117
Consider what you came from: you are Greeks! You were not born to live like mindless brutes but to follow paths of excellence and knowledge. ’
120
With this brief exhortation I made my crew so anxious for the way that lay ahead, that then I hardly could have held them back;
123
and with our stern turned toward the morning light, we made our oars our wings for that mad flight, gaining distance, always sailing to the left.
126
The night already had surveyed the stars the other pole contains; it saw ours so low it did not show above the ocean floor.
129
Five times we saw the splendor of the moon grow full and five times wane away again since we had entered through the narrow pass—
132
108. The “signal-pillars” refer to the Strait of Gibraltar, called in ancient times the Pillars of Hercules. The two pillars were separated by Hercules to designate the farthest reach of the inhabited world, beyond which no man was permitted to venture.
130-131. Five months had passed since they began their voyage.
when there appeared a mountain shape, darkened by distance, that arose to endless heights. I had never seen another mountain like it.
135
Our celebrations soon turned into grief: from the new land there rose a whirling wind that beat against the forepart of the ship
138
and whirled us round three times in churning waters; the fourth blast raised the stern up high, and sent the bow down deep, as pleased Another’s will.
141
And then the sea was closed again, above us. ”
CANTO XXVII
AS SOON AS ULYSSES has finished his narrative, another flame — its soul within having recognized Virgil’s Lombard accent — comes forward asking the travelers to pause and answer questions about the state of affairs in the region of Italy from which he came. The Pilgrim responds by outlining the strife in Romagna and ends by asking the flame who he is. The flame, although he insists he does not want his story to be known among the living, answers because he is supposedly convinced that the Pilgrim will never return to earth. He is another famous deceiver, Guido da Montefeltro, a soldier who became a friar in his old age; but he was untrue to his vows when, at the urging of Pope Boniface VIII, he counseled the use of fraud in the pope’s campaign against the Colonna family. He was damned to Hell because he failed to repent his sins, trusting instead in the pope’s fraudulent absolution.
By now the flame was standing straight and still, it said no more and had already turned from us, with sanction of the gentle poet,
3
133. In Dante’s time the Southern Hemisphere was believed to be composed entirely of water; the mountain that Ulysses and his men see from afar is the Mount of Purgatory that rises from the sea in the Southern Hemisphere, the polar opposite of Jerusalem.
when another, coming right behind it, attracted our attention to its tip, where a roaring of confusing sounds had started.
6
As the Sicilian bull—that bellowed first with cries of that one (and it served him right) who with his file had fashioned such a beast—
9
would bellow with the victim’s voice inside, so that, although the bull was only brass, the effigy itself seemed pierced with pain:
12
so, lacking any outlet to escape from the burning soul that was inside the flame, the suffering words became the fire’s language.
15
But after they had made their journey upward to reach the tip, giving it that same quiver the sinner’s tongue inside had given them,
18
we heard the words: “O you to whom I point my voice, who spoke just now in Lombard, saying: ’you may move on, I won’t ask more of you. ’
21
although I have been slow in coming to you, be willing, please, to pause and speak with me. You see how willing I am—and I burn!
24
If you have just now fallen to this world of blindness, from that sweet Italian land where I took on the burden of my guilt,
27
tell me, are the Romagnols at war or peace? For I come from the hills between Urbino and the mountain chain that lets the Tiber loose. ”
30
7-15. Phalaris, despotic ruler of Agrigentum in Sicily, commissioned Perillus to construct a bronze bull intended to be used as an instrument of torture; it was fashioned so that, once it was heated, the victim roasting within would emit cries that sounded without like those of a bellowing bull. To test the device, Phalaris made the artisan himself its first victim, and thus he received his just reward for creating such a cruel instrument.
29-30. The speaker is Guido da Montefeltro, the Ghibelline captain whose wisdom and skill in military strategy won him fame.
I was still bending forward listening when my master touched my side and said to me: “You speak to him; this one is Italian. ”
33
And I, who was prepared to answer him, began without delaying my response: “O soul who stands concealed from me down there,
36
your Romagna is not now and never was without war in her tyrants’ hearts, although there was no open warfare when I came here.
39
Ravenna’s situation has not changed: the eagle of Polenta broods up there, covering all of Cervia with its pinions;
42
the land that stood the test of long endurance and left the French piled in a bloody heap is once again beneath the verdant claws.
45
Verrucchio’s Old Mastiff and its New One, who both were bad custodians of Montagna, still sink their fangs into their people’s flesh;
48
the cities by Lamone and Santerno are governed by the Lion of the White Lair, who changes parties every change of season.
51
As for the town whose side the Savio bathes: just as it lies between the hills and plains, it lives between freedom and tyranny.
54
And now I beg you tell us who you are— grant me my wish as yours was granted you— so that your fame may hold its own on earth. ”
57
And when the fire, in its own way, had roared awhile, the flame’s sharp tip began to sway to and fro, then released a blow of words:
60
“If I thought that I were speaking to a soul who someday might return to see the world, most certainly this flame would cease to flicker;
63
but since no one, if I have heard the truth, ever returns alive from this deep pit, with no fear of dishonor I answer you:
66
I was a man of arms and then a friar, believing with the cord to make amends; and surely my belief would have come true
69
were it not for that High Priest (his soul be damned!) who put me back among my early sins; I want to tell you why and how it happened.
72
While I still had the form of the bones and flesh my mother gave me, all my actions were not those of a lion, but those of a fox;
75
the wiles and covert paths, I knew them all, and so employed my art that rumor of me spread to the farthest limits of the earth.
78
When I saw that the time of life had come for me, as it must come for every man, to lower the sails and gather in the lines,
81
things I once found pleasure in then grieved me; repentant and confessed, I took the vows a monk takes. And, oh, to think it could have worked!
84
And then the Prince of the New Pharisees chose to wage war upon the Lateran instead of fighting Saracens or Jews,
87
67-71. In 1296 Guido joined the Franciscan order. The reason for his harsh condemnation of Pope Boniface VIII (“that High Priest”) is found in lines 85-111.
85-90. In 1297 the struggle between Boniface VIII (“the Prince of the New Pharisees”) and the Colonna f
amily (who lived near the Lateran palace, the pope’s residence, and who did not consider the resignation of Celestine V valid) erupted into open conflict. Boniface did not launch his crusade against the traditional rivals—Saracens and Jews (87)—but rather against his fellow Christians, faithful warriors of the Church who neither aided the Saracens during the conquest of Acre (Acri) in 1291 (the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land), nor disobeyed the interdict on commerce with Mohammedan lands (89-90).
for all his enemies were Christian souls (none among the ones who conquered Acri, none a trader in the Sultan’s kingdom).
90
His lofty papal seat, his sacred vows were no concern to him, nor was the cord I wore (that once made those it girded leaner).
93
As Constantine once had Silvestro brought from Mount Soracte to cure his leprosy, so this one sought me out as his physician
96
to cure his burning fever caused by pride. He asked me to advise him. I was silent, for his words were drunken. Then he spoke again:
99
’Fear not, I tell you: the sin you will commit, it is forgiven. Now you will teach me how I can level Palestrina to the ground.
102
Mine is the power, as you cannot deny, to lock and unlock Heaven. Two keys I have, those keys my predecessor did not cherish. ’
105
And when his weighty arguments had forced me to the point that silence seemed the poorer choice, I said: ‘Father, since you grant me absolution
108
for the sin I find I must fall into now: ample promise with a scant fulfillment will bring you triumph on your lofty throne. ’
111
102. The Colonna family, excommunicated by Boniface, took refuge in their fortress at Palestrina (twenty-five miles east of Rome), which was able to withstand the onslaughts of papal troops. Acting on Guido’s counsel (110-111), Boniface promised (but without serious intentions) to grant complete pardon to the Colonna family, who then surrendered and, consequently, lost everything.
104—105. Deceived by Boniface, who was to be his successor, Celestine V renounced the papacy (“those keys”) in 1294.
Saint Francis came to get me when I died, but one of the black Cherubim cried out: ’Don’t touch him, don’t cheat me of what is mine!
114
He must come down to join my other servants for the false counsel he gave. From then to now I have been ready at his hair, because
117
one cannot be absolved unless repentant, nor can one both repent and will a thing at once—the one is canceled by the other!’
120
O wretched me! How I shook when he took me, saying: ‘Perhaps you never stopped to think that I might be somewhat of a logician!’
123
He took me down to Minòs, who eight times twisted his tail around his hardened back, then in his rage he bit it, and announced:
126
’He goes with those the thievish fire burns. ’ And here you see me now, lost, wrapped this way, moving, as I do, with my resentment. ”
129
When he had brought his story to a close, the flame, in grievous pain, departed from us gnarling and flickering its pointed horn.
132
My guide and I moved farther on; we climbed the ridge until we stood on the next arch that spans the fosse where penalties are paid
135
by those who, sowing discord, earned Hell’s wages.
113. Some of the Cherubim (the eighth order of angels) were transformed into demons for their rebellion against God; appropriately they appear in the Eighth Circle and the Eighth Bolgia of Hell.
CANTO XXVIII
IN THE NINTH Bolgia the Pilgrim is overwhelmed by the sight of mutilated, bloody shades, many of whom are ripped open, with entrails spilling out. They are the Sowers of Scandal and Schism, and among them are Mahomet, Ali, Pier da Medicina, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Mosca de’ Lamberti, and Bertran de Born. All bemoan their painful lot, and Mahomet and Pier da Medicina relay warnings through the Pilgrim to certain living Italians who are soon to meet terrible ends. Bertran de Born, who comes carrying his head in his hand like a lantern, is a particularly arresting example of a Dantean contrapasso.
Who could, even in the simplest kind of prose describe in full the scene of blood and wounds that I saw now—no matter how he tried!
3
Certainly any tongue would have to fail: man’s memory and man’s vocabulary are not enough to comprehend such pain.
6
If one could bring together all the wounded who once upon the fateful soil of Puglia grieved for their life’s blood spilled by the Romans,
9
and spilled again in the long years of the war that ended in great spoils of golden rings (as Livy’s history tells, that does not err),
12
and pile them with the ones who felt the blows when they stood up against great Robert Guiscard, and with those others whose bones are still in heaps
15
14. In the eleventh century Robert Guiscard (ca. 1015-1085), a noble Norman adventurer, gained control of most of southern Italy and became duke of Apulia and Calabria, as well as gonfalonier of the Church (1059). For the next two decades he battled the schismatic Greeks and the Saracens for the Church in the south of Italy. Later he fought for the Church in the east, raised a siege against Pope Gregory VII (1084), and died at the age of seventy, still engaged in warfare.
15-18. A further comparison between bloody battles in Puglia and the ninth bolgia. In 1266 Charles of Anjou marched against the armies of Manfred, king of Sicily. The final example in the lengthy series of battles was a continuation of the hostilities between Charles of Anjou and the followers of Manfred.
at Ceprano (there where every Puglian turned traitor), and add those from Tagliacozzo, where old Alardo conquered, weaponless—
18
if all these maimed with limbs lopped off or pierced were brought together, the scene would be nothing to compare with the foul ninth bolgia’s bloody sight.
21
No wine cask with its stave or cant-bar sprung was ever split the way I saw someone ripped open from his chin to where we fart.
24
Between his legs his guts spilled out, with the heart and other vital parts, and the dirty sack that turns to shit whatever the mouth gulps down.
27
While I stood staring into his misery, he looked at me and with both hands he opened his chest and said: “See how I tear myself!
30
See how Mahomet is deformed and torn! In front of me, and weeping, Ali walks, his face cleft from his chin up to the crown.
33
The souls that you see passing in this ditch were all sowers of scandal and schism in life, and so in death you see them torn asunder.
36
A devil stands back there who trims us all in this cruel way, and each one of this mob receives anew the blade of the devil’s sword
39
each time we make one round of this sad road, because the wounds have all healed up again by the time each one presents himself once more.
42
But who are you there, gawking from the bridge and trying to put off, perhaps, fulfillment of the sentence passed on you when you confessed?”
45
31. Mahomet is split open from the crotch to the chin, together with the complementary punishment of Ali, representing Dante’s belief that they were initiators of the great schism between the Christian Church and Mohammedanism.
32. Ali (ca. 600-661) was the first of Mahomet’s followers, who married the prophet’s daughter Fatima. Mahomet died in 632, and Ali assumed the caliphate in 656.
“Death does not have him yet, he is not here to suffer for his guilt, ” my master answered; “but that he may have full experience,
48
I, who am dead, must lead him through this Hell from round to round, down to the very bottom, and th
is is as true as my presence speaking here. ”
51
More than a hundred in that ditch stopped short to look at me when they had heard his words, forgetting in their stupor what they suffered.
54
“And you, who will behold the sun, perhaps quite soon, tell Fra Dolcino that unless he wants to follow me here quick, he’d better
57
stock up on food, or else the binding snows will give the Novarese their victory, a conquest not won easily otherwise. ”
60
With the heel of one foot raised to take a step, Mahomet said these words to me, and then stretched out and down his foot and moved away.
63
Another, with his throat slit, and his nose cut off as far as where the eyebrows start (and he only had a single ear to show),
66
who had stopped like all the rest to stare in wonder, stepped out from the group and opened up his throat, which ran with red from all sides of his wound,
69
and spoke: “O you whom guilt does not condemn, whom I have seen in Italy up there, unless I am deceived by similarity,
72
56-60. Fra Dolcino (died 1307), though not a monk as his name would seem to indicate, was the leader of a religious sect banned as heretical by Pope Clement V in 1305. Dolcino’s sect, the Apostolic Brothers, preached the return of religion to the simplicity of apostolic times, and among their tenets was community of property and sharing of women. When Clement V ordered the eradication of the Brothers, Dolcino and his followers retreated to the hills near Novara, where they withstood the papal forces for over a year until starvation conquered them. Dolcino and his companion, Margaret of Trent, were burned at the stake in 1307.
recall to mind Pier da Medicina, should you return to see the gentle plain declining from Vercelli to Marcabò,
75
and inform the two best citizens of Fano— tell Messer Guido and tell Angiolello— that, if our foresight here is no deception,
78
from their ship they shall be hurled bound in a sack to drown in the water near Cattolica, the victims of a tyrant’s treachery;