Canto 5, 33, and 34

1
Canto 5, 33, and 34

• from the Inferno
• Dante

2
Canto 5 The Carnal

• Remember this everything is created by the
  Christian God in the Inferno.
• In medieval Christian theology, Limbo is located
  at the outer edge of Hell for souls that are
  neither condemned or saved. This includes anyone
  (including children) who have not been baptized,
  as well as the righteous who have lived and died
  before the birth of Christ.

3
Canto 5 The Carnal

• Dante employs the law of symbolic retribution in
  Canto 5 just as their judgment was swept away by
  their tempestuous passions, the carnal sinners
  are whirled around in a hellish storm.

4
Canto 5 The Carnal

• The Minoss warning of Do not be misled by that
  wide and easy passage! parallels a famous
  passage in the New Testatment
• Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that
• leadeth to destruction, and many there be
• that go in thereat Because straight is the
• gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth
• unto life, and few there be that find it
• (Matthew 713-14)

5
Canto 5 The Carnal

• Dante creates the tempestuous mood for Canto 5 by
  using verbs such as roaring, wracked,
  sweeps, whirling, battering, and drives
  when describing the whirlwind of the circle.
• Dante compares the condemned souls to cranes
  crying harshly as they fly overhead (simile)
  which also contributes to the mood.

6
Canto 5 The Carnal

• The characters presented in Canto 5 are figures
  from legend and literature and are known for
  their sins of sexual passion
• Semiramis, legendary queen of Assyria
• Dido, legendary queen of Carthage who vows to be
  true to her husband, Sichaeus, but breaks this
  vow when she falls in love with Aeneas. When he
  leaves, she commits suicide by throwing herself
  on a funeral pyre.

7
Canto 5 The Carnal

• Achilles, a legendary Greek Warrior who deserts
  his army in order to marry Polyxena.
• Tristan, who feel in love with Iseult, a young
  princess betrothed to his uncle, King Mark of
  Cromwell, according to medieval legend.
• Paolo and Francesca, who were murdered by her
  husband, Giovanni (who was Paolo's brother) when
  he found the two lovers together.

8
Canto 5 The Carnal

• Dante feels pity and confusion for the "great
  knights and ladies," but chooses to speak to
  Paolo and Francesca he compares them to mating
  doves that are called to their nest (simile).
• Murderer Giovanni Malatesta, the husband of
  Francesca and brother of Paolo, was still living
  at the time of Dante's work his place in Circle
  9 is far worse than that of the latter.

9
Canto 5 The Carnal

• The story that Paolo and Francesca read is that
  of Lancelot and Guinevere. According to the
  medieval legend of King Arthur, Lancelot falls in
  love with Guinevere, Arthur's queen, which leads
  to the downfall of the Knights of the Round
  Table. The book acts as a "pander," or go between
  for the lovers.

10
Canto 33 Fraud and Treachery

• The geography of Dante's Hell is precisely worked
  out. Dante conceived the whole realm as a endless
  and tapering pit, with its bottom at the center
  of the earth. Dante and Virgil descend through
  nine circles, each with increasing punishment.

11
Canto 33 Fraud and Treachery

• The nine circles are groups into
• threes, corresponding to the three
• kinds of vice that Dante learned
• from Aristotle incontinence (the
• Wolf), violence (the Lion), and
• fraud and malice (the Leopard).

12
Canto 33 Fraud and Treachery

• The ninth circle, Cocytus (a river in the Greek
  underworld which means "river of wailing") is
  reserved for sins of fraud and treachery. The
  rounds are dedicated to a specific type of sin
  (Antenora, treachery towards country, and
  Ptolomea, treachery towards guests and hosts).

13
Antenora

• Named for Antenor who betrayed Troy to the Greeks
  (in some versions).
• Count Ugolino and Archbishop Ruggieri are in the
  Round for treason they once plotted together,
  and Ruggieri betrayed his fellow-plotter and
  caused his death by starvation along with his
  four sons. His sons offer their father
  themselves as food.

14
Antenora

• In Dantes world of symbolic retribution,
  Ruggieri becomes food for Ugolino, who gnaws on
  his head.
• However, when Ugolino refers to Ruggieri with
  reverend grace, it is in an ironic tone, being
  that he is a brutal man who deserves none.

15
Antenora

• Ugolinos sons are actually grown men and the
  younger grandson is fifteen for effect, Dante
  makes them much younger.
• The Canto brings forth the concept of fairness
  is Ugolinos revenge justified?
• Ugolino has betrayed Pisa by giving up castles
  during a war, and for this, he is punished. Dante
  also blames Pisa for allowing his children to
  die.

16
Ptolomea

• At this point, Dante is numb from witnessing the
  horrors of Hell.
• He is also confused as to the source of the wind.
• Hell is not warm and full of light from fire it
  is a frozen mine (metaphor).
• The round is named for Ptolomeus, who invited
  Simon Maccabaeus, king of Judea, and his two sons
  to a banquet and then murdered them.

17
Ptolomea

• Those condemned to this round lie with only half
  their faces above the ice and their tears freeze
  in their eye sockets, sealing them with little
  crystal visors. Thus, the comfort of tears is
  taken away from them.
• So great is the sin of Friar Alberigo and Branca
  dOria that their souls fall to its torments even
  before they die, leaving their body still on
  earth, inhabited by demons.

18
Ptolomea

• To avenge an insult, Friar Alberigo invited his
  brother Manfred and his son to dinner. At the
  signal bring the fruit, murderers killed
  Manfred and son.
• Dante promises the Friar that he will relieve his
  punishment if he will tell his story however, he
  breaks it, because then he will not suffer to the
  full extent.

19
Ptolomea

• Branca dOria invited his father-in-law to a
  feast, Michel Zanche, and then murdered him.
• In this Round, Dante introduces the idea the
  demons (and Satan) can live on earth through
  living souls.

20
Canto 34 Cocytus, Judecca, and The Center

• Cocytus, Compound Fraud
• Judecca, Treachery towards their Master (named
  for Judas Iscariot)
• The Center, Satan

21
Canto 34

• The icy wind comes from the beating of Satans
  wings. This is allegorical Satan is the source
  of all evil, as well as the sufferings of Hell.
• Hell is a macabre distortion of Heaven, much like
  evil is a distortion of good. Those that are
  evil, at best, can only mimic, or imitate, those
  who are good.

22
Canto 34

• Dante at this point is in a state of paradox he
  is alive, being that he is observing Hell as a
  living soul, but also dead, being that he is
  having trouble breathing due to fright.
• Being frozen in ice, Dante illustrates that
  Satans power is limited he is an enemy of God,
  but not his equal. He is Gods creation.

23
Canto 34

• Dante compares Satans wings to a sail and
  wings of a gross bird. Gross means large, but
  also disgusting.
• Satans weeping suggests that though he is king
  over all sinners, he is also the most unhappy.
  The beating of his wings implies a desire to
  escape his own realm. Though he tortures damned
  souls, he himself is tortured.

24
Canto 34

• Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot are gnawed on
  by Satan in a disgusting distortion of the Holy
  Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).
• Judas is in the center of Satans mouth, being
  that he betrayed Christ, and is looked upon as
  the worst sinner of all.
• Brutus and Cassius killed Julius Caesar at the
  height of the Roman Empire with this, Dante
  makes it clear church and state are of the same
  level of importance.

25
Brutus and Cassius

• Placed feet first into Satans mouth to be eaten
  eternally.
• Have black and whitish-yellow faces,
  respectively.
• Punished for the assassination of Julius Caesar
  Dante found that his death hindered Gods plan
  for human happiness through the empire of Rome.

26
Brutus and Cassius

• Both Brutus and Cassius fought on the side of
  Pompey in the civil war.
• Following Pompey's defeat at Pharsalia in 48
  B.C.E., Caesar pardoned them and invested them
  with high civic offices.

27
Brutus and Cassius

• Still, Cassius continued to harbor resentment
  against Caesar's dictatorship and enlisted the
  aid of Brutus in a conspiracy to kill Caesar and
  re-establish the republic.
• Though they succeeded at assassinating Caesar,
  their political ambitions were destroyed by
  Octavian and Antony at Philippi .

28
Brutus and Cassius

• Cassius, defeated by Antony and falsely thinking
  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.
• Dante felt that their betrayal of their
  benefactor and supreme ruler of the secular world
  was one of the worst sins of all disloyalty to
  the state.

29
Judas Iscariot

• One of the twelve disciples of Christ
• Judas strikes a deal to betray Jesus for
  thirty-pieces of silver.
• His treachery is foreseen by Jesus at the Last
  Supper, which makes Judass sin even more
  treacherous.
• He identifies Jesus to the authorities with a
  kiss.

30
Judas Iscariot

• Judas later regrets his transgression, turns over
  the thirty-pieces of silver, and hangs himself.
• Suffering even more than Brutus and Cassius,
  Dante's Judas is placed head-first inside
  Lucifer's central mouth, with his back skinned by
  Satans claws.
• Judas is seen as the second worst traitor of all,
  next to Satan himself.

31
Satan

• Lucifer means light bearer. God intended for
  Lucifer (Satan) to be his utmost angel.
• His corruption begins in the Garden of Eden.
• All the rivers of Hell flow back and from Satan
  he is the source of all evil.
• As Virgil and Dante descend from Hell, they see
  the light of God, not God, which brings them hope.

32
Writing Prompt 12/3/10200 word minimum

• Based on the notion of symbolic
• retribution, does Dante create a
• Hell that is just? Or, are there
• punishments that do not fit the
• crime? Be specific.