51-60. The representative of the Blasphemers is Capaneus, who, as Virgil will explain, was one of the seven kings who assaulted Thebes. Statius describes how Capaneus, when scaling the walls of Thebes, blasphemed against Jove, who then struck him with a thunderbolt. Capaneus died with blasphemy on his lips, and now, even in Hell, he is able to defy Jove’s thunderbolts.
will not be stilled, you are made to suffer more: no torment other than your rage itself could punish your gnawing pride more perfectly. ”
66
And then he turned a calmer face to me, saying, “That was a king, one of the seven besieging Thebes; he scorned, and would seem still
69
to go on scorning God and treat him lightly, but, as I said to him, he decks his chest with ornaments of lavish words that prick him.
72
Now follow me and also pay attention not to put your feet upon the burning sand, but to keep them well within the wooded line. ”
75
Without exchanging words we reached a place where a narrow stream came gushing from the woods (its reddish water still runs fear through me!);
78
like the one that issues from the Bulicame, whose waters are shared by prostitutes downstream, it wore its way across the desert sand.
81
This river’s bed and banks were made of stone, so were the tops on both its sides; and then I understood this was our way across.
84
“Among the other marvels I have shown you, from the time we made our entrance through the gate whose threshold welcomes every evil soul,
87
your eyes have not discovered anything as remarkable as this stream you see here extinguishing the flames above its path. ”
90
These were my master’s words, and I at once implored him to provide me with the food for which he had given me the appetite.
93
79-80. Near Viterbo there was a hot spring called the Bulicame, whose sulphurous waters transformed the area into a watering place. Among the inhabitants were many prostitutes who were required to live in a separate quarter. A special stream channeled the hot spring water through their section, since they were denied use of public baths.
“In the middle of the sea there lies a wasteland, ” he immediately began, “that is known as Crete, under whose king the world knew innocence.
96
There is a mountain there that was called Ida; then happy in its verdure and its streams, now deserted like an old, discarded thing;
99
Rhea chose it once as a safe cradle for her son, and, to conceal his presence better, she had her servants scream loud when he cried.
102
In the mountain’s core an ancient man stands tall; he has his shoulders turned toward Damietta and faces Rome as though it were his mirror.
105
His head is fashioned of the finest gold; pure silver are his arms and hands and chest; from there to where his legs spread, he is brass;
108
the rest of him is all of chosen iron, except his right foot which is terra cotta; he puts more weight on this foot than the other.
111
Every part of him, except the gold, is broken by a fissure dripping tears down to his feet, where they collect to erode the cavern’s rock;
114
94-119. The island of Crete is given as the source of Acheron, Styx, and Phlegcthon, the joined rivers of Hell whose course eventually leads to the “pool, ” Cocytus, at the bottom of Hell (116-119). According to mythology, Mount Ida on Crete was the place chosen by Rhea to protect her infant son, Jupiter, from his father, Saturn, who usually devoured his sons when they were born. Rhea, to keep him from finding Jupiter, “had her servants scream loud when he cried” (102) to drown out the infant’s screams.
Within Mount Ida Dante places the statue of the Old Man of Crete with his back to Damietta and gazing toward Rome (104-105). Damietta, an important Egyptian seaport, represents the East, the pagan world; Rome, of course, represents the modern, Christian world. The figure of the old man is drawn from the book of Daniel (2:32-35), but the symbolism is different and more nearly reflects a poetic symbol utilized by Ovid (Metamorphoses I). The head of gold represents the Golden Age of man (that is, in Christian terms, before the Fall). The arms and breast of silver, the trunk of brass, and the legs of iron represent the three declining ages of man. The clay foot (the one made of terra cotta) may symbolize the Church, weakened and corrupted by temporal concerns and political power struggles.
from stone to stone they drain down here, becoming rivers: the Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon, then overflow down through this tight canal
117
until they fall to where all falling ends: they form Cocytus. What that pool is like I need not tell you. You will see, yourself. ”
120
And I to him: “If this small stream beside us has its source, as you have told me, in our world, why have we seen it only on this ledge?”
123
And he to me: “You know this place is round, and though your journey has been long, circling toward the bottom, turning only to the left,
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you still have not completed a full circle; so you should never look surprised, as now, if you see something you have not seen before. ”
129
And I again: “Where, Master, shall we find Lethe and Phlegethon? You omit the first and say the other forms from the rain of tears. ”
132
“I am very happy when you question me, ” he said, “but that the blood-red water boiled should answer certainly one of your questions.
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And Lethe you shall see, but beyond this valley, at a place where souls collect to wash themselves when penitence has freed them of their guilt.
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Now it is time to leave this edge of woods, ” he added. “Be sure you follow close behind me: the margins are our road, they do not burn,
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and all the flames above them are extinguished. ”
CANTO XV
THEY MOVE OUT across the plain of burning sand, walking along the ditchlike edge of the conduit through which the Phlegethon flows, and after they have come some distance from the wood they see a group of souls running toward them. One, Brunetto Latini, a famous Florentine intellectual and Dante’s former teacher, recognizes the Pilgrim and leaves his band to walk and talk with him. Brunetto learns the reason for the Pilgrim’s journey and offers him a prophecy of the troubles lying in wait for him — an echo of Ciacco’s words in Canto VI. Brunetto names some of the others being punished with him (Priscian, Francesco d’Accorso, Andrea de’ Mozzi); but soon, in the distance, he sees a cloud of smoke approaching, which presages a new group, and because he must not associate with them, like a foot-racer Brunetto speeds away to catch up with his own band.
Now one of those stone margins bears us on and the river’s vapors hover like a shade, sheltering the banks and the water from the flames.
3
As the Flemings, living with the constant threat of flood tides rushing in between Wissant and Bruges, build their dikes to force the sea back;
6
as the Paduans build theirs on the shores of Brenta to protect their town and homes before warm weather turns Chiarentana’s snow to rushing water—
9
so were these walls we walked upon constructed, though the engineer, whoever he may have been, did not make them as high or thick as those.
12
We had left the wood behind (so far behind, by now, that if I had stopped to turn around, I am sure it could no longer have been seen)
15
when we saw a troop of souls come hurrying toward us beside the bank, and each of them looked us up and down, as some men look
18
11. The engineer is God.
at other men, at night, when the moon is new. They strained their eyebrows, squinting hard at us, as an old tai
lor might at his needle’s eye.
21
Eyed in such a way by this strange crew, I was recognized by one of them, who grabbed my garment’s hem and shouted: “How marvelous!”
24
And I, when he reached out his arm toward me, straining my eyes, saw through his face’s crust, through his burned features that could not prevent
27
my memory from bringing back his name; and bending my face down to meet with his, I said: “Is this really you, here, Ser Brunetto?”
30
And he: “O my son, may it not displease you if Brunetto Latini lets his troop file on while he walks at your side for a little while. ”
33
And I: “With all my heart I beg you to, and if you wish me to sit here with you, I will, if my companion does not mind. ”
36
“My son, ” he said, “a member of this herd who stops one moment lies one hundred years unable to brush off the wounding flames,
39
so, move on; I shall follow at your hem and then rejoin my family that moves along, lamenting their eternal pain. ”
42
I did not dare step off the margin-path to walk at his own level but, with head bent low in reverence, I moved along.
45
He began: “What fortune or what destiny leads you down here before your final hour? And who is this one showing you the way?”
48
“Up there above in the bright living life before I reached the end of all my years, I lost myself in a valley, ” I replied;
51
“just yesterday at dawn I turned from it. This spirit here appeared as I turned back, and by this road he guides me home again. ”
54
He said to me: “Follow your constellation and you cannot fail to reach your port of glory, not if I saw clearly in the happy life;
57
and if I had not died just when I did, I would have cheered you on in all your work, seeing how favorable Heaven was to you.
60
But that ungrateful and malignant race which descended from the Fiesole of old, and still have rock and mountain in their blood,
63
will become, for your good deeds, your enemy— and right they are: among the bitter berries there’s no fit place for the sweet fig to bloom.
66
They have always had the fame of being blind, an envious race, proud and avaricious; you must not let their ways contaminate you.
69
Your destiny reserves such honors for you: both parties shall be hungry to devour you, but the grass will not be growing where the goat is.
72
Let the wild beasts of Fiesole make fodder of each other, and let them leave the plant untouched (so rare it is that one grows in their dung-heap)
75
in which there lives again the holy seed of those remaining Romans who survived there when this new nest of malice was constructed. ”
78
67. During a Roman power struggle, Cataline fled Rome and found sanctuary for himself and his troops in the originally Etruscan town of Fiesole. After Caesar’s successful siege of that city, the survivors of both camps founded Florence, where those of the Roman camp were the elite.
The prophesy with its condemnation of the current state of Florence (and Italy) and its implied hope of a renascent empire continues the political theme begun with the speech of the anonymous Suicide in Canto XIII and continued in the symbol of the Old Man of Crete in Canto XIV.
“Oh, if all I wished for had been granted, ” I answered him, “you certainly would not, not yet, be banished from our life on earth;
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my mind is etched (and now my heart is pierced) with your kind image, loving and paternal, when, living in the world, hour after hour
84
you taught me how man makes himself eternal. And while I live my tongue shall always speak of my debt to you, and of my gratitude.
87
I will write down what you tell me of my future and save it, with another text, to show a lady who can interpret, if I can reach her.
90
This much, at least, let me make clear to you: if my conscience continues not to blame me, I am ready for whatever Fortune wants.
93
This prophecy is not new to my ears, and so let Fortune turn her wheel, spinning it as she pleases, and the peasant turn his spade. ”
96
My master, hearing this, looked to the right, then, turning round and facing me, he said: “He listens well who notes well what he hears. ”
99
But I did not answer him; I went on talking, walking with Ser Brunetto, asking him who of his company were most distinguished.
102
And he: “It might be good to know who some are, about the rest I feel I should be silent, for the time would be too short, there are so many.
105
In brief, let me tell you, all here were clerics and respected men of letters of great fame, all befouled in the world by one same sin:
108
89-90. Again (as in Canto X, 130-132), Beatrice is referred to as the one who will reveal to the Pilgrim his future course. However, in the Paradiso this role is given to Dante’s ancestor, Cacciaguida.
95-96. It is as right for Fortune to spin her wheel as it is for the peasant to turn his spade; and the Pilgrim will be as indifferent to the first as to the second.
Priscian is traveling with that wretched crowd and Franceso d’Accorso too; and also there, if you could have stomached such repugnancy,
111
you might have seen the one the Servant of Servants transferred to the Bacchiglione from the Arno where his sinfully erected nerves were buried.
114
I would say more, but my walk and conversation with you cannot go on, for over there I see a new smoke rising from the sand:
117
people approach with whom I must not mingle. Remember my Trésor, where I live on, this is the only thing I ask of you. ”
120
Then he turned back, and he seemed like one of those who run Verona’s race across its fields to win the green cloth prize, and he was like
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the winner of the group, not the last one in.
CANTO XVI
CONTINUING through the third round of the Circle of Violence, the Pilgrim hears the distant roar of a waterfall, which grows louder as he and his guide proceed. Suddenly three shades, having recognized him as a Florentine, break from their company and converse with him, all the while circling like a turning wheel. Their spokesman, Jacopo Rusticucci, identifies himself and his companions (Guido Guerra and Tegghiaio Aldobrandini) as well-known and honored citizens of Florence, and begs for news of their native city. The three ask to be remembered in the world and then rush off. By this time the sound of the waterfall is so deafening that it almost drowns out speech, and when the poets reach the edge of the precipice, Virgil takes a cord which had been bound around his pupil’s waist and tosses it into the abyss. It is a signal, and in response a monstrous form looms up from below, swimming through the air. On this note of suspense, the canto ends.
112-1 14. Andrea de Mozzi was Bishop of Florence from 1287 to 1295, when, by order of Pope Boniface VIII (the “Servant of Servants, ” i. e., the servant of the servants of God), he was transferred to Vicenza (on the Bacchiglione River), where he died that same year or the next. The early commentators make reference to his naïve and inept preaching and to his general stupidity. Dante, by mentioning his “sinfully erected nerves” calls attention to his major weakness: unnatural lust or sodomy.
119-120. The “ Trésor “ is the Livres dou Trésor, Brunetto’s most significant composition, an encyclopedic work in French prose written during his exile in France.
123-124. The first prize for the footrace held annually on the first Sunday of Lent in Verona during the thirteenth century was a green cloth.
A
lready we were where I could hear the rumbling of the water plunging down to the next circle, something like the sound of beehives humming,
3
when three shades with one impulse broke away, running, from a group of spirits passing us beneath the rain of bitter suffering.
6
They were coming toward us shouting with one voice: “O you there, stop! From the clothes you wear, you seem to be a man from our perverted city. ”
9
Ah, the wounds I saw covering their limbs, some old, some freshly branded by the flames! Even now, when I think back to them, I grieve.
12
Their shouts caught the attention of my guide, and then he turned to face me, saying, “Wait, for these are shades that merit your respect.
15
And were it not the nature of this place to rain with piercing flames, I would suggest you run toward them, for it would be more fitting. ”
18
When we stopped, they resumed their normal pace and when they reached us, then they started circling; the three together formed a turning wheel,
21
9. The “perverted city” is Florence.
just like professional wrestlers stripped and oiled, eyeing one another for the first, best grip before the actual blows and thrusts begin.
24
And circling in this way each kept his face pointed up at me, so that their necks and feet moved constantly in opposite directions.
27
“And if the misery along these sterile sands, ” one of them said, “and our charred and peeling flesh make us, and what we ask, repulsive to you,
30
let our great worldly fame persuade your heart to tell us who you are, how you can walk safely with living feet through Hell itself.
33
This one in front, whose footsteps I am treading, even though he runs his round naked and skinned, was of noble station, more than you may think:
36
he was the grandson of the good Gualdrada; his name was Guido Guerra, and in his life he accomplished much with counsel and with sword.
39
This other one, who pounds the sand behind me, is Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, whose wise voice the world would have done well to listen to.