Ascend – The Great Books Podcast
Today, we finish lower hell. Dcn. Harrison Garlick is joined by Dr. Jason Baxter of Benedictine College to discuss cantos 6-11 of Dante's Inferno.
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27. The Third Circle of Hell – Gluttony (Canto 6)
Musa explains the third circle and the contrapasso, “the shades in this circle are the gluttons, and their punishment fits their sin. Gluttony, like all the sins of incontinence, subjects reason to desire; in this case desire is a voracious appetite. Thus, the shades howl like dogs—in desire, without reason; they are sunk in slime, the image of their excess. The warm comfort their gluttony brought them in life here has become cold, dirty rain and hail.”[1] The beast Cerberus—a “three-headed doglike beast”—dwells in the third circle.[2] The beast both represents the sin of gluttony through its own immense appetite and further punishes those shades in the third circle as he “flays and mangles” the shades of that circle.[3] Musa also notes “with his three heads, he appears to be a prefiguration of Lucifer and thus another infernal distortion of the Trinity.”[4] On their way toward the fourth circle, Dante the Pilgrim asks Virgil whether the punishment of the souls in hell will be increased or lessened on the Final Judgment.[5] Virgil explains that the pain of those in hell will be “more perfect” after the Final Judgment, as the souls in hell will be reunited with their bodies after the bodily resurrection.[6]
30. The Fourth Circle of Hell – the Prodigal & Miserly (VII)
As Virgil and the Pilgrim enter into the fourth circle of hell, they are greeted by Plutus (Pluto), the Roman god of wealth, who speaks incoherently and whom Virgil dismisses by calling him “cursed Wolf of hell.”[1] The reference to “wolf” recalls the she-wolf at the beginning and reminds the reader the Pilgrim is still journeying through the circles of sins related to incontinence. Here the Pilgrim sees shades “to the sound of their own screams, straining their chests, they rolled enormous weights, and when they met and clashed against each other… screaming ‘Why hoard?,’ the other side, ‘why waste?’”[2] The Pilgrim sees the contrapasso of the miserly and the prodigal, who, forming two semi-circles, push their heavy weights (symbolizing their material wealth) and shove against each other (as their disordered uses of wealth were opposite).[3] Virgil teaches the Pilgrim about Lady Fortune, who serves as an angel of God determining the fortunes of men and nations.[4] Note that Lady Fortune is often depicted with a wheel, and that this circle of hell resembles a giant broken wheel of the shades that mismanaged their fortune.[5]
34. What happens in the Fifth Circle of Hell: the Wrathful & Slothful (Cantos 7-8)?
Virgil and the Pilgrim leave the broken wheel of the fourth circle and come upon “a swamp that has the name of Styx.”[1] The river Styx, the sordid marsh-like second river of hell, serves as the fifth circle. Here, the Pilgrim sees “muddy people moving in that marsh, all naked, with their faces scarred by rage,” who “fought each other, not with hands alone, but struck with head and chest and feet as well, with teeth they tore each other limb from limb.”[2] These are the wrathful souls, “the souls of those that anger overcame,” who are punished alongside another group of souls who lay face up under the murky surface.[3] The identity of these souls is debated.[4] The souls beneath the surface, “who make the waters bubble at the surface,” say to the Pilgrim: “sluggish we were in the sweet air made happy by the sun, and the some of sloth was smoldering in our hearts; now we lie sluggish here in this black muck.”[5] The best take is that these souls represent slothfulness or acedia; thus, the fifth circle, like the fourth, has two related sins in the same circle: wrath (excess) and acedia (deficient).[6] Virgil and the Pilgrim cross the river Styx with the help of the boatman, Phlegyas, a wrathful son of Mars from Roman mythology.[7] As they cross the river, a wrathful soul rises up and is rebuked by Dante the Pilgrim in stanch contrast to the pity he showed the sinners in the second and third circles.[8] Dante rebuking the sinner and remembering it fondly shows more of an alignment with the Divine Will than pitying them.
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Good work!