Why Does Virgil Say Again That Fate Has Ordered Dante s Journey Through the Underworld in Canto 12

  Treachery: Caina (32), Antenora (32-3), Ptolomea (33), Judecca (34)

 

  Dante divides circle 9, the circle of treachery--defined in Inferno 11 as fraudulent acts betwixt individuals who share special bonds of love and trust (61-six)--into four regions. Caina is named after the biblical Cain (offset kid of Adam and Eve), who slew his brother Abel out of envy after God showed appreciation for Abel'south sacrificial offering just not Cain'southward (Genesis 4:one-17); condemned to a vagabond beingness, Cain later congenital a urban center (named subsequently his son, Henoch) that for certain Christian theologians--notably Augustine (Urban center of God, book 15)--represented the evils of the earthly metropolis. In the circle of the lustful, Francesca identified her husband (Gianciotto)--who murdered her and Paolo (Gianciotto's brother)--as a time to come inhabitant of Caina (Inf. 5.107). Dante'south attention is here drawn to two brothers, the ghibelline Napoleone and the guelph Alessandro, who murdered ane another because of a dispute over their inheritance (Inf. 32.55-60).

  The second region, Antenora, is named for the Trojan prince Antenor. While the classical sources--notably Homer's Iliad--present Antenor in a positive (or at least neutral) light equally one in favor of returning Helen to the Greeks for the proficient of Troy, medieval versions--histories, commentaries, and romances--view him as a "treacherous Judas" who plots with the Greeks to destroy the metropolis. Dante places in this region those who betrayed their political party or their homeland.

  In the third zone of circle nine suffer those who betrayed friends or guests. Ptolomea is named after ane or both of the post-obit: Ptolemy, the captain of Jericho, honored his father-in-law, the high priest Simon Maccabee, and two of Simon'south sons with a great feast and so murdered them (ane Maccabees sixteen:xi-17); Ptolemy XII, brother of Cleopatra, arranged that the Roman general Pompey--seeking refuge post-obit his defeat at the battle of Pharsalia (48 B.C.E.)--be murdered as soon every bit he stepped ashore. Dante displays his abhorrence of such crimes by devising a special rule for those who beguile their guests: their souls descend immediately to hell and their living bodies are possessed past demons when they commit these acts (Inf. 33.121-6).

  Judecca, named later the apostle who betrayed Jesus (Judas Iscariot), is the innermost zone of the ninth and last circle of hell. The term likewise hints at a manifestation of Christian prejudice--which Dante certainly shares--against Judaism and Jews in the Middle Ages: it alludes to the names--Iudeca, Judaica--for the expanse within sure cities (e.chiliad., Venice) where Jews were forced to live, apart from the Christian population. Together with Judas in this region of hell are others who, by betraying their masters or benefactors, committed crimes with great historical and societal consequences. Completely covered by the ice--similar "straw in glass"--the shades are locked in various postures with no mobility or sound whatever (Inf. 34.10-fifteen).

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  Giants (31)

 

  The Giants physically connect circles viii and 9: standing on the floor of circle 9--or perhaps on a ledge higher up the bottom of hell--the upper halves of their huge bodies tower over the inner edge of circle 8. From a distance, in fact, Dante initially mistakes the Giants for actual towers (Inf. 31.19-45). Anticipating the even larger effigy of Lucifer, Dante's Giants--fatigued from both biblical and classical stories--are archetypal examples of defiant rebels. Nimrod, described in the Bible as a "stout hunter before the Lord" (Genesis 10:9), was viewed as a Giant in the medieval tradition that Dante follows. According to the biblical account, people in the region ruled by Nimrod--Babylon and other cities in the land of Sennaar--programme to build a tower that will reach to heaven; God shows his displeasure by scattering the people and destroying the unity of their language so they will no longer understand 1 another's speech (Genesis 11:1-nine). Dante, following tradition, places the blame for this linguistic confusion on Nimrod, whose own language is at present as incomprehensible to others as their languages are to him (Inf. 31.67-9; 76-81). In his concrete description of Nimrod, Dante reinforces the clan of the Giants with the ruinous consequences of pride: 1) comparing the size of Nimrod's face to the pine cone at St. Peter's in Rome (Inf. 31.58-60), Dante perchance means to draw an unflattering parallel with the current pope, Boniface VIII; 2) the discussion Dante uses--perizoma--to convey how the inner bank of circle eight covers the lower half of the Giants' bodies like an "apron" (Inf. 31.61-two) is an unusual discussion (of Greek origin) likely familiar to Dante's readers from a biblical verse describing the shame of Adam and Eve following their disobedience in the Garden of Eden: "And the optics of them both were opened: and when they perceived themselves to exist naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons [perizomata]" (Genesis iii:7).

  In their passage from circle 8 to circle nine, Dante and Virgil view ii other Giants, both from the classical tradition. Ephialtes was one of the Giants who fought against Jove and the other Olympian gods (Inf. 31.91-6). Ephialtes and his twin brother Otus (they were sons of Neptune and Iphimedia, wife of the giant Aloeus), attempted to scale Mount Olympus and dethrone the gods by stacking Mount Pelion on top of Mount Ossa in Macedonia (Aen. 6.582-4); they were killed, according to Servius' well known medieval commentary on the Aeneid, with arrows shot by Apollo and Diana. Note Ephialtes' reaction to Virgil's statement that another Behemothic--Briareus--has an even more than ferocious appearance (Inf. 31.106-11). Like the other Giants who challenged the gods, Ephialtes is immobilized by chains in Dante's hell. Antaeus, who can speak, is probably unfettered considering he was born after his brothers waged war against the gods. He is therefore able to elevator Dante and Virgil and deposit them on the floor of the ninth and final circle of hell (Inf. 31.130-45). To secure this help, Virgil entices Antaeus with the prospect of continued fame (upon Dante'due south return to the world) based on the Giant'south formidable reputation. Here Dante'southward source is Lucan, who recounts how Antaeus, a fearsome offspring of Earth whose forcefulness was replenished from contact with his mother, feasted on lions and slaughtered farmers and travelers around his clangorous dwelling in North Africa until he met his friction match in Hercules. The hero and the Giant engaged in a wrestling contest, which Hercules finally won by lifting Antaeus off the ground and squeezing him to death (Pharsalia four.593-653). The Giant'due south fatal encounter with Hercules is recalled not past Virgil in his plea for Antaeus' help (Inf. 31.115-29) but by the narrator (31.132). Virgil, however, is certain to reiterate Lucan'south proffer that the Giants might in fact have defeated the gods had Antaeus been present at the boxing of Phlegra (31.119-21; come across as well Inf. fourteen.58).

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  Bocca degli Abati (32)

 

  Dante certainly feels no remorse for kicking a shade hard in the face one time he learns the identity of the political traitor (Inf. 32.73-8). The offended shade immediately piques Dante's interest by alluding to Montaperti (about Siena), site of the legendary battle (1260) in which Florentine guelphs were routed by ghibelline forces that included, among exiles from Florence, Farinata degli Uberti. The shade'due south identity remains curtained, even equally Dante tries to elicit information technology by violent out chunks of his pilus, until some other traitor in the ice calls out the wretch'due south name: Bocca promptly lives upwards to his name (bocca ways "mouth") by identifying the informer along with 4 other traitors to political party or homeland (Inf. 32.112-23). Bocca degli Abati belonged to a ghibelline family that remained in Florence after other ghibellines were banished in 1258 for their role in a foiled plot. Pretending to fight on the side of the guelphs (equally part of the cavalry), Bocca betrayed his guelph countrymen at a decisive moment in the boxing--as German mercenary troops attacked in support of the Tuscan ghibellines--past cut off the paw of the guelph standard-bearer. Demoralized by Bocca'southward treachery and the loss of their flag, the guelphs panicked and were roundly defeated.

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  Ugolino and Ruggieri (32-3)

 

  There is perhaps no more grisly scene in all the Inferno than Dante's depiction of Ugolino eating the back of Ruggieri's caput like a dog using its potent teeth to gnaw a os (Inf. 32.124-32; 33.76-8). Ugolino's story, the longest single speech past one of the damned, is Dante's final dramatic representation in the Inferno of humankind'south capacity for evil and cruelty. Aimed at explaining the scene of cannibalism in hell, Ugolino'due south story is all the more than powerful considering the speaker makes no attempt to exonerate himself of the offense--political treachery--for which he is condemned to eternal damnation. He instead wishes to defame his enemy and arm-twist compassion from his audience by recounting the brutal style in which he and his innocent children were killed.

  Count Ugolino della Gherardesca earned his place in Antenora--the realm of political traitors--for a series of betrayals against Pisa and her political leadership. Dante mentions only the reputed human action of treason that eventually led to Ugolino's downfall: in an effort to appease hostile and powerful guelph forces in Tuscany, Ugolino ceded Pisan castles to Florence and Lucca in 1285 (Inf. 33.85-six). Notwithstanding, early commentators and chroniclers describe other--even more damning--examples of shifting allegiances and betrayals in the long political life of Count Ugolino. Born into a prominent ghibelline family in Pisa, Ugolino switched to the guelph side following their ascendancy in Tuscan politics and tried to install a guelph government in Pisa in 1274-5. Unsuccessful in this try, he was imprisoned and later exiled. In 1284, several years after his return, Ugolino led Pisan forces in a naval battle confronting rival Genoa; despite his defeat, Ugolino was elected podestà (political head) of Pisa and his guelph grandson, Nino Visconti, soon joined him in power every bit "captain of the people." It was in this period that Ugolino, out of political expediency, ceded the Pisan castles to Lucca and Florence, a conclusion that caused a rift between him and his grandson and between their guelph followers. Taking advantage of resurgent ghibelline fortunes in Tuscany, Ugolino connived with the Pisan ghibellines, led by the Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini; Ugolino agreed to ghibelline demands that his grandson Nino be driven from the urban center, an order that was carried out--with Ugolino purposefully absent from the city--in 1288. The traitor, however, was then himself betrayed: upon Ugolino's render to Pisa, Ruggieri incited the public against him (by cleverly exploiting Ugolino'southward previous "betrayal of the castles") and had the count--along with 2 sons (Gaddo and Uguiccione) and two grandsons (Anselmo and Brigata)--arrested and imprisoned. They were held in the belfry for eight months until, with a change in the ghibelline leadership of Pisa, it was decided to nail shut the door to the tower and to throw the key into the Arno. They starved to decease, as Dante's Ugolino recalls, in a matter of days (Inf. 33.67-75).

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  Fra Alberigo (33)

 

  Dante cleverly tricks a shade into revealing his identity past making a stray deal (Inf. 33.109-17): if he doesn't relieve the traitor'south suffering (past removing ice--frozen tears--from the traitor's face) in commutation for this data, Dante says he should be sent to the very bottom of hell! Dante thus learns that the soul of Fra Alberigo is in hell even every bit his body is still alive on earth in 1300, the year of the journey (he is thought to take died in 1307). Cartoon Dante'southward attention to the shade of Branca Doria (who will really live another xx-5 years), Alberigo explains that the souls of those who beguile their guests descend immediately to Ptolomea equally their bodies are possessed past demons (Inf. 33.124-47). Fra Alberigo, of the ruling guelph family of Faenza (near Ravenna), was a Jovial Friar--a religious society established with the goal of making peace (in families and cities) merely soon improve known for decadence and corruption. A close relative, Manfred, plotted against Alberigo for political power; as a outcome of this dispute, Manfred struck Alberigo, whose cruel response well earned him a place amidst the traitors in hell. Pretending that the atmospherics was forgotten, Alberigo invited Manfred and his son to a sumptuous banquet; when, at the finish of the repast, the host gave the betoken ("Bring the fruit!"), armed servants emerged from behind a curtain and slaughtered the guests, much to the delight of Alberigo.

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  Lucifer (with Brutus, Judas, & Cassius) (34)

 

  Match, Satan, Dis, Beelzebub--Dante throws every proper noun in the book at the Devil, once the most beautiful angel (Lucifer means "light-bearer") then--following his rebellion against God--the source of evil and sorrow in the world, kickoff with his corruption of Eve and Adam in the Garden of Eden (Genesis iii). Dante'due south Match is a parodic composite of his wickedness and the divine powers that punish him in hell. As ugly as he once was beautiful, Lucifer is the wretched emperor of hell, whose tremendous size (he dwarfs fifty-fifty the Giants) stands in dissimilarity with his limited powers: his flapping wings generate the wind that keeps the lake frozen and his three mouths chew on the shade-bodies of 3 arch-traitors, the gore mixing with tears gushing from Lucifer's three sets of eyes (Inf. 34.53-7). Lucifer's three faces--each a different color (red, whitish-xanthous, blackness)--parody the doctrine of the Trinity: three complete persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) in i divine nature--the Divine Power, Highest Wisdom, and Primal Dear that created the Gate of Hell and, by extension, the entire realm of eternal damnation. With the top one-half of his body towering over the ice, Lucifer resembles the Giants and other half-visible figures; after Dante and Virgil have passed through the center of the earth, their perspective changes and Friction match appears upside-downwards, with his legs sticking upwardly in the air. Consider the implications of visual parallels betwixt Match and other inhabitants of hell.

  Eternally eaten past Lucifer'south three mouths are--from left to right-- Brutus, Judas, and Cassius (Inf. 34.61-7). Brutus and Cassius, stuffed anxiety first in the jaws of Lucifer'due south black and whitish-yellowish faces respectively, are punished in this lowest region for their assassination of Julius Caesar (44 B.C.E.), the founder of the Roman Empire that Dante viewed as an essential part of God's plan for man happiness. Both Brutus and Cassius fought on the side of Pompey in the civil state of war. Nonetheless, following Pompey's defeat at Pharsalia in 48 B.C.E., Caesar pardoned them and invested them with high civic offices. Notwithstanding, Cassius connected to harbor resentment against Caesar'south dictatorship and enlisted the assistance of Brutus in a conspiracy to kill Caesar and re-establish the democracy. They succeeded in assassinating Caesar but their political-war machine ambitions were presently thwarted past Octavian (later Augustus) and Antony at Philippi (42 B.C.E.): Cassius, defeated by Antony and thinking (wrongly) that Brutus had been defeated by Octavian, had himself killed by a servant; Brutus indeed lost a subsequent battle and took his life as well. For Dante, Brutus and Cassius' betrayal of Julius Caesar, their distributor and the earth'southward supreme secular ruler, complements Judas Iscariot'due south expose of Jesus, the Christian man-god, in the Bible. Judas, one of the twelve apostles, strikes a bargain to beguile Jesus for thirty pieces of silvery; he fulfills his treacherous role--foreseen by Jesus at the Final Supper--when he afterwards identifies Jesus to the government with a kiss; regretting this betrayal that will lead to Jesus' death, Judas returns the silver and hangs himself (Matthew 26:fourteen-16; 26:21-v; 26:47-9; 27:3-5). Suffering even more than than Brutus and Cassius, Dante's Judas is placed head-showtime inside Lucifer's central oral cavity, with his back skinned by the devil'southward claws (Inf. 34.58-63).

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  More Giants (Briareus, Tityus, Typhon) (31)

  Although Dante and Virgil do not visit them, three more towering Giants are named in Inferno 31. Briareus, whom Virgil describes as equal in size to--simply even more than terrifying than--Ephialtes (Inf. 31.103-5), appears in Virgil's epic as a monster said to accept 1 hundred arms and easily, with fire burning in his fifty mouths and chests; he thus wielded 50 shields and swords to defend himself confronting Jove'due south thunderbolts (Aen. half dozen.287; 10.565-8). Statius merely describes Briareus as immense (Thebaid 2.596). Repeating Lucan's coupling of Tityus and Typhon as Giants inferior to Antaeus (Pharsalia 4.595-6), Virgil appeals to Antaeus' pride by "threatening" to go to them if Antaeus volition not provide a lift downwards to circle nine (Inf. 31.124-6). Tityus is well represented in classical literature as a Giant whose attempted rape of Latona (mother of Apollo and Diana) earns him a gruesome fate in the underworld: a vulture continuously feeds on Tityus' immortal liver (Aen. half-dozen.595-600; Met. 4.457-8). Typhon was struck downward by Jove's lightning bolts and, depending on the version, cached under Mount Etna in Sicily (and thus causing occasional volcanic eruptions: Met. five.318-58) or under the Island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples (Aen. 9.715-half-dozen).

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  Cocytus (32-4)

  Dante calls circle 9, a frozen lake, Cocytus (from Greek, significant "to lament"). I of the rivers in the classical underworld, Cocytus is described past Virgil as a nighttime, deep pool of water that encircles a woods and into which pours sand spewed from a torrid whirlpool (Aen. 6.131-ii; vi.296-7; 6.323). In the Vulgate (the Latin Bible), Cocytus designates the valley (or torrent) of death that receives the wicked, even--and especially--those who have prospered in the world (Job 21:33).

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  "sì che l'un capo a fifty'altro era cappello" (32.126)
so that one head to the other was a hat

  "Poscia, più che 'l dolor, poté 'l digiuno" (33.75)
then, stronger than grief was my hunger

  "Due east quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle" (34.139)
nosotros and then emerged to see again the stars

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  Study Questions

  Why is a frozen lake an appropriate place for the penalization of traitors in the lowest circle of hell? Depict the full general contrapasso for treachery.

  The Giants and Lucifer are proud figures who appear divided, with only the top halves of their bodies visible to Dante and Virgil. Similarly, half the bodies of Cassius, Judas, and Brutus are within Match'south massive jaws. Count Ugolino, on the other mitt, is doubled with his mortal enemy, Archbishop Ruggieri. Can you think of other divided or doubled figures entangled in Dante's infernal web of pride?

  Green-eyed is the other capital sin not assigned a specific circumvolve or region in Dante'southward hell. Do you see evidence of envy in the final circle of hell? in previous circles?

  Find examples of Dante's "participation" in these cantos describing the circle of treachery.

  Why do you think stelle--"stars"--is the concluding word of all three parts of the Divine Comedy?

  Irresolute Values

  Every bit a relatively privileged European man of the tardily Middle Ages, Dante certainly shares - despite his intellect and imagination - many views that nosotros moderns might rightly consider unenlightened. These could include religious and ethnic intolerance, a reductive attitude toward women, and a heterosexist understanding of love and sexuality. In some respects - for instance, his advocacy of the empire (and opposition to more than democratic, republican ideas) - he could exist considered reactionary even for his own time and identify.

  While nosotros might recollect of ourselves every bit enlightened, open-minded people today, what might our descendants say near us a century or two from now?

  What specific bug or attitudes exercise you think will change so much in the time to come that our electric current views may come to be seen as "medieval"?

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Source: https://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/circle9.html

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