Dante and Virgil must stop their descent for a while in order to get used to the terrible smell coming up from the bottom of Hell. Virgil takes this opportunity to explain to Dante the structure of Hell and its punishments.
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We finally reached the curving edge of a steep bank made from enormous broken rocks, below which was an even crueler circle of pain.[1]Having left the flaming necropolis of the heretics inside the walls of Dis, the two travelers have walked across the sixth circle of Hell and have reached the inner edge. Not only do the sins and … Continue reading We would have proceeded downward, but the horrific stench belching up from the depths below forced us back.[2]We had more than a hint of this terrible smell at the end of the previous canto. Now, as one more sensory assault on the travelers, it is so overwhelming that they cannot continue. Dante’s … Continue reading So we crouched beneath the lid of one of the great tombs on the edge of that fiery cemetery we were just leaving. Inscribed on the lid were the words: “I hold Pope Anastasius, whom Photinus led astray.”[3]Since they’ve been driven back by the terrible smell coming up from below, Dante and Virgil retreat back toward the cemetery they left a while before and attempt to protect themselves from the … Continue reading
“We’re going to have to stop here for a while,” Virgil said, “until we grow accustomed to this vile stench. Then we can proceed downward.”[4]Recall that the purpose of Dante’s journey through Hell is save him by showing him sin and evil in all their tragic manifestations. Now that Dante and Virgil are in the City of Dis, the horrible … Continue reading
And I: “My Master, what can you tell me about this place so that we don’t just waste our time here?”
“Ah,” he said, “that’s just what I had in mind.[5]Dante the poet is clever here. The Pilgrim Dante has experienced several levels of Hell already, but those dealt only with sins of appetite. Below this point the travelers will experience the sins of … Continue reading So, where to start… Below the edge of this circle we’re on now are three more, each one laid out concentrically like the ones above us.[6]Several great artists, mathematicians, and cartographers (including Botticelli and Galileo) have attempted to give us a sense of the immense proportions of Dante’s Hell, proposing that the circles … Continue reading They’re all packed with souls,[7]Being an inverted cone in shape, Dante’s Hell gets smaller the farther one descends. But the word “packed” is important to give Dante the sense that there are countless souls in these circles, … Continue reading and so that you’ll know them when you see them in person, I’ll explain how and why they’re down there.[8]Mark Musa, in his Commentary on the Inferno (Indiana, 1996) offers this insightful and clever perspective: “This picture of Virgil and Dante the Pilgrim, the two of them on the edge … Continue reading
“Think of this: all evil has injustice as its goal, and it achieves this goal either by violence or by fraud.[9]Think of this as the first principle in understanding the workings of Dante’s Hell. First the goal of evil: injustice. Then the how of evil: violence or fraud. Here Dante is interpreting a … Continue reading Both of these are grave sins that Heaven hates, but since fraud is an exclusively human sin, God hates it even more, and so those sinners are farthest down and suffer the most.[10]Note how Dante creates a distinction between two terrible forms of sin: violence and fraud. While violence may be common to both animals and humans, the worse sin of the two is fraud because it is … Continue reading
“In the circle just below us the violent sinners are punished on three different levels corresponding to whom the violence is directed: either to God, to oneself, or to one’s neighbor (either to him or to his property), as I’ll make clear. So, by violence a man can kill his neighbor or terribly wound him. And his property can suffer violence by arson, theft, or destruction. Thus, you have murderers, those who wound others with evil intent, and those who destroy and plunder people’s property. These, as I said, are all punished in the next circle down, but at different levels.
“Now, also, a man can also do violence to himself or to his own property. So, in the second level of this next circle you have souls paying an unpayable debt. These are the self-robbers – suicides, those who gamble away all their wealth, and those who are sullen and weep when they should be happy. A person can also do violence against God by disbelief, by cursing Him, or by misusing Nature and God’s abundance. And therefore, in the smallest of the three levels just below us blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers are punished.[11]Virgil’s categories are Violence to Neighbor, to Oneself, and to God. He then proceeds to amplify each of these three groups in reverse order, beginning with the most grave: Violence to God, to … Continue reading
“When we get to sins of fraud, which gnaws away at the conscience, it can be used either against someone who puts their trust in you, or against someone who has no particular trust in you personally. The first kind of fraud, where there’s some personal trust, destroys the bond of love that Nature gives each of us. So, there you’ve got hypocrites, flatterers, sorcerers, falsifiers and counterfeiters, thieves, simonists, panders, seducers, grafters, and all the rest of that filth![12]“All the rest…” refers to two more categories here that Dante adds as be proceeds downward: those who sow discord and evil counselors. It should also be noted that the list of sins here is … Continue reading
“Now the worst kind of fraud destroys both the bond of love created by Nature and the bond among those who share a special trust among themselves. And so, in the smallest circles – down at the earth’s center, around Lucifer’s throne – you have all traitors, who suffer there eternally.”
“Master,” I said, “your lesson clearly explains the nature of the pit below us and those who are punished down there. But what about those above us – those in that filthy swamp, the ones blown about by winds, those drenched by the eternal rains, and those who holler and smash against each other? How come they’re not also inside this flaming city if they, too, have been condemned?”[13]By now, Dante’s readers are probably asking the same question. Nevertheless, the Pilgrim’s question is a good one because it gives Virgil an opportunity to refresh his memory on … Continue reading
“Ugh! Why do you let your thoughts wander from the clear path? Or have I missed something here? You studied Aristotle’s Ethics, didn’t you? Have you forgotten how it lays out the three conditions that Heaven hates: incontinence, evil deeds, and violence? And don’t you remember how it’s incontinence that offends God the least, and so it’s the least of the sins? If you think about this carefully, you’ll understand who the souls were up there, suffering outside the walls, and you’ll see why the vengeance of God wounds them less than the souls down below.”[14]Knowing Dante’s mind, Virgil would know that he devoted himself considerably to the study of Aristotle. But he also studied St. Thomas Aquinas, and while he may have Aristotle in the back of his … Continue reading
Smiling at his clarity, I said: “You’re the sun who dispels my misty vision. I’m so happy when you resolve my doubts that both doubting and knowing please me![15]Dante’s gracious and animated praise of his master is wonderful, and a bit over the top (“both doubting and knowing please me”). However, symbolically in the poem, the sun represents God and … Continue reading But, go back a little more to where you talked about usury, and how it offends God’s goodness. I’m confused there.”
“Ah!” he said, “I think I see what’s bothering you. In several places philosophy points out – for those who are careful to read it correctly – how Nature takes her cue from the Creator. If you keep Aristotle’s Physics in mind, you’ll recall that close to the start he states how art imitates nature the best it can – just as an apprentice follows the master. You could say that art is God’s grandchild. And from both Art and Nature we’re supposed to learn how to sustain ourselves by our work (if you recall the early part of Genesis). But, the usurer doesn’t follow this path. Not working, he scorns both Nature and Art and sustains himself by other means.[16]Usury is the practice of lending money at exorbitant rates of interest. At times it has been more generally associated with attaching any kind of interest to the loaning money, particularly the … Continue reading
“Now, I think we can get going. Pisces is swimming at the horizon and the Great Dipper is exactly over Caurus, the northwestern wind. The downward path we were on a while ago is over there.”[17]Virgil has been Dante’s teacher in this canto, and now he resumes his role as his guide. Once again, he tells time by the movements of celestial bodies – moon, planets, stars. Remembering the … Continue reading
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Notes & Commentary
| ↑1 | Having left the flaming necropolis of the heretics inside the walls of Dis, the two travelers have walked across the sixth circle of Hell and have reached the inner edge. Not only do the sins and punishments get more terrible as they descend further into Hell, but so does the terrain. This inner edge is a steep slope covered with immense boulders and broken rocks that will make travel down to the seventh circle even more difficult. Virgil will explain this in the next canto. |
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| ↑2 | We had more than a hint of this terrible smell at the end of the previous canto. Now, as one more sensory assault on the travelers, it is so overwhelming that they cannot continue. Dante’s Hell is an immense inverted cone the inside of which is open. It’s not a cave or a series of tunnels. And since we are still in the upper regions of this cone, there’s a lot of room below from which all kinds of smells can be generated. Symbolically, of course, the stench represents the foulness of sin and moral corruption. |
| ↑3 | Since they’ve been driven back by the terrible smell coming up from below, Dante and Virgil retreat back toward the cemetery they left a while before and attempt to protect themselves from the smell under the lid propped up against one of the tombs. Notice how, like the inscription above the gate of Hell, this tomb also “speaks” in the first person. As it happens, this is the tomb of Anastasius II who was Pope from 496-498. This was a turbulent time in Church history with the Great Schism dividing the eastern and western parts of the Church. The Byzantine Emperor at this time was Anastasius I, who ruled from 491 to 518. Many commentators believe that Dante’s source for this slice of the canto confused the Pope and the Emperor. The problem rests on Photinus, a deacon from Thessalonica. Photinus was an adherent of the Acacian heresy, which denied Christ’s divine paternity, claiming that he was fathered by a mortal man. The rest is a very convoluted story involving issues of heresy, heretics, popes, emperors, Church teaching, condemnations, and mutual excommunication, to name but a few. One story about Photinus has it that Pope Anastasius allowed him to receive the Eucharist and thus became a heretic himself. The other story is that it was the Emperor Anastasius who was led into the heresy of Acasius by Photinus. Both Pope and Emperor were considered heretics. All of which serves to remind us that Dante and Virgil are back in the cemetery of the heretics! |
| ↑4 | Recall that the purpose of Dante’s journey through Hell is save him by showing him sin and evil in all their tragic manifestations. Now that Dante and Virgil are in the City of Dis, the horrible smell of the place hits them head on. But if they’re going to profit from their journey, they need to slow down a bit and get used to the actual smell of sin. |
| ↑5 | Dante the poet is clever here. The Pilgrim Dante has experienced several levels of Hell already, but those dealt only with sins of appetite. Below this point the travelers will experience the sins of violence and fraud, which are far more serious and complex. So, in order to make the best sense of Hell’s structure – both for the Pilgrim and the reader – it’s wise at this point to use the slow-down profitably and learn as much as we can before proceeding downward. And note that it is Dante the Pilgrim who initiates (introduces) the lesson about to be presented by Virgil. |
| ↑6 | Several great artists, mathematicians, and cartographers (including Botticelli and Galileo) have attempted to give us a sense of the immense proportions of Dante’s Hell, proposing that the circles extend even into the hundreds of miles. |
| ↑7 | Being an inverted cone in shape, Dante’s Hell gets smaller the farther one descends. But the word “packed” is important to give Dante the sense that there are countless souls in these circles, but there’s less room, and thus greater density. And the sins get worse in nature as one gets closer to the bottom, as Virgil will now explain. |
| ↑8 | Mark Musa, in his Commentary on the Inferno (Indiana, 1996) offers this insightful and clever perspective:
“This picture of Virgil and Dante the Pilgrim, the two of them on the edge of the pit, Virgil lecturing, the Pilgrim trying to listen with that disgusting stench pouring up from the remaining three circles of the abyss, might lead the reader to question the source of this smell. One’s thoughts become scatalogical. If you open up a corpse from top to bottom, the peritoneal cavity upward forms the first five circles; Dis is the beginning of the intestinal tract, which ‘packs in’ at greater density and concentration as each bolgia (intestinal pouch) is passed, to the final impaction in Cocytus, the anus of the world and the source of the stink.” |
| ↑9 | Think of this as the first principle in understanding the workings of Dante’s Hell. First the goal of evil: injustice. Then the how of evil: violence or fraud. Here Dante is interpreting a classification of sins developed by Aristotle: Incontinence (sins of passion, of the flesh, gluttony, hoarding, spending, and anger, as we saw in the circles above, sins without the will or specific intent of hurting ); Beastiality (various sins of violence, with the deliberate will and intent of causing injury); and Fraud (various forms of cheating and treachery, and again, with the deliberate will and intent of causing injury). These groupings of sins, as we will see, are punished in the three major divisions of Hell, sometimes referred to as sins of the Wolf (incontinence), sins of the Lion (violence), and sins of the Leopard (fraud). |
| ↑10 | Note how Dante creates a distinction between two terrible forms of sin: violence and fraud. While violence may be common to both animals and humans, the worse sin of the two is fraud because it is unique to humans and requires premeditation and malice aforethought. In the Paradiso, we will learn that free will is God’s greatest gift to humans, and the gift most like Himself. To use that priceless gift to defraud or betray another is obviously the greater evil and merits the greater punishment. |
| ↑11 | Virgil’s categories are Violence to Neighbor, to Oneself, and to God. He then proceeds to amplify each of these three groups in reverse order, beginning with the most grave: Violence to God, to Oneself, and to Neighbor. The following diagram may be helpful:
Violence to God Disbelief Cursing Misuse of Nature Sodomy Blasphemy Usury Violence to Oneself Suicide Gambling Sullenness* Violence to Neighbor Himself Killing Wounding His Property† Arson Theft Destruction * The unhappiness that comes from the ruination or wasting of one’s own substance or property which should otherwise be the cause of one’s legitimate happiness. † In Roman law, property was considered to be an extension of the self. Therefore any ruin of such was considered as ruin to the person. |
| ↑12 | “All the rest…” refers to two more categories here that Dante adds as be proceeds downward: those who sow discord and evil counselors. It should also be noted that the list of sins here is not in the order that Dante and Virgil will encounter them. |
| ↑13 | By now, Dante’s readers are probably asking the same question. Nevertheless, the Pilgrim’s question is a good one because it gives Virgil an opportunity to refresh his memory on philosophical points he would have studied earlier. Basically, everyone we’ve already encountered in the circles above us is in Hell, says Dante. So why aren’t they also here within the walls of Dis? Virgil’s upcoming “refresher course” will not only put Dante’s question to rest, but will serve as a subtle reminder not to allow his emotions to get in the way of the workings of divine justice as, for example, fainting at the end of Canto 5 or wishing a notorious sinner to be brutalized in Canto 8. And how interesting that the sin of heresy – within the sixth circle where Dante and Virgil are “hiding” from the terrible stench – is not listed. |
| ↑14 | Knowing Dante’s mind, Virgil would know that he devoted himself considerably to the study of Aristotle. But he also studied St. Thomas Aquinas, and while he may have Aristotle in the back of his mind, he’s probably got Aquinas more to the front. Aristotle writes at the start of Book VII of his Nichomachean Ethics: “Let us now make a fresh beginning and point out that of the moral states to be avoided there are three kinds – vice, incontinence, brutishness.” Later in the same Book, he will state: “…we pardon people more easily for following natural desires, since we pardon them more easily for following such appetites as are common to all men, and in so far as they are common….” Aquinas states in his Summa Theologica (I-II,q.78,a.4,resp.): “I answer that a sin committed through malice is more grievous than a sin committed through passion, for three reasons. First, because, as sin consists chiefly in an act of the will, it follows that, other things being equal, a sin is all the more grievous according as the movement of the sin belongs more to the will. Now when a sin is committed through malice, the movement of sin belongs more to the will, which is then moved to evil of its own accord, than when a sin is committed through passion, when the will is impelled to sin by something extrinsic, as it were.” Aristotle notes three sins: vice, incontinence, and brutishness. But what Dante does is create two essential divisions to his Hell, with sins of incontinence outside the walls of Dis, and sins of malice inside the walls, which he then subdivides into two: violence and fraud. |
| ↑15 | Dante’s gracious and animated praise of his master is wonderful, and a bit over the top (“both doubting and knowing please me”). However, symbolically in the poem, the sun represents God and the light of God. Perhaps Dante is a bit too effuse in praising Virgil with that symbol. On the other hand, Virgil represents reason, and the sun-light of reason here has definitely enabled Dante to understand the distinctions that earlier confused him. |
| ↑16 | Usury is the practice of lending money at exorbitant rates of interest. At times it has been more generally associated with attaching any kind of interest to the loaning money, particularly the justice of it and when it affects the poor. Following the topic through both western religious and social history is a complicated, but fascinating, venture. The issue here is more philosophical than financial. God creates Nature for our benefit and our enjoyment, and Aristotle speaks of Art as an imitation of Nature. What is understood by “Art” here is work, human industry and fabrication, how we put Nature to use. By working, humans imitate Nature’s work by creating a habitable and sustainable environment in which they can survive. This process also frequently involves making money from what is “worked” or created. But usury, money by itself making money, involves no work at all, as in human industry, yet it derives or makes a profit – from having done nothing. Therefore, it’s “unnatural.” And so, not working in the traditional sense of the word, the usurer scorns both Nature and Art, and in this way scorns, or does violence to, God as well. At various points in the poem, Dante will speak about the many different problems affecting (and infecting) the Church in his time, among which will be usury. |
| ↑17 | Virgil has been Dante’s teacher in this canto, and now he resumes his role as his guide. Once again, he tells time by the movements of celestial bodies – moon, planets, stars. Remembering the fictional date of the Poem (1300) and given the position of Pisces and the Dipper as noted here, Virgil is telling Dante that it’s about 4:00am on Holy Saturday morning, the day after Good Friday and the day before Easter Sunday. |