Screaming as They Go

1
Screaming as They Go

• Feraco
• Myth to Science Fiction
• 6 November 2009

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Canto VII Data File

• Settings The Fourth and Fifth Circles
• Figures Plutus, Fortune
• Allusions Styx
• Punishable Sins Hoarding and Wasting (Fourth
  Circle), Wrath and Sullenness (Fifth Circle)

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Canto VII Data File

• Summary After leaving the Third Circle, the
  Poets encounter Plutus, who shouts an
  unintelligible warning to Satan upon seeing them.
  Virgil silences him by reminding him of Gods
  will, recalling the poets escape from Charon and
  Minos. Dante sees men fighting over great stones,
  and realizes that these men grew obsessed with
  money either their ability to hoard it or waste
  it. None of them are even recognizable, and the
  poets move toward Styx as Virgil discusses
  Fortunes purpose. When they arrive, Dante
  witnesses a ferocious, unending battle between
  the Wrathful the Sullen lie beneath the swamps
  surface, denied the light of day forever.

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Hoarding and Wasting

• Also referred to as Avarice and Prodigality
• Just as Dante elevated lust above gluttony, he
  chooses to place financial avarice and
  prodigality below consumption
• Timothy 610 claims avarice is "the root of all
  evils, and Raffa asserts that medieval
  Christian thought viewed the sin as most
  offensive to the spirit of love
• At least with consumption, someone benefits
  (temporarily) no one benefits from obsessive
  miserliness, nor from money wasted rather than
  invested or spent wisely
• Just as he compared mans hunger for political
  power with gluttony via Ciaccos prophecy, Dante
  explicitly blames avarice for the corruption
  gripping his city
• Unlike his fairly sympathetic portrayals of
  sinners in the first three circles (Homer,
  Francesca, Ciacco), Dante merely scorns the
  sinners we find here

5
The Punishment

• The Fourth Circles punishment is shared by
  Hoarders and Wasters alike both parties strain
  against giant rocks, yelling angrily at one
  another as they charge and collide repeatedly
• The rocks symbolize the mundane nature of the
  things the sinners obsessed over now that
  obsession is just dead weight
• Also, Dante notes that he cant recognize any of
  them individually the combination of anger and
  empty greed has dimmed their souls so greatly
  that theres nothing much left of them
• In order to drive home his view that Greed
  destroys the light of God within a person, Dante
  takes special care to note how many religious
  officials even popes! appear here

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Plutus

• Its not clear what Plutus is exactly supposed to
  be some translators take Virgils you wolf of
  Hell! statement literally and give him canine
  features, while others claim hes human
• Dante seems to be splitting the difference,
  giving him speech while rendering him incapable
  of delivering it in a fully human language
• His anger seems animalistic, hinting yet again at
  our darker nature
• Also, its not clear which god hes supposed to
  represent Pluto was the Lord of the Underworld
  in many myths, whereas Plutus was simply a God of
  Wealth
• Dante seems to be fusing Plutos ability to rule
  with Plutuss traditional status, thus creating a
  creature who hungers for both power and wealth
  the great enemy

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Fortune

• Dante believed that everything you did came back
  to you in the end, particularly due to divine
  influence The Infernos system of
  divinely-governed poetic justice makes this
  perfectly clear
• However, what about what happens along the way?
• Dante elevates Fortune above the fray of the
  mortal world, painting her as a distributor just
  as God distributes light and goodness throughout
  creation, Fortune distributes worldly goods
• She is, in many ways, impossible for mortals to
  understand (think Gilgameshs divinities)

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Fortune

• Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, which Dante
  read following Beatrices death, clearly inspires
  Dantes use of Fortune, although the formers is
  more negative
• He believed you should ignore what Fortune brings
  you, concentrating instead on what you knew to be
  permanent and certain (divine love and justice,
  for example)
• Boethius illustrates this in Consolation by
  showing himself as hes gradually stripped of
  everything possessions, honor, freedom
• This obviously would have more relevance for
  Dante in the years after he read the book!
• He eventually argues that the easiest way to
  learn his lesson about Fortune is to experience
  bad luck, for there is no better teacher that
  only the immutable is worthwhile

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In Conclusion

• The Fourth Circle is worth knowing simply for its
  portrayal of obsession (the sinners obsession
  with wealth) and its explanation of Fortunes
  role
• Its also important to remember both how the
  sinners are punished and why that punishment
  exists

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Wrath and Sullenness

• Its interesting that both the Fourth and Fifth
  Circles contain linked sins that said, theyre
  linked in different ways
• The Hoarders and Wasters have different sins, but
  they sin according to the same principle (their
  attitudes toward material wealth are corrupt)
  this is why their punishments are identical
• The Wrathful and the Sullen, on the other hand,
  embody the same sin, but in different forms
  anger thats expressed immoderately (the
  Wrathful) and anger thats harmfully repressed
  (the Sullen) this is why their punishments
  differ, even though they live in the same area

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The Punishment

• The Wrathful and the Sullen occupy the Styxs
  swamp-waters together
• The Wrathful are locked in an endless, desperate
  physical battle in which every soul fights the
  others they can only see and do hateful things
• The Sullen lie beneath the water, gurgling out
  something approaching a hymn a darkly ironic
  twist, considering that Dante believes they
  wasted the light of God within themselves by
  sulking (rather than celebrating their fortune in
  life)
• The water over their heads symbolizes the anger
  they internalized, using it to distance
  themselves from God

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Styx

• Styx was long used in mythology as Hells major
  river, although it turns up elsewhere as a marsh
  or swamp (Virgil did this in The Aeneid)
• As usual, Dantes descriptions are more
  physically realistic than his predecessors
• Dante turns it into a swamp here in order to
  heighten the sense that were encountering
  corrupted morality here, the swamp is the Fifth
  Circle
• Like Acheron, Styx doubles as a border it
  separates Upper Hell from Dis, the Walled City of
  Lower Hell

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In Conclusion

• Even though we cover a lot of ground here two
  circles worth! Canto VII is fairly minor, and
  the Fifth Circle barely registers
• Its worth remembering for its treatment of the
  final Sin of the She-Wolf (the Heretics of the
  Sixth Circle fit, but only partially)

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Canto VIII Data File

• Settings The Fifth Circle, Styx, and Dis
• Figures Phlegyas, Filippo Argenti, Rebellious
  Angels
• Allusions The Harrowing of Hell
• Punishable Sins Wrath and Sullenness (Fifth
  Circle) unofficially, the denial of Gods will
  also counts

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Canto VIII Data File

• Summary As the poets watch great flames shoot up
  from towers on the other side of Styx, Phlegyas
  races across the marsh in order to shuttle them
  over to Dis. Hes angry to see a mortal in Hell
  (yet another Threshold Guardian!), but Virgil
  deals with him in the usual fashion. One member
  of the Wrathful, Filippo Argenti, approaches the
  poets, but hes set upon and torn apart by his
  fellow sinners (to Dantes delight). When the
  poets reach the gate of Dis, theyre denied
  entrance by the Rebellious Angels, and even
  Virgil cant force his way past them the Canto
  ends with the poets nervously awaiting divine
  intervention from a Messenger.

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Phlegyas

• Just like the other figures weve encountered
  Minos as the last vanguard of Reason, Cerberus as
  Gluttony personified, and Plutus as the
  representation of Financial Avarice Phlegyas is
  associated with his realms sin (in this case,
  uncontrollable wrath)
• That said, hes angry for a reason not only is
  he the son of the old war god (Ares), but another
  god, Apollo, raped his daughter
• The furious father burned Apollos temple to the
  ground, and was promptly slain by him
• He was then cast down to Hell for showing
  contempt for the gods this is where Virgil shows
  him in The Aeneid

17
Filippo Argenti

• Its not clear why Dante hates Filippo Argenti so
  deeply, and its a little unsettling to see the
  poet react so happily to the sight of a soul
  being torn to shreds
• Virgil often has to rebuke Dante for showing
  compassion for the sinners he encounters (after
  all, hes supposed to be recognizing and
  rejecting sin), so the elder man approves of
  Dantes hate
• We know little about him, save that he belonged
  to the Neri faction (which would have placed him
  at odds with Dante)
• Some critics suggest that Argenti had wronged
  Dante in the past somehow, proposing that
  Argentis brother took possession of Dantes
  property after his exile, or that Filippo himself
  had slapped Dante during an argument
• Boccaccio just shows him beating someone in order
  to highlight his violent temper

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The Rebellious Angels

• The Rebellious Angels plummeted into Hell after
  choosing the wrong side in the great battle
  between God and Satan (this separates them from
  the Angels who chose no sides, who ended up in
  the Vestibule)
• All traces of their former beauty have been
  erased now theyre simply hideous, transformed
  by their wrath and hatred into monsters
• They lie in wait outside of Dis (the walled city
  of Lower Hell), trying to stop the poets from
  entering its reminiscent of their failed
  resistance to Christ during the Harrowing of Hell

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The Resistance

• In theory, the Rebellious Angels dont have the
  right to deny Dante and Virgil entrance to Dis
  Gods will still reigns supreme here
• However, these beings ended up where they are
  because they habitually resist God its not like
  they havent done this before
• Whats surprising is how troubled Virgil seems
  the end of the Canto leaves readers worried and
  tense

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In Conclusion

• Circles Four and Five close out our experiences
  with the Sins of the She-Wolf, although we can
  (and will) lump the Heretics in with them
• As we approach Dis, Dantes travels through Hell
  slow markedly theres more time for conversation
  and encounters
• None of these sins are light but were about
  to get serious