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Some of this commentary is adapted from Ciardi's translation.
The Inferno is, generally speaking, the best
loved part of the Divine Comedy. It, in a sense, shares a problem that
Milton had with Paradise Lost, for readers tend to more easily identify
with sinners and things of this world than with saints and the theoretical
glories of heaven. Further, it is much easier to draw vivid illustrations
of real people than to try to convincingly depict perfect saints.
At the poem's beginning,
midway in his allotted threescore years and ten, Dante comes to himself
and realizes that he has strayed from the True Ways into the Dark Wood
of Error (Worldliness). Click
here for illustration. As soon as he realizes his loss,
Dante lifts his eyes and sees the first light of the sunrise (the Sun is
a symbol of Divine Illumination) lighting the shoulders of a little hill
(The Mount of Joy). It is the Easter Season, the time of resurrection.
This juxtaposition of joyous symbols fills Dante with hope and he sets
out at once to climb directly up the Mount of Joy, but almost immediately
his way is blocked by the Three Beasts of Worldliness: the leopard of malice
and fraud, the lion of violence and ambition, and the she-wolf of incontinence.
These beasts, especially the she-wolf, drive him back despairing into the
darkness of error. But just as all seems lost there comes to him the spirit
of Vergil, Dante's symbol of human reason, Vergil, of course, was Rome's
greatest poet and author of the Aeneid, which inspired Dante greatly
and thus Dante becomes a symbol of all that human reason (without divine
guidance, of course) can gain. Vergil explains that he has been sent by
Beatrice (who was prompted by the Virgin Mary as we shall see note the
importance of the Virgin Mary here), to lead Dante from error to salvation.
There can, however, be no direct ascent for Dante past the beasts: the
man who would escape must go the a longer and harder way. First he must
descend through Hell (Recognition of Sin), then he must ascend through
Purgatory (The Renunciation of Sin), and only then may he reach the pinnacle
of joy and come to the Light of God. Vergil offers to guide Dante, but
only as far as Human Reason can go. Another guide (Beatrice, who for Dante
becomes the symbol of Divine Love) must take over for the final ascent,
for human reason is self-limited. Dante submits himself joyously to Vergil's
guidance and they move off. There are also some references to Dante's hope
for the future of Italy -- the Greyhound (middle of col 1, 189) probably
represents some future leader (a Holy Roman Emperor) who will save Italy.
In Canto II their descent begins on the evening
of the first day (Friday). Dante, following Vergil, finds himself tired
and despairing. How can he be worthy of such a vision as Vergil has described?
He hesitates and seems about to abandon his first purpose. To comfort him
Vergil explains how Beatrice descended to him in Limbo (the name of the
first circle of Hell) and told him of her concern for Dante. It is she,
the symbol of Divine Love, who sent Vergil to lead Dante from error. She
came into Hell itself on this errand, for Dante cannot come to Divine Love
unaided; Reason must lead him. In other words, Vergil symbolizes the process
of Reason leading somebody to Divine Love. Later on we shall see how Statius
was moved by Vergil's poetry to became a Christian. Moreover Beatrice has
been sent with prayers of the Virgin Mary (who represents divine compassion)
and the Saint Lucia (divine light). Rachel (= the contemplative life) also
figures in the heavenly scene which Vergil recounts. Vergil explains all
this asks Dante how can he hesitate longer when such heavenly powers are
concerned for him, and Vergil himself promised to lead him safely? Dante
understands at once that such forces cannot fail him, and his spirits rise
in joyous anticipation.
In Canto III the Poets pass the Gate of Hell (with
its famous inscription) and immediately hear great cries of anguish of
the damned. Note the reference to those that 'have foregone the good of
their intellect' (top third, page 191, col. 1). This is an important point,
for to Dante, all people know in their hearts what is right, and thus,
to keep sinning, they must intentionally make themselves blind to what
their own intellect tells them.
We should also note that the Hell of Dante in many ways is modeled
on the description of Hades in the great sixth book of Vergil's Aeneid,
where Aeneas is escorted by the Sibyl through Hades, where he sees figures
from his pass, and see a foreshadowing of Rome's future. And just as Beatrice
was behind Dante's trip to the underworld, in Vergil it is Aeneas' father
Anchises who is behind Aeneas' trip. And just as the climax of the Comedy
involves a reunion of relationship with the dead Beatrice, so in Vergil
Aeneas is reunited with his dead father, who has become a demigod.
Dante sees the first of
the souls in torment. They are the opportunists, those souls who in life
were neither for good nor evil but only for themselves. Mixed with them
are the outcasts who took no sides in the Rebellion of the Angels. They
are neither in Hell nor out of it. Eternally unclassified, they race round
and round pursuing a wavering banner that run forever before them throughout
the dirty air; and as they run they are pursued by swarms of wasps and
hornets, who sting them and produce a constant flow of blood and putrid
matter which trickles down the bodies of the sinners and is feasted upon
by the loathsome worms and maggots who coat the ground. We will see in
Purgatory and Paradise similar levels where those are punished who were
in some way either tardy in their good or slack in their duty.
The law of Dante's Hell
is the law of symbolic retribution. As these figures sinned so are they
punished. They took no sides, therefore they are given no place. As they
pursued the shifting illusion of their own advantage, changing their courses
with every changing wind, so they pursue eternally an elusive, ever-shifting
banner. As their sin was a darkness, so they move in darkness. As their
own guilty conscience pursued them, so are they pursued by swarms of wasps
and hornets. And as their actions were a moral filth, so they run eternally
through the filth of worms and maggots which they themselves feed Dante
recognizes several, among them Pope Celestine v (who made the 'great refusal'
to give up his papal office, see col. 1, page 192), but without delaying
to speak to any of these souls, the Poets move on to Acheron, the first
of the rivers of Hell. Here the newly-arrived souls of the damned gather
and wait for monstrous Charon to ferry them over to punishment. For
an illustration of the ferryman, click here. Note that the damned
show a certain eagerness to cross over; this reveals the fact that, at
some level, all who are damned want to be damned, that is, they will their
sin. (An exception would seem to be the unbaptized children of the first
circle, but the justice of that is one of the mysteries of Gods' justice).
Charon recognizes Dante as a living man and angrily refuses him passage
. Vergil forces Charon to serve them, but Dante swoons with terror, and
does not reawaken until he is on the other side.
In Canto IV Dante wakes
to find himself across Acheron. The poets are now on the brink of Hell
itself, which Dante conceives as a great funnel shaped cave lying below
the northern hemisphere with its bottom point at the earth's center --
see the handout I gave you.. Around this great circular runs a series of
ledges, each of which is assigned to the punishment of one category of
sin. This elaborate categorization of sin fits in well with the system
of scholastic reasoning.
As soon as Dante's strength
returns, the poets begin to cross the First Circle. Here they find the
virtuous pagans, who were born without the light of Christ's revelation,
and, therefore, they cannot come into the light of God, but they are not
tormented. (Click
here to see an illustration) Their only pain is that they have no hope
of salvation or seeing God. According to the strict logic of Catholic theology
(at least at this time) even unbaptized children, since they are stained
with original sin, must come here. Ahead of them Dante sights a great dome
of light, and a voice trumpets through the eternal darkness welcoming Vergil
back, for this is his eternal place in Hell. Immediately the great Greco-Rome
Poets of all time appear Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. These poets greet
Vergil, and they make Dante a sixth in their company. With them Dante enters
the Citadel of Human Reason and sees before his eyes the Master Souls of
Pagan Antiquity gathered on a vast green lawn, many of them great philosophers,
such as Plato and Socrates, and illuminated by the radiance of Human Reason.
This is the highest state man can achieve without God, and the glory of
it dazzles Dante, but he knows also that it is nothing compared to the
glory of God.
In Canto V. the Poets leave
Limbo (which is another name for the First Circle of Hell) and enter the
second circle. Here begin the torments of Hell proper, and here, blocking
the way, sits Minos, the dread and semi-bestial judge of the Damned who
assigns each soul its eternal torment. Minos is borrowed from Greek mythology.
Minos was originally not bestial at all, but a son of Zeus. Minos orders
the Poets back; but Vergil silences him as he earlier silenced Charon and
the Poets move on.
The Poets soon find themselves
on a dark ledge swept by a great whirlwind, which spins within it the souls
of the carnal, those who betrayed reason to their sexual appetites. Their
sin was to abandon themselves to the tempest of their passions: so they
are swept forever in the tempest of Hell, forever denied the light of reason
and of God. The punishment of sin increases the deeper one goes into Hell,
and since these sinned out of Love, that for Dante is the supreme force
in the universe, their punishment is lesser. Vergil identifies many among
them. Semiramis (a famous queen of Babylon) is there, and Dido (a lover
of Aeneas), Cleopatra (lover of the Roman Mark Antony), Helen of Troy,
and Tristan. Dante sees Paolo and Francesca swept together, and in the
name of love he calls to them to tell their sad story. They pause from
their eternal flight to come to him, and Francesca tells their history
while Paolo weeps at her side. Click
here for an illustration Note that they fell into sin by reading alone
together the sort of Romantic tales of illicit love, in particular the
story of Launcelot (who seduced King Arthur's wife), that form the matter
of the songs of Marie de France, author of Yonec .
Note that (top 1/3 column
1, page 196) Francesca claims that love 'seized her'. As I shall show later
on, Francesa is in some way paralleled later in the Paradiso by
Piccarda, who also was seized (in this case by kinsmen who forced her to
leave the convent and marry). but who did not give up her will and fully
consent to the sin. Again, although understandably, even Francesa has given
up the 'good of the intellect' as seen by her attitude toward illicit love
as something that can force to agree to sin against your will. Dante is
so stricken by compassion at their tragic tale that he faints once again.
In Canto VI Dante recovers
and finds himself in the third circle. Click
here for an illustration A great storm of rotting filth falls incessantly,
a mixture of stinking snow and freezing rain, which forms into a vile slush
underfoot. Everything about the Circle suggests a gigantic garbage dump.
The souls of the Damned lie in the icy sludge, and Cereberus, the ravenous
three-headed dog of Hades in Greek myth, stands guard over them, ripping
and tearing the sinners with his claws and teeth. These are the Gluttons.
In life they made no higher use of the gifts of God than to wallow in food
and drink, producers of nothing but garbage and dung. Here they lie through
all eternity, themselves like garbage, half-buried in fetid slush, while
Cereberus drools over them as they in life slavered over their food. Notice
that gluttony is another form of misplaced love, but a lower form, since
it is love of food, and not of a person; Yet it is also tied up with the
positive enjoyment of what God has given, unlike those punished the next
stage lover, the Greedy, who simply hoard money and do not use it.
As the poets pass, one of
the damned sits up and addresses Dante. He is Ciacco, called "the hog",
a citizen of Dante's own Florence, who recognizes Dante and asks him eagerly
for news of what is happenings there. With the foreknowledge of the damned,
Ciacco then utters the first of the political prophecies that are a recurring
theme in the Inferno . Here he predicts the war between the White
and Black Guelphs (see col. 1, page 197) and the triumph of the Black Guelphs
(the "rustic party" that brings about Dante's own exile. Note also at the
bottom of 197 col. 2 Dante asks about how these torments will feel after
the end of the world? Note how Vergil asks Dante to consider his 'science'
that is, of philosophy. The answer is that, once all things have been perfected,
the ability to feel pain will also be perfected, and thus they will suffer
more.
The Poets then move on toward
the next Circle, at the edge of which they encounter the monster Plutus
(whose name is adapted from the name of the Greek god of wealth.), which
will be a fitting figure to preside over those guilty of hoarding money.
We move ahead to Canto VIII,
which marks the beginning of a region of more heavy punishment, the region
of Dis. The Poets stand at the edge of the swamp, and a mysterious signal
flames from the great tower . It is answered from the darkness of the other
side, and almost immediately the Poets see Phlegyas the boatman of the
river Styx (another river of Classical Hades), racing toward them. Expecting
to find new souls for torment he howls with rage when he discovers the
Poets. Once again, however, Vergil conquers his wrath with a word and Phlegyas
reluctantly gives them passage. As they are crossing, a muddy soul rises
before them. It is Filippo Argenti, one of the Wrathful, who are punished
in this Circle. The reason that the wrathful get lighter punishment is
that wrath, in itself, is not evil -- even Jesus showed wrath. The object
of one's wrath is what makes it more sinful. Argenti was a bitter enemy
of Dante in real life. Dante recognizes him despite the filth with which
he is covered, and he curses him soundly, even wishing to see him tormented
further. Vergil approves Dante's disdain and, as if in answer to Dante's
wrath, Argenti is suddenly set upon by all the sinners present, who fall
upon him and rip him to pieces. Note how Argenti (mid. col. 2, page 198)
even turns to rip up himself. This shows how the nature of sin is ultimately
self-destructive as well as unnatural. When one abandons the natural good
of God and the proper objects of love, then all kinds of madness and self-destructive
evil follow.
While we might not approve
of Dante's condemnation of one already cursed, this is a positive step
for Dante, for such a curse also is symbolic of a rejection of evil. Note
too (top 1/4 of column 2 page 198) Dante imagines how many great leaders
of this world will be buried in the mire of Hell. An important theme of
the Inferno (indeed, of the whole Divine Comedy) is how perishable
and transient are the glories and pleasures of this world (which was also
a theme of the Life of St. Mary of Egypt), all which must be stripped
away in order to enjoy the true life of God in Heaven. Note how the damned
turn on each other to make their mutual punishment more intense; In Purgatory
the penitents love each other and help each other achieve perfection.
The boat meanwhile has sped on, and Dante soon sees the flaming red
towers of Dis, the Capital of Hell. The great walls of the iron city block
the way to the Lower Hell. Properly speaking, all the rest of Hell lies
within the city walls, which separate the Upper and the Lower Hell. Phlegyas
deposits them at a great Iron Gate which they find to be guarded by the
rebellious angels who revolted against God and joined Satan. These creatures
of Ultimate Evil refuse to let the Poets pass. Even Vergil is powerless
against them, symbolizing the fact that Human reason by itself cannot cope
with the essence of Evil. Only Divine Aid can bring hope and truly combat
this evil. Vergil accordingly sends up a prayer for assistance and waits
anxiously for a heavenly messenger to appear.
In Canto IX Dante is nervous
because it is clear that Dante cannot really do anything. Vergil tries
to comfort Dante by telling him he has made this trip before, when he was
sent as a ghost to speak with Caesar which is historically impossible.
But finally (col. 2, pg. 200) an angel sent by God gains them a way in,
and inside the Poets see those souls who are tormented for heresy. We see
some of these in my selection from Canto X, where Dante puts those who
have denied God by denying the immortality of the soul, like Epicurus,
whom we studied. Again, the punishment shows poetic justice, for as they
declared that the soul dies with the body, they are eternally buried in
burning tombs.
In Canto XII the Poets come
to those condemned for violence against their neighbors. Notice the area
seems shattered by an earthquake. This is because during Christ's decent
into Hell to take away the saved the place was deeply shaken. Vergil notes
how this place changed since the last time he came here before the birth
of Christ. (mid. col. 2, pg. 201). Here the violent, because they shed
the blood of others, are immersed in boiling blood forever. They are carried
across the boiling blood by Nessus, the centaur, who was killed by Hercules
when he tried to rape his wife Dejanira. Centaurs were creatures in Greek
myth of passion and violence, so it is fitting they are located here. Dante
gets to see various famous tyrants and conquerors, like Alexander the Great
and Dionysios of Syracuse and Attila the Hun, who devastated the Roman
Empire. OF course, as I noted in class, due to Dante's patriotism mass-murders
like Julius Caesar are not here.....
In Canto XIII are those
who were violent against themselves, that is suicides and those who wasted
their own substance which, being unnatural, is a even greater sin.
Click here for
illustration The suicides, who gave up human form by killing themselves,
have been turned into trees, and can only speak when injured, since their
own supreme act of self-expression was self-destruction. They are constantly
torn by the horrid Harpies, flying female demons from Greek myth, who defiled
all they touched.
In another part of this
circle those who wasted their money and property are chased naked though
a thorny forest by dogs who rip off parts of their bodies (which grow back
so they can suffer some more), just as these people in life destroyed their
own property. One must understand that in Dante's time there was a fad
among the very wealthy to absolutely to destroy their wealth as a sign
they were so important they could afford to do so. There is a certain violence
in this destruction of property.
In Canto XIV the poets see those who have been violent
against God, nature and Art, who are punished, in differing degrees, by
burning sand and rain of fire. The violent against god, who blaspheme,
are stretched out on the sand. The worse of these is Capaneus, who is still,
even here, crying out against Zeus. Notice that in hell there is no true
repentance. There may be suffering and grief, but the damned, now in their
eternal condition, cannot change or repent.
The reference to the myth
of the Old Man of Crete, (page 206 col. 1) is interesting, for it recalls
the myth of the statue in the dream of the king in Daniel, whose different
body parts corresponded to different kingdoms still to come. These different
body parts represent stages of human history, history that is split by
sin, from which an endless stream of tears flow that, at one level, represent
the whole vast sorrow of sin ridden human history and, on another level,
create rivers in Hell.
In Canto XXI we come to
what some critics call the "Gargoyle Cantos" If you imagine the Comedy
like one great Gothic cathedral, the Gargoyle cantos are the gargoyles,
grotesque figures of horror and comedy. These cantos also show Dante's
poetry at its coarsest, which should remind us that Hell is not a pretty
sight, but a place, not only of infernal defiance, but of stupidity and
chaos. In this circle the Poets meet those who have sold justice for money;
since these people have 'sticky fingers' so to speak, they are submerged
in pitch, which also represents the fact that their business was done under
cover. The sinners that try rise out the pitch are grabbed and ripped by
Demons. Vergil and Dante cannot take the usual route, for the bridge there
was shattered during the earthquake that accompanied Christ's descent into
Hell. Vergil negotiates with the demons to provide him and Dante an escort
to the next bridge. Notice the bizarre humor in the Demons' names, and
how their leader farts to signal to them. Notice too when the Demons bring
up the sinner who tells them about the other sinners in the pitch,
(Click here for
illustration.) the sinner offers that, if they will let him go and
quite torturing him, he will trick the other sinners into coming up out
of the pitch (col. 2, pg. 209) so the devils can rip them up. The damned
have no love for each other, unlike the penitents we shall see in Purgatory.
Notice that when this sinner escapes the devils start fighting among themselves
(page 210, col. 1), which points to the fact that Hell is also a state
of disorder that turns on itself. Indeed, on several occasions we see the
damned attacking themselves. But this makes sense; the damned have turned
themselves away from all natural love and practice and good, which can
only lead to self-destruction.
In Canto XXVI the Poets
arrive at the area where the Evil Counselors are punished. Since they misused
their tongues, they are now burned in tongues of flame. The fire they suffer
also symbolizes the pain of conscience. Dante manages to interview Odysseus;
what is interesting here is that Odysseus, like Dante, was a traveler in
strange realms. But unlike Dante, Odysseus undertook his final voyage after
rejecting all his concern for his son, his old father, his wife, in a godless
lust for experience. He finally sails beyond the limits of the known world
and comes in sight of the Mount of Purgatory, where his ship is destroyed.
Dante is being punished because, by his lies, he managed to cause the destruction
of Troy; remember, for Dante the Trojans were the ancestors of the Romans,
who were the ancestors of the Italians, plus various other acts of betrayal
he was known for.
In Canto XXVII the poets
find the Creators of Discord, who, just as they tore people apart by causing
all sorts of problems (rebellions, revolutions, schisms, etc.) so they
go perpetually around in a circle, where they are split apart in proportion
to the severity of their sin. Since Dante regarded Islam as simply a kind
of Christian heresy, Mohammed ( = Mahomet) and Ali (successor to the prophet
Mohammed) are put here.
In Canto XXXI the poets come to the deepest level
of Hell, which is ringed by the Giants, figures of terrifying power who
rebelled against God and the Greek gods. What made them particularly terrifying
is that they linked vast strength to an evil will (see mid. col. 1, pg.
213). Yet, because they have turned to evil, they have lost the good of
their intellect, and this is why Nimrod, who is credited with the creation
of the Tower of Babel, a tower which tried to reach into heaven and which
was destroyed when God turned the speech of all his followers to different
languages, himself speaks nonsense syllables. (See bottom of 213, col.
1) Here too are the Giants and Titans of Greco-Roman mythology who tried
to rise to Mt. Olympus by piling mountains on each other as a kind of ladder.
Another giant, Anteus, lets them down into the lower level of hell. This
last level is a vast frozen waste, that symbolizes the utter coldness of
the ultimate betrayal of love. Here are traitors of one kind or another,
who, depending on their level of guilt, are more or less deeply encased
in ice (Click
here for illustration ) and exposed to the wind that arises from Satan
who is flapping his vast wings trying to keep warm. In this circle the
hatred of Dante is evident, for here are people who have betrayed Italy
itself.
What many people love about
Dante is the vividness with which the sinners tell their stories, stories
which modern readers read with more pity than perhaps Dante intended. This
is certainly true for the story of Count Ugolino (Canto XXXIII), who having
conspired with Archbishop Ruggieri to commit acts of betrayal to gain power
in Pisa, was himself betrayed and sealed up alive with his sons and grandsons,
who all starved to death in prison. Now in Hell Ugolino perpetually gnaws
on the head of Archbishop Ruggieri.
The power of sins of this
nature is truly awesome. Dante is amazed when he sees Friar Alberigo, who
Dante thought was still alive. Friar Alberigo had invited his own brother
to a banquet along with his son, and murdered them both. Such is the nature
of this sin that the soul of the criminal is taken immediately to Hell
and living body occupied by a demon.
In the last region of Hell
the Poets meet those who have betrayed their masters, those who were better
than they. This is not only a sin against love and loyalty, but also against
the natural order of things. At the center of this area, fixed in the ice,
is Satan himself, who is a grotesque parody of God, who has three faces,
just as God has three Persons. Each of his faces chews on a sinner; Judas,
who betrayed Christ, and Brutus and Cassius, who betrayed and assassinated
Julius Caesar. (Click
here for a interesting, although not quite faithful, illustration.
)
There is a space between one part of Satan and the
ice, where the waters of the river Lethe drain downward. Dante and Vergil
must climb down the leg of Satan and, as they do so, they pass the center
of the Earth and thus down becomes up, confusing Dante (see page 219, col.
1). When they get to the end of Satan's legs, they must now ascend upward
through the channel through which flows the river of Lethe to the other
side of the world, where rises the Mount of Purgatory, which is the exact
opposite of Hell. That is, when Satan fell, he displaced a conical amount
of earth, which rose on the other side of the world to form Mount Purgatory.
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