, since, after him, will come Clement , the lawless shepherd, of uglier actions, fit indeed to cap Boniface and me. He will be a new Jason , the high priest, whom we read about in Maccabees: and as his king Antiochus was compliant, so will Philip be, who governs France.'
Inferno Canto XIX:88-133 Dante speaks against SimonyI do not know if I was too foolhardy then, but I answered him in this way: 'Ah, now tell me, how much wealth the Lord demanded of Peter , before he gave the keys of the Church into his keeping? Surely he demanded nothing, saying only: 'Follow me.' Nor did Peter or the other Apostles, ask gold or silver of Matthias , when he was chosen to fill the place that Judas , the guilty soul, had forfeited. So, remain here, since you are justly punished, and keep well the ill-gotten money, that made you so bold against Charles of Anjou . And were it not that I am still restrained by reverence for the great keys that you held in your hand in the joyful life, I would use even more forceful words, since your avarice grieves the world, trampling the good, and raising the wicked. John the Evangelist spoke of shepherds such as you, when he saw 'the great whore that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication', she that was born with seven heads and, as long as virtue pleased her spouse, had justification. You have made a god for yourselves of gold and silver, and how do you differ from the idolaters, except that he worships one image and you a hundred? Ah, Constantine , how much evil you gave birth to, not in your conversion, but in that Donation that the first wealthy Pope, Sylvester , received from you!' And while I sung these notes to him, he thrashed violently with both his feet, either rage or conscience gnawing him. I think it pleased my guide, greatly, he had so satisfied an expression, listening to the sound of the true words I spoke. So he lifted me with both his arms, and when he had me quite upon his breast, climbed back up the path he had descended, and did not tire of carrying me clasped to him, till he had borne me to the summit of the arch, that crosses from the fourth to the fifth rampart. Inferno Canto XX:1-30 The Fourth Chasm: The Seers and Sorcerers
I must make verses of new torments, and give matter for this twentieth Canto, of the Inferno that treats of the damned. I was now quite ready to look into the ditch, bathed with tears of anguish, which was revealed to me: I saw people coming, silent and weeping, through the circling valley, at a pace which processions, that chant Litanies, take through the world. When my eyes looked further down on them, each of them appeared strangely distorted, between the chin and the start of the chest, since the head was reversed towards the body, and they had to move backwards, since they were not allowed to look forwards. Perhaps one might be so distorted by palsy, but I have not seen it, and do not credit it. Reader, as God may grant that you profit from your reading, think now yourself how I could keep from weeping, when I saw our image so contorted, nearby, that the tears from their eyes bathed their hind parts at the cleft. Truly, I wept, leaning against one of the rocks of the solid cliff, so that my guide said to me: 'Are you like other fools, as well? Pity is alive here, where it is best forgotten. Who is more impious than one who bears compassion for God's judgement?'
Inferno Canto XX:31-51 The Seers
'Lift your head, lift it and see him for whom earth opened, under the eyes of the Thebans, at which they all shouted: "Where are you rushing, Amphiaräus ? Why do you quit the battle?" And he did not stop his downward rush until he reached Minos , who grasps every sinner. Note how he has made a chest of his shoulders: because he willed to see too far beyond him, he now looks behind and goes backwards. See Tiresias , who changed his form, when he was made a woman, all his limbs altering: and later he had to strike the two entwined snakes with his staff, a second time, before he could resume a male aspect. That one is Aruns , who has his back to Tiresias's belly, he who in the mountains of Tuscan Luni, where the Carrarese hoe, who live beneath them, had a cave to live in, among the white marble, from which he could gaze at the stars and the sea, with nothing to spoil his view.' Inferno Canto XX:52-99 Manto and the founding of Mantua
'And she that hides her breasts, that you cannot see, with her flowing tresses, and has all hairy skin on the other side, was Manto , who searched through many lands, then settled where I was born, about which it pleases me to have you listen to me speak a while. After her father departed from life, and Thebes, the city of Bacchus, came to be enslaved, she roamed the world a long time. A lake, Lake Garda, lies at the foot of the Alps, up in beautiful Italy, where Germany is closed off beyond the Tyrol. Mount Apennino, between the town of Garda and Val Camonica, is bathed by the water that settles in the lake. In the middle there is a place where the Bishops of Trent, Brescia, and Verona might equally give the blessing if they went that way. A strong and beautiful fortress stands, where the shoreline is lowest, to challenge the Brescians and Bergamese. There, all the water that cannot remain in the breast of Lake Garda, has to descend through the green fields, and form a river. As soon as the water has its head, it is no longer Garda, but Mincio, down to Governolo where it joins the Po. It has not flowed far before it finds the level, on which it spreads and makes a marsh there, and in summer tends to be unwholesome. Manto, the wild virgin, passing that way, saw untilled land, naked of inhabitants, among the fens. There, to avoid all human contact, she stayed, with her followers, to practise her arts, and lived there, and left her empty body. Then the people who were scattered round gathered together in that place, which was well defended by the marshes on every side. They built the city over those dead bones, and without other augury, called it Mantua, after her who first chose the place. Once there were more inhabitants, before Casalodi , was foolishly deceived by Pinamonte . So, I charge you, if you ever hear another story of the origin of my city, do not let falsehoods destroy the truth.'
Inferno Canto XX:100-130 The Soothsayers and AstrologersAnd I said: 'Master, your speeches are so sound to me, and so hold my belief, that any others are like spent ashes. But tell me about the people who are passing, if you see any of them worth noting, since my mind returns to that alone.' Then he said to me: 'That one, whose beard stretches down from his cheeks, over his dusky shoulders, was an augur, when Greece was so emptied of males, for the expedition against Troy, that there were scarcely any left, even in their cradles. Like Calchas at Aulis, he set the moment for cutting loose the first cable. Eurypylus is his name, and my high Poem sings of it in a certain place: you know it well, who know the whole thing. The other, so thin about the flanks, is Michael Scott , who truly understood the fraudulent game of magic. See Guido Bonatti , see Asdente , who wishes now he had attended more to his shoemaker's leather and cord, but repents too late. See the miserable women who abandoned needle, shuttle and spindle, and became prophetesses: they made witchcraft, using herbs and images. But come, now, for Cain with his bundle of thorns, that Man in the Moon, reaches the western confines of both hemispheres, and touches the waves south of Seville, and already, last night, the Moon was full: you must remember it clearly, since she did not serve you badly in the deep wood.' So he spoke to me, and meanwhile we moved on. Inferno Canto XXI:1-30 The Fifth Chasm: The Sellers of Public OfficesSo from bridge to bridge we went, with other conversation which my Commedía does not choose to recall, and were at the summit arch when we stopped to see the next cleft of Malebolge, and more vain grieving, and I found it marvellously dark. As, in the Venetian Arsenal, the glutinous pitch boils in winter, that they use to caulk the leaking boats they cannot sail; and so, instead one man builds a new boat, another plugs the seams of his, that has made many voyages, one hammers at the prow, another at the stern, some make oars, and some twist rope, one mends a jib, the other a mainsail; so, a dense pitch boiled down there, not melted by fire, but by divine skill, and glued the banks over, on every side. I saw it, but nothing in it, except the bubbles that the boiling caused, and the heaving of it all, and the cooling part's submergence. While I was gazing fixedly at it, my guide said: 'Take care. Take care!' and drew me towards him, from where I stood. Then I turned round, like one who has to see what he must run from, and who is attacked by sudden fear, so that he dare not stop to look: and behind us I saw a black Demon come running up the cliff.
Inferno Canto XXI:31-58 The BarratorsAh, how fierce his aspect was! And how cruel he seemed in action, with his outspread wings, and nimble legs! His high pointed shoulders, carried a sinner's two haunches, and he held the sinews of each foot tight. He cried: 'You, Malebranche, the Evil-clawed, see here is one of Lucca's elders, that city whose patron is Santa Zita : push him under while I go back for the rest, back to that city which is well provided with them: every one there is a barrator, except Bonturo ; there they make 'Yes' of 'No' for money. He threw him down, then wheeled back along the stony cliff, and never was a mastiff loosed so readily to catch a thief. The sinner plunged in, and rose again writhing, but the demons under cover of the bridge, shouted: 'Here the face of Christ, carved in your cathedral, is of no avail: here you swim differently than in the Serchio: so, unless you want to try our grapples, do not emerge above the pitch.' Then they struck at him with more than a hundred prongs, and said: 'Here you must dance, concealed, so that you steal in private, if you can.' No different is it, when the cooks make their underlings push the meat down into the depths of the cauldrons with their hooks, to stop it floating. Inferno Canto XXI:59-96 Virgil challenges the Demons' threatsThe good master said to me: 'Cower down behind a rock, so that you have a screen to protect yourself, and so that it is not obvious that you are here, and whatever insult is offered to me, have no fear, since I know these matters, having been in a similar danger before.' Then he passed beyond the bridgehead, and when he arrived on the sixth bank, it was necessary for him to present a bold front. The demons rushed from below the bridge, and turned their weapons against him, with the storm and fury with which a dog rushes at a poor beggar, who suddenly seeks alms when he stops. But Virgil cried: 'None, of you, commit an outrage. Before you touch me with your forks, one of you come over here, to listen, and then discuss whether you will grapple me.' They all cried: 'You go, Malacoda ' at which one moved while the others stood still, and came towards Virgil, saying: 'What good will it do him?' My Master said: 'Malacoda, do you think I have come here without the Divine Will, and propitious fate, safe from all your obstructions? Let me go by, since it is willed, in Heaven, that I show another this wild road.' Then the demon's pride was so down, that he let the hook drop at his feet, and said to the others: 'Now, do not hurt him!' And my guide to me: 'O you, who are sitting, crouching, crouching amongst the bridge's crags, return to me safely, now!' At which I moved, and came to him quickly, and the devils all pressed forward so that I was afraid they would not hold to their orders. So I once saw the infantry, marching out, under treaty of surrender, from Caprona, afraid at finding themselves surrounded by so many enemies. Inferno Canto XXI:97-139 The Demons escort the PoetsI pressed my whole body close to my guide, and did not take my eyes away from their aspect, which was hostile. They lowered their hooks, and kept saying, to one another: 'Shall I touch him on the backside?' and answering, 'Yes, see that you give him a nick.' But that demon who was talking to my guide, turned round quickly, and said: 'Be quiet, be quiet, Scarmiglione .' Then he said to us: 'It will not be possible to go any further along this causeway, since the sixth arch is lying broken at the base, and if you desire still to go forward, go along this ridge, and nearby is another cliff that forms a causeway. Yesterday, five hours later than this hour , twelve hundred and sixty-six years were completed, since this path here was destroyed. I am sending some of my company here to see if anyone is out for an airing: go with them, they will not commit treachery.' Then he began speaking: 'Advance, Alichino and Calcabrina , and you, Cagnazzo : let Barbariccia lead the ten. Let Libicocco come as well, and Draghignazzo , tusked Ciriatto , Grafficane , Farfarello , and Rubicante the mad one. Search round the boiling glue: see these two safe, as far as the other cliff that crosses the chasms, completely, without a break.' I said: 'O me! Master, what do I see? Oh, let us go alone, without an escort, if you know the way: as for me, I would prefer not. If you are as cautious as usual, do you not see how they grind their teeth, and darken their brows, threatening us with mischief? And he to me: 'I do not want you to be afraid: let them grin away at their will: since they do it for the boiled wretches.' They turned by the left bank: but first, each of them had stuck his tongue out, between his teeth, towards their leader, as a signal, and he had made a trumpet of his arse .
Inferno Canto XXII:1-30 The Poets view more of the Fifth ChasmI have seen cavalry moving camp, before now, starting a foray, holding muster, and now and then retiring to escape; I have seen war-horses on your territory, O Aretines, and seen the foraging parties, the clash of tournaments, and repeated jousts; now with trumpets, now with bells, with drums and rampart signals, with native and foreign devices, but I never yet saw infantry or cavalry, or ship at sight of shore or star, move to such an obscene trumpet. We went with the ten demons: ah, savage company! But, they say: 'In church with the saints, and in the inn with the drunkards.' But my mind was on the boiling pitch, to see each feature of the chasm, and the people who were burning in it. Like dolphins, arching their backs, telling the sailors to get ready to save their ship, so, now and then, to ease the punishment, some sinner showed his back, and hid as quick as lightning. And as frogs squat, at the edge of the ditchwater, with only mouths showing, so that their feet and the rest of them are hidden, so the sinners stood on every side: but they instantly shot beneath the seething, as Barbariccia approached. Inferno Canto XXII:31-75 CiampoloI saw, and my heart still shudders at it, one linger, just as one frog remains when the others scatter: and Graffiacane , who was nearest him, hooked his pitchy hair, and hauled him up, looking, to me, like an otter. I already knew the names of every demon, so I noted them well as they were called, and when they shouted to each other, listened out. 'O Rubicante , see you get your clutches in him, and flay him,' all the accursed tribe cried together. And I: 'Master, make out if you can, who that wretch is, who has fallen into the hands of his enemies.' My guide drew close to him, and asked him where he came from, and he answered: ' I was born in the kingdom of Navarre. My mother placed me as a servant to a lord, since she had borne me to a scurrilous waster of himself and his possessions. Then I was of the household of good King Thibaut , and there I took to selling offices, for which I serve my sentence in this heat.' And Ciriatto , from whose mouth a tusk, like a boar's, projected on each side, made him feel how one of them could rip. The mouse had come among the evil cats: but Barbariccia caught him in his arms, and said: 'Stand back, while I fork him!' And, turning to my Master, he said: 'Ask away, if you want to learn more from him, before someone else gets at him.' So my guide said: 'Now say, do you know any of the other sinners under the boiling pitch that is a Latian?' And Ciampolo replied: 'I separated, just now, from one who was a neighbour of theirs over there, and I wish I were still beneath him, since I should not then fear claw or hook!' And Libicocco cried: 'We have endured this too long!' and grappled Ciampolo's arm with the prong, and, mangling it, carried away a chunk. Draghignazzo , too, wanted a swipe at the legs, below: at which their leader twisted round and round on them with an evil frown. Inferno Canto XXII:76-96 Ciampolo names other Barrators
When they had settled a little, without waiting, my guide asked Ciampolo , who was still gazing at his wound: 'Who was he, from whom you say you unluckily separated, to come on land?' He replied: 'It was Friar Gomita , he of Gallura, in Sardinia, the vessel of every fraud, who held his master's prisoners in his hands, and treated them so that they all praise him for it, taking money for himself, and letting them go, quietly: and in his other roles, he was a high, and not a low, barrator. With him, Don Michel Zanche of Logodoro, keeps company, and their tongues never tire of speaking of Sardinia. O me! See that other demon grinning: I would speak more, but I fear he is getting ready to claw my skin.' And their great captain, turning to Farfarello , who was rolling his eyes to strike, said: 'Away with you, cursed bird.' Inferno Canto XXII:97-123 Ciampolo breaks free of the DemonsThe scared sinner then resumed: 'If you want to see or hear Tuscans or Lombards, I will make them come, but let the Malebranche hold back a little, so that the others may not feel their vengeance, and sitting here, I, who am one, will make seven appear, by whistling, as we do, when any of us gets out.' Cagnazzo raised his snout, at these words, and, shaking his head, said: 'Hear the wicked scheme he has contrived to plunge back down.' At which Ciampolo , who had a great store of tricks, replied: 'I would be malicious indeed, if I contrived greater sorrow for my companions.' Alichino , could contain himself no longer, and contrary to the others said to him: 'If you run, I will not charge after you, but beat my wings above the boiling pitch: forget the cliff, and let the bank be a course, and see if you alone can beat us.' O you that read this, hear of this new sport! They all glanced towards the cliff side, he above all who had been most unwilling for this. The Navarrese picked his moment well, planted his feet on the ground, and in an instant plunged, and freed himself from their intention. Inferno Canto XXII:124-151 The Malebranche quarrelEach of the demons was stung with guilt, but Alichino most who had caused the error: so he started up and shouted: 'You are caught!' But it helped him little, since wings could not outrun terror: the sinner dived down: and Alichino, flying, lifted his breast. The duck dives like that when the falcon nears, and the hawk flies back up, angry and thwarted. Calcabrina , furious at the trick, flew on after him, wanting the sinner to escape, in order to quarrel. And when the barrator had vanished, he turned his claws on his friend, and grappled with him above the ditch. But the other was sparrow hawk enough to claw him thoroughly, and both dropped down, into the centre of the boiling pond. The heat, instantly, separated them, but they could not rise, their wings were so glued up. Barbariccia , lamenting with the rest, made four fly over to the other bank, with all their grappling irons, and they dropped rapidly on both sides to the shore. They stretched their hooks out to the trapped pair, who were already scaled by the crust, and we left them, like that, embroiled. Inferno Canto XXIII:1-57 The Sixth Chasm: The HypocritesSilent, alone, and free of company, we went on, one in front, and the other after, like minor friars journeying on their way. My thoughts were turned, by the recent quarrel, to Aesop 's fable of the frog and mouse, since 'Si' and 'Yes' are not better matched, than the one case with the other, if the thoughtful mind couples the beginning and end. And as one thought springs from another, so another sprang from that, redoubling my fear. I thought of this: 'Through us, these are mocked, and with a kind of hurt and ridicule, that I guess must annoy them. If anger is added to their malice, they will chase after us, fiercer than snapping dogs that chase a leveret.' I felt my hair already lifting in fright, and was looking back intently, as I said: 'Master, if you do not hide us both, quickly, I am afraid of the Malebranche: they are already behind us: I imagine I can hear them now.' And he: 'If I were made of silvered glass, I could not take up your image from outside more rapidly than I fix that image from within. Even now your thoughts were entering mine, with similar form and action, so that, from both, I have made one decision. If the right bank slopes enough, that we can drop down, into the next chasm, we will escape this imaginary pursuit.' he had not finished stating this resolve, when I saw them, not far off, coming with extended wings, with desire to seize us. My guide suddenly took me up like a mother, wakened by a noise, seeing flames burning in front of her eyes, who takes her child and runs, and caring more about him than herself, does not even wait to look around her. Down from the ridge of the solid bank, he threw himself forward on to the hanging cliff that dams up the side of the next chasm. Water never ran as fast through the conduit, turning a mill-wheel on land, when it reaches the paddles, as my Master, down that bank, carrying me, against his breast, like a son, and not a companion. His feet had hardly touched the floor, of the depth below, before the demons were on the heights above us, but it gave him no fear, since the high Providence, that willed them to be the guardians of the fifth moat, takes, from all of them, the power to leave it.
Inferno Canto XXIII:58-81 The HypocritesDown below we found a metal-coated tribe, weeping, circling with very slow steps, and weary and defeated in their aspect. They had cloaks, with deep hoods over the eyes, in the shape they make for the monks of Cologne. On the outside they are gilded so it dazzles, but inside all leaden, and so heavy, that compared to them Frederick 's were made of straw. O weary mantle for eternity! We turned to the left again, beside them, who were intent on their sad weeping, but those people, tired by their burden, came on so slowly that our companions were new at every step. At which, I said to my guide: 'Make a search for someone known to us, by name or action, and gaze around as we move by.' And one of them, who understood the Tuscan language, called after us: 'Rest your feet, you who speed so fast through the dark air, maybe you will get from me what you request.' At which my guide turned round and said: 'Wait, and then go on, at his pace.' Inferno Canto XXIII:82-126 The Frauti Gaudenti: CaiaphasI stood still, and saw two spirits, who were eager in mind to join me, but their burden and the narrow path delayed them. When they arrived, they eyed me askance, for a long time, without speaking a word, then they turned to one another and said: 'This one seems alive, by the movement of his throat, and if they are dead, by what grace are they moving, free of the heavy cloaks?' Then they said to me: 'O Tuscan, you have come to the college of sad hypocrites: do not scorn to tell us who you are.' And I to them: 'I was born, and I grew up, by Arno's lovely river, in the great city: and I am in the body I have always worn. But you, who are you, from whom such sadness is distilled, that I see, coursing down your cheeks? And what punishment is this, that glitters so?' And one of them replied: 'Our orange mantles are of such dense lead, that weights made of it cause the scales to creak. We were Fraudi Gaudenti, of that Bolognese order called the 'Jovial Friars': I am Catalano , and he is Loderingo , chosen by your city, as usually only one is chosen, to keep the peace: and we wrought such as still appears round your district of Gardingo. 'O Friars, your evil ....' I began, but said no more, because one came in sight, crucified, on the ground, with three stakes. When he saw me he writhed all over, puffing into his beard, and sighing, and Friar Catalano, who saw this, said to me: 'That one you look at, who is transfixed, is Caiaphas , the high priest, who counselled the Pharisees, that it was right to martyr one man for the sake of the people. Crosswise and naked he lies in the road, as you see, and feels the weight of everyone who passes: and his father-in-law Annas is racked, in this chasm, and the others of that Council, that was a source of evil to the Jews.' Then I saw Virgil wonder at him, stretched out on the cross, so vilely, in eternal exile. Inferno Canto XXIII:127-148 The Poets leave the Sixth ChasmHe addressed these words to the Friars, afterwards: 'If it is lawful for you, may it not displease you, to tell us if there is any gap on the right, by which we might leave here, without forcing any of the black angels to come and extricate us from this deep.' He replied: 'There is a causeway that runs from the great circular wall and crosses all the cruel valleys, nearer at hand than you think, except that it is broken here and does not cover this one: you will be able to climb up among its ruins, that slope down the side, and form a mound at the base.' Virgil stood, for a while, with bowed head, then said: ' Malacoda , who grapples sinners over there, told us the way wrongly.' And the Friar said: 'I once heard the Devil's vices related at Bologna, amongst which I heard that he is a liar, and the father of lies.' Then my guide went striding on, his face somewhat disturbed by anger, at which I parted from the burdened souls, following the prints of his beloved feet. Inferno Canto XXIV:1-60 The Poets climb up: Virgil exhorts Dante
In that part of the new year, when the sun cools his rays under Aquarius, and the nights already shorten towards the equinox; when the hoar-frost copies its white sister the snow's, image on the ground, but the hardness of its tracery lasts only a little time; the peasant, whose fodder is exhausted, rises and looks out, and sees the fields all white, at which he strikes his thigh, goes back into the house, and wanders to and fro, lamenting, like a wretch who does not know what to do; then comes out again, and regains hope, seeing how the world has changed its aspect, in a moment; and takes his crook, and chases his lambs out to feed; so the Master made me disheartened, when I saw his forehead so troubled: but the plaster arrived quickly for the wound. For, when we reached the shattered arch, my guide turned to me with that sweet aspect, that I first saw at the base of the mountain. He opened his arms, after having made some plan in his mind, first looking carefully at the ruin, and took hold of me. And like one who prepares and calculates, always seeming to provide in advance, so he, lifting me up towards the summit of one big block, searched for another fragment, saying: 'Now clamber over that, but check first if it will carry you.' It was no route for one clothed in a cloak of lead, since we could hardly climb from rock to rock, he weighing little, and I pushed from behind. And if the ascent were not shorter on that side than on the other, I would truly have been defeated, I do not know about him. But as Malebolge all drops towards the entrance to the lowest well, the position of every valley implies that the one side rises, and the other falls: at last, we came, however, to the point at which the last boulder ends. The breath was so driven from my lungs, when I was up, that I could go no further: in fact, I sat down when I arrived. The Master said: 'Now, you must free yourself from sloth: men do not achieve fame, sitting on down, or under coverlets; fame, without which whoever consumes his life leaves only such trace of himself, on earth, as smoke does in the air, or foam on water: so rise, and overcome weariness with spirit, that wins every battle, if it does not lie down with the gross body. A longer ladder must be climbed: to have left these behind is not enough: if you understand me, act now so it may profit you.' I rose then, showing myself to be better filled with breath than I thought, and said: 'Go on, I am strong again and ardent.' Inferno Canto XXIV:61-96 The Seventh Chasm: The ThievesWe made our way along the causeway, which was rugged, narrow, difficult, and much steeper than before. I went, speaking, so that I might not seem weak, at which a voice came from the next moat, inadequate for forming words. I do not know what it said, though I was already on the summit of the bridge that crosses there, but he who spoke seemed full of anger. I had turned to look downwards, but my living eyes could not see the floor, for the darkness, so that I said: 'Master, make sure you get to the other side, and let us climb down the wall, since as I hear sounds from below, but do not understand them, so I see down there, and make out nothing.' He said: 'I make you no answer, but by action, since a fair request should be followed, in silence, by the work.' We went down the bridge, at the head of it, where it meets the eighth bank, and then the seventh chasm was open to me. I saw a fearful mass of snakes inside, and of such strange appearance, that even now the memory freezes my blood. Let Libya no longer vaunt its sands: though it engenders chelydri, and jaculi; pareae; and cenchres with amphisbaena; it never showed pests so numerous or dreadful, nor did Ethiopia, nor Arabia, the land that lies along the Red Sea. Amongst this cruel and mournful swarm, people were running, naked and terrified, without hope of concealment, or of that stone, the heliotrope, that renders the wearer invisible. They had their hands tied behind them, with serpents, that fixed their head and tail between the loins, and were coiled in knots in front.
Inferno Canto XXIV:97-129 Vanni Fucci and the serpent
And see, a serpent struck at one who was near our bank, and transfixed him, there, where the neck is joined to the shoulders. Neither ' o ' nor ' i ' was ever written as swiftly as he took fire, and burned, and dropped down, transformed to ashes: and after he was heaped on the ground, the powder gathered itself together, and immediately returned to its previous shape. So, great sages say, the phoenix dies, and then renews, when it nears its five-hundredth year. In its life it does not eat grass or grain, but only tears of incense, and amomum: and its last shroud is nard and myrrh. The sinner when he rose was like one who falls, and does not know how, through the power of a demon that drags him down to the ground, or through some other affliction that binds men, and, when he rises, gazes round himself, all dazed by the great anguish he has suffered, and as he gazes, sighs. O how heavy the power of God, that showers down such blows in vengeance! The guide then asked him who he was, at which he answered: 'I rained down from Tuscany into this gully, a short while back. Brutish, not human, life pleased me, mule that I was: I am Vanni Fucci , the wild beast, and Pistoia was a fitting den for me.' And I to the guide: 'Tell him not to move: and ask what crime sank him down here, since I knew him as a man of blood and anger. Inferno Canto XXIV:130-151 Vanni Fucci's prophecy
And the sinner, who heard me, did not pretend, but turned his face and mind on me, and gave a look of saddened shame. Then he said: 'It hurts me more for you to catch me, trapped, in the misery you see me in, than the moment of my being snatched from the other life. I cannot deny you what you ask. I am placed so deep down because I robbed the sacristy of its fine treasures, and it was once wrongly attributed to others. But, so that you might not take joy from this sight if you ever escape the gloomy regions, open your ears, and hear what I declare : Pistoia first is thinned of Blacks: then Florence changes her people and her laws. Mars brings a vapour, from Valdimagra cloaked in turbid cloud, and a battle will be fought on the field of Piceno, in an angry and eager tempest, that will suddenly tear the mist open, so that every White is wounded by it. And I have said this to give you pain.'
Inferno Canto XXV:1-33 CacusAt the end of his speech, the thief raised his hands, both making the fig, the obscene gesture, with thumb between fingers, shouting: 'Take this, God, I aim it at you.' From that moment the snakes were my friends, since one of them coiled itself round his neck, as if hissing: 'You will not be able to speak again.' Another, round his arms, tied him again, knotting itself so firmly in front, that he could not even shake them. Ah, Pistoia, Pistoia, why do you not order yourself to be turned to ash, so that you may remain no longer, since you outdo your seed in evil-doing? I saw no spirit so arrogant towards God, through all the dark circles of the Inferno, not even, Capaneus , he who fell from the wall at Thebes. Vanni Fucci fled, saying not another word, and I saw a Centaur, full of rage, come, shouting: 'Where is he, where is the bitter one?' I do not believe Maremma has as many snakes, as he had on his haunches, there, where the human part begins. Over his shoulders, behind the head, lay a dragon with outstretched wings, and it scorches every one he meets. My Master said: 'That is Cacus , who often made a lake of blood, below the rocks of Mount Aventine. He does not go with his brothers on the same road, above, because of his cunning theft from the great herd of oxen, pastured near him: for which his thieving actions ended, under the club of Hercules , who gave him a hundred blows perhaps with it, and he did not feel a tenth. Inferno Canto XXV:34-78 Cianfa and AgnelloWhile he said this, the Centaur ran past, and three spirits came by, also, beneath us, whom neither I, nor my guide, saw, until they cried: 'Who are you?' Our words ceased, then, and we gave our attention to them, alone. I did not know them, but it happened, as it usually does for some reason, that one had to call the other, saying: 'Where has Cianfa gone?' At which I placed my finger over my mouth, in order to make my guide stop and wait. Reader, if you are slow to credit, now, what I have to tell, it will be no wonder, since I who saw it, scarcely credit it myself. While I kept looking at them, a six-footed serpent darted in front of one of them, and fastened itself on him, completely. It clasped his belly with it middle feet, seized his arms with the front ones, and then fixed its teeth in both his cheeks. The rear feet it stretched along his thighs, and put its tail between them, and curled it upwards round his loins, behind. The other two looked on, and each cried: 'Ah me, Agnello , how you change! See, you are already not two, not one!' The two heads had now become one, where two forms seemed to us merged in one face, and both were lost. Two limbs were made of the four forearms, the thighs, legs, belly and chest became such members as were never seen before. The former shape was all extinguished in them: the perverse image seemed both, and neither, and like that it moved away with slow steps. Inferno Canto XXV:79-151 Buoso degli Abati and FrancescoAs the lizard, in the great heat of the Dog days, appears like a flash of lightning, scurrying from hedge to hedge, if it crosses the track, so a little reptile came towards the bellies of the other two, burning with rage, black and livid as peppercorn. And it pierced that part, in one of them, where we first receive our nourishment from our mothers: then fell down, stretched out in front of him. The thief, transfixed, gazed at it but said nothing, but with motionless feet, only yawned, as if sleep or fever had overcome him. He looked at the snake: it looked at him: the one gave out smoke, violently, from his wound, the other from its mouth, and the smoke met. They merged together in such a way, that the serpent split its tail into a fork, and the wounded spirit brought his feet together. Along with them, the legs and thighs, so stuck to one another, that soon the join left no visible mark. The cleft tail took on the form lost in the other, and its skin grew soft, the other's hard. I saw the arms enter the armpits: and the two feet of the beast that were short, lengthened themselves by as much as the arms were shortened. Then the two hind feet twisted together, and became the organ that a man conceals, and the wretch, from his, had two pushed out. While the smoke covers them both with a new colour, and generates hair on one part, and strips it from another, the one rose up, erect, and the other fell, prostrate: not by that shifting their impious gaze, beneath which they mutually exchanged features. The erect one drew his face towards the temples, and from the excess of matter that swelled there, ears came, out of the smooth cheeks. That which did not slip back, but remained, formed a nose from the superfluous flesh, and enlarged the lips to their right size. He that lay prone, thrust his sharpened visage forward, and drew his ears back into his head, as the snail does its horns into its shell, and his tongue, which was solid before, and fit for speech, splits itself. In the other the forked tongue melds, and the smoke is still. The soul that had become a beast, sped, hissing, along the valley, leaving the other, speaking and spluttering, behind him. Then the second turned his new-won shoulders towards him, and called to the other: ' Buoso shall crawl, as I did, along this road.' So I saw the seventh chasm's bodies mutate and transmutate: and let the novelty of it be the excuse, if my pen has gone astray. Though my sight was somewhat confused, and my mind dismayed, they could not flee so secretly, but that I clearly saw Puccio Sciancato : and it was he, alone, of the three companions, who had first arrived, who was not changed. One of the others, Francesco , was he who caused you, the people of Gaville, to weep. Inferno Canto XXVI:1-42 The Eighth Chasm: The Evil Counsellors
Rejoice, Florence, that, since you are so mighty, you beat your wings over land and sea, and your name spreads through Hell itself. So, among the thieves, I found five of your citizens: at which I am ashamed, and you do not rise to great honour by it either. But if the truth is dreamed, as morning comes, you will soon feel what Prato , and others, wish on you. And, if it were come already, it would not be too soon: would it were so, now, as indeed it must come, since it will trouble me more, the older I am. We left there, and my guide remounted by the stairs that the stones had made for us to descend, and drew me up: and, following our solitary way, among the crags and splinters of the cliff, the foot made no progress without the hand.
Inferno Canto XXVI:43-84 Ulysses and DiomedeI stood on the bridge, having so risen to look, that if I had not caught hold of a rock I should have fallen in without being pushed. And the guide, who saw me so intent, said: 'The spirits are inside those fires: each veils himself in that which burns him.' I replied: 'Master, I feel more assured from hearing you, but had already seen that it was so, and already wished to say to you, who is in that fire, that moves, divided at the summit, as if it rose from the pyre where Eteocles was cremated with his brother, Polynices ?' He answered me: 'In there, Ulysses and Diomede are tormented, and so they go, together in punishment, as formerly in war: and, in their fire, they groan at the ambush of the Trojan horse, that made a doorway, by which Aeneas , the noble seed of the Romans issued out. In there they lament the trick, by which Deidamia , in death, still weeps for Achilles : and there, for the Palladium, they endure punishment.' I said: 'Master, I beg you greatly, and beg again so that my prayers may be a thousand, if those inside the fires can speak, do not refuse my waiting until the horned flame comes here: you see how I lean towards it with desire.' And he to me: 'Your request is worth much praise, and so I accept it, but restrain your tongue. Let me speak: since I conceive what you wish, and because they were Greeks they might disdain your Trojan words.' When the flame had come, where the time and place seemed fitting, to my guide, I heard him speak, so: 'O you, who are two in one fire, if I was worthy of you when I lived, if I was worthy of you, greatly or a little, when on earth I wrote the high verses, do not go, but let one of you tell where he, being lost through his own actions, went to die.' Inferno Canto XXVI:85-142 Ulysses 's last voyageThe greater horn of the ancient flame started to shake itself, murmuring, like a flame struggling in the wind. Then moving the tip, as if it were a tongue speaking, gave out a voice, and said: 'When I left Circe , who held me for more than a year, near to Gaeta, before Aeneas named it, not even my fondness for my son, Telemachus , my reverence for my aged father, Laërtes , nor the debt of love that should have made Penelope happy, could restrain in me the desire I had, to gain experience of the world, and of human vice and worth. I set out on the wide, deep ocean, with only one ship, and that little company, that had not abandoned me. I saw both shores, as far as Spain, as far as Morocco, and the isle of Sardinia, and the other islands that sea washes. I, and my companions, were old, and slow, when we came to that narrow strait, where Hercules set up his pillars, to warn men from going further. I left Seville to starboard: already Ceuta was left behind on the other side.
Inferno Canto XXVII:1-30 Guido Da MontefeltroThe flame was now erect and quiet, no longer speaking, and was going away from us, with the permission of the sweet poet, when another, that came behind forced us to turn our eyes towards its summit, since a confused sound escaped there. As the Sicilian bull, that first bellowed with the groans of Perillus , who had smoothed it with his file (and that was right) bellowed with the sufferer's voice, so that, although it was bronze, it seemed pierced with agony, so here, the dismal words, having, at their source, no exit from the fire, were changed into its language. But when they had found a path out through the tip, giving it the movement that the tongue had given in making them, we heard it say: 'O you, at whom I direct my voice, and who, but now, was speaking Lombard, saying: "Now go: no more, I beg you", let it not annoy you to stop and speak with me, though perhaps I have came a little late: you see it does not annoy me, and I burn. If you are only now fallen into this blind world, from that sweet Latian land, from which I bring all my guilt, tell me if Romagna has peace or war, for I was of the mountains there, between Urbino and Monte Coronaro, the source from which the Tiber springs.' Inferno Canto XXVII:31-57 The situation in RomagnaI was still leaning downwards eagerly, when my leader touched me on the side, saying: 'Speak, this is a Latian.' And I who had my answer ready, began to speak then without delay: 'O spirit, hidden there below, your Romagna is not, and never has been, without war in the hearts of her tyrants: but I left no open war there now. Now I beg you, tell us who you are: do not be harder than others have been to you, so that your name may keep its lustre on earth.' Inferno Canto XXVII:58-136 Guido's historyWhen the flame had roared for a while as usual, it flickered the sharp point to and fro, and then gave out this breath: 'If I thought my answer was given to one who could ever return to the world, this flame would flicker no more, but since, if what I hear is true, no one ever returned, alive, from this deep, I reply, without fear of defamation. I, Guido da Montefeltro , was a man of arms: and then became a Cordelier of Saint Francis , hoping to make amends, so habited: and indeed my hopes would have been realised in full, but for the Great Priest, Boniface , evil to him, who drew me back to my first sins: and how and why, I want you to hear from me. While I was in the form of bones and pulp, that my mother gave me, my actions were not those of the lion, but of the fox. I knew all the tricks and coverts, and employed the art of them so well, that the noise went out to the ends of the earth. When I found myself arrived at that point of life, when everyone should furl their sails, and gather in the ropes, what had pleased me before, now grieved me, and with repentance and confession, I turned monk. Ah misery! Alas, it would have served me well. But the Prince of the Pharisees; that Pope waging war near the Lateran, and not with Saracens or Jews, since all his enemies were Christians, and none had been to conquer Acre, or been a merchant in the Sultan's land; had no regard for the highest office, nor holy orders, nor my habit of Saint Francis, that used to make those who wore it leaner; but as the Emperor Constantine sought out Saint Sylvester , on Mount Soracte, to cure his leprosy, so this man called me, as a doctor to cure his feverish pride. He demanded counsel of me, and I kept silent, since his speech seemed drunken. Then he said to me: 'Do not be doubtful, I absolve you beforehand: and, you, teach me how to act, so that I may raze the fortress of Palestrina to the ground. I can open and close Heaven as you know, with the two keys, that my predecessor, Celestine , did not prize.' Then the weighty arguments forced me to consider silence worse, and I said: 'Father, since you absolve me of that sin, into which I must now fall, large promises to your enemies, with little delivery of them, will give you victory, from your high throne.' Afterwards, when I was dead, Saint Francis came for me: but one of the Black Cherubim said to him: 'Do not take him: do not wrong me. He must descend among my servants, because he gave a counsel of deceit, since when I have kept him fast by the hair: he who does not repent, cannot be absolved: nor can one repent a thing, and at the same time will it, since the contradiction is not allowed.' O miserable self! How I started, when he seized me, saying to me: 'Perhaps you did not think I was a logician.' He carried me to Minos , who coiled his tail eight times round his fearful back, and then, biting it in great rage, said: 'This sinner is for the thievish fire', and so I am lost here, as you see, and clothed like this, go inwardly grieving.' When he had ended his speech, so, the flame went sorrowing, writhing and flickering its sharp horn. We passed on, my guide and I, along the cliff, up to the other arch, that covers the next ditch, in which the reward is paid to those who collect guilt by sowing discord. Inferno Canto XXVIII:1-21 The Ninth Chasm: The Sowers of DiscordWho could ever fully tell, even with repeated unimprisoned words, the blood and wounds I saw now? Every tongue would certainly fail, since our speech and memory have too small a capacity to comprehend so much. If all the people, too, were gathered, who once grieved for their blood, in the fateful land of Apulia, by reason of the Samnite War of the Romans, of Trojan seed; and those, from that long Punic War, that, as Livy writes, who does not err, yielded so great a wealth of rings, from Cannae's battlefield; and those who felt the pain of blows by withstanding Robert Guiscard ; and the rest, whose bones are still heaped at Ceperano, where all the Apulians turned traitor, for Charles of Anjou ; and there, at Tagliacozzo where old Alardo 's advice to Charles conquered without weapons: and some were to show pierced limbs, and others severed stumps; it would be nothing to equal the hideous state of the ninth chasm.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:22-54 Mahomet: the Caliph AliEven a wine-cask, that has lost a stave in the middle or the end, does not yawn as widely, as a spirit I saw, cleft from the chin down to the part that gives out the foulest sound: the entrails hung between his legs: the organs appeared, and the miserable gut that makes excrement of what is swallowed. While I stood looking wholly at him, he gazed at me, and opened his chest with his hands, saying: 'See how I tear myself: see how Mahomet is ripped! In front of me, Ali goes, weeping, his face split from chin to scalp, and all the others you see here, were sowers of scandal and schism in their lifetimes: so they are cleft like this. There is a devil behind who tears us cruelly like this, reapplying his sword blade to each of this crowd, when they have wandered round the sad road, since the wounds heal before any reach him again. But who are you, who muse there on the cliff, maybe to delay your path to punishment, in sentence for your crimes?' My Master replied: 'Death has not come to him yet, nor does guilt lead him to torment, but it is incumbent on me, who am dead, to grant him full experience, and lead him, through the Inferno, down here, from circle to circle, and this is truth, that I tell you.' When they heard him, more than a hundred spirits, in the ditch, halted, to look at me, forgetting their agony, in their wonder. Inferno Canto XXVIII:55-90 Pier della Medicina and othersAfter lifting up one foot, to leave, Mahomet said to me: 'Well now, you who will soon see the sun, perhaps, tell Fra Dolcino of the Apostolic Brothers, if he does not wish to follow me, quickly, down here, to furnish himself with supplies, so that the snow-falls may not bring a victory for the Novarese, that otherwise would be difficult to achieve.' Then, he strode forward to depart. Another, who had his throat slit, and nose cut off to the eyebrows, and had only a single ear, standing to gaze in wonder with the rest, opened his wind-pipe, that was red outside, all over, and said: 'You, that no guilt condemns, and whom I have seen above on Latian ground, unless resemblance deceives me, remember Pier della Medicina , if you ever return to see the gentle plain, that slopes down from Vercelli to Marcabò. And make known to the worthiest two men in Fano, Messer Guido , and Angiolello , also, that unless our prophetic powers here are in vain, they will be cast out of their boat, and drowned near Cattolica, by treachery. Neptune never saw a greater crime, between the isles of Cyprus and Majorca, not even among those carried out by pirates, or by Greeks. Malatestino , the treacherous one, who only sees with one eye, and holds the land, that one, who is here with me, wishes he had never seen, will make them come to parley with him, then act so that they will have no need of vow or prayer to counter Focara's winds. Inferno Canto XXVIII:91-111 Curio and Mosca
And I said to him: 'If you would have me carry news of you, above, show me and explain who he is that rues the sight of it.' Then he placed his hand on the jaw of one of his companions, and opened the mouth, saying: ' This is he: and he does not speak. This outcast quelled Caesar 's doubts at the Rubicon, saying that delay always harms men who are ready.' O how dejected, Curio seemed to me, with his tongue slit in his palate, who was so bold in speech! And one who had both hands severed, lifting the stumps through the dark air, so that their blood stained his face, said: 'You will remember Mosca too, who said, alas, "A thing done, has an end" which was seed of evil to the Tuscan race.' 'And death to your people,' I added, at which he, accumulating pain on pain, went away like one sad and mad. Inferno Canto XXVIII:112-142 Bertrand de BornBut I remained behind to view the crowd, and saw a thing, which, without more proof, I would be afraid to even tell, except that conscience reassures me, the good companion, that strengthens a man, under the armour of his self-respect. I saw it clearly, and still seem to see, a headless trunk, that goes on before, like the others, in that miserable crew, and holds its severed head, by the hair, swinging, like a lantern, in its hand. It looked at us, and said: 'Ah me!'. It made a lamp of itself, to light itself, and there were two in one, and one in two: how that can be he knows, who made it so.
Inferno Canto XXIX:1-36 Geri del BelloThe multitude of people, and the many wounds, had made my eyes so tear-filled, that they longed to stop and weep, but Virgil said to me: 'Why are you still gazing? Why does your sight still rest, down there, on the sad, mutilated shadows? You did not do so at the other chasms. Think, if you wish to number them, that the valley circles twenty-two miles, and the moon is already underneath our feet. The time is short now, that is given us, and there are other things to view, than those you see.' I replied, then: 'Had you noticed the reason why I looked, perhaps you might still have allowed me to stay.' Meanwhile, the guide was moving on, and I went behind him, making my reply, and adding, now: 'In the hollow where I held my gaze, I believe a spirit of my own blood, laments the guilt that costs so greatly here.' Then the Master said: 'Do not let your thoughts be distracted by him: attend to something else: let him stay there. I saw him point to you, at the foot of the little bridge, and threaten, angrily, with his finger: and I heard them call him Geri del Bello . You were so entangled, then, with him who once held Altaforte, that you did not look that way, so he departed.' I said: 'Oh, my guide, his violent murder made him indignant, not yet avenged on his behalf, by any that shares his shame: therefore, I guess, he went away, without speaking to me: and, by that, has made me pity him the more. Inferno Canto XXIX:37-72 The Tenth Chasm: The FalsifiersSo we talked, as far as the first place on the causeway that would have revealed the next valley, right to its floor, if it had been lighter. When we were above the last cloister of Malebolge, so that its lay brothers could be seen, many groans pierced me, whose arrows were barbed with pity, at which I covered my ears with my hands. Such pain there was, as there would be, if the diseases in the hospitals of Valdichiana, Maremma and Sardinia, between July and September, were all rife in one ditch: a stench arose from it, such as issues from putrid limbs. We descended on the last bank of the long causeway, again on the left, and then my sight was clearer, down to the depths, where infallible Justice, the minister of the Lord on high, punishes the falsifiers that it accounts for here. I do not think it would have been a greater sadness to see the people of plague-ridden Aegina , when the air was so malignant, that every animal, even the smallest worm, was killed, and afterwards, as Poets say, for certain, the ancient race was restored from the seed of ants, than it was to see the spirits languishing in scattered heaps through that dim valley. This one lay on its belly, that, on the shoulders of the other, and some were crawling along the wretched path. Step by step we went, without a word, gazing at, and listening to, the sick who could not lift their bodies.
Inferno Canto XXIX:73-99 Griffolino and CapocchioI saw two sitting, leaning on each other, as one pan is leant to warm against another: they were marked with scabs from head to foot, and I never saw a stable lad his master waits for, or one who stays awake unwillingly, use a currycomb as fiercely, as each of these two clawed himself with his nails, because of the intensity of their itching, that has no other relief. And so the nails dragged the scurf off, as a knife does the scales from bream, or other fish with larger scales. My Guide began to speak: 'O you, who strip your chain-mail with your fingers, and often make pincers of them, tell us if there is any Latian among those here, inside: and may your nails be enough for that task for eternity.' One of them replied, weeping: 'We are both Latians, whom you see so mutilated here, but who are you who enquire of us? And the guide said: 'I am one, who with this living man, descends from steep to steep, and mean to show him Hell.' Then the mutual prop broke, and each one turned, trembling, towards me, along with others that heard him, by the echo. Inferno Canto XXIX:100-120 Griffolino's narrativeThe good Master addressed me directly, saying: 'Tell them what you wish,' and I began as he desired: 'So that your memory will not fade, from human minds, in the first world, but will live for many suns, tell us who you are, and of what race. Do not let your ugly and revolting punishment make you afraid to reveal yourselves to me.' The one replied: 'I was Griffolino of Arezzo, and Albero of Siena had me burned: but what I died for did not send me here. It is true I said to him, jesting, "I could lift myself into the air in flight," and he who had great desire and little brain, wished me to show him that art: and only because I could not make him Daedalus , he caused me to be burned, by one who looked on him as a son. But to the last chasm of the ten, Minos , who cannot err, condemned me, for the alchemy I practised in the world.' Inferno Canto XXIX:121-139 The Spendthrift BrigadeAnd I said to the poet: 'Now was there ever a people as vain as the Sienese? Certainly not the French, by far.' At which the other leper, hearing me, replied to my words: 'What of Stricca , who contrived to spend so little: and Niccolo who first discovered the costly use of cloves, in that garden, Siena, where such seed takes root: and that company in which Caccia of Aciano threw away his vineyard, and his vast forest, and the Abbagliato showed his wit. But so that you may know who seconds you like this against the Sienese, sharpen your eye on me, so that my face may reply to you: so you will see I am Capocchio 's shadow, who made false metals, by alchemy, and you must remember, if I know you rightly, how well I aped nature. Inferno Canto XXX:1-48 Schicci and MyrrhaAt the time when Juno was angry, as she had shown more than once, with the Theban race, because of Jupiter 's affair with Semele , she so maddened King Athamas , that, seeing his wife, Ino , go by, carrying her two sons in her arms, he cried: 'Spread the hunting nets, so that I can take the lioness and her cubs, at the pass,' and then stretched out his pitiless talons, snatching the one, named Learchus , and, whirling him round, dashed him against the rock: and Ino drowned herself, and her other burden, Melicertes . And after fortune had brought down the high Trojan pride, that dared all, so that Priam the king, and his kingdom were destroyed, Queen Hecuba , a sad, wretched captive, having witnessed the sacrifice of Polyxena , alone, on the sea-shore, when she recognised the body of her Polydorus , barked like a dog, driven out of her senses, so greatly had her sorrow racked her mind. But neither Theban nor Trojan Furies were ever seen embodied so cruelly, in stinging creatures, or even less in human limbs, as I saw displayed in two shades, pallid and naked, that ran, biting, as a hungry pig does, when he is driven out of his sty. The one came to Capocchio , and fixed his tusks in his neck, so that dragging him along, it made the solid floor rasp his belly. And the Aretine, Griffolino , who was left, said to me, trembling: 'That goblin is Gianni Schicci , and he goes, rabidly, mangling others like that.' I replied: 'Oh, be pleased to tell us who the other is, before it snatches itself away, and may it not plant its teeth in you.' And he to me: 'That is the ancient spirit of incestuous Myrrha , who loved her father, Cinyras , with more than lawful love. She came to him, and sinned, under cover of another's name, just as the one who is vanishing there, undertook to disguise himself as Buoso Donati , so as to gain the mare, called the Lady of the Herd, by forging a will, and giving it legal form.' When the furious pair, on whom I had kept my eye, were gone, I turned to look at the other spirits, born to evil. Inferno Canto XXX:49-90 Adam of BresciaI saw one, who would have been shaped like a lute, if he had only had his groin cut short, at the place where a man is forked. The heavy dropsy, that swells the limbs, with its badly transformed humours, so that the face does not match the belly, made him hold his lips apart, as the fevered patient does who, through thirst, curls one lip towards the chin, and the other upwards. He said to us: 'O you, who are exempt from punishment in this grim world (and why, I do not know), look and attend to the misery of Master Adam . I had enough of what I wished, when I was alive, and now, alas, I crave a drop of water. The little streams that fall, from the green hills of Casentino, down to the Arno, making cool, moist channels, are constantly in my mind, and not in vain, since the image of them parches me, far more than the disease, that wears the flesh from my face. The rigid justice, that examines me, takes its opportunity from the place where I sinned, to give my sighs more rapid flight. That is Romena, where I counterfeited the coin of Florence, stamped with the Baptist 's image: for that, on earth, I left my body, burned. But if I could see the wretched soul of Guido here, or Alessandro, or Aghinolfo , their brother, I would not exchange that sight for Branda's fountain. Guido is down here already, if the crazed spirits going round speak truly, but what use is it to me, whose limbs are tied? If I were only light enough to move, even an inch, every hundred years, I would already have started on the road, to find him among this disfigured people, though it winds around eleven miles, and is no less than half a mile across. Because of them I am with such a crew: they induced me to stamp those florins that were adulterated, with three carats alloy.' Inferno Canto XXX:91-129 Sinon: Potiphar's wifeI said to him: 'Who are those abject two, lying close to your right edge, and giving off smoke, like a hand, bathed, in winter? He replied: 'I found them here, when I rained down into this pound, and they have not turned since then, and may never turn I believe. One is the false wife who accused Joseph . The other is lying Sinon , the Greek from Troy. A burning fever makes them stink so strongly.' And Sinon, who perhaps took offence at being named so blackly, struck Adamo 's rigid belly with his fist, so that it resounded, like a drum: and Master Adam struck him in the face with his arm, that seemed no softer, saying to him: 'I have an arm free for such a situation, though I am kept from moving by my heavy limbs.' At which Sinon answered: 'You were not so ready with it, going to the fire, but as ready, and readier, when you were coining.' And he of the dropsy: 'You speak truth in that, but you were not so truthful a witness, there, when you were questioned about the truth at Troy.' 'If I spoke falsely, you falsified the coin,' Sinon said, 'and I am here for the one crime, but you for more than any other devil.' He who had the swollen belly answered: 'Think of the Wooden Horse, you liar, and let it be a torment to you that all the world knows of it.' The Greek replied: 'Let the thirst that cracks the tongue be your torture, and the foul water make your stomach a barrier in front of your eyes.' Then the coiner: 'Your mouth gapes wide as usual, to speak ill. If I have a thirst, and moisture swells me, you have the burning, and a head that hurts you: and you would not need many words of invitation, to lap at the mirror of Narcissus .' Inferno Canto XXX:130-148 Virgil reproves DanteI was standing, all intent on hearing them, when the Master said to me: 'Now, keep gazing much longer, and I will quarrel with you!' When I heard him speak to me in anger, I turned towards him, with such a feeling of shame that it comes over me again, as I only think of it. And like someone who dreams of something harmful to them, and dreaming, wishes it were a dream, so that they long for what is, as if it were not; that I became, who, lacking power to speak, wished to make an excuse, and all the while did so, not thinking I was doing it. My Master said: 'Less shamefacedness would wash away a greater fault than yours, so unburden yourself of sorrow, and know that I am always with you, should it happen that fate takes you, where people are in similar conflict: since the desire to hear it, is a vulgar desire.'Inferno Canto XXXI:1-45 The Giants that guard the central pitOne and the same tongue at first wounded me, so that it painted both my cheeks with blushes, and then gave out the ointment for the wound. So I have heard the spear of Achilles , and his father Peleus , was the cause first of sadness, and then of a healing gift. We turned our back on the wretched valley, crossing without a word, up by the bank that circles round it. Here was less darkness than night and less light than day, so that my vision showed only a little in front: but I heard a high-pitched horn sound, so loudly, that it would have made thunder seem quiet: it directed my eyes, that followed its passage back, straight to a single point. Roland did not sound his horn so fiercely, after the sad rout, when Charlemagne had lost the holy war, at Roncesvalles. I had kept my head turned for a while in that direction, when I seemed to make out many high towers, at which I said: 'Master, tell me what city this is?' And he to me: 'Because your eyes traverse the darkness from too far away, it follows that you imagine wrongly. You will see, quite plainly, when you reach there, how much the sense is deceived by distance, so press on more strongly.' Then he took me, lovingly, by the hand, and said: 'Before we go further, so that the reality might seem less strange to you, know that they are Giants, not towers, and are in the pit, from the navel downwards, all of them, around its bank.' As the eye, when a mist is disappearing, gradually recreates what was hidden by the vapour thickening the air, so, while approaching closer and closer to the brink, piercing through that gross, dark atmosphere, error left me, and my fear increased. As Montereggione crowns its round wall with towers, so the terrible giants, whom Jupiter still threatens from the heavens, when he thunders, turreted with half their bodies the bank that circles the well. Inferno Canto XXXI:46-81 NimrodAnd I already saw the face of one, the shoulders, chest, the greater part of the belly, and the arms down both sides. When nature abandoned the art of making creatures like these, she certainly did well by removing such killers from warfare, and if she does not repent of making elephants and whales, whoever looks at the issue subtly, considers her more prudent and more right in that, since where the instrument of mind is joined to ill will and power, men have no defence against it. His face seemed to me as long and large as the bronze pine-cone , in front of St Peter's in Rome, and his other features were in proportion, so that the bank that covered him from the middle onwards, revealed so much of him above that three Frieslanders would have boasted in vain of reaching his hair, since I saw thirty large hand-spans of him down from the place where a man pins his cloak. The savage mouth, for which no sweeter hymns were fit, began to rave: ' Rafel mai amech sabi almi .' And my guide turning to him, said: 'Foolish spirit, stick to your hunting-horn, and vent your breath through that, when rage or some other passion stirs you. Search round your neck, O confused soul, and you will find the belt where it is slung, and see that which arcs across your huge chest.' Then he said to me: 'He declares himself. This is Nimrod , through whose evil thought, one language is not still used, throughout the whole world. Let us leave him standing here, and not speak to him in vain: since every language, to him, is like his to others, that no one understands.' Inferno Canto XXXI:82-96 EphialtesSo we went on, turning to the left, and, a crossbow-shot away, we found the next one, far larger and fiercer. Who and what the power might be that bound him, I cannot say, but he had his right arm pinioned behind, and the other in front, by a chain that held him tight, from the neck down, and, on the visible part of him, reached its fifth turn. My guide said: 'This proud spirit had the will to try his strength against high Jupiter, and so has this reward. Ephialtes is his name, and he made the great attempt, when the Giants made the gods fear, and the arms he shook then, now, he never moves.' Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145 AntaeusAnd I said to him: 'If it were possible, I would wish my eyes to light on vast Briareus .' To which he replied: 'You will see Antaeus , nearby, who speaks and is unchained, and will set us down in the deepest abyss of guilt. He whom you wish to see is far beyond, and is formed and bound like this one, except he seems more savage in his features.' No huge earthquake ever shook a tower, as violently as Ephialtes promptly shook himself. Then I feared death more than ever, and the fear alone would have been enough to cause it, had I not seen his chains. We then went further on, and reached Antaeus, who projected twenty feet from the pit, not including his head. The Master spoke: 'O you, who, of old, took a thousand lions for your prey, in the fateful valley, near Zama, that made Scipio heir to glory, when Hannibal retreated with his army; you, through whom, it might still be believed, the Giant sons of Earth would have overcome the gods, if you had been at the great war with your brothers; set us down, and do not be shy to do it, where the cold imprisons the River Cocytus, in the Ninth Circle. ___________________________________________________________
Notes to Dante's Inferno
InfNote 2. Chronology, See also the Chronology of the Purgatorio and Paradiso. 327 InfNote 3. The Salvation of Italy 328 InfNote 4. Ciacco's prophecy in Canto VI. 329 InfNote 5. Arles and Pola. 330 InfNote 6. Sodom and Cahors. 330 InfNote 7. The Old Man of Crete. 330 InfNote 8. The Origins of Florence. 330 InfNote 9. Vanni Fucci's prophecy. 330 InfNote 10. Montereggione and the bronze pine-cone of St Peter's. 331 InfNote 1. StructureThe regions of Dante's Hell are subdivided, mirroring his descent with Virgil, as follows. The conception derives from Aristotle , Cicero , and Christian teachings. There are twenty-four divisions in all. There are three major groupings divided into seven Circles, consisting of those who failed to exercise self-control (Circles 2-5), the violent (Circle 7), and the fraudulent and traitorous (Circles 8-9). Added to these are the Heathen (Circle 1), the Heretics (Circle 6) and, outside the Acheron, the spiritually neutral. There are thus nine Circles, plus the region this side of Acheron, making ten major divisions. This pattern of three , divided to make seven , augmented to nine and then ten , is the fundamental architecture of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise . The keynote of Hell is Charity or Pity, of the Purgatorio, Hope, and of the Paradiso, Faith.
Canto III. This side of Acheron. The Dark Plain. The spiritually neutral, who lived 'without praise or blame' and the angels who 'were neither faithful nor rebellious'. Their punishment is to ' have no hope of death' and to 'envy every other condition than their own'. Canto IV. The First Circle. Limbo. The Heathens. Those who lived before Christianity or were unbaptised. Their punishment is 'without hope to live in desire' Canto V . The Second Circle. Hell proper. The first division of those lacking self-restraint. The Carnal sinners. The carnal sinners, blown endlessly though the air in darkness. Canto VI . The Third Circle. The second division of those lacking self-restraint. The Gluttonous. The gluttons, drenched in hail, snow and dark water. Canto VII . The Fourth Circle. The third division of those lacking self-restraint. The Avaricious and the Prodigal. The misers and the spendthrifts, endlessly rolling heavy weights. Canto VII . The Fifth Circle. The Styx. The fourth division of those lacking self-restraint. The Angry and the Sullen. The angry and sullen, sunk in the Stygian marsh. On top are the wrathful struggling with each other, below under the bog are the sullen and lazy who 'sigh and make it bubble at the surface'. Cantos IX and X. The City of Dis (Lucifer, Satan). The Sixth Circle. The Heretics. The Heretics and their followers, incarcerated in red-hot tombs. Canto XII . The Seventh Circle of the Violent. The First Round. The River of Blood. The Violent against others. The violent against others, the murderers, tyrants, and assassins, sunk in the River of Blood. They are guarded by Centaurs. Canto XIII . The Seventh Circle of the Violent. The Second Round. The Wood of Suicides. The Violent against themselves. The suicides, transformed to trees which bleed etc. Cantos XIV -XVII. The Seventh Circle of the Violent. The Third Round. The Plain of Burning Sand. The violent against God and Nature. The violent against God, the blasphemers, lying supine on the burning sand. The violent against Nature, the sodomites, roaming the sand. The violent against Nature and Art, the usurers, crouched on the sand. Canto XVIII . The Eighth Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The First Chasm. The pimps and seducers. The pimps and seducers scourged by horned Demons. Canto XVIII . The Eighth Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Second Chasm. The flatterers. The flatterers, smeared with filth and excrement. Canto XIX . The Eighth Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Third Chasm. The Simonists, those who sell spiritual offices. The Simonists, the soles of their feet seared endlessly with fire. Canto XX . The Eighth Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Fourth Chasm. The augerers, diviners, astrologers and prophets. The augerers, their faces twisted round, forced to walk backwards. Cantos XXI-XXIII . The Eighth Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Fifth Chasm. The Barrators, who exploited their public office. The barrators, barterers, or peculators covered in boiling pitch, and guarded and tormented by Demons. Canto XXIII . The Eighth Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Sixth Chasm. The hypocrites. The hypocrites, weighed down with cloaks of gilded lead. Cantos XXIV-XXV . The Eighth Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Seventh Chasm. The thieves. The thieves, in the ditch of dragons and serpents. Cantos XXVI -XXVII. The Eighth Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Eighth Chasm. The evil counsellors. The evil counsellors, wrapped in flames of conscience. Canto XXVIII . The Eighth Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Ninth Chasm. The sowers of discord. The sowers of dissension, discord, scandal, sectarianism and schism. Their bodies are split or mutilated in some way reflecting their sin. Cantos XXIX-XXX. The Eight Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Tenth and last Chasm. The forgers. The forgers and falsifiers in things, actions and words, tormented by disease and putrefaction. Canto XXXII . The Ninth Circle of the Treacherous. Cocytus. The Central Pit or Well. The First Ring. Caïna. Treachery against kin. The traitors to their kin, frozen in the ice. The ring is named after Cain , who murdered Abel. Canto XXXII -XXXIII. The Ninth Circle of the Treacherous. Cocytus. The Central Pit or Well. The Second Ring. Antenora. Treachery against country. The traitors to their city or country, frozen in the ice. The ring is named after Antenor who was supposed to have betrayed Troy to the Greeks. Canto XXXIII . The Ninth Circle of the Treacherous. Cocytus. The Central Pit or Well. The Third Ring. Ptolomaea. Teachery against friends and guests. The treacherous to friends and guests, frozen in the ice. The ring is named after Ptolemy the murderer of Simon Maccabeus. Canto XXXIV . The Ninth Circle of the Treacherous. The Central Pit or Well. The Fourth and Last Ring. The Judecca. The traitors to their lords and benefactors. The betrayers of their masters and benefactors, fixed solid under the ice. The winged form of the Arch Traitor Satan at the centre, towards whom all streams of Guilt flow, frozen from the chest downwards. The ring is named after Judas , the disciple who betrayed Christ. ___________________________________________________________Top
ChronologyThe Vision is set in 1300 , when Dante was thirty-five , in the middle of a seventy-year life-span (Inf I:1, Inf XVIII:28-33, Inf XXI:112-114, Purg II:98-99, Par IX: 40). It is Easter . The poem begins at the Spring Equinox and the sun's position remains fixed throughout, in Aries, as according to medieval tradition it was at the Creation. (Inf I:38-40, Par X:7-33, Par I:37-44). The following signs will be rising in the east and setting in the west during the night : Rising 6pm Libra 8pm Scorpio 10pm Sagittarius 12midnight Capricorn 2am Aquarius 4am Pisces Setting 6pm Aries 8pm Taurus 10pm Gemini 12midnight Cancer 2am Leo 4am Virgo
Inferno Canto I:1-60 .The poem opens on the evening prior to Good Friday in the dark wood. Dante witnesses the dawn of Good Friday at 6am on the equinox with the sun rising in Aries . He meets Virgil and travels with him until the evening of Good Friday. Inferno Canto II:1-42 . The canto starts at the evening of Good Friday. Inferno Canto VII:67-99 . At this point in the Fifth Circle it is past midnight since the stars of Libra (The scales of Justice) that were ascending in the evening sky are now falling from the mid-heaven. It is now Saturday pre-dawn. Inferno Canto XI:94-115 . At the end of the canto, before the descent to the Seventh Circle, Pisces , the Fishes, is visible on the horizon and must have risen in the east at 4am some time before. Bootës, or the Wain, is (correctly: see a star chart for the northern hemisphere in April, or observe it) in the north-west. (Caurus is the north-west wind). It is therefore near dawn of Saturday. Inferno Canto XX:100-130 . At the end of the canto, in the Fourth Chasm of the Eighth Circle, the moon is about to set over the Pillars of Hercules in the West. Being full it will have set at dawn on Good Friday and now a day later will set after dawn. Dante does take account of the moon's daily movement (See Purg IX:1-11). The moon moves about 12 degrees a day, relative to the 'fixed' stars, which equates to 48 minutes, and has not yet set, though it is touching the horizon, so subject to Dante's astronomical sources, it is approximately 6.45am on Saturday morning, possibly a little earlier. Inferno Canto XXI:97-139 . At this point of the Fifth Chasm of the Eighth Circle it is five hours earlier than the time of Christ's death, at noon, so it is 7am Saturday. (At the Easter of the year 1300 =1266+34 full years from the crucifixion on Good Friday, supposing Christ to be incarnated in December of BC1 and to die at age 33, celebrating the anniversary of his 33rd year in December 33AD) Inferno Canto XXIX:1-36 . The moon is at nadir, in the Tenth Chasm, and allowing for its daily movement it is therefore approximately 1pm on the Saturday. Inferno Canto XXXIV:55-69 . It is 6pm Saturday and night is falling as the poets leave Hell by clambering down Satan's sides then turning and climbing up to the little sphere which marks the reverse side of the deepest point of the Judecca. This takes them an hour and a half until 7.30 pm Saturday. Inferno Canto XXXIV:70-139 . It is morning on the opposite side of the earth to Jerusalem, and evening in Hell is dawn there . It is now mid-tierce, the middle of the first of the four canonical divisions of the day. At the equinox each takes three hours, so tierce is 6am to 9am and we may take it that it is now 7.30 am Sunday as the poets begin their ascent by the channel cut there by the River Lethe. Their ascent to the foot of Mount Purgatory takes them all this Sunday and Sunday night, so that they complete it just before dawn on the morning of Easter Monday.
InfNote 3. The Salvation of ItalyThere are various interpretations of Dante's imagery, for example that the leopard (panther) represents Florence and worldly pleasure, lust or envy; the lion the Royal House of France, and ambition or pride; the she-wolf the Papacy, and avarice. Lust, pride and avarice are the three roots of sin. The imagery of the three animals may come from Jeremiah (v.6). The she-wolf, the Papacy, made many alliances. The Greyhound ( Veltro ) has been suggested to be Can Grande della Scala , born in Verona, between Feltro in Venetia and Monte feltro in Romagna, the great Ghibelline leader. Dante's later patron, he may have been regarded by Dante as the deliverer who would restore Imperial power, reinstitute Roman law, eliminate avarice, bring peace, and establish a reformed order of things. InfNote 4. Ciacco 's prophecy in Canto VI. Inferno Canto VI:64-93 . Ciacco prophesies the events in Florence between April 1300, the date of the vision, and April 1303. Pope Boniface the VII exerted pressure on Florence to accept his authority. Dante was at Rome in May 1300, and returned quickly to Florence where he was appointed to the electoral body. Boniface then gave support to the Black (Neri) Guelphs against the White (Bianchi) Ghibellines who insisted on church reforms, and political liberty. The Whites lead by Vieri de' Cerchi , were 'the party of the woods' since the Cerchi came from the wooded Val di Sieve in the Mugello. The city expelled both Corso Donati , the leader of the Blacks, and the Cerchi (who included Dante's friend, the poet Guido Cavalcanti .) This action, that Dante supported, led to life-long enmity against him. Corso Donati went to Rome, and allied himself to the Pope. Boniface VII allied himself in turn to Philip the Fair , Philip the IVth, of France against the Empire of Albert of Hapsburg . ('King of the Romans'), Dante called this the alliance of the new Pilate and the New Pharisees, or the giant and the harlot (the Papacy) embracing. Charles of Valois , the French king's brother, crossed the Alps in August of 1301, and after treating with Florence, entered the city peaceably on November 1st. The banished Blacks followed him in large numbers. Corso Donati returned on November 5th. The houses of the Whites were sacked and burned, and the Prior, the magistrates were deposed. The Bianchi, the Whites were condemned and exiled. Dante was aligned with a weak Ghibelline party supporting a weak and uncommitted Imperial presence, and opposed by a strong Guelf party (aligned with France, and therefore a caricature of Dante's Ghibelline beliefs) supporting a corrupt Papacy. What Dante desired was a reformed Papacy in the spiritual sphere, balanced with a strong Imperial presence derived from Roman Imperial history in the secular sphere. In different times he would have been a Guelph like his father in spirit, and a supporter of the Ghibelline Empire in secular practice. In April 1302 he heard that he had been exiled with the Whites, the Ghibellines. He never returned to Florence. In March 1303 the exiled Whites under Scarpetta degli Ordelaffi (strangely a papal vicar, indicating a growing rift between Boniface and the French) tried to force an entry into Florence. It failed and many were taken prisoner and beheaded. France, the 'giant', had triumphed, and his 'paramour' Boniface VII died in October 1303, his policy having led to Italian disaster. See also Vanni Fucci's prophecy. InfNote 5. Arles and Pola.Inferno Canto IX:106-133 . Dante compares the plain of Dis full of heretic tombs with Arles and Pola. Arles, in Provence, in southern France, at the mouth of the River Rhone, has at Aleschans (Les Alyscamps) rows of tombs, the graves of Charlemagne's warriors, according to legend, buried there after the rout at Roncesvalles (See 'The Song of Roland'), and of the Christian dead from the battle of Aleschans where the Saracens defeated William of Orange. (See Van Gogh's painting 'Les Alyscamps', Niarchos Collection, Athens, and his letter to Theo, no559, Nov 1888, where he talks of 'rows of old Roman tombs'.) Pola (modern Pula) is a seaport, at the southern tip of Istria (modern Istra), that promontory, once belonging to Venice, and hence part of Italy, that hangs down into the Adriatic to the East of the Golfo di Venezia. The promontory on the East is bounded by the Gulf of Quarnaro (modern Kvarner). It is said that numbers of Slavonians were brought there for burial, and it has Roman remains. InfNote 6. Sodom and Cahors.Inferno Canto XI:1-66 . The city of Sodom represented unnatural vice (Genesis XIX), while Cahors in Guyenne (on the River Lot) in southern France was notorious for its usurers, in the Middle Ages, so that 'Caorsinus' was a synonym for 'usurer'. InfNote 7. The Old Man of Crete.Inferno Canto XIV:73-120 . An allegory of human history. The concept is from Daniel ii. 32. The four metals are the four ages of man: gold, silver, bronze, and iron (See also Ovid's Metamorphoses I). The iron and clay feet, are secular and spiritual authority, the latter foot being the one humanity looks to for support, but weakened and corrupted by temporal power. Crete in Virgil's Aeneid iii 104-5 is the 'cradle of our (Roman) race' traced back via Troy to Teucer. Damietta stands for Egypt, superseded by Rome. The golden age alone was free of tears. InfNote 8. The Origins of Florence.Inferno Canto XV:43-78 . According to tradition Catiline was besieged, by Caesar , in Fiesole (Faesulae), in the hills, three miles north-west of Florence. When the town fell a new town was established, in the valley, by the River Arno. The inhabitants were a mixture of Fiesolans and Roman soldiers. The Florentine commoners (Whites) were held to be descended from the Fiesolans, the nobility (Blacks) from the Romans. This was regarded as a source of the future conflicts. Dante was for a reformed Papacy and a strong (Holy Roman) Empire, and was active in the expulsion of both Whites and Blacks from Florence, he was therefore opposed by both parties, though ostensibly a Ghibelline (his father having been a Guelf) and courted and vilified by both. Dante is reconciled to this, and Farinata 's, prophecy, of a troubled exile. InfNote 9. Vanni Fucci's prophecy.Inferno Canto XXIV:130-151 . Vanni Fucci prophesies the defeat of the Ghibelline Whites (Bianci) by the Black Guelph (Neri) faction. The Blacks were expelled from Pistoia in May 1301. Dante was one of those who voted for the expulsions. In November 1301 the Blacks entered Florence, aided by Charles de Valois , and in April 1302 made the city drive out the Whites (changing the people, and its laws). Pistoia became a rallying point for the Whites in Tuscany, until their defeat by the Florentine and Lucchese Guelfs, under Moroello Malaspina , Marquis of Giovagallo in Valdimagra (the extremity of Lunigiana). Piceno's field is the area between Serravalle and Montecatini. Malaspina took Serravalle in 1302, and reduced Pistoia in 1306. Pistoia was said to have been founded by the remnants of Catiline's army, leading to Dante's comment in the next Canto ('you outdo your seed in evil-doing') See also Ciacco's Prophecy InfNote 10. Montereggione and the bronze pine-cone of St Peter's.Inferno Canto XXXI:1-45 The Giants appear like the twelve turrets of the castle of Montereggione eight miles north-west of Siena, between it and San Gimignano. They were the monstrous sons of Earth and Tartarus, with many arms, and serpent feet, who made war against the gods, scaling heaven by piling mountains on one another (Mount Pelion on Mount Ossa, and both on Olympus.). They were overthrown by Jupiter's thunderbolts and buried under Sicily. Inferno Canto XXXI:46-81 . The bronze pine-cone, to which Dante compares the size of Nimrod 's head, once on the top of the Mausoleum of Adrian and then moved to the Vatican Gardens, stood in front of St Peter's, and was between seven and eight feet high.
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