Canto IX

1
Canto IX

• The Heretics

2
Limitations of Human Reason

• Human Reason can only go so far
• Divine aid is needed
• Yet surely we were meant to pass these tombs,
• If notso much was promised
• Oh how time hangs and drags till our aid
  comes! (7-9)

3
3 Infernal Furies

• aspect of mythology
• tormented people who sinned
• represent the horrors and suffering in hell
• where all at once three hellish and inhuman/
  Furies sprang to view,/ bloodstained and wild./
  Their limbs and gestures hinted they were women.
  (34-36)

4
3 Infernal Furies

• Queen of Woe
• Plutos wife
• Queen of the Underworld
• Medusa
• Stare turns people to stone
• Virgil protects Dante

5
Divine Aid

• so I saw more than a thousand ruined souls
• scatter away from one who crossed dry-shod
• the Stygian marsh into Hells burning
  bowels.
• With his left hand he fanned away the dreary
• vapors of that sink as he approached
• and only of that annoyance did he seem
  weary.
• Clearly he was a messenger from Gods Throne,
• and I turned to m Guide but he made a sign
• that I should keep my silence and bow
  down. (76-84)

6
Divine Aid

• Divine aid comes uninhibited
• Indicates his power and authority
• Human reason also needs help
• Dantes journey is willed by God

7
Geography of Hell

• presented as a city
• And we moved toward the city (101)
• And I, eager to learn what new estate
• Of Hell those burning fortress walls enclosed
  (104-105)
• Beginning of Lower Hell

8
Sinners and Punishment

• Heretics
• Believed that the soul dies with the body
• Against Christian theology
• Theological aspect- Dantes beliefs
• and I saw on every hand
• a countryside of sorrow and new torment
• the uneven tombs cover the even plain-
• such fields I saw here, spread in all
  directions,
• except that here the tombs were chests of
  pain
• for, in a ring around each tomb, great fires
• raised every wall to a red heat. (107-116)

9
Canto X

• Circle Six
• The Heretics

10
The Heretics

• All shall be sealed forever on the day these
  souls return here from Jehosaphat with the bodies
  they have been given once to clay. (10-12)
• Epicurean belief
• Tombs sealed - pursued pleasures in life-
  thought that the souls died with the body.

11
Farinata Degli Uberti

• Bitter enemies were they to me, to my fathers,
  and to my party, so that twice I sent them
  scattering from high ItalyIf they were
  scattered, still from every part they formed
  again and returned both times. (46-51)

12
Farinata Delgi Uberti

• War-chief, Ghibelline leader who exiled many
  Guelphs
• He remained even after Guelphs regained power but
  was exiled
• Dante was a leader after this took place so he is
  not as mad with him
• Dante talks to him - they share a common bond

13
Farinata tells Dante

• Makes reference to Dantes exile
• And ifmen of my line have yet to learn that
  art,/ that burns me deeper than this flaming
  bed./ But the face of her who reigns in Hell
  shall not/ be fifty times rekindled in its
  course/ before you learn what griefs attend that
  art (76-87)

14
Souls Perspective

• We see asquint, like those twisted sight can
  make out only the far off when things draw near
  or happen we perceive nothing of them. Except
  what others bring us we have no news of those who
  are alive (99-105)
• They can foresee the future but cannot know the
  present.

15
Cavalcante Del Cavalcante

• Father of Guido Cavalcanti
• Famous Epicurean- taught only happiness in life,
  no suffering
• Against Gods ideas
• He thinks that Dante says his son is dead
• and that, if I did not reply more quickly,
• it was because my mind was occupied
• with this confusion you have solved for me.
  (112-114)
• Dante indicates he delayed to think about souls
  knowledge of the future