Dante and Virgil encounter the Minotaur as they climb down to where the Centaurs guard the river of boiling blood in which the violent sinners are immersed.
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Descending into the seventh circle was perilous with all its broken rocks and crags.[1]This seventh circle, as we will see, is where the violent and bestial sinners are punished. These are the “sins of the Lion.” In the previous canto Dante and Virgil had approached the edge of … Continue reading But something worse awaited us. You know how that huge landslide near Trento, probably caused by an earthquake or just erosion, spilled into the Adige and changed its course, and left huge shattered stones strewn everywhere?[2]Around the year 883 there was an immense landslide about 20 miles below Trento in northern Italy, called the Slavini di Marco. Near the city of Rovereto it fell into the River Adige and thereafter … Continue reading Well, our descent was difficult, trying to make our way down through all that rocky mess. But…there along the shattered ravine lay stretched out the Minotaur, that Cretan monster monstrously conceived in a fake cow![3]Once again Dante employs an appropriate mythological creature to guard a particular circle in Hell, this time the Minotaur, the half-human/half-bull monster, a perfect symbol of violence and … Continue reading When he saw us, he went into such a violent rage that he bit into himself.[4]The Minotaur is a perfect guardian for the circles and the sinners in this part of Hell. He was conceived in act of violence against nature, he was born as a monstrosity, he was wild and … Continue reading
My wise Virgil cried out to him: “Maybe you think you’re seeing Theseus, who killed you once, come to kill you again? Get out of our way, monster! This one here only comes to see your suffering.”[5]Virgil’s savage words here are designed to enrage the Minotaur and stir him into a frenzy. Dante the poet chooses words and adjusts their tone to fit the situation. After having defeated the … Continue reading Just as a bull, being given the death-stroke, goes into a mad frenzy – jumping, twisting, turning, staggering – so the Minotaur did at that moment. And Virgil yelled to me: “Hurry up! Run to the pass there! While he’s raving madly you can get down.”[6]Recall how Virgil silenced Charon in Canto 3, confronted Minos in Canto 5, distracted Cerberus in Canto 6, deflated Plutus in Canto 7, and back-talked Phlegyas in Canto 8. Once again, this time by … Continue reading
And so we escaped that monster and zig-zagged through all those rocks, which often shifted and moved under my weight.[7]Here again is Dante reminding us that he is alive and that the action here is real. All the while, I was deep in thought about what had just happened. Seeing this, Virgil asked: “Are you thinking about this ruined landscape here, protected by that wild monster I just stopped? Well, when I came through here long ago, nothing was smashed up like it is now. If I remember correctly, it was not long before that One came down here and took many souls with him from Limbo. As he arrived down here, the whole of Hell, from top to bottom, shook so tremendously that I thought the world was once again being renewed by love out of chaos, as some philosophers maintain. That was the moment when this place here was all crashed up – and other places down here, too.[8]Dante tells us that he was thinking about what had just happened – escaping from the enraged Minotaur, and Virgil adds another dimension to his companion’s thoughts by talking about the … Continue reading But look now, down there in the valley before us. Pretty soon you’ll see the river of boiling blood that injures those sinners whose violence injured others.”[9]This is a reference to the River Phlegethon (“the fiery”), the third of the Four Rivers of Hell. Like the Acheron and the Styx in circles above, the Phlegethon flows around the circumference of … Continue reading
Oh, blind avarice! Insane wrath! How you goad us on through our short lives on earth only to plunge us forever into such misery![10]Greed and anger: certainly two among many vices Dante highlights as leading to violence. There before me was the bloody river – wide, curving, and ranging over all the land there, just as Virgil had told me earlier.[11]While he is viewing this hell-scape from a higher elevation, Dante takes some poetic liberties in describing the vastness of the scene before him. Whether or not he was able to see this much of it, … Continue reading
Between that awful river and the steep cliffs we had descended we saw Centaurs galloping in a long line. As they did in our world, so here they were armed with bows and arrows as they hunted.[12]These half-human/half-horse creatures from mythology are a counterpart to the Minotaur, and definitely the most benign of the hellish guardians the two travelers meet. Nevertheless, they, like the … Continue reading When they saw us coming down from the shattered cliffs, they all stopped. Three of them quickly broke ranks and galloped toward us with their weapons ready. One of them, still far off, shouted at us: “You two, traveling down here. What punishment are you headed for? Tell us from there or I’ll draw my bow on you!”[13]Now the role of the Centaur guardians becomes clearer. They (mistakenly) think that Dante and Virgil are sinners headed for their assigned punishment.
Virgil, my bold master, then shouted back: “We’ll only speak with Chrion when we see him. As in times past, I see you’re as foolhardy as you ever were!” He nudged me with his elbow and said softly: “That’s Nessus, who was madly in love with Herclues’ wife, the beautiful Dejanira. Trying to rape her, Hercules shot him with an arrow. As he died, he gave his poisonous blood-soaked cloak to Dejanira, who later gave it to Hercules. He died when he put it on.[14]We can add this minor dispute to the list above (see #6) where Virgil intervenes when challenged by the guardian of a particular area of Hell. We discover that the Centaur who stopped the travelers … Continue reading The middle one is the wise Chiron who mentored Achilles.[15]Chiron has a long and famous reputation as the most honorable of the Centaurs and, of course, it is to him that Virgil will explain their journey. In the Illiad (XI:831), Homer calls him “the … Continue reading The last one is Pholus, ever so violent when he was drunk.[16]According to many sources, the Centaur Pholus was almost as highly respected as Chiron. Dante’s reference to him as a violent drunk seems to be connected with the story of the marriage of Pirithous … Continue reading There are thousands of them on this circle. They gallop around shooting any soul who dares to emerge from that bloody river above the level of his guilt.”[17]This is a reference to the punishment of the violent sinners who are immersed in the boiling blood of the River Phlegethon. It will soon be explained by the Centaur Nessus.
As we approached those great beasts, Chrion drew an arrow from his quiver and parted his beard with its notch.[18]This is a remarkable touch of realism, one of so many in the poem. It’s an almost missed moment of thought on the part of Chiron who is so different in parentage and upbringing from the rest of the … Continue reading
Uncovering his mouth he spoke to the rest: “Did you notice how that one there moves everything he touches? That’s not what a dead man would do.”[19]As on several occasions already, the fact of Dante’s weight and solidity are evidence that he is alive here. In a moment Virgil will confirm this.
Virgil, now standing by Chiron’s side where horse and human join, replied: “This man is alive, indeed. He’s all by himself, so I’m showing him the way through Hell. It’s a journey he has to take, it’s not for pleasure. A lovely spirit came to me from Heaven and commissioned me with this task. Believe me, he’s no condemned sinner, nor am I an evil spirit. So, in the name of that Power which enables me to make this difficult journey, please give us one of your companions here to be our guide. He can lead us to this bloody river’s crossing and then carry this one here on his back to the other side. He’s not a spirit like me, and can’t fly.”[20]This is the longest explanation of their journey that Virgil has offered to someone questioning them. And note the difference between this answer and the clipped, terse responses in earlier cantos. … Continue reading
Chiron looked to his right and said to Nessus: “You lead them and guide them as they’ve asked. If any other troop of ours tries to stop you, scatter them!”[21]This is very clever on Dante the poet’s part. When Virgil told Dante the story of Nessus earlier, he left out the fact that he often ferried travelers across the River Evenus in Aitolia (central … Continue reading So, on we went along the bank of that red river, where terrible shrieks of pain could be heard from the boiling souls within it.
I saw spirits up to their eyelids in that hot blood, and Nessus explained: “These are all tyrants whose lives were filled with blood and plunder. Now with their tears they’re paying for their terrible crimes. Here are Alexander and that savage Dionysius,[22]The identity of this Alexander has been a subject of debate among Dante scholars for generations. Is Dante referring to the Alexander who probably comes first to the minds of readers – Alexander … Continue reading whose crimes plagued Sicily with years of suffering. Over there, with his long black curls, is Azzolino.[23]This is Ezzolino III da Romano (1194-1255), son-in-law of the Emperor Frederick II, a Ghibelline leader, and a tyrant of notorious cruelty. His crimes were so infamous that Pope Alexander IV … Continue reading
The blonde there is Opizzio d’Esti whose own stepson killed him!”[24]Opizzio II d’Este (1247 – 1293) was born as an illegitimate son, but later became Marquis of Ferrara and Ancona. He was a loyal Guelph, and was noted for unbelievable cruelty. He was murdered … Continue reading
At that point I looked over to Virgil, but he said: “Don’t look at me. He’s your teacher now.”[25]Note first here that Dante does not say a word in this canto – he really doesn’t have to. It is Virgil who does much of the speaking. He has gotten them past the Minotaur, he has pointed out the … Continue reading
Further on, Nessus stopped near some sinners standing up to their throats in that boiling stream. Then he pointed out one spirit off to the side by himself, and said: “That one there committed murder in Church just for revenge. His victim’s heart is still revered in London.”[26]Here we have a story of violent murder and sacrilege, a story so foul that this sinner is literally placed away from the others in the boiling river. The sinner Nessus points out is Guy de Montfort … Continue reading Soon, I saw others who were up to their chests in that bloody river, and I recognized several of them.[27]In Dante’s day he must have known several tyrants and petty tyrants – and endured much hardship from them. And his Florence was certainly a bloody place from time to time. Gradually, the river got shallower until we saw sinners who were just wading in it up to their ankles. It was here that we were able to cross over.[28]One needs to visualize at least two possibilities of what Dante is suggesting here. The Phlegethon, like the rivers above, is circular. At this particular spot, the river is at its shallowest because … Continue reading
Nessus said to me: “Just as this river gets shallower on this side, know that it gets deeper and deeper on the other bank where those tyrants suffer up to their necks. There Heaven punishes the likes of Attila, scourge of the earth;[29]Attila the Hun (406-453), known and feared for his cruelty, apparently called himself “the scourge of God.” He and his armies wreaked havoc over both the eastern and western part of the empire. … Continue reading Pyrrhus[30]About this Pyrrhus there are two different identities offered by commentators. He my have been the son of Achilles or the king of Epirus. Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles did his share of violence, … Continue reading and Sextus;[31]This Sextus is most likely the son of Pompey the Great. He disgraced his father’s glory by turning to piracy, and once attempted to starve Rome by cutting off its grain supply from Egypt. Dante … Continue reading and Rinier da Corneto[32]Rinier da Corneto was a notorious highway robber who, in Dante’s day, terrorized the Maremma Region (coastal area of western central Italy), where he also had his castle (at Corneto). Apparently, … Continue reading and Rinier Pazzo[33]Rinier Pazzo was also a notorious bandit in Dante’s day, who “worked” the area between Florence and Arezzo to the south, and whose specialty seems to have been robbing traveling clerics – for … Continue reading who terrorized the roads with their robberies. That hot blood will make them cry forever!” And saying that, he turned around and crossed back over the ford.
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Notes & Commentary
| ↑1 | This seventh circle, as we will see, is where the violent and bestial sinners are punished. These are the “sins of the Lion.” In the previous canto Dante and Virgil had approached the edge of this circle where we are now, but the horrible stench coming from the depths of Hell forced them back until they could get used to it. So, now they’re ready to descend. |
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| ↑2 | Around the year 883 there was an immense landslide about 20 miles below Trento in northern Italy, called the Slavini di Marco. Near the city of Rovereto it fell into the River Adige and thereafter diverted its course. But E.H. Plumptre, in his translation of the Comedy, refers here to The History of Verona, by Girolamo Dalla Corte, who suggests that this landslide happened in 1309, and that Dante may have been in Verona at that time and included this event in Canto 12, or wrote the whole canto at a later date. Also, St. Albert the Great wrote about this landslide in his De meteoris (III,ii,18), and since Dante knew St. Albert’s work, this would have been another source for him. Virgil will soon give Dante his explanation of the earthquake that caused this landslide. |
| ↑3 | Once again Dante employs an appropriate mythological creature to guard a particular circle in Hell, this time the Minotaur, the half-human/half-bull monster, a perfect symbol of violence and beastiality. As the story goes, Minos, contending with his brothers for the throne of Crete, prayed to Poseidon to send him a snow white bull as a sign of the god’s support. Poseidon gave him the bull, but demanded that Minos sacrifice it to him. But Minos sacrificed one of his own bulls and kept the beautiful beast for himself. In anger, Poseidon cursed Minos’ wife, Pasiphae, with an unnatural lust for the beautiful bull. To satisfy her passion, she had the legendary craftsman, Daedalus, create a wooden cow that she would climb into in order to have sex with the bull. From this bestial union the Minotaur – half-man, half-human – was born. Dante calls it “the infamy of Crete.” At the order of Minos, this violent creature was kept in the center of the famous Labyrinth, also built by Daedalus. The word “Minotaur” joins the word Minos with the Latin word for bull, taurus. |
| ↑4 | The Minotaur is a perfect guardian for the circles and the sinners in this part of Hell. He was conceived in act of violence against nature, he was born as a monstrosity, he was wild and uncontrollable, he fed on human flesh, he goes into a mad rage when he sees the two travelers, and here he chews on himself. Recall also the fury of Filippo Argenti in Canto 8, who turned his anger upon himself and bit himself. Both have allowed their reasons to be overcome by bestial violence. |
| ↑5 | Virgil’s savage words here are designed to enrage the Minotaur and stir him into a frenzy. Dante the poet chooses words and adjusts their tone to fit the situation. After having defeated the Athenians in battle, Minos demanded an annual tribute from them of seven young men and seven young women who would be devoured by the now man-eating monster that he kept in his Labyrinth. But with the help of Ariadne, Minos’ daughter (and the Minotaur’s half-sister), Theseus, “the duke of Athens” escaped death by killing the Minotaur. He then escaped from the Labyrinth by following the roll of thread Ariadne had given him to unravel as he went inside. |
| ↑6 | Recall how Virgil silenced Charon in Canto 3, confronted Minos in Canto 5, distracted Cerberus in Canto 6, deflated Plutus in Canto 7, and back-talked Phlegyas in Canto 8. Once again, this time by enraging the Minotaur, he enables Dante to escape a potentially bad encounter. |
| ↑7 | Here again is Dante reminding us that he is alive and that the action here is real. |
| ↑8 | Dante tells us that he was thinking about what had just happened – escaping from the enraged Minotaur, and Virgil adds another dimension to his companion’s thoughts by talking about the landscape. This time, it seems, Virgil is not reading Dante’s mind. But recall how he tried to cheer Dante’s anxiety before the gate of Dis by telling him that he had been to the bottom of Hell. Now he explains in more detail how the harrowing of Hell by Christ after his death rocked the place to its very foundations and caused considerable damage – like the great landslide here and other damage we’ll encounter in a later canto. See Matthew 27:50f: “But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, and gave up his spirit. And behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, rocks were split….” Virgil died in 19 B.C., and shortly afterward, according to his account in Canto 9, he was sent to the bottom of hell by Erichtho to bring up a soul. None of this present damage happened until Christ died, approximately 50 years later. But Virgil remembers when it did, and in a rare moment of self-disclosure, he tells Dante that he thought Love had conquered hate and chaos, and that world was returning to a state of harmony and concord, as laid out in the philosophy of Empedocles (495 B.C. – 435 B.C.). There is some pathos in Virgil’s explanation because, from the Christian perspective, the coming of Christ restored the universal harmony that had been disrupted by the sin of Adam and Eve. Love becomes the standard once more as evidenced by statements of Jesus in the Gospels and several of his disciples in their Letters. Christ’s harrowing of Hell and bringing out all the souls of the just is deeply symbolic of the salvation from eternal death he offers to all souls. Virgil, representing reason as far as it can go without the enlightenment of faith, stands just beyond the transcendent step of divine revelation and grace. |
| ↑9 | This is a reference to the River Phlegethon (“the fiery”), the third of the Four Rivers of Hell. Like the Acheron and the Styx in circles above, the Phlegethon flows around the circumference of this circle. It will also appear in several upcoming cantos. In Virgil’s Aeneid (VI:550f), this is a river of fire in Tartarus, the place where the wicked are punished in the Underworld. Dante makes the Phlegethon a river of boiling blood in which violent sinners of various kinds (recall Virgil’s explanation in Canto 11) are immersed – a fitting contrapasso for those violent acts led to the shedding of blood. Soon enough, we will be told how this works. Part of the contrapasso in this circle is blood itself. Most often, blood is associated with life. Without it we die. The sinners we will soon encounter in this river (tyrants, murderers) spilled the life-giving blood of others and now they are immersed in a bloody, boiling river of death. |
| ↑10 | Greed and anger: certainly two among many vices Dante highlights as leading to violence. |
| ↑11 | While he is viewing this hell-scape from a higher elevation, Dante takes some poetic liberties in describing the vastness of the scene before him. Whether or not he was able to see this much of it, the sheer geographical extent of this region adds to the punishment of the violent sinners he will soon witness for himself. |
| ↑12 | These half-human/half-horse creatures from mythology are a counterpart to the Minotaur, and definitely the most benign of the hellish guardians the two travelers meet. Nevertheless, they, like the Minotaur, symbolize what happens when humans allow themselves to become bestialized by anger, rage, and violence. Centaurs have several mythological origins, the most popular seems to be that they were the offspring of Ixion, king of the Lapiths, and Nephele, a cloud shaped in the image of Hera, the queen of the gods. They are often characterized as being wild and lawless, powerful and generally representative of animal passion. The word “centaur” derives from another origin/myth in which Centaurus mated with mares in the region of Magnesia (central Greece). |
| ↑13 | Now the role of the Centaur guardians becomes clearer. They (mistakenly) think that Dante and Virgil are sinners headed for their assigned punishment. |
| ↑14 | We can add this minor dispute to the list above (see #6) where Virgil intervenes when challenged by the guardian of a particular area of Hell. We discover that the Centaur who stopped the travelers was Nessus who, as Virgil informs Dante, has a very bad reputation and definitely deserves a place among the bestial guardians of this circle. Chiron, as we will soon discover, was the chief Centaur of this place. |
| ↑15 | Chiron has a long and famous reputation as the most honorable of the Centaurs and, of course, it is to him that Virgil will explain their journey. In the Illiad (XI:831), Homer calls him “the wisest and most just of all the centaurs.” He had a broad knowledge of arts, healing, and skills taught to him by Apollo, giving him a civilized character far beyond his often drunk and debauched brethren. Unlike the other Centaurs, Chiron was the son of the Titan Cronus and Phylira, daughter of Oceanus. He was the mentor of many notable Greek heroes including Achilles, Aeneas, Theseus, Jason, and Perseus. Though born immortal, he gave it up in order to save Prometheus. For this generous act of heroism, Zeus placed him among the stars as the constellation Sagittarius. |
| ↑16 | According to many sources, the Centaur Pholus was almost as highly respected as Chiron. Dante’s reference to him as a violent drunk seems to be connected with the story of the marriage of Pirithous and Hippodamia (“she who tames horses”). The Centaurs were invited to the wedding but, not accustomed to wine, they became wildly drunk. In the melee that followed, the Centaurs attempted to carry off many of the women present. One of them, the most violent, attempted to ravish the bride herself, and was killed by Theseus. That Centaur was Eurytion, not Pholus. Some scholars note that this mythical story is a perfect metaphor for the struggle of civilization against the forces of barbarism. It may well be that Dante implies this as he identifies the guardians of this place where violent (barbaric) sinners are punished for damaging the fabric of civilization. |
| ↑17 | This is a reference to the punishment of the violent sinners who are immersed in the boiling blood of the River Phlegethon. It will soon be explained by the Centaur Nessus. |
| ↑18 | This is a remarkable touch of realism, one of so many in the poem. It’s an almost missed moment of thought on the part of Chiron who is so different in parentage and upbringing from the rest of the Centaurs. John Ruskin notes (Modern Painters, III, 83):
“Dante’s Centaur, Chiron, dividing his beard with his arrow before he can speak, is a thing that no mortal would ever have thought of, if he had not actually seen the Centaur do it. They might have composed handsome bodies of men and horses in all possible ways, through a whole life of pseudo-idealism, and yet never dreamed of any such thing. But the real living Centaur actually trotted across Dante’s brain, and he saw him do it.” |
| ↑19 | As on several occasions already, the fact of Dante’s weight and solidity are evidence that he is alive here. In a moment Virgil will confirm this. |
| ↑20 | This is the longest explanation of their journey that Virgil has offered to someone questioning them. And note the difference between this answer and the clipped, terse responses in earlier cantos. Because of Chiron’s fame and cultured civility, Virgil “honors” him with the fullest response, deserved, perhaps, by one of the more agreeable of Hell’s guardians. As a result, this is not a confrontation but rather an amicable gesture of respect whereby Virgil seeks Chiron’s help. There’s a certain note of sympathy and pity in the way Virgil describes Dante as being all alone in this place. When he tells the Centaur that Dante “has to take” this journey, we know that it’s in order to save his soul. And the reference to Beatrice adds a note of grace (pun intended). Note also the refrain we’ve seen several times – the reference to “that Power which enables me.” But different from all his other references to God’s power, it is now “in the name of that Power” that Virgil requests the great Chiron’s help. The fact that Chiron will honor Virgil’s request is another mark of this creature’s legendary civility. Is he such a monster? One thinks of Frankenstein questioning his creator. |
| ↑21 | This is very clever on Dante the poet’s part. When Virgil told Dante the story of Nessus earlier, he left out the fact that he often ferried travelers across the River Evenus in Aitolia (central Greece). After carrying Dejanira, the new wife of Hercules, across the river, he became inflamed with passion and tried to rape her. Hercules, on the other side, heard her screams and shot Nessus with an arrow and killed him. So, Dante the poet puts back to work, carrying the two travelers across the Phlegethon. |
| ↑22 | The identity of this Alexander has been a subject of debate among Dante scholars for generations. Is Dante referring to the Alexander who probably comes first to the minds of readers – Alexander the Great(356 B.C. – 323 B.C.)? Or is he referring to a less famous (nowadays) Alexander, namely, Alexander of Pherae (d. 356 B.C.)? The argument in favor of Alexander the Great stands upon the fact that one of Dante’s main resources for ancient history was Paulus Orosius the fifth-century historian, who holds nothing back in describing him as a scourge upon humanity and the perpetrator of countess violent crimes in his quest for greatness. The argument in favor of Alexander the Tyrant of Pherae (in Thessaly, central Greece) stands upon the fact that he was noted by Cicero (whom Dante also read), among several others, as being abominably cruel and sadistic. Dionysius the Elder (405 B.C. – 367 B.C.) and Dionysius the Younger (397 B.C. – 343 B.C.) were infamous tyrants of Sicily. Ancient historians did not seem to be reluctant to conflate these violent men with each other in various combinations. And Dante seems more interested in merely listing them as examples of the most terrible violent sinners he can use to populate the deep side of the Phlegethon, where they boil in blood up to their eyelids. |
| ↑23 | This is Ezzolino III da Romano (1194-1255), son-in-law of the Emperor Frederick II, a Ghibelline leader, and a tyrant of notorious cruelty. His crimes were so infamous that Pope Alexander IV proclaimed a Crusade against him, after which he was captured and imprisoned until he died! He ruled the area of Northern Italy that included Verona, Vicenza, and Padua. A sampling of the horrors he wreaked upon his lands comes from Giovanni Villani, the Florentine historian and contemporary of Dante, who writes in his Cronica:
“This Azzolino was the most cruel and feared tyrant who ever existed in Christendom…he did away with large numbers of the citizens of Padua, and he put out the eyes of even the best and noble in great numbers, depriving them of their possessions and sending them begging through the world. He caused many others to die by various tortures and torments and at one time had eleven thousand Paduans burned…and under the pretext of a rough and wicked justice, he did much evil, and during his lifetime he was a great scourge in the March of Treviso and in Lombardy.” We will meet his sister, Cunizza, in Canto 9 of the Paradiso. Though Nessus identifies Ezzolino (and his nearby companion Opizzio) by name, because they’re immersed in the boiling blood up to their eyelids, he also identifies them by the color of their hair. |
| ↑24 | Opizzio II d’Este (1247 – 1293) was born as an illegitimate son, but later became Marquis of Ferrara and Ancona. He was a loyal Guelph, and was noted for unbelievable cruelty. He was murdered by his “stepson” (a euphemism for bastard) Azzo VIII. |
| ↑25 | Note first here that Dante does not say a word in this canto – he really doesn’t have to. It is Virgil who does much of the speaking. He has gotten them past the Minotaur, he has pointed out the features of this seventh circle and its bloody, boiling river, he has identified the various Centaurs, and he has negotiated with Chiron for them to be carried across the Phlegethon. There’s not much more he needs to explain, and Nessus, who has quite a speaking role, has already begun to identify some of the major sinners being punished in the river. Virgil obviously reads Dante’s thoughts and probably sees that he’ll have more questions about the sinners here. But when Dante looks over at him Virgil simply defers to Nessus as the one who’s already answering Dante’s unspoken questions. In this latter part of the canto, Dante is not precise about how or where the crossing of the Phlegethon actually takes place. He leaves it to our imagination. We know that Dante had to ride on Nessus, but we don’t know exactly when he mounted. It could also be that Virgil is mounted behind him, but since he told Chiron that Dante is alive and that he, Virgil, is a spirit, we might suppose that he simply proceeded as he usually did, walking or floating. Soon enough, they will all cross the Phlegethon at its shallowest point. Is it here that Dante mounts Nessus? |
| ↑26 | Here we have a story of violent murder and sacrilege, a story so foul that this sinner is literally placed away from the others in the boiling river. The sinner Nessus points out is Guy de Montfort (1244 -1291). His father was Simon de Montfort who led who led the nobles of England to rebel against King Henry III and died in the Battle of Evesham in 1265. Because of his rebellion, the victorious forces of the king mutilated and hacked Simon’s body to pieces, sending various parts of his body around different parts of England. Already, one begins to understand the context Dante was creating behind this scene at the bloody River Phlegethon. Guy de Montfort fought in the same battle, was captured and imprisoned. Eventually, he bribed his way out of prison and ended up in the service of Charles of Anjou in Italy, where Charles made him the Vicar General of Tuscany. The scene now moves to the ancient city of Viterbo, 50 miles north of Rome and, in the mid 13th century, home of the Popes. In 1268, Pope Clement IV died in Viterbo, and by the Spring of 1271, the cardinals still had not elected his successor. In March of that year, and in order to force the conclave to elect a pope, both King Philip III of France and Charles of Anjou were present in Viterbo. Along with Charles was Guy de Montfort. Along with Philip was Henry of Almain (also known as Henry of Cornwall), a cousin of Guy de Montfort. On March 13, Philip, Charles, Henry, and the assembled Cardinals were at Mass when, during the most holy moment, Guy and his younger brother, Simon, burst into the church screaming for revenge against Henry for the death of their father. Henry rushed into the sanctuary and clung to the altar as he was murdered. The murderer then grabbed the body by the hair, dragged it through the church and cast it into the piazza outside. Apart from the sacrilege, this act drew even more condemnation because Henry, who was a man a high repute, apparently was not present when Guy’s father was killed. Guy and Simon (Jr.) were excommunicated. Guy was later re-employed by Charles of Anjou, but stripped of his titles. He was captured during a battle in Sicily in 1287 and died in a Sicilian prison. Henry’s body was taken to England where it was entombed in the abbey of the Cistercian monks at Hales – built by Henry’s father. The Florentine chronicler Villani tells us that Henry’s heart was placed in a golden container upon London Bridge. And now for some fascinating subtlety. Instead of referring specifically to the River Phlegethon at this point, Dante uses the word bulicame or bloody stream. It’s this word that brings the city of Viterbo to Dante’s mind and the particularly horrible event that took place there, mentioned above. Among the many things Viterbo is known for is its hot springs – popular even in Dante’s time. Because of the minerals in the water, some of these springs and pools are quite red! And we will come across this word bulicame again in Canto 14 with more details. |
| ↑27 | In Dante’s day he must have known several tyrants and petty tyrants – and endured much hardship from them. And his Florence was certainly a bloody place from time to time. |
| ↑28 | One needs to visualize at least two possibilities of what Dante is suggesting here. The Phlegethon, like the rivers above, is circular. At this particular spot, the river is at its shallowest because the sinners are in it only up to their ankles. One of the possible views is that from this point in either direction (to the left or to the right as one stands on the bank), the river gets deeper. And if we’ve been walking along the outer bank, we know this because when we first started we saw the first sinners up to their eyelids, and as we continued we saw others up to their throats, then their chests, and gradually up to their ankles only. Now, it’s too much to think that they’ve made a half-circuit around the river’s circumference – from deepest to shallowest point. One has to give Dante some imaginative leeway here and consider that the Phlegethon, like many rivers, probably has several places where it’s shallow and several where it’s quite deep. This is the view of some commentators.
But another possibility that might make more sense is that the river is deepest along the outer bank (where we first encountered Chiron and the other Centaurs) and shallowest on the opposite (inner) bank. Dante/Nessus talks about “this side” and “that side.” It may be that Nessus began crossing the river at its deepest part fairly soon instead of walking along the bank until they reached its shallowest crossing point. Being an immense beast, the worst sinners – up to their eyelids – might still not have reached the height of the Centaur’s back. And as we cross directly over, the river gets shallower, and we encounter less terrible sinners until they are merely standing in the boiling blood up to their ankles. And yet, at the end of the canto, Dante tells us that Nessus turns around and re-crosses the “ford,” the shallowest part…. |
| ↑29 | Attila the Hun (406-453), known and feared for his cruelty, apparently called himself “the scourge of God.” He and his armies wreaked havoc over both the eastern and western part of the empire. In 452, after ravaging much of northern Italy, Pope Leo the Great went to meet Attila near Mantua with the idea of stopping him from marching on toward Rome. The plan worked and Attila and his armies turned around. A wonderful legend accompanies this meeting, that among the attendees were Saints Peter and Paul. A slightly different legend has it that during the meeting, and seen only by Attila, St. Peter threatened to kill him on the spot if he did not accede to the Pope’s request. Attila is said to have turned around because of that threat, not the Pope’s pleading. Attila died the following year and there are varying accounts of the circumstances, but he may have drank at his wedding feast until he collapsed and died of a ruptured blood vessel in his throat and choked to death. Other accounts suggest he may have been assassinated. |
| ↑30 | About this Pyrrhus there are two different identities offered by commentators. He my have been the son of Achilles or the king of Epirus. Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles did his share of violence, cruelty, and killing as noted in Virgil’s Aeneid. At the fall of Troy he killed old King Priam and his son Polites. Later he sacrificed Priam’s daughter, Polyxena, to the ghost of Achilles. Pyrrhus the king seems to be the favored by scholars. This Pyrrhus fought against Rome several times before he was defeated. Yet he has been considered by many to be a great military leader, Hannibal calling him the greatest commander in the world. It is after him that the phrase “pyrrhic victory” comes – a victory, but at great cost and immense loss. |
| ↑31 | This Sextus is most likely the son of Pompey the Great. He disgraced his father’s glory by turning to piracy, and once attempted to starve Rome by cutting off its grain supply from Egypt. Dante translator J.A. Wilstach called him “the terror of the Mediterranean.” |
| ↑32 | Rinier da Corneto was a notorious highway robber who, in Dante’s day, terrorized the Maremma Region (coastal area of western central Italy), where he also had his castle (at Corneto). Apparently, he enjoyed fleecing pilgrims and travelers on their way to Rome. |
| ↑33 | Rinier Pazzo was also a notorious bandit in Dante’s day, who “worked” the area between Florence and Arezzo to the south, and whose specialty seems to have been robbing traveling clerics – for which he was excommunicated. Some accounts suggest that he and Rinier da Corneto were hired by Frederick II to rob the Roman bishops. The Pazzi family were well known, but after his excommunication Florence enacted laws depriving them of their rights. |