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thetldrplace · 4 months ago

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Inferno: Cantos 15-21

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

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

Fiamminghi- fiamma or flame Guizzante- darting Bruggia- burning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dante then cries out, almost to heaven, saying:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We'll meet this monster in the next Canto.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So ends Canto 17

Canto XVIII The eighth circle

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

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

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

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

First ditch-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Second ditch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Canto XIX Eighth circle: third ditch- simonists

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Canto XX Eighth circle: fourth ditch- diviners

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

Qui vive la pietà quand’è ben morta

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This literally is translated:

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

Uh, wut?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#inferno #dante

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