The Inferno

by Dante

  Boccaccio was the first and perhaps lone discussant (in his commentary to Inf. IX.25–27) to think of the only biblical tale that contains similar elements (and was surely familiar to Dante), the story of Saul’s visit to the witch of Endor, who calls up the spirit of Samuel for Saul; the latter—in a scene more powerful than even anything in Lucan—foretells Saul’s death and the defeat of the Israelites at the hands of the Philistines (I Samuel 28:3–25). [return to English / Italian]

  27. Judecca, the ninth Circle, named for Judas, betrayer, like all those punished there with him, of a rightful lord and master. [return to English / Italian]

  28–30. His tale told, Virgil’s point is clear: “I have been all the way down to the bottom of the pit; you can trust in my guidance.” The “heaven that encircles all” is almost certainly the Crystalline Sphere, or primum mobile. [return to English / Italian]

  33. There is debate among commentators as to what exactly this sentence means. It seems more likely that the ira (“wrath”) referred to is the righteous anger of the forces of God (namely, the angel who is now approaching) rather than the wrath the travelers will encounter in the forces defending the City of Dis, as Boccaccio believes, or the “wrath” they must employ in order to enter the city (the view of most of the early commentators). [return to English / Italian]

  38–48. “The three Erinyes or Furies, Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, who dwelt in the depths of Hell and punished men both in this world and after death” (T). See Aeneid VI.570–575. In Virgil, as in Greek myth, these three sisters are punishers of crimes of blood. Dante sees them as the handmaids of Proserpina (or Hecate), the queen of hell. [return to English / Italian]

  52. “Gorgon Medusa; she alone of the three Gorgons was mortal, and was at first a beautiful maiden, but, in consequence of her having given birth to two children by Poseidon in one of Athena’s temples, the latter changed her hair into serpents, which gave her head such a fearful appearance that every one who looked upon it was turned into stone” (T). See Ovid, Metamorphoses IV.606–V.249. The Furies’ threat to bring out their biggest defensive weapon remains unfulfilled only, we may assume, because of the rapid deployment of God’s own siege-weapon, the angelic intercessor. [return to English / Italian]

  54. The Furies lament that, when Theseus came to the nether regions with Perithous in order to rescue Proserpina (see Aen. VI.392–397), they only imprisoned him, rather than putting him to death, since that left him alive to be rescued by Hercules. [return to English / Italian]

  58–63. Vv. 61–63 contain the second address to the reader in the poem (see note to Inf. VIII.94–96). This one has caused more difficulty than any other, and “solutions” are so abundant that it is fair to say that none has won general consent, from the first commentators’ exertions until today. Opinions are divided, first of all, on whether the passage points back in the text, either primarily to Medusa (seen as despair, heresy, the hardened will, etc.) or to the Furies (seen as sin itself, or the three main categories of sin punished in hell [incontinence, violence, fraud], or remorse, etc.), or to a combination of these. Those who believe that the passage invites the reader rather to look forward than back are in accord that it refers to the avenging intruder who is about to appear in order to open the locked gates of Dis; but there is great debate over exactly what the one “sent from heaven” (v. 85) signifies (see discussion, below). Surely it seems more natural for the reference to point backwards to something already said. And indeed something noteworthy and perhaps puzzling has just occurred: Virgil has covered Dante’s eye-covering hands with his own hands as well. If this passage (vv. 58–60) is the one that contains a hidden doctrine (and few commentators believe it is, but see Hollander [Holl.1969.1], pp. 239–46), perhaps what it suggests is that stoic restraint is not enough to keep a sinner safe from dangerous temptation (i.e., Dante, had she appeared, would have looked upon Medusa and been turned to stone, just as Ulysses would have listened to the Sirens and been destroyed by them had he not been restrained by other forces). [return to English / Italian]

  64–72. This splendidly energetic simile is perhaps built out of elements found in two similes in the Aeneid (II.416–419; XII.451–455). In the first of these the Trojan forces mount an impetuous counterattack upon the Greek invaders of their city; in the second the forces of Aeneas begin the eventually victorious final attack upon the armies of Turnus. The celestial messenger, though only one in number, has the force of a great army; victory is seconds away. [return to English / Italian]

  73. Now Virgil can allow Dante to use his eyes once more: Medusa is apparently no longer a threat. [return to English / Italian]

  76–78. A number of commentators and translators have the frogs in this simile going to the bottom of the pond; they go to land (a la terra), as Dante says they do, and as any intelligent frog will do when a snake enters the water. This simile probably derives from Ovid, Metamorphoses VI.370–381. [return to English / Italian]

  81. The angel walks upon the water in imitation of Christ (Matth. 14:25). [return to English / Italian]

  82–83. The angel resembles Mercury, as he is described by Statius, Thebaid II. 1–11, coming back up from the foul air of the underworld with his caduceus in hand. [return to English / Italian]

  85. That this agent of good is “sent from heaven” indicates clearly enough that he is an angel, although debate over his identity still continues. See Silvio Pasquazi, “Messo celeste,” ED, vol. 3, 1971, making a strong case for his angelic status and giving a summary of the debate. Pasquazi also argues for one traditional further identification, making the messo specifically the archangel Michael, who led the forces of the good angels against the rebellious ones in the war in heaven (Rev. 12: 7–9)—see n. to Inferno VII.10–12—exactly the forces he now must combat once more in the netherworld. Over the centuries there has been a continuing argument between those who believe that the messo is Mercury and those who believe that he is an angel, and, in some cases, specifically Michael. It seems highly likely that Dante here gives us an archangel Michael “dressed up” as Mercury, a fused identity that is not problematic in any way, given Dante’s practice of combining pagan and Christian materials. [return to English / Italian]

  86–87. Virgil’s command that Dante bow down before the angel removes just about any doubt about the messo’s divine status. [return to English / Italian]

  89–90. The angel’s opening of the barred gates with his verghetta (“wand”) is almost surely modeled on Mercury’s similar opening of the gates of Herse’s chamber with his verga, i.e., his caduceus (Ovid, Metam. II.819). [return to English / Italian]

  91. The “outcasts of heaven” are undoubtedly the rebellious angels referred to in Inferno VIII.82–83, “more than a thousand angels fallen from Heaven.” See also the reference, a few lines earlier in this canto (v. 79), to “a thousand lost souls” who guard the City of Dis, that is, these very angels. [return to English / Italian]

  93–99. The angel makes clear, in his address to his fallen brethren, that resistance to the will of God is utterly useless. His reference to the chaining of Cerberus by Hercules reflects Aeneid VI.392–396. Dante has now been associated with two classical heroes, Theseus (v. 54) and Hercules. His powers, however, reside not in himself but in his heaven-ordained mission. [return to English / Italian]

  100–103. The angel’s impassive attitude tells us something about the nature of the inhabitants of hell that we sometimes forget: from God’s perspective there is nothing worthy of attention in their plight. The angel only wants to get out of this place as quickly as he can in order to return to eternal bliss, so much so that he has not even a word of greeting or support for the two travelers. [return to English / Italian]

  106. This whole passage, from Inferno VII.130 to now, the moment of successful entry of the walled City of Dis, narrates a military campaign: Virgil and Dante approach by sea in Phlegyas’s military transport ship; the forces ranged against them signal their coming and prepare to do battle,
closing the gates and assuming defensive positions on the battlements; they wheel up their main weapons, the Furies, who prepare to unleash their secret weapon, Medusa; the invading forces then deploy their secret weapon, the heavenly battering-ram that opens the gates and, in a trice, wins the battle. [return to English / Italian]

  112–115. Dante’s references to two famous ancient Roman cemeteries, at Arles in France and Pola in Istria, build the scene for us: these grave sites are not mounds in the ground but sarchophagi, raised monuments of stone that contain the remains of the dead. [return to English / Italian]

  127–131. Virgil explains to Dante that this sixth Circle of hell encloses many different heretical sects, each of which is punished in a separate sepulchre, and some of which are punished with more, others with less, severity.

  Why is heresy punished within the walls of Dis, where all the sins punished are sins of will, not those of appetite? It is interesting to see how often early commentators associate heresy with obstinacy or obduracy; their word is the Latin pertinax. Some of them may be reflecting St. Thomas’s definition (S.T. II–II, q. 5, a. 3): if a man “is not pertinacious in his disbelief, he is in that case no heretic, but only a man in error.” See, among others, the commentaries of Boccaccio (Inf. IX.127; IX.110–133), Benvenuto (Inf. IX.112–116; IX.127–129), Francesco da Buti (Inf. IX.106–123; X.31–39), John of Serravalle (Inf. X.13–15); Daniello (Inf. IX.133 [citing Thomas]) and, among the moderns, Poletto (Inf. X.28–30), Carroll (Inf. IX.132). [return to English / Italian]

  132. The turnings to the right here and at Inferno XVII.32 have caused puzzlement and some ingenuity. In hell, whenever the direction of their movement is mentioned, Dante and Virgil elsewhere always head to the left. Only on these two occasions do they move rightward. These two rightward turnings occur just before the entrance to the sixth Circle, in which heresy is punished, and before the exit from the realm of Violence, the seventh Circle. This is another instance in which the commentary tradition has not resolved Dante’s plan, if indeed there was one. [return to English / Italian]

  INFERNO X

  1–2. The path is “hidden” because it lies between the walls of Dis and the sepulchres. See Aen. VI.443, the “secreti calles” that lead into the Lugentes Campi (Fields of Mourning) where Aeneas encounters the mournful spirit of Dido. [return to English / Italian]

  5. Dante is apparently alluding to the new direction, to the right, in which Virgil now is leading him. [return to English / Italian]

  8–9. The image of the uncovered tombs and the reference to “guards,” as Durling and Martinez point out in their commentary (Durl.1996.1), suggest details of the scene surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus. The actual position of the covering slabs of these funeral monuments is not clear. The passage in Inf. XI.6 would make it appear that they may be propped against the sides of the tombs, as Durling and Martinez suggest. [return to English / Italian]

  11. Jehosaphat is the valley in Palestine in which, according to Joel (3:2), all will gather for the Last Judgment. [return to English / Italian]

  14–15. “Epicurus, celebrated Greek philosopher, B.C. 342–270; he started at Athens the philosophic school called after him, which taught that the summum bonum, or highest good, is happiness—not sensual enjoyment, but peace of mind, as the result of the cultivation of the virtues. He held that virtue was to be practiced because it led to happiness, whereas the Stoics held that virtue should be cultivated for its own sake” (T). While in the Convivio (IV.vi.11–12) Dante defines Epicureanism as the pleasure principle without speaking of it as specifically heretical, here he falls in with a more stringent Christian view, perhaps echoing St. Paul who, in I Cor. 15:32, cites the standard tag for Epicureanism, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” as the unworthy countering view to the Resurrection. It is in keeping with this attitude that Dante presents “Epicureans” as those who deny the immortality of the soul. [return to English / Italian]

  18. See the wish expressed by Dante in vv. 6–8, above, which Virgil realizes hides Dante’s real desire: he hopes to see, now that he is among “the blacker souls” where Ciacco had said he would find Farinata and four other Florentines (Inf. VI.85), some or one of these, and perhaps the first he there named, Farinata. [return to English / Italian]

  22–24. The speaker is Farinata degli Uberti, born in Florence at the turn of the thirteenth century, and by mid-century the head of the Ghibelline faction. Having expelled the Guelphs from the city in 1248, the Ghibellines were themselves expelled in 1258, but, led by Farinata, took revenge quickly at the battle of Montaperti in 1260, at which they utterly routed the Florentine Guelphs and their allies. Subsequently the Ghibellines gathered in council at Empoli, where it was proposed that Florence should be destroyed, to general acclaim. Farinata was the unyielding force of opposition and eventually won the day, saying that he would fight alone with sword in hand to prevent this outcome. The Florentines did not show great appreciation of his acts and never made any exception for his family in their dealings with the various eventual Ghibelline exiles. Farinata died in Florence in 1264. For bibliography on his significance to Dante see Cassell (Cass.1984.1), p. 117. [return to English / Italian]

  25. Ever since Guido da Pisa (1328?) commentators have, from time to time, noted the echo here of the words of the bystanders who heard Peter deny his knowledge of Christ a second time; surely, they say, you are one of his followers from Galilee, for your speech makes you plainly so (“loquela tua manifestum te facit”—Matth. 26:73). [return to English / Italian]

  27. Against the more usual understanding, that Farinata’s “forse” (perhaps) reveals regret at his harshness against his fellow citizens at the battle of Montaperti, consider the judgment of Cassell (Cass.1984.1), p. 19: Farinata displays “the false modesty of gloating understatement.” [return to English / Italian]

  32. Farinata, who did not believe in Christ’s resurrection, here replays it, as it were, rising from his tomb, at this instant making his punishment clearly fit his crime. See Convivio II.viii.8 for Dante’s own outcry against such failure of belief: “I say that of all the follies the most foolish, the basest, and the most pernicious is the belief that beyond this life there is no other” (tr. Lansing). [return to English / Italian]

  33. As Durling (Durl.1981.2, pp. 11–14) and Cassell (Cass.1984.1, pp. 24–26) independently discovered, Farinata rises from his tomb in imitation of the “Man of Sorrows” (see Isaiah 53:3: virum dolorum), that image (the so-called imago pietatis) of Jesus rising from the tomb, naked, showing the signs of his torture, not yet having taken on majesty. [return to English / Italian]

  35. That the features of Farinata upon which Dante fastens are his chest and brow underlines his prideful nature. And pride, which we have seen behind the sinful actions of such as Filippo Argenti in Canto VIII, the “root sin” that stands behind so much human failure in the eyes of Dante’s Church, is easily understood as a root of heresy, the stiff-necked refusal to believe what has been given as manifest by Christ and his Church. [return to English / Italian]

  42. Farinata’s words reveal his pride in familial background. He is an Uberti and a Ghibelline; let all others tremble before him. [return to English / Italian]

  45. Dante’s self-identification as minor nobility and a Guelph does not much impress Farinata, who raises his eyebrows—another sign of his pridefulness. See Inf. XXXIV.35, where Satan is described as having raised his brows against God. [return to English / Italian]

  46–48. Farinata now wins the second round of his little battle with Dante: yes, he knows Dante’s people, and twice over has sent them into exile (1248 and 1260). This canto’s scenes play out against a series of dates spread over the second half of the thirteenth century in Florence: 1248, expulsion of the Guelphs; 1258, expulsion of the Ghibellines; 1260, Montaperti and the second expulsion of the Guelphs; 1264, death of Farinata; 1266, defeat of Manfred and the imperial forces at the battle of Benevento and banishment of the Uberti family; 1280,
death of Cavalcante the elder; 1289, battle of Campaldino, another Guelph triumph (in which Dante took part); 1290, death of Beatrice; 1300, death of Guido Cavalcanti; 1302, exile of Dante Alighieri. [return to English / Italian]

  49–51. But now the belittled Guelph bites back: our family was twice exiled and came back home twice; yours has not done quite so well (since the Uberti have remained in exile since the aftermath of the battle of Benevento in 1266).

  The reader may note that the adjective “Yours” in v. 51 is capitalized. We have followed the practice of capitalizing the English translation of the respectful plural form of words for the singular “you,” so as to alert the reader to their use in Dante’s Italian. Three Florentines are the only ones to receive this treatment in hell: Farinata and Cavalcante here, and Brunetto Latini in Canto XV, the last of these the father of a poet and a poet, respectively. [return to English / Italian]

  52–54. The interruption of the discourse between Dante and Farinata will last for seven tercets, until Farinata, “on hold” while this other drama is played out, will continue the conversation as though there had been no interruption to it.

  The far less imposing figure who rises out of the same tomb alongside Farinata, Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti (died ca. 1280), was a wealthy Florentine Guelph and the father of Dante’s former “first friend” (see VN III.14, XXIV.6, XXX.3), Guido Cavalcanti. Since Guido was alive at the imagined date of Dante’s journey, he cannot be found in the afterworld. However, his reputation as a “materialist” makes it seem at least likely that Dante was certain that this aristocratic and independent-minded poet and thinker was coming right here to join his father. It is not accidental that the entire conversation between the father and his son’s former friend concerns that son. If Farinata believes in family and party, Cavalcante is the archetypal doting father. Their portraits, showing them in such different lights, are perhaps the finest example we have of such close, contrastive “portraiture” in verse since the classical era. See the study of Erich Auerbach (Auer.1957.1).