Inferno Canto I:1-60
The Dark Wood and the Hill4
Inferno Canto
I:61-99 Dante meets Virgil5
Inferno Canto
I:100-111 The salvation of Italy. 5
Inferno Canto
I:112-136 Virgil will be his guide through Hell6
Inferno Canto
II:1-42 Dante’s doubts as to his fitness for the journey.
6
Inferno Canto
II:43-93 Virgil explains his mission:Beatrice. 7
Inferno Canto
II:94-120 The Virgin sends Lucia to Beatrice. 7
Inferno Canto
II:121-142 Virgil strengthens Dante’s will8
Inferno Canto III:1-21
The Gate of Hell8
Inferno Canto
III:22-69 The spiritually neutral8
Inferno Canto
III:58-69 Their punishment9
Inferno Canto
III:70-99 Charon, the ferryman of the Acheron. 9
Inferno Canto
III:100-136 The souls by the shore of Acheron. 9
Inferno Canto
IV:1-63 The First Circle: Limbo:The Heathens. 10
Inferno Canto
IV:64-105 The Great Poets. 11
Inferno Canto
IV:106-129 The Heroes and Heroines. 11
Inferno Canto
IV:130-151 The Philosophers and other great spirits. 12
Inferno Canto
V:1-51 The Second Circle:Minos:The Carnal Sinners. 12
Inferno Canto
V:52-72 Virgil names the sinners. 13
Inferno Canto
V:70-142 Paolo and Francesca. 13
Inferno Canto
VI:1-33 The Third Circle: Cerberus: The Gluttonous. 14
Inferno Canto
VI:34-63 Ciacco, the glutton.14
Inferno Canto
VI:64-93 Ciacco’s prophecy concerning Florence. 15
Inferno Canto
VI:94-115 Virgil speaks of The Day of Judgement15
Inferno Canto
VII:1-39 The Fourth Circle: Plutus: The Avaricious. 15
Inferno Canto
VII:40-66 The avaricious and prodigal churchmen. 16
Inferno Canto
VII:67-99 Virgil speaks about Fortune. 16
Inferno Canto
VII:100-130 The Styx: They view the Fifth Circle. 17
Inferno Canto
VIII:1-30 The Fifth Circle: Phlegyas: The Wrathful17
Inferno Canto
VIII:31-63 They meet Filippo Argenti18
Inferno Canto
VIII:64-81 They approach the city of Dis. 18
Inferno Canto
VIII:82-130 The fallen Angels obstruct them... 18
Inferno Canto
IX:1-33 Dante asks about precedents. 19
Inferno Canto
IX:34-63 The Furies (Conscience) and Medusa (Obduracy). 19
Inferno Canto
IX:64-105 The Messenger from Heaven. 20
Inferno Canto
IX:106-133 The Sixth Circle: Dis: The Heretics. 20
Inferno Canto
X:1-21 Epicurus and his followers. 21
Inferno Canto
X:22-51 Farinata degli Uberti21
Inferno Canto
X:52-72 Cavalcante Cavalcanti21
Inferno Canto
X:73-93 Farinata prophesies Dante’s long exile. 22
Inferno Canto
X:94-136 The prophetic vision of the damned. 22
Inferno Canto
XI:1-66 The structure of Hell: The Lower Circles. 23
Inferno Canto
XI:67-93 The structure of Hell: The Upper Circles. 23
Inferno Canto
XI:94-115 Virgil explains usury. 24
Inferno Canto
XII:1-27 Above the Seventh Circle: The Minotaur. 24
Inferno Canto
XII:28-48 The descent to the Seventh Circle. 25
Inferno Canto
XII:49-99 The First Ring: The Centaurs: The Violent25
Inferno Canto
XII:100-139 The Tyrants, Murderers and Warriors. 26
Inferno Canto
XIII:1-30 The Second Ring: The Harpies: The Suicides. 26
Inferno Canto
XIII:31-78 The Wood of Suicides: Pier delle Vigne. 27
Inferno Canto
XIII:79-108 The fate of The Suicides. 27
Inferno Canto
XIII:109-129 Lano Maconi and Jacomo da Sant’ Andrea. 28
Inferno Canto
XIII:130-151 The unnamed Florentine. 28
Inferno Canto
XIV:1-42 The Third Ring: The Violent against God. 28
Inferno Canto
XIV:43-72 Capaneus. 28
Inferno Canto
XIV:73-120 The Old Man of Crete. 29
Inferno Canto
XIV:121-142 The Rivers Phlegethon and Lethe. 29
Inferno Canto
XV:1-42 The Violent against Nature: Brunetto Latini30
Inferno Canto
XV:43-78 Brunetto’s prophecy. 30
Inferno Canto
XV:79-99 Dante accepts his fate. 31
Inferno Canto
XV:100-124 Brunetto names some of his companions. 31
Inferno Canto
XVI:1-45 Rusticucci, Guido Guerra, Aldobrandi31
Inferno Canto
XVI:46-87 The condition of Florence. 32
Inferno Canto
XVI:88-136 The monster Geryon. 33
Inferno Canto XVII:1-30
The poets approach Geryon. 33
Inferno Canto
XVII:31-78 The Usurers. 34
Inferno Canto
XVII:79-136 The poets descend on Geryon’s back. 34
Inferno Canto
XVIII:1-21 The Eighth Circle: Malebolge: Simple Fraud. 35
Inferno Canto
XVIII:22-39 The First Chasm: The Pimps and Seducers. 35
Inferno Canto
XVIII:40-66 The Panders: Venedico de’ Caccianemico.. 35
Inferno Canto
XVIII:67-99 The Seducers: Jason. 36
Inferno Canto
XVIII:100-136 The Second Chasm: The Flatterers. 36
Inferno Canto
XIX:1-30 The Third Chasm: The Sellers of Sacred Offices. 36
Inferno Canto
XIX:31-87 Pope Nicholas III37
Inferno Canto
XIX:88-133 Dante speaks against Simony. 38
Inferno Canto
XX:1-30 The Fourth Chasm: The Seers and Sorcerers. 38
Inferno Canto
XX:31-51 The Seers. 39
Inferno Canto
XX:52-99 Manto and the founding of Mantua. 39
Inferno Canto
XX:100-130 The Soothsayers and Astrologers. 39
Inferno Canto
XXI:1-30 The Fifth Chasm: The Sellers of Public Offices. 40
Inferno Canto
XXI:31-58 The Barrators. 40
Inferno Canto
XXI:59-96 Virgil challenges the Demons’ threats. 41
Inferno Canto
XXI:97-139 The Demons escort the Poets. 41
Inferno Canto
XXII:1-30 The Poets view more of the Fifth Chasm... 42
Inferno Canto
XXII:31-75 Ciampolo.. 42
Inferno Canto
XXII:76-96 Ciampolo names other Barrators. 43
Inferno Canto
XXII:97-123 Ciampolo breaks free of the Demons. 43
Inferno Canto
XXII:124-151 The Malebranche quarrel44
Inferno Canto XXIII:1-57
The Sixth Chasm: The Hypocrites. 44
Inferno Canto
XXIII:58-81 The Hypocrites. 45
Inferno Canto
XXIII:82-126 The Frauti Gaudenti: Caiaphas. 45
Inferno Canto
XXIII:127-148 The Poets leave the Sixth Chasm... 46
Inferno Canto
XXIV:1-60 The Poets climb up: Virgil exhorts Dante. 46
Inferno Canto
XXIV:61-96 The Seventh Chasm: The Thieves. 47
Inferno Canto
XXIV:97-129 Vanni Fucci and the serpent47
Inferno Canto
XXIV:130-151 Vanni Fucci’s prophecy. 48
Inferno Canto XXV:1-33
Cacus. 48
Inferno Canto
XXV:34-78 Cianfa and Agnello.. 48
Inferno Canto
XXV:79-151 Buoso degli Abati and Francesco.. 49
Inferno Canto
XXVI:1-42 The Eighth Chasm: The Evil Counsellors. 50
Inferno Canto
XXVI:43-84 Ulysses and Diomede. 50
Inferno Canto
XXVI:85-142 Ulysses’s last voyage. 51
Inferno Canto
XXVII:1-30 Guido Da Montefeltro.. 51
Inferno Canto
XXVII:31-57 The situation in Romagna. 51
Inferno Canto
XXVII:58-136 Guido’s history. 52
Inferno Canto
XXVIII:1-21 The Ninth Chasm: The Sowers of Discord. 53
Inferno Canto
XXVIII:22-54 Mahomet: the Caliph Ali53
Inferno Canto
XXVIII:55-90 Pier della Medicina and others. 53
Inferno Canto
XXVIII:91-111 Curio and Mosca. 54
Inferno Canto
XXVIII:112-142 Bertrand de Born. 54
Inferno Canto
XXIX:1-36 Geri del Bello.. 54
Inferno Canto
XXIX:37-72 The Tenth Chasm: The Falsifiers. 55
Inferno Canto
XXIX:73-99 Griffolino and Capocchio.. 55
Inferno Canto XXIX:100-120
Griffolino’s narrative. 56
Inferno Canto
XXIX:121-139 The Spendthrift Brigade. 56
Inferno Canto
XXX:1-48 Schicci and Myrrha. 56
Inferno Canto
XXX:49-90 Adam of Brescia. 57
Inferno Canto
XXX:91-129 Sinon: Potiphar’s wife. 57
Inferno Canto
XXX:130-148 Virgil reproves Dante. 58
Inferno Canto
XXXI:1-45 The Giants that guard the central pit58
Inferno Canto
XXXI:46-81 Nimrod. 59
Inferno Canto
XXXI:82-96 Ephialtes. 59
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145
Antaeus. 60
Inferno Canto
XXXII:1-39 The Ninth Circle: The frozen River Cocytus. 60
Inferno Canto
XXXII:40-69 The Caïna: The degli Alberti: Camicion. 60
Inferno Canto
XXXII:70-123 The Antenora: Bocca degli Abbati61
Inferno Canto
XXXII:124-139 Ugolino and Ruggieri61
Inferno Canto XXXIII:1-90
Count Ugolino’s story. 62
Inferno Canto
XXXIII:91-157 Friar Alberigo and Branca d’Oria. 63
Inferno Canto
XXXIV:1-54 The Judecca: Satan. 63
Inferno Canto
XXXIV:55-69 Judas: Brutus: Cassius. 64
Inferno Canto
XXXIV:70-139 The Poets leave Hell64
Inferno
Canto I:1-60 The Dark Wood and the Hill
In the middle of the journey of our life, I re-found
myself, in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost. It is a hard thing to
speak of, how wild, harsh and impenetrable that wood was, so that thinking of
it recreates the fear. It is scarcely less bitter than death: but, in order to
tell of the good that I found there, I must tell of the other things I saw
there.
I cannot rightly say how I entered it. I was so full of sleep, at that point
where I abandoned the true way. But when I reached the foot of a hill, where
the valley, that had pierced my heart with fear, came to an end, I looked up
and saw its shoulders brightened with the rays
of that sun that leads men rightly on every road. Then the fear, that had
settled in the lake of my heart, through the night that I had spent so
miserably, became a little calmer. And as a man, who, with panting breath, has
escaped from the deep sea to the shore, turns back towards the perilous waters
and stares, so my mind, still fugitive, turned back to see that pass again,
that no living person ever left.
After I had rested my tired body a while, I made my way again over empty
ground, always bearing upwards to the right. And, behold, almost at the start
of the slope, a light swift lynx with
spotted coat. It would not turn from before my face, and so obstructed my path,
that I often turned, in order to return.
The time was at the beginning of the morning, and the sun was mounting up with
all those stars, that were with him when Divine Love first moved all delightful
things, so that the hour of day, and the sweet season, gave me fair hopes of
that creature with the bright pelt. But not so fair that I could avoid fear at
the sight of a lion, that appeared, and seemed
to come at me, with raised head and rabid hunger, so that it seemed the air
itself was afraid; and a she-wolf that looked
full of craving in its leanness, and, before now, has made many men live in
sadness. She brought me such heaviness of fear, from the aspect of her face,
that I lost all hope of ascending. And as one who is eager for gain, weeps, and
is afflicted in his thoughts, if the moment arrives when he loses, so that
creature, without rest, made me like him: and coming at me, little by little,
drove me back to where the sun is silent.
Inferno
Canto I:61-99 Dante meets Virgil
While I was returning to the depths, one appeared, in front of my eyes, who
seemed hoarse from long silence. When I saw him, in the great emptiness, I
cried out to him ‘Have pity on me, whoever you are,
whether a man, in truth, or a shadow!’ He answered me: ‘Not a man: but a man I
once was, and my parents were Lombards, and both of them, by their native
place, Mantuans.
I was born sub Julio though late, and lived in Rome, under the good Augustus, in the age of false, deceitful gods. I was a
poet, and sang of Aeneas, that virtuous son of Anchises, who came from Troy when proud Ilium was burned.
But you, why do you turn back towards such pain? Why do you not climb the
delightful mountain, that is the origin and cause of all joy?’
I answered him, with a humble expression: ‘Are you then that Virgil,
and that fountain, that pours out so great a river of speech? O, glory and
light to other poets, may that long study, and the great love, that made me
scan your work, be worth something now. You are my master, and my author: you
alone are the one from whom I learnt the high style that has brought me honour.
See the creature that I turned back from: O, sage, famous in wisdom, save me
from her, she that makes my veins and my pulse tremble.’
When he saw me weeping, he answered: ‘You must go another road, if you wish to
escape this savage place. This creature, that distresses you, allows no man to
cross her path, but obstructs him, to destroy him, and she has so vicious and
perverse a nature, that she never sates her greedy appetite, and after food is
hungrier than before.’
Inferno Canto I:100-111 The salvation of Italy
‘Many are the creatures she mates with, and there will be many more, until the Greyhound comes who will make her die in pain. He will
not feed himself on land or wealth, but on wisdom, love and virtue, and his
birthplace will lie between Feltro and Feltro.
He will be the salvation of that lower Italy for which virgin Camilla died of wounds, and Euryalus, Turnus,
and Nisus. He will chase the she-wolf through every city,
until he has returned her to Hell, from which envy first loosed her.’
Inferno Canto I:112-136 Virgil will be his guide through
Hell
‘It is best, as I think and understand, for you to follow me, and I will be
your guide, and lead you from here through an eternal space where you will hear
the desparate shouts, will see the ancient spirits in pain, so that each one
cries out for a second death: and then you will see others at peace in the
flames, because they hope to come, whenever it may be, among the blessed. Then
if you desire to climb to them, there will be a
spirit, fitter than I am, to guide you, and I will leave you with her, when
we part, since the Lord, who rules above, does not wish me to enter his city,
because I was rebellious to his law.
He is lord everywhere, but there he rules, and there is his city, and his high
throne: O, happy is he, whom he chooses to go there!’
And I to him: ‘Poet, I beg you, by the God, you did not acknowledge, lead me
where you said, so that I might escape this evil or worse, and see the Gate of St. Peter, and those whom you make out to be so
saddened.’
Then he moved: and I moved on behind him.
Inferno
Canto II:1-42 Dante’s doubts as to his fitness for the journey
The day was going, and the dusky air was
freeing the creatures of the earth, from their labours, and I, one, alone,
prepared myself to endure the inner war, of the journey and its pity, that the
mind, without error, shall recall.
O Muses, O high invention, aid me, now! O memory, that has engraved what I saw,
here your nobility will be shown.
I began: ‘Poet, who guides me, examine my virtue, see if I am fitting, before you
trust me to the steep way. You say that Aeneas, the
father of Sylvius, while still corruptible flesh, went to the eternal world,
and in his senses. But if God, who opposes every evil, was gracious to
him, thinking of the noble consequence, of who and what should derive from him,
then that does not seem unreasonable to a man of intellect, since he was chosen
to be the father of benign Rome, and of her empire. Both of them were founded
as a sacred place, where the successor of the great Peter is enthroned. By that
journey, by which you graced him, Aeneas learned things that were the source of
his victory and of the Papal Mantle. Afterwards Paul, the
Chosen Vessel, went there, to bring confirmation of the faith that is the
entrance to the way of salvation.
But why should I go there? Who allows it? I am not Aeneas: I am not Paul.
Neither I, nor others, think me worthy of it. So, if I resign myself to going,
I fear that going there may prove foolish: you know, and understand, better
than I can say.’ And I rendered myself, on that dark shore, like one who
unwishes what he wished, and changes his purpose, in new thinking, so that he
leaves off what he began, completely, since in thought I consumed action, that
had been so ready to begin.
Inferno Canto II:43-93 Virgil explains his mission:Beatrice
The ghost of the generous poet replied: ‘If I have understood your words
correctly, your spirit is attacked by cowardly fear, that often weighs men
down, so that it deflects them from honourable action, like a creature seeing
phantoms in the dusk. That you may shake off this dread yourself, I will tell
you why I came, and what I heard at the first moment when I took pity on you.
I was among those, in Limbo, in suspense, and a lady called to me, she so
beautiful, so blessed, that I begged her to command me. Her eyes shone more
brightly than the stars, and she began to speak, gently, quietly, in an angelic
voice, in her language: ‘O noble Mantuan spirit, whose fame still endures in
the world, and will endure as long as time endures, my friend, not fortune’s
friend, is so obstructed in his way, along the desert strand, that he turns
back in terror, and I fear he is already so far lost, that I have started too
late to his aid, from what I heard of him in heaven. Now go, and help him so,
with your eloquence, and with whatever is needed for his relief, that I may be
comforted. I am Beatrice, who asks you to go:
I come from a place I long to return to: love moved me that made me speak. When
I am before my Lord, I will often praise you to him.’
Then she was silent, and I began: ‘O lady of virtue, in whom, alone, humanity
exceeds all that is contained in the lunar heaven, which has the smallest
sphere, your command is so pleasing to me, that, obeying, were it done already,
it were done too slow: you have no need to explain your wishes further. But
tell me why you do not hesitate to descend here, to this centre below, from the
wide space you burn to return to.’
She replied: ‘Since you wish to know, I will tell you this much, briefly, of
why I do not fear to enter here. Those things that have the power to hurt are
to be feared: not those other things that are not fearful. I am made such, by
God’s grace, that your suffering does not touch me, nor does the fire of this
burning scorch me.’
Inferno Canto II:94-120 The Virgin sends Lucia to Beatrice
‘There is a gentle lady in heaven, who has such
compassion, for this trouble I send you to relieve, that she overrules the
strict laws on high. She called Lucia, to carry out
her request, and said: “Now, he who is faithful to you, needs you, and I
commend him to you.” Lucia, who is opposed to all cruelty, rose and came to the
place where I was, where I sat with that Rachel of
antiquity. Lucia said: “Beatrice, God’s true praise, why do you not help him,
who loved you, so intensely, he left behind the common crowd for you? Do you
not hear how pitiful his grief is? Do you not see the spiritual death that
comes to meet him, on that dark river, over which the sea has no power?”
No one on earth was ever as quick to search for their good, or run from harm,
as I to descend, from my blessed place, after these words were spoken, and
place my faith in your true speech, that honours you and those who hear it.’
She turned away, with tears in her bright eyes, after saying this to me, and
made me, by that, come here all the quicker: and so I came to you, as she
wished, and rescued you in the face of that wild creature, that denied you the
shortest path to the lovely mountain.’
Inferno Canto II:121-142 Virgil strengthens Dante’s will
‘What is it then? Why, do you hold back? Why? Why let such cowardly fear into
your heart? Why, when three such blessed ladies, in the courts of heaven, care
for you, and my words promise you so much good, are you not free and ardent?’
As the flowers, bent down and closed, by the night’s cold, erect themselves,
all open, on their stems, when the sun shines on them, so I rose from weakened
courage: and so fine an ardour coursed through my heart, that I began to speak,
like one who is freed: ‘O she, who pities, who helps me, and you, so gentle,
who swiftly obeyed the true words she commanded, you have filled my heart with
such desire, by what you have said, to go forward, that I have turned back to
my first purpose.
Go now, for the two of us have but one will, you, the guide, the lord, the
master.’ So I spoke to him, and he going on, I entered on the steep,
tree-shadowed, way.
Inferno Canto III:1-21 The Gate of Hell
THROUGH ME THE
WAY TO THE INFERNAL CITY:
THROUGH ME THE
WAY TO ETERNAL SADNESS:
THROUGH ME THE
WAY TO THE LOST PEOPLE.
JUSTICE MOVED
MY SUPREME MAKER:
I WAS SHAPED BY
DIVINE POWER,
BY HIGHEST
WISDOM, AND BY PRIMAL LOVE.
BEFORE ME,
NOTHING WAS CREATED,
THAT IS NOT
ETERNAL: AND ETERNAL I ENDURE.
FORSAKE ALL
HOPE, ALL YOU THAT ENTER HERE.
These were the words,
with their dark colour, that I saw written above the gate, at which I said:
‘Master, their meaning, to me, is hard.’ And he replied to me, as one who
knows: ‘Here, all uncertainty must be left behind: all cowardice must be dead.
We have come to the place where I told you that you would see the sad people
who have lost the good of the intellect.’ And placing his hand on mine, with a calm
expression, that comforted me, he led me towards the hidden things.
Inferno Canto III:22-69 The spiritually neutral
Here sighs, complaints, and deep groans, sounded through the starless air, so that
it made me weep at first. Many tongues, a terrible crying, words of sadness,
accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse, with sounds of hands amongst them,
making a turbulence that turns forever, in that air, stained, eternally, like
sand spiralling in a whirlwind. And I, my head surrounded by the horror, said:
‘Master, what is this I hear, and what race are these, that seem so overcome by
suffering?’
And he to me: ‘This is the miserable mode in which those exist, who lived
without praise, without blame. They are mixed in with the despised choir of
angels, those not rebellious, not faithful to God, but for themselves. Heaven
drove them out, to maintain its beauty, and deep Hell does not accept them,
lest the evil have glory over them.’ And I: ‘Master, what is so heavy on them,
that makes them moan so deeply?’ He replied: ‘I will tell you, briefly. They
have no hope of death, and their darkened life is so mean that they are envious
of every other fate. Earth allows no mention of them to exist: mercy and
justice reject them: let us not talk of them, but look and pass.’
And I, who looked back, saw a banner, that twirling round, moved so quickly,
that it seemed to me scornful of any pause, and behind it came so long a line
of people, I never would have believed that death had undone so many.
Inferno Canto III:58-69 Their punishment
When I had recognised some among them, I saw and knew the
shade of him who from cowardice made ‘the great refusal’. Immediately I
understood that this was the despicable crew, hateful to God and his enemies.
These wretches, who never truly lived, were naked, and goaded viciously by
hornets, and wasps, there, making their faces stream with blood, that, mixed
with tears, was collected, at their feet, by loathsome worms.
Inferno Canto III:70-99 Charon, the ferryman of the Acheron
And then, as I looked onwards, I saw people on the bank of a great river, at
which I said: ‘Master, now let me understand who these are, and what custom
makes them so ready to cross over, as I can see by the dim light.’ And he to
me: ‘The thing will be told you, when we halt our steps, on the sad strand of
Acheron.’ Then, fearing that my words might have offended him, I stopped myself
from speaking, with eyes ashamed and downcast, till we had reached the flood.
And see, an old man, with white hoary locks, came towards us in a boat,
shouting: ‘Woe to you, wicked spirits! Never hope to see heaven: I come to
carry you to the other shore, into eternal darkness, into fire and ice. And
you, who are there, a living spirit, depart from those who are dead.’
But when he saw that I did not depart, he said: ‘By other ways, by other means
of passage, you will cross to the shore: a quicker boat must carry you.’ And my
guide said to him: ‘Charon, do not vex yourself: it is
willed there, where what is willed is done: ask no more.’ Then the bearded
mouth, of the ferryman of the livid marsh, who had wheels of flame round his
eyes, was stilled.
Inferno Canto III:100-136 The souls by the shore of Acheron
But those spirits, who were naked and weary, altered colour, and gnashed their
teeth, when they heard his former, cruel words. They blasphemed against God,
and their parents, the human species, the place, time, and seed of their
conception, and of their birth. Then, all together, weeping bitterly, they
neared the cursed shore that waits for every one who has no fear of God.
Charon, the demon, with eyes of burning coal, beckoning,
gathers them all: and strikes with his oar whoever lingers. As the autumn
leaves fall, one after another, till the branches see all their spoilage on the
ground, so, one by one, the evil seed of Adam, threw
themselves down from the bank when signalled, like the falcon at its call. So
they vanish on the dark water, and before they have landed over there, over
here a fresh crowd collects.
The courteous Master said: ‘My son, those who die subject to God’s anger, all
gather here, from every country, and they are quick to cross the river, since
divine justice goads them on, so that their fear is turned to desire. This way
no good spirit ever passes, and so if Charon complains at you, you can well
understand, now, the meaning of his words.
When he had ended, the gloomy ground trembled so violently, that the memory of
my terror still drenches me with sweat. The weeping earth gave vent, and
flashed with crimson light, overpowering all my senses, and I fell, like a man
overcome by sleep.
Inferno
Canto IV:1-63 The First Circle: Limbo:The Heathens
A heavy thunder shattered the deep sleep in my head, so that I came to myself,
like someone woken by force, and standing up, I moved my eyes, now refreshed,
and looked round, steadily, to find out what place I was in. I found myself, in
truth, on the brink of the valley of the sad abyss that gathers the thunder of
an infinite howling. It was so dark, and deep, and clouded, that I could see
nothing by staring into its depths.
The poet, white of face, began: ‘Now, let us descend into the blind world
below: I will go first, and you go second.’ And I, who saw his altered colour,
said: ‘How can I go on, if you are afraid, who are my comfort when I hesitate?’
And he to me: ‘The anguish of the people, here below, brings that look of pity
to my face, that you mistake for fear. Let us go, for the length of our journey
demands it.’ So he entered, and so he made me enter, into the first circle that
surrounds the abyss.
Here there was no sound to be heard, except the sighing, that made the eternal air
tremble, and it came from the sorrow of the vast and varied crowds of children,
of women, and of men, free of torment. The good Master said to me: ‘You do not
demand to know who these spirits are that you see. I want you to learn, before
you go further, that they had no sin, yet, though they have worth, it is not
sufficient, because they were not baptised, and baptism is the gateway to the
faith that you believe in. Since they lived before Christianity, they did not
worship God correctly, and I myself am one of them. For this defect, and for no
other fault, we are lost, and we are only tormented, in that without hope we
live in desire.’
When I heard this, great sadness gripped my heart, because I knew of people of
great value, who must be suspended in that Limbo. Wishing to be certain in that
faith that overcomes every error, I began: ‘Tell me my Master, tell me, sir,
did anyone ever go from here, through his own merit or because of others’
merit, who afterwards was blessed?’
And he, understanding
my veiled question, replied: ‘I was new to this state, when I saw a great one come here crowned with the sign of victory. He
took from us the shade of Adam, our first parent, of his
son Abel, and that of Noah, of Moses the lawgiver, and Abraham, the
obedient Patriarch, King David, Jacob with his father Isaac, and his children, and Rachel, for
whom he laboured so long, and many others, and made them blessed, and I wish
you to know that no human souls were saved before these.
Inferno Canto IV:64-105 The Great Poets
We did not cease moving, though he was speaking, but passed the wood meanwhile,
the wood, I say, of crowded spirits. We had not gone far from where I slept,
when I saw a flame that overcame a hemisphere of shadows. We were still some
way from it, but not so far that I failed to discern in part what noble people
occupied that place.
‘O you, who value every science and art, who are these, who have such honour
that they stand apart from all the rest?’ And he to me: ‘Their fame, that
sounds out for them, honoured in that life of yours, brings them heaven’s grace
that advances them.’ Meanwhile I heard a voice: ‘Honour the great poet: his
departed shade returns.’
After the voice had paused, and was quiet, I saw four great shadows come
towards us, with faces that were neither sad nor happy. The good Master began
to speak: ‘Take note of him, with a sword in hand, who comes in front of the
other three, as if he were their lord: that is Homer, the
sovereign poet: next Horace the satirist: Ovid is the third, and last is Lucan. Because each is worthy, with
me, of that name the one voice sounded, they do me honour, and, in doing so, do
good.’
So I saw gathered together the noble school, of the lord of highest song, who
soars, like an eagle, above the rest. After they had talked for a while amongst
themselves, they turned towards me with a sign of greeting, at which my Master
smiled. And they honoured me further still, since they made me one of their
company, so that I made a sixth among the wise.
So we went onwards to the light, speaking of things about which it is best to
be silent, just as it was best to speak of them, where I was.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129 The Heroes and Heroines
We came to the base of a noble castle; surrounded seven times by a high wall;
defended by a beautiful, encircling, stream. This we crossed as if it were
solid earth: I entered through seven gates, with the wise: we reached a meadow
of fresh turf. The people there were of great authority in appearance, with
calm, and serious looks, speaking seldom, and then with soft voices. We moved
to one side, into an open space, bright and high, so that every one, of them
all, could be seen. There, on the green enamel, the great spirits were pointed
out to me, directly, so that I feel exalted, inside me, at having seen them.
I saw Electra with many others, amongst whom I knew Hector, Aeneas and Caesar, armed, with his eagle eye. I saw Camilla and Penthesilea, on the
other side, and the King of Latium, Latinus, with Lavinia his daughter. I saw that Brutus who expelled Tarquin, Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia,
and I saw Saladin, by himself, apart.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151 The Philosophers and other great
spirits
When I lifted my eyes a little higher, I saw the Master of those who know, Aristotle, sitting amongst the company of philosophers.
All gaze at him: all show him honour. There I saw Socrates,
and Plato, who stand nearest to him of all of them; Democritus, who ascribes the world to chance, Diogenes, Anaxagoras, and Thales; Empedocles, Heraclitus, and Zeno; and I
saw the good collector of the qualities of plants, I mean Dioscorides:
and saw Orpheus, Cicero, Linus, and Seneca the moralist; Euclid the geometer, and Ptolemaeus; Hippocrates, Avicenna, and Galen; and Averrhoës, who wrote the
vast commentary.
I cannot speak of them all in full, because the great theme drives me on, so
that the word falls, many times, short of the fact. The six companions reduce
to two: the wise guide leads me, by another path, out of the quiet, into the
trembling air, and I come to a region, where nothing shines.
Inferno
Canto V:1-51 The Second Circle:Minos:The Carnal Sinners
So I descended from the first circle to the second, that encloses a smaller
space, and so much more pain it provokes howling. There Minos stands, grinning horribly, examines the crimes on entrance, judges, and sends
the guilty down as far as is signified by his coils: I mean that when the
evil-born spirit comes before him, it confesses everything, and that knower of
sins decides the proper place in hell for it, and makes as many coils with his
tail, as the circles he will force it descend. A multitude always stand before
him, and go in turn to be judged, speak and hear, and then are whirled
downwards.
When Minos saw me, passing by the actions of his great office, he said: ‘O you,
who come to the house of pain, take care how you enter, and in whom you trust,
do not let the width of the entrance deceive you.’ And my guide replied: ‘Why
do you cry out? Do not obstruct his destined journey: so it is willed, where
what is willed is done: demand no more.’ Now the mournful notes begin to reach
me: now I come where much sorrowing hurts me.
I came to a place devoid of light, that moans like a tempestuous sea, when it is
buffeted by warring winds. The hellish storm that never ceases drives the
spirits with its force, and, whirling and striking, it molests them. When they
come to the ruins there are shouts, moaning and crying, where they blaspheme
against divine power. I learnt that the carnal sinners are condemned to these
torments, they who subject their reason to their lust.
And, as their wings carry the starlings, in a vast, crowded flock, in the cold
season, so that wind carries the wicked spirits, and leads them here and there,
and up and down. No hope of rest, or even lesser torment, comforts them. And as
the cranes go, making their sounds, forming a long flight, of themselves, in
the air, so I saw the shadows come, moaning, carried by that war of winds, at
which I said: ‘Master, who are these people, that the black air chastises so?’
Inferno
Canto V:52-72 Virgil names the sinners
He replied: ‘The first, of those you wish to know of, was Empress of many
languages, so corrupted by the vice of luxury, that she made licence lawful in
her code, to clear away the guilt she had incurred. She is Semiramis,
of whom we read, that she succeeded Ninus, and was his
wife: she held the countries that the Sultan rules.
The next is Dido who killed herself for love, and broke
faith with Sichaeus’s ashes: then comes licentious Cleopatra. See Helen, for whom, so
long, the mills of war revolved: and see the great Achilles,
who fought in the end with love, of Polyxena. See Paris; Tristan; and he pointed out
more than a thousand shadows with his finger, naming, for me, those whom love
had severed from life.
Inferno
Canto V:70-142 Paolo and Francesca
After I had heard my teacher name the ancient knights and ladies, pity overcame
me, and I was as if dazed. I began: ‘Poet, I would speak, willingly, to those
two who go together, and seem so light upon the wind.’ And he to me: ‘You will
see, when they are nearer to us, you can beg them, then, by the love that leads
them, and they will come.’
As soon as the wind brought them to us, I raised my voice: ‘O weary souls, come
and talk with us, if no one prevents it.’ As doves, claimed by desire, fly
steadily, with raised wings, through the air, to their sweet nest, carried by
the will, so the spirits flew from the crowd where Dido is,
coming towards us through malignant air, such was the power of my affecting
call.
‘O gracious and benign living creature, that comes to visit us, through the
dark air, if the universe’s king were our friend, we, who tainted the earth
with blood, would beg him to give you peace, since you take pity on our sad
misfortune. While the wind, as now, is silent, we will hear you and speak to
you, of what you are pleased to listen to and talk of.
The place where I was born is by the shore, where the River Po runs down to
rest at peace, with his attendant streams. Love, that is quickly caught in the
gentle heart, filled him with my fair form, now lost to me, and the nature of
that love still afflicts me. Love, that allows no loved one to be excused from
loving, seized me so fiercely with desire for him it still will not leave me,
as you can see. Love led us to one death. Caïna, in the ninth circle
waits, for him who quenched our life.’
These words carried to us, from them. After I had heard those troubled spirits,
I bowed my head, and kept it bowed, until the poet said: ‘What are you
thinking?’ When I replied, I began: ‘O, alas, what sweet thoughts, what
longing, brought them to this sorrowful state? Then I turned to them again, and
I spoke, and said: ‘Francesca, your torment makes me
weep with grief and pity. But tell me, in that time of sweet sighs, how did
love allow you to know these dubious desires?’
And she to me: ‘There is no greater pain, than to remember happy times in
misery, and this your teacher knows. But if you have so great a yearning to
understand the first root of our love, I will be like one who weeps and tells.
We read, one day, to our delight, of Lancelot and how
love constrained him: we were alone and without suspicion. Often those words
urged our eyes to meet, and coloured our cheeks, but it was a single moment
that undid us. When we read how that lover kissed the beloved smile, he who
will never be separated from me, kissed my mouth all trembling. That book was a Galeotto, a pandar, and he who wrote it: that
day we read no more.’
While the one spirit spoke, the other wept, so
that I fainted out of pity, and, as if I were dying, fell, as a dead body
falls.
Inferno
Canto VI:1-33 The Third Circle: Cerberus: The Gluttonous
When my senses return, that closed themselves off from pity of those two
kindred, who stunned me with complete sadness, I see around me new torments,
and new tormented souls, wherever I move, or turn, and wherever I gaze. I am in
the third circle, of eternal, accursed, cold and heavy rain: its kind and
quality is never new. Large hail, tainted water, and sleet, pour down through
the shadowy air: and the earth is putrid that receives it.
Cerberus, the fierce and strange monster,
triple-throated, barks dog-like over the people submerged in it. His eyes are
crimson, his beard is foul and black, his belly vast, and his limbs are clawed:
he snatches the spirits, flays, and quarters them. The rain makes them howl
like dogs: they protect one flank with the other: often writhing: miserable
wretches.
When Cerberus, the great worm, saw us, he opened his jaws, and showed his
fangs: not a limb of his stayed still. My guide, stretching out his hands,
grasped earth, and hurled it in fistfuls into his ravening mouth. Like a dog
that whines for food, and grows quiet when he eats it, only fighting and
struggling to devour it, so did demon Cerberus’s loathsome muzzles that bark,
like thunder, at the spirits, so that they wish that they were deaf.
Inferno Canto VI:34-63 Ciacco, the glutton.
We passed over the shades, that the heavy rain subdues, and placed our feet on each
empty space that seems a body. They were all lying on the ground but one, who
sat up straight away when he saw us cross in front of him: He said to me: ‘O
you, who are led through this Inferno, recognise me if you can: you were made
before I was unmade.’ And I to him: ‘The anguish that you suffer, conceals you
perhaps from my memory, so that it seems as if I never knew you. But tell me
who you are, that are lodged so sadly, and undergo such punishment, that though
there are others greater, none is so unpleasant.’
And he to me: ‘Your city, Florence, that is so full of envy it overflows, held
me in the clear life. You, the citizens, called me Ciacco:
and for the damnable sin of gluttony, as you see, I languish beneath the rain:
and I am not the only wretched spirit, since all these are punished likewise
for like sin. I answered him: ‘Ciacco, your affliction weighs on me, inviting
me to weep, but tell me, if you can, what the citizens of that divided city
will come to; if any there are just: and the reason why such discord tears it
apart.’
Inferno Canto VI:64-93 Ciacco’s
prophecy concerning Florence
And he to me: ‘After long struggle, they will
come to blood, and, the Whites, the party of the woods, will throw out the
Blacks, with great injury. Within three years, then, it must happen, that the
Blacks will conquer, with the help of him, who now veers about. That party will
hold its head high for a long time, weighing the Whites down, under heavy
oppression, however they weep and however ashamed they are. Two men are just,
but are not listened to. Pride, Envy and Avarice are the three burning coals
that have set all hearts on fire.’
Here he ended the mournful prophecy, and I said to him: I want you to instruct
me still, and grant me a little more speech. Tell me where Farinata and Tegghiaio are, who were worthy enough, and Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo, Mosca, and the rest who set their minds to doing good: let
me know of them, for a great longing urges me to discover whether Heaven
soothes them, or Hell poisons them.’
And he to me: ‘They are among the blackest spirits, another crime weighs them
to the bottom: if you descend so deep, you may see them. But when you are,
again, in the sweet world, I beg you to recall me to other minds: I tell you no
more, and more I will not answer.’ At that he turned his fixed gaze askance,
and looked at me a while: then, bent his head, and lowered himself, and it,
among his blind companions.
Inferno Canto VI:94-115 Virgil speaks of The Day of
Judgement
And my guide said to me: ‘He will not stir further, until the angelic trumpet
sounds, when the Power opposing evil will come: each will revisit his sad
grave, resume his flesh and form, and hear what will resound through eternity.’
So we passed over the foul brew of rain and shadows, with slow steps, speaking
a little of the future life.
Of this I asked: ‘Master, will these torments increase, after the great
judgement, or lessen, or stay as fierce?’ And he to me: ‘Remember your science,
that says, that the more perfect a thing is, the more it feels pleasure and
pain. Though these accursed ones will never achieve true perfection, they will
be nearer to it after, than before.’
We circled along that road, speaking of much more than I repeat: we came to the
place where the descent begins, where we found Plutus,
the god of wealth, the great enemy.
Inferno Canto VII:1-39 The Fourth Circle: Plutus: The
Avaricious
‘Pape Satan, pape Satan aleppe,’ Plutus, began to croak,
and the gentle sage, who understood all things, comforted me, saying: ‘Do not
let fear hurt you, since whatever power he has, he will not prevent you
descending this rock.’ Then he turned to that swollen face and said: ‘Peace,
evil wolf! Devour yourself inside, in your rage. Our journey to the depths is
not without reason: it is willed on high, there where Michael made war on the great dragon’s adulterating pride.’
Like a sail, bellying in the wind, that falls, in a heap, if the mast breaks,
so that cruel creature fell to earth. In that way we descended into the fourth
circle, taking in a greater width of the dismal bank, that encloses every evil
of the universe.
O Divine Justice! Who can tell the many new pains and troubles, that I saw, and
why our guilt so destroys us? As the wave, over Charybdis,
strikes against the wave it counters, so the people here are made to dance. I
found more people here than elsewhere, on the one side and on the other,
rolling weights by pushing with their chests, with loud howling. They struck
against each other, and then each wheeled around where they were, rolling the
reverse way, shouting: ‘Why do you hold?’ and ‘Why do you throw away.’
So they returned along the gloomy circle, from either side to the opposite
point, shouting again their measure of reproach. Then each one, when he had
reached it, wheeled through his half circle onto the other track. And I, who
felt as if my heart were pierced, said: ‘My Master, show me now who these
people are: and whether all those, with tonsures, on our left were churchmen.’
Inferno Canto VII:40-66 The avaricious and prodigal
churchmen
And he to me: ‘They were so twisted in mind in their first life, that they made
no balanced expenditure. Their voices bark this out most clearly when they come
to the two ends of the circle, where opposing sins divide them.
These were priests, that are without hair on their heads, and Popes and
Cardinals, in whom avarice does its worst. And I: ‘Master, surely, amongst this
crowd, I ought to recognise some of those tainted with these evils.’ And he to
me: ‘You link idle thoughts: the life without knowledge, that made them
ignoble, now makes them incapable of being known. They will go butting each
other to eternity: and these will rise from their graves with grasping fists,
and those with shorn hair.
Useless giving, and useless keeping, has robbed them of the bright world, and
set them to this struggle: what struggle it is, I do not amplify. But you, my
son, can see now the vain mockery of the wealth controlled by Fortune, for
which the human race fight with each other, since all the gold under the moon,
that ever was, could not give peace to one of these weary souls.’
Inferno Canto VII:67-99 Virgil speaks about Fortune
I said to him: ‘Master, now tell me about Fortune also, that subject you
touched on, who is she, who has the wealth of the world in her arms?’ And he to
me: ‘O, blind creatures, how great is the ignorance that surrounds you! I want
you, now, to hear my judgement of her.
He whose wisdom transcends all things, made the heavens, and gave them ruling
powers, so that each part illuminates the others, distributing the light
equally. Similarly he put in place a controller, and a guide, for earthly
splendour, to alter, from time to time, idle possession, between nation and
nation, and from kin to kin, beyond the schemes of human reason. So one people
commands: another wanes, obeying her judgement, she who is concealed, like a snake
in the grass.
Your wisdom cannot comprehend her: she furnishes, adjudicates, and maintains
her kingdom, as the other gods do theirs. Her permutations never end: necessity
makes her swift: so, often, someone comes who creates change. This is she: so
often reviled, even by those who ought to praise her, but, wrongly, blame her,
with malicious words. Still, she is in bliss, and does not hear: she spins her
globe, joyfully, among the other primal spirits, and tastes her bliss.
Now let us descend to greater misery: already every star
is declining, that was rising when I set out, and we are not allowed to
stay too long.’
Inferno Canto VII:100-130 The Styx: They view the Fifth
Circle
We crossed the circle to the other bank, near a spring, that boils and pours
down, through a gap that it has made. The water was darker than a dark
blue-grey, and we entered the descent by a strange path, in company with the
dusky waves. This woeful stream forms the marsh called Styx, when it has fallen
to the foot of the grey malignant walls. And I who stood there, intent on
seeing, saw muddy people in the fen, naked, and all with the look of anger.
They were striking each other, not only with hands, but head, chest, and feet,
mangling each other with their teeth, bite by bite.
The kind Master said: ‘Now, son, see the souls of those overcome by anger, and
also, I want you to know, in truth, there are people under the water, who sigh,
and make it bubble on the surface, as your eye can see whichever way it turns.
Fixed in the slime they say: “We were sullen in the sweet air, that is
gladdened by the sun, bearing indolent smoke in our hearts: now we lie here,
sullen, in the black mire.” This measure they gurgle in their throats, because
they cannot utter it in full speech.’
So we covered a large arc of the loathsome swamp, between the dry bank and its
core, our eyes turned towards those who swallow its filth: we came at last to
the base of a tower.
Inferno Canto VIII:1-30 The Fifth Circle:
Phlegyas: The Wrathful
I say, pursuing my theme, that, long before we reached the base of the high
tower, our eyes looked upwards to its summit, because we saw two beacon-flames
set there, and another, from so far away that the eye could scarcely see it,
gave a signal in return. And I turned to the fount of all knowledge, and asked:
‘What does it say? And what does the other light reply? And who has made the
signal?’ And he to me: ‘Already you can see, what is expected, coming over the
foul waters, if the marsh vapours do not hide it from you.’
No bowstring ever shot an arrow that flew through the air so quickly, as the
little boat, that I saw coming towards us, through the waves, under the control
of a single steersman, who cried: ‘Are you here, now, fierce spirit?’ My Master
said: ‘Phlegyas, Phlegyas, this time you cry in vain:
you shall not keep us longer than it takes us to pass the marsh.’
Phlegyas in his growing anger, was like someone who listens to some great wrong
done him, and then fills with resentment. My guide climbed down into the boat,
and then made me board after him, and it only sank in the water when I was in.
As soon as my guide and I were in the craft, its prow went forward, ploughing
deeper through the water than it does carrying others.
Inferno Canto VIII:31-63 They meet
Filippo Argenti
While we were running through the dead channel, one rose up in front of me,
covered with mud, and said: ‘Who are you, that come before your time?’ And I to
him: ‘If I come, I do not stay here: but who are you, who are so mired?’ He
answered: ‘You see that I am one who weeps.’ And I to him: ‘Cursed spirit,
remain weeping and in sorrow! For I know you, muddy as you are.’
Then he stretched both hands out to the boat, at which the cautious Master
pushed him off, saying: ‘Away, there, with the other dogs!’ Then he put his
arms around my neck, kissed my face, and said: ‘Blessed be she who bore you,
soul, who are rightly indignant. He was an arrogant spirit in your world: there
is nothing good with which to adorn his memory: so, his furious shade is here.
How many up there think themselves mighty kings, that will lie here like pigs
in mire, leaving behind them dire condemnation!’
And
I: ‘Master, I would be glad to see him doused in this swill before we quit the
lake’. And he to me: ‘You
will be satisfied, before the shore is visible to you: it is right that your
wish should be gratified.’ Not long after this I saw the muddy people make such
a rending of him, that I still give God thanks and praise for it. All shouted:
‘At Filippo Argenti!’ That fierce Florentine spirit turned
his teeth in vengeance on himself.
Inferno Canto VIII:64-81 They approach
the city of Dis
We left him there, so that I can say no more of him, but a sound of wailing assailed
my ears, so that I turned my gaze in front, intently. The kind Master said:
‘Now, my son, we approach the city they call Dis, with
its grave citizens, a vast crowd.’ And I: ‘Master, I can already see its
towers, clearly there in the valley, glowing red, as if they issued from the
fire.’ And he to me: ‘The eternal fire, that burns them from within, makes them
appear reddened, as you see, in this deep Hell.’
We now arrived in the steep ditch, that forms the moat to the joyless city: the
walls seemed to me as if they were made of iron. Not until we had made a wide
circuit, did we reach a place where the ferryman said to us: ‘Disembark: here
is the entrance.’
Inferno Canto VIII:82-130 The fallen
Angels obstruct them
I saw more than a thousand of those angels, that fell from Heaven like rain,
above the gates, who cried angrily: ‘Who is this, that, without death goes
through the kingdom of the dead?’ And my wise Master made a sign to them, of
wishing to speak in private. Then they furled their great disdain, and said:
‘Come on, alone, and let him go, who enters this kingdom with such audacity.
Let him return, alone, on his foolish road: see if he can: and you, remain, who
have escorted him, through so dark a land.’
Think, Reader, whether I was not disheartened at the sound of those accursed
words, not believing I could ever return here. I said: ‘O my dear guide, who
has ensured my safety more than the seven times, and snatched me from certain
danger that faced me, do not leave me, so helpless: and if we are prevented
from going on, let us quickly retrace our steps.’ And that lord, who had led me
there, said to me: ‘Have no fear: since no one can deny us passage: it was
given us by so great an authority. But you, wait for me, and comfort and
nourish your spirit with fresh hope, for I will not abandon you in the lower
world.’
So the gentle father goes, and leaves me there, and I am left in doubt: since
‘yes’ and ‘no’ war inside my head. I could not hear what terms he offered them,
but he had not been standing there long with them, when, each vying with the
other, they rushed back. Our adversaries closed the gate in my lord’s face,
leaving him outside, and he turned to me again with slow steps. His eyes were
on the ground, and his expression devoid of all daring, and he said, sighing:
‘Who are these who deny me entrance to the house of pain?’ And to me he said:
‘Though I am angered, do not you be dismayed: I will win the trial, whatever
obstacle those inside contrive. This insolence of theirs is nothing new, for
they displayed it once before, at that less secret gate we passed, that has
remained unbarred. Over it you saw the fatal writing, and already on this side
of its entrance, one is coming, down the steep, passing the circles unescorted,
one for whom the city shall open to us.’
Inferno Canto IX:1-33 Dante asks about
precedents
The colour that cowardice had printed on my face, seeing my guide turn back,
made him repress his own heightened colour more swiftly. He stopped, attentive,
like one who listens, since his eyes could not penetrate far, through the black
air and the thick fog. ‘Nevertheless we must win this struggle,’ he began, ‘if
not … then help such as this was offered to us. Oh, how long it seems to me,
that other’s coming!’ I saw clearly, how he hid the meaning of his opening
words with their sequel, words differing from his initial thought. None the
less his speech made me afraid, perhaps because I took his broken phrases to
hold a worse meaning than they did.
‘Do any of those whose only punishment is deprivation of hope, ever descend,
into the depths of this sad chasm, from the first circle?’ I asked this
question, and he answered me: ‘It rarely happens, that any of us make the
journey that I go on. It is true that I was down here, once before, conjured to
do so by that fierce sorceress Erichtho, who recalled
spirits to their corpses. My flesh had only been stripped from me a while when
she forced me to enter inside that wall, to bring a spirit out of the circle of
Judas. That is the deepest place, and the darkest, and the furthest from that
Heaven that surrounds all things: I know the way well: so be reassured. This
marsh, that breathes its foul stench, circles the woeful city round about,
where we also cannot enter now without anger.’
Inferno Canto IX:34-63 The Furies
(Conscience) and Medusa
(Obduracy)
And he said more that I do not remember, because my eyes had been drawn to the
high tower, with the glowing crest, where, in an instant, three hellish Furies, stained with blood, had risen, that had the limbs
and aspects of women, covered with a tangle of green hydras, their hideous
foreheads bound with little adders, and horned vipers. And Virgil, who knew the
handmaids of the queen of eternal sadness well, said to me: ‘See, the fierce Erinyes.’
That is Megaera on the left: the one that weeps, on the right, is Alecto:
Tisiphone is in the middle.’: then he was silent. Each one was tearing at her
breast with her claws, beating with her hands, and crying out so loudly, that I
pressed close to the poet, out of fear. ‘Let Medusa come,’ they all said, looking down on us, ‘so that we can turn him to stone: we
did not fully revenge Theseus’s attack.’
‘Turn your back.’ said the Master, and he himself turned me round. ‘Keep your
eyes closed, since there will be no return upwards, if she were to show
herself, and you were to see her.’ Not leaving it to me, he covered them, also,
with his own hands.
O you, who have clear minds, take note of the meaning that conceals itself
under the veil of clouded verse!
Inferno Canto IX:64-105 The Messenger
from Heaven
Now, over the turbid waves, there came a fearful crash of sound, at which both shores
trembled; a sound like a strong wind, born of conflicting heat, that strikes
the forest, remorselessly, breaks the branches, and beats them down, and
carries them away, advances proudly in a cloud of dust, and makes wild
creatures, and shepherds, run for safety. Virgil uncovered my eyes, and said:
‘Now direct your vision to that ancient marsh, there, where the mists are
thickest.’ Like frogs, that all scatter through the water, in front of their
enemy the snake, until each one squats on the bottom, so I saw more than a
thousand damaged spirits scatter, in front of one who passed the Stygian ferry
with dry feet. He waved that putrid air from his face, often waving his left
hand before it, and only that annoyance seemed to weary him. I well knew he was
a messenger from Heaven, and I turned to the Master, who made a gesture that I
should stay quiet, and bow to him.
How full of indignation he seemed to me! He reached the gate, and opened it
with a wand: there was no resistance. On the vile threshold he began to speak:
‘O, outcasts from Heaven, why does this insolence still live in you? Why are
you recalcitrant to that will, whose aims can never be frustrated, and that has
often increased your torment? What use is it to butt your heads against the
Fates? If you remember, your Cerberus still shows a
throat and chin scarred from doing so.’
Then he returned, over the miry pool, and spoke no word to us, but looked like
one preoccupied and driven by other cares, than of those who stand before him.
And we stirred our feet towards the city, in safety, after his sacred speech.
Inferno Canto IX:106-133 The Sixth
Circle: Dis: The Heretics
We entered Dis without a conflict, and I gazed around, as soon as I as was
inside, eager to know what punishment the place enclosed, and saw on all sides
a vast plain full of pain and vile torment.
As at Arles, where the Rhone stagnates, or Pola, near the
Gulf of Quarnaro
,
that confines Italy, and bathes its coast, the sepulchres make the ground
uneven, so they did here, all around, only here the nature of it was more
terrible.
Flames were
scattered amongst the tombs, by which they were made so red-hot all over, that
no smith’s art needs hotter metal. Their lids were all lifted, and such fierce
groans came from them, that, indeed, they seemed to be those of the sad and
wounded.
And I said: ‘Master, who are these people, entombed in those vaults, who make
themselves known by tormented sighing?’ And he to me: ‘Here are the
arch-heretics, with their followers, of every sect: and the tombs contain many
more than you might think. Here like is buried with like, and the monuments
differ in degrees of heat.’ Then after turning to the right, we passed between
the tormented, and the steep ramparts.
Inferno Canto X:1-21 Epicurus and his
followers
Now my Master goes, and I, behind him, by a secret path between the city walls
and the torments. I began: ‘O, summit of virtue, who leads me round through the
circles of sin, as you please, speak to me, and satisfy my longing. Can those
people, who lie in the sepulchres, be seen? The lids are all raised, and no one
keeps guard.’ And he to me: ‘They will all be shut, when they return here, from
Jehoshaphat, with the bodies they left above. In this place Epicurus and all his followers are entombed, who say the soul dies with body. Therefore,
you will soon be satisfied, with an answer to the question that you ask me, and
also the longing that you hide from me, here, inside.’ And I: ‘Kind guide, I do
not keep my heart hidden from you, except by speaking too briefly, something to
which you have previously inclined me.’
Inferno Canto X:22-51 Farinata degli
Uberti
‘O Tuscan, who goes alive through the city of fire, speaking so politely, may
it please you to rest in this place. Your speech shows clearly you are a native
of that noble city that I perhaps troubled too much.’ This sound came suddenly
from one of the vaults, at which, in fear, I drew a little closer to my guide.
And he said to me: ‘Turn round: what are you doing: look at Farinata,
who has raised himself: you can see him all from the waist up.’
I had already fixed my gaze on him, and he rose erect in stance and aspect, as
if he held Inferno in great disdain. The spirited and eager hands of my
guide pushed me through the sepulchres towards him, saying: ‘Make sure your
words are measured.’ When I was at the base of the tomb, Farinata looked at me
for a while, and then almost contemptuously, he demanded of me: ‘Who were your
ancestors?’
I, desiring to obey, concealed nothing, but revealed the whole to him, at which
he raised his brows a little. Then he said: ‘They were fiercely opposed to me,
and my ancestors and my party, so that I scattered them twice.’ I replied:
‘Though they were driven out, they returned from wherever they were, the first
and the second time, but your party have not yet learnt that skill.’
Then, a shadow rose behind him, from the unclosed space, visible down to the
tip of its chin: I think it had raised itself on to its knees. It gazed around
me, as if it wished to see whether anyone was with me, but when all its hopes
were quenched, it said, weeping: ‘If by power of intellect, you go through this
blind prison, where is my son, and why is he not with you?’ And I to him: ‘I do
not come through my own initiative: he that waits there, whom your Guido disdained perhaps, leads me through this place’
His words and the nature of his punishment had spelt his name to me, so that my
answer was a full one. Suddenly raising himself erect, he cried: ‘What did you
say? Disdained? Is he not still alive? Does the sweet light not
strike his eyes?’ When he saw that I delayed in answering, he dropped supine
again, and showed himself no more.
Inferno Canto X:73-93Farinata prophesies Dante’s long exile
But the other one, at whose wish I had first stopped, generously did not alter
his aspect or move his neck, or turn his side. Continuing his previous words, he
said: ‘And if my party have learnt that art of return badly, it tortures me
more than this bed, but the face of the moon-goddess Persephone,
who rules here, will not be crescent fifty times, before you
learn the difficulty of that art. And, as you wish to return to the sweet
world, tell me why that people is so fierce towards my kin, in all its
lawmaking?’ At which I answered him: ‘The great slaughter and havoc, that dyed
the Arbia red, is the cause of those indictments against them, in our
churches.’
Then he shook his head, sighing, and said: ‘I was not alone in that matter, nor
would I have joined with the others without good cause, but I was alone, there,
when all agreed to raze Florence to the ground, and I openly defended her.
Inferno Canto X:94-136 The prophetic
vision of the damned
‘Ah,
as I hope your descendants might sometime have peace,’ I begged him, ‘solve the
puzzle that has entangled my mind. It seems, if I hear right, that you see
beforehand what time brings, but have a different knowledge of the present.’
‘Like one who has imperfect vision,’ he said, ‘we see things that are distant
from us: so much of the light the supreme Lord still allows us. But when they
approach, or come to be, our intelligence is wholly void, and we know nothing
of your human state, except what others tell us. So you may understand that all
our knowledge of the future will end, from the moment when the Day of Judgement
closes the gate of futurity.’
Then, as if conscious of guilt, I said: ‘Will you therefore, tell that fallen
one, now, that his son is still joined to the living. And if I was silent
before in reply, let him know it was because my thoughts were already entangled
in that error you have resolved for me.’
And now my Master was recalling me, at which I begged the spirit, with more
haste, to tell me who was with him. He said to me: ‘I lie here with more than a
thousand: here inside is Frederick the Second,
and the Cardinal, Ubaldini, and of the rest I
am silent.’ At that he hid himself, and I turned my steps towards the poet of
antiquity, reflecting on the words that boded trouble for me.
Virgil moved on, and then, as we were leaving, said to me: ‘Why are you so
bewildered?’ And I satisfied his question. The sage exhorted me: ‘Let your mind
retain what you have heard of your fate, and note this,’ and he raised his finger,
‘When you stand before the sweet rays of that
lady, whose bright eyes see everything, you will learn the journey of your
life through her.’
Then he turned his feet towards the left: we abandoned the wall, and went
towards the middle, by a path that makes its way into a valley, that, even up
there, forced us to breathe its foulness.
Inferno Canto XI:1-66 The structure of
Hell: The Lower Circles
On the edge of a high bank, made of great broken rocks in a circle, we came
above a still more cruel crowd, and here, because of the repulsive, excessive
stench that the deep abyss throws out, we approached it in the shelter of a
grand monument, on which I saw an inscription that said: ‘I hold Anastasius, that Photinus drew
away from the true path.’
The Master said: ‘We must delay our descent until our sense is somewhat used to
the foul wind, and then we will not notice it.’ I said to him: ‘Find us
something to compensate, so that the time is not wasted.’ And he: ‘See, I have
thought of it.’ He began: ‘My son, within these walls of stone, are three
graduated circles like those you are leaving. They are all filled with accursed
spirits: but so that the sight of them may be enough to inform you, in future,
listen how and why they are constrained.
The outcome of all maliciousness, that Heaven hates, is harm: and every such
outcome hurts others, either by force or deceit. But because deceit is a vice
peculiar to human beings it displeases God more, and therefore the fraudulent
are placed below, and more pain grieves them. The whole of the seventh circle
is for the violent, but, since violence can be done to three persons, it is
constructed and divided in three rings. I say violence may be done to God, or
to oneself, or one’s neighbour, and their person or possessions, as you will
hear, in clear discourse.
Death or painful wounds may be inflicted on one’s neighbour; and devastation,
fire, and pillage, on his substance. Therefore the first ring torments all
homicides; every one who lashes out maliciously; and thieves and robbers; in
their diverse groups.
A man may do violence to himself and to his property, and so, in the second
ring, all must repent, in vain, who deprive themselves of your world; or gamble
away and dissipate their wealth; or weep there, when they should be happy.
Violence may be done, against the Deity, denying him and blaspheming in the
heart, and scorning Nature and her gifts, and so the smallest ring stamps with
its seal both Sodom and Cahors, and those who
speak scornfully of God, in their hearts.
Human beings may practise deceit, which gnaws at every conscience, on one who
trusts them, or on one who places no trust. This latter form of fraud only
severs the bond of love that Nature created, and so, in the eighth circle, are
nested hypocrisy; sorcery; flattery; cheating; theft and selling of holy
orders; pimps; corrupters of public office; and similar filth.
In the previous form, that love that Nature creates is forgotten, and also that
which is added later, giving rise to special trust. So, in the ninth, the
smallest circle, at the base of the universe, where Dis has his throne, every traitor is consumed eternally.’
Inferno Canto XI:67-93 The structure of
Hell: The Upper Circles
And I said: ‘Master, your reasoning proceeds most clearly, and lays out
excellently this gulf, and those that populate it, but tell me why those of the
great marsh, those whom the wind drives, and the rain beats, and those who come
together with sharp words, are not punished in the burning city, if God’s anger
is directed towards them? And if not why they are in such a state?’ And he to
me: ‘Why does your mind err so much more than usual, or are your thoughts
somewhere else?
Do you not remember the words with which your Aristotelian Ethics speaks of the three natures that Heaven does not will: incontinence,
malice and mad brutishness, and how incontinence offends God less and incurs
less blame? If you consider this doctrine correctly, and recall to mind who
those are, that suffer punishment out there, above, you will see, easily, why
they are separated from these destructive spirits, and why divine justice
strikes them with less anger.’
I said: ‘O Sun, that heals all troubled sight, you make me so content when you
explain to me, that to question is as delightful as to know.’
Inferno Canto XI:94-115 Virgil explains
usury
‘Go back a moment, to where you said that usury offends divine goodness, and
unravel that knot.’ He said to me: ‘To him who attends, Philosophy shows, in
more than one place, how Nature takes her path from the Divine Intelligence,
and its arts, and if you note your Physics well, you
will find, not many pages in, that art, follows her, as well as it can, as the
pupil does the master, so that your art is as it were the grandchild of God. By
these two, art and nature, man must earn his bread and flourish, if you recall
to mind Genesis, near its beginning.
Because the usurer holds to another course, he denies Nature, in herself, and
in that which follows her ways, putting his hopes elsewhere.
But follow me, now, by the path I choose, for Pisces quivers
on the horizon, and all Bootës covers Caurus, the north-west wind, and over
there, some way, we descend the cliff.’
Inferno Canto XII:1-27 Above the Seventh
Circle: The Minotaur
The place we reached to climb down the bank was craggy, and, because of the
creature there, also, a path that every eye would shun. The descent of that
rocky precipice was like the landslide that struck the left bank of the Adige,
this side of Trento, caused by an earthquake or a faulty buttress, since the
rock is so shattered, from the summit of the mountain, where it started, to the
plain, that it might form a route, for someone above: and at the top of the
broken gully, the infamy of Crete, the Minotaur,
conceived on Pasiphaë, in the wooden cow, lay stretched
out.
When he saw us he gnawed himself, like someone consumed by anger inside. My
wise guide called to him: ‘Perhaps you think that Theseus,
the Duke of Athens, is here, who brought about your death, in the world above?
Leave here, monstrous creature. This man does not come here, aided by your
sister, Ariadne, but passes through to see the
punishments.’
Like a bull, breaking loose, at the moment when it receives the fatal blow,
that cannot go forward, but plunges here and there, so I saw the Minotaur, and
my cautious guide cried: ‘Run to the passage: while he is in a fury, it is time
for you to descend.’
Inferno Canto XII:28-48 The descent to
the Seventh Circle
So we made our way, downwards, over the landslide of stones, that often shifted
beneath my feet, from the unaccustomed weight. I went thoughtfully, and he
said: ‘Perhaps you are contemplating this fallen mass of rock, guarded by
the bestial anger that I quelled a moment ago. I would have you know that the
previous time I came down here to the deep Inferno, this spill had not yet
fallen. But, if I discern the truth, the deep and loathsome valley, shook, not
long before He came to take the great ones of the highest
circle, so that I thought the universe thrilled with love, by which as some believe, the world has often been overwhelmed by
chaos. In that moment ancient rocks, here and elsewhere, tumbled.
But fix your gaze on the valley, because we near the river of blood, in which
those who injure others by violence are boiled.’
Inferno Canto XII:49-99 The First Ring:
The Centaurs: The Violent
O blind desires, evil and foolish, which so goad us in our brief life, and
then, in the eternal one, ruin us so bitterly! I saw a wide canal bent in an
arc, looking as if it surrounded the whole plain, from what my guide had told
me. Centaurs were racing, one behind another, between
it and the foot of the bank, armed with weapons, as they were accustomed to
hunt on earth.
Seeing us descend they all stood still, and three, elected leaders, came from
the group, armed with bows and spears. And one of them shouted from the
distance: ‘What torment do you come for, you that descend the rampart? Speak
from there, if not, I draw the bow.’ My Master said: ‘We will make our reply to Chiron, who is there, nearby. Sadly, your nature was
always rash.’ Then he touched me, and said: ‘That is Nessus,
who died because of his theft of the lovely Deianira,
and, for his blood, took vengeance, through his blood.
He, in the centre, whose head is bowed to his chest, is the great Chiron, who
nursed Achilles: the other is Pholus,
who was so full of rage. They race around the ditch, in thousands, piercing
with arrows any spirit that climbs further from the blood than its guilt has
condemned it to. We drew near the swift creatures. Chiron took an arrow, and
pushed back his beard from his face with the notched flight. When he had
uncovered his huge mouth, he said to his companions: ‘Have you noticed that the
one behind moves whatever he touches? The feet of dead men do not usually do
so.’
And my good guide, who was by Chiron’s front part, where the two natures join,
replied: ‘He is truly alive, and, alone, I have to show him the dark valley.
Necessity brings him here, and not desire. She, who gave me this new duty, came
from singing Alleluiahs: he is no thief: nor am I a wicked spirit. But, by that
virtue, by means of which I set my feet on so unsafe a path, lend us one of
your people whom we can follow, so that he may show us where the ford is, and
carry this one over on his back, since he cannot fly as a spirit through the
air.’
Chiron twisted to his right, and said to Nessus: ‘Turn, and guide them, then,
and if another crew meet you, keep them off.’
Inferno Canto XII:100-139 The Tyrants,
Murderers and Warriors
We moved onwards with our trustworthy guide, along the margin of the crimson
boiling, in which the boiled were shrieking loudly. I saw people immersed as
far as the eyebrows, and the great Centaur said: ‘These are tyrants who
indulged in blood, and rapine. Here they lament their offences, done without
mercy. Here is Alexander, and fierce Dionysius of Syracuse, who gave Sicily years of
pain. That head of black hair is Azzolino, and the
other, which is blonde, is Obizzo da Este, whose life
was quenched, in truth, by his stepson, up in the world.’ Then I turned to the
poet, and he said: ‘Let him guide you first, now, and I second.’
A little further on, Nessus paused, next to people who seemed to be sunk in the
boiling stream up to their throat. He showed us a shade, apart by itself,
saying: ‘That one, Guy de Montfort, in God’s church,
pierced that heart that is still venerated by the Thames.’
Then I saw others, who held their heads and all their chests, likewise, free of
the river: and I knew many of these. So the blood grew shallower and shallower,
until it only cooked their feet, and here was our ford through the ditch.
The Centaur said: ‘As you see the boiling stream continually diminishing, on
this side, so, on the other, it sinks more and more, till it comes again to
where tyrants are doomed to grieve. Divine Justice here torments Attila, the scourge of the earth; and Pyrrhus, and Sextus
Pompeius; and for eternity milks tears, produced by the boiling, from Rinier da Corneto, and Rinier Pazzo,
who made war on the highways.’ Then he turned back, and recrossed the ford.
Inferno Canto XIII:1-30 The Second Ring:
The Harpies: The Suicides
Nessus had not yet returned to the other side, when we entered a wood, unmarked
by any path. The foliage was not green, but a dusky colour: the branches were
not smooth, but warped and knotted: there were no fruits there, but poisonous
thorns. The wild beasts, that hate the cultivated fields, in the Tuscan
Maremma, between Cecina and Corneto, have lairs less thick and tangled. Here
the brutish Harpies make their nests, they who chased
the Trojans from the Strophades, with dismal pronouncements of future
tribulations.
They have broad wings, and human necks and faces, clawed feet, and large
feathered bellies, and they make mournful cries in that strange wood. The kind
Master said: ‘Before you go further, be aware you are in the second ring, and
will be until you come to the dreadful sands. So look carefully, and you will
see things that might make you mistrust my words.’
Already I heard sighs on every side, and saw no one to make them, at which, I
stood totally bewildered. I think that he thought that I was thinking that many
of those voices came from among the trees, from people who hid themselves
because of us. So the Master said: ‘If you break a little twig from one of
these branches, the thoughts you have will be seen to be in error.’
Inferno Canto XIII:31-78 The Wood of
Suicides: Pier delle Vigne
Then I stretched my hand out a little, and broke a small branch from a large
thorn, and its trunk cried out: ‘Why do you tear at me?’ And when it had grown
dark with blood, it began to cry out again: ‘Why do you splinter me? Have you
no breath of pity? We were men, and we are changed to trees: truly, your hand
would be more merciful, if we were merely the souls of snakes.’
Just as a green branch, burning at one end, spits and hisses with escaping air
at the other, so from that broken wood, blood and words came out together: at
which I let the branch fall, and stood, like a man afraid. My wise sage
replied: ‘Wounded spirit, if he had only believed, before, what he had read in my verse, he would not have lifted his hand to you, but
the incredible nature of the thing made me urge him to do what grieves me. But
tell him who you were, so that he might make you some amends, and renew your
fame up in the world, to which he is allowed to return.
And the tree replied: ‘You tempt me so, with your sweet words, that I cannot
keep silent, but do not object if I am expansive in speech. I am Pier delle Vigne, who held both the keys to Frederick’s heart, and employed them, locking and
unlocking, so quietly, that I kept almost everyone else from his secrets. I was
so faithful to that glorious office that through it I lost my sleep and my
life.
The whore that never turned her eyes from Caesar’s household, Envy, the common
disease and vice of courts, stirred all minds against me, and being stirred
they stirred Augustus, so that my fine honours were changed to grievous
sorrows. My spirit, in a scornful mode, thinking to escape scorn by death, made
me, though I was just, unjust to myself. By the strange roots of this tree, I
swear to you, I never broke faith with my lord, so worthy of honour. If either
of you return to the world, raise and cherish the memory of me, that still lies
low from the blow Envy gave me.’
Inferno Canto XIII:79-108 The fate of The
Suicides
The poet listened for a while, then said to me: ‘Since he is silent, do not
lose the moment, but speak, and ask him to tell you more.’ At which I aid to
him: ‘You ask him further, about what you think will interest me, because I
could not, such pity fills my heart.’ So he continued: ‘That the man may do
freely what your words request from him, imprisoned spirit, be pleased to tell
us further how the spirits are caught in these knots: and tell us, if you can,
whether any of them free themselves from these limbs.’
Then the trunk blew fiercely, and the breath was turned to words like these:
‘My reply will be brief. When the savage spirit leaves the body, from which it
has ripped itself, Minos sends it to the seventh gulf. It
falls into this wood, and no place is set for it, but, wherever chance hurls
it, there it sprouts, like a grain of German wheat, shoots up as a sapling, and
then as a wild tree. The Harpies feeding then on its
leaves hurt it, and give an outlet to its hurt.
Like others we shall go to our corpses on the Day of Judgement, but not so that
any of us may inhabit them again, because it would not be just to have what we
took from ourselves. We shall drag them here, and our bodies will be hung
through the dismal wood, each on the thorn-tree of its tormented shade.
Inferno Canto XIII:109-129 Lano Maconi
and Jacomo da Sant’ Andrea
We
were still listening to the tree, thinking it might tell us more, when we were
startled by a noise, like those who think the wild boar is nearing where they
stand, and hear the animals and the crashing of branches. Behold, on the left,
two naked, torn spirits, running so hard they broke every thicket of the wood.
The leader, cried: ‘Come Death, come now!’ and the other, Jacomo,
who felt himself to be too slow cried: ‘Lano, your legs
were not so swift at the jousts of Toppo.’ And since
perhaps his breath was failing him, he merged himself with a bush.
The
wood behind them was filled with black bitch hounds, eager and quick as
greyhounds that have slipped the leash. They clamped their teeth into Lano, who
squatted, and tore him bit by bit, then carried off his miserable limbs.
Inferno Canto XIII:130-151 The unnamed
Florentine
My guide now took me by the hand, and led me to the bush, which was grieving,
in vain, through its bleeding splinters, crying: ‘O Jacomo da Sant’ Andrea,
what have you gained by making me your screen? What blame do I have for your
sinful life? When the Master had stopped next to it, he said: ‘Who were you,
that breathe out your mournful speech, with blood, through so many wounds?
And he to us: ‘You spirits, who have come to view the dishonourable mangling
that has torn my leaves from me, gather them round the foot of this sad tree. I
was of Florence, that city, which changed Mars, its patron, for St John the Baptist, because of which that god, through
his powers, will always make it sorrowful. Were it not that some fragments of
his statue remain where Ponte Vecchio crosses the Arno, those citizens, who
rebuilt it on the ashes Attila left, would have worked in
vain. I made a gibbet for myself, from my own
roofbeam.’
Inferno Canto XIV:1-42 The Third Ring:
The Violent against God
As
the love of my native place stirred in me, I gathered up the scattered leaves,
and gave them back to him who was already hoarse. Then we came to the edge,
where the second round is divided from the third, where a fearsome form of
justice is seen. To make these new things clear, I say we reached a plain, where
the land repels all vegetation. The mournful wood makes a circle round it, as
the ditch surrounds the wood: here we stepped close to its very rim.
The
ground was dry, thick sand, no different in form than that which Cato once trod. O God’s vengeance, how what was shown to my sight should be feared,
by all who read! I saw many groups of naked spirits, who were all moaning
bitterly: and there seemed to be diverse rules applied to them. Some were lying
face upward on the ground; some sat all crouched: and others roamed around
continuously.
Those who moved were more numerous, and those that lay in torment fewer, but
uttering louder cries of pain. Dilated flakes of fire, falling slowly, like
snow in the windless mountains, rained down over all the vast sands. Like the
flames that Alexander saw falling, in the hot
zones of India, over all his army, until they reached the ground, fires that
were more easily quenched while they were separate, so that his troops took
care to trample the earth - like those, fell this eternal heat, kindling
the sand like tinder beneath flint and steel, doubling the pain.
The dance of their tortured hands was never still, now here, now there, shaking
off the fresh burning.
Inferno Canto XIV:43-72 Capaneus
I began: ‘Master, you who overcome everything except the obdurate demons, that
came out against us at the entrance to the gate, who is that great spirit, who
seems indifferent to the fire, and lies there, scornful, contorted, so that the
rain does not seem to deepen his repentance?’ And he himself, noting that I
asked my guide about him, cried: ‘What I was when I was living, I am now I am
dead. Though Jupiter exhausts Vulcan,
his blacksmith, from whom he took, in anger, the fierce lightning bolt, that I
was struck down with on my last day, and though he exhausts the others, the Cyclopes, one by one, at the black forge of Aetna,
shouting: ‘Help, help, good Vulcan’, just as he did at the battle of Phlegra,
between the gods and giants, and hurls his bolts at me with all his strength,
he shall still not enjoy a true revenge.’
Then my guide spoke, with a force I had not heard before: ‘O Capaneus,
you are punished more in that your pride is not quenched: no torment would
produce pain fitting for your fury, except your own raving.’ Then he turned to
me with gentler voice, saying: ‘That was one of the seven kings who laid siege
to Thebes: and he held God, and seems to hold him, in disdain, and value him
lightly, but as I told him, his spite is an ornament that fits his breast.’
Inferno Canto XIV:73-120 The Old Man of
Crete
‘Now follow me, and be careful not to place your feet yet on the burning sand,
but always keep back close to the wood.’ We came, in silence, to the place,
where a little stream gushes from the wood, the redness of which still makes me
shudder. Like the rivulet that runs sulphur-red from the Bulicame spring, near
Viterbo, that the sinful women share among themselves, so this ran down over
the sand. Its bed and both its sloping banks were petrified, and its nearby
margins: so that I realised our way lay there.
‘Among all the other things that I have shown you, since we entered though the
gate, whose threshold is denied to no one, your eyes have seen nothing as
noteworthy as this present stream, that quenches all the flames over it.’ These
were my guide’s words, at which I begged him to grant me food, for which he had
given me the appetite.
He then said: ‘There is a deserted island in the middle of the sea, named
Crete, under whose king Saturn, the world was pure. There
is a mountain, there, called Ida, which was once gladdened with waters and
vegetation, and now is abandoned like an ancient spoil heap. Rhea chose it, once, as the trusted cradle of her son, and the better to hide him
when he wept, caused loud shouts to echo from it.
Inside the mountain, a great Old Man, stands
erect, with his shoulders turned towards Egyptian Damietta, and looks at Rome
as if it were his mirror. His head is formed of pure gold, his arms and his
breasts are refined silver: then he is bronze as far as the thighs. Downwards
from there he is all of choice iron, except that the right foot is baked clay,
and more of his weight is on that one than the other. Every part, except the
gold, is cleft with a fissure that sheds tears, which collect and pierce the
grotto. Their course falls from rock to rock into this valley. They form
Acheron, Styx and Phlegethon, then, by this narrow channel, go down to where
there is no further fall, and form Cocytus: you will see what kind of lake that
is: so I will not describe it to you here.’
Inferno Canto XIV:121-142 The Rivers
Phlegethon and Lethe
I said to him: ‘If the present stream flows down like that from our world, why
does it only appear to us on this bank? And he to me: ‘You know the place is
circular, and though you have come far, always to the left, descending to the
depths, you have not yet turned through a complete round, so that if anything
new appears to us, it should not bring an expression of wonder to your face.’
And I again: ‘Master, where are Phlegethon, and Lethe found, since you do not
speak of the latter, and say that the former is created from these tears?’ He
replied: ‘You please me, truly, with all your questions, but the boiling red
water might well answer to one of those you ask about. You will see Lethe, but
above this abyss, there, on the Mount, where the spirits go to purify
themselves, when their guilt is absolved by penitence.’
Then he said: ‘Now it is time to leave the wood: see that you follow me: the
margins which are not burning form a path, and over them all the fire is
quenched.’
Inferno Canto XV:1-42 The Violent against
Nature: Brunetto Latini
Now one of the solid banks takes us on, and the smoke from the stream makes a
shadow above, so that it shelters the water and its margins. Just as the
Flemings between Bruges and Wissant make their dykes to hold back the sea,
fearing the flood that beats against them; and as the Paduans do, along the
Brenta, to defend their towns and castles, before Carinthia’s mountains feel
the thaw; so those banks were similarly formed, though their creator, whoever
it might be, made them neither as high or as deep.
Already we were so far from the wood, that I was unable to see where it was,
unless I turned back, when we met a group of spirits, coming along the bank,
and each of them looked at us, as, at twilight, men look at one another, under
a crescent moon, and peered towards us, as an old tailor does at the eye of his
needle. Eyed so by that tribe, I was recognised, by one who took me by the
skirt of my robe, and said: ‘How wonderful!’
And I fixed my eyes on his baked visage, so that the scorching of his aspect
did not prevent my mind from knowing him, and bending my face to his I replied:
‘Are you here Ser Brunetto?’ And he: ‘O my son, do not be displeased if Brunetto Latini turns back with you a while, and lets the
crowd pass by.’ I said: ‘I ask it, with all my strength, and, if you want me to
sit with you, I will, if it pleases him there, whom I go with.’
He said: ‘O my son, whoever of the flock stops for a moment, must lie there for
a hundred years after, without cooling himself when the fire beats on him. So
go on, I will follow at your heels, and then I will rejoin my crew again, who
go mourning their eternal loss.’
Inferno Canto XV:43-78 Brunetto’s
prophecy
I did not dare leave the road to be level with him, but kept my head bowed like
one who walks reverently. He began: ‘What fate, or chance, bring you down here,
before your final hour? Who is this who shows you the way?’ I replied: ‘I lost
myself, in the clear life up above, in a valley, before my years were complete.
Only yesterday morning I turned my back on it: he appeared to me as I was
returning to it, and guides me back again, but by this path.’
And he to me: ‘If you follow your star, you cannot fail to reach a glorious
harbour: if I judged clearly in the sweet life. If I had not died before you, I
would have supported you in your work, seeing that Heaven is so kind to you.
But that ungrateful, malignant people, who came
down from Fiesole to Florence, in ancient times, and still have something of
the mountain and the rock, will be inimical to you for the good you do, and
with reason, since it is not fitting for the sweet fig tree to fruit, among the
sour crab-apples.
Past report on earth declares them blind, an envious, proud and avaricious
people: make sure you purge yourself of their faults. Your fate prophesies such
honour for you, that both parties will hunger for you, but the goat will be far
from the grass. Let the herd from Fiesole make manure of themselves, but not
touch the plant in which the sacred seed of those Romans revives, who stayed,
when that nest of malice was created, if any plant still springs from their
ordure.’
Inferno Canto XV:79-99 Dante accepts his
fate
I answered him: ‘If my wishes had been completely fulfilled, you would not have
been separated, yet, from human nature, since, in my memory, the dear, and
kind, paternal image of you is fixed, and now goes to my heart, how, when in
the world, hour by hour, you taught me the way man makes himself eternal; and
it is fitting my tongue should show what gratitude I hold, while I live. What
you tell me of my fate, I write, and retain it with a former text, for a lady
who will know, how to comment on it, if I reach her.
I would make this much known to you: I am ready for whatever Fortune wills, as
long as conscience does not hurt me. Such prophecies are not new to my ears: so
let Fortune turn her wheel as she pleases, and the peasant wield his mattock.’
At that, my Master, looked back, on his right, and gazed at me, then said: ‘He
listens closely, who notes it.’
Inferno Canto XV:100-124 Brunetto names some of his
companions
I carry on speaking, no less, with Ser Brunetto, and ask
who are the most famous and noblest of his companions. And he to me: ‘It is
good to know of some: of the rest it would be praiseworthy to keep silent, as
the time would be too little for such a speech. In short, know that all were
clerks, and great scholars, and very famous, tainted with the same sin on
earth.
Priscian goes with that miserable crowd, and Francesco d’Accorso: and if you had any desire for such
scum, you might have seen Andrea di Mozzi there, who
by Boniface, the Pope, servus servorum Dei,
servant of servants, was translated from the Arno to Vicenza’s Bacchiglione,
where he departed from his ill-strained body.
I
would say more, but my speech and my departure must not linger, since there I
see new smoke, rising from the great sand. People come that I cannot be with:
let my Tresoro be commended to you, in which I still live: more I ask
not.’
Then he turned back, and seemed like one who runs for the green cloth, at Verona,
through the open fields: and seemed one of those who wins, not one who loses.
Inferno
Canto XVI:1-45 Rusticucci, Guido Guerra, Aldobrandi
I was already in a place where the booming of the water, that fell, into the
next circle, sounded like a beehive’s humming, when three shades together,
running, left a crowd that passed under the sharp burning rain. They came
towards us, and each one cried: ‘Wait, you, who seem to us, by your clothes, to
be someone from our perverse city.’
Ah me, what ancient, and recent, wounds I saw on their limbs, scorched there by
the flames! It saddens me now, when I remember it. My teacher listened to their
cries, turned his face towards me, and said: ‘Wait, now: courtesy is owed them,
and if there were not this fire, that the place’s nature rains down, I would
say that you were more hasty than them.’
As we rested, they started their former laments again, and when they reached
us, all three of them formed themselves into a circle. Wheeling round, as
champion wrestlers, naked and oiled, do, looking for a hold or an advantage,
before they grasp and strike one another, each directed his face at me, so that
his neck was turned, all the time, in an opposite direction to his feet.
And one of them began: ‘If the misery of this sinful place, and our scorched,
stained look, renders us, and our prayers, contemptible, let our fame influence
your mind to tell us who you are, that move your living feet, safely, through
Hell. He, in whose footsteps you see me tread, all peeled and naked as he is,
was greater in degree than you would think. His name is Guido
Guerra, grandson of the good lady Gualdrada, and
in his life he achieved much in council, and with his sword.
The other, that treads the sand behind me, is Tegghiaio
Aldobrandi, whose words should have been listened to in the world. And I,
who am placed with them in torment, am Jacopo Rusticucci,
and certainly my fierce wife injured me more than anything else.’
Inferno Canto XVI:46-87 The condition of
Florence
If I had been sheltered from the fire, I would have dropped down among them below,
and I believe my teacher would have allowed it, but as I would have been burned
and baked, myself, my fear overcame the goodwill, that made me eager to embrace
them.
Then I began: ‘Your condition stirred sadness, not contempt, in me, so deeply,
it will not soon be gone, when my guide spoke words to me by which I understood
such men as yourselves might be approaching. I am of your city, and I have
always heard, and rehearsed, your names and your deeds, with affection. I leave
the gall behind, and go towards the sweet fruits promised me by my truthful
guide, but first I must go downwards to the centre.’
He replied, then: ‘That your soul may long inhabit your body, and your fame
shine after you, tell us if courtesy and courage, still live in our city as
they used to, or if they have quite forsaken it? Gugliemo
Borsiere, who has been in pain with us, a little while, and goes along there
with our companions, torments us greatly with what he says.
‘New men, and sudden wealth, have created pride and excess in you, Florence, so
that you already weep for it.’ So I cried with lifted face, and the three, who took
this for an answer, gazed at one another, as one gazes at the truth. They
replied together: ‘Happy are you, if, by speaking according to your will, it
costs so little for you to satisfy others! So, if you escape these gloomy
spaces, and turn, and see the beauty of the stars again, when you will be glad
to say: “I was”, see that you tell people of us.’
Then they broke up their circle, and, as they ran, their swift legs seemed
wings.
Inferno Canto XVI:88-136 The
monster Geryon
An Amen could not have been said in so quick a time as their vanishing
took, at which my Master was pleased to depart. I followed him. We had gone
only a little way, when the sound of the water came so near us, that if we had
been speaking we would hardly have heard each other.
Like that river (the first that takes its own course to the eastern seaboard,
south of Monte Veso, where the Po rises, on the left flank of the Apennines,
and is called Acquacheta above, before it falls to its lower bed, and loses its
name, to become the Montone, at Forlì) which, plunging through a fall, echoes
from the mountain, above San Benedetto, where there should be refuge for a
thousand, so, down from a steep bank, we found that tainted water re-echoing,
so much so that, in a short while, it would have dazed our hearing.
I had a cord tied round me, and with it I had once thought to catch the lynx
with the spotted skin. After I had completely unwound it from myself, as my
guide commanded, I held it out to him, gathered up and coiled. Then he turned
towards the right, and threw the end of it, away from the edge a little, down
into the steep gulf. I said to myself: ‘Surely something strange will follow
this new sign of our intentions, that my master tracks with his eyes, as it
falls.’
Ah, how careful men should be with those who do not only see our actions but,
with their understanding, see into our thoughts! He said to me: ‘That which I
expect will soon ascend, and, what your thoughts speculate about, will soon be
apparent to your sight.’
A man should always shut his lips, as far as he can, to truth that seems like
falsehood, since he incurs reproach, though he is blameless, but I cannot be
silent here: and Reader, I swear to you, by the words of this Commedia,
that they may not be free of lasting favour, that I saw a
shape, marvellous, to every unshaken heart, come swimming upwards through
the dense, dark air, as a man rises, who has gone down, sometime, to loose an
anchor, caught on a rock or something else, hidden in the water, who spreads
his arms out, and draws up his feet.
Inferno Canto XVII:1-30 The poets
approach Geryon
‘See the savage beast, with the pointed tail, that crosses mountains, and
pierces walls and armour: see him, who pollutes the whole world.’ So my guide
began to speak to me, and beckoned to him to land near the end of our rocky
path, and that vile image of Fraud came on, and grounded his head and chest,
but did not lift his tail onto the cliff.
His face was the face of an honest man, it had so benign and outward aspect:
all the rest was a serpent’s body. Both arms were covered with hair to the
armpits; the back and chest and both flanks were adorned with knots and
circles. Tartars or Turks never made cloths with more colour, background and
embroidery: nor did Arachne spread such webs on her
loom. As the boats rest on the shore, part in water and part on land, and as
the beaver, among the guzzling Germans, readies himself for a fight, so that
worst of savage creatures lay on the cliff that surrounds the great sand with
stone.
The whole of his tail glanced into space, twisting the venomous fork upwards,
that armed the tip, like a scorpion. My guide said: ‘Now we must direct our
path, somewhat, towards the malevolent beast that rests there.’
Inferno Canto XVII:31-78 The Usurers
Then we went down, on the right, and took ten steps towards the edge, so that
we could fully avoid the sand and flame, and when we reached him, I saw people
sitting near the empty space, a little further away, on the ground.
Here my Master said: ‘Go and see the state of them, so that you may take away a
complete knowledge of this round. Talk briefly with them: I will speak with
this creature, until you return, so that he might carry us on his strong
shoulders.’ So, still on the extreme edge of the seventh circle, I went, all
alone, to where the sad crew were seated.
Their grief was gushing from their eyes: they kept flicking away the flames and
sometimes the burning dust, on this side, or on that, with their hands, no
differently than dogs do in summer, now with their muzzle, now with their paws,
when they are bitten by fleas, or gnats, or horse-flies. When I set my eyes on
the faces of several of them, on whom the grievous fire falls, I did not
recognise any, but I saw that a pouch hung from the neck of each, that had a
certain colour, and a certain seal, and it seemed their eye was feeding on it.
And as I came among them, looking, I saw, on a golden-yellow purse, an azure
seal that had the look and attitude of a lion.
Then
my gaze continuing on its track, I saw another, red as blood, showing a goose whiter than butter. And one who had his white
purse stamped with an azure, pregnant sow, said to me:
‘What are you doing in this pit? Now go away, and since you are still alive,
know that my neighbour, Vitaliano, will come to sit
here on my left. I, a Paduan, am with these Florentines. Many a time they
deafen my hearing, shouting: ‘Let the noble knight come, who will carry the
purse with three eagles’ beaks!’
Then
he distorted his mouth, and thrust his tongue out, like an ox licking its nose,
and I, dreading lest a longer stay might anger him, who had warned me to make a
brief stay, turned back from those weary spirits.
Inferno Canto XVII:79-136 The poets
descend on Geryon’s back
I found my guide, who had already mounted the flank of the savage creature, and
he said to me: ‘Be firm and brave. Now we must descend by means of these
stairs: you climb in front: I wish to be in the centre, so that the tail may
not harm you.’
Like a man whose fit of the quartan fever is so near, that his nails are already
pallid, and he shakes all over, by keeping in the shade, so I became when these
words were said: but his reproof roused shame in me, that makes the servant
brave in the presence of a worthy master. I set myself on those vast shoulders.
I wished to say: ‘See that you clasp me tight.’ but my voice did not come out
as I intended. He, who helped me in other difficulties, at other times,
embraced me, as soon as I mounted, and held me upright. Then he said: ‘Now
move, Geryon! Make large circles, and let your descent be
gentle: think of the strange burden that you carry.’
As a little boat goes backwards, backwards, from its mooring, so the monster
left the cliff, and when he felt himself quite free, he turned his tail around,
to where his chest had been, and stretching, flicked it like an eel, and
gathered the air towards him with his paws. I do not believe the fear was
greater when Phaëthon let slip the reins, and the sky
was scorched, as it still appears to be; or when poor Icarus felt the feathers melt from his arms, as the wax was heated, and his father Daedalus cried: ‘You are going the wrong way!’ as mine was
when I saw myself surrounded by the air, on all sides, and saw everything
vanish, except the savage beast.
He goes down, swimming slowly, slowly: wheels and falls: but I do not see it
except by the wind, on my face, and from below. Already I heard the cataract,
on the right, make a terrible roaring underneath us, at which I stretched my
neck out, with my gaze downwards. Then I was more afraid to dismount, because I
saw fires, and heard moaning, so that I cowered, trembling all over. And then I
saw what I had not seen before, our sinking and circling through the great
evils that drew close on every side.
As the falcon, that has been long on the wing, descends wearily, without seeing
bird or lure, making the falconer cry: ‘Ah, you stoop!’ and settles far from
his master disdainful and sullen, so Geryon set us down, at the base, close to
the foot of the fractured rock, and relieved of our weight, shot off, like an
arrow from the bow.
Inferno Canto XVIII:1-21 The Eighth
Circle: Malebolge: Simple Fraud
There is a place in Hell called Malebolge, all of stone, and coloured like
iron, as is the cliff that surrounds it. Right in the centre of the malignant
space, a well yawns, very wide and deep, whose structure I will speak of in due
place.
The margin that remains, between the base of the high rocky bank and the well,
is circular, and its floor is divided into ten moats. Like the form the ground
reveals, where successive ditches circle a castle, to defend the walls, such
was the layout displayed here. And as there are bridges to the outer banks from
the thresholds of the fortress, so, from the base of the cliff, causeways ran,
crossing the successive banks and ditches, down to the well that terminates and
links them.
We found ourselves there, shaken from Geryon’s back, and the Poet kept to the
left, and I went on, behind him.
Inferno Canto XVIII:22-39 The First
Chasm: The Pimps and Seducers
On the right I saw new pain and torment, and new tormentors, with which the
first chasm was filled. In its depths the sinners were naked: on our inner side
of its central round they came towards us, on the outer side, with us, but with
larger steps. So the people of Rome, in that year, at the Jubilee, because of the
great crowds, initiated this means to pass the people over the bridge: those on
the one side all had their faces towards Castello Sant’ Angelo, and went to St
Peter’s: those on the other towards Monte Giordano.
On this side and on that, along the fearful rock, I saw horned demons with
large whips, who struck them fiercely, from behind. Ah, how it made them
quicken their steps at the first stroke! Truly none waited for the second or
third.
Inferno Canto XVIII:40-66 The Panders:
Venedico de’ Caccianemico
As I went on, my eyes encountered one of them, and instantly I said: This shade
I have seen before.’ So I stopped to scrutinise him, and the kind guide stood
still with me, and allowed me to return a little. And that scourged spirit
thought to hide himself, lowering his face, but it did not help, since I said:
‘You, who cast your eyes on the ground, if the features you display are not an
illusion, you are Venedico Caccianimico: but what
led you into such a biting pickle?’
And he to me: ‘I tell it unwillingly, but your clear speech that makes me
remember the former world, compels me. It was I who induced the fair Ghisola to do the Marquis of Este’s
will, however unpleasant the story sounds. And I am not the only Bolognese that
weeps here: this place is so filled with us, that as many tongues are no longer
taught to say sipa for sì, between the Savena’s stream that is
west, and the Reno’s, that is east of Bologna. If you want assurance and
testimony of it, recall to mind our avaricious hearts.’ And as he spoke, a
demon struck him with his whip, and said: ‘Away, pander, there are no women
here to sell.’
Inferno Canto XVIII:67-99 The Seducers:
Jason
I rejoined my guide: then in a few steps we came to where a causeway ran from
the cliff. This we climbed very easily, and, turning to the right on its jagged
ridge, we moved away from that eternal round. When we reached the arch where it
yawns below to leave a path for the scourged, my guide said: ‘Wait, and let the
aspect of those other ill-born spirits strike you, whose faces you have not yet
seen, since they have been going in our direction.’
We viewed their company from the ancient bridge, travelling towards us on the
other side, chased likewise by the whip. Without my asking, the kind Master
said to me: ‘Look at that great soul who comes, and seems not to shed tears of
pain: what a royal aspect he still retains! That is Jason,
who, by wisdom and courage, robbed the Colchians of the Golden Fleece.
He
sailed by the Isle of Lemnos, after the bold merciless women there had put all
their males to death. There with gifts and sweet words he deceived the young Hypsipyle, who had saved her father by deceiving all the
rest. He left her there, pregnant and lonely: such guilt condemns him to such
torment: and revenge is also taken for his abandoning Medea.
With him go all who practise like deceit, and let this be enough for knowledge
of the first chasm, and those whom it swallows.’
Inferno Canto XVIII:100-136 The Second
Chasm: The Flatterers
We had already come to where the narrow causeway crosses the second bank, and
forms a buttress to a second arch. Here we heard people whining in the next
chasm, and blowing with their muzzles, and striking themselves with their
palms.
The banks were crusted, with a mould from the fumes below that condenses on
them, and attacks the eyes and nose. The floor is so deep, that we could not
see any part of it, except by climbing to the ridge of the arch, where the rock
is highest. We came there, and from it, in the ditch below, I saw people
immersed in excrement, that looked as if it flowed from human privies. And
while I was searching it, down there, with my eyes, I saw one with a head so
smeared with ordure, that it was not clear if he was clerk or layman.
He shouted at me: ‘Why are you so keen to gaze at me more than the other mired
ones?’ And I to him: ‘Because, if I remember rightly, I have seen you before
with dry head, and you are Alessio Interminei of
Lucca: so I eye you more than all the others.’ And he then, beating his
forehead: ‘The flatteries, of which my tongue never wearied, have brought me
down to this!’
At which my guide said to me: ‘Advance your head a little, so that your eyes
can clearly see, over there, the face of that filthy and dishevelled piece, who
scratches herself, with her soiled nails, now crouching down, now rising to her
feet. It is Thais, the whore, who answered her lover’s
message, in which he asked: “Do you really return me great thanks?” with “No,
wondrous thanks.” And let our looking be sated with this.’
Inferno Canto XIX:1-30 The Third Chasm:
The Sellers of Sacred Offices
O Simon Magus! O you, his rapacious, wretched
followers, who prostitute, for gold and silver, the things of God that should
be wedded to virtue! Now the trumpets must sound for you, since you are in the
third chasm.
Already we had climbed to the next arch, onto that part of the causeway that
hangs right over the centre of the ditch. O Supreme Wisdom, how great the art
is, that you display, in the heavens, on earth, and in the underworld, and how
justly your virtue acts. On the sides and floor of the fosse, I saw the livid
stone full of holes, all of one width, and each one rounded. They seemed no
narrower or larger, than those in my beautiful Baptistery of St John, made as
places to protect those baptising, one of which I broke,
not many years ago, to aid a child inside: and let this be a sign of the truth
to end all speculation.
From the mouth of each hole, a sinner’s feet and legs emerged, up to the calf,
and the rest remained inside. The soles were all on fire, so that the joints
quivered so strongly, that they would have snapped grass ropes and willow
branches. As the flame of burning oily liquids moves only on the surface, so it
was in their case, from the heels to the legs.
Inferno Canto XIX:31-87 Pope Nicholas III
I said: ‘Master, who is that, who twists himself about, writhing more than all
his companions, and licked by redder flames?’ And he to me: ‘If you will let me
carry you down there by the lower bank, you will learn from him about his sins
and himself.’ And I: ‘Whatever pleases you is good for me: you are my lord, and
know that I do not deviate from your will, also you know what is not spoken.’
Then we came onto the fourth buttress: we turned and descended, on the left,
down into the narrow and perforated depths. The kind master did not let me
leave his side until he took me to the hole occupied by the one who so agonised
with his feet.
I began to speak: ‘O, unhappy spirit, whoever you are, who have your upper
parts below, planted like a stake, form words if you can.’ I stood like the
friar who gives confession to a treacherous assassin, who, after being fixed in
the ground, calls the confessor back, and so delays his burial. And he cried:
‘Are you standing there already, Boniface, are you
standing there already? The book of the future has deceived me by several
years. Are you sated, so swiftly, with that wealth, for which you did not
hesitate to seize the Church, our lovely lady, and then destroy her?’
I became like those who stand, not knowing what has been said to them, and
unable to reply, exposed to scorn. Then Virgil said: ‘Quickly, say to him, “I
am not him, I am not whom you think.” ’ And I replied as I was instructed. At
which the spirit’s legs writhed fiercely: then, sighing, in a tearful voice, he
said to me: ‘Then what do you want of me? If it concerns you so much to know
who I am, that you have left the ridge, know that I
wore the Great Mantle, and truly I was son of the Orsini she-bear, so eager to advance her cubs, that I pursed up wealth, above, and
here myself.
The other simonists, who came before me, are drawn down below my head, cowering
inside the cracks in the stone. I too will drop down there, when Boniface comes,
the one I mistook you for when I put my startled question. But the extent of
time, in which I have baked my feet, and stood like this, reversed, is already
longer than the time he shall stand planted in turn with glowing feet, since,
after him, will come Clement, the lawless shepherd, of
uglier actions, fit indeed to cap Boniface and me.
He will be a new Jason, the high priest, whom we
read about in Maccabees: and as his king Antiochus was
compliant, so will Philip be, who governs France.’
Inferno Canto XIX:88-133 Dante speaks
against Simony
I do not know if I was too foolhardy then, but I answered him in this way: ‘Ah,
now tell me, how much wealth the Lord demanded of Peter,
before he gave the keys of the Church into his keeping? Surely he demanded
nothing, saying only: ‘Follow me.’ Nor did Peter or the other Apostles, ask
gold or silver of Matthias, when he was chosen to fill
the place that Judas, the guilty soul, had forfeited. So,
remain here, since you are justly punished, and keep well the ill-gotten money,
that made you so bold against Charles of Anjou.
And were it not that I am still restrained by reverence for the great keys that
you held in your hand in the joyful life, I would use even more forceful words,
since your avarice grieves the world, trampling the good, and raising the
wicked. John the Evangelist spoke of shepherds such as
you, when he saw ‘the great whore that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the
kings of the earth have committed fornication’, she that was born with seven
heads and, as long as virtue pleased her spouse, had justification.
You have made a god for yourselves of gold and silver, and how do you differ
from the idolaters, except that he worships one image and you a hundred? Ah, Constantine, how much evil you gave birth to, not in
your conversion, but in that Donation that the first wealthy Pope, Sylvester, received from you!’
And while I sung these notes to him, he thrashed violently with both his feet,
either rage or conscience gnawing him. I think it pleased my guide, greatly, he
had so satisfied an expression, listening to the sound of the true words I
spoke. So he lifted me with both his arms, and when he had me quite upon his
breast, climbed back up the path he had descended, and did not tire of carrying
me clasped to him, till he had borne me to the summit of the arch, that crosses
from the fourth to the fifth rampart.
Here he set his burden down, lightly:
light for him, on the rough steep cliff, that would be a difficult path for a
goat. From there another valley was visible to me.
Inferno Canto XX:1-30 The Fourth Chasm:
The Seers and Sorcerers
I must make verses of new torments, and give matter for this twentieth Canto,
of Inferno that treats of the damned.
I was now quite ready to look into the ditch, bathed with tears of anguish,
which was revealed to me: I saw people coming, silent and weeping, through the
circling valley, at a pace which processions, that chant Litanies, take through
the world. When my eyes looked further down on them, each of them appeared
strangely distorted, between the chin and the start of the chest, since the
head was reversed towards the body, and they had to move backwards, since they
were not allowed to look forwards. Perhaps one might be so distorted by palsy,
but I have not seen it, and do not credit it.
Reader, as God may grant that you profit from your reading, think now yourself
how I could keep from weeping, when I saw our image so contorted, nearby, that
the tears from their eyes bathed their hind parts at the cleft. Truly, I wept,
leaning against one of the rocks of the solid cliff, so that my guide said to
me: ‘Are you like other fools, as well? Pity is alive here, where it is best
forgotten. Who is more impious than one who bears compassion for God’s
judgement?’
Inferno Canto XX:31-51 The Seers
‘Lift your head, lift it and see him for whom earth opened, under the eyes of
the Thebans, at which they all shouted: “Where are you rushing, Amphiaräus? Why do you quit the battle?” And he did not
stop his downward rush until he reached Minos, who grasps
every sinner. Note how he has made a chest of his shoulders: because he willed
to see too far beyond him, he now looks behind and goes backwards.
See Tiresias, who changed his form, when he was made a
woman, all his limbs altering: and later he had to strike the two entwined
snakes with his staff, a second time, before he could resume a male aspect.
That one is Aruns, who has his back to Tiresias’s belly,
he who in the mountains of Tuscan Luni, where the Carrarese hoe, who live
beneath them, had a cave to live in, among the white marble, from which he
could gaze at the stars and the sea, with nothing to spoil his view.’
Inferno Canto XX:52-99 Manto and the
founding of Mantua
‘And she that hides her breasts, that you cannot see, with her flowing tresses,
and has all hairy skin on the other side, was Manto, who
searched through many lands, then settled where I was born, about which it
pleases me to have you listen to me speak a while.
After her father departed from life, and Thebes, the city of Bacchus, came to
be enslaved, she roamed the world a long time. A lake, Lake Garda, lies at the
foot of the Alps, up in beautiful Italy, where Germany is closed off beyond the
Tyrol. Mount Apennino, between the town of Garda and Val Camonica, is bathed by
the water that settles in the lake. In the middle there is a place where the
Bishops of Trent, Brescia, and Verona might equally give the blessing if they
went that way. A strong and beautiful fortress stands, where the shoreline is
lowest, to challenge the Brescians and Bergamese.
There, all the water that cannot remain in the breast of Lake Garda, has to
descend through the green fields, and form a river. As soon as the water has
its head, it is no longer Garda, but Mincio, down to Governolo where it joins
the Po. It has not flowed far before it finds the level, on which it spreads
and makes a marsh there, and in summer tends to be unwholesome. Manto, the wild
virgin, passing that way, saw untilled land, naked of inhabitants, among the
fens. There, to avoid all human contact, she stayed, with her followers, to
practise her arts, and lived there, and left her empty body.
Then the people who were scattered round gathered together in that place, which
was well defended by the marshes on every side. They built the city over those
dead bones, and without other augury, called it Mantua, after her who first
chose the place. Once there were more inhabitants, before Casalodi,
was foolishly deceived by Pinamonte. So, I charge
you, if you ever hear another story of the origin of my city, do not let
falsehoods destroy the truth.’
Inferno Canto XX:100-130 The Soothsayers
and Astrologers
And I said: ‘Master, your speeches are so sound to me, and so hold my belief,
that any others are like spent ashes. But tell me about the people who are
passing, if you see any of them worth noting, since my mind returns to that
alone.’
Then he said to me: ‘That one, whose beard stretches down from his cheeks, over
his dusky shoulders, was an augur, when Greece was so emptied of males, for the
expedition against Troy, that there were scarcely any left, even in their
cradles. Like Calchas at Aulis, he set the moment for
cutting loose the first cable. Eurypylus is his name,
and my high Poem sings of it in a certain place: you know it well, who know the
whole thing.
The other, so thin about the flanks, is Michael Scott, who
truly understood the fraudulent game of magic. See Guido
Bonatti, see Asdente, who wishes now he had attended
more to his shoemaker’s leather and cord, but repents too late. See the
miserable women who abandoned needle, shuttle and spindle, and became
prophetesses: they made witchcraft, using herbs and images.
But come, now, for Cain with his bundle of thorns, that Man
in the Moon, reaches the western confines of both hemispheres, and touches the waves south of Seville, and already,
last night, the Moon was full: you must remember it clearly, since she did not
serve you badly in the deep wood.’ So he spoke to me, and meanwhile we moved
on.
Inferno Canto XXI:1-30 The Fifth Chasm:
The Sellers of Public Offices
So from bridge to bridge we went, with other conversation which my Commedía
does not choose to recall, and were at the summit arch when we stopped to see
the next cleft of Malebolge, and more vain grieving, and I found it
marvellously dark.
As, in the Venetian Arsenal, the glutinous pitch boils in winter, that they use
to caulk the leaking boats they cannot sail; and so, instead one man builds a
new boat, another plugs the seams of his, that has made many voyages, one
hammers at the prow, another at the stern, some make oars, and some twist rope,
one mends a jib, the other a mainsail; so, a dense pitch boiled down there, not
melted by fire, but by divine skill, and glued the banks over, on every side.
I saw it, but nothing in it, except the bubbles that the boiling caused, and
the heaving of it all, and the cooling part’s submergence. While I was
gazing fixedly at it, my guide said: ‘Take care. Take care!’ and drew me
towards him, from where I stood. Then I turned round, like one who has to see
what he must run from, and who is attacked by sudden fear, so that he dare not
stop to look: and behind us I saw a black Demon come running up the cliff.
Inferno Canto XXI:31-58 The Barrators
Ah, how fierce his aspect was! And how cruel he seemed in action, with his
outspread wings, and nimble legs! His high pointed shoulders, carried a
sinner’s two haunches, and he held the sinews of each foot tight.
He cried: ‘You, Malebranche, the Evil-clawed, see here is one of Lucca’s
elders, that city whose patron is Santa Zita: push him
under while I go back for the rest, back to that city which is well provided
with them: every one there is a barrator, except Bonturo;
there they make ‘Yes’ of ‘No’ for money.
He threw him down, then wheeled back along the stony cliff, and never was a
mastiff loosed so readily to catch a thief. The sinner plunged in, and rose
again writhing, but the demons under cover of the bridge, shouted: ‘Here the
face of Christ, carved in your cathedral, is of no avail: here you swim differently
than in the Serchio: so, unless you want to try our grapples, do not emerge
above the pitch.’
Then they struck at him with more than a hundred prongs, and said: ‘Here you
must dance, concealed, so that you steal in private, if you can.’ No different
is it, when the cooks make their underlings push the meat down into the depths
of the cauldrons with their hooks, to stop it floating.
Inferno Canto XXI:59-96 Virgil challenges
the Demons’ threats
The good master said to me: ‘Cower down behind a rock, so that you have a
screen to protect yourself, and so that it is not obvious that you are here,
and whatever insult is offered to me, have no fear, since I know these matters,
having been in a similar danger before.’ Then he passed beyond the bridgehead,
and when he arrived on the sixth bank, it was necessary for him to present a
bold front.
The demons rushed from below the bridge, and turned their weapons against him,
with the storm and fury with which a dog rushes at a poor beggar, who suddenly
seeks alms when he stops. But Virgil cried: ‘None, of you, commit an outrage.
Before you touch me with your forks, one of you come over here, to listen, and
then discuss whether you will grapple me.’ They all cried: ‘You go, Malacoda’ at which one moved while the others stood still,
and came towards Virgil, saying: ‘What good will it do him?’
My Master said: ‘Malacoda, do you think I have come here without the Divine
Will, and propitious fate, safe from all your obstructions? Let me go by, since
it is willed, in Heaven, that I show another this wild road.’ Then the demon’s
pride was so down, that he let the hook drop at his feet, and said to the
others: ‘Now, do not hurt him!’ And my guide to me: ‘O you, who are sitting,
crouching, crouching amongst the bridge’s crags, return to me safely, now!’ At
which I moved, and came to him quickly, and the devils all pressed forward so
that I was afraid they would not hold to their orders. So I
once saw the infantry, marching out, under treaty of surrender, from
Caprona, afraid at finding themselves surrounded by so many enemies.
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139 The Demons
escort the Poets
I pressed my whole body close to my guide, and did not take my eyes away from
their aspect, which was hostile. They lowered their hooks, and kept saying, to
one another: ‘Shall I touch him on the backside?’ and answering, ‘Yes, see that
you give him a nick.’
But that demon who was talking to my guide, turned round quickly, and said: ‘Be
quiet, be quiet, Scarmiglione.’ Then he said to us:
‘It will not be possible to go any further along this causeway, since the sixth
arch is lying broken at the base, and if you desire still to go forward, go
along this ridge, and nearby is another cliff that forms a causeway. Yesterday,
five hours later than this hour, twelve
hundred and sixty-six years were completed, since this path here was destroyed.
I am sending some of my company here to see if anyone is out for an airing: go
with them, they will not commit treachery.’ Then he began speaking: ‘Advance, Alichino and Calcabrina, and
you, Cagnazzo: let Barbariccia lead the ten. Let Libicocco come as well, and Draghignazzo, tusked Ciriatto, Grafficane, Farfarello,
and Rubicante the mad one. Search round the boiling
glue: see these two safe, as far as the other cliff that crosses the chasms,
completely, without a break.’
I said: ‘O me! Master, what do I see? Oh, let us go alone, without an escort,
if you know the way: as for me, I would prefer not. If you are as cautious as
usual, do you not see how they grind their teeth, and darken their brows,
threatening us with mischief?’ And he to me: ‘I do not want you to be afraid:
let them grin away at their will: since they do it for the boiled wretches.’
They turned by the left bank: but first, each of them had stuck his tongue out,
between his teeth, towards their leader, as a signal, and he had made a trumpet
of his arse.
Inferno Canto XXII:1-30 The Poets view more of the Fifth
Chasm
I have seen cavalry moving camp, before now, starting a
foray, holding muster, and now and then retiring to escape; I have seen
war-horses on your territory, O Aretines, and seen the foraging parties, the
clash of tournaments, and repeated jousts; now with trumpets, now with bells,
with drums and rampart signals, with native and foreign devices, but I never
yet saw infantry or cavalry, or ship at sight of shore or star, move to such an
obscene trumpet.
We went with the ten demons: ah, savage company! But, they say: ‘In church with
the saints, and in the inn with the drunkards.’ But my mind was on the boiling
pitch, to see each feature of the chasm, and the people who were burning in it.
Like dolphins, arching their backs, telling the sailors to get ready to save
their ship, so, now and then, to ease the punishment, some sinner showed his
back, and hid as quick as lightning.
And as frogs squat, at the edge of the ditchwater, with only mouths showing, so
that their feet and the rest of them are hidden, so the sinners stood on every
side: but they instantly shot beneath the seething, as Barbariccia approached.
Inferno
Canto XXII:31-75 Ciampolo
I saw, and my heart still shudders at it, one linger, just as one frog remains
when the others scatter: and Graffiacane, who was
nearest him, hooked his pitchy hair, and hauled him up, looking, to me, like an
otter. I already knew the names of every demon, so I noted them well as they
were called, and when they shouted to each other, listened out.
‘O Rubicante, see you get your clutches in him, and
flay him,’ all the accursed tribe cried together. And I: ‘Master, make out if
you can, who that wretch is, who has fallen into the hands of his enemies.’ My
guide drew close to him, and asked him where he came from, and he answered: ‘I was born in the kingdom of Navarre. My mother placed me
as a servant to a lord, since she had borne me to a scurrilous waster of
himself and his possessions. Then I was of the household of good King Thibaut, and there I took to selling offices, for which I
serve my sentence in this heat.’
And Ciriatto, from whose mouth a tusk, like a boar’s,
projected on each side, made him feel how one of them could rip. The mouse had
come among the evil cats: but Barbariccia caught him
in his arms, and said: ‘Stand back, while I fork him!’ And, turning to my
Master, he said: ‘Ask away, if you want to learn more from him, before someone
else gets at him.’
So my guide said: ‘Now say, do you know any of the other sinners under the
boiling pitch that is a Latian?’ And Ciampolo replied:
‘I separated, just now, from one who was a neighbour of theirs over there, and
I wish I were still beneath him, since I should not then fear claw or hook!’
And Libicocco cried: ‘We have endured this too long!’
and grappled Ciampolo’s arm with the prong, and, mangling it, carried away a
chunk. Draghignazzo, too, wanted a swipe at the
legs, below: at which their leader twisted round and round on them with an evil
frown.
Inferno Canto XXII:76-96 Ciampolo names
other Barrators
When they had settled a little, without waiting, my guide asked Ciampolo, who was still gazing at his wound: ‘Who was he,
from whom you say you unluckily separated, to come on land?’ He replied: ‘It
was Friar Gomita, he of Gallura, in Sardinia, the vessel
of every fraud, who held his master’s prisoners in his hands, and treated them
so that they all praise him for it, taking money for himself, and letting them
go, quietly: and in his other roles, he was a high, and not a low, barrator.
With him, Don Michel Zanche of Logodoro, keeps company,
and their tongues never tire of speaking of Sardinia. O me! See that other
demon grinning: I would speak more, but I fear he is getting ready to claw my
skin.’ And their great captain, turning to Farfarello,
who was rolling his eyes to strike, said: ‘Away with you, cursed bird.’
Inferno Canto XXII:97-123 Ciampolo breaks
free of the Demons
The scared sinner then resumed: ‘If you want to see or hear Tuscans or
Lombards, I will make them come, but let the Malebranche hold back a little, so
that the others may not feel their vengeance, and sitting here, I, who am one,
will make seven appear, by whistling, as we do, when any of us gets out.’ Cagnazzo raised his snout, at these words, and, shaking
his head, said: ‘Hear the wicked scheme he has contrived to plunge back down.’
At which Ciampolo, who had a great store of tricks,
replied: ‘I would be malicious indeed, if I contrived greater sorrow for my
companions.’
Alichino, could contain himself no longer, and contrary
to the others said to him: ‘If you run, I will not charge after you, but beat
my wings above the boiling pitch: forget the cliff, and let the bank be a
course, and see if you alone can beat us.’ O you that read this, hear of this
new sport! They all glanced towards the cliff side, he above all who had been
most unwilling for this. The Navarrese picked his moment well, planted his feet
on the ground, and in an instant plunged, and freed himself from their
intention.
Inferno Canto XXII:124-151 The
Malebranche quarrel
Each of the demons was stung with guilt, but Alichino most who had caused the error: so he started up and shouted: ‘You are caught!’
But it helped him little, since wings could not outrun terror: the sinner dived
down: and Alichino, flying, lifted his breast. The duck dives like that when
the falcon nears, and the hawk flies back up, angry and thwarted.
Calcabrina, furious at the trick, flew on after him,
wanting the sinner to escape, in order to quarrel. And when the barrator had
vanished, he turned his claws on his friend, and grappled with him above the
ditch. But the other was sparrow hawk enough to claw him thoroughly, and both
dropped down, into the centre of the boiling pond.
The heat, instantly, separated them, but they could not rise, their wings were
so glued up. Barbariccia, lamenting with the rest,
made four fly over to the other bank, with all their grappling irons, and they
dropped rapidly on both sides to the shore. They stretched their hooks out to
the trapped pair, who were already scaled by the crust, and we left them, like
that, embroiled.
Inferno Canto XXIII:1-57 The Sixth Chasm:
The Hypocrites
Silent, alone, and free of company, we went on, one in front, and the other
after, like minor friars journeying on their way. My thoughts were turned, by
the recent quarrel, to Aesop’s fable of the frog and
mouse, since ‘Si’ and ‘Yes’ are not better matched, than the one case with the
other, if the thoughtful mind couples the beginning and end.
And as one thought springs from another, so another sprang from that,
redoubling my fear. I thought of this: ‘Through us, these are mocked, and with
a kind of hurt and ridicule, that I guess must annoy them. If anger is added to
their malice, they will chase after us, fiercer than snapping dogs that chase a
leveret.’ I felt my hair already lifting in fright, and was looking back
intently, as I said: ‘Master, if you do not hide us both, quickly, I am afraid
of the Malebranche: they are already behind us: I imagine I can hear them now.’
And he: ‘If I were made of silvered glass, I could not take up your image from
outside more rapidly than I fix that image from within. Even now your thoughts
were entering mine, with similar form and action, so that, from both, I have
made one decision. If the right bank slopes enough, that we can drop down, into
the next chasm, we will escape this imaginary pursuit.’ he had not finished
stating this resolve, when I saw them, not far off, coming with extended wings,
with desire to seize us.
My guide suddenly took me up like a mother, wakened by a noise, seeing flames
burning in front of her eyes, who takes her child and runs, and caring more
about him than herself, does not even wait to look around her. Down from the
ridge of the solid bank, he threw himself forward on to the hanging cliff that
dams up the side of the next chasm. Water never ran as fast through the
conduit, turning a mill-wheel on land, when it reaches the paddles, as my
Master, down that bank, carrying me, against his breast, like a son, and not a
companion.
His feet had hardly touched the floor, of the depth below, before the demons
were on the heights above us, but it gave him no fear, since the high
Providence, that willed them to be the guardians of the fifth moat, takes, from
all of them, the power to leave it.
Inferno Canto XXIII:58-81 The Hypocrites
Down below we found a metal-coated tribe, weeping, circling with very slow
steps, and weary and defeated in their aspect. They had cloaks, with deep hoods
over the eyes, in the shape they make for the monks of Cologne. On the outside
they are gilded so it dazzles, but inside all leaden, and so heavy, that
compared to them Frederick’s were made of straw.
O weary mantle for eternity! We turned to the left again, beside them, who were
intent on their sad weeping, but those people, tired by their burden, came on
so slowly that our companions were new at every step. At which, I said to my
guide: ‘Make a search for someone known to us, by name or action, and gaze
around as we move by.’ And one of them, who understood the Tuscan language,
called after us: ‘Rest your feet, you who speed so fast through the dark air,
maybe you will get from me what you request.’ At which my guide turned round
and said: ‘Wait, and then go on, at his pace.’
Inferno Canto XXIII:82-126 The Frauti
Gaudenti: Caiaphas
I stood still, and saw two spirits, who were eager in mind to join me, but
their burden and the narrow path delayed them. When they arrived, they eyed me
askance, for a long time, without speaking a word, then they turned to one
another and said: ‘This one seems alive, by the movement of his throat, and if
they are dead, by what grace are they moving, free of the heavy cloaks?’
Then they said to me: ‘O Tuscan, you have come to the college of sad
hypocrites: do not scorn to tell us who you are.’ And I to them: ‘I was born,
and I grew up, by Arno’s lovely river, in the great city: and I am in the body
I have always worn. But you, who are you, from whom such sadness is distilled,
that I see, coursing down your cheeks? And what punishment is this, that
glitters so?’ And one of them replied: ‘Our orange mantles are of such dense
lead, that weights made of it cause the scales to creak.
We were Fraudi Gaudenti, of that Bolognese order called the ‘Jovial Friars’: I
am Catalano, and he is Loderingo,
chosen by your city, as usually only one is chosen, to keep the peace: and we
wrought such as still appears round your district of Gardingo. ‘O Friars, your
evil ....’ I began, but said no more, because one came in sight, crucified, on
the ground, with three stakes. When he saw me he writhed all over, puffing into
his beard, and sighing, and Friar Catalano, who saw this, said to me: ‘That one
you look at, who is transfixed, is Caiaphas, the high
priest, who counselled the Pharisees, that it was right to martyr one man for
the sake of the people. Crosswise and naked he lies in the road, as you see,
and feels the weight of everyone who passes: and his father-in-law Annas is racked, in this chasm, and the others of that
Council, that was a source of evil to the Jews.’
Then I saw Virgil wonder at him, stretched out on the cross, so vilely, in
eternal exile.
Inferno Canto XXIII:127-148 The Poets
leave the Sixth Chasm
He addressed these words to the Friars, afterwards: ‘If it is lawful for you,
may it not displease you, to tell us if there is any gap on the right, by which
we might leave here, without forcing any of the black angels to come and
extricate us from this deep.’ He replied: ‘There is a causeway that runs from
the great circular wall and crosses all the cruel valleys, nearer at hand than
you think, except that it is broken here and does not cover this one: you will
be able to climb up among its ruins, that slope down the side, and form a mound
at the base.’
Virgil stood, for a while, with bowed head, then said: ‘Malacoda,
who grapples sinners over there, told us the way wrongly.’ And the Friar said:
‘I once heard the Devil’s vices related at Bologna, amongst which I heard that
he is a liar, and the father of lies.’ Then my guide went striding on, his face
somewhat disturbed by anger, at which I parted from the burdened souls,
following the prints of his beloved feet.
Inferno Canto XXIV:1-60 The Poets climb
up: Virgil exhorts Dante
In that part of the new year, when the sun cools his rays under Aquarius, and
the nights already shorten towards the equinox; when the hoar-frost copies its
white sister the snow’s image on the ground, but the hardness of its tracery
lasts only a little time; the peasant, whose fodder is exhausted, rises and
looks out, and sees the fields all white, at which he strikes his thigh, goes
back into the house, and wanders to and fro, lamenting, like a wretch who does
not know what to do; then comes out again, and regains hope, seeing how the
world has changed its aspect, in a moment; and takes his crook, and chases his
lambs out to feed; so the Master made me disheartened, when I saw his forehead
so troubled: but the plaster arrived quickly for the wound.
For, when we reached the shattered arch, my guide turned to me with that sweet
aspect, that I first saw at the base of the mountain. He opened his arms, after
having made some plan in his mind, first looking carefully at the ruin, and
took hold of me. And like one who prepares and calculates, always seeming to
provide in advance, so he, lifting me up towards the summit of one big block,
searched for another fragment, saying: ‘Now clamber over that, but check first
if it will carry you.’
It was no route for one clothed in a cloak of lead, since we could hardly climb
from rock to rock, he weighing little, and I pushed from behind. And if the
ascent were not shorter on that side than on the other, I would truly have been
defeated, I do not know about him. But as Malebolge all drops towards the
entrance to the lowest well, the position of every valley implies that the one
side rises, and the other falls: at last, we came, however, to the point at
which the last boulder ends.
The breath was so driven from my lungs, when I was up, that I could go no
further: in fact, I sat down when I arrived. The Master said: ‘Now, you must
free yourself from sloth: men do not achieve fame, sitting on down, or under
coverlets; fame, without which whoever consumes his life leaves only such trace
of himself, on earth, as smoke does in the air, or foam on water: so rise, and
overcome weariness with spirit, that wins every battle, if it does not lie down
with the gross body. A longer ladder must be climbed: to have left these behind
is not enough: if you understand me, act now so it may profit you.’
I rose then, showing myself to be better filled with breath than I thought, and
said: ‘Go on, I am strong again and ardent.’
Inferno Canto XXIV:61-96 The Seventh
Chasm: The Thieves
We made our way along the causeway, which was rugged, narrow, difficult, and
much steeper than before. I went, speaking, so that I might not seem weak, at
which a voice came from the next moat, inadequate for forming words. I do not
know what it said, though I was already on the summit of the bridge that
crosses there, but he who spoke seemed full of anger. I had turned to look
downwards, but my living eyes could not see the floor, for the darkness, so
that I said: ‘Master, make sure you get to the other side, and let us climb
down the wall, since as I hear sounds from below, but do not understand them,
so I see down there, and make out nothing.’ He said: ‘I make you no answer, but
by action, since a fair request should be followed, in silence, by the work.’
We went down the bridge, at the head of it, where it meets the eighth bank, and
then the seventh chasm was open to me. I saw a fearful mass of snakes inside,
and of such strange appearance, that even now the memory freezes my blood. Let
Libya no longer vaunt its sands: though it engenders chelydri, and jaculi; pareae; and cenchres with amphisbaena; it never showed
pests so numerous or dreadful, nor did Ethiopia, nor Arabia, the land that lies
along the Red Sea. Amongst this cruel and mournful swarm, people were running,
naked and terrified, without hope of concealment, or of that stone, the
heliotrope, that renders the wearer invisible.
They had their hands tied behind them, with serpents, that fixed their head and
tail between the loins, and were coiled in knots in front.
Inferno Canto XXIV:97-129 Vanni Fucci and
the serpent
And see, a serpent struck at one who was near our bank, and transfixed him,
there, where the neck is joined to the shoulders. Neither ‘o’ nor ‘i’
was ever written as swiftly as he took fire, and burned, and dropped down,
transformed to ashes: and after he was heaped on the ground, the powder
gathered itself together, and immediately returned to its previous shape. So,
great sages say, the phoenix dies, and then renews, when it nears its
five-hundredth year. In its life it does not eat grass or grain, but only tears
of incense, and amomum: and its last shroud is nard and myrrh.
The sinner when he rose was like one who falls, and does not know how,
throughthe power of a demon that drags him down to the ground, or through some
other affliction that binds men, and, when he rises, gazes round himself, all
dazed by the great anguish he has suffered, and as he gazes, sighs. O how heavy
the power of God, that showers down such blows in vengeance!
The guide then asked him who he was, at which he answered: ‘I rained down from
Tuscany into this gully, a short while back. Brutish, not human, life pleased
me, mule that I was: I am Vanni Fucci, the wild beast, and
Pistoia was a fitting den for me.’ And I to the guide: ‘Tell him not to move:
and ask what crime sank him down here, since I knew him as a man of blood and
anger.’
And the sinner, who heard me, did not pretend, but turned his face and mind on
me, and gave a look of saddened shame. Then he said: ‘It hurts me more for you
to catch me, trapped, in the misery you see me in, than the moment of my being
snatched from the other life. I cannot deny you what you ask. I am placed so
deep down because I robbed the sacristy of its fine treasures, and it was once
wrongly attributed to others. But, so that you might not take joy from this
sight if you ever escape the gloomy regions, open your ears, and hear what I declare:
Pistoia first is thinned of Blacks: then Florence changes her people and her
laws. Mars brings a vapour, from Valdimagra cloaked in turbid cloud, and a
battle will be fought on the field of Piceno, in an angry and eager tempest,
that will suddenly tear the mist open, so that every White is wounded by it.
And I have said this to give you pain.’
Inferno Canto XXV:1-33 Cacus
At the end of his speech, the thief raised his hands, both making the fig, the
obscene gesture, with thumb between fingers, shouting: ‘Take this, God, I aim
it at you.’ From that moment the snakes were my friends, since one of them
coiled itself round his neck, as if hissing: ‘You will not be able to speak
again.’ Another, round his arms, tied him again, knotting itself so firmly in
front, that he could not even shake them.
Ah, Pistoia, Pistoia, why do you not order yourself to be turned to ash, so
that you may remain no longer, since you outdo your seed in evil-doing? I saw
no spirit so arrogant towards God, through all the dark circles of Inferno,
not even, Capaneus, he who fell from the wall at
Thebes. Vanni Fucci fled, saying not another word, and I saw a Centaur,
full of rage, come, shouting: ‘Where is he, where is the bitter one?’
I do not believe Maremma has as many snakes, as he had on his haunches, there,
where the human part begins. Over his shoulders, behind the head, lay a dragon
with outstretched wings, and it scorches every one he meets. My Master said:
‘That is Cacus, who often made a lake of blood, below the
rocks of Mount Aventine. He does not go with his brothers on the same road,
above, because of his cunning theft from the great herd of oxen, pastured near
him: for which his thieving actions ended, under the club of Hercules,
who gave him a hundred blows perhaps with it, and he did not feel a tenth.’
Inferno Canto XXV:34-78 Cianfa and
Agnello
While he said this, the Centaur ran past, and three spirits came by, also,
beneath us, whom neither I, nor my guide, saw, until they cried: ‘Who are you?’
Our words ceased, then, and we gave our attention to them, alone.
I did not know them, but it happened, as it usually does for some reason, that
one had to call the other, saying: ‘Where has Cianfa gone?’ At which I placed my finger over my mouth, in order to make my guide
stop and wait.
Reader, if you are slow to credit, now, what I have to tell, it will be no
wonder, since I who saw it, scarcely credit it myself. While I kept looking at
them, a six-footed serpent darted in front of one of them, and fastened itself
on him, completely. It clasped his belly with it middle feet, seized his arms
with the front ones, and then fixed its teeth in both his cheeks. The rear feet
it stretched along his thighs, and put its tail between them, and curled it
upwards round his loins, behind.
Ivy
was never rooted to a tree, as the foul monster twined its limbs around the
other. Then they clung together, as if they were melted wax, and mixed their
colours: neither the one nor the other seemed what it had at first: just as in
front of the flame on burning paper, a brown colour appears, not yet black, and
the white is consumed.
The
other two looked on, and each cried: ‘Ah me, Agnello,
how you change! See, you are already not two, not one!’ The two heads had now
become one, where two forms seemed to us merged in one face, and both were
lost. Two limbs were made of the four forearms, the thighs, legs, belly and
chest became such members as were never seen before. The former shape was all
extinguished in them: the perverse image seemed both, and neither, and like
that it moved away with slow steps.
Inferno Canto XXV:79-151 Buoso degli
Abati and Francesco
As the lizard, in the great heat of the Dog days, appears like a flash of
lightning, scurrying from hedge to hedge, if it crosses the track, so a little reptile came towards the bellies of the
other two, burning with rage, black and livid as peppercorn. And it pierced
that part, in one of them, where we first receive our nourishment from our
mothers: then fell down, stretched out in front of him. The thief, transfixed,
gazed at it but said nothing, but with motionless feet, only yawned, as if
sleep or fever had overcome him. He looked at the snake: it looked at him: the
one gave out smoke, violently, from his wound, the other from its mouth, and
the smoke met.
Let Lucan now be silent, about Sabellus
and Nasidius, and wait to hear that which I now tell.
Let Ovid be silent about Cadmus and Arethusa: if he in poetry changes one into a snake, and
the other into a fountain, I do not envy him, since he never transmuted two
natures, face to face, so that both forms were eager to exchange their
substance.
They merged together in such a way, that the serpent split its tail into a
fork, and the wounded spirit brought his feet together. Along with them, the
legs and thighs, so stuck to one another, that soon the join left no visible
mark. The cleft tail took on the form lost in the other, and its skin grew
soft, the other’s hard. I saw the arms enter the armpits: and the two feet of
the beast that were short, lengthened themselves by as much as the arms were
shortened. Then the two hind feet twisted together, and became the organ that a
man conceals, and the wretch, from his, had two pushed out.
While the smoke covers them both with a new colour, and generates hair on one
part, and strips it from another, the one rose up, erect, and the other fell,
prostrate: not by that shifting their impious gaze, beneath which they mutually
exchanged features. The erect one drew his face towards the temples, and from
the excess of matter that swelled there, ears came, out of the smooth cheeks.
That which did not slip back, but remained, formed a nose from the superfluous
flesh, and enlarged the lips to their right size. He that lay prone, thrust his
sharpened visage forward, and drew his ears back into his head, as the snail
does its horns into its shell, and his tongue, which was solid before, and fit
for speech, splits itself. In the other the forked tongue melds, and the smoke
is still.
The soul that had become a beast, sped, hissing, along the valley, leaving the
other, speaking and spluttering, behind him. Then the second turned his new-won
shoulders towards him, and called to the other: ‘Buoso shall crawl, as I did, along this road.’ So I saw the seventh chasm’s bodies
mutate and transmutate: and let the novelty of it be the excuse, if my pen has
gone astray.
Though my sight was somewhat confused, and my mind dismayed, they could not
flee so secretly, but that I clearly saw Puccio Sciancato:
and it was he, alone, of the three companions, who had first arrived, who was
not changed. One of the others, Francesco, was he
who caused you, the people of Gaville, to weep.
Inferno Canto XXVI:1-42 The Eighth Chasm:
The Evil Counsellors
Rejoice, Florence, that, since you are so mighty, you beat your wings over land
and sea, and your name spreads through Hell itself. So, among the thieves, I
found five of your citizens: at which I am ashamed, and you do not rise to
great honour by it either. But if the truth is dreamed, as morning comes, you
will soon feel what Prato, and others, wish on you. And,
if it were come already, it would not be too soon: would it were so, now, as
indeed it must come, since it will trouble me more, the older I am.
We left there, and my guide remounted by the stairs that the stones had made
for us to descend, and drew me up: and, following our solitary way, among the
crags and splinters of the cliff, the foot made no progress without the hand.
I
was saddened then, and sadden now, again, when I direct my mind to what I saw,
and rein in my intellect more than I am used, so that it does not run where
virtue would not guide it, and so that, if a good star, or some truer power,
has granted me the talent, I may not abuse the gift.
The
eighth chasm was gleaming with flames, as numerous as the fireflies the peasant
sees, as he rests on the hill, when the sun, who lights the world, hides his
face least from us, and the fly gives way to the gnat down there, along the
valley, where he gathers grapes, perhaps, and ploughs.
As soon as I
came to where the floor showed itself, I saw them, and, as Elisha,
the mockery of whom by children was avenged by bears, saw Elijah’s
chariot departing, when the horses rose straight to Heaven, and could not
follow it with his eyes, except by the flame alone, like a little cloud,
ascending, so each of those flames moved, along the throat of the ditch, for
none of them show the theft, but every flame steals a sinner.
Inferno Canto XXVI:43-84 Ulysses and
Diomede
I stood on the bridge, having so risen to look, that if I had not caught hold
of a rock I should have fallen in without being pushed. And the guide, who saw
me so intent, said: ‘The spirits are inside those fires: each veils himself in
that which burns him.’ I replied: ‘Master, I feel more assured from hearing
you, but had already seen that it was so, and already wished to say to you, who
is in that fire, that moves, divided at the summit, as if it rose from the pyre
where Eteocles was cremated with his brother, Polynices?’
He answered me: ‘In there, Ulysses and Diomede are tormented, and so they go, together in punishment, as formerly in war: and,
in their fire, they groan at the ambush of the Trojan horse, that made a
doorway, by which Aeneas, the noble seed of the Romans
issued out. In there they lament the trick, by which Deidamia,
in death, still weeps for Achilles: and there, for the
Palladium, they endure punishment.’
I said: ‘Master, I beg you greatly, and beg again so that my prayers may be a
thousand, if those inside the fires can speak, do not refuse my waiting until
the horned flame comes here: you see how I lean towards it with desire.’ And he
to me: ‘Your request is worth much praise, and so I accept it, but restrain
your tongue. Let me speak: since I conceive what you wish, and because they
were Greeks they might disdain your Trojan words.’
When the flame had come, where the time and place seemed fitting, to my guide,
I heard him speak, so: ‘O you, who are two in one fire, if I was worthy of you
when I lived, if I was worthy of you, greatly or a little, when on earth I
wrote the high verses, do not go, but let one of you tell where he, being lost
through his own actions, went to die.’
Inferno Canto XXVI:85-142 Ulysses’s last voyage
The greater horn of the ancient flame started to shake itself, murmuring, like
a flame struggling in the wind. Then moving the tip, as if it were a tongue
speaking, gave out a voice, and said: ‘When I left Circe,
who held me for more than a year, near to Gaeta, before Aeneas named it, not even my fondness for my son, Telemachus,
my reverence for my aged father, Laërtes, nor the debt
of love that should have made Penelope happy, could
restrain in me the desire I had, to gain experience of the world, and of human
vice and worth.
I set out on the wide, deep ocean, with only one ship, and that little company,
that had not abandoned me. I saw both shores, as far as Spain, as far as
Morocco, and the isle of Sardinia, and the other islands that sea washes. I,
and my companions, were old, and slow, when we came to that narrow strait,
where Hercules set up his pillars, to warn men from
going further. I left Seville to starboard: already Ceuta was left behind on
the other side.
I said: ‘O my
brothers, who have reached the west, through a thousand dangers, do not deny
the brief vigil, your senses have left to them, experience of the unpopulated
world beyond the Sun. Consider your origin: you were not made to live like
brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.’ With this brief speech I made my
companions so eager for the voyage, that I could hardly have restrained them,
and turning the prow towards morning, we made wings of our oars for that
foolish flight, always turning south.
Night already saw
the southern pole, with all its stars, and our northern pole was so low, it did
not rise from the ocean bed. Five times the light beneath the moon had been
quenched and relit, since we had entered on the deep pathways, when a mountain
appeared to us, dim with distance, and it seemed to me the highest I had ever
seen. We rejoiced, but soon our joy was turned to grief, when a tempest rose
from the new land, and struck the prow of our ship. Three times it whirled her
round, with all the ocean: at the fourth, it made the stern rise, and the prow
sink, as it pleased another, till the sea closed over us.’
Inferno Canto XXVII:1-30 Guido Da
Montefeltro
The flame was now erect and quiet, no longer speaking, and was going away from
us, with the permission of the sweet poet, when another, that came behind
forced us to turn our eyes towards its summit, since a confused sound escaped
there.
As the Sicilian bull, that first bellowed with the groans of Perillus,
who had smoothed it with his file (and that was right) bellowed with the
sufferer’s voice, so that, although it was bronze, it seemed pierced with
agony, so here, the dismal words, having, at their source, no exit from the
fire, were changed into its language. But when they had found a path out
through the tip, giving it the movement that the tongue had given in making
them, we heard it say: ‘O you, at whom I direct my voice, and who, but now, was
speaking Lombard, saying: “Now go: no more, I beg you”, let it not annoy you to
stop and speak with me, though perhaps I have came a little late: you see it
does not annoy me, and I burn.
If you are only now fallen into this blind world, from that sweet Latian land,
from which I bring all my guilt, tell me if Romagna has peace or war, for I was
of the mountains there, between Urbino and Monte Coronaro, the source from
which the Tiber springs.’
Inferno Canto XXVII:31-57 The situation
in Romagna
I was still leaning downwards eagerly, when my leader touched me on the side,
saying: ‘Speak, this is a Latian.’ And I who had my answer ready, began to
speak then without delay: ‘O spirit, hidden there below, your Romagna is not,
and never has been, without war in the hearts of her tyrants: but I left no
open war there now.
Ravenna
stands, as it has stood for many years: Guido Vecchio da Polenta’s
eagle broods over it, so that it covers Cervia with its claws. That city,
Forlì, that withstood so long a siege, and made a bloody pile of Frenchmen,
finds itself again under the paws of Ordelaffi’s green
lion.
Malatesta, the old mastiff of Verruchio, and
the young one, Malatestino, who made bad
jailors for Montagna, sharpen their teeth, where they
used to do. Faenza, on the Lamone, and Imola on the Santerno, those cities lead
out Pagano, the lion of the white lair, who changes sides
when he goes from south to north, and Cesena, that city whose walls the Savio
bathes, where it lies between the mountain and the plain, likewise lives
between freedom and tyranny.
Now
I beg you, tell us who you are: do not be harder than others have been to you,
so that your name may keep its lustre on earth.’
Inferno Canto XXVII:58-136 Guido’s history
When the flame had roared for a while as usual, it flickered the sharp point to
and fro, and then gave out this breath: ‘If I thought my answer was given to
one who could ever return to the world, this flame would flicker no more, but
since, if what I hear is true, no one ever returned, alive, from this deep, I
reply, without fear of defamation.
I, Guido da Montefeltro, was a man of arms: and
then became a Cordelier of Saint Francis, hoping to make
amends, so habited: and indeed my hopes would have been realised in full, but
for the Great Priest, Boniface, evil to him, who drew
me back to my first sins: and how and why, I want you to hear from me.
While I was in the form of bones and pulp, that my mother gave me, my actions
were not those of the lion, but of the fox. I knew all the tricks and coverts,
and employed the art of them so well, that the noise went out to the ends of
the earth. When I found myself arrived at that point of life, when everyone
should furl their sails, and gather in the ropes, what had pleased me before,
now grieved me, and with repentance and confession, I turned monk. Ah misery!
Alas, it would have served me well.
But the Prince of the Pharisees; that Pope waging war near the Lateran, and not
with Saracens or Jews, since all his enemies were Christians, and none had been
to conquer Acre, or been a merchant in the Sultan’s land; had no regard for the
highest office, nor holy orders, nor my habit of Saint Francis, that used to
make those who wore it leaner; but as the Emperor Constantine sought out Saint Sylvester, on Mount Soracte, to
cure his leprosy, so this man called me, as a doctor to cure his feverish
pride. He demanded counsel of me, and I kept silent, since his speech seemed
drunken.
Then he said to me: ‘Do not be doubtful, I absolve you beforehand: and, you,
teach me how to act, so that I may raze the fortress of Palestrina to the
ground. I can open and close Heaven as you know, with the two keys, that my
predecessor, Celestine, did not prize.’ Then the
weighty arguments forced me to consider silence worse, and I said: ‘Father,
since you absolve me of that sin, into which I must now fall, large promises to
your enemies, with little delivery of them, will give you victory, from your
high throne.’
Afterwards, when I was dead, Saint Francis came for me: but one of the Black
Cherubim said to him: ‘Do not take him: do not wrong me. He must descend among
my servants, because he gave a counsel of deceit, since when I have kept him
fast by the hair: he who does not repent, cannot be absolved: nor can one
repent a thing, and at the same time will it, since the contradiction is not
allowed.’ O miserable self! How I started, when he seized me, saying to me:
‘Perhaps you did not think I was a logician.’
He carried me to Minos, who coiled his tail eight times
round his fearful back, and then, biting it in great rage, said: ‘This sinner
is for the thievish fire’, and so I am lost here, as you see, and clothed like
this, go inwardly grieving.’
When he had ended his speech, so, the flame went sorrowing, writhing and
flickering its sharp horn. We passed on, my guide and I, along the cliff, up to
the other arch, that covers the next ditch, in which the reward is paid to
those who collect guilt by sowing discord.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:1-21 The Ninth
Chasm: The Sowers of Discord
Who could ever fully tell, even with repeated unimprisoned words, the blood and
wounds I saw now? Every tongue would certainly fail, since our speech and
memory have too small a capacity to comprehend so much. If all the people, too,
were gathered, who once grieved for their blood, in the fateful land of Apulia,
by reason of the Samnite War of the Romans, of Trojan seed; and those, from
that long Punic War, that, as Livy writes, who does not
err, yielded so great a wealth of rings, from Cannae’s battlefield; and those
who felt the pain of blows by withstanding Robert Guiscard;
and the rest, whose bones are still heaped at Ceperano, where all the Apulians
turned traitor, for Charles of Anjou; and there,
at Tagliacozzo where old Alardo’s advice to Charles
conquered without weapons: and some were to show pierced limbs, and others
severed stumps; it would be nothing to equal the hideous state of the ninth
chasm.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:22-54 Mahomet: the
Caliph Ali
Even a wine-cask, that has lost a stave in the middle or the end, does not yawn
as widely, as a spirit I saw, cleft from the chin down to the part that gives
out the foulest sound: the entrails hung between his legs: the organs appeared,
and the miserable gut that makes excrement of what is swallowed.
While I stood looking wholly at him, he gazed at me, and opened his chest with
his hands, saying: ‘See how I tear myself: see how Mahomet is ripped! In front of me, Ali goes, weeping, his face split
from chin to scalp, and all the others you see here, were sowers of scandal and
schism in their lifetimes: so they are cleft like this. There is a devil behind
who tears us cruelly like this, reapplying his sword blade to each of this crowd,
when they have wandered round the sad road, since the wounds heal before any
reach him again.
But who are you, who muse there on the cliff, maybe to delay your path to
punishment, in sentence for your crimes?’
My Master replied: ‘Death has not come to him yet, nor does guilt lead him to
torment, but it is incumbent on me, who am dead, to grant him full experience,
and lead him, through Inferno, down here, from circle to circle, and this
is truth, that I tell you.’ When they heard him, more than a hundred spirits,
in the ditch, halted, to look at me, forgetting their agony, in their wonder.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:55-90 Pier della
Medicina and others
After lifting up one foot, to leave, Mahomet said to me: ‘Well now, you who
will soon see the sun, perhaps, tell Fra Dolcino of the
Apostolic Brothers, if he does not wish to follow me, quickly, down here, to
furnish himself with supplies, so that the snow-falls may not bring a victory
for the Novarese, that otherwise would be difficult to achieve.’ Then, he
strode forward to depart.
Another, who had his throat slit, and nose cut off to the eyebrows, and had
only a single ear, standing to gaze in wonder with the rest, opened his
wind-pipe, that was red outside, all over, and said: ‘You, that no guilt
condemns, and whom I have seen above on Latian ground, unless resemblance
deceives me, remember Pier della Medicina, if you ever
return to see the gentle plain, that slopes down from Vercelli to Marcabò. And
make known to the worthiest two men in Fano, Messer Guido,
and Angiolello, also, that unless our prophetic powers
here are in vain, they will be cast out of their boat, and drowned near
Cattolica, by treachery. Neptune never saw a greater crime, between the isles
of Cyprus and Majorca, not even among those carried out by pirates, or by
Greeks. Malatestino, the treacherous one,
who only sees with one eye, and holds the land, that one, who is here with me,
wishes he had never seen, will make them come to parley with him, then act so
that they will have no need of vow or prayer to counter Focara’s winds.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:91-111 Curio and
Mosca
And I said to him: ‘If you would have me carry news of you, above, show me and
explain who he is that rues the sight of it.’ Then he placed his hand on the
jaw of one of his companions, and opened the mouth, saying: ‘This is he: and he
does not speak. This outcast quelled Caesar’s
doubts at the Rubicon, saying that delay always harms men who are ready.’ O how
dejected, Curio seemed to me, with his tongue slit in his
palate, who was so bold in speech!
And one who had both hands severed, lifting the stumps through the dark air, so
that their blood stained his face, said: ‘You will remember Mosca too, who said, alas, “A thing done, has an end” which was seed of evil to the
Tuscan race.’ ‘And death to your people,’ I added, at which he, accumulating
pain on pain, went away like one sad and mad.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:112-142 Bertrand de
Born
But I remained behind to view the crowd, and saw a thing, which, without more
proof, I would be afraid to even tell, except that conscience reassures me, the
good companion, that strengthens a man, under the armour of his self-respect.
I saw it clearly, and still seem to see, a headless trunk, that goes on before,
like the others, in that miserable crew, and holds its severed head, by the
hair, swinging, like a lantern, in its hand. It looked at us, and said: ‘Ah
me!’. It made a lamp of itself, to light itself, and there were two in one, and
one in two: how that can be he knows, who made it so.
When
it was right at the foot of our bridge, it lifted its arm high, complete with
the head, to bring its words near to us, which were: ‘Now you see the grievous
punishment, you, who go, alive and breathing, to see the dead: look if any are
as great as this. And so that you may carry news of me, know that I am Bertrand de Born, he who gave evil counsel to the Young King. I made the
father and the son rebel against each other: Ahithophel did no more for Absalom and David,
by his malicious stirrings.
Because
I parted those who were once joined, I carry my intellect, alas, split from its
origin in this body. So, in me, is seen just retribution.
Inferno Canto XXIX:1-36 Geri del Bello
The multitude of people, and the many wounds, had made my eyes so tear-filled,
that they longed to stop and weep, but Virgil said to me: ‘Why are you still
gazing? Why does your sight still rest, down there, on the sad, mutilated
shadows? You did not do so at the other chasms. Think, if you wish to number
them, that the valley circles twenty-two miles, and the moon is already underneath our feet. The time is
short now, that is given us, and there are other things to view, than those you
see.’
I replied, then: ‘Had you noticed the reason why I looked, perhaps you might
still have allowed me to stay.’ Meanwhile, the guide was moving on, and I went
behind him, making my reply, and adding, now: ‘In the hollow where I held my
gaze, I believe a spirit of my own blood, laments the guilt that costs so
greatly here.’ Then the Master said: ‘Do not let your thoughts be distracted by
him: attend to something else: let him stay there. I saw him point to you, at
the foot of the little bridge, and threaten, angrily, with his finger: and I
heard them call him Geri del Bello. You were so entangled,
then, with him who once held Altaforte, that you
did not look that way, so he departed.’
I said: ‘Oh, my guide, his violent murder made him indignant, not yet avenged
on his behalf, by any that shares his shame: therefore, I guess, he went away,
without speaking to me: and, by that, has made me pity him the more.’
Inferno Canto XXIX:37-72 The Tenth Chasm:
The
Falsifiers
So we talked, as far as the first place on the causeway that would have
revealed the next valley, right to its floor, if it had been lighter. When we
were above the last cloister of Malebolge, so that its lay brothers could be
seen, many groans pierced me, whose arrows were barbed with pity, at which I
covered my ears with my hands. Such pain there was, as there would be, if the
diseases in the hospitals of Valdichiana, Maremma and Sardinia, between July
and September, were all rife in one ditch: a stench arose from it, such as
issues from putrid limbs.
We descended on the last bank of the long causeway, again on the left, and then
my sight was clearer, down to the depths, where infallible Justice, the
minister of the Lord on high, punishes the falsifiers that it accounts for
here. I do not think it would have been a greater sadness to see the people of plague-ridden Aegina, when the air was so malignant, that
every animal, even the smallest worm, was killed, and afterwards, as Poets say, for certain, the ancient race was restored from the
seed of ants, than it was to see the spirits languishing in scattered heaps
through that dim valley. This one lay on its belly, that, on the shoulders of
the other, and some were crawling along the wretched path.
Step by step we went, without a word, gazing at, and listening to, the sick who
could not lift their bodies.
Inferno Canto XXIX:73-99 Griffolino and
Capocchio
I saw two sitting, leaning on each other, as one pan is leant to warm against
another: they were marked with scabs from head to foot, and I never saw a
stable lad his master waits for, or one who stays awake unwillingly, use a
currycomb as fiercely, as each of these two clawed himself with his nails,
because of the intensity of their itching, that has no other relief.
And so the nails dragged the scurf off, as a knife does the scales from bream,
or other fish with larger scales. My Guide began to speak: ‘O you, who strip
your chain-mail with your fingers, and often make pincers of them, tell us if
there is any Latian among those here, inside: and may your nails be enough for
that task for eternity.’ One of them replied, weeping:
‘We are both Latians, whom you see so mutilated here, but who are you who
enquire of us? And the guide said: ‘I am one, who with this living man,
descends from steep to steep, and mean to show him Hell.’
Then the mutual prop broke, and each one turned, trembling, towards me, along
with others that heard him, by the echo.
Inferno Canto XXIX:100-120 Griffolino’s
narrative
The good Master addressed me directly, saying: ‘Tell them what you wish,’ and I
began as he desired: ‘So that your memory will not fade, from human minds, in
the first world, but will live for many suns, tell us who you are, and of what
race. Do not let your ugly and revolting punishment make you afraid to reveal
yourselves to me.’
The one replied: ‘I was Griffolino of Arezzo, and Albero of Siena had me burned: but what I died for did not
send me here. It is true I said to him, jesting, “I could lift myself into the
air in flight,” and he who had great desire and little brain, wished me to show
him that art: and only because I could not make him Daedalus,
he caused me to be burned, by one who looked on him as a son.
But to the last chasm of the ten, Minos, who cannot err,
condemned me, for the alchemy I practised in the world.’
Inferno Canto XXIX:121-139 The
Spendthrift Brigade
And I said to the poet: ‘Now was there ever a people as vain as the Sienese?
Certainly not the French, by far.’ At which the other leper, hearing me,
replied to my words: ‘What of Stricca, who contrived to
spend so little: and Niccolo who first discovered the
costly use of cloves, in that garden, Siena, where such seed takes root: and
that company in which Caccia of Aciano threw away his
vineyard, and his vast forest, and the Abbagliato showed his wit.
But so that you may know who seconds you like this against the Sienese, sharpen
your eye on me, so that my face may reply to you: so you will see I am Capocchio’s shadow, who made false metals, by alchemy,
and you must remember, if I know you rightly, how well I aped nature.’
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48 Schicci and Myrrha
At the time when Juno was angry, as she had shown more than
once, with the Theban race, because of Jupiter’s affair
with Semele, she so maddened King Athamas,
that, seeing his wife, Ino, go by, carrying her two sons in
her arms, he cried: ‘Spread the hunting nets, so that I can take the lioness
and her cubs, at the pass,’ and then stretched out his pitiless talons,
snatching the one, named Learchus, and, whirling him
round, dashed him against the rock: and Ino drowned herself, and her other
burden, Melicertes. And after fortune had brought
down the high Trojan pride, that dared all, so that Priam the king, and his kingdom were destroyed, Queen Hecuba, a
sad, wretched captive, having witnessed the sacrifice of Polyxena,
alone, on the sea-shore, when she recognised the body of her Polydorus, barked like a dog, driven out of her senses,
so greatly had her sorrow racked her mind.
But neither Theban nor Trojan Furies were ever seen embodied so cruelly, in
stinging creatures, or even less in human limbs, as I saw displayed in two
shades, pallid and naked, that ran, biting, as a hungry pig does, when he is
driven out of his sty. The one came to Capocchio, and
fixed his tusks in his neck, so that dragging him along, it made the solid
floor rasp his belly. And the Aretine, Griffolino, who
was left, said to me, trembling: ‘That goblin is Gianni
Schicci, and he goes, rabidly, mangling others like that.’ I replied: ‘Oh,
be pleased to tell us who the other is, before it snatches itself away, and may
it not plant its teeth in you.’
And he to me: ‘That is the ancient spirit of incestuous Myrrha,
who loved her father, Cinyras, with more than lawful
love. She came to him, and sinned, under cover of another’s name, just as the
one who is vanishing there, undertook to disguise himself as Buoso Donati, so as to gain the mare, called the Lady
of the Herd, by forging a will, and giving it legal form.’
When the furious pair, on whom I had kept my eye, were gone, I turned to look at
the other spirits, born to evil.
Inferno Canto XXX:49-90 Adam of Brescia
I saw one, who would have been shaped like a lute, if he had only had his groin
cut short, at the place where a man is forked. The heavy dropsy, that swells
the limbs, with its badly transformed humours, so that the face does not match
the belly, made him hold his lips apart, as the fevered patient does who,
through thirst, curls one lip towards the chin, and the other upwards.
He said to us: ‘O you, who are exempt from punishment in this grim world (and
why, I do not know), look and attend to the misery of Master
Adam. I had enough of what I wished, when I was alive, and now, alas, I
crave a drop of water. The little streams that fall, from the green hills of
Casentino, down to the Arno, making cool, moist channels, are constantly in my
mind, and not in vain, since the image of them parches me, far more than the
disease, that wears the flesh from my face.
The rigid justice, that examines me, takes its opportunity from the place where
I sinned, to give my sighs more rapid flight. That is Romena, where I
counterfeited the coin of Florence, stamped with the Baptist’s
image: for that, on earth, I left my body, burned. But if I could see the
wretched soul of Guido here, or Alessandro, or Aghinolfo,
their brother, I would not exchange that sight for Branda’s fountain. Guido is
down here already, if the crazed spirits going round speak truly, but what use
is it to me, whose limbs are tied?
If I were only light enough to move, even an inch, every hundred years, I would
already have started on the road, to find him among this disfigured people, though
it winds around eleven miles, and is no less than half a mile across. Because
of them I am with such a crew: they induced me to stamp those florins that were
adulterated, with three carats alloy.’
Inferno Canto XXX:91-129 Sinon:
Potiphar’s wife
I said to him: ‘Who are those abject two, lying close to your right edge, and
giving off smoke, like a hand, bathed, in winter? He replied: ‘I found them
here, when I rained down into this pound, and they have not turned since then,
and may never turn I believe.
One is the false wife who accused Joseph. The other is
lying Sinon, the Greek from Troy. A burning fever makes
them stink so strongly.’ And Sinon, who perhaps took offence at being named so
blackly, struck Adamo’s rigid belly with his fist, so that
it resounded, like a drum: and Master Adam struck him in the face with his arm,
that seemed no softer, saying to him: ‘I have an arm free for such a situation,
though I am kept from moving by my heavy limbs.’ At which Sinon answered: ‘You
were not so ready with it, going to the fire, but as ready, and readier, when
you were coining.’ And he of the dropsy: ‘You speak truth in that, but you were
not so truthful a witness, there, when you were questioned about the truth at
Troy.’
‘If I spoke falsely, you falsified the coin,’ Sinon said, ‘and I am here for
the one crime, but you for more than any other devil.’ He who had the swollen
belly answered: ‘Think of the Wooden Horse, you liar, and let it be a torment
to you that all the world knows of it.’ The Greek replied: ‘Let the thirst that
cracks the tongue be your torture, and the foul water make your stomach a
barrier in front of your eyes.’ Then the coiner: ‘Your mouth gapes wide as
usual, to speak ill. If I have a thirst, and moisture swells me, you have the
burning, and a head that hurts you: and you would not need many words of
invitation, to lap at the mirror of Narcissus.’
Inferno Canto XXX:130-148 Virgil reproves
Dante
I was standing, all intent on hearing them, when the Master said to me: ‘Now,
keep gazing much longer, and I will quarrel with you!’ When I heard him speak
to me in anger, I turned towards him, with such a feeling of shame that it
comes over me again, as I only think of it. And like someone who dreams of
something harmful to them, and dreaming, wishes it were a dream, so that they
long for what is, as if it were not; that I became, who, lacking power to
speak, wished to make an excuse, and all the while did so, not thinking I was
doing it.
My Master said: ‘Less shamefacedness would wash away a greater fault than
yours, so unburden yourself of sorrow, and know that I am always with you,
should it happen that fate takes you, where people are in similar conflict:
since the desire to hear it, is a vulgar desire.’
Inferno Canto XXXI:1-45 The Giants that
guard the central pit
One and the same tongue at first wounded me, so that it painted both my cheeks
with blushes, and then gave out the ointment for the wound. So I have heard the
spear of Achilles, and his father Peleus,
was the cause first of sadness, and then of a healing gift.
We turned our back on the wretched valley, crossing without a word, up by the
bank that circles round it. Here was less darkness than night and less light
than day, so that my vision showed only a little in front: but I heard a
high-pitched horn sound, so loudly, that it would have made thunder seem quiet:
it directed my eyes, that followed its passage back, straight to a single
point. Roland did not sound his horn so fiercely, after
the sad rout, when Charlemagne had lost the holy
war, at Roncesvalles.
I had kept my head turned for a while in that direction, when I seemed to make
out many high towers, at which I said: ‘Master, tell me what city this is?’ And
he to me: ‘Because your eyes traverse the darkness from too far away, it
follows that you imagine wrongly. You will see, quite plainly, when you reach
there, how much the sense is deceived by distance, so press on more strongly.’
Then he took me, lovingly, by the hand, and said: ‘Before we go further, so
that the reality might seem less strange to you, know that they are Giants, not
towers, and are in the pit, from the navel downwards, all of them, around its
bank.’
As the eye, when a mist is disappearing, gradually recreates what was hidden by
the vapour thickening the air, so, while approaching closer and closer to the
brink, piercing through that gross, dark atmosphere, error left me, and my fear
increased. As Montereggione crowns its round wall
with towers, so the terrible giants, whom Jupiter still threatens from the
heavens, when he thunders, turreted with half their bodies the bank that
circles the well.
Inferno Canto XXXI:46-81 Nimrod
And I already saw the face of one, the shoulders, chest, the greater part of
the belly, and the arms down both sides. When nature abandoned the art of
making creatures like these, she certainly did well by removing such killers
from warfare, and if she does not repent of making elephants and whales,
whoever looks at the issue subtly, considers her more prudent and more right in
that, since where the instrument of mind is joined to ill will and power, men
have no defence against it.
His face seemed to me as long and large as the bronze pine-cone, in front of St Peter’s in Rome, and his
other features were in proportion, so that the bank that covered him from the
middle onwards, revealed so much of him above that three Frieslanders would
have boasted in vain of reaching his hair, since I saw thirty large hand-spans
of him down from the place where a man pins his cloak.
The savage mouth, for which no sweeter hymns were fit, began to rave: ‘Rafel
mai amech sabi almi.’ And my guide turning to him, said: ‘Foolish spirit,
stick to your hunting-horn, and vent your breath through that, when rage or
some other passion stirs you. Search round your neck, O confused soul, and you
will find the belt where it is slung, and see that which arcs across your huge
chest.’ Then he said to me: ‘He declares himself. This is Nimrod,
through whose evil thought, one language is not still used, throughout the
whole world. Let us leave him standing here, and not speak to him in vain:
since every language, to him, is like his to others, that no one understands.’
Inferno Canto XXXI:82-96 Ephialtes
So we went on, turning to the left, and, a crossbow-shot away, we found the
next one, far larger and fiercer. Who and what the power might be that bound
him, I cannot say, but he had his right arm pinioned behind, and the other in
front, by a chain that held him tight, from the neck down, and, on the visible
part of him, reached its fifth turn.
My guide said: ‘This proud spirit had the will to try his strength against high
Jupiter, and so has this reward. Ephialtes is his
name, and he made the great attempt, when the Giants made the gods fear, and
the arms he shook then, now, he never moves.’
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145 Antaeus
And I said to him: ‘If it were possible, I would wish my eyes to light on vast Briareus.’ To which he replied: ‘You will see Antaeus, nearby, who speaks and is unchained, and will set
us down in the deepest abyss of guilt. He whom you wish to see is far beyond,
and is formed and bound like this one, except he seems more savage in his
features.’ No huge earthquake ever shook a tower, as violently as Ephialtes
promptly shook himself. Then I feared death more than ever, and the fear alone
would have been enough to cause it, had I not seen his chains.
We then went further on, and reached Antaeus, who projected twenty feet from
the pit, not including his head. The Master spoke: ‘O you, who, of old, took a
thousand lions for your prey, in the fateful valley, near Zama, that made Scipio heir to glory, when Hannibal retreated with his army; you, through whom, it might still be believed, the
Giant sons of Earth would have overcome the gods, if you had been at the great
war with your brothers; set us down, and do not be shy to do it, where the cold
imprisons the River Cocytus, in the Ninth Circle.
Do
not make us ask Tityos or Typhon. Bend, and do not curl your lips in scorn: this man can give that which is
longed for, here: he can refresh your fame on earth, since he is alive, and
still expects long life, if grace does not call him to her before his time.’ So
the Master spoke, and Antaeus quickly stretched out both hands, from which Hercules of old once felt the power, and seized my guide.
Virgil when he felt his grasp, said to me: ‘Come here, so that I may carry
you.’ Then he made one bundle of himself and me.
To
me, who stood watching to see Antaeus stoop, he seemed as the leaning tower at
Bologna, the Carisenda, appears to the view, under the leaning side, when a
cloud is passing over it, and it hangs in the opposite direction. It was such a
terrible moment I would have wished to have gone by another route, but he set
us down gently in the deep, that swallowed Lucifer and Judas, and did not linger there, bent, but straightened
himself, like a mast raised in a boat.
Inferno Canto XXXII:1-39 The Ninth
Circle: The frozen River Cocytus
If
I had words, rough and hoarse enough, to fit the dismal chasm, on which all the
other rocky cliffs weigh, and converge, I would squeeze out the juice of my
imagination more completely: but since I have not, I bring myself, not without
fear, to describe the place: to tell of the pit of the Universe is not a task
to be taken up in play, nor in a language that has words like ‘mother’ and
‘father’. But may the Muses, those Ladies, who helped Amphion shut Thebes behind its walls, aid my speech, so
that my words may not vary from the truth.
O you people,
created evil beyond all others, in this place that is hard to speak of, it were
better if you had been sheep or goats here on earth! When we were down, inside
the dark well, beneath the Giants’ feet, and much lower, and I was still
staring at the steep cliff, I heard a voice say to me: ‘Take care as you pass,
so that you do not tread, with your feet, on the heads of the wretched, weary
brothers.’ At which I turned, and saw a lake, in front of me and underneath my
feet, that, because of the cold, appeared like glass not water.
The Danube, in
Austria, never formed so thick a veil for its winter course, nor the Don, far
off under the frozen sky, as was here: if Mount Tambernic in the east, or Mount
Pietrapana, had fallen on it, it would not have even creaked at the margin. And
as frogs sit croaking with their muzzles above water, at the time when peasant
women often dream of gleaning, so the sad shadows sat, in the ice, livid to
where the blush of shame appears, chattering with their teeth, like storks.
Each one held his
face turned down: the cold is witnessed, amongst them, by their mouths: and their
sad hearts, by their eyes.
Inferno Canto XXXII:40-69 The Caïna: The degli Alberti: Camicion
When I had a looked around awhile, turning to my feet, I saw two, so compressed
together, that the hair of their heads was intermingled. I said: ‘Tell me, you,
who press your bodies together so: who are you?’ And they twisted their necks
up, and when they had lifted their faces towards me, their eyes, which were
only moist, inwardly, before, gushed at the lids, and the frost iced fast the
tears, between them, and sealed them up again. No vice ever clamped wood to
wood as firmly: so that they butted one another like two he-goats, overcome by
such rage.
And one, who had lost both ears to the cold, with his face still turned down,
said: ‘Why are you staring at us, so fiercely? If you want to know who these
two are, they are the degli Alberti, Allesandro and Napoleone:
the valley where the Bisenzio runs down, was theirs and their father Alberto’s.
They issued from one body, and you can search the whole Caïna,
and will not find shades more worthy of being set in ice: not even Mordred, whose chest and shadow, were pierced, at one blow,
by his father’s, King Arthur’s, lance: nor Focaccia: nor this one, who obstructs my face with his
head, so that I cannot see further, who was named Sassol
Mascheroni. If you are a Tuscan, now, you know truly what he was.
And so that you do not put me to more speech, know that I am Camicion
de’ Pazzi, and am waiting for Carlino, my kinsman, to
outdo me.’
Inferno Canto XXXII:70-123 The Antenora: Bocca degli Abbati
Afterwards I saw a thousand faces, made doglike by the cold, at which a
trembling overcomes me, and always will, when I think of the frozen fords. And,
whether it was will, or fate or chance, I do not know: but walking, among the
heads, I struck my foot violently against one face. Weeping it cried out to me:
‘Why do you trample on me? If you do not come to increase the revenge for
Montaperti, why do you trouble me?
And I: ‘My Master, wait here for me, now, so that I can rid me of a doubt
concerning him, then you can make as much haste as you please.’ The Master
stood, and I said to that shade which still reviled me bitterly: ‘Who are you,
who reproach others in this way?’ ‘No, who are you,’ he answered, ‘who go
through the Antenora striking the faces of others, in
such a way, that if you were alive, it would be an insult?’
I replied: ‘I am alive, and if you long for fame, it might be a precious thing
to you, if I put your name among the others.’ And he to me: ‘I long for the
opposite: take yourself off, and annoy me no more: since you little know how to
flatter on this icy slope.’ Then I seized him by the back of the scalp, and
said: ‘You need to name yourself, before there is not a hair left on your
head!’ At which he said to me: ‘Even if you pluck me, I will not tell you who I
am, nor demonstrate it to you, though you tear at my head, a thousand times.’
I already had his hair coiled in my hand, and had pulled away more than one
tuft of it, while he barked, and kept his eyes down, when another spirit cried:
‘What is wrong with you, Bocca, is it not enough that
you chatter with your jaws, but you have to bark too? What devil is at you?’ I
said: ‘Now, accursed traitor, I do not want you to speak: since I will carry
true news of you, to your shame.’ He answered: ‘Go, and say what you please,
but, if you get out from here, do not be silent about him, who had his tongue
so ready just now. Here he regrets taking French silver. You can say, “I saw Buoso de Duera, there, where the sinners stand caught in the
ice.”
If you are asked who else was there, you have Tesauro de’ Beccheria,
whose throat was slit by Florence. Gianni de’ Soldanier is further on, with Ganelon, and Tribaldello,
who unbarred the gate of Faenza while it slept.’
Inferno Canto XXXII:124-139 Ugolino and
Ruggieri
We had already left him, when I saw two spirits frozen in a hole, so close
together that the one head capped the other, and the uppermost set his teeth
into the other, as bread is chewed, out of hunger, there where the back of the
head joins the nape. Tydeus gnawed the head of
Menalippus, no differently, out of rage, than this one the skull and other
parts.
I said: ‘O you, who, in such a brutal way, inflict the mark of your hatred, on
him, whom you devour, tell me why: on condition that, if you complain of him
with reason, I, knowing who you are, and his offence, may repay you still in
the world above, if the tongue I speak with is not withered.’
Inferno Canto XXXIII:1-90 Count Ugolino’s
story
That sinner raised his mouth from the savage feast, wiping it on the hair, of
the head he had stripped behind. Then he began: ‘You wish me to renew desperate
grief, that wrings my heart at the very thought, before I even tell of it. But
if my words are to be the seed, that bears fruit, in the infamy, of the traitor
whom I gnaw, you will see me speak and weep together. I do not know who you
are, nor by what means you have come down here, but when I hear you, you seem
to me, in truth, a Florentine.
You must know that I am Count Ugolino, and this is
the Archbishop Ruggieri. Now I will tell you
why I am a neighbour such as this to him. It is not necessary to say that,
confiding in him, I was taken, through the effects of his evil schemes, and
afterwards killed. But what you cannot have learnt, how cruel my death was, you
will hear: and know if he has injured me.
A narrow hole inside that tower, which is called Famine, from my death, and in
which others must yet be imprisoned, had already shown me several moons through
its opening, when I slept an evil sleep that tore the curtain of the future for
me. This man seemed to me the lord, and master, chasing the wolf and its whelps,
on Monte di San Guiliano, that blocks the view of Lucca from the Pisans. He had
the Gualandi, Sismondi and Lanfranchi running with him, with hounds, slender,
keen, and agile.
After a short chase the father and his sons seemed weary to me, and I thought I
saw their flanks torn by sharp teeth. When I woke, before dawn, I heard my
sons, who were with me, crying in their sleep, and asking for food. You are
truly cruel if you do not sorrow already at the thought of what my heart
presaged: and if you do not weep, what do you weep at?
They were awake now, and the hour nearing, at which our food used to be brought
to us, and each of us was anxious from dreaming, when below I heard the door of
the terrible tower locked up: at which I gazed into the faces of my sons,
without saying a word. I did not weep: I grew like stone inside: they wept: and
my little Anselm said to me: ‘Father you stare
so, what is wrong?’ But I shed no tears, and did not answer, all that day, or
the next night, till another sun rose over the world. When a little ray of
light was sent into the mournful gaol, and I saw in their four faces, the
aspect of my own, I bit my hands from grief. And they, thinking that I did it
from hunger, suddenly stood, and said: ‘Father, it will give us less pain, if
you gnaw at us: you put this miserable flesh on us, now strip it off, again.’
Then I calmed myself, in order not to make them more unhappy: that day and the
next we all were silent. Ah, solid earth, why did you not open? When we had
come to the fourth day, Gaddo threw himself down
at my feet, saying: ‘My father, why do you not help me?’ There he died, and
even as you see me, I saw the three others fall one by one, between the fifth
and sixth days: at which, already blind, I took to groping over each of them,
and called out to them for three days, when they were dead: then fasting, at
last, had power to overcome grief.’
When he had spoken this, he seized the wretched skull again with his teeth,
which were as strong as a dog’s on the bone, his eyes distorted. Ah Pisa, shame
among the people, of the lovely land where ‘si’ is heard, let the isles
of Caprara and Gorgona shift and block the Arno at its mouth, since your
neighbours are so slow to punish you, so that it may drown every living soul.
Since if Count Ugolino had the infamy of having betrayed your castles, you
ought not to have put his sons to the torture. Their youth made Uguccione and Brigata,
and the other two my words above have named, innocents, you modern Thebes.
Inferno Canto XXXIII:91-157 Friar
Alberigo and Branca d’Oria
We went further on, where the rugged frost encases another people, not bent
down but reversed completely. The very weeping there prevents them weeping: and
the grief that makes an impediment to their sight, turns inward to increase
their agony: since the first tears form a knot, and like a crystal visor, fill
the cavities below their eyebrows. And though all feeling had left my face,
through the cold, as though from a callus, it seemed to me now as if I felt a
breeze, at which I said: ‘Master, what causes this? Is the heat not all
quenched here below?’ At which he said to me: ‘Soon you will be where your own
eyes, will answer that, seeing the source that generates the air.’
And one of the sad shadows, in the icy crust, cried out to us: ‘O spirits, so
cruel that the last place of all is reserved for you, remove the solid veils
from my face, that I might vent the grief a little that chokes my heart, before
the tears freezes again.’ At which I said to him: ‘If you would have my help,
tell me who you are: and if I do not disburden you, may I have to journey to
the depths of the ice.’
He replied to that: ‘I am Friar Alberigo, I am he of
the fruits of the evil garden, who here receive dates made of ice, to match my
figs.’ I said to him: ‘O, are you dead already?’ And he to me: ‘How my body
stands in the world above, I do not know, such is the power of this Ptolomaea, that the soul often falls down here, before Atropos cuts the thread. And so that you may more
willingly clear the frozen tears from your face, know that when the soul
betrays, as mine did, her body is taken from her by a demon, there and then,
who rules it after that, till its time is complete. She falls, plunging down to
this well: and perhaps the body of this other shade, that winters here, behind
me, is still visible in the world above.
You must know it, if you have only now come down here: it is Ser Branca d’Oria, and many years have passed since he was
imprisoned here.’ I said to him: ‘I believe you are lying to me: Branca d’Oria
is not dead, and eats and drinks, and sleeps, and puts on his clothes.’ He
said: ‘Michel Zanche had not yet arrived, in the ditch of
the Malebranche above, there where the tenacious pitch boils, when this man
left a devil in his place in his own body, and one in the body of his kinsman
who did the treachery with him. But reach your hand here: open my eyes.’ And I
did not open them for him: and it was a courtesy to be rude to him.
Ah, Genoese, men divorced from all morality, and filled with every corruption,
why are you not dispersed from off the earth? I found the worst spirit of
Romagna was one of you, who for his actions even now bathes, as a soul, in Cocytus, and still seems alive on earth, in his own
body.
Inferno Canto XXXIV:1-54 The Judecca: Satan
‘Vexilla Regis prodeunt inferni, the banners of the King of Hell advance
towards us: so look in front of you to see if you discern him,’ said my Master.
I seemed to see a tall structure, as a mill, that the wind turns, seems from a
distance, when a dense mist breathes, or when night falls in our hemisphere,
and I shrank back behind my guide, because of the wind, since there was no
other shelter.
I had already come, and with fear I put it into words, where the souls were
completely enclosed, and shone through like straw in glass. Some are lying
down, some stand upright, one on its head, another on the soles of its feet,
another bent head to foot, like a bow.
When we had gone on far enough, that my guide was able to show me Lucifer, the monster who was once so fair, he removed himself
from me, and made me stop, saying: ‘Behold Dis, and behold
the place where you must arm yourself with courage.’ Reader, do not ask how
chilled and hoarse I became, then, since I do not write it, since all words
would fail to tell it. I did not die, yet I was not alive. Think, yourself,
now, if you have any grain of imagination, what I became, deprived of either
state.
The emperor of the sorrowful kingdom stood, waist upwards, from the ice, and I
am nearer to a giant in size than the giants are to one of his arms: think how
great the whole is that corresponds to such a part. If he was once as fair, as
he is now ugly, and lifted up his forehead against his Maker, well may all evil
flow from him. O how great a wonder it seemed to me, when I saw three faces on
his head! The one in front was fiery red: the other two were joined to it,
above the centre of each shoulder, and linked at the top, and the right hand
one seemed whitish-yellow: the left was black to look at, like those who come
from where the Nile rises. Under each face sprang two vast wings, of a size fit
for such a bird: I never saw ship’s sails as wide. They had no feathers, but
were like a bat’s in form and texture, and he was flapping them, so that three
winds blew out away from him, by which all Cocytus was frozen. He wept from six
eyes, and tears and bloody spume gushed down three chins.
Inferno Canto XXXIV:55-69 Judas: Brutus:
Cassius
He chewed a sinner between his teeth, with every mouth, like a grinder, so, in
that way, he kept three of them in torment. To the one in front, the biting was
nothing compared to the tearing, since, at times, his back was left completely
stripped of skin.
The Master said: ‘That soul up there that suffers the greatest punishment, he
who has his head inside, and flails his legs outside, is Judas
Iscariot. Of the other two who have their heads hanging downwards, the one
who hangs from the face that is black is Brutus:
see how he writhes and does not utter a word: and the other is Cassius, who seems so long in limb. But night is ascending, and now we must go, since
we have seen it all.’
Inferno Canto XXXIV:70-139 The Poets
leave Hell
I clasped his neck, as he wished, and he seized the time and place, and when
the wings were wide open, grasped Satan’s shaggy sides, and then from tuft to
tuft, climbed down, between the matted hair and frozen crust.
When we had come to where the thigh joint turns, just at the swelling of the
haunch, my guide, with effort and difficulty, reversed his head to where his
feet had been, and grabbed the hair like a climber, so that I thought we were
dropping back to Hell. ‘Hold tight,’ said my guide, panting like a man
exhausted, ‘since by these stairs, we must depart from all this evil.’ Then he
clambered into an opening in the rock, and set me down to sit on its edge, then
turned his cautious step towards me.
I raised my eyes, thinking to see Lucifer as I had left
him, but saw him with his legs projecting upwards, and let those denser people,
who do not see what point I had passed, judge if I was confused then, or not.
My Master said: ‘Get up, on your feet: the way is long, and difficult the road,
and the sun already returns to mid-tierce.’
Where we stood was no palace hall, but a natural cell with a rough floor, and
short of light. When I had risen, I said: ‘My Master, before I leave the abyss,
speak to me a while, and lead me out of error. Where is the ice? And why is
this monster fixed upside down? And how has the sun moved from evening to dawn
in so short a time?’
And he to me: ‘You imagine you are still on the other side of the earth’s
centre, where I caught hold of the Evil Worm’s hair, he who pierces the world.
You were on that side of it, as long as I climbed down, but when I
reversed myself, you passed the point to which weight is drawn, from
everywhere: and are now below the hemisphere opposite that which covers the
wide dry land, and opposite that under whose zenith the Man was crucified, who was born, and lived, without sin. You have your feet on a
little sphere that forms the other side of the Judecca.
Here it is morning, when it is evening there: and he who made a ladder for us
of his hair is still as he was before. He fell from Heaven on this side of the
earth, and the land that projected here before, veiled itself with the ocean
for fear of him, and entered our hemisphere: and that which now projects on
this side, left an empty space here, and shot outwards, maybe in order to
escape from him.’
Down there, is a space, as far from Beelzebub as his cave
extends, not known by sight, but by the sound of a stream falling through it,
along the bed of rock it has hollowed out, into a winding course, and a slow
incline. The guide and I entered by that hidden path, to return to the clear
world: and, not caring to rest, we climbed up, he first, and I second, until,
through a round opening, I saw the beautiful things that the sky holds: and we
issued out, from there, to see, again, the stars.
Index
Abati, Bocca degli
Bocca, though a
Ghibelline, fought on the Guelph side at Montaperti in 1260 when the Florentine
Guelphs went down to defeat. The battle turned on an incident where Bocca
cut off the hand of the Florentine standard bearer at the critical moment.
Inferno Canto XXXII:70-123. He is in the Ninth
Circle.
A noble
Florentine, and a thief.
Inferno Canto XXV:79-151. He mutates into a serpent.
(It may be Buoso de’ Donati who is intended. See
Blake’s Watercolour ‘Buoso Donati attacked by the Serpent’, Tate Gallery,
London.
Bartolommeo de’
Folcacchieri, nicknamed Abbagliato, ‘the foolish’.
He was a member of
the Brigata Spendereccia, the Spendthrift Brigade, a club founded by
twelve wealthy Sienese, in the second half of the thirteenth century, who vied
with each other in squandering their money on riotous living.
Inferno Canto XXIX:121-139. He is in the tenth
chasm.
The son of Adam and Eve. His brother is Cain.
See the Bible, Genesis iv. Abel is the type of the righteous brother.
Inferno Canto IV:1-63. Christ takes his spirit from Limbo into Paradise.
The Patriarch,
from whom the Children of Israel derived. The father of Isaac by his wife
Sarah. The type of faith, witness his preparedness to sacrifice his son Isaac.
See the Bible,Genesis xi 25.
Inferno Canto IV:1-63. Christ takes his spirit from Limbo into Paradise.
King David’s Gilonite counsellor from Giloh, Ahitophel,
see Second Samuel xv-xviii, conspired with David’s son
Absalom against the King, and subsequently hanged himself when his counsel was
not followed. Absalom was killed at the battle in the wood of Ephraim, and David
mourned for him, saying ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I
had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!’
Inferno Canto XXVIII:112-142. He is mentioned.
Francesco
d’Accorso (1225-1293) a distinguished lawyer and professor, of Bologna, son of
Accorso da Bagnolo, also a famous lawyer. He lectured at Oxford.
Inferno Canto XV:100-124. He is in Hell for sodomy.
He was stones and
burned for disregarding Joshua’s decree that the treasure
from the capture of Jericho should be consecrated to the Lord. See Joshua vi 19
and vii.
Purgatorio Canto XX:97-151. He is mentioned.
Son of Peleus and
the sea-nymph Thetis. Prince of the Myrmidons of Phthia in Thessaly in
north-eastern Greece. The Greek hero of Homer’s Iliad who avenges the death of
Patroclus by killing Hector, and dies from an arrow wound
inflicted by Paris in his vulnerable heel. Offered the
choice of glory or a long life he chose fame and a brief existence. Ulysses (Odysseus) meets his soul in Hades (Odyssey XI).
Inferno Canto V:52-72. He is a carnal sinner in Limbo,
for his love of Polyxena, that brought about his death,
according to later versions of the Trojan myths.
Inferno Canto XII:49-99. He was tutored by Chiron the Centaur.
Inferno Canto XXVI:43-84.Purgatorio
Canto IX:34-63. Ulysses discovered Achilles hiding on Scyros, where his
mother Thetis had concealed him, at the court of
Lycomedes, and took him to the Trojan War. Deidamia fell in love with him, and bore him a son, and died of grief when he left. See
Ovid’s Metamorphoses XIII 162. For his amazement, see Statius Achilles i 247.
Inferno Canto XXXI:1-45. Peleus’s
spear was given to him by Chiron the Centaur. It was cut
from an ash on Mount Pelion. Hephaestus forged its blade, and Athene polished
the shaft. At Troy Achilles wounded Telephus with it. He was a king of Mysia
and the son of Hercules and the nymph Auge. Rust from
the spear, rubbed on the wound, cured it. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses XII 112 and
XIII 171.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:76-136. The subject of Statius’s unfinished epic the Achilleid.
Matteo, one of Boniface’s cardinals, Minister-General of the Franciscan
Order from 1287, who relaxed the observances, and as Papal Legate interfered in
the affairs of Florence in 1300-1301, with disastrous consequences.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is mentioned.
The first man, see
Genesis ii. The Fall made Adam the father of evil, and the sinful human race,
as Eve was its mother.
Inferno Canto III:100-136. The dead souls are ‘the
evil seed of Adam’.
Inferno Canto IV:1-63. Christ takes his spirit from Limbo into Paradise.
Purgatorio Canto IX:1-33. He is referred to, as the
vessel of human infirmity.
Purgatorio Canto XI:37-72. His flesh, the flesh of
mortality, is a burden.
Purgatorio Canto XXXIII:58-102. According to
Eusebius, Adam was on earth for 930 years and in Limbo for 4302 years, making
more than five thousand years in all.
Paradiso Canto VII:1-54. In Adam the whole human race
fell.
Paradiso Canto XXVI:70-142. Adam’s exile was due to
disobedience. His Life in Paradise endured only to the seventh hour. His
existence on Earth, in exile, and in Limbo was more than five thousand years:
see above.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:115-151. He sits at the left
hand of the Virgin.
Induced by Guido,
Alessandro, and Aghinolfo the Conti Guidi of Romena,
Master Adam of Brescia counterfeited the Florentine gold florin, stamped with
the figure of St John the Baptist. He was burnt to
death for the crime in 1281, on the Consuma, the pass that leads out of the
Casentino towards Florence. The Conti Guidi escaped punishment. Conte Giudo was
dead by 1300, but the other two were still alive. Fonte Branda, the spring, is
not the more famous one near Siena, but a lesser one near the castle of Romena,
near where Adamo died.
Inferno Canto XXX:49-90. He is in the tenth chasm.
Inferno Canto XXX:91-129. He exchanges blows with Sinon.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI. Filippo Argenti belonged to one branch of the
family. Ubertino Donati, the ancestor of Dante’s
wife Gemma, had married one of the daughters of Bellincion
Berti, a sister of Gualdrada, and strongly
objected to his father-in-law giving the hand of a third daughter to one of the
Adimari. A fourth daughter may have been the wife of Dante’s great-grandfather Alighiero I.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned. Hostile to
Dante.
Ottobuono de’
Fieschi of Genoa, sent to England while a Cardinal as Papal legate in 1268, was
elected Pope as Adrian V on 12th July 1276, and died on August 18th. The
Fieschi were Counts of Lavagna, taking their name from a little river that
flows into the Gulf of Genoa between Sestri Levante and Chiavari. One niece was Alagia wife of Moroello III
Malaspina.
Purgatorio Canto XIX:70-114. He is among the
avaricious.
Inferno Canto I:61-99. The legendary ancestor of the
Roman people. The son of the Goddess Aphrodite and Anchises. See Iliad XX. A Trojan noble he escaped the sack of Troy and sailed via
Carthage (where he was loved by Dido but abandoned her) to
Italy. His wife was Creüsa, daughter of Priam by whom he had Ascanius (Iulus). His son is Silvius (Ascanius, or Iulus) in
Inferno II. His visit to the underworld in Aeneid VI inspired Dante. Aeneas is
the symbol of the Roman Empire achieved from the ruins of Troy, and the
virtuous victor of the Wars in Latium against Turnus etc. As the ancestor of
Rome’s founder Romulus, he is Dante’s Imperial founder
also.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. He is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
Inferno Canto XXVI:43-84. The Trojan War indirectly
led to the founding of Rome, and the origin of the Roman people.
Inferno Canto XXVI:85-142. He cremated his old nurse
Caïeta in Italy (at modern Gaeta, in Campania). See Ovid’s Metamorphoses
XIV157, 443 and XV 716, and Virgil’s Aeneid vii 1-4.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:112-145. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126. Dido’s
love for him wrongs Creüsa’s memory.
Paradiso Canto XV:1-36. He saw his father’s shade in
the underworld. Aeneid vi 679.
Aeolus
The god of the
winds, the son of Hippotas, and father of Alcyone and Athamas,
who kept the winds imprisoned in a cave in the Aeolian Islands between Sicily
and Italy. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses- various references.
Purgatorio Canto XXVIII:1-51. He is mentioned as
loosing the Sirocco, the south east wind, whose notes are heard in the
pine-forests of Ravenna, on the Adriatic shore, at Chiassi, the Classis of the
Romans, who used it as a naval station and harbour. There was a later fortress
there. See Byron’s ‘Don Juan’ iv 105.
The
quasi-historical author of the Fables. He may have been a Phrygian slave,
Babrius, living about the 6th century BC, at the time of Croesus. He was
supposed to have been thrown over a cliff at Delphi for his ugliness,
offensiveness or perhaps rectitude. Around his name a set of tales gathered,
and were loosely attributed to him.
Inferno Canto XXII:124-151. Dante quotes the Frog
and the Mouse, in which the Mouse, living on land (Alichino?)
is tied to the frog who offers to carry him over the stream (Ciampolo?), and who then leaps into the water, drowning
the mouse. A hawk (Calcabrina?) then spies the mouse
and snatches it up, snatching up the frog as well. Dante no doubt knew a
variant that fitted the situation more closely.
The King of
Mycenae, son of Atreus, brother of Menelaus, husband of Clytemnestra, father of Iphigenia, Electra and Orestes.
The commander-in-chief of the Greek forces at Troy.
He was told by an
oracle to sacrifice his daughter, and vowed to do so, in order to gain
favourable winds, when the Greek fleet was waiting at Aulis, to sail to Troy.
He did so and brought down destruction on his house. See Aeschylus’s Oresteian
trilogy, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses XII 30.
Paradiso Canto V:1-84. He is mentioned as an example of
the danger of rash vows.
Pope 535-536 AD.
He induced Justinian to depose Anthimus, Bishop of
Constantinople, because of Anthimus’s Monophysite leanings, and the other heads
of the sect were likewise excommunicated. The Monophysite’s accepted only the
divine and not the human nature of Christ.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111 Mentioned.
The Greek tragic
poet (c448-400BC).
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. He is in Limbo.
See Guido Conte
The daughter of
Cecrops who envied her sister Herse because of Mercury’s love for her. She was
punished for treachery, when Pallas Athene (Minerva) sent
the hag Envy to torment her, and changed to stone by Mercury. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses II 740, 752, 820.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:124-151. She is the second of
the voices, signifying envy.
Inferno Canto XIII:130-151. Possibly the speaker is
Agli, a judge who hanged himself after giving a false sentence for money, or Rocco de’ Mozzi.
He entered the
Franciscan Order in 1210, and died on the same day as Francis after a vision of Francis ascending into Paradise.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is in the Fourth
Sphere of the Sun.
A lawyer who
deserted the Whites from the Blacks in 1302. Baldo was a prior in 1298 and
1311, in which year he drew up the decree recalling the exiles, but expressly
excluding Dante. In 1299 he had been convicted of tampering with the public
records of the Courts. See Note to the
Purgatorio.
Paradiso Canto XVI:46-87. He is mentioned.
Ahasuerus, the
Persian King, enriched Haman, until he was accused by Esther of intending to take the life of Mordecai.
Haman was executed in Mordecai’s place. See Esther iii-viii.
Purgatorio Canto XVII:1-39. He is mentioned.
King David’s Gilonite counsellor from Giloh, see Second Samuel xv-xviii, who conspired with David’s son Absalom, and subsequently hanged himself when his counsel
was not followed.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:112-142. He is mentioned as
an evil counsellor.
Alardo, Erard de Valéry
Inferno Canto XXVIII:1-21. In 1268, at Tagliacozzo,
Charles of Anjou defeated Conradin, Manfred’s nephew,
using reserve troops, on the advice of Erard.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
Alberigo Manfredi
of Faenza, one of the Frati Gaudenti, the Jovial Friars, avenged a blow
from his younger brother Manfred, in 1284, by inviting him, and his son, to a
banquet in 1285, and at a given signal ‘Bring the fruits’ Manfred and his son
were murdered. Le male frutta (the evil fruit) di Frate Alberigo became a proverb. He was still alive in 1300, the date of the Vision.
Inferno Canto XXXIII:91-157. He is in the Ninth
Circle.
Griffolino of
Arezzo obtained money from Albero by pretending he could teach him how to fly.
On discovering the deceit, Albero induced the Bishop of Siena to have Griffolino burned as an Alchemist.
Inferno Canto XXIX:73-99. Griffolino is in the tenth
chasm.
Albrecht I of
Hapsburg, King of the Germans, and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
(1298-1308), the son of the Emperor Rudolph (1273-91).
To Dante, Albert represented both the invader of Italian soil, and the
preserver of the Empire. As an absentee landlord, Dante berates him. He was
murdered ultimately, as Dante predicts, by his nephew, John Parricida.
See Ciacco’s prophecy and Inferno
Canto VI:64-93 for an indirect reference.
Purgatorio Canto VI:76-151. Dante inveighs against the state of Italy and Albert’s indifference to
its plight.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. Albert carried out an
aggressive campaign against Bohemia in 1304, confiscating it as an expired fief
of the crown. He is held as an example of poor kingship.
Alessandro and
Napoleone, the two sons of Count Alberto degli Alberti, who held Vernia and
Cerbaia in the Val de Bisenzio, quarrelled over their inheritance and killed
each other, sometime after 1282.
Inferno Canto XXXII:40-69. They are in the Caïna in
the Ninth Circle.
Purgatorio Canto VI:1-24. Count Orso, the son of
Napoleone was murdered by Alberto the son of Alessandro in the continuing
vendetta. He is among the late-repentant.
Albertus of
Cologne (1193-1280), the ‘Universal Doctor’, one of the two great lights of the
Dominican order. Albertus, with Thomas Aquinas his
pupil, ‘christianised’ Aristotle adapting his
philosophy and making him a treasury of pagan learning.
Paradiso Canto X:64-99. He is in the fourth sphere of
Prudence.
The son of Amphiaräus and Eriphyle. She was
bribed with the necklace of Harmonia to betray the hiding place of her husband,
who was compelled to go to the Theban War where he was killed. At the father’s
request the son Alcmaeon killed his mother, and was pursued by the Furies, and
was eventually killed himself. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses IX 408.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. He is depicted on the
roadway.
Paradiso Canto IV:64-114. He is mentioned as someone
who grappled with conflicting duties.
Purgatorio Canto VI:76-151. The Aldobrandeschi,
Ghibelline leaders, held Santafiora in the Sienese Maremma for almost five
centuries. They warred with the commune of Siena until 1300 when a treaty was
agreed.
Purgatorio Canto XI:37-72. Omberto, Count of
Santafiora, in the Sienese Maremma, was put to death at Campagnatico near
Grosseto, by the Sienese in 1259, who resented the arrogance of the family with
whom they had long been at war.
A Florentine
Guelph who, with Guido Guerra, tried to dissuade his
party from the conflict that led to the Guelph disaster at Montaperti in 1260.
See Farinata. He fought courageously and took refuge at
Lucca with other defeated Guelphs.
Inferno Canto VI:64-93. Dante asks after him.
Inferno Canto XVI:1-45. He is in the seventh circle
for sodomy.
See Conte Guido.
The son of Philip
the Second of Macedonia (Philip ruled 359-336 BC) who ruled from 336 to 323 BC.
He created an Empire from Greece and Egypt in the west, to India in the east,
proclaiming himself king of Asia, and burning Darius’s Persian capital of
Persepolis in 330BC. He married Roxane. He killed the historian Callisthenes, a
nephew of Aristotle his former tutor, and Clitus, a
friend of his youth, in a fit of rage. He died of fever, aged 33, in 323BC,
while preparing for campaigns against Carthage and the Western Mediterranean.
Inferno Canto XII:100-139. He is placed in the
seventh circle, in the ring of tyrants, unless the reference is to Alexander of Pherae.
Inferno Canto XIV:1-42. Dante’s source may have been Albertus Magnus’s De Meteoris, which describes the
apocryphal letter, popular in the Middle Ages, in which Alexander the Great
sends an account of such marvels to Aristotle his
tutor. The soldiers warded off the flames with their clothes.
The Thessalian
tyrant who was killed by his own wife in 323BC.
Inferno Canto XII:100-139. He is placed in the
seventh circle in the ring of tyrants, unless the reference is to Alexander the Great.
He succeeded his
father Peter III of Aragon, and died in 1291.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is in Purgatory.
Ali (born c597AD)
a cousin and son-in-law of Mohammed, was his fourth
successor, and moved the capital to Kufa after conflict with Mohammed’s widow
A’isha (First Islamic Civil War). He won the ‘camel-battle’ of Basra. He was
murdered in 661AD after the indecisive battle of Siffin (657) and the
arbitration of Adhroh (658).
Inferno Canto XXVIII:22-54. He is in the ninth
chasm of the eighth circle as a schismatic within Islam.
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. A demon guarding the eighth
circle, the fifth chasm, of the barrators.
Inferno Canto XXII:97-123. He allows Ciampolo too much freedom.
Inferno Canto XXII:124-151. He and Calcabrina quarrel.
Dante’s
great-grandfather. His mother was Cacciaguida’s
wife, Alighiera of the Aldighieri family of Ferrara.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. The derivation of Dante’s
name.
Purgatorio Canto XVII:1-39. Queen Amata, wife of
King Latinus, who hanged herself through anger at the
death of the hero Turnus, to whom her daughter Lavinia was originally betrothed, Lavinia being destined
then to marry Aeneas. The fate of Lavinia was part of the
reason for the Wars in Latium. See Aeneid xii 595.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154An ancient Florentine
family. See the note to Paradiso Canto XVI. Buondelmonte broke his betrothal oath with a daughter
of the family and his murder in retaliation was the root of the factional split
within Florence.
A Greek seer, one
of the heroes at the Calydonian Boar Hunt. He was the son of Oecleus, and
father of Alcmaeon. His wife Eriphyle betrayed him for the golden necklace Aphrodite gave to Harmonia, wife of
Cadmus, and he enjoined on his son the duty of punishing her. Alcmaeon killed
her, and was pursued by the Furies. In the War of the Seven against Thebes,
Amphiaraüs was one of the seven champions, and fled along the banks of the
river Ismenus in his chariot. He was on the point of being killed when Zeus
cleft the earth with a thunderbolt, and he vanished from sight, chariot and
all, and now reigns alive among the dead. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VIII 317, IX
407-410.
Inferno Canto XX:31-51. He is in the eighth circle.
The son of Jupiter
and Antiope, and husband of Niobe. He built the walls of
Thebes aided by the magical music of his lyre. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VI 176
and XV 427. He killed himself through grief at the loss of his sons.
Inferno Canto XXXII:1-39. He is mentioned.
The fisherman who
was unawed by Caesar’s summons and indifferent to
the tumult of the times, secure in his poverty. See Lucan’s Pharsalia v
520-531.
Paradiso Canto XI:43-117. He is mentioned.
He and his wife Sapphira sold possessions but kept back part of the price
when other followers of Christ sold everything and gave everything into common
ownership, to allow distribution according to need. They were rebuked by Peter for hypocrisy and died. See Acts iv 32-37 and V
1-11.
Paradiso Canto XXVI:1-69. The Ananias of Damascus who
gives sight to the blind Saul of
Tarsus (Paul), see Acts ix 10-18 is mentioned.
A Ghibelline
family of Ravenna, virtually extinct by 1300. They were prominent in the latter
half of the thirteenth century due to their strife with the Polentani and other
Guelphs of Ravenna.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. They are mentioned.
Pope Anastasius II
(469-498), who censured the non-dogmatic doctrines of Origen, is here confused,
by medieval writers before Dante, with the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius
(491-518), noted for his tolerance, who was induced by the deacon of
Thessalonica, Photinus, to adopt the Acacian (Acacius,
Patriarch of Constantinople) formula, which was an attempt to reconcile the
Monophysite doctrine that Christ appeared as a man but not with human nature
and substance, with the Chalcedonian definition of Christ as known in two
natures, one human, and that without confusion, and in one person.
Inferno Canto XI:1-66. Anastasius is with the heretics
in the Sixth Circle.
The pre-Socratic
Greek philosopher, born at Clazomenae in Asia Minor about 500BC, and a Persian
citizen who went to Athens in the year of Salamis 480/79 BC. He taught the young
Pericles, and was later brought to trial by Pericles’s opponents, charged with
impiety. He retired to Ionia where he settled at Lampsacus. He taught a
doctrine of divisible particles of all types that individually combine together
in proportions to produce unique wholes, ‘in everything there is a portion of
everything’. His primal force is Mind ( Nous) present in all living
things, and is present ‘there where everything else is, in the surrounding
mass’ and this concept is his main contribution to philosophy.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the
philosophers in Limbo.
Inferno Canto I:61-99. The father of Aeneas,
who carried him from burning Troy on his shoulders.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:112-145. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XV:1-36. Aeneas saw his shade in the
underworld.
Aeneid vi 679.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He died and was buried at
Drepanum in Sicily, the Isle of Fire because of Mount Aetna. See the Funeral
Games episode in Aeneid V 40 et seq. and Anchises’s death at III 700.
See Loderingo.
A Paduan, who
wasted his own and other people’s fortunes, employing arson and other
extraordinary methods. He appears to have been executed by Ezzelino da Romano in 1239, presumably after
courting death.
Inferno Canto XIII:109-129. He is in the seventh
circle.
He ruled Hungary
in 1300, having usurped the crown that belonged to Carobert the son of Charles Martel.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He is held as an example
of poor kingship.
The father-in-law
of Caiaphas, the high priest among the Pharisees, see
John xi 47-53, who said: ‘it is expedient for us that one man should die for
the people, and that the whole nation should perish not’. Annas sent Christ
bound to Caiaphas. See John xviii 24.
Inferno Canto XXIII:82-126. He is in the eighth
circle.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:115-151. The mother of the Virgin. She sits near her, and opposite Saint Peter in Heaven.
St Anselm
(1033-1109) Archbishop of Canterbury, who wrote treatises on the Trinity and
the Incarnation. He is known as the second father of Scholasticism, Scotus
Erigena in the ninth century being the first. Both tried to show the
coincidence of natural reason and revealed truth.
Paradiso Canto VII:55-120. Beatrice’s argument
follows Anselm’s Cur Deus homo. Adam’s disobedience
injured himself not God, and what was demanded was not a propitiation, but
restoration. Man was required to give back what he owed, to match what he had
taken that he did not own, but could not since he owes everything and owns
nothing. Therefore God who owes nothing and owns everything had to become Man
to achieve restoration. See Cur Deus homo passim, and specifically Bk i,
chapter 15.
Paradiso Canto VII:121-148. Again Anselm’s argument
is used: that since God made Adam and Eve flesh directly, man’s body will be restored at the Last Judgement when
redemption is complete for the saved.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is in the Fourth
Sphere of the Sun.
See Ugolino della Gherardesca.
One of the Giant
sons of Earth and Tartarus. He is unchained in Hell because he kept out of the
battle against the gods of Olympus. The details of him Dante takes from Lucan’s
Pharsalia iv 593-660. Hercules lifted him in the air,
whereby he lost his strength as he no longer touched the earth, and crushed
him. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses IX 184.
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145. He sets the poets down in
the Ninth Circle.
The Trojan, who,
according to medieval tradition betrayed Troy to the Greeks. (See Dictys
Cretensis, Dares Phrygius, and the later Roman de Troie) He
escaped to Italy after the fall of Troy and founded Padua, see Aeneid i 242 et
seq.
Inferno Canto XXXII:70-123. The Antenora is named after him.
Paradiso Canto XXIX:85-126. Saint Anthony (251-356).
His symbol was the pig, and he was therefore the patron of the pigs that
infested Florence, and its neighbourhood, belonging to the monks. They were fed
on the fraudulent gain made from selling remissions (indulgences).
The daughter of
Oedipus, by Jocasta, and sister of Eteocles and Polynices. See Sophocles’s Antigone.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. She is in Limbo. One
of the people celebrated by Statius in his epic poetry.
Inferno Canto XIX:31-87. Antiochus IV, ruler of the
Seleucid Empire (175-164BC), whose self-conferred title was Theos Epiphanes, the evident God. He accepted a bribe from Jason to
make him high-priest of Judea.
The Greek tragic
poet, praised by Aristotle and Plutarch.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. He is in Limbo.
The son of Jupiter and Latona (Leto), born on
the island of Delos. The sun-god and god of art and music, prophecy and
healing, the archer’s bow, and the lyre. He was present at the battle with the
Giants. He is called Thymbraeus from his temple at Thymbra in the Troad. Artemis-Diana was his sister.
Paradiso Canto I:1-36. He equates to the Sun, as the
sun-god, and to Christ and the Father as the Divine
presence. Dante believed that the Muses occupied one peak of Mount Parnassus,
and Apollo the other, which Dante calls Cirra.
Apollo flayed Marsyas for challenging his skill in music, and Dante asks for the inspirational breath
with which Apollo played on that occasion. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VI 382.
Apollo
loved Daphne, the daughter of the river-god Peneus, who
was changed into a laurel-tree by the river-god, as Apollo pursued her. He then
adopted her laurel as the sacred tree whose leaves would crown his lyre etc.
See Ovid’s Metamorphoses I 452-548.
Paradiso Canto II:1-45. Apollo guides the poet.
Paradiso Canto XIII:1-51. His name as God of Healing,
and the religious hymn of praise in his honour.
Paradiso Canto XXIX:1-66. The sun.
A Lydian girl, the
daughter of Idmon, famous for her weaving, who
challenged Pallas Athene to a contest, was defeated, and was changed by Pallas
into a spider. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VI 42 etc.
Inferno Canto XVII:1-30. Geryon’s
body is adorned with more decoration than her weaving.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. She is depicted on the
roadway.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
The son of
Callisto or Helice, an Arcadian nympth, a favourite of Artemis-Diana,
raped by Jupiter. Diana expelled her from her company,
and she was changed by Juno into a bear, and hunted by her
son. Jupiter placed her in the sky as the constellation of the Bear, Ursa
Major, and Arcas as the constellation of the little Bear, Ursa Minor, at the
pole, towards which the ‘pointers’ Dubhe and Merak, of the Great Bear, or
Plough, point as it circles on Polaris the pole-star. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses
II 409-528
Paradiso Canto XXXI:28-63. Circles over the northern
latitudes.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXV:79-151. A nymph of Elis, one of
Diana’s maidens, who was loved by the river-god Alpheus. She was pursued by
him, and was turned into a fountain. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses V 572.
A Florentine noble
who appears with Ciacco in Boccaccios’s Decameron IX 8.
He was notorious for his fierce temper and overbearing conduct. He and the
Adimari family may also have been hostile to Dante.
Inferno Canto VIII:31-63. He is rent by the people
in the mud.
The wife of Polynices, sister of Deiphyle,
and daughter of King Adrastus of Argos.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. She is in Limbo. One
of the people celebrated by Statius in his epic poetry.
One of the
Argogliosi or possibly the Ordelaffi family of Forlì, who was Podestà of Faenza
in 1296. When told that he was always drinking he replied that he was always
thirsty.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:1-33. He is among the
gluttonous.
Purgatorio CantoXXIX:82-105. The monstrous son of
Arestor, set by Juno to guard Io (transformed to a heifer).
He had a hundred eyes, but was lulled to sleep by Mercury,
and killed. Juno set his eyes in the peacock’s tail. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses I
624-723.
Purgatorio Canto XXXII:64-99. Mercury lulled him
by telling the tale of Syrinx.
The daughter of Minos, King of Crete, who helped Theseus kill her half-brother the Minotaur, and was then
abandoned by him on Naxos. Dionysus rescued her and married her, setting Thetis’s crown on her head, which was later made a
constellation, the Corona Borealis, or Northern Crown, thrown by Dionysus
(Bacchus) into the sky to mark their nuptials. The constellation consists of an
arc of seven stars between Hercules and Bootes. Dante follows the myth that
makes the constellation Ariadne herself, set there after her death.
Inferno Canto XII:1-27. She helped Theseus escape the
labyrinth.
Paradiso Canto XIII:1-51. Her crown.
The Greek
philosopher, 384-322 BC, the philosopher par excellence for Dante and the
medieval period. Aristotle was born at Stageira in Chalcidice near Salonica.
His father was a doctor. He became a member of Plato’s
Academy at Athens, though he was later to differ from Plato in his thinking. He
was Alexander the Great’s ‘tutor’ and founded the Lyceum at Athens, and his
teaching while walking in the garden, the Peripatos, led to its being called
the ‘Peripatetic Philosophy’. On a wave of anti-Macedonian feeling after
Alexander’s death, Aristotle retired to his mother’s property at Chalcis where
he died.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He leads the philosophers
in Limbo.
Inferno Canto XI:67-93. Virgil refers to his
Nichomachean Ethics. See VII i ‘....those qualities of character to be avoided,
which may be taken as three in number, and we call them incontinence (=lack
of self-control), brutishness or bestiality(= violence) and vice (=fraud).’
(My bracketed expansion). See also VII vi ‘...it is thought more
excusable to follow the natural impulses, which all men feel, than those which
are peculiar to certain persons....bestiality is a lesser evil than vice.
Inferno Canto XI:94-115. Virgil refers to Aristotle’s
Physics II ii ‘.. if Art mimics Nature.’
Purgatorio Canto III:1-45. The pagan philosophers
cannot hope to understand the ‘why’ of God’s works, and are condemned to
an unsatisfied desire for supreme knowledge. (Aquinas:
‘the one demonstrates by means of the cause and is called propter quid....
the other by means of the effect and is called the demonstration quia.)
Paradiso Canto IV:64-114. Dante follows Aristotle’s
theory of the dual will, an absolute will that does not consent to evil coupled
with a practical will that chooses the lesser of two evils. The former may
remain intent on its goal, while the latter compromises, and that is a failing.
See Aristotle’s Ethics III, where the example of Alcmaeon is also mentioned.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Dante refers to Aristotelian logic,
where the propositions that this is so, and this is not so, cannot both be true
in the same sense at the same time. Related propositions are termed
contradictories e.g. if ‘some swans are not white’ is true, then ‘all
swans are white’ is false, since a black swan would be white, and not white, if
both statements were true simultaneously.
Paradiso Canto VIII:85-148. Aristotle taught that
human society requires varied conditions and qualifications amongst its members.
In the Politics he shows that the individual is not self-sufficient but a part
of a whole, and a State is a group of citizens providing all the necessary
variety for a complete life. Functions and duties are distributed so that the
State can be self-sufficient where the individual is not.
Paradiso Canto XXVI:1-69. He taught that God is the
supreme object, towards whom the Heavens yearn. In the Metaphysics the Prime
Mover is the object of longing or of intellectual apprehension.
The presbyter of
Bishop Alexander of Alexandria (early 4th Century). The Arian heresy denies
that the incarnate Son is one substance with the transcendent First Cause of
creation, though differing in Person. The heresy created dissension until the
end of the fourth century.
Paradiso Canto XIII:91-142. He is mentioned.
The Provençal
poet. He flourished between 1180 and 1200 and Richard Coeur de Lion was among
his patrons. (See Ezra Pound’s poem ‘Near Perigord’ in his collection Lustra).
Arnaut was a master of form, the trobar clus or hidden style, inventing
the sestina form, and it was for this above all that Dante and others regarded
him so highly, rather than his sentiment.
Purgatorio Canto XXVI:112-148. He is among the
lustful. In the Provençal poem Dante invents for him, he refers to the style
that hides, and is here open, and reminds Dante to consider his own punishment to come, for Lust, as Dante himself goes onward.
His family is
uncertain. He is said to have been one of Mosca de’
Lamberti’s accomplices in the murder of Buondelmonte de’ Buondelmonti, that initiated the Guelf and Ghibelline factional alignments
in Florence.
Inferno Canto VI:64-93. Dante asks after him.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
The daughter of
Jupiter and Latona, and twin sister of Apollo,
born on the island of Delos (hence Delia). She is a moon-goddess, and goddess
of the chase.
Purgatorio Canto XXV:109-139. She expelled Callisto (Helice) from her company, after Callisto was raped
by Jupiter. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses II 409-528.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:61-81. Paradiso
Canto X:64-99. She has a rainbow-coloured girdle (the Moon’s halo) in her
Moon incarnation.
Paradiso Canto XXII:100-154. The moon-goddess and
daughter of Latona.
Paradiso Canto XXIII:1-48. Called Diana Trivia by
the Romans, identifying her with Hecate, as an underworld aspect of the
Triple-Goddess, worshipped where three ways meet. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses II
416.
Paradiso Canto XXIX:1-66. The moon.
The mythical King
of Britain, after the Roman withdrawal, around whose name medieval legends
gathered. See Malory’s ‘Le Morte D’Arthur’.
Mordred his nephew and son, attempted to usurp his kingdom. In the last battle Arthur
pierced Mordred with his lance, at the same time receiving his own death-wound.
According to an Old French version of the theme, which differs from Malory’s
version ‘after the lance was withdrawn a ray of sunlight passed through the
wound...’
Inferno Canto XXXII:40-69. He is mentioned in the
Ninth Circle.
The Etruscan seer
who in Lucan’s Pharsalia i 584-638 prophesied the Civil
War in Rome that ended in Julius Caesar defeating Pompey the Great.
Inferno Canto XX:31-51. He is in the eighth circle.
See Caccia.
A shoemaker of Parma.
Asdente, ‘the toothless’, whose real name was Benvenuto, practised as a
soothsayer. He died c1284.
Inferno Canto XX:100-130 He is in the eighth circle.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. Juno was
angered because of Jupiter’s adultery with Semele, whom she punished, and took vengeance on the house
of Cadmus of Thebes, her father. She pursued Ino, Semele’s sister by driving her husband Athamas mad. He
killed their son Learchus, and drove Ino to throw
herself over a cliff, with their son Melicertes. Ino
and Melicertes became sea-gods, namely Leucothea, the White Goddess, and
Palaemon. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses III 261 and IV 519.
Pallas Athene (the
Roman Minerva), the daughter of Jupiter, sprung from his
head, and the goddess of wisdom, intelligence, technical skill, and women’s
arts. The olive was her gift to mankind. Often depicted as a warrior goddess.
Present at the battle with the Giants.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. She is depicted on the
roadway.
Purgatorio Canto XXX:49-81. The olive is sacred to
her. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VI 335, VIII 275 and 664.
Paradiso Canto II:1-45. Minerva breathes intellectual
inspiration into the poet.
The third of the
three Fates, or Moerae, in Greek myth. They were begotten by Erebus on Night.
Their names are Clotho,’ the spinner’, Lachesis, ‘the measurer’, and Atropos,
‘she who cannot be avoided or turned’. Clotho spins the thread of a life,
Lachesis measures it out, and Atropos cuts the thread. Moera means a phase, and
they are yet another incarnation of the triple Moon-goddess.
Inferno Canto XXXIII:91-157. She is mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:1-33. The other two are
mentioned.
Attila the Hun,
the scourge of God (flagellum dei), king of the Huns (433-453) who
advanced into the Eastern Roman Empire, and on to the west, but was turned back
at Chalôns in the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields in 451. He retreated to
Hungary (the plains of Tisza) and died there.
Inferno Canto XII:100-139. He is in the seventh
circle.
Inferno Canto XIII:130-151. The historians, and
Dante, confused him with Totila, the leader of the Goths, who reputedly sacked
Florence. Totila gained Italy (542-552) excluding Ravenna, and resisted Belisarius
from 544 to 549, but died fighting Narses at Tadinae.
Augustine of Hippo
(354-430), Christian Saint and influential theologian. The Bishop of Hippo in
North Africa, and one of the four Latin (western) fathers of the Church with Jerome, Gregory, and Ambrose. He was
born at Tagaste in Numidia, and was given religious instruction by Monica, his
mother. He wrote the famous Confessions, and The City of God.
Paradiso Canto X:100-129. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XXIV:115-154. Dante echoes
Augustine, that the conversion of the world without miracles, would have been a
greater miracle than any recorded, attesting to their reality.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. He is seated below John the Baptist in Heaven.
Inferno Canto I:61-99. Generally known as Octavian
(Octavius) until 27BC when he became the Roman Emperor Augustus. The adopted
son of Julius Caesar. The founder of the Imperial
system and first Roman Emperor who was Caesar from 31BC to AD14. Virgil lived
in his reign.
Purgatorio Canto VII:1-39. He ordered Virgil’s remains to be brought from Brindisi to Naples,
after Virgil’s death in 19BC, and interred there.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:106-132. His Triumph is
mentioned.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
Purgatorio Canto II:1-45. The goddess of the dawn,
daughter of the Titan Pallas, and wife of Tithonus, for
whom she won eternal life but not eternal youth..
Ibn Rushd,
1128-1198 AD. An Arabian physician and commentator on Aristotle.
He espoused a sceptical philosophy, and as ‘the Commentator’ in
Latin translation c. 1250 made Aristotle’s philosophy supreme in the Middle
Ages.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the group of wise
men in Limbo.
Purgatorio Canto XXV:1-79. He taught, in error, that
the human intellect being potential not actualised, discursive rather than
intuitive like the angels, could not have its seat in the actual organs in the
way that animals have intelligence, and so existed independently of physical
form. He does however make self-consciousness a characteristic of the rational
or intellectual soul, as life is of the vegetable soul, and sensation of the
animal soul. ‘The action of the intellect is likened to a circle, because it
turns round upon itself, and comprehends itself.’
An Arabian
physician and commentator on Aristotle 979-1037 AD. He
codified Galen with smatterings of Hippocrates,
and was translated into Latin, for European use, by Gerard of Cremona c. 1180.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the group of
wise men in Limbo.
Ezzellino III da
Romano, the tyrant (1194-1259), lord of Verona, Vicenza and Padua, called ‘the
son of the devil’, imperial vicar under Frederick II.
Pope Alexander IV declared a crusade against him, and he was defeated at
Cassano on the Adda, and subsequently died. He was the head of the Ghibellines
in Northern Italy.
Inferno Canto XII:100-139. He is in the seventh
circle, first ring.
Paradiso Canto IX:1-66. His mother dreamed she had
given birth to a firebrand that scorched the land. Cunizza was his sister.
The god of the
vine, the son of Jupiter and Semele,
was worshipped ecstatically at Thebes in Boeotia (See Ovid’s Metamorphoses III 528).
The banks of the neighbouring rivers, Ismenus and Asopus, were crowded with
worshippers, when the midnight rituals were enacted, that were designed to
ensure the fruitfulness of the crop. The worship of Bacchus (Dionysus) was
introduced into Greece from Asia Minor.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:76-111. The rites are
mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XIII:1-51. He is mentioned in the
context of the shouts of praise cried out at his rites.
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. A demon guarding the eighth
circle, the fifth chasm, of the barrators.
Inferno Canto XXII:1-30. The sinners hide from him.
Inferno Canto XXII:31-75. He protects Ciampolo from the other demons so that Virgil can speak to
him.
Inferno Canto XXII:124-151. He is left rescuing Calcabrina and Alichino from the
boiling pitch.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
The daughter of Raymond Berenger, and wife of Charles
I of Anjou.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. She is mentioned.
Beatrice d’Este,
daughter of Obizzo d’Este II of Ferrara, married Nino
de’ Visconti by whom she had a daughter Giovanna,
voted a pension by the Guelphs in 1328. After Nino’s death Beatrice married Galeazzo Visconti of Milan, a separate branch. The
Milanese Visconti suffered misfortune in 1302. Giovanna married Riccardo da Cammino of Treviso. The arrangements for
Beatrice’s marriage were in progress at Easter 1300, and the wedding took place
in the June.
Purgatorio Canto VIII:46-84. She is mentioned.
The youngest
daughter of Charles the Lame, Charles I of Anjou.
She married Azzo VIII d’Este in 1305.
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. She is mentioned.
A personification,
but also the real Beatrice who Dante first saw as a child of eight in May 1274
when he was nine years old. His love for her inspired the Vita Nuova and the
Divine Comedy. She was Bice, or Beatrice, Portinari daughter of Folco de’
Portinari who died in 1288. She died young in June of 1290. (See Rossetti’s
painting Beata Beatrix – Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, England)
Inferno Canto I:61-99. Virgil says she will be Dante’s guide in Paradise.
Inferno Canto II:43-93. She asks Virgil to aid Dante.
Inferno Canto X:94-136. She will, through Cacciaguida, reveal Dante’s future to him.
Purgatorio Canto VI 25-48. Virgil tells Dante he will
see her again, when they reach the summit of the Mount of Purgatory.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:1-48. Her Divine philosophy
goes beyond Virgil’s human philosophy, entering into matters of Faith.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:49-75. As Divine Philosophy
she takes Freewill to be the noble virtue.
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:1-45. Dante must pass
through the purifying fire to reach her.
Purgatorio Canto XXX:1-48. She appears to Dante,
wreathed in the olive sacred to Pallas Athene-Minerva,
dressed in the white, green and red of Faith, Hope and Charity. Line 48 is a
translation of Virgil’s Aeneid iv 23 ‘Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae:
I recognise the tokens of the ancient flame.’
Purgatorio Canto XXXI:91-145. For Beatrice’s attributes,
note Vita Nuova xxi the sonnet: ‘My lady bears Love in her eyes,’ and Convito III vv 55-58 of the canzone: ‘Her aspect shows the joy of Paradise, seen in her
eyes and in her smiling face: Love brought them there as as to his
dwelling-place.’ Beatrice’s first beauty, her eyes, is that of the cardinal
virtues, her seconda bellaza, her second beauty, her smile, is the
beauty of the theological virtues.
Purgatorio Canto XXXIII:1-57. Beatrice employs Christ’s words to his disciples. See John xvi 16.
Paradiso Canto XXXI:64-93. Dante sees Beatrice
crowned in Heaven, and his final prayer to her.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. She, Divine Philosophy,
sits with Rachel (Contemplation) in Heaven, in the third
rank, below the Virgin.
Paradiso Canto XXXIII:1-48. She prays, with Bernard, to the Virgin, that
Dante finds the strength to persevere in his affections.
Tesauro de’
Beccheria of Pavia, Abbot of Vallombrosa, and Legate of Pope Alexander IV in
Florence, plotted against the Guelphs, after the Ghibellines had been expelled
in 1258 and was executed.
Inferno Canto XXXII:70-123. He is in the Ninth
Circle.
Bede (c673-735)
the English Ecclesiastical historian who died in Jarrow.
Paradiso Canto X:130-148. He is in the fourth sphere
of Prudence.
A Florentine maker
of musical instruments, a friend of Dante’s, noted for his laziness.
Purgatorio Canto IV:88-139. He is among the
late-repentant.
Belisarius
(c505-565) restored the authority of the Empire in Italy by his campaigns
against the Ostrogoths. He fell into disfavour, and, according to legend,
beggary. See Robert Grave’s historical novel ‘Count Belisarius.’
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. He is mentioned.
An ancient Florentine
family. See the note to Paradiso Canto XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
The father of ‘
the good Gualdrada’ one of the honoured knights of
ancient Florence.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. The Conti
Guidi were descended from him through Gualdrada.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned as marrying one
of his daughters to one of the Adimari.
A first cousin of
Dante’s father, who was killed for sowing discord among the Sacchetti family,
and was not revenged until thirty years after the vision, when Geri’s nephews,
the sons of Messer Cione del Bello Alighieri killed one of the Sacchetti in his
own house. The families were reconciled in 1342.
Inferno Canto XXIX:1-36. He is in the ninth chasm.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126. King Belus of Sidon, the
Phoenician, father of Dido.
The Christian
Saint (c480-543) the founder of the oldest Western monastic order, the
Benedictines. He was born at Nursia in Umbria, and went to Rome to study. He
lived as a hermit for several years near Subiaco. He founded the famous monastery
at Monte Cassino on a mountain between Rome and Naples, a spur of Monte Cairo,
a few miles from Aquino in the north of Campania. It was once crowned by altars
to Apollo and Venus-Aphrodite. The Rule
of his Order demanded poverty, chastity and obedience, manual labour, and
irrevocable vows. He was remembered for his many acts of healing.
Paradiso Canto XXII:1-99. He is manifest in the
seventh sphere.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. He is seated below John the Baptist in Heaven.
Benicasa da
Laterina, judge to the Podestà of Siena. He condemned a relative of Ghin di Tacco, a highwayman, to death, and Ghino took his
revenge by murdering him while he was sitting as a magistrate in Rome.
Purgatorio Canto
VI:1-24. He is among the late-repentant.
His daughter Margaret married Louis IX of France, Eleanor married Henry
III of England, Sancha married Richard of Cornwall,
and Beatrice married Charles
of Anjou, bringing Provence as her dowry, after her father’s death.
Paradiso Canto VI:112-142. Dante refers to the fable
of his chamberlain, Romeo of Villeneuve.
A wealthy citizen
of Assisi who gave up his possessions to follow Saint
Francis, and became his first disciple.
Paradiso Canto XI:43-117. He is mentioned.
Bernard of
Clairvaux (1090-1153) the Cistercian monk and theologian, son of a noble
Burgundian family, who founded the great monastery at Clairvaux in France and
was Abbot there till his death. He had a particular devotion to the Virgin,
expressed in his De Laudibus Virginis matris and his nine sermons for
the feasts of the Purification, Assumption, Nativity etc. He opposed the
celebration of her Immaculate Conception. He dedicated all the monasteries of
the Cistercian Order to her. He is the type of contemplation.
Paradiso Canto XXXI:94-142. He guides Dante to the
final Vision.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:37-84. Bernard is made to
express the orthodox view that the unbaptised child must remain in Limbo (See Inferno IV), where spirits live ‘without hope, in
longing’. However Bernard himself in his treatise addressed to Hugh
of Saint Victor, holds back from this terrible conclusion. ‘We must suppose
that the ancient sacraments were efficacious as long as it can be shown that
they were not notoriously prohibited. And after that? It is in God’s hands. Not
mine be it to set the limit.’
His father was a
field labourer. Bernadin distinguished himself at the siege of Faenza against
the Emperor Frederick II in 1240. He was a
Guelph, and died c1250 having become one of the mobility of Faenza.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. He is mentioned.
The father of Saint Francis, to whom Francis gave all his worldly
possessions, in order to pursue Poverty.
Paradiso Canto XI:43-117. He is mentioned.
Bertrand
(c1140-1215), The Lord of the Castle of Hautefort (Altaforte), near Périgord,
who spent his life in feudal warfare, ended it in the Cistercian monastery of
Dalon, nearby. He was one of the most individual of the Provençal troubadours.
One of his finest poems (‘Si tuit li dohl elh plor elh marrimen’) is his
song of lament on the death of Prince Henry Plantagenet, the elder brother to
Richard Coeur de Lion, and named the ‘Young King’, the son of Henry II of
England, and twice crowned in his father’s lifetime. Bertrand was accused of
stirring up the strife whereby Henry II refused to grant the sovereignty of
England or Normandy to his son, and which lasted until the Young King’s death
in 1183. (See Ezra Pound’s poem ‘Near Périgord’ from Lustra, and his
translation of the lament ‘Planh for the Young English King’ in Personae: also
his translation of ‘Dompna pois de me no’us cal’ in Lustra, where
Bertrand makes ‘a borrowed lady’, ‘una dompna soiseubuda’ or ‘una
donna ideale’, out of the best characteristics of the noble women he knows,
and its companion piece ‘Na Audiart’ in Personae.)
Inferno Canto XXVIII:112-142. He is in the ninth
chasm of the eighth circle, as a ‘stirrer up of strife’.
Anicius Manlius
Torquatus Severinus Boëthius (c475-525), Roman consul and philosopher who was
condemned to death by Theodoric, at Pavia. He wrote the Consolation of
Philosophy while in prison, defending the virtuous life and the ways of
God. He stressed revealed truth, and the earthly life, and though a Pagan with
Christian connections was accepted as a Christian teacher. He argued the
timelessness of God’s view of existence, and the validity of Human Freewill.
Cieldauro (Golden Ceiling) is St. Peter’s Church in Pavia where he was buried.
Since his opponents were Arian heretics, he is claimed as a Catholic martyr.
Paradiso Canto X:100-129. He is in the fourth sphere
of Prudence.
The private
astrologer to Guido da Montefeltro. He came
from Forlì and was a tiler by trade. He wrote ‘Liber Introductorius ad
Judicia Stellorum’ (c1170) and was credited with aiding Guido’s victory
over the French Papal forces at Forlì in 1282.
Inferno Canto XX:100-130. He is in the eighth circle.
Giovanni Fidanza,
the Franciscan ‘Seraphic Doctor’ Saint Bonaventura (1221-1274). He was born at
Bagnoregio near Bolsena. He was a friend and colleague of Thomas Aquinas, and minister-general of the Franciscan Order
from 1256. He wrote the official life of Saint Francis, and shortly before his
death was made a Cardinal and Bishop of Albano by Pope Gregory X.
Paradiso Canto XII:1-36. He is in the fourth sphere of
the Sun.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. His extended speech to
Dante.
Benedetto Gaetani
who succeeded Celestine V in 1294, and imprisoned him
after his abdication until his death. His political manoeuvres are the
background to the critical three years of Dante’s political life, leading to
his exile from Florence, and described in Ciacco’s
prophecy. For Dante, he represented the corrupt Papacy, placed in Hell for
his vindictiveness; falsity; profligate simony; an ultramontane sacerdotalism,
that saw the Empire as subordinate to the Church, with only a derived
authority; and his destructive policies that led to French control of Florence.
Boniface died in October 1303, and was succeeded by Benedict XI. Boniface is
therefore the Pope at the time of the Vision in 1300.
See Ciacco’s prophecy and Inferno
Canto VI:64-93 for an indirect reference.
Inferno Canto XV:100-124. He is mentioned,
indirectly, regarding his translation of Andrei dei
Mozzi from Florence to Vicenze in 1295.
Inferno Canto XIX:31-87. His place in Hell is
reserved for him in the eighth circle with the Simonists.
Inferno Canto XXVII:58-136. He persuaded Guido da Montefeltro to leave his religious
retreat in order to advise him on the razing of Palestrina, giving him
absolution in advance, which Dante explicitly rejects, as unacceptable,
logically and morally. (Acre is mentioned as the last possession of the
Christians in the Holy Land, lost to the Saracens in 1291.)
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. In the name of Philip IV, the Fair, Sciarra Colonna and William de
Nogaret seized Boniface at Anagni his birthplace, forty miles south east of
Rome, in September 1303 and treated him with such cruelty that he died at Rome,
a month after his release from their hands, on October 11th 1303.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126. His indifference to the fate
of Acre and the Holy Land is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto IX:127-142. His reign has caused the
abandonment of the study of the Gospels, for the study of the law-books, the
Decretals, since that study brings preferment.
Paradiso Canto XII:37-105. The ideal of Poverty has
been abandoned by the Holy See.
Paradiso Canto XVII:1-99. He engineered Dante’s
exile.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:100-136. Dante deems him in
love with the gold coins of Florence that carried the figure of the Baptist, as well as the lily, the florins, that he has
forgotten the meaning of his office.
Paradiso Canto XXVII:1-66. He is denounced as a
corrupt usurper of the Papal Office.
Paradiso Canto XXX:97-148. When Clement V arrives in
Hell (1314), Boniface will be pushed further down.
Archbishop of
Ravenna from 1274 to 1295. Dante refers to the ornamental rook like a
chess-piece set at the top of the ancient pastoral staff of the Archbishops of
Ravenna.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:1-33. He is among the
gluttonous.
The north wind
personified as a god. The north-westerlies are classically cloud-bearing winds,
the north-easterlies sky-clearing winds.
Paradiso Canto XXVIII:58-93. He is mentioned.
A retired
purse-maker who entered the aristocracy. There is a story about him in
Boccaccio’s Decameron I, 8 where he is noted for refinement, and eloquence. He
died shortly before 1300.
Inferno Canto XVI:46-87. He is in the seventh circle
for sodomy.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
One of the elders of
Lucca.
Inferno Canto XXI:31-58. He is in Hell.
Chief of the
Sennonian Gauls who sacked Rome in 390BC.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
One of the Giant
sons of Earth and Tartarus who fought against the gods of Olympus. See Virgil’s
Aeneid x 565-568, where he is described as having fifty heads and a hundred
arms. See also Statius Theb. ii 596.
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145. He helps guard the
central pit.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. He is depicted on the
roadway.
See Ugolino della Gherardesca.
The surgeon and
afterwards chamberlain of King Philip III of France. Mary of Brabant was accused by Pierre and others of
having murdered Louis, Philip’s son by his first wife, with poison, in 1276.
She destroyed Pierre by falsely accusing him of an attempt on her honour, and
of treasonable correspondence with Alfonso X of Castile, Philip’s enemy. Pierre
was hanged for this in 1278.
Purgatorio Canto VI:1-24. He is with the
late-repentants.
A Florentine
noble, and a thief.
Inferno Canto XXV:34-78. He merges with Cianfa as a serpent.
Brutus, Junius, who expelled Tarquin
The type of a
noble Roman of the Republic. Lucius Junius Brutus conquered Tarquinius
Superbus, whose son had raped Lucretia, Collatine’s
wife, in 510 BC. (See Shakespeare’s Rape of Lucrece)
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. He is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
Marcus Junius
Brutus, who with Gaius Cassius plotted to assassinate Julius Caesar, fearful of Caesar’s increasing power,
and the death of the Republic. Caesar, who had loved Brutus’s mother Servilia,
according to Suetonius, so that Brutus was perhaps his own child, was murdered
on the Ides of March in 44BC, in the Hall of Pompey where the Senate were due
to meet. One of the Casca brothers struck the first blow, with a sweep of his
dagger just below the throat. Twenty-three dagger thrusts went home, and it was
said that when he saw Brutus about to deliver the second blow, Caesar
reproached him in Greek, saying: ‘You too, my child?’ In the ensuing Civil War,
Octavian, later Augustus Caesar, and Mark Antony,
defeated Brutus at the Second Battle of Philippi in 42BC. Brutus’s head was
sent to Rome to be thrown at the foot of Caesar’ divine image. Dante holds him
in special opprobrium, because of his murder of the founder of the Roman
Empire, and because no doubt of the close relationship between Brutus and
Caesar, making the betrayal more bitter.
Inferno Canto XXXIV:55-69. He is tormented in one
of Satan’s mouths.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
The Greek
philosopher, considered by Aristotle an example of the
powers of false-reasoning.
Paradiso Canto XIII:91-142. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XVII:31-78. A knight of the Bicchi
family of Florence, still alive in 1300 at the time of the Vision. His arms
were ‘three eagles’ beaks or on field azure’.
The Brescian
Counts of Casalodi held Mantua in 1272 but were unpopular and threatened with
expulsion. Pinamonte de Buonaccorsi, obtained control, by advising Alberta da Casalodi to banish the powerful nobles, as a
source of trouble. He then took over, massacred any opponents, expelled
Alberta, and held Mantua until 1291.
Inferno Canto XX:52-99. Mentioned regarding Mantuan
history.
Bonagiunta
Orbicciani degli Overardi, a notary and poet, of Lucca, who died between 1296
and 1300. Jacopo da Lentino ( il Notaio, the
Notary), Guittone del Viva known as Fra Guittone, of
Arezzo (1230-1294: one of the Frati Gaudenti) in his first poetic
period, and Bonagiunta were prominent members of the Sicilian school of Poetry,
continued in Central Italy, based on Provençal traditions. Their style lacked
the spontaneity and sweetness of the dolce stil nuovo developed by Guido Guinicelli of Bologna, Guido
Cavalcanti and Dante.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:1-33. He is among the
gluttonous.
See
Mosca. Buondelmonti was betrothed to a daughter of the Amidei,
but broke faith at the instigation of Gualdrada Donati.
In the debate as to whether he should be killed Mosca said the evil word, ‘A
thing done has an end.’ Buondelmonte was murdered, at the foot of the statue of
Mars, on the Ponte Vecchio, in 1215. The family divisions created the Guelph
and Ghibelline factional conflicts.
Paradiso Canto XVI:46-87. They are mentioned among
the ancient Florentine families.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. The family originated from
Valdigreve and settled in the Borgo Saint Apostoli. To reach Florence they
would have crossed the small stream called Ema.
A member of the Brigata
Spendereccia, the Spendthrift Brigade, a club founded by twelve wealthy
Sienese, in the second half of the thirteenth century, who vied with each other
in squandering their money on riotous living.
Inferno Canto XXIX:121-139. He is in the tenth
chasm.
Dante’s
great-great-grandfather, whose son was Alighiero I. Cacciaguida’s wife was Alighiera of the
Aldighieri family of Ferrara.
He took part in Saint Bernard of Clairvaux’s crusade of 1147 under
Emperor Conrad III, and was killed. His brother’s name Eliseo suggests a connection with the Elisei family.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. He is in the Fifth sphere of
Mars.
Paradiso Canto XVI:1-45. He was born, according to
Dante in 1091, calculated from the period of Mars orbit, 687 days, multiplied
by the the 580 orbits mentioned. He was then about fifty-six when he joined the
crusade.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:1-57. He leaves Dante to rejoin
the other spirits, in the Fifth Sphere of Mars.
His father Alberto
was head of the Bolognese Guelphs. He himself was a leading Guelph, exiled in
1289, and a follower of Marquis Obizzo II d’Este of
Ferrara. He assisted the Marquis in the seduction of his own sister, Ghisola, who later married Niccolò de Fontana of Ferrara in
1270. Dante met him in exile, possibly in Florence.
Inferno Canto XVIII:40-66. He is in the eighth
circle, first chasm, of pimps, go-betweens, and panders.
The three-headed
shepherd, son of Hephaestus and Medusa. He lived in a
deep cave in the Aventine forest. He stole two of Hercules’s
prize bulls, and four heifers, after Hercules had taken the cattle of King Geryon in his Tenth Labour. Hercules battered him to death.
Dante follows Livy i. 7, and Virgil Aeneid viii 193-267, where Virgil calls him semihominis, leading to Dante confusing him with the Centaurs, who guard
the Violent higher up, in the seventh circle.
Inferno Canto XXV:1-33. He is in the eighth circle,
with the thieves.
The son of the
Phoenician King Agenor, who searches for his sister Europa, stolen by Jupiter
in the form of a bull. He sows the serpent’s teeth, and founds Thebes, but
offends the sacred Serpent of Mars. He and his wife Harmonia are ultimately
turned into snakes. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses IV 563 et al.
Inferno Canto XXV:79-151. Mentioned, as an example of
mutation.
Caecilius Statius
the comic poet (d. 168 BC)
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. He is in Limbo.
See Carignano
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. A demon guarding the eighth
circle, the fifth chasm, of the barrators.
Inferno Canto XXII:97-123. He does not trust Ciampolo.
The high priest
among the Pharisees, see John xi 47-53, who said ‘it is expedient for us that
one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should perish
not’. His father-in-law was Annas, see John xviii 13.
Inferno Canto XXIII:82-126. He is in the eighth
circle.
The son of Adam and Eve, who killed his brother Abel. He was expelled from Eden to the land of Nod. See
Genesis iv.
Inferno Canto XX:100-130. Paradiso
Canto II:46-105. The Man in the Moon in popular superstition, was Cain
carrying a bundle of thorns as he went to sacrifice.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:124-151. He is the first of
the voices, signifying envy.
The grandson of Rinieri, and Podestà of Milan, Parma, and Modena,
but notorious for his tenure at Florence, from January to November 1303, by
favour of the Blacks, when he proved a bitter enemy of the Whites.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:28-66. He is mentioned,
adversely.
Rinieri a Guelph
of Forlì, was Podestà of Faenza in 1247, Parma in 1252, and Ravenna in 1265 and
1292. He attacked Forlì in 1276 but had to retire to Calboli in the valley of
Montone, where he surrendered to Guido da
Montefeltro, the Captain of Forlì, who razed the stronghold. When Rinier
was re-elected Podestà of Faenza in 1292 Mainardo Pagano was Captain. The citizens opposed a tax levied on them by the Count of Romagna,
and successfully opposed him. In 1294 the da Calboli were expelled by the
Ghibellines, but returned with other Guelphs in 1296, when their enemies were
away fighting against Bologna. Shortly after this the Guelphs were routed again
and expelled by the Ghibellines, and the aged Rinier was killed.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:1-27. He is among the envious.
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. A demon guarding the eighth
circle, the fifth chasm, of the barrators.
Inferno Canto XXII:124-151. He and Alichino quarrel.
The Greek augur,
the brother of Leucippe and Theonoë. At Aulis, where the Greek ships waited for
a favourable wind to sail to Troy, Calchas interpreted the appearance of a
snake that killed a sparrow and her eight fledglings, and then was turned to
stone. It signified that Troy would be taken in the tenth year after a long
struggle. He also prophesied that they must pacify Artemis by sacrificing Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia.
After that the north-east wind dropped and the fleet was able to set sail for
Troy.
Inferno Canto XX:100-130. He is mentioned in the
eighth circle.
An ancient
Florentine family, a branch of the Donati. See
the note to Paradiso Canto XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
The Muse of Epic
Poetry, the mother of Orpheus, and the eldest sister of
the Muses (see the fuller entry under Muses). She took the
lead in the competition with the Pierides.
Purgatorio Canto I:1-27. Dante asks her to accompany
his words.
An Arcadian
nympth, a favourite of Artemis-Diana, raped by Jupiter. Diana expelled her from her company, and she was
changed by Juno into a bear, and hunted by her son Arcas. Jupiter placed her in the sky as the constellation of
the Bear, Ursa Major, and Arcas as the constellation of the little Bear, Ursa
Minor, at the pole, towards which the ‘pointers’ Dubhe and Merak, of the Great
Bear, or Plough, point as it circles on Polaris the pole-star. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses II 409-528.
Purgatorio Canto XXV:109-139. She is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XXXI:28-63. The Great Bear, circling
over the northern latitudes.
Saint Callixtus I,
Pope (217-222AD).
Paradiso Canto XXVII:1-66. He died for the faith.
See Pazzi.
Inferno Canto I:100-111. A virgin warrior, the Roman
version of an Amazon, whose death is described in Aeneid XI.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. She is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
The daughter of Gherardo da Camino. The reference to her is unclear,
and may refer to her virtue or her lack of it.
Purgatorio Canto XVI:97-145. She is mentioned.
Captain-General of
Treviso from 1283 till his death in 1306 when he was succeeded by his son Riccardo. Gerard’s daughter Gaia died in 1311. The
allusion to her is not understood.
Purgatorio Canto XVI:97-145. He is mentioned.
The brother of Gaia, and husband of Giovanna
Visconti, who was treacherously murdered at Treviso where the rivers Sile
and Cagnano meet, in 1312.
Paradiso Canto IX:1-66. His death is prophesied.
One of the
Cancellieri family of Pistoia, who fomented an internal feud in which many of
his kinsmen died. This feud was the source of the Blacks and Whites, the Neri
and Bianchi factions, introduced into Florence also.
Inferno Canto XXXII:40-69. He is in Caïna, in the
Ninth Circle.
Inferno Canto XIV:43-72. An Argive chief in the war
of the seven against Thebes who scaled the wall, and was struck down by Jupiter’s lightning bolt. He was a symbol of pride. (See
Aeschylus: Seven against Thebes)
Inferno Canto XXV:1-33. Cacus outdoes him in pride and arrogance.
King of France
(987-996) here confused with his father Hugh the Great (Duke of the Franks,
Count of Paris, died 956) who was the supposed son of a butcher. When Louis V
died in 987, and the Carlovingian Dynasty ended it was Hugh who
succeeded, and founded the Capetian Dynasty, not his son and successor Robert I. On Louis V’s death, his uncle Duke Charles of Lorraine, son of Louis IV, was the only
survivor of the Carlovingian line. He was captured by Hugh and imprisoned till
his death in 991. He was not a monk, and Dante may have confused him with the
last of the Merovingians Childeric III who was deposed by Pepin le Bref in 751
and compelled to become a monk. Between 1060 and 1300 four Philip’s (I-IV) and
four Louis’s (VI-IX) ruled France between them.
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. He is among the
avaricious.
A Florentine
alchemist, known to Dante, burnt alive at Siena in 1293.
Inferno Canto XXIX:121-139. He is in the tenth
chasm.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. He is attacked by Gianni Schicci.
An ancient
Florentine family.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto VI:76-151. Feuded with the Montagues, see Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet for a
fictitious re-creation of the feuding.
Malatestino Malatesta of Rimini, the ‘one-eyed
traitor’, ‘the young mastiff’, obtained possession of Fano, and added it to
Rimini. He invited the two chief nobles Guido del Cassero,
and Agniello to meet him at La Cattolica on the Adriatic between Fano and
Rimini. Their boat was intercepted and they were drowned off the headland of
Focaro, between Fano and La Cattolica. The headland was notorious for its
dangerous winds, so much so that sailors made vows and prayers for safe
passage.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:55-90. Their death is
prophesied.
Renowned for his
liberality. A member of a noted family near Montefeltro. He died between 1270
and 1289.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. He is mentioned.
The Brescian
Counts of Casalodi held Mantua in 1272 but were unpopular and threatened with
expulsion. Pinamonte de Buonaccorsi, obtained control,
by advising Alberta to banish the powerful nobles, as a source of trouble. He
then took over, massacred any opponents, expelled Alberta, and held Mantua
until 1291.
Inferno Canto XX:52-99. Mentioned regarding Mantuan
history.
A musician of
Florence or Pistoia, and a personal friend of Dante’s, whose poetry he set to
music, including perhaps this second canzone which Dante annotated in the
Convito. He died between 1283 and 1300. He gathers with the dead souls who are
not condemned to the Acheron, at Rome, the portal of salvation. Since the
Jubilee, which began on Christmas day 1299, all those who have wished for grace
have been carried to Purgatory, by the Angel.
Purgatorio Canto II:79-114. He is entering Purgatory.
Malatestino Malatesta of Rimini, the ‘one-eyed
traitor’, ‘the young mastiff’, obtained possession of Fano, and added it to
Rimini. He invited the two chief nobles Guido, and Agniello
da Carignano to meet him at La Cattolica on the Adriatic between Fano and
Rimini. Their boat was intercepted and they were drowned off the headland of
Focaro, between Fano and La Cattolica. The headland was notorious for its
dangerous winds, so much so that sailors made vows and prayers for safe
passage.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:55-90. Their death is
prophesied.
A Guelph from
Fano, in the mark of Ancona, between Romagna and the Kingdom of Naples, ruled
by Charles II of Anjou. He was Podestà of Bolgna
in 1296. He frustrated the designs on the city of Azzo VII
d’Este, Marquess of Ferrara, incurring Azzo’s wrath, and exchanged his
office for that of Milan, in 1298. He was murdered on Azzo’s orders at Oriaco,
near the River Brenta, between Venice and Padua, and died in the marshes there,
while fleeing to La Mira would have taken him to drier land. The Paduans are
called Antenori from their founder Antenor. Riccardo da Camino was one of the assassins.
Purgatorio Canto V:64-84. He is one of the late
repentants.
With Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius plotted to assassinate Julius Caesar, fearful of Caesar’s increasing power,
and the death of the Republic. Caesar was murdered on the Ides of March in
44BC, in the Hall of Pompey where the Senate were due to meet. One of the Casca
brothers struck the first blow, with a sweep of his dagger just below the
throat. In the ensuing Civil War, Octavian, later Augustus Caesar, and Mark Antony, defeated Cassius at the First Battle of Philippi, and
Brutus at the Second Battle of Philippi, in 42BC. Dante holds him in special
opprobrium, because of his complicity in the murder of the founder of the Roman
Empire.
Inferno Canto XXXIV:55-69. He is tormented in one
of Satan’s mouths.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of Imperial
history.
A gentleman of
Treviso, noted for his hospitality and generosity. To the French the Lombards
were tricky, and often usurers, perhaps the source of his name, being in
contrast, the ‘honest one’, simplice.
Purgatorio Canto XVI:97-145. He is mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto IV:52-87. The Twins, the Dioscuri,
the Gemini, represented by that constellation of the Zodiac. They were the twin
sons of Tyndareus and Leda, famous for their horsemanship, though Pollux
(Polydeuces) may have been Zeus’s swan-son, and Helen’s
brother, while Castor was mortal and Clytaemnestra’s brother. Pollux refused
immortality unless his brother could share it, and Zeus set them among the
stars. They are the saviours of shipwrecked sailors, and were worshipped by the
Spartans.
Ghibellines, based
in the stronghold of Castrocaro, near Forlì
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. They are mentioned.
One of the Frati
Gaudenti, or Jovial Friars, a derisive name for the Cavalieri di S.
Maria (Ordo militae beatae Mariae) founded at Bologna in 1261, with
the approval of Urban IV, to act as mediators, and protect the weak. It was
disbanded due to its laxity. Catelano de’ Catalini (or de’ Malavolti)
c.1210-1285, and Loderingo degli Andalò, a Ghibelline,
were called to Florence, from Bologna, in 1266 to act together as Podestà, and
reform the government. They were accused of hypocrisy and corruption and
expelled. The Gardingo district (Piazza di Firenze) the site of the
Uberti Palace, was destroyed in a rising against the Ghibellines.
Inferno Canto XXIII:82-126. They are in the eighth
circle.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
Marcius Portius
Cato, the Younger (95-46BC), the Republican opponent of Julius
Caesar. He supported Pompey as the lesser of
two evils, and was noted for his honesty and moral stance. After the battle of
Thapsus, in 46 BC, he committed suicide while governor of Utica near Carthage
rather than fall into enemy hands. This was regarded as an act of supreme
devotion to liberty. Cato the lawgiver is depicted with the righteous in
Virgil’s Aeneid VIII 670. Dante derived his knowledge of Cato from Lucan’s Pharsalia II 373. Cato’s wife was Marcia.
Inferno Canto XIV:1-42. Cato crossed the Libyan desert
in 47BC, at the head of Pompey’s army, to meet up
with Juba, King of Numidia. The march is described by Lucan
in Pharsalia IX 411 et seq.
Purgatorio Canto I:28-84. The Poets meet him. The
Mount of Purgatory is in Cato’s care.
The father of the
poet Guido Cavalcanti, is mentioned in Boccaccio’s
Decameron VI 9, in a tale which concerns Guido.
Inferno Canto X:52-72. He is in the Sixth Circle as a
heretic.
Francesco, who
changes from serpent to man, and back, was killed by the villagers of Gaville,
in the upper Val d’Arno, the murderers and others being summarily executed by
his kinsmen.
Inferno Canto XXV:79-151. He is in the eighth circle.
The poet, son of Cavalcante Cavalcanti, born between 1250 and 1259,
was Farinata’s son-in-law, and a prominent White
(Bianchi) Guelf. He married Farinata’ daughter, Beatrice, during one of the
attempts to forge peace through marriage alliances. He, ‘the first of my
friends’, and Dante are the chief poets of the Florentine School of the dolce
stil nuove style of lyric poetrythat superseded the Bolognese school of Guido Guinicelli. The Vita Nuova was dedicated to Guido.
He was exiled with the Whites (a decision Dante was party to) in June 1300 to
Sarzana in the Lunigiana. Allowed to return to Florence, due to illness, caused
by the unhealthy locality, he died in the August and was buried on August 29th,
but was still alive at the time of the Vision itself. He is mentioned in
Bocaccio’s Decameron VI 9.
Inferno Canto X:52-72. His father Cavalcante asks after
him. Dante mentions Guido’s disdain of Virgil, through poetic preference,
political allegiance, Epicurean principles, preference for Italian over Latin,
or some other reason.
See Ciacco’s prophecy and Inferno
Canto VI:64-93 for an indirect reference.
Purgatorio Canto XI:73-117. Dante expresses the view
that he has surpassed the poetic school of Guido
Guinicelli. (The earlier poet who wrote the lines ‘Love was not before the
gentle heart, nor the gentle heart before love’)
Pietro da Morrone,
a saintly hermit from the Abruzzi, was compelled to become Pope by the
Cardinals in 1294, at the age of eighty. Five months later, worn out, he
abdicated. He was confined by his successor Boniface VIII till his death in 1296. He was canonised in 1313.
Inferno Canto III:58-69. Celestine is the likeliest
candidate, as attested by Petrarch and others, for he who made ‘il gran
rifiuto’.
Inferno Canto XXVII:58-136. Dante again refers to
Celestine’s indifference to the Papal honour.
Fabulous
creatures, living in the mountains of Thessaly, half man and half horse. They
were the sons of Ixion, and a cloud, in the form of Juno.
They fought violently at the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs, at the
marriage feast of Pirithoüs and Hippodamia, at which Theseus was present. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses XII 210. Virgil calls them furentes in
Georgics ii 45-456.
Inferno Canto XII:49-99. They guard the river of
blood in the seventh circle.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:100-154. The battle is
referred to.
The triple headed
hound of Hell, with snakes for hair, and barbed tail, that guarded the gates of
Tartarus. The foam from his mouth was poisonous. He was born of Echidne by Typhon. Associated with the Egyptian god Anubis, by the
Greeks. He was dragged from Hell by Hercules (The
Twelfth Labour) and the foam from his mouth gave birth to the poisonous plant
aconite.
Inferno Canto VI:1-33. He guards the third circle of
the gluttonous.
Inferno Canto IX:64-105. His throat is still scarred
from Hercules assault on him.
See Ciacco’s prophecy and Inferno
Canto VI:64-93 for an indirect reference.
Paradiso Canto XVI:46-87. They are mentioned among
the ancient Florentine families. Leaders of the Whites they originated from
Acone in the Val di Sieve. See the note to Paradiso
Canto XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned indirectly.
Charles (Born 742,
Ruled 768-814 AD), the son of Pepin the Short , King of the Franks. He
conquered the Langobard kingdom in 773-774, and extended his empire into Slav
territory. As the Founder of the Holy Roman Empire, Pope Leo III (795-816)
crowned him Emperor 23-24 December 800, with the Imperial title ‘Romanorum
gubernans imperium’. By the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 812, the Eastern
Roman Emperor, Michael I, recognised Charlemagne as Emperor in exchange for the
surrender of Istria, Venetia, and Dalmatia. He died at Aix-la-Chapelle in 814
and was entombed in the Dome. He was the legendary rebuilder of Florence.
Inferno Canto XXXI:1-45 Roland (Orlando) Charlemagne’s nephew, and the hero of the battle of Roncesvalles,
went down to defeat with his Franks, fighting against the Saracens, while
attempting to hold the valley in 778AD. He blew his horn in desperation, to
alert his uncle eight miles away, but Charlemagne was misled by the advice of
the traitor Ganelon, and did not provide aid. The epic
is told in the Old French Chanson de Roland, the ‘Song of Roland’, where
the intensity of Roland’s blast on the horn shattered it. The defeat allowed
Arab incursions into Narbonne in 793.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history, as having protected the Church by use of Imperial force and
right.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:1-57. He is in the Fifth Sphere
of Mars.
See Hugh Capet.
The brother of Louis IX of France, and Count of Provence. He defeated Manfred King of Sicily, at Benevento, in 1265, and seized
Naples and Sicily, supported by Pope Clement IV. He
was described as silent, serious and cold, though not uncultured. He schemed to
bring down the Eastern Emperor Michael Paleologus, but was opposed by King Pere II of Aragon whose wife Constance (Constanza) was Manfred’s daughter. On Easter Monday
1282 the approaches of a young French soldier to a young Sicilian woman in
Palermo provoked his murder by her husband, and, while the bells called
Vespers, it led to a chain reaction of anti-French massacres in Sicily. Pere
was able to take advantage of a power vacuum, and ousted Charles from Sicily.
It was the beginning of the ninety-year ‘War of the Vespers’. He and Peter
(Pere) both died in 1285.
Inferno Canto XIX:88-133. Charles refused to accept
one of Pope Nicholas III’s nieces as a wife for
his nephew, and Nicholas deprived Charles of the office of Senator of Rome, and
accepted money from Michael Paleologus, helping to fuel Charles’s
anti-Byzantine policy.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:1-21. Manfred trusted the pass of Ceperano (on the Liris) to the barons of Apulia, in 1266.
They betrayed the pass to Charles, leading to Manfred’s defeat and death at
Benevento.
In 1268, at
Tagliacozzo, Charles defeated Conradin, Manfred’s
nephew, using reserve troops, on the advice of Erard de Valéry (Alardo). He married Beatrice of
Provence, and then Margaret of Burgundy.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is one of the
negligent rulers. His son Charles II of Anjou and Naples, is inferior to him.
Purgatorio Canto XI:118-142. He imprisoned a friend
of Provenzan Salvani.
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. He received Provence as a
dowry, on marrying Beatrice in 1246, after the death of her father Raymond Berenger. He defeated Conradin,
last of the Swabians, at Tagliacozzo. On Oct 29th 1268 two months after his
defeat the seventeen-year-old Conradin was beheaded, on Charles’s orders.
Charles’s son was Charles the Lame, who assisted
him in trying to retake Sicily. He was supposed to have had Thomas Aquinas poisoned in 1274, though this is
spurious.
Carlo Zoppo,
Charles the Lame, the son of Charles I of Anjou.
King of Naples (Apulia) and Count of Anjou and Provence (1243-1309), and alive
at the time of the Vision. Titular King of Jerusalem, and head of the Italian
Guelphs in 1300.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. Dante regards him as
far inferior to his father.
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. Attempting with his father
to regain Sicily he was captured by Roger di Loria, the admiral of Peter III of Aragon, near Naples in a naval battle, and
taken prisoner, in June 1284. His life was spared on the instigation of Manfred’s daughter Costanza. He was
still in captibity in 1285 when he succeeded his father as King of Naples. In
1305 he married his younger daughter Beatrice to Azzo VIII of Este, Marquis of Ferrara, of evil reputation,
and her senior by many years, presumably for a consideration.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history, with disdain.
Paradiso Canto VIII:31-84. Charles
Martel was his son, who died before him.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He is held as an example
of poor kingship.
Paradiso Canto XX:1-72. He is a burden to Naples.
Charles (1271-1295)
the eldest son of Charles II of Naples and Mary
of Hungary, the daughter of Stephen IV. Dante probably met him in March 1295
when he visited Florence, and was popular. He died in the August. He was
married to Clemenz, or Clementina, the daughter of
Emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg, and his line might have
reconciled the Guelph and Ghibelline factions, but his early death quenched
Dante’s hopes. His brother was Robert Duke of
Calabria. His daughter Clemenza married Louis X of France. His wife Clemenz
died in 1296. His son Caroberto became heir to Naples
but was ousted by Robert, his uncle.
Paradiso Canto VIII:31-84. He describes the regions
over which he would have held power including Provence, of which the Angevin
kings of Naples were Counts; Hungary of which he had already been crowned king
in 1290 at Naples, holding it from his mother; and Sicily, which would already
have been his had it not been for the Sicilian Vespers, in 1282, the rising in
Palermo against the French that led to rule by the House of Aragon.
See Ciacco’s prophecy and Inferno
Canto VI:64-93 for an indirect reference.
Inferno Canto XXIV:130-151. Vanni Fucci’s prophecy, covers his involvement
in the entry of the Blacks into Florence in November 1301.
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. The brother of Philip IV, the Fair, nicknamed Senzaterra (Lackland, so
called as a younger son or because of his failures in Sicily in 1302) who
entered Florence in November 1301, and left in the following April. He
supported the Neri (Blacks) at Boniface’s instigation,
using treachery and perjury to coerce the Signoria, and left the city, covered
with disgrace, and loaded with plunder, leaving the Neri in control. The
treachery of he and Philip his brother towards the Count of Flanders in 1299
was revenged three years later at Courtrai, where the Flemish (‘Douay, Lille,
Ghent and Bruges’) routed the French.
Paradiso Canto IX:1-66. The son of Charles Martel and Clemenza.
See the entry for Charles.
The ferryman of
the River Acheron in the Underworld. His price for ferrying a dead spirit
across the river was an obolus, a coin, without which the spirit was
doomed to wander the deserted shore without refuge. The Greeks placed an obolus in the mouths of the dead, as their fare. Acheron, the son of Gaea, quenched
the thirst of the Titans and was thrown by Zeus into the Underworld, where he
was changed into the river bearing his name. The other rivers of the Underworld
were the Cocytus a tributary of the Acheron, with its tributary the Phlegethon,
the Lethe, and the Styx.
Inferno Canto III:70-99. He tells Dante to depart
since he is still living.
Inferno Canto III:100-136. He ferries the dead souls
over the Acheron.
The whirlpool in
the straits of Messina. She was the daughter of Neptune and Earth hurled, by
Jupiter’s thunderbolt, into the sea. The rock Scylla not mentioned here was nearby
in the other cliff, a dog-like monster with six heads. To be between Scylla and
Charybdis was to be in dire straits. (See Ovid’s Metamorphoses XIII 730)
Inferno Canto VII:1-39. Dante compares the dance of
the Avaricious to the waves of Charybdis’s whirlpool.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned in connection
with falsification of the measures. See note to
Purgatorio.
The wise Centaur, son of Saturn and Philyra,
to whom Apollo entrusted his son Aesculapius, and who variously reared Jason, and Achilles. He was
wounded by one of Hercules’s poisoned arrows, but could
not die because he was immortal. Prometheus accepted immortality in his stead
to allow him to end his suffering.
Inferno Canto XII:49-99. Chiron appoints Nessus to guide them in the seventh circle.
Purgatorio Canto IX:34-63. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto IV:1-63. The Saviour, whose name is not
mentioned explicitly in Inferno. Dante follows the legend that Christ
descended to Hell in the year 33AD (fifty two years after Virgil’s death and
entry into Limbo).
Inferno Canto XII:28-48. The earth shook at his
death, prior to his descent into Hell. See Matthew xxvii 51.
Inferno Canto XXXIV:70-139. Christ is the symbol of
Divine Humanity, sinless from birth.
Purgatorio Canto VI:76-151. Dante calls God,
incarnate in Christ, the highest Jove (Jupiter), thereby identifying supreme
Empire and law with the Deity, while superseding the Pagan Gods.
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. The Pope is his Vicar on
earth. His trial and crucifixion is referred to.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:1-33. He offered water to the woman of Samaria. See John iv 7-15.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:1-33. He appeared at Emmaus
after the Resurrection. See Luke xxiv 13-15.
Purgatorio Canto XXIII:37-90. On the cross, Christ
cried out: ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God,
why hast thou forsaken me?’ Matthew xxviii 46, Mark xv 34.
Purgatorio Canto XXXI:70-90. He is represented by
the Grifon in the Divine Pageant.
Purgatorio Canto XXXII:64-99. At the
Transfiguration, see Matthew xviii 1-8 Christ shone like the sun in white
raiment, and Moses and Elias appeared
talking with him, and after they were overcome he said ‘Arise, and be not
afraid’. Christ is the apple-tree, in accord with the Song of Solomon ii 3, ‘As
the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.’
Paradiso Canto VII:1-54. The Crucifixion was both
supreme justice exacted on human nature for the Fall, and supreme injustice
when the person on whom it fell is considered.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126. Rahab,
the prostitute, symbol of the Church, who was the first to welcome Joshua into what became Israel, was the first spirit
snatched up to Heaven at Christ’s triumph.
Paradiso Canto XI:1-42. As the Bridegroom of the
Church.
Paradiso Canto XI:43-117. Saint
Francis exhibited the five wounds of Christ, as stigmata, and bore the
marks for two years.
Paradiso Canto XIII:91-142. Christ is Humanity’s
delight and joy.
Paradiso Canto XIV:67-139. Dante’s vision of Christ
on the Cross.
Paradiso Canto XXV:1-63. He is referred to as Jèsu.
Paradiso Canto XXV:97-139. The Pelican, supposed to
feed its young with its own blood, is a symbol of Christ. He with the Virgin alone ascended to Heaven in body as well as in
spirit. Enoch and Elijah were only elevated to the
Earthly Paradise.
John Chrysostom,
or Golden Mouth (c 344-407) Archbishop of Constantinople, of fearless
eloquence, who denounced the vices of the Court and was persecuted and exiled
by the Empress Eudoxia.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is in the Fourth
Sphere of the Sun.
A Florentine,
Ciacco (hog), was a contemporary of Dante. He was renowned for his
gluttony, and is mentioned in a story in Bocaccio’s Decameron (ix.8). He is
said to have died in 1286.
Canto VI:34-63. He is punished in the third circle, of
the gluttonous.
A member of the
household of, Teobaldo II, Thibaut V Count of Champagne,
King of Navarre (1253-1270), son of the poet-king Thibaut I mentioned by Dante
in his De Vulgari Eloquentia. (see Blake’s engraving, ‘Ciampolo
tormented by Devils’, British Museum, London)
Inferno Canto XXII:31-75. He is in the eighth circle
of barrators.
Inferno Canto XXII:76-96. He names other barrators
with him.
Inferno Canto XXII:97-123. He tricks the demons.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. A notorious shrew who
married an Imolese.
Giovanno Cimabue,
the great Florentine painter (c1240-c1302).
Purgatorio Canto XI:73-117. He was surpassed by his
pupil Giotto.
Lucius Quintius
Cincinnatus, dictator 458 and 439BC. His name derives from the word cincinnus,
a curl of hair. He conquered the Aequians.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. The type of the good
citizen.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. Myrrha the daughter of Cinyras, a Cyprian king, the son of Pygmalion,
conceived an incestuous passion for him, and in darkness, using an assumed
name, entered his bed. She conceived Adonis, and was changed into the
myrrh-tree from which Adonis was born. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses X 299.
The witch, the
daughter of Titan and Perse, who lived on the ‘island’ of Aeaea (Cape Circeo,
on the coast of western Italy). She bewitched the followers of Ulysses, and delayed him on her island. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses XIV 247,and Homer’s Odyssey.
Inferno Canto XXVI:85-142. She is mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:28-66. She is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. A demon guarding the eighth
circle, the fifth chasm, of the barrators.
Inferno Canto XXII:31-75. He torments Ciampolo.
Chiari Scifi of
Assisi, now known as Santa Clara, Saint Clare (c1194-1253), the friend and
disciple of Saint Francis of Assisi, who founded the
order of Franciscan nuns known as the ‘Poor Clares’ (The Order wore a grey
habit, with white coif covered with black veil)
Paradiso Canto III:97-130. She is higher in Heaven
than Piccarda.
Purgatorio Canto III:103-145. He had Manfred’s body disinterred and reburied, with the rites of
excommunication, outside the Papal territory.
Inferno Canto XIX:31-87. Bertrand de Got (Goth),
Archbishop of Bordeaux, elected Pope in 1305, through the support of Philip IV, the Fair, of France. He transferred the Papal
See to Avignon where it remained until 1377. He died eleven years after
Boniface VIII in 1314.
Paradiso Canto XVII:1-99. Encouraged the Emperor Henry VII’s expedition to Italy but was disloyal to
him.
Paradiso Canto XXVII:1-66. An indirect reference to
the Gascon Pope.
Paradiso Canto XXX:97-148. Supported Henry VII and then
turned away from him. His place in Hell is reserved.
Paradiso Canto IX:1-66. Dante addresses her, living,
though she is assumed to have died in 1295. She was the daughter of the Emperor Rudolph. She was the mother of Caroberto.
Cleopatra VII,
Queen of Ptolemaic Egypt( 68-30BC, r.51-30BC). Of Macedonian origin. She had a
child Caesarion with Julius Caesar and married Mark Antony, committing suicide on his death following the
lost battle of Actium. She had twins by Antony, namely Cleopatra Selene, and
Alexander Helios.
Inferno Canto V:52-72. She is a carnal sinner in Limbo.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
Saint Cletus, Pope
(76-88AD).
Paradiso Canto XXVII:1-66. He died for the faith.
The Muse of
History, one of the nine Musae the daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne (Memory), and patronesses of the liberal arts. Their haunts were
Mount Helicon and Mount Parnassus, and their sacred springs were Aganippe and
Hippocrene on Helicon, and Castalia on Parnassus. Statius’s
Thebaid begins with an invocation to her, setting the Pagan, not Christian,
tone of the poem.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:55-93. She is mentioned.
One of the Three
Fates, the Moerae, whom Erebus and Night conceived: Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. Atropos is the smallest but the most
terrible. Clotho spins the thread of life, Lachesis measures it out, and
Atropos ‘she who cannot be avoided or turned’ shears it. At Delphi only two
fates were worshipped of Birth and Death. Dante here has Lachesis as the
spinner, and Clotho apparently as the measurer, or Clotho is both and the
syntax is misleading.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:1-33. She is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XVII:1-99. The daughter of Oceanus and
Tethys. The wife of the Ethiopian king Merops. She was loved by Apollo and bore him Phaethon, who
came to her to ask for the truth about his paternity. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses
I 756 et seq.
Ghelphs, based in
the stronghold of Conio, near Forlì. Conio was ruled by the Barbiano family,
and Count Alberigo da Barbiano of Conio was a famous condottiere in the next
epoch, who won the battle of Marino in 1379. One of St Catherine’s letters is
addressed to him.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. They are mentioned.
The son of Rudolph
II of Burgundy, raised at the Saxon Court. Hohenstaufen leader of the Second
Crusade (1147-1149) with Louis VII of France . Emperor from 1137-1152.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. Cacciaguida served him.
The son of Conrad
IV of Germany (1250-1254), he was defeated at Tagliacozzo in 1268 and executed
at Naples, at the age of seventeen.
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. He is mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto III:103-145. The wife of Frederick II, and grandmother of Manfred.
She was the daughter of King Roger II, and heiress of the Norman House of
Tancred that conquered Sicily and Southern Italy from the Saracens in the
eleventh century, and so of the crown of ‘the Two Sicilies’ (Naples and
Sicily).
Paradiso Canto III:97-130. She had married Henry son
of Frederick Barbarossa in 1186, who was afterwards
Emperor Henry VI, and bore him Frederick, later
Emperor Frederick II. Frederick Barbarossa, Henry
and Frederick II were the three stormwinds of Suabia. She assumed the regency
for her son, after Henry’s death at the early age of 32. She died in 1198.
Dante follows the tradition that she had been a nun, and had been forced to
make a political marriage against her will.
Purgatorio Canto III:103-145. The daughter of Manfred, and wife of Peter (Pere) III of Aragon, who avenged Manfred’s death by conquering Sicily in 1282,
after the Sicilian Vespers, taking it from Charles of
Anjou.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. She was the mother of James II, King of Aragon, and Frederick II, King of Sicily (both were reigning
in 1300).
The ruler of the
Western Roman Empire (lived c280-337) after his victory over Maxentius at the
Milvian Bridge on the Tiber in 312 AD. The son of Helena. He defeated Licinius
at Adrianople and Chrysopolis in 324, becoming sole ruler of the eastern and
western empire (totius orbis imperator).Byzantium was renamed
Constantinople in 330 and made the second Rome, and the Christian capital as he
had embraced Christianity. He died in 337 after receiving baptism on his
deathbed. He consolidated Diocletian’s structure of the absolute state, to
emphasise the divine nature of the Emperor.
Inferno Canto XIX:88-133. The Donation of Constantine
was a forged document of the Middle Ages, in which Pope Sylvester I was supposed to have cured Constantine
of leprosy, he then resolving to transfer his capital to Constantinople,
leaving the Pope with temporal power in Italy. Dante saw this as the source of
the fatal involvement of the Church in temporal power, and as a consequence the
Empire’s involvement in coveting the spiritual power of the Church. He considered
the Donation invalid as the Emperor could not relinquish temporal power, nor
could the Pope receive it. (See Dante De Monarchia iii 10 etc)
Inferno Canto XXVII:58-136. The cure of his leprosy
mentioned.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XX:1-72. He is in the sixth sphere of
Jupiter.
Lords of
Montemurlo which they sold to Florence in 1254.
Paradiso Canto XVI:46-87. They are mentioned among
the ancient Florentine families.
The daughter of
Scipio Africanus (Publius Cornelius Scipio Major), and the wife of Tiberius
Sempronius Gracchus, and mother of Tiberius and Caius the two famous tribunes,
the Gracchi. A type of the noble Roman woman. She claimed that ‘her sons were
her jewels’.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. She is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. She is mentioned as a type
of the good woman.
A notorious
highwayman of Dante’s time.
Inferno Canto XII:100-139 He is in the seventh
circle.
Purgatorio Canto III:103-145. He disinterred Manfred’s body from the cairn at Benevento and re-interred
it across the Verde (Garigliano) outside the kingdom of Naples, with all the
rites of excommunication, on the orders of Pope Clement IV.
Marcus Licinius
Crassus, surnamed Dives, the Wealthy, triumvir with Caesar and Pompey in
60BC. He was notorious for his love of gold, and being killed in battle with
the Parthians, their King Orodes (Hyrodes) poured molten gold down his throat.
(Florus, Epitome iii 2)
Purgatorio Canto XX:97-151. He is mentioned.
The wife of Aeneas, lost at Troy. See Virgil’s Aeneid II 735.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126. Dido’s
love for Aeneas wrongs her memory.
The love-god, the
son of Venus-Aphrodite. Called Cupido or Amor. The archer whose
arrows cause desire in those they hit.
Paradiso Canto VIII:1-30. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:91-111. Advised by Curio,
according to Lucan (see Pharsalia i. 281) Caesar crossed the Rubicon (‘iacta alea est –
the die is cast’), near Rimini, and declared war by that act against the
Republic in 49BC. The Rubicon was at that time the boundary between Italy and
Cisalpine Gaul.
A fabulous race of
giants on the coast of Sicily, with one eye in the centre of their foreheads.
Inferno Canto XIV:43-72. They forged Jupiter’s lightning bolts in the fires of Mount Aetna on
Sicily.
King of the Medes
and Persians, defeated by the Massagetae in 529 BC. Tomyris,
the Scythian Queen, cut off his head and threw it into a cauldron of blood. See
the entry for Tomyris.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XVII:79-136. The Athenian artificer
who made the labyrinth at Cnossos, for the Cretan king Minos.
The father of Icarus, he made waxen wings, in order for
them to escape from Crete. Flying too near the sun Icarus’s wings melted and he
fell into the sea. He was buried on the island of Icaria, and the Icarian Sea
and the island, were named after him. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VIII 195.
Inferno Canto XXIX:100-120. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto VIII:85-148. The type of the
artificer, the inventor and craftsman.
An Israelite,
taken up by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, after his capture of Jerusalem. He
interpreted the king’s dreams and himself saw prophetic visions. He initially
refused the king’s meat and wine. See Daniel i 8 and 17.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:115-154. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. He divined the king’s dream and
interpreted it as well, as Beatrice divines and answers Dante’s doubts. See
Daniel ii.
Paradiso Canto XXIX:127-145. Daniel vii 10
indicates the vastness of the Angel multitude.
For the history of
the period immediately after the Vision, involving Dante’s exile, see Ciacco’s prophecy.
Inferno Canto X:73-93. Farinata warns
him of his long exile, telling him that not fifty moons will pass before he
learns how hard it is to return from banishment. The date of the Vision is
April 1300, and Dante’s efforts at return were thwarted by the failure of Pope
Benedict XI, who succeeded Boniface to achieve
reconciliation in early 1304. Benedict visited Florence but left on June 4th
leaving the rebellious city under an interdict. It was less than fifty one
lunar months before Dante’s efforts at return failed, suggesting a
communication with Benedict (Dante was acting as secretary then to Allessandro
da Romano, of the old Ghibelline family of the Counts Guidi, who was the leader
of the Ghibellines in exile) some time in March or early April.
Inferno Canto XIX:1-30. Dante broke one of the pozzetti or round holes that surrounded the font in the Baptistery (St John) in
Florence, to help a child (said to have been Antonio the son of Baldinaccio de’
Cavicciuoli). Dante explains here, to counter charges, presumably of sacrilege
made against him.
Inferno Canto XXI:59-96. Dante indicates he was
present at the surrender of the Pisan fortress of Caprona, besieged by the
Tuscan Guelphs in August 1289. He fought at Campaldino later that year.
Inferno Canto XXII:1-30. He indicates that he saw the
campaigning in Aretine territory (in 1289 also?).
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:34-99. Bonagiunta quotes the opening line of the famous first canzone of the Vita Nuova.
Purgatorio Canto XXX:49-81. Beatrice speaks his name.
Purgatorio Canto XXX:82-145. She refers indirectly
to his work the Vita Nuova, his early tribute to her memory. He first
saw her in May 1274, and she died in June 1290 in her twenty-fifth year on the
threshold of her second age of life.
Paradiso Canto V:85-139. Dante, entering the sphere of Mercury that rules Gemini his birth-sign, comments on his
own mercurial nature, subject to change and inconstancy.
Paradiso Canto VIII:31-84. The spirit of Charles Martel quotes Dante’s own opening line of the
first canzone of the Convivio.
Paradiso Canto XXIV:115-154. In the Metaphysics Aristotle shows that the prime Mover, which causes motion
but is not itself moved, must be eternal, must be substantial, and actual, the
prime object of desire, and of intellectual apprehension. From these five
attributes Aquinas builds his five proofs of the
existence of God.
Dante confirms his
belief in the Trinity. The sources in the Testaments are chiefly: in the OT the
plural form of the word for God, the use of the plural in Genesis i 26, the
threefold cry in Isaiah vi 3: in the NT the baptism formula in Matthew xviii
19, the text of the three heavenly witnesses in First Epistles of John v 7
(Vulgate and AV), and the threefold formula in Romans xi 36: but the Unity of
the Trinity is the breath behind the word throughout according to Petrus
Lombardus and others.
Paradiso Canto XXV:1-63. Dante refused to accept a
laurel crown at Bologna in 1318, invited to do so by Giovanni del Virgilio,
hoping to return still to Florence, and be crowned there.
Paradiso Canto I:1-36. Apollo loved Daphne, the daughter of the river-god Peneus (hence Peneian), who was
changed into a laurel-tree by the river-god, as Apollo pursued her. He then
adopted her laurel as the sacred tree whose leaves would crown his lyre etc.
See Ovid’s Metamorphoses I 452-548.
Inferno Canto XXI:31-58. Head of the popular party in
Lucca, and the worst barrator or abuser of office in the city. Dante’s comment
is ironic, presumably since Bonturo was loudest to deny the offence.
The King of Israel.
The son of Jesse, anointed by Samuel. See the Bible,
First and Second Samuel, and First Kings. The type of the pious King.
Inferno Canto IV:1-63. Christ takes his spirit from Limbo into Paradise.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:112-142. King David’s
Gilonite counsellor from Giloh, Ahitophel, see Second Samuel xv-xviii, conspired with David’s son Absalom against the King, and subsequently hanged himself
when his counsel was not followed. Absalom was killed at the battle in the wood
of Ephraim, and David mourned for him, saying ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son
Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!’
Purgatorio Canto X:46-72. He danced before the Ark of
the Covenant, in an act of humility and worship. See the Second Book of Samuel
vi 6.
Paradiso Canto XX:1-72. He is in the sixth sphere of
Jupiter. David is the earthly ancestor of Christ, born at the time when Aeneas came into Italy, so making manifest the Divine
ordination of the Roman Empire.
Paradiso Canto XXV:64-96. Dante refers to the
Vulgate, the Psalm of David ix 10.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. The great-grandson of Ruth. The ‘singer’ of Psalm 51, the Miserere.
See Justinians’ Empire.
The daughter of
Oeneus, king of Calydon, and the sister of Meleager.
She was wooed and won by Hercules, and unwittingly
caused the death of Hercules, through the shirt of Nessus.
Inferno Canto XII:49-99. She is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXVI:43-84 Achilles was discovered in hiding on Scyros, where his mother Thetis had concealed him, at the court of Lycomedes. Deidamia fell in love with him there,
and bore him a son, and died of grief when he left.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. She is in Limbo. One
of the people celebrated by Statius in his epic poetry.
The daughter of
King Adrastus of Argos, wife of Tydeus, and mother of Diomede.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. She is in Limbo. One
of the people celebrated by Statius in his epic poetry.
The Greek
philosopher, of Aldera, d.361 BC, who developed Leucippus’s ideas of Atomism.
Aristotle said that ‘they make all things number, and produce them from
numbers’, indicating a quantitative theory which did not require a ‘prime
mover’. He was influential in the development of the theory of knowledge, and
of ethics, where he maintained a theory of the harmony of well being of the
ethical man, who chooses ‘the goods of the soul’. Dante regards him as having
taught that the world arises from chance arrangements of atoms.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the
philosophers in Limbo.
Phyllis,
the daughter of the Thracian King Sithon (living near Mount Rhodope in Thrace)
was loved by Demophoön, King of Melos,the son of Theseus and Phaedra. He failed to keep his promise to return to
her, and when he did eventually return to find her she had comitted suicide,
but had been transformed into an almond tree by Athene.
(See Burne-Jones painting ‘The Tree of Forgiveness’, Lever Art Gallery, Port
Sunlight, Merseyside, England) See Ovid’s Heroides.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126. He is mentioned.
The mythical Queen
of Phoenician Carthage, probably an incarnation of Astarte the Great Goddess, who
loved Aeneas and committed suicide when he deserted her. She broke faith with
the memory of her dead husband Sychaeus for him. (See
the Aeneid i of Virgil, and Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of
Carthage.)
Inferno Canto V:52-72. She is a carnal sinner in Limbo.
Inferno Canto V:70-142. Paolo and Francesca are among her companions.
Purgatorio Canto XX:97-151. Her brother was Pygmalion, King of Tyre. See Aeneid i 350 where he is the
murderer of Sychaeus.
Paradiso Canto VIII:1-30. Cupid sat in her lap disguised as Aeneas’s son, Ascanius, and
inspired her with love for Aeneas. See Virgil’s Aeneid I 650.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126. Her love of Aeneas wronged
the memory of Sichaeus and Aeneas’s wife Creüsa.
The Cynic,
Diogenes of Sinope d. 323 BC a follower of Antisthenes, who was the founder of
the School of the Dog, and who taught in the Gymnasium known as the Kynosarges.
He spent most of his life in Athens after being banished and died in Corinth.
He called himself the Dog and held up animal life as a model for human beings,
and the barbarians as better than the civilised. His task was the recoining of values. He advocated a positive asceticism in order to attain freedom, and
deliberately flouted convention doing in public what should be done in private.
He called himself a citizen of the world, and famously replied to
Alexander’s request as to what he needed ‘for you to stand out of my light’.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151 Mentioned.
The daughter of
Oceanus and Tethys, or of Earth and Air, and the mother of Venus-Aphrodite.
Originally an oak-goddess at Dodona.
Paradiso Canto VIII:1-30. She is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XXII:100-154. The mother of
Venus-Aphrodite.
The Greek hero,
the son of Tydeus, King of Argos, and the companion of Ulysses at Troy. See Homer, The Iliad, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses XIV, XV et al.
Inferno Canto XXVI:43-84. He is in the eighth
circle, eighth chasm.
King of Portugal
(1279-1325).
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He is held as an example
of poor kingship.
See Acts vii, to
whom were ascribed certain mystical writings, especially one on the Celestial
Hierarchy, which were possibly composed in the fifth or sixth century.
Paradiso Canto X:100-129. He is in the fourth sphere
of Prudence.
Paradiso Canto XXVIII:94-139. The mystical sixth
century writings of the pseudo-Dionysius were ascribed to the Aeropagite, Saint Paul’s convert on Mars’s hill. Dionysius was supposed to
have learned of the hierarchies and other matters from Saint Paul, who had seen
them when rapt up into the third heaven.
The Elder, tyrant
of Syracuse (405-367BC). He led the Greek cities of Sicily in resistance to the
Carthaginians.
Inferno Canto XII:100-139. He is in the seventh
circle, the first ring.
The Greek
physician and author of a work on Materia Medica particularly botany,
who lived about 50AD.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the group of
wise men in Limbo.
A native of
Novara, he became head of the sect of The Apostolic Brothers, after the death
of its founder Segarelli in 1300. They were purists, but were accused of
heresies, such as the treating of women and goods as common. Clement
V ordered a crusade against the sect in 1305, and they fled to the hills
between Novara and Vercelli, but were forced into surrender. Dolcino and Margaret
of Trent, held to be his mistress, were burned alive at Vercelli in June 1307.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:55-90. He is in the ninth
chasm as a sower of dissent.
Saint Dominic
(Guzman) (1170-1221) the founder of the Order of Preachers, called Dominican or
Black Friars. He was born at Calahorra in Spain of noble parentage. As a young
man he became a canon and preached against heresy. He was active among the
Albigensians, trying to convert by persuasion, as Simon de Montfort was
perpetrating his massacres. He preached throughout Europe and died in Bologna.
Paradiso Canto X:64-99. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XI:1-42. He is mentioned. Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican.
Paradiso Canto XI:118-139. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XII:37-105. His mother Giovanna Guzman dreamed before his birth that she
was whelping a dog with a burning torch in his mouth that would set the world
on fire. His godmother had a dream in which she saw a star on his forehead
illuminating the earth. He founded the Order at of Dominicans or Friars
Preachers at Toulouse in 1215. He tried to convert the Albigensian heretics,
and stimulated the study of theology in the universities.
The Roman Emperor
(81-96AD) who completed the conquest of Britain. His initially benevolent rule
became despotic (he claimed the title Dominus et Deus, Master and God)
and led to his murder after a palace conspiracy. He took action (for ‘atheism
and Jewish sympathies’ says Dio) against Titus Flavius Clemens, consul in 95,
and his wife Domitilla whom the fourth century Christian tradition counted as a
Christian. Domitian was accused by Eusebius and Tertullian of Christian
persecution, but there is little or no evidence extant.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:55-93. He is mentioned,
adversely.
A noble
Florentine, and a thief.
Inferno Canto XXV:79-151. He mutates into a serpent.
See Blake’s Watercolour ‘Buoso Donati attacked by the Serpent’, Tate Gallery, London.
(It may be Buoso degli Abati who is intended.)
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. His son Simone caused Gianni Schicci to impersonate his father, Buoso, and forge
a will.
A Florentine
noble, and a thief.
Inferno Canto XXV:34-78. He appears as a six-footed
serpent.
See Ciacco’s prophecy and Inferno
Canto VI:64-93 for an indirect reference.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:34-99. Forese
Donati, his brother, predicts his end. Corso was Podestà of Bologna, in
1283 and 1288, and of Pistoia, in 1289, and leader of the Florentine Neri. He
went to Rome in 1300, and induced Boniface to bring in Charles de Valois to broker a peace in Florence between
the exiled factions. Charles favoured the Blacks, and Corso then tried to gain
supreme power. Suspected of intrigue with his father-in-law Ugucione della
Faggiuola the Ghibelline captain, and the papal legate Napoleone Orsini, to
overthrow the government, and become lord of Florence, he was condemned to
death when the plot was discovered (on October 6th 1308). He fled through the
Porta Santa Croce but was overtaken and killed by Catalan mercenaries in the
service of the King of Naples. He was said to have thrown himself from his
horse and been lanced to death on the ground. Dante develops this.
Dante’s friend,
Forese di Simone Donati, the brother of Corso and Piccarda. He was nicknamed Bicci Novello, and died
on July 28th1296. He was a distant relative of Dante’s wife Gemma Donati.
His own wife was Nella.
Purgatorio Canto XXIII:37-90. He is among the
gluttonous.
The daughter of
Simone Donati, and the sister of Forese Donati,
Dante’s friend, and of Corso Donati.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:1-33. She is mentioned, as
being in Paradise.
Paradiso Canto III:34-60. She is in the sphere of the
Moon, placed there for neglect of her vows. She had taken the habit of the Poor Clares in the convent at Florence, and was forcibly
abducted from there by Corso her brother in 1288 or thereabouts, and compelled
to marry Rosselino della Tosa, a turbulent noble of the Black faction. She died
shortly afterwards.
Ubertino Donati,
the ancestor of Dante’s wife Gemma, had married one of the daughters of Bellincion Berti, a sister of Gualdrada,
and strongly objected to his father-in-law giving the hand of a third daughter
to one of the Adimari. A fourth daughter may have been
the wife of Dante’s great-grandfather Alighiero I.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
Aelius Donatus
wrote an elementary Latin Grammar in the fourth century.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is in the Fourth
Sphere of the Sun.
The son-in-law of Michel Zanche, whom he murdered. He was a member of the
famous Ghibelline family from Genoa, and the murder took place at a banquet to
which he had invited his father-in-law. He was still alive in 1300, the date of
the Vision.
Inferno Canto XXII:76-96. Zanche is in the eighth
circle.
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. A demon guarding the eighth
circle, the fifth chasm, of the barrators.
Inferno Canto XXII:31-75. He wants to torment Ciampolo.
A Ghibelline of
Bertinoro, of the Onesti family of Ravenna, who was judge to the Podestà of
Rimini in 1199. He was a follower of the Ghibelline leader Pier
Traversaro. Pier, aided by the Mainardi of Bertinoro, obtained power in
Ravenna and drove the Guelphs out. The Guelphs then attacked Bertinoro,
destroyed the Mainardi houses, and expelled Pier’s followers. Guido was one,
following Pier to Ravenna, and still alive there in 1229.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:1-27. He is among the envious.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. His invective against
Romagna.
Bribed by the
French, Buoso leader of the Cremonese, treacherously allowed Charles of Anjou entry to Parma, in 1266, at the
beginning of his campaign against Manfred, who had
organised its resistance.
Inferno Canto XXXII:70-123. He is in the Ninth
Circle.
A nymph who loved Narcissus, who was deprived of the ability to initiate
speech by Juno, and wasted away with unrequited love until
she became a mere voice repeating the last words she heard uttered. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses III 358-493.
Paradiso Canto XII:1-36. She is mentioned.
King of England
(1272-1307) in 1300, the date of the Vision.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. Dante refers to the wars against
the Scots. Edward claimed the crown of Scotland and suppressed William
Wallace’s popular uprising. Later Scotland obtained national independence under
Robert the Bruce, at Bannockburn, in 1314. Edward is held as an example of poor
kingship.
The third
companion of Saint Francis. His sayings were collected
in the Verba Aurea. He died in 1261.
Paradiso Canto XI:43-117. He is mentioned.
See Henry III.
The Pleiad, and
mother by Zeus of Dardanus founder of Troy. She was, in one version, the
seventh star of the Pleiades that was said to have disappeared in grief for the
destruction of Troy and the house of Dardanus. The Palladium, or effigy of
Pallas Athene was cast down with Electra from Olympus by Athene, when Zeus had
violated Electra and she had defiled the statue with her touch. Electra gave it
to her son Dardanus.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. She is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
A name for Elijah, used in the Gospels.
Purgatorio Canto XXXII:64-99. At the
Transfiguration, see Matthew xviii 1-8, Christ shone like the sun in white
raiment, and Moses and Elias appeared talking with him.
The prophet, who
opposed the cult of Baal among the Israelites. He lived as a hermit on Mount
Carmel, according to legend, and was regarded by the Carmelites as a founder of
their order. He mounted to Heaven in a fiery chariot. See Second Kings ii 11
Inferno Canto XXVI:1-42. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. He is mentioned.
The Old Testament
prophet, who witnessed Elijah’s ascension to Heaven. He was
mocked by little children near Beth-el, and cursed them, and two she bears came
out of the wood and ate forty-two of them. See Second Kings ii 23-24.
Inferno Canto XXVI:1-42. He is mentioned.
The pre-Socratic
Greek philosopher, a citizen of Akragas, or Agrigentum, in Sicily. He was alive
in 443/44 BC, and gave rise to a number of apocryphal stories about his magical
abilities as a Pythagorean. He taught that matter is indestructible, and
invented the idea of the four elements, earth, air, fire and water. Objects are
a mingling of the four elements, but the elements themselves are
indestructible. He taught the ideas of world-cycles, of the war of opposites,
or discord of the elements, and the doctrine of the transmigration of souls.
His root forces in nature, are Love and Hate, that generate the discord of the
elements. (‘Empedocles has thrown all things about.’ Yeats: ‘The Gyres’ line 6)
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the
philosophers in Limbo.
Inferno Canto XII:28-48. He taught that harmony,
replacing discord, among the elements would result in a state of chaos.
The Giant son of
Neptune, and his brother Otus, warred against the gods, and tried to pile
Pelion on Ossa, and both mountains on Olympus, but were killed by Apollo.
Inferno Canto XXXI:82-96. He helps guard the central
well.
The Greek
philospher of Samos (341-270BC) founder of the Garden, taught that the
true happiness was an absence of pain, and gave a code of conduct for avoidance
of mental and physical pain, concentrating on simple and moral essentials of
the good life. The Epicureans were atomists, and denied the evidence for divine
intervention in human affairs. Cicero was a student of the
Epicurean Phaedrus. Dante expounds his philosophy in Convitio iv. 6:100-110.
The neo-Epicurean
Catari and Paterini heretics of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries may
have denied the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul.
Epicurus certainly concentrated on life in this world, and like Buddha,
Confucius, and Lao-Tzu was reticent about the afterlife.
Inferno Canto X:1-21. He and his followers are entombed
in the Sixth Circle. For the valley of Jehoshaphat see the Bible, Joel iii 2.
A Thessalian
sorceress mentioned by Lucan in the Pharsalia vi 507-826,
where she summons up the spirit of a dead soldier for Sextus Pompeius before the battle. Dante’s reference is to
some further unknown tradition about her presence in the lowest regions of
Hell, the Giudecca (See Inferno Canto XXXIV)
Inferno Canto IX:1-33. She had previously sent Virgil to Hell proper to bring out a soul from the Giudecca,
the circle of Judas.
The Eumenides or
Kindly Ones, a euphemism for the Erinyes, the three sisters, the Furies, who
live in Erebus. They punish crimes by hounding the wrongdoer, and acting as the
unremitting conscience. They are crones with dog’s heads and bat’s wings,
snakes for hair, and black bodies, and torment their victims. Their names are
Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megaera. For Dante they symbolise remorse, as Medusa symbolises despair. The recollection of past sins is a
potential source of despair, delaying penitence and turning the soul back to
wrongdoing.
Inferno Canto IX:34-63. They challenge the poets.
The wife of Amphiaräus, who betrayed him, bribed with the necklace
of Harmonia, and was killed by her son Alcmaeon in
retribution.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. She is mentioned.
The son of the
Thessalian King Tropias. He committed sacrilege against the goddess Ceres by
cutting down her sacred tree, and was punished with an inappeasable hunger. He
consumed his own flesh until he starved. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VIII 738-878.
Purgatorio Canto XXIII:1-36. He is mentioned.
Jacob’s
brother, the son of Isaac and Rebeccah, a hunter, a man
of the fields. The brothers’ rivalry was seen as an analogy of Church and
Synagogue. Jacob deprived Esau of his father Isaac’s blessing by guile, and
Esau, the man of Edom, sold Jacob his birthright for ‘a mess of pottage’. See
Genesis xxv 19-34.
Paradiso Canto VIII:85-148. Jacob and Esau as
contrasting types.
Azzo VIII of Este,
Lord of Ferrara (1293-1308) married Beatrice,
daughter of Charles II of Anjou and Naples, in
1305.
Inferno Canto XII:100-139. He was the son of Obizzo II whom he was said to have murdered.
Purgatorio Canto V:64-84. He ordered the murder of Jacopo del Cassero.
See Beatrice d’Este.
Obizzo II of Este,
fourth Marquis of Ferrara and the March of Ancona (from 1264-1293), the
grandson of Azzo VII called Azzo Novello, who had led the Guelf crusaders
against Ezzelino. Obizzo, dying in 1293, was said to have been murdered by his
son and successor Azzo VIII (from 1293-1308), whom
Dante calls his stepson in reference to the unnatural nature of the crime. His
daughter Beatrice married Nino
de’ Visconti of Pisa, then Galeazzo Visconti of Milan.
Inferno Canto XII:100-139. He is placed in the
seventh circle in the first ring, of tyrants.
Inferno Canto XVIII:40-66.His follower Venedico Caccianimico, a leading Guelph, exiled in
1289, assisted him in his seduction of Venedico’s own sister, Ghisola,
who later married Niccolò de Fontana of Ferrara in 1270.
Ahasuerus, the Persian King, enriched Haman,
until he was accused by Esther of intending to take the life of Mordecai. Haman was executed in Mordecai’s place. See
Esther iii-viii.
Purgatorio Canto XVII:1-39. She is mentioned.
The son of Oedipus
and Jocasta, and brother of Polynices.
They fought over the succession, in the war of the Seven against Thebes. Both
brothers were killed and, according to Statius in the
Thebaid xii 429 et seq. the flames of their funeral pyre itself were divided.
Inferno Canto XXVI:43-84. They are mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:55-93. They are indirectly
mentioned.
The Greek
mathematician and founder of geometry. He flourished c.300 BC.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the group of
wise men in Limbo.
Paradiso Canto XIII:91-142.Dante quotes an example
from Euclid’s Elements.
Paradiso Canto XVII:1-99. A further geometric
analogy.
The Greek tragic
playwright (480-441BC).
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. He is in Limbo.
The daughter of
the Phoenician king Agenor, abducted by Jupiter disguised as a bull. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses II 858, VI 104.
Paradiso Canto XXVII:67-96. Her abduction from the
Phoenician shore, near Tyre, at the longitude of Jerusalem is mentioned.
Inferno Canto I:100-111. The close comrade of Nisus in the Aeneid, noted for his beauty. His death is
described in Aeneid IX.
The son of
Telephus, sent by the Greeks to the oracle of Apollo,
according to Sinon, to ask for a favourable wind to return
home to Greece. The oracle replied by reminding them of the incident at Aulis,
and telling them to shed blood again. At Aulis, where the Greek ships waited
for a favourable wind to sail to Troy, Calchas interpreted the appearance of a snake that killed a sparrow and her eight
fledglings, and then was turned to stone. It signified that Troy would be taken
in the tenth year after a long struggle. He also prophesied that they must
pacify Artemis by sacrificing Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia. After that the north-east wind dropped and the
fleet was able to set sail for Troy. Eurypylus’s trip to the oracle is
described by Virgil in his high ‘Tragedía’, the Aeneid ii 110 et seq.
Inferno Canto XX:100-130. He is mentioned in the
eighth circle.
The first woman,
the wife of Adam the first man, created after him, who, at the
prompting of the serpent, ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
and gave the apple to Adam who also ate of it. See Genesis ii and iii. This
caused the Fall of Man, and the expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
Purgatorio Canto VIII:85-108. The event is
mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto XII:64-99. Human beings are her
flawed children.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:1-36. By uncovering her nakedness,
physically and spiritually, Eve sinned, and the sons of Adam inherited her guilt, and were denied the Earthly Paradise, without prior
purgation and redemption.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. She is at the feet of the
Virgin in Heaven.
Purgatorio CantoXXIX:82-105. The priest, the son of
Buzi, and visionary prophet of the Jews in Chaldea. He was among the Hebrews
exiled to Babylon in 579BC, where he saw visions beside the river Kebar. Dante
uses imagery from his Old Testament writings for the Divine
Pageant.
See Justinian’s Empire.
Caius Frabricius
Luscinus, the Consul (282BC) and Censor (275BC) who refused gifts from the
Samnites at the time of the peace settlement with them, and bribes from King Pyrrhus of Epirus when negotiating an exchange of
friends with him in 280BC. See Virgil’s Aeneid vi 844, and Lucan’s Pharsalia x
151.
Purgatorio Canto XX:1-42. He is mentioned.
A nobleman of
Faenza who led an honourable retired life and died in 1278 leaving two sons
Ottaviano and Fantolino. The one was killed at Forlì in 1282, fighting for the
Guelphs against Guido da Montefeltro, and the
other died a few years later, before 1291,ending the family line.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. A demon guarding the eighth
circle, the fifth chasm, of the barrators.
Inferno Canto XXII:76-96. He wants to attack Ciampolo.
A member of the Conti
Guidi family, killed while assisting the Tarlati, after Campaldino in 1289. He
was a grandson of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca.
Purgatorio Canto VI:1-24. He is with the late-repentants.
A nobleman of
Rimini, noted for his generosity, who lived in the first half of the thirteenth
century.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. He is mentioned.
The father of
Saint Dominic, his name interpreted to mean ‘favoured by fortune’.
Paradiso Canto XII:37-105. He is mentioned.
See Alessandro Novello.
Ferdinand IV King
of Castile and Leon (1295-1312) noted for his luxurious style of living at the
expense of his kingdom.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He is held as an example
of poor kingship.
See Alagia de’
Fieschi Malaspina.
See Bonifazio, Archbishop of Ravenna.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto VI:76-151. Feuded with the Monaldi.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
Folco of
Marseilles (fl 1180-1195), or Folcetto, a troubadour, a Genoese by origin, born
at Marseilles shortly before 1160. A famous lover he became a Cistercian monk
and was made Bishop of Toulouse in 1205. He was a friend of Saint Dominic, and persecuted the Albigensian heretics till his
death in 1231. (Marseilles is on the same meridian as Bougia in Algeria. At
Gibraltar where the Mediterranean runs out of the Atlantic the sun is on the
horizon when it is noon in the Levant, so the Mediterranean makes zenith at its
eastern end of what was horizon at its western end. i.e. it extends over a
quadrant.)
Paradiso Canto IX:1-66. Paradiso
Canto IX:67-126. He is in the third sphere, of Venus.
She loved Paolo Malatesta, Il Bello, and was unfaithful to her
husband Gianciotto, the son of Malatesta da Verucchio, Lord of Rimini.
Gianciotto, brave but possibly deformed, stabbed to death the unfaithful
Francesca, along with, Paolo about 1285. (He was still alive in 1300, the date
of the vision, so that Caïna, the first ring of the ninth circle, reserved for
murderers of their kin, is ‘waiting’ for him according to Francesca.) According
to legend she thought that Paolo was her intended husband when he stood proxy
for his brother in the marriage. She was born in Ravenna, the daughter of Guido Vecchio da Polenta, and aunt of Guido Novello at
whose court in Ravenna Dante found his last refuge. (See Rossetti's watercolour
Paolo and Francesca Da Rimini – Tate Gallery, London, and Blake’s engraving
‘The Whirlwind of Lovers’, Plate 10 of his illustrations to the Divine Comedy,
British Museum)
Inferno Canto V:70-142. She tells her story to Dante,
in Limbo.
Giovanni, later Francesco,
of Assisi (c1182-1226) the Founder of the Order of Friars Minor or Franciscans.
(Brown or Grey habit, with three knots in the girdle representing the vows of
poverty, chastity and obedience.) The son of a wool and cloth merchant. Assisi
is between the Rivers Tupino and Chiascio rising in the mountains near Gubbio
where St Ubaldo chose a hermitage (Bishop of Gubbio 1160). Ascesi an old
form of Assisi may be translated ‘I have ascended’. Francis was often compared
to the rising Sun. He renounced his possessions before the Bishop, of Assisi in
the presence of his father Pietra Bernadone. The Franciscan Rule was approved
by Pope Innocent III in 1210 and confirmed by Honorius III in 1223. In 1219 he went to the East to try
and convert the Sultan. Christ gave him the third confirmation of his work in
1224 on the ‘hard rock’ of La Verna where he received the stigmata, the five
wounds of the Passion. He died at Assisi on October 4th 1226 stretched
naked on the ground in the arms of ‘his dearest lady’ Poverty. The Seraphim are
associated with Love and therefore Francis is the Seraphical Saint. Saint
Dominic was associated with the Cherubim and Wisdom. The popular stories of him
are the Fioretti.
Paradiso Canto XI:1-42. Aquinas speaks of him.
Inferno Canto XXVII:58-136. The Cordeliers, from
the wearing of a black habit with a cord tired round it, was a name for the
Order of Saint Francis.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XXII:1-99. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. He is seated below John the Baptist in Heaven.
An illuminator and
painter of miniatures. Vasari says he was at Rome in 1295, to illuminate
manuscripts, in the Vatican Library, for Pope Boniface VIII,
and the work was shared with Oderisi of Gubbio.
Purgatorio Canto
XI:73-117. He is among the proud.
Emperor (1152-1190).
Initial leader of the Third Crusade (1189-1192). He won a brilliant victory at
Iconium, but drowned in the River Saleph, on 10th June 1190. He had
campaigned in Italy (1154-55, 1158-62, 1163-64, 1166-68, 1174-78 and 1184-86:
Milan was razed in 1162, and rebuilt in 1169) achieving a series of shifting
alliances, and several peace treaties. During the third campaign, the Veronese
league of cities was formed, which later joined with the Lombard league, but
eventually agreed peace with Frederick in 1183 (The Peace of Constance).
He took the cross in 1188, the year of the Diet of Worms.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:112-145. He is mentioned.
Frederick
(1194-1250), ‘Stupor Mundi’, the wonder of the world, became King of
Sicily and Naples in 1197 and Emperor in 1212. He was crowned Emperor in Rome
in 1220. He agreed to lead a crusade in 1227 but was turned back by an
epidemic, and as a result was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX despite
continuing with the crusade in 1228-9. He was granted absolution in 1230, but
excommunicated again in 1239 and declared a heretic at the First Council of
Lyon and deposed. He struggled against Henry VII of Germany, and died in Apulia
in 1250. He was by reputation an Epicurean, and a sensualist.
Inferno Canto X:94-136. He is among the heretics in the
Sixth
Circle.
Inferno Canto XIII:31-78. Pier
delle Vigne was his minister.
Inferno Canto XXII:76-96. Enzio was his natural son.
Inferno Canto XXIII:58-81. He punished malefactors
by coating them with lead and roasting them over a fire.
Purgatorio Canto XVI:97-145. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto III:97-130. The son of Constance and Henry VI,
and called the ‘third stormwind of Swabia’.
King of
Sicily(1296-1337). and therefore alive at the time of the Vision.
Purgatorio Canto III:103-145. The son of Peter (Pere) III of Aragon, and Constanza, daughter of Manfred.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. Dante regards him as
inferior to his father.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He is held as an example
of poor kingship.
Paradiso Canto XX:1-72. He is a burden to Sicily.
The illegitimate
son of a noble family, and a turbulent Black Guelph from Pistoia who, in 1293,
together with two accomplices, stole the treasure of San Jacopo from the church
of San Zeno. Rampiono de’ Foresi was held in prison for the crime, while the
culprits went undetected for a year.
Inferno Canto XXIV:97-129. He is in the eighth
circle.
The Archangel who
made the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. See Luke i.
Purgatorio Canto X:1-45. The Annunciation is sculpted
on the Frieze, indicating humility that corrects pride.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. He is shown with human form
though beyond the human.
Paradiso Canto IX:127-142. Paradiso
Canto XIV:1-66. The Annunciation, at Nazareth, is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XXIII:88-139. Circles the Virgin in
the Stellar Heaven.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:85-114. Shows his adoration
for the Virgin, he the height of celestial chivalry.
See Ugolino.
The Roman
experimental physician and the main authority on medicine and physiology
throughout the Middle Ages. He lived c.130-200 AD. His doctrines concerned ‘natural’,
‘vital’ and ‘animal’ spirits. Blood charged with ‘natural’
spirits in the liver, meets air charged with ‘pneuma’, the ‘world
spirit’ in the lungs, creating ‘vital’ spirits in the blood of the
arteries, which in the brain become ‘animal’ spirits. He identified
muscle and bones as levers. He examined the pituitary and thyroid glands, but
incorrectly identified their purpose. He sectioned the ocular nerves and spinal
cord and roughly localised several nervous functions, but was an inveterate
teleologist, and thus became the bible for the Medieval period.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the group of
wise men in Limbo.
Gallehaut was the
go-between for Lancelot and Guenever,
who urged the queen to give Lancelot the first kiss that initiated their love.
His name was therefore synonymous with ‘pandar’. The story is found in
the old French romance of Lancelot du Lac.
Inferno Canto V:70-142. His role of pandar is
mentioned by Francesca.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXXI:1-45 Roland (Orlando) Charlemagne’s nephew, and the hero of the
battle of Roncesvalles, went down to defeat with his Franks, fighting against
the Saracens, while attempting to hold the valley in 778AD. He blew his horn in
desperation, to alert his uncle eight miles away, but Charlemagne was misled by
the advice of Ganelon, and did not provide aid. The epic is told in the Old
French Chanson de Roland, the ‘Song of Roland’, where the intensity of
Roland’s blast on the horn shattered it. The defeat allowed Arab incursions
into Narbonne in 793.
Inferno Canto XXXII:70-123. He is in the Ninth
Circle.
The son of Tros,
and brother of Ilus and Assaracus, who was loved by Jupiter because of his
great beauty, and snatched up to the Heavens, by Jupiter disguised as an eagle,
where he became Jupiter’s cupbearer. Tros was an ancestor of Aeneas,
so linking to Ganymede to Rome. See Ovid’s Metamoprhoses X 155, X1 756.
Purgatorio Canto IX:1-33. He is mentioned.
The beautiful wife
of Cosciorino Fondora of Lucca. She was a friend to Dante between 1314 and 1316,
when he was at Lucca. She was still unmarried in 1300 (and did not wear
the benda, or headdress reserved for married women, and, when white, for
widows.)
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:34-99. She is mentioned as a
future friend of Dante.
The type of fraud
or malice, as the Minotaur is of brutishness and
bestiality. He is compounded of the mythical (three-bodied in the myth, but not
here) and monstrous King of Spain whom Hercules killed
for the sake of his herd of cattle (Virgil’s Aeneid VIII 202, and Ovid’s
Metamorphoses IX 184), and the creatures of the bottomless pit in Revelations
ix.
Inferno Canto XVI:88-136. He appears to the poets
from below the seventh circle.
Inferno Canto XVII:79-136. He carries them down to
the eighth circle on his back.
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:1-45. Virgil reminds Dante
of him.
A leading Guelph
of Pisa. He led one party while his grandson Nino de’
Visconti led the other. In 1288 Ugolino intrigued with Ruggieri degli Ubaldini the Archbishop, the nephew
of Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, and
leader of the Ghibellines in Pisa, who was supported by the Lanfranchi, Sismondi, Gualandi and other families, and Nino was expelled. The
Archbishop however betrayed him and had Ugolino and four of his sons and
grandsons (his sons were Gaddo, and Uguccione, his grandsons Nino,
called Brigata, and Anselmuccio or ‘little Anselm’) imprisoned in
the Torre dei Gualandi in July 1288. When Guido da
Montefeltro took command of the Pisan forces, in March 1289, the keys were
thrown into the river Arno and the prisoners left to starve to death, even a
priest being denied them. The tower was known afterwards as the Torre della
Fame, the Tower of Famine. Ugolino had previously acquired a reputation by
the surrender of certain castles to the Florentine and Lucchese after the
defeat of the Pisans by the Genoese at Meloria in 1284. (The islands of Caprara
and Gorgona mentioned, north-west of Elba, and south-west of Livorno
respectively, were held by Pisa at the time.)
Inferno Canto XXXIII:1-90. He is in the Ninth
Circle.
See Camino.
Benicasa da Laterina, judge to the Podestà of Siena
condemned a relative of Ghin di Tacco, a highwayman, to death, and Ghino took
his revenge by murdering him while he was sitting as a magistrate in Rome.
Purgatorio Canto VI:1-24. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XVIII:40-66. Her father Alberto was
head of the Bolognese Guelphs. Her brother Venedico was a leading Guelph, exiled in 1289, and a follower of Marquis Obizzo II d’Este of Ferrara. He assisted the Marquis in
her seduction. She later married Niccolò de Fontana of Ferrara, in 1270.
Inferno Canto XVII:31-78. The Florentine Gianfigliazzi
family belonged to the Black Guelphs. Their arms were ‘a lion azure on field
or’.
The son of Joash,
instructed by the angel to save Israel from the Midianites. He selected men to
fight based on how they drank water at the pool of Harod: ‘as a dog lappeth’.
Dante regards the example of their greed as a sin, since it later leads Israel
astray. See Judges vii 1-7 and 24-33.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:100-154. The incident is
mentioned.
Giotto di Bondone
(1266-1337) painter, sculptor and architect. Found by Cimabue,
according to the legend, as a shepherd boy, drawing on stones. He liberated
Florentine painting from Byzantine stasis. Both painters are said to have been
friends of Dante’s, and the Bargello portrait of Dante is attributed to Giotto.
Purgatorio Canto XI:73-117. He surpassed his master
Cimabue.
Giovanna Guzman,
mother of Dominic, whose name was interpreted to mean ‘grace of the Lord’, who
dreamed she was about to give birth to a whelp with a blazing brand in its
mouth which would light the world.
Paradiso Canto XII:37-105. She is mentioned.
Her family name is
not known.
Purgatorio Canto V:85-129. She is mentioned by Buonconte.
The daughter of Nino de’ Visconti, and Beatrice
d’Este. She married Riccardo da Cammino.
Purgatorio Canto VIII:46-84. She is mentioned.
Giraut de Bornelh
of Limoges (c1170-c1220), the Provençal poet,‘master of the troubadours’ as his
contemporaries called him.
Purgatorio Canto XXVI:112-148. He is alluded to.
An ancient
Florentine family.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
A fisherman of
Anthedon in Boeotia, who was changed into a sea-god after eating magic grass.
He fell in love with Scylla, and was loved by Circe. See
Ovid’s Metamorphoses VII 233.
Paradiso Canto I:37-72. He is mentioned.
Duke of Lorraine.
A descendant of Charlemagne who led the First Crusade which captured Jerusalem
in 1099. (Friday July 15th: He was the first Crusader to drop down from the
wall into the city, close by Herod’s Gate) The capture was followed by
indiscriminate massacre of the inhabitants, ‘the knights riding up their knees
in blood, in the Haram enclosure, where the Mahomedans sought refuge’. He ruled
there, as king, until his death of illness the following year, but refused the
royal crown and title. He was buried in the Holy Sepulchre where his tomb (and
sword) survived until the great fire of 1808. Despite the massacre, he was
remembered as the best and wisest of the Christian leaders.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:1-57. He is in the Fifth Sphere
of Mars.
A Sardinian friar,
chancellor of Nino Visconti of Pisa, judge of
Gallura, one of the four jurisdictions of Sardinia (Cagliari, Logodoro,
Gallura, and Arborea) which belonged at the time to Pisa. He took bribes to
release prisoners etc. Visconti hanged him.
Inferno Canto XXII:76-96. He is in the eighth
circle.
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. A demon guarding the eighth
circle, the fifth chasm, of the barrators.
Inferno Canto XXII:31-75. He hauls Ciampolo out of the boiling pitch.
Gratian (fl. c.
1150), and Italian Benedictine monk, brought ecclesiastical and civil law into
harmony with each other. His Decretum was the first systematic treatise
on Canon Law.
Paradiso Canto X:100-129. He is in the fourth sphere
of Prudence.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
Pope Gregory I,
the Great (?540-604), the first monastic Pope, who called himself Servus
Servorum Dei, the servant of God’s servants. He was the founder of the
worldly power of the Papacy in Italy. He was one of the four Latin (western)
Fathers of the Church, with Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome. He established the form of the Roman liturgy and its
music (Gregorian Chant). He instituted the rule of celibacy for the clergy.
Purgatorio Canto X:73-96. He interceded through prayer
to obtain the deliverance of Trajan from Hell, because of
this act of clemency and justice to the widow, so that Trajan might have a
respite for repentance.
Paradiso Canto XX:73-148. The prayers were predestined to save Trajan, since prayers for the truly damned have no effect, according to Aquinas and to Gregory himself.
Paradiso Canto XXVIII:94-139. He gave a different
account of the Angelic Hierarchies to that of Dionysius the Areopagite.
He obtained money
from Albero of Siena by pretending he could teach him how
to fly. On discovering the deceit, Albero induced the Bishop of Siena to have
Griffolino burned as an Alchemist.
Inferno Canto XXIX:73-99. He is in the tenth chasm.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. He names the spirits for
Dante.
See Ugolino.
The virtuous and
lovely daughter of Bellincion Berti was the ancestress
of the Conti Guidi, the great feudal nobles of the Casentino. She married Guido
Guerra IV at the instigation, it was said, of Emperor Otto IV. The Guido
Guerra, one of many of that name, mentioned here was the son of her fourth son,
Marcovaldo of Dovadola.
Inferno Canto XVI:1-45. The mother of Guido Guerra.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
The wife of King Arthur of Britain, who in the Arthurian Legends
conceived an illicit love for Sir Lancelot, which led,
fatally, to the dissolution of the Round Table and the death of Arthur. See
Malory’s Morte D’Arthur.
Inferno Canto V:70-142. Reading about their love
corrupts Paolo and Francesca.
Paradiso Canto XVI:1-45. Her first words to Lancelot
in public are referred to.
Guido, Alessandro, and Aghinolfo the Conti Guidi of Romena, induced Master Adam of Brescia to counterfeit the Florentine gold florin, stamped with the figure of St John the Baptist. He was brunt to death for the
crime in 1281, on the Consuma, the pass that leads out of the Casentino towards
Florence. The Conti Guidi escaped punishment. Conte Giudo was dead by 1300, but
the other two were still alive. Fonte Branda, the spring, is not the more
famous one near Siena, but a lesser one near the castle of Romena, near where
Adamo died.
Inferno Canto XXX:49-90. Adamo is in the tenth chasm.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. The family was descended
from the Ravignani through Bellincion
Berti’s daughter Gualdrada.
The grandson of Gualdrada, a leading Guelf in Tuscany from 1250 to 1266,
appointed Vicar of Tuscany by Charles of Anjou. He
died in 1272. He played a distinguished part at Benevento in 1265, where Manfred died, and before the disaster at Montaperti in 1260,
when the Guelfs went down to defeat, he was one of the nobles who had voted
with Tegghiaio Aldebrandi against the expedition,
knowing the Sienese had been reinforced with German mercenaries.
Inferno Canto XVI:1-45. He is in the seventh circle
for sodomy.
See Conte Guido
The poet
(c1235-1276), who was valued highly by Dante and his companions, as ‘their’
philosopher. He was a member of the Ghibelline Principi family of Bologna, and
was Podestà of Castefranco in 1270 and exiled in 1274 with the Lambertazzi. he
began as an imitator of the later Guittone d’Arezzo.
His best work, including the canzone of the Gentle Heart (‘Al cor gentil
ripara sempre Amore: Love always shelters in the gentle heart, as birds do
in the green shade of the trees. No love in nature before the gentle heart, nor
the gentle heart before love.’), inspired the Florentine School of the dolce
stil nuovo.
Purgatorio Canto XI:73-117. Dante expresses the view
that he has been surpassed, by the poetic school of Guido
Cavalcanti. (Who wrote the famous ballatetta: ‘Because I do not hope
to turn again’, ‘Perch’i’ no spero di tornar giammai’)
Purgatorio Canto XXVI:67-111. He is among the
lustful.
The founder (d
1085) of the Norman dynasty in southern Italy and Sicily. The Son of Tancred de
Hauteville.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:1-21. He waged war in Sicily
and Southern Italy from 1059 to 1080, against the Greeks and Saracens. He won
the title Duke of Apulia from Pope Nicholas II in 1059, and died in 1085 having
rescued Gregory VII, and sacked Rome in the previous year.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:1-57. He is in the Fifth Sphere
of Mars.
Jacopo
da Lentino ( il Notaio, the Notary), Guittone del Viva known as Fra
Guittone, of Arezzo (1230-1294: one of the Frati Gaudenti) in his first
poetic period, and Bonagiunta were prominent
members of the Sicilian school of Poetry, continued in Central Italy, based on
Provençal traditions. Their style lacked the spontaneity and sweetness of the dolce
stil nuovo developed by Guido Guinicelli of
Bologna, Guido Cavalcanti and Dante.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:34-99. He is mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto XXVI:112-148. Dante considers him
to have been over-praised, and now superseded.
Ahasuerus, the Persian King, enriched Haman, until he was
accused by Esther of intending to take the life of Mordecai. Haman was executed in Mordecai’s place. See
Esther iii-viii.
Purgatorio Canto XVII:1-39. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145. The eldest son of
Hamilcar, who became the commander-in-chief of the Carthaginian fight against
Rome in the Punic wars. He crossed the Pyrenees and defeated the Romans
at Cannae in 216 BC, but was defeated in turn by Scipio at Zama in 202BC. He ultimately committed suicide in 183 BC.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
King of Norway
(1299-1319)
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He is held as an example
of poor kingship.
Virgil’s Aeneid
III 209-267 describes how the Harpies, monstrous birds with the faces of girls,
fouled the Trojans banquet on the Strophades Islands (The clashing islands) in
the Ionian Sea, and drove off Aeneas and his companions. Celaeno (infelix
vates), the Harpies’s leader, prophesies that the Trojans will reach Italy
but only after being reduced to starvation.
Inferno Canto XIII:1-30. They nest in the wood of
suicides.
Inferno Canto XIII:79-108. They feed on the leaves
of the trees, giving pain to the spirits imprisoned in them.
The Trojan prince,
son of Priam and Hecabe (Hecuba), a
hero of the Iliad, who was killed by Achilles in
revenge for the death of Patroclus.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. He is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. His grave is mentioned in the
summary of Imperial history.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. The wife of Priam King of Troy. At the fall of Troy she witnessed the death of her daughter Polyxena, sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles,
and found the body of her son Polydorus, done to death
by Polymestor, her son-in-law. She went mad and
became a dog, Maera, barking on the shore. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses XIII 423 et
seq.
The wife of
Menelaus, King of Sparta, daughter of Zeus by Lede. Her abduction by Paris initiated the Trojan War. She spent nineteen years in
Troy and, after the ten-year war and the city’s destruction, she went to Egypt
with Menelaus. ( according to Homer, see the Iliad XXIV
and Odyssey IV)
Inferno Canto V:52-72. She is a carnal sinner in Limbo.
The treasurer of
King Seleucus, who went to the Temple to remove its treasure, and was met by a
rider on a horse, which struck at him with its hooves. See Second Maccabees iii
25.
Purgatorio Canto XX:97-151. He is mentioned.
The Sun-god, the
son of Euryphessa or Theia, and the Titan Hyperion.
Identical for Dante with Apollo-Christ.
Paradiso Canto XXII:100-154. The Sun.
Paradiso Canto III:97-130. The son of Frederick Barbarossa. He married Constance, the daughter of Roger II in 1186 and
inherited the Norman kingdom in 1194. He was Emperor from 1190 to 1197, and
crowned, by Pope Celestine in 1191, during his first
Italian campaign. He united Germany and Sicily after his second Italian
campaign in 1194-5, ‘unio regni ad imperium’ but died at the age of 32.
Constance assumed the regency for Frederick II,
their son.
Paradiso Canto XVII:1-99. Supported in his Italian
expedition, but afterwards secretly opposed by Pope Clement
V.
Henry of
Luxembourg, the Emperor Henry VII (1308-1313). Of insignificant wealth and
background he hoped to establish his prestige by his coronation in Rome (1312),
and revival of the Imperial claims south of the Alps. Pope Clement
V attempted to use him to further his own ambitions. Henry was in Italy
between 1310 and 1313, and was hailed by Dante as the Liberator. He reached
Milan in December 1310, but failed as honest broker to reconcile the Guelph and
Ghibelline factions. He was driven into leadership of the Ghibelline party and
aligned himself with Federico III of Sicily. Clement then swung back to the
Guelphs, and repudiated the alliance. Henry died at Buonconvento of disease in
1313, as he was marching on Florence and planning a campaign against Naples,
ending the dreams of Dante and the Florentine exiles.
Paradiso Canto XXX:97-148. A throne is reserved for
him in Heaven.
Henry II (reigned
1154-89) held England, Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and
Aquitaine. Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in 1170,
with Henry’s tacit consent, and Henry did penance at the grave in 1174. He
oversaw the development of the royal courts and the common law, and initiated
the conquest of Ireland. He refused to grant the sovereignty of England or
Normandy to his son, and the resulting strife lasted until the ‘Young King’s’,
Henry Plantagenet’s, death in 1183. (See Ezra Pound’s translation of the lament
‘Planh for the Young English King’ in Personae)
Inferno Canto XXVIII:112-142. He is mentioned, in
connection with Bertrand de Born, who fomented
the strife with his son.
King of England
(1226-1272). The pious father of the warlike Edward I (1272-1307). His wife Eleanor of Provence was a daughter
of Raymond Berenger and sister of Beatrice.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is one of the
negligent rulers.
Henry the Fat
(1270-1274), brother of Thibaut II. His daughter Joan
married Philip IV, the Fair.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is one of the
negligent rulers
King of Cyprus
(died 1324), whose bad rule Dante cites as a warning to Joanna wife of Philip the Fair, concerning her separate kingdom of
Navarre.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He is held as an example
of poor kingship.
Prince Henry
Plantagenet, the elder brother to Richard Coeur de Lion, and named the ‘Young
King’, the son of Henry II of England, and twice
crowned in his father’s lifetime. Henry II refused to grant the sovereignty of
England or Normandy to his son, and the resulting strife lasted until the Young
King’s death in 1183. (See Ezra Pound’s translation of the lament ‘Planh for
the Young English King’ in Personae)
Inferno Canto XXVIII:112-142. He is mentioned, in
connection with Bertrand de Born, who fomented
the strife.
See Guy de Montfort.
The pre-Socratic
Greek philosopher, an Ephesian nobleman who flourished about the 69th Olympiad
504-501BC, according to Diogenes. His gnomic and
pithy style contains ideas of the flux of existence, the instability of
sensation and experience. His key concept is of unity in diversity and
diversity in unity, a theme that Dante often plays with. The One exists as a
tension of opposites, in the Many, Identity in Difference.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the
philosophers in Limbo.
The mythical Greek
hero of Thebes, son of Jupiter, and Alcmena. He was driven to perform Twelve Labours,
at Juno’s instigation. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses IX et al. Called Alcides, as a
descendant of Alceus, through his mother Amphitryon.
Inferno Canto XXV:1-33. He stole the cattle of King Geryon (the Tenth Labour), and battered Cacus to death for stealing some of them in turn.
Inferno Canto XXVI:85-142. His pillars, at the
entrance to the Mediterranean, were, in ancient times, the limits of the
western world (namely Mount Abyla in North Africa, near Ceuta, and Mount Calpe,
Gibraltar, well south-east of Seville).
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145. He lifted the Giant Antaeus from the ground, and crushed him. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses IX 184.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126. He loved Iole,
daughter of Eurytus, King of Oechalia. He had captured her. The love caused the
jealousy of Deianira, his wife, who sent him,
unknowingly, the fatal shirt of Nessus the Centaur, that
caused his death. Nessus had been killed by Hercules after trying to carry off
and rape Deianira, and steeped the shirt in his blood, containing the poison of
the Hydra from the wound caused by Hercules’s poisoned arrow, telling Deianira
the shirt was a love charm to win back Hercules’s affections. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses IX 13 et seq.
The King of Judah,
whose life was extended by the Lord, for the sake of his past sincerity and
virtue. The word of God came to him through the mouth and actions of Isaiah. See Second Kings xx.
Paradiso Canto XX:1-72. He is in the sixth sphere of
Jupiter. Aquinas taught that God’s decrees are
consistent with prayer, because prayer does not alter the Divine plan, but
fulfils what God ordained to be fulfilled by prayer.
The Greek
physician of Cos, c460-360 BC, and founder of the medical school there. He
initiated an experimental method which discarded teleology. He identified the
healing properties of plants. He articulated the principle of vis medicatrix
naturae, that nature is the best healer, and that the wise physician only
tries to remove the obstacles in her path.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the group of wise
men in Limbo.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:133-154. St Luke in the Divine Pageant is of his school, but a spiritual physician.
The son of Theseus, and the Amazon Hippolyte, whom Phaedra his stepmother fell in love with. Repulsed, she lied about the situation and
accused him to his father, indirectly bringing him to his death.
See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses XV 492 et seq.
Paradiso Canto XVII:1-99. A victim of lies.
One of
Nebuchadnezzar’s captains, who besieged Bethulia. Judith,
the Jewish widow, gained access to his tent and cut off his head, which was
displayed on the walls of Jerusalem, at which the Assyrians fled, pursued by
the Jews. See Judith x-xiv.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. He is depicted on the
roadway.
The author of the
Iliad and the Odyssey, the great epic poems of Ancient Greece, telling the
story of the Trojan War and Ulysses’s (Odysseus’s)
wanderings and return.
Inferno Canto IV:64-105. He leads the great Classical
poets in Limbo.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XI:43-117. He re-confirmed the
Franciscan Order in 1223.
Paradiso Canto XII:37-105. He sanctioned the
Dominican Order in 1216.
Quintus Horatius
Flaccus, the Roman poet, 65-8BC, who wrote odes and epodes in various metres
derived from the Greek poets; satires; and epistles. He was on the losing side
at Philippi but won the patronage of Maecenas from whom he received his beloved
Sabine farm. He is the type of a moralist, rather than satirist, for Dante.
Inferno Canto IV:64-105. He is among the great poets
in Limbo.
Hugo (c1097-1141),
one of the great mystics of the Abbey of Saint Victor at Paris. It was the
centre of the conservative learning as opposed to the scholastic Aristotelian
learning of the progressives. He was the master of Peter
the Lombard and Richard of Saint Victor.
Paradiso Canto XXII:100-154. The Titan of the Sun,
father of Helios.
Inferno Canto XVIII:67-99. The daughter of King
Thoas of Lemnos, who saved him when the women of the island killed their
menfolk. She was loved and abandoned by Jason. See
Ovid’s Metamorphoses XIII 399.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. She is in Limbo. One
of the people celebrated by Statius in his epic poetry.
She was sold into slavery by the women of Lemnos, and acted as nurse to Lycurgus of Nemea’s son Archemorus (Opheltes). She showed
the Seven Champions against Thebes the pool of Langia, and in her absence a
serpent killed the child. Lycurgus would have killed her, but she was rescued
by her sons.
Purgatorio Canto XXVI:67-111. Her children’s joy at
seeing her again is mentioned. See Statius’s Thebaid iv and v.
Purgatorio Canto XXXI:70-90. The Libyan king, one
of Dido’s suitors, hence Iarbas’s land is Libya, and the
winds that blow from there are the southerly winds off the African Coast.
Inferno Canto XVII:79-136. The son of Daedalus, who made waxen wings in order for them to escape
from Crete. Flying too near the sun Icarus’s wings melted and he fell into the
sea. He was buried on the island of Icaria, and the Icarian Sea and the island,
were named after him. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VIII 195.
Bishop of Assisi
in 1282. He had joined the Order in 1210 and accompanied Francis in his mission to the Soldan.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is in the Fourth
Sphere of the Sun.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
Pope from 1198 to
1216, he called himself Christ’s Vicar, from whom worldly rulers received their
kingdoms as fiefs. He operated an interventionist policy. Power was centralised
through the Papal legates. He became the guardian of Frederick
II after Constance’s death. After the
murder of the Papal legate Peter of Castelnau, he initiated the vicious
Albigensian Crusade against Provençal heretics.
Paradiso Canto XI:43-117. He confirmed the Franciscan
Order in 1210.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. Juno was
angered because of Jupiter’s adultery with Semele, whom she punished, and took vengeance on the house
of Cadmus of Thebes, her father. She pursued Ino,
Semele’s sister, by driving her husband Athamas mad. He
killed their son Learchus, and drove Ino to throw
herself over a cliff, with their son Melicertes. Ino
and Melicertes became sea-gods, namely Leucothea, the White Goddess, and Palaemon.
See Ovid’s Metamorphoses III 261 and IV 519.
A member of a
prominent family of Luccan Whites, alive in the year 1295.
Inferno Canto XVIII:100-136. He is in Hell for
flattery.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126. Iole, daughter of Eurytus,
King of Oechalia, was loved by Hercules who had
captured her. The love caused the jealousy of Deianira,
his wife, who sent him, unknowingly, the fatal shirt of Nessus the Centaur, that caused his death. Nessus had been killed by Hercules after
trying to carry off and rape Deianira, and steeped the shirt in his blood,
containing the poison of the Hydra from the wound caused by Hercules’s poisoned
arrow, telling Deianira the shirt was a love charm to win back Hercules’s
affections. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses IX 13 et seq.
The daughter of Agamemnon King of Mycenae, and Clytemnestra, and the
sister of Electra and Orestes. She was sacrificed, at
Aulis, by her father, to gain favourable winds, for the Greek expedition to
Troy. Diana substituted a hind for her, and carried her
to Tauris, as her priestess. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses XII 28 and 184, and
Aeschylus’s Oresteian Trilogy.
Paradiso Canto V:1-84. She is mentioned, as the victim
of her father’s rash vow.
The goddess of the
rainbow, the daughter of Thaumas and Electra, Juno’s
messenger. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses IV 480 etc.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:34-75. She is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XII:1-36. The phenomenon of the double
rainbow is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XXXIII:49-145. The double rainbow
is again used.
The prophet (one
of the four great prophets of the Old Testament with Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel).
Paradiso Canto XXV:64-96. Dante refers to Isaiah lxi
7,10 where the prophecy that the redeemed shall possess double things implies
joy of the body as well as joy of the soul.
Isidore (c560-636)
is the author of the Cyclopaedia, the main Medieval Encylopedia.
Paradiso Canto X:130-148. He is in the fourth sphere
of Prudence.
The daughter of
Oedipus, by Jocasta, and sister of Eteocles and Polynices. See Sophocles’s Theban Trilogy.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. She is in Limbo. One
of the people celebrated by Statius in his epic poetry.
The son of Isaac,
the son of Abraham. He is called Israel, after wrestling
with the Lord at Peniel where he saw God ‘face to face’, see the Bible Genesis
xxxii. His wife is Rachel. His brother Esau,
whom he followed from the womb, clutching Esau’s heel as a sign that he would
supplant him, sold Jacob his birthright for ‘a mess of pottage’, and Jacob by
guile robbed Esau the elder of his father Isaac’s blessing. Jacob is the type
of the settler, Esau of the hunter. See Genesis xxv and xxvii. Their rivalry
was used as an analogy for Church and Synagogue.
Inferno Canto IV:1-63. Christ takes his spirit from Limbo into Paradise.
Paradiso Canto VIII:85-148. The brothers as
contrasting types.
Paradiso Canto XXI:52-142. Paradiso
Canto XXII:1-99. Jacob’s vision of the ladder is echoed by Dante’s vision.
See Genesis xxviii 11-12.
The disciple of
Christ. James the Greater, son of Zebedee, a fisherman of Galilee, and the
brother of John the Evangelist. He was tried in
Jerusalem in 44 AD by Herod Agrippa and executed. His supposed tomb at Santiago
de Compostella in Galicia, discovered in the 9th century, became a place of
worship, by the 11th century, next in importance to Jerusalem and Rome, and he
became the patron saint of Spain.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:133-154. He appears in
the Divine Pageant.
Purgatorio Canto XXXII:64-99. He was present at
the Transfiguration, see Matthew xviii 1-8 when Christ shone like the sun in white raiment, and Moses and Elias appeared talking with him, and after they were overcome
Christ said ‘Arise, and be not afraid’. Christ is the apple-tree, in accord with
the Song of Solomon ii 3, ‘As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is
my beloved among the sons.’
Paradiso Canto XXV:1-63. He appears to Dante in the
Stellar Heaven. Dante ascribes to him the authorship of the Epistle more
usually attributed to the apostle James the Less, the ‘brother of the Lord’,
which talks of God giving liberally in i 5. He was of the group with Peter and John whom Christ
allowed nearer his presence, at the Transfiguration, the raising of the
daughter of Jairus, and the Agony at Gethsemane.
Paradiso Canto XXV:64-96. Dante refers to James i 12.
King of the
Balearic Islands (1276-1311), brother of Peter III of Aragon and therefore uncle of Frederick II King of Sicily.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He is held as an example
of poor kingship.
King of
Sicily(1285-1296), and King of Aragon(1291-1327) and therefore alive at the
time of the Vision. The elder brother of Frederick
II of Sicily.
Purgatorio Canto III:103-145. The son of Peter (Pere) III of Aragon, and Constanza, daughter of Manfred.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. Dante regards him as
inferior to his father.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He is held as an example
of poor kingship.
The son of Aeson,
who was sent by his uncle Pelias, from Iolchos in Thessaly, to bring back the
Golden Fleece from Colchis. He sailed the Argo, the first ship, with the
Argonauts, the Greek heroes. Medea the witch, the king’s
daughter, fell in love with him, and helped him, but he abandoned her for Creusa. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VII and VIII. He also
abandoned Hypsipyle, the daughter of King Thoas of
Lemnos, whom she had saved when the women of the island killed the male
inhabitants. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses XIII 399.
Inferno Canto XVIII:67-99. He is in the eighth
circle, first chasm.
Paradiso Canto II:1-45. To wing the Golden Fleece he
had to yoke the bronze-footed fire-breathing bulls, plough the field of Ares,
and sow the serpent’s teeth. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VII 1 et seq.
Paradiso Canto XXXIII:49-145. The voyage of the Argo
is mentioned. Dante dates it to 1200BC.
Inferno Canto XIX:31-87. The brother of Onias. He
induced Antiochus IV ruler of the Seleucid
Empire (reigned 175-164 BC), whose self-conferred title was ‘Theos
Epiphanes’, ‘the evident God’, and who was the brother of Seleucus IV whom
he succeeded, to make him high-priest through bribery, and allow the
introduction of pagan customs. See 2 Maccabees iv 7.
Paradiso Canto V:1-84. The Gileadite who sacrificed his
daughter, after vowing to offer whatever came out of his gates to meet him,
when he returned from fighting the children of Ammon.
See Judges xi.
Eusebius
Hieronymous Sophronius (342-420), born at Stridon in Dalmatia. With Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory he is one of
the four Latin (western) Fathers of the Church. He retired into the Syrian
desert for four years where he studied Hebrew. He settled in Bethlehem in
386.His translation of the Bible, the Vulgate, into Latin was eventually
declared the official version, by the Council of Trent.
Paradiso Canto XXIX:1-66. He spoke of the Angels
being created long before the rest of the universe, which was contradicted by Aquinas.
Of Fiore, in
Calabria (c1130-1202), a Cistercian monk, who founded a monastery there. He
claimed to have the power to interpret the prophetic books of the Bible with
special reference to the History of the Church. A new dispensation (of the Holy
Spirit, after the Father’s, and the Son’s), the third epoch, was at hand, he
said, of perfect love and spiritual freedom. This was known as the Eternal
Gospel. The spiritual party among the Franciscans seized on it, and Fra
Gherardo da Borgo San Donnino (Gerardua) wrote an Introduction to the Eternal
Gospel which was condemned as heresy in 1256. Bonaventura helped to suppress these Joachists.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is in the Fourth
Sphere of the Sun.
See Giovanna.
The wife of Laius
King of Thebes. The mother, and, unintentionally, wife of Oedipus, King of
Thebes, who killed his father. Her children Eteocles and Polynices fought over the kingship in the War of
the Seven against Thebes, the subject of Statius’s
Thebaid.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:55-93. She is mentioned.
The desert prophet
who baptised Christ. See the Gospel of St Luke 3.
Inferno Canto XIII:130-151. The Florentines adopted
St John the Baptist as their patron, displacing the Roman Mars, whose statue
had stood on the site of the Baptistery. The statue was then set up by the
Arno. When Florence was destroyed by the Goths (Attila is
confused with Totila the Goth leader), according to legend, the statue fell
into the Arno. Florence could not be rebuilt, it was believed, until the statue
had been reinstated, and it was rescued and set on a pillar on the Ponte
Vecchio when the city was restored, according to legend again, by Charlemagne.
It remained there till the great flood of 1333 carried away the bridge and
statue. The rejection of Mars was believed by Florentines to be at the root of
the endless factional conflict in their city.
Inferno Canto XXX:49-90. Master Adam
of Brescia counterfeited the Florentine gold florin, stamped with the
figure of St John.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:115-154. He ate locusts and
honey in order to survive in the desert. See Matthew iii 4, Mark i 6. For his
greatness see Matthew xi 11 and Luke vii 28.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. He exists with God in the
Empyrean.
Paradiso Canto XVI:1-45. Patron Saint of Florence.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:100-136. He was figured on
one side of the Florentine gold florin. His beheading, to fulfil Salome’s request to Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee, son
of Herod the Great, (engineered by her mother Herodias) is mentioned. See
Mark vi 21-28.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. His seat in Heaven and
the ranks below him indicate one half of the Rose, where those who acquired
faith after Christ’s coming are seated. He corresponds to the Virgin, beneath whom rank those with faith in the Christ
to come.
The disciple of
Christ, son of Zebedee, and brother of James. Presumed author of the Fourth
Gospel and, by tradition, of the Apocalypse, and therefore identified with John the Divine. His emblem in art is an eagle. (See
Revelation iv 7. The four beasts are identified with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the fourth beast being a flying eagle.)
Purgatorio Canto XXXII:64-99. He was present at
the Transfiguration, see Matthew xviii 1-8 when Christ shone like the sun in white raiment, and Moses and Elias appeared talking with him, and after they were overcome
Christ said ‘Arise, and be not afraid’. Christ is the apple-tree, in accord
with the Song of Solomon ii 3, ‘As the apple tree among the trees of the wood,
so is my beloved among the sons.’
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. He exists with God in the
Empyrean.
Paradiso Canto XXV:97-139. At the Last Supper he was
‘leaning on Jesus’s bosom’. See John xiii 23. Christ, on
the cross, committed Mary to his charge. See John xix
26-27.
The author of the
Book of Revelation. Exiled by Domitian to the Aegean
island of Patmos, and traditionally identified with John
the Evangelist, the Apostle.
Inferno Canto XIX:88-133. Dante refers to the vision
of the Great Whore, in Revelation xvii. The seven heads are interpreted as the
seven virtues or sacraments, and the ten heads as the Ten Commandments, kept as
long as the Popes were virtuous.
Purgatorio CantoXXIX:82-105. Dante uses his imagery
for the Divine Pageant.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:133-154. He appears in the
Divine Pageant.
Paradiso Canto XXV:64-96. Dante refers to Revelation
vii 9 where the redeemed are robed in white, and Dante links this to Isaiah’s
statement that they shall possess double things implying joy of the body as
well as joy of the soul.
Paradiso Canto XXVI:1-69. Revelation i 8. ‘I am Alpha
and Omega the beginning and the ending.’
Paradiso Canto XXXII:115-151. He sits to the right
of Peter in Heaven.
Petrus Hispanus
who succeeded Adrian V for a few months, and was killed
in 1277, by the fall of the Papal Palace at Viterbo. He wrote a much-used
treatise on Logic in twelve books. The well-known Memoria Technica verses Barbara Celarent etc are derived from it.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is in the Fourth
Sphere of the Sun.
John XXII, Pope
(1316-1334) A native of Cahors.
Paradiso Canto XXVII:1-66. Indirectly referred to.
The son of Jacob, his best-beloved, the son of his old age. His brothers
cast him into a pit, stripping him of his coat of many colours, and sold him to
the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. There he became an overseer in
Potiphar’s household, whose wife tried to seduce him. He refused, and she
perjured herself, blaming him, and causing him to be imprisoned. See Genesis
xxix.
Inferno Canto XXX:91-129. Potiphar’s wife is in the
tenth chasm.
The son of Nun, Moses’s minister, and successor, who crossed the Jordan and
led the Israelites in taking the Promised Land.
Purgatorio Canto XX:97-151. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126. Rahab aided his spies, allowing Jericho to be taken.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:1-57. He is in the Fifth Sphere
of Mars.
King Juba of
Numidia who sided with Pompey against Caesar and was defeated. He was compelled to commit
suicide in 46BC.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
The Disciple of
Christ who betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver. See Matthew xxvi 14 and
47, Mark xiv 43, Luke xxii 21, and xxii 47, John xviii 2. He afterwards
repented, threw the thirty pieces of silver in front of the chief priests and
elders, and then hung himself. See Matthew xxvii 3. The thirty pieces of silver
bought the potter’s field, called the field of blood, to bury strangers in. See
Matthew xxvii 7-10.
Inferno Canto XIX:88-133. He forfeited his place
among the Disciples, and was replaced by Matthias.
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145. The poets are set down in
the Ninth Circle that swallowed him.
Inferno Canto XXXIV:55-69. He is tormented in one
of Satan’s mouths.
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. A byword for treachery.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:76-136. He who sold Christ.
The
brother of James. Author of the General Epistle of Jude.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:133-154.
He appears in the Divine
Pageant
The Jewish
patriotic heroine and a symbol of The Jewish struggle against oppression She is
usually shown holding the head of Holofernes the
Assyrian general whom she decapitated with a sword. See Apocrypha.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. She is seated in Heaven,
below the Virgin.
There are many
Julias in the Imperial Roman families. Here it is Julius
Caesar’s daughter by Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, that is meant. She
married Pompey. She is mentioned as a type of the
noble Roman woman.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. She is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
Gaius Julius
Caesar, Roman General, Consul and Dictator from 49 to 44 BC when he was
assassinated by Brutus, Cassius and the other conspirators. He married Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, and had
a daughter Julia.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. He is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:91-111. Advised by Curio, according to Lucan (see Pharsalia
i. 281) Caesar crossed the Rubicon (‘iacta alea est – the die is cast’)
near Rimini and declared war by that act against the Republic in 49BC. The
Rubicon was at that time the boundary between Italy and Cisalpine Gaul.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:76-111. He delegated the
siege of Marseilles to Brutus in 49BC to attack Pompey’s lieutenants Afranius and Petreius at Lerida
(Ilerda) in Catalonia.
Purgatorio Canto XXVI:67-111. Suetonius (Caesar 49)
says that Caesar was accused of being King Nicomedes’s bedfellow, (Nicomedes
was King of Bithynia), and that his soldiers chanted ribald songs about his
predilections during his Gallic Triumph.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. His campaigns and
assassination mentioned in the summary of Imperial history.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126. His fleet won a victory over
the Pompeians near Marseilles in 49BC.
Paradiso Canto XI:43-117. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XVI:1-45. He was, according to legend,
addressed in the plural as voi instead of tu when he achieved
pre-eminence. A Roman custom, disused there in Dante’s time.
The divine
daughter of Saturn and Rhea, who
married her brother Jupiter. The Queen of the Gods. She
is the Roman equivalent of Hera, as he is of Zeus.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. Juno was angered because of Jupiter’s adultery with Semele, whom
she punished, and took vengeance on the house of Cadmus of Thebes, her father. She pursued Ino, Semele’s sister by
driving her husband Athamas mad. He killed their son Learchus, and drove Ino to throw herself over a cliff,
with their son Melicertes. Ino and Melicertes became
sea-gods, namely Leucothea, the White Goddess, and Palaemon. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses III 261 and IV 519.
Paradiso Canto XII:1-36. Iris, the
rainbow, is her messenger.
Paradiso Canto XXVIII:1-57. The rainbow.
The divine son of Saturn and Rhea, born in Crete and
watched over in his infancy by the priests of Ida. With his brothers Neptune
and Pluto he dethroned Saturn, and ruled the Heavens,
Neptune winning the oceans, and Pluto the underworld. His wife was Juno.
Inferno Canto XIV:43-72. The Giants made war on the
gods, and were overthrown by Jupiter’s lightning bolts and buried under Sicily. Vulcan the son of Juno was the god of fire and the
blacksmith of the gods, who with the Cyclopes forged
Jupiter’s lightning bolt in the fires of Mount Aetna on Sicily. He struck Capaneus, an Argive chief, with lightning in the war of
the seven against Thebes, for scaling the wall (an allegory of pride).
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. Juno was angered because of
Jupiter’s adultery with Semele, whom she punished, and
took vengeance on the house of Cadmus of Thebes, her
father. She pursued Ino, Semele’s sister by driving her
husband Athamas mad. He killed their son Learchus, and drove Ino to throw herself over a cliff,
with their son Melicertes. Ino and Melicertes became
sea-gods, namely Leucothea, the White Goddess, and Palaemon. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses III 261 and IV 519.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. He is depicted on the
roadway.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:106-132. He destroyed Phaethon to save the Earth, a judgment questioned by Sol,
Phaethon’s father.
Purgatorio Canto XXXII:100-160. The Imperial
eagle, the bird of power, is his symbol.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. The idea that He and other gods
inhered in the planets named after them, led to the influence of the stars, and
of Pagan Gods being confused, and both falsely worshipped (Paganism and
Astrology).
Paradiso Canto XXII:100-154. The son of Saturn and
father of Mars, by Hera, regarded as temperate between Saturn’s cold, and Mars’s heat.
The Byzantine
Emperor (527-565AD), husband of Theodora (d. 548) who ended the draining
effects of the war with the Sassanid Persians, enabling him to concentrate on
regaining the western Empire (N.Africa 535, Italy 553, Southern Spain 554)
through his generals Belisarius and Narses. He codified the Roman Law (Corpus
juris civilis). However Italy was lost to the Langobards in 568. Dante
looks back to him as providing legal and imperial continuity with Ancient Rome.
Purgatorio Canto VI:76-151. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. He expands on the History of the Empire. He manifests himself to
Dante in the second sphere.
The Roman satirist
(c60-140AD) who wrote during the reigns of the Emperors Trajan and Hadrian. He was a friend of Martial.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:1-24. He is in Limbo.
One of the Three
Fates, the Moerae, whom Erebus and Night conceived, Clotho,
Lachesis and Atropos. Atropos is the smallest but the
most terrible. Clotho spins the thread of life, Lachesis measures it out, and
Atropos ‘she who cannot be avoided or turned’ shears it. At Delphi only two
fates were worshipped of Birth and Death. Dante here has Lachesis as the
spinner, and Clotho apparently as the measurer, or Clotho is both and the
syntax is misleading.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:1-33. She is mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto XXV:80-108. She is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXVI:85-142. He is mentioned
indirectly.
A Ghibelline of
Bologna, and Podestà of several cities. His sons feuded with the Geremei after
his death in 1259.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. He is mentioned.
One of the
initiators of the murder of Buondelmonte de’ Buondelmonti,
who was betrothed to a daughter of the Amidei, but broke faith at the
instigation of Gualdrada Donati. In the debate as to whether he should be
killed Mosca said the evil word, ‘A thing done has an end.’ Buondelmonte was
murdered, at the foot of the statue of Mars, on the Ponte Vecchio, in 1215. The
family divisions created the Guelph and Ghibelline factional conflicts.
Inferno Canto VI:64-93. Dante asks after him.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:91-111. He is in the ninth
chasm of the eighth circle, as a sower of dissent.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. The family mentioned and
their device of the golden balls.
The knight of the
round table in the Arthurian legends who loves Queen Guinevere, Arthur’s consort, illicitly, and indirectly brings about
the destruction of the Round table, and the death of Arthur.
Inferno Canto V:70-142. Reading about his love corrupts Paolo and Francesca.
See Ugolino.
A Florentine
Guelf, Latini (ca1210-1294) politician and philosopher, was the author of a
prose encyclopaedia Li Livres dou Trésor written in French ( he
was in exile in France in 1260 after Montaperti) and the Tesoretto,
a popular didactic poem in Italian, containing similar matter, in the form of
an allegorical journey, a kind of Pilgrim’s Progress, that clearly influenced
Dante, opening with the poet lost in a wood of error. An ardent Guelf, he introduced
the art of oratory and the study of political science into Florence. In the Tesoretto he speaks against the homosexuality that condemns him to Hell. He influenced
and possibly taught Dante.
Inferno Canto XV:1-42. He is in the seventh circle,
last ring.
Inferno Canto XV:43-78. He prophesies Dante’s fame,
and the enmity of the Florentines against him, as one who tries to revive the
ancient Roman order.
Inferno Canto XV:100-124. He recommends his Trésor to
Dante, and Dante compares his departure to one running the race at Verona, held
on the first Sunday in Lent, for which the prize was a piece of green cloth, a
mantle, or palio.
King of Latium,
and an ancestor of the Roman people through his daughter Lavinia the third wife of Aeneas.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. He is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
The daughter of
Coeus the Titan, and the mother by Jupiter, of Apollo and Artemis. She was refused a
place on earth to rest by Juno, who was jealous, and found
refuge, and bore the divine twins, on the floating island of Delos, in the
Aegean, which Jupiter anchored so that she could give birth. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses VI 160 et passim.
Purgatorio Canto XX:97-151. She is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto X:64-99. Paradiso
Canto XXII:100-154.The mother of the moon-goddess, Artemis-Diana.
Paradiso Canto XXIX:1-66. The mother of the sun and
moon.
Paradiso Canto IV:64-114.The Christian martyr of
Spanish birth who was roasted on a gridiron over a fire, in Rome, in 258AD. He
was ordained deacon by Pope Sixtus II, and met his death shortly after the
Pope’s own martyrdom. He was said to have displayed the poor and sick around
him as ‘the treasures of the Church’ when those treasures were demanded of him.
He was one of the patron saints of Florence, with John the Baptist.
The daughter of Latinus and third wife of Aeneas. She
was betrothed to Turnus initially. She is an ancestress
of the Roman people.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. She is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
Purgatorio Canto XVII:1-39. She laments the death of
her mother Queen Amata, wife of King Latinus,
who hanged herself through anger at the death of the hero Turnus,
to whom Lavinia was originally betrothed, Lavinia being destined then to marry Aeneas. The fate of Lavinia was part of the reason for the
Wars in Latium. See Aeneid xii 595.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. She is mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto XXXII:64-99. His resurrection
from the dead is alluded to, John xi, as is the raising of Jairus’s daughter,
Luke viii 49. He was the brother of Martha and Mary.
The daughter of
Laban, and sister of Rachel, whom Jacob was deceived into marrying, after he worked seven years to win Rachel. See
Genesis xxix and xxx. She is the fertile sister, and the symbol of the active
life. Her New Testament equivalent is Martha. See Luke x 38-42.
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:94-114. She appears in Dante’s dream.
A young man of
Sestos, separated from his lover Hero, at Abydos, by the straits of the
Hellespont (Dardanelles). He swam across to her repeatedly, and was ultimately
drowned. See Ovid’s Heroides xviii, xix, and Marlowe’s Hero and Leander.
Purgatorio Canto XXVIII:52-138. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. Juno was
angered because of Jupiter’s adultery with Semele, whom she punished, and took vengeance on the house
of Cadmus of Thebes, her father. She pursued Ino, Semele’s sister, by driving her husband Athamas mad. He killed their son Learchus, and drove Ino to throw herself over a cliff,
with their son Melicertes. Ino and Melicertes became
sea-gods, namely Leucothea, the White Goddess, and Palaemon. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses III 261 and IV 519.
The daughter of
Thestius, and wife of the Spartan king Tyndareus, who was raped by Jupiter in the form a swan, and gave birth to the Gemini,
the Twins Castor and Pollux. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VI 109.
Paradiso Canto XXVII:97-148. She is mentioned.
Jacopo da Lentino
( il Notaio, the Notary), Guittone del Viva known as Fra Guittone, of Arezzo (1230-1294: one of the Frati Gaudenti)
in his first poetic period, and Bonagiunta were
prominent members of the Sicilian school of Poetry, continued in Central Italy,
based on Provençal traditions. Their style lacked the spontaneity and sweetness
of the dolce stil nuovo developed by Guido
Guinicelli of Bologna, Guido Cavalcanti and
Dante.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:34-99. He is mentioned.
The Levites were
the priestly tribe, among the ten tribes of Israelites, inhibited from
inheriting from others, and given the tithe as an inheritance themselves, in
order to dedicate themselves to spiritual matters. See Numbers xviii 20,
Deuteronomy xviii 2, Joshua xiii 14.
Purgatorio Canto XVI:97-145. They are mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. A demon guarding the eighth
circle, the fifth chasm, of the barrators.
Inferno Canto XXII:31-75. He wants to torment Ciampolo.
The mythological
poet, the brother of Orpheus, and son of King Oeagrus and the Muse Calliope (of
epic poetry). Alternatively he was the son of Apollo and the Muse Urania
(astronomy). He was killed by jealous Apollo. He composed poems honouring
Dionysus and a Creation epic. He is said to have invented melody and rhythm.
The lament for him was widespread and is the theme of the Egyptian song of
Maneros. His portrait was carved in the rock on Helicon near the grove of the
Muses. He was claimed to have been buried at Thebes.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the group of
wise men in Limbo.
Saint Linus, Pope
(66-76AD).
Paradiso Canto XXVII:1-66. He died for the faith.
Titus Livius, the
Roman historian.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:1-21. He records (xxiii 11,
12) that at the battle of Cannae in 216 BC in the Second Punic war, where Hannibal defeated the Romans, he showed the senate at
Carthage, three bushels of gold rings taken from the corpses.
A Guelph noble of
Bertinoro, and follower of Rinier da Calboli. He
died between 1279 and 1300.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. He is mentioned.
One of the Frati
Gaudenti, or Jovial Friars, a derisive name for the Cavalieri di S.
Maria (Ordo militae beatae Mariae) founded at Bologna in 1261, with
the approval of Urban IV, to act as mediators, and protect the weak. It was
disbanded due to its laxity. Catelano de’ Catalini (or
de’ Malavolti) c.1210-1285, and Loderingo degli Andalò, a Ghibelline, were
called to Florence, from Bologna, in 1266 to act together as Podestà, and
reform the government. They were accused of hypocrisy and corruption and expelled.
The Gardingo district (Piazza di Firenze) the site of the Uberti Palace,
was destroyed in a rising against the Ghibellines.
Inferno Canto XXIII:82-126. They are in the eighth
circle.
A learned Venetian
courtier, noted for his breadth of mind, and profundity. He flourished in the
latter half of the thirteenth century.
Purgatorio Canto XVI:25-96. He is among the
wrathful.
See Raymond Berenger.
Marcus Annaeus
Lucanus, AD 39-65, the Roman writer, born in Cordova in Spain and educated at
Rome. He served under Nero, fell into disfavour, and committed suicide at
Nero’s command. His unfinished epic, the Civil War, or ‘Pharsalia’ after its
climactic battle, was a poetical guide to Dante in his ideas of Roman history.
Inferno Canto XXIV:61-96. His Pharsalia ix 708 et
seq. and 805 provided Dante with the list of snakes.
Inferno Canto XXV:79-151. His Pharsalia ix 763, and
790, provides the tale of the two soldiers stung by serpents.
The virgin martyr
of Syracuse, in the third Century AD, traditionally associated with light and
vision. She is Dante’s patron Saint (he had weakened eyesight) and is for
him the symbol of Illuminating Grace.
Inferno Canto II:94-120. The Virgin sends her to Beatrice.
Purgatorio Canto IX:34-63. She carries Dante up to
the entrance to Purgatory proper, while Virgil follows.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:115-151. She sits to the
right of the Virgin opposite Adam.
The wife of the
Roman Collatine, raped by Tarquin, son of Tarquinius Superbus. A type of the
noble, wronged wife. See Shakespeare’s Rape of Lucrece.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. She is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:1-33. Luke xxiv 13-15 writes of
the appearance of Christ at Emmaus after the
Resurrection.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:133-154. He appears in the Divine Pageant.
King of Nemea. Hypsipyle left his son, Opheltes (later Archemorus) on a
river-bank where he was bitten by a snake. Statius Thebaid iv and v.
Purgatorio Canto XXVI:67-111. He is mentioned.
Macarius the
Egyptian (301-391) a disciple of Saint Anthony, one of
the monks of the Sinaitic desert.
Paradiso Canto XXII:1-99. He is in the seventh
sphere.
One of the five
sons of Mattathias, Judas Maccabeus, ‘The Hammerer’, resisted the enforced
Hellenization of the Jewish people practised under Antiochus IV of Syria
(175-164). He took Jerusalem and re-consecrated the Temple ( 25 Kislev,
165BC, remembered bythe Chanukah festival) Peace was achieved in
163BC and the enforced Hellenization halted. He and his brothers died in the
continual fighting until, in 143, Simon, the last survivor expelled the
Syrians. Simon became the first High Priest and civil ruler of the newly
established state, with the title Nasi.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:1-57. He is in the Fifth Sphere
of Mars.
Lano Maconi of
Siena squandered his fortune, then allowed himself to be killed at the battle
of Pieve del Toppo where the Aretines defeated the Sienese in 1288.
Inferno Canto XIII:109-129. He is in the seventh
circle.
He was a member of
the Brigata Spendereccia, the Spendthrift Brigade, a club founded by
twelve wealthy Sienese, in the second half of the thirteenth century, who vied
with each other in squandering their money on riotous living.
Inferno Canto XXIX:121-139. Other members of the
club are mentioned.
See Pagani.
Mohammed
(c570-632AD), the founder of Islam. He made his ‘Hegira’, the flight to Medina,
the city of the prophet, on 15 June 622, the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
He returned to Mecca on November 1st 630, purified the city, and eliminated idolatry
in the Kaaba, the ancient Arab shrine of the black stone. His teaching spread
throughout Arabia. He died in Medina. Dante treats him as a schismatic within
the Biblical context.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:22-54. He is in the ninth
chasm of the eighth circle, with the schismatics.
One of the
Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas, and the ocean-nymph Pleione. Their
stars form the constellation in the neck of Taurus. She was loved by Jupiter and gave birth to Mercury.
Paradiso Canto XXII:100-154. The mother of Mercury,
and a name for Mercury.
A Ghibelline of
Bertinoro, and follower of Pier Traversaro. He was
captured with Pier by the people of Faenza in 1170, and was still alive in
1228.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXI:59-96. The chief of the demons in
the eighth circle, chasm five of the barrators.
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139 and Inferno Canto XXIII:127-148. He misleads Virgil,
claiming the causeway was impassable at the sixth chasm.
The wife of Moroello III Malaspina. One of her sisters, Fiesca,
married Alberto of a different Malaspina branch, and the other, Jacopina, was
the wife of Obizzo II of Este.
Purgatorio Canto XIX:115-145. She is mentioned.
Currado II
(d.c.1294) grandson of Currado I, the elder, who married an illegitimate
daughter of Frederick II and died about 1225.This
Conrad’s cousins were Moroello III (d.c.1315)
the addressee of Dante’s third letter accompanied by Canzone xi, and
Franceschino who was Dante’s host (d. between 1313 and 1321) at Sarzana in
Lunigiana in the autumn of 1306, less than seven years, the sun being already
in Aries, from the moment of the Vision. The Malaspini were Ghibellines but
Moroello III was a notable exception. Valdimagra, in Liunigiana, north-west of
Tuscany, was part of their territory. Conrad is mentioned in Boccaccio’s
Decameron (ii. 6)
Purgatorio Canto VIII:109-139. He is among the
negligent rulers.
Inferno Canto XXIV:130-151. Vanni Fucci’s prophecy covers his involvement
in the defeat of the Whites in and around Pistoia in 1302-6. He died c 1315.
His wife was Alagia de’ Fieschi.
Elder brother of Paolo, Il Bello, and husband of Francesca da Rimini. Son of Malatesta da Verucchio,
Lord of Rimini. Brave but possibly deformed, he slew the unfaithful Francesca
along with Paolo about 1285. According to legend she thought that Paolo was her
intended husband when he stood proxy for his brother in the marriage. Giancotto
died in 1304.
Inferno Canto V:70-142 Indirectly referred to.
Father of Gianciotto and Paolo.
Lord of Rimini, ruling from the castle of Verrucchio (1293-1312)
Inferno Canto XXVII:31-57. He was ‘the old
mastiff’, and his son Malatestino ‘the
young mastiff’, noted for their ferocious cruelty. Guelphs, they imprisoned
(1295) and murdered, the Ghibelline leader in Rimini, Montagna de’ Parcitati.
The brother of Gianciotto and Paolo,
and son of Malatesta de Verrucchio, Lord of
Rimini. Malatestino ruled Rimini 1312-1317.
Inferno Canto XXVII:31-57. His father was ‘the old
mastiff’, and he was ‘the young mastiff’, noted for their ferocious cruelty.
Guelphs, they imprisoned (1295) and murdered, the Ghibelline leader in Rimini,
Montagna de’ Parcitati. In 1314 Cesena lost its
freedom and came under Malatestino’s rule.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:55-90. He obtained possession
of Fano, and added it to Rimini. He invited the two chief nobles Guido del Cassero, and Agniello da Carignano to meet him at La Cattolica on the Adriatic between Fano and Rimini. Their boat
was intercepted and they were drowned off the headland of Focaro, between Fano
and La Cattolica. The headland was notorious for its dangerous winds, so much
so that sailors made vows and prayers for safe passage.
Loved Francesca da Rimini and was killed by his brother Gianciotto, her husband, along with her in 1285.
He was himself married, to Orabile Beatrice di Ghiacciuolo, and was known as Il
Bello for his personal beauty.
Inferno Canto V:70-142. He weeps while Francesca tells
Dante her story in Limbo.
The Malavicini, Counts
of Bagnacavallo, between Imola and Ravenna, were Ghibellines, who in 1249 drove Guido da Polenta and his fellow Guelphs from
Ravenna. They were subsequently notorious from their frequent changes of
allegiance.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. Bagnacavallo is
mentioned.
‘At these words
which the queen spoke to him, the lady of Malehaut coughed, of a set purpose,
and lifted her head that had been bowed.’ Romance of Lancelot. The
moment was Guinevere’s first open acknowledgement of Lancelot.
Paradiso Canto XVI:1-45. The incident is referred to.
Manfred
(c1231-1266), the illegitimate son of Emperor Frederick
II (died 1250), grandson of the Emperor Henry VI and his wife Constance. He married Beatrice of
Savoy whom bore him a daughter Constanza, who in
1262 married Peter III of Aragon. Manfred was manus
Frederici, the hand of Frederick, heir to his graces and virtues. In 1258
he usurped the rights of his nephew Conradin and became
King of Sicily. He entered into conflict, as a Ghibelline, with the Papacy of Urban IV, and was again excommunicated (ultimately by three
Popes in succession). Clement IV invited Charles of Anjou to Itakly, and he was crowned as the
alternative King of Sicily. Manfred was defeated by Charles, on the plain of
Grandella, near Benevento (some thirty miles northeast of Naples) on February
26th 1266. He was killed there, and, refused Christian rites, was buried under
a cairn, on the battlefield, each surviving soldier adding a stone. His body
was disinterred by the Bishop of Cosenza on the Pope’s
orders, and carried across the River Verde (Garigliano) outside the boundary of
the Kingdom of Naples, and the Papal States, so that he might not rest in the
usurped realm, and with the rites used in excommunication. He was a poet and
patron of letters, accused of many things in his lifetime, including incest, by
the Guelphs.
Purgatorio Canto III:103-145. He is among he
excommunicated.
See Alberigo.
See Tribaldello.
Petrus Comestor,
‘Peter the Eater of Books’ (d. 1179) who wrote the Historia Scholastica,
a History of the Church from Genesis to Acts, paraphrasing the Scriptures. He
belonged to the Abbey of Saint Victor in Paris, and became Chancellor of the
University of Paris in 1164.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is in the Fourth
Sphere of the Sun.
The daughter of Tiresias, and Apollo’s prophetic priestess, the Pythoness,
at Delphi, who married Rhacius, King of Caria, and bore him (or Apollo) a son Mopsus who was a famous soothsayer.
Inferno Canto XX:52-99. Her association with the
founding of Mantua, Virgil’s birthplace, is given. Virgil described an alternative
version of Mantua’s founding in Aeneid X198-200.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. She is in Limbo. One
of the people celebrated by Statius in his epic poetry.
If this is Manto, then Dante has already placed her among the prophetesses in
Inferno.
Marcus Claudius
Marcellus, the Roman consul, who opposed Caesar,
pushing for him to be relieved of his military command when peace was declared,
after the Gallic War, and for the disbandment of the army, and asking that
Caesar should lose the privilege of standing for the consulship in absentia.
Purgatorio Canto VI:76-151. He is mentioned.
Noted for her
integrity and nobility. For Dante (and for Chaucer, as Marcia Catoun) a
type of the noble Roman wife. She was Cato’s second wife who yielded her to his
friend Quintus Hortensius. When he died she married Cato again. Dante’s Convito
treats her return to Cato as an allegory of the soul’s return to God.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. She is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
Purgatorio Canto I:28-84. Virgil tells Cato so, and
invokes her love for him.
Purgatorio Canto I:85-111. Separated from Cato, by the
stream that separates Purgatory from Hell, she can no longer move him.
The second wife of Charles I of Anjou.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. She is mentioned.
The son of Jupiter and Juno. The god of War. He
was present at the battle with the Giants.
Purgatorio Canto
XII:1-63. He is depicted on the roadway.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. The idea that He and other gods
inhered in the planets named after them, led to the influence of the stars, and
of Pagan Gods being confused, and both falsely worshipped in Paganism and
Astrology.
Paradiso Canto VIII:85-148. The nominal father of Romulus.
Paradiso Canto IX:127-142. The founder and patron god
of Florence, identified by Dante with Satan.
Paradiso Canto XIV:67-139. Dante’s vision of Christ
on the Cross.
Paradiso Canto XVI:1-45. Mars is identified with the
constellation Leo, though not its astrological ruler, because of Dante’s
cluster of associations, around the idea of courage and fortitude, among them
the animal, and the planet.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. A statue of Mars stood by
the Ponte Vecchio. Buondelmonte was killed at its
foot. Mars was the patron of the Florentines in Pagan days and his temple with
a highly venerated statue stood on the site of the present Baptistery. When John the Baptist was adopted as the Christian patron
saint of Florence, the statue of Mars was moved to a site by the Arno, where it
was reverenced as protecting the State though the factionalism in the city was
attributed to its influence. When Florence was destroyed by the Goths, the
statue fell into the Arno, and it was held that Florence could not be rebuilt
from the ruins unless the image was found. It was rescued from the Arno and set
on a pillar at the north side of the Ponte Vecchio, when the city was restored
by Charlemagne. It was lost in the great flood of
1333 when the Ponte Vecchio was destroyed.
Paradiso Canto XXII:100-154. The hot-blooded son of
Jupiter.
Paradiso Canto I:1-36. A satyr of Phrygia who competed
with Apollo in a contest of musical skill, pipes against lyre. Marsyas was
defeated, by the god. Apollo flayed him for challenging his skill, and Dante
asks for the inspirational breath with which Apollo played on that occasion.
See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VI 382.
Simon de Brie of
Tours, Pope from 1281 to 1285 with the name of Martin IV. He had been papal legate
in France and was elected by the influence of Charles
of Anjou. He died of eating too many eels from the lake of Bolsena, stewed
in Vernaccia wine. He was buried at Viterbo.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:1-33. He is among he
gluttonous.
Mary of Brabant
was accused by Pierre de la Brosse, the surgeon and
afterwards chamberlain of King Philip III of France,
and by others, of having murdered Louis, Philip’s son by his first wife, with
poison, in 1276. She destroyed Pierre by falsely accusing him of an attempt on
her honour, and of treasonable correspondence with Alfonso X of Castile,
Philip’s enemy. Pierre was hanged for this in 1278.
Purgatorio Canto VI:1-24. She is advised by Dante to
repent.
A woman, who
devoured her own child, rather than endure famine, during the terrible siege of
Jerusalem, by Titus, the son of Vespasian, in AD70. Titus subsequently razed
the city and the Temple, and robbed the inner sanctuary of its sacred objects,
including the Scroll of the Law.
Purgatorio Canto XXIII:1-36. She is mentioned.
The Blessed Virgin
Mary, mother of Jesus of Nazareth, for Dante the symbol of Divine Mercy. She
took on much of the symbolism of the pre-Christian Great Goddesses, including
that of Isis, consort of the Egyptian god Osiris. Isis had a wide
following in the Roman Empire. She was depicted with the infant Horus on her
knee, and was the ‘stella maris’ of Mediterranean seamen.
Her name and that
of Christ are never mentioned in Inferno, where she is ‘un possente’ a powerful spirit.
Inferno Canto II:94-120. She sends Lucia to Beatrice to aid Dante.
Purgatorio Canto III:1-45. The virgin birth brought
revealed truth into the world, to increase humanity’s incomplete knowledge.
Purgatorio Canto V:85-129. Buonconte da Montefeltro one of the
late-repentants died with her name on his lips.
Purgatorio Canto VIII:1-45. The guardian Angels with
burning swords come from Mary’s breast.
Purgatorio Canto X:1-45. Gabriel’s
Annunciation to her is sculpted on the frieze, indicating humility as a
corrective to pride.
Purgatorio Canto XIII:1-45. The first voice repeats
the words Mary spoke at the Marriage feast at Cana. See John ii 3.
Purgatorio Canto XIII:46-84. The shades repeat the
Litany of the Saints.
Purgatorio Canto XV:82-145. Her words in the temple
to Christ.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:76-111. After the
Annunciation ‘Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with
haste, into a city of Juda.’ See Luke 1.39.
Purgatorio Canto XX:1-42. ‘And laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn’ See Luke ii 7.
Purgatorio Canto XX:97-151. She is described as the
only Bride of the Holy Spirit.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:115-154. The Marriage in
Cana, John ii 3, is again referenced. Mary intercedes for mankind in Paradise.
Purgatorio Canto XXV:109-139. At the Annunication Mary
said: ‘How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? (virum non cognosco)’
See Luke i 31-34.
Purgatorio Canto XXXIII:1-57. Her vigil at the
foot of the Cross, as the mater dolorosa, is mentioned. See John xix
25-27.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. She exists with God in the
Empyrean.
Paradiso Canto XI:43-117. Her presence at the
Crucifixion is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XIII:52-90. The supreme perfection of
female Human Nature.
Paradiso Canto XIV:1-66. The Annunciation is
mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. Called on in childbirth.
Madonna del Parto.
Paradiso Canto XXIII:49-87. The Vision of her as
the sacred Rose, coupled with the vision of the Apostles as the sacred Lilies.
Paradiso Canto XXIII:88-139. The crowned Queen of Heaven.
Paradiso Canto XXV:97-139. On the cross, Christ
committed her to the care of Saint John. See John
xix 26-27. She and Christ, alone, rose to Heaven in body as well as spirit.
Paradiso Canto XXXI:94-142. Dante, with Saint Bernard, gazes at the Virgin enthroned in Heaven.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. The Virgin heads the
descending line, through the Rose, that separates those who believed before
Christ, from those who acquired faith after his coming. Below her are the ranks
of Hebrew women who were ancestresses of Christ, and types of his Church.
Corresponding to her on the other side is John the
Baptist.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:85-114. Gabriel in Heaven shows his adoration for her.
One of the
Florentine Toschi family, killed his nephew, or perhaps his brother, to obtain
the inheritance.
Inferno Canto XXXII:40-69. He is in Caïna, in the
Ninth Circle.
The type of the
active life, equivalent to Leah. Historically, Matelda, the
Grancontessa of Tuscany (1046-1115) supporter of Pope Gregory VII was probably
intended.
Purgatorio Canto XXVIII:1-51. Dante meets her.
Purgatorio Canto XXVIII:52-138. She explains
features of the Garden of Eden, the Earthly Paradise to him.
Inferno Canto XIX:88-133. See Acts i 13-26. Matthias
was chosen by the Apostles, by lot, to fill the place among the Disciples
forfeited by Judas.
Inferno Canto XVIII:67-99. The daughter of Aeetes,
King of Colchis, who fell in love with Jason, helped
him with her witchcraft, and was abandoned by him for Creusa.
See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VII 406.
The family were
lords of Medicina, about twenty miles east of Bologna. Pier was deprived of a
praetorship by Frederick II, and his family were
driven out of Romagna in 1287. He sowed dissent among the rulers of Romagna,
setting Polenta and Malatesta against each other. The city of Vercelli in Piedmont and the castle of Marcabò
near Ravenna, at the mouth of the Po, are the western and eastern extremities
of old Romagna, the plain of Lombardy.
Inferno Canto XXVIII:55-90. He is in the ninth
chasm of the sowers of discord.
The daughter of
Phorcys, she is one of the Gorgons. The other two are Euryale and Stheino.
Medusa was raped by Neptune(Poseidon) in the temple of Minerva(Athene), who
changed her to a winged monster with snakes for hair, her gaze turning anyone
who looked at her to stone. Perseus decapitated her, looking at her reflection
in his shield, and used her head to turn Atlas to stone. Pegasus the winged
horse and Chrysaor a warrior sprang from her blood. She symbolises oduracy,
delaying repentance.
Inferno Canto IX:34-63. The Erinyes (Furies) invoke her, in order to be able to turn Dante to stone (harden his
heart).
The king and
high-priest who received Abraham at Salem (Jerusalem) and blessed him. Abraham
paid him a tithe of his spoils of victory. See Genesis xiv 18-24.
Paradiso Canto VIII:85-148. The type of the priest.
The son of Oeneus,
King of Calydon and Althaea daughter of Thestius. His life depended on a brand
of wood that was burning in the fire at his birth, and that was rescued by his
mother. He killed the Calydonian Boar and gave the skin to Atalanta (of
Calydon) and when his uncles took it from her, killed them. Althaea burned the
brand to revenge her son’s murder of her two brothers. He then died as it was
consumed. One of his sisters was Deianira. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses VIII 445-525.
Purgatorio Canto XXV:1-79. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. Juno was
angered because of Jupiter’s adultery with Semele, whom she punished, and took vengeance on the house
of Cadmus of Thebes, her father. She pursued Ino, Semele’s sister, by driving her husband Athamas mad. He killed their son Learchus, and drove Ino to
throw herself over a cliff, with their son Melicertes. Ino and Melicertes
became sea-gods, namely Leucothea, the White Goddess, and Palaemon. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses III 261 and IV 519.
The Greek
philosopher, considered by Aristotle an example of the
powers of false-reasoning.
Paradiso Canto XIII:91-142. He is mentioned.
See Tydeus.
The messenger God,
son of Jupiter and Maia, one of the Pleiades.
Purgatorio Canto XXXII:64-99. He lulled Argus to sleep, and killed him at the request of Jupiter.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. The idea that He and other gods
inhered in the planets named after them, led to the influence of the stars, and
of Pagan Gods being confused, and both falsely worshipped in Paganism and
Astrology.
Paradiso Canto XXII:100-154. Called Maia, as the
son of Maia.
Purgatorio Canto IX:106-145. A follower of Pompey, who tried to protect the Roman Treasury in
the Temple of Saturn on the Tarpeian (Captoline) Hill, from Caesar’s plundering of it. Lucan in Pharsalia iii
153-168 stresses the sound of the Temple gates being opened.
Inferno Canto VII:1-39. He warred against the dragon
of Revelation XII, ‘that old serpent called the Devil, and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world’. Satan fell through pride, and is the great
falsifier, deceiver, and adulterator of God’s universe. I take that as the
sense of ‘superbo strupo’.
Purgatorio Canto XIII:46-84. The shades repeat the
Litany of the Saints.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. He is shown with human form
though beyond the human.
Purgatorio Canto X:46-72. The daughter of Saul who saw King David leaping and
dancing and despised him in her heart. See Second Samuel vi 16.
The King of
Phrygia, son of Gordius and Cybele, granted a wish by Bacchus, for helping his
companion Silenus, and who wished that everything he touched might turn to
gold. He soon regretted his greed. He was also given ass’s ears for challenging
Tmolus’s judgement which preferred Apollo’s lyre to Pan’s pipes. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses XI 106 et seq.
Purgatorio Canto XX:97-151. He is mentioned.
The mythical King
of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa, brother of Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon,
lawgiver and builder of the Labyrinth at Cnossus, Daedalus being the architect. He was appointed by Zeus as one of the three judges
of the dead, with Rhadamanthys and Aeacus, and lived in the Elysian Fields in
the Underworld. He ruled over ninety Cretan cities and controlled
navigation of the Mediterranean. He is the judge of the infernal regions
in Virgil’s Aeneid and is for Dante a symbol of the
sinner’s guilty conscience.
Inferno Canto V:1-51. Inferno
Canto XIII:79-108. He sentences the sinners in Hell.
Inferno Canto XX:31-51. He is already in Hell to
receive Amphiaraüs.
Inferno Canto XXVII:58-136. He coils his tail eight
times, to indicate that Guido da Montefeltro should be sent to the eighth chasm of the eighth circle.
Inferno Canto XXIX:100-120. He is an infallible
judge.
Purgatorio Canto I:28-84. Virgil is not bound by him,
being in Limbo, not Dis.
Paradiso Canto XIII:1-51. Ariadne was his daughter.
Asterion, the
bull-headed son produced by Minos’s wife Pasiphaë’s mating with ‘a white bull from the sea’, sacred
to Poseidon. He was imprisoned in the Labyrinth of Cnossos, and killed by Theseus, who was helped by Asterion’s half-sister Ariadne, daughter of Minos and
Pasiphaë. He is for Dante, the type of bestiality, violence and brutishness.
(See also Ovid’s Metamorphoses VIII 132-169)
Inferno Canto XII:1-27. He guards the descent to the
seventh circle.
Purgatorio Canto VI:76-151. Feuded with the Filippeschi.
Montagues, Montecchi of Verona
Purgatorio Canto VI:76-151. Feuded with the Capulets, see Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet for a
fictitious re-creation of the feuding.
The son of Guido da Montefeltro, and like him a Ghibelline
leader. He was in command of the Aretines when they were defeated at Campaldino
by the Florentine Guelphs on June 11th 1289, and was killed there. Dante is
supposed to have taken part on the Florentine side. Giovanna was his wife. Campaldino is in the
upper Val d’ Arno, or district of Casentino, bounded by the mountains of
Pratomagno to the west and the Apennine chain on the east. It lies between
Poppi and Bibiena, where the River Archiano, which rises in the Apennines
,above the Monastery of Camaldoli, flows into the Arno, about an hour’s walk
from the battlefield. The mist and fog is a common feature of the valley.
Purgatorio Canto V:85-129. He is among the late
repentant killed by violence.
The Lord of
Urbino, and one of the great Ghibelline captains. He became a Franciscan friar
in 1296. Boniface VIII summoned him from his retreat in
1297 to consult with him about the razing of Palestrina (Penestrino)
twenty-five miles east of Rome, held by the Colonna family, who were in
rebellion against the Church. Guido, finding it impregnable, advised Boniface
to promise immunity and then break it, inducing the Colonna to surrender, (in
September 1298), then razing the fortress to the ground. Dante regarded Guido
highly for his entering the Franciscan order (See his Convivio iv 28).
Guido was born in 1223 and died in 1298. His son Buonconte appears in Purgatorio.
Inferno Canto XXVII:58-136. He is in the eighth
circle.
See William.
The son of Simon
de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. He avenged the death of his father at the
battle of Evesham (1265) where Edward (later Edward I) defeated the English
barons, when, in 1271, while vicar general of Tuscany he murdered Henry,
his cousin, the son of Richard Earl of Cornwall, the nephew of the English
king, in the church of San Silvestro at Viterbo. Henry’s heart was placed in a
gold casket, and set on a pillar by London Bridge, or in the hand of his statue
in Westminster Abbey.
Inferno Canto XII:100-139. He is placed in the
seventh circle of the violent, first ring.
Ahasuerus, the Persian King, enriched Haman,
until he was accused by Esther of intending to take the
life of Mordecai. Haman was executed in Mordecai’s place. See Esther iii-viii.
Purgatorio Canto XVII:1-39. He is mentioned.
The nephew and son
of King Arthur, who attempted to usurp his kingdom. In
the last battle Arthur pierced Mordred with his lance, at the same time
receiving his own death-wound. According to an Old French version of the theme,
which differs from Malory’s Morte D’Arthur, ‘after the lance was withdrawn a
ray of sunlight passed through the wound...’
Inferno Canto XXXII:40-69. He is in Caïna, in the
Ninth Circle.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. He is mentioned.
The lawgiver, who
led Israel out of Egypt. See the Bible Exodus ii. The type of the faithful man
who does not swerve from service to the God of Israel.
Inferno Canto IV:1-63. Christ takes his spirit from Limbo into Paradise.
Purgatorio Canto XXXII:64-99. At the
Transfiguration, see Matthew xviii 1-8, Christ shone like
the sun in white raiment, and Moses and Elias appeared talking
with him.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. He exists with God in the
Empyrean.
Paradiso Canto XXIV:115-154. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XXVI:1-69. The Lord says to Moses ‘I
will make all my goodness pass before thee’ Exodus xxxiii 19. The Vulgate says ego
ostendam omne bonum tibi.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:115-151. He sits to the left
of Adam in Heaven.
Andrea dei Mozzi,
was made Bishop of Florence in 1287 and transferred to the see of Vicenza on
the River Bacchiglione, in 1295, by Pope Boniface VIII.
He died there the following year. Servus servorum Dei was one of the
Popes official titles, from Gregory I (590-604)
onwards.
Inferno Canto XV:100-124. He is in Hell for sodomy.
Inferno Canto XIII:130-151. Possibly the speaker is
Rocco, who hanged himself, as a bankrupt, or alternatively Lotto degli Agli.
The Nine Muses,
the daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne (Memory), the patronesses of the liberal
arts. Their names were Clio (History), Melpomene (Tragedy), Thalia (Comedy),
Euterpe (Lyric poetry), Terpsichore (Dance), Calliope (Epic poetry), Erato
(Love poetry), Urania (Astronomy, and the Music of the
Spheres), and Polyhymnia (Sacred Song). Calliope, the
mother of Orpheus, is the eldest sister of the Muses.
They lived on Mount Helicon and Mount Parnassus, where their sacred springs
were Aganippe and Hippocrene on the first, and Castalia on the second. They are
‘doctae sorores’ the ‘learned sisters’. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses V.
Inferno Canto XXXII:1-39. Dante invokes their help.
Purgatorio Canto I:1-27. Dante declares his allegiance
to them.
The Muses took up
the challenge issued by the nine daughters of King Pierus, the Emathides, also
called the Pierides, a name for the Muses themselves, from Pieria, the earliest
site of their worship. The Emathides were defeated and were turned into
magpies. Calliope lead the singing. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses V 300 etc.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. They (and their
mountain Parnassus) are mentioned, as the foster-mothers of the pagan poets.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:37-61. Dante invokes the
Muses, and the streams of Helicon, and calls on Urania.
Paradiso Canto II:1-45. The Muses show the poet his
means of guiding himself.
Paradiso Canto XII:1-36. They are mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:58-99. The fountain of
Hippocrene on Helicon, sprang from a blow of the hoof of Pegasus, the winged
horse, born from the blood of Medusa. He and his brother
Chrysaor the warrior were sired by Neptune. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses IV 768, V
257.
Paradiso Canto XXIII:49-87. Dante mentions
Polyhymnia.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. The daughter of Cinyras who conceived an incestuous passion for her father,
and in darkness, using an assumed name, entered his bed. She conceived Adonis,
and was changed into the myrrh-tree from which Adonis was born. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses X 489.
Inferno Canto XXX:91-129. The son of the naiad
Liriope and the river-god Cephisus who fell in love with his own beautiful
image in a still pool, and was loved by Echo in vain. He was changed to a
flower, the narcissus, and she wasted away to become an echoing voice.
See Ovid’s Metamorphoses III 407.
Paradiso Canto III:1-33. He is mentioned.
Lucan,
in Pharsalia ix 763 and 790, tells of the two soldiers of Cato’s
army who were stung by snakes while marching across Libya. Nasidius swelled so
that his coat of mail gave way, while the other melted.
Inferno Canto XXV:79-151. The story is mentioned.
The Roman poet,
Publius Ovidius Naso, born at Sulmo in 43 BC. He was exiled from Augustan Rome
in AD8 (for a poem, probably the Ars Amatoria, and an error, probably an
indiscretion concerning Augustus’s wayward daughter Julia) and died at Tomis on
the Black Sea in AD 17. His greatest work is the Metamorphoses, a retelling of
Myths down to his own time, based on the theme of change. This, the ‘Ovidio
Maggiore’ was the main source for Dante’s knowledge of Mythology, along
with Virgil’s Aeneid. (For a modern English translation of the Metamorphoses,
browse or download from OVID
AND OTHERS.)
Inferno Canto IV:64-105. He is among the great poets in
Limbo.
Inferno Canto XXV:79-151. He is mentioned by name,
his Metamorphoses providing stories of transformations.
Inferno Canto XXIX:37-72. The Plague at Aegina is
retold in Ovid’s Metamorphoses VII 523-657. Jupiter restored the population
after the plague sent by Juno, by transforming ants into men, called the
Myrmidons from the Greek word for an ant. Valdichiano and Maremma in Tuscany,
and the island of Sardinia, are also mentioned here for their unhealthiness in
summer.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:115-154. Dante refers to the
Golden Age, described by Ovid in the Metamorphoses I 103 et seq.
He denounced David’s sins. See Second Samuel xii.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is in the Fourth
Sphere of the Sun.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. Nebuchadnezzar I, King of the
Babylonian Empire, (flourished 1137 BC) who liberated the country from Elamite
rule. He besieged and took Jerusalem, and figures in the Book of Daniel.
Purgatorio Canto XXIII:37-90. She is mentioned.
The sea-god, the
son of Saturn and brother of Jupiter and Pluto. He is the Greek Poseidon.
Paradiso Canto XXXIII:49-145. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. One of the ancient Guelph
families.
The Centaur, son
of Ixion, killed by Hercules, with an arrow poisoned
with the Hydra’s blood, for his attempt to steal and rape Deianira.
He dipped his fatal shirt in his own, poisoned, blood, and gave it as a gift (a
supposed love charm) to Deianira, who thereby, unwittingly, brought about
Hercules’s death.
Inferno Canto XII:49-99. He displays his usual
rashness in the seventh circle.
A member of the Brigata
Spendereccia, the Spendthrift Brigade, a club founded by twelve wealthy
Sienese, in the second half of the thirteenth century, who vied with each other
in squandering their money on riotous living. He appears to have invented a
costly dish using cloves.
Inferno Canto XXIX:121-139. He is in the tenth
chasm.
The fourth century
Bishop of Myra in Lydia who saved the honour of three poor daughters of a
fellow-townsman, by secretly throwing bags of gold through their window at
night, enabling them to marry with a dowry. He is known as St Nicholas of Bari
where his shrine is. (See Legenda Aurea)
Purgatorio Canto XX:1-42. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XIX:31-87. Nicholas III, Giovanni
Guatani Orsini, Pope from 1277 to 1280. The Orsini family
emblem was a she-bear. He had to wait 23 years in Hell until the death of Boniface his successor in 1303, who would in turn wait
only eleven years for the death of Clement V. (Benedict
XI, in between them, Pope from 1303-1304 was not given to simony.)
The mighty hunter,
son of Cush, grandson of Ham the son of Noah, and ruler of Babel (Babylon), see
Genesis x 9, under whose rule Dante places the building of the tower of Babel,
in the land of Shinar, which God frowned on, confounding their language, see
Genesis xi 4. So Dante has Nimrod speak in an unintelligible mixture of
tongues.
Inferno Canto XXXI:46-81. He is a Giant guarding the
central pit.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. He is depicted on the
roadway.
Inferno Canto V:52-72. The Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad
V, King of Assyria, whom his wife Semiramis (Sammuramat) was believed to have succeeded, as regent during the minority of
her son from 810-805BC.
The daughter of
the Phrygian king Tantalus, and Dione, one of the Pleiades. The wife of Amphion, king of Thebes. She roused the wrath of Latona
through boasting of her seven sons and seven daughters. They were slaughtered,
and she was turned to stone on Mount Siphylus in Asia Minor where her statue
weeps tears. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses Vi 172 et seq.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. She is depicted on the
roadway.
Inferno Canto I:100-111. The son of Hyrtacus, comrade
of Euryalus in the Aeneid. He dies avenging the death
of Euryalus in Aeneid IX.
The builder of the
ark, by which mankind survived the great flood. See the Bible Genesis vi. The
type of the pious man.
Inferno Canto IV:1-63. Christ takes his spirit from Limbo into Paradise.
Paradiso Canto XII:1-36. God’s covenant with him,
Genesis ix 8.
Bishop of Feltre,
who in 1314 surrendered certain gentlemen of Ferrara, in his protection, to
Pino della Tosa who then governed Ferrara as vicar of King
Robert, by whom they were killed. Malta was a tower near Padua where Ezzelino held his prisoners, or a Papal prison for
criminal priests either at Viterbo, or on the Lake of Bolsena.
Paradiso Canto IX:1-66. He is mentioned.
An illuminator and
painter of miniatures. Vasari says he was at Rome in 1295, to illuminate
manuscripts, in the Vatican Library, for Pope Boniface VIII,
and the work was shared with Franco of Bologna.
Purgatorio Canto XI:73-117. He is among the proud.
The son of Laius,
and Jocasta who killed his father laius and married his
mother. See Sophocles Theban Trilogy. Themis was the
goddess of Justice, daughter of Heaven and Earth, with oracular powers, and the Sphinx was her oracular priestess, who set Oedipus the
famous riddle ‘ What goes on four legs in the morning, two at midday, and three
in the evening?’ which he answered correctly with ‘Mankind’. Themis in anger at
the riddle being solved sent a wild beast to ravage the countryside. Dante says Naiades, instead of Laiades for Oedipus the son of Laius,
following a textual corruption of Ovid’s Metamorphoses VII 759 et al where the
story is referred to.
Purgatorio Canto XXXIII:1-57. Themis is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXVII:31-57. Sinibaldo held Forlì in
1300, which had endured a long siege by the French soldiers of Pope Martin IV, who were finally routed with great
slaughter by Guido da Montefeltro himself. The
family arms were a lion rampant vert on a field or.
The son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, and brother of Electra, and Iphigenia, who killed
the usurper Aegisthus, and his mother Clytaemnestra to avenge his father’s
murder at their hands. His friendship with Pylades, the son of Strophius was
proverbial. Pylades offered to take his place when he was condemned to death,
see Cicero De Amicitia 7.
Purgatorio Canto XIII:1-45. His is the second voice.
Charlemagne’s nephew, and the hero of the battle of
Roncesvalles, who, went down to defeat with his Franks, fighting against the
Saracens, while attempting to hold the valley in 778AD. He blew his horn in desperation,
to alert his uncle eight miles away, but Charlemagne was misled by the advice
of the traitor Ganelon, and did not provide aid. The
epic is told in the Old French Chanson de Roland, the ‘Song of Roland’,
where the intensity of his blast on the horn shattered it. The defeat allowed
Arab incursions into Narbonne in 793.
Inferno Canto XXXI:1-45. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:1-57. He is in the Fifth Sphere
of Mars.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
An early fifth
century writer, whose Historia adversus Paganos was an apologetic
treatise written at the suggestion of Augustine to
show that Christianity had not ruined the Empire, as Pagans contended.
Paradiso Canto X:100-129. He is in the fourth sphere
of Prudence.
The mythical son
of the Thracian King Oeagrus and the Muse Calliope (of epic poetry). He was
both poet and musician. He attempted to rescue his wife Eurydice from Hades but
lost her when he broke the injunction not to look back. He taught the sacred
mysteries of the Goddess in defiance of Dionysus and was torn to pieces by the
Maenads. His head floated down the river Hebrus and was carried to the island
of Lesbos. The Muses buried his limbs at Leibethra at the foot of Olympus where
the nightingales sing more sweetly than anywhere else on earth.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the group of
wise men in Limbo.
Inferno Canto XIX:31-87. The family emblem was a
she-bear. The Pope Nicholas III was of the
family.
Henry of Susa
became Cardinal Bishop of Ostia in 1261, and was a commentator on the
Decretals. He died in 1271. Studied by those seeking professional standing.
Paradiso Canto XII:37-105. He is mentioned.
Ottocar, King of Bohemia
King of Bohemia
(1253-1278), but forced to serve under Rudolph I who
asserted his supremacy, when elected Emperor. Ottakar paid homage, but refused
to return Imperial lands, and died at the battle of the Marchfeld near Vienna
in 1278. Ottocar’s son Wenceslas II (1278-1305)(not the earlier king and Saint) was allowed to retain Bohemia and Moravia, but had
to give up Austria and Styria (Rudolph’s sons Albert and
Rudolph were invested with these), Carinthia and Carniola.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is one of the
negligent rulers.
Inferno Canto XXVII:31-57. Mainardo Pagano, or
Maghinardo Pagano da Susinana, lord of Faenza on the River Lamone; Imola, near
the Santerno; and Forlì. His arms were a lion azure on a field argent. He was a
Ghibelline in the north (‘state’) and a Guelph in Florence (‘verno’).
He died in 1302.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. He is mentioned. He was
called ‘the devil’ because of his cunning.
A Ghelph of
Brescia, Vicar for Charles of Anjou in Florence
(1276), Podestà of Siena (1279) and of Piacenza (1288).
Purgatorio Canto XVI:97-145. He is mentioned.
An Arcadian
prince, the son of Evander, who ruled a city on the site of Rome, formed an
alliance with Aeneas and was killed by Turnus.
See Virgil’s Aeneid viii-x.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
Purgatorio Canto V:130-136.The husband of Pia de Tolomei,
who caused her death. See La Pia.
Inferno Canto XXVII:31-57. He was the Ghibelline
leader in Rimini, imprisoned by Malatesta da
Verrucchio in 1295, and murdered by his son Malatestino.
The Trojan Prince
whose abduction of Helen from Sparta initiated the Trojan
War. (See Homer’s Iliad.) The son of Priam and Hecuba.
Paris was involved in judging the merits of the three goddesses Hera, Athene,
and Aphrodite, choosing Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, as supreme. (The Judgement
of Paris). To Dante and the Middle Ages the type of the great (pagan) lover.
Inferno Canto V:52-72. He is a carnal sinner in Limbo.
The Greek
philosopher, considered by Aristotle an example of the
powers of false-reasoning.
Paradiso Canto XIII:91-142. He is mentioned.
The wife of Minos of Crete, and mother of the Minotaur,
Asterion, whom she conceived by coupling, concealed in a wooden framework made
to look like a heifer, with a white bull from the sea. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses
VIII 132 and IX 736.
Inferno Canto XII:1-27. Mentioned indirectly.
Purgatorio Canto XXVI:1-66. Mentioned as an example
of lust.
Saul of Tarsus,
born about 10AD, Jewish by birth but a Roman citizen. He underwent conversion
on the road to Damascus. Acts ix 1-9. He preached at Paphos, Philippi, Athens,
Ephesus etc., and was martyred in Rome with Saint Peter on the same day.
Inferno Canto II:1-42. In the medieval Vision of St
Paul he enters Hell. He is called the Chosen Vessel in Acts ix 15.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:133-154. He appears in the Divine Pageant carrying a sword (of the spirit, and
of his martyrdom)
Paradiso Canto XVIII:100-136. He is alive in the
living religion.
Paradiso Canto XXI:52-142. He was a ‘Chosen Vessel’.
See Acts ix 15.
Paradiso Canto XXIV:52-87. Faith is an intellectual
virtue to the Catholic Church, and Dante here quotes Saint Paul’s definition in
Hebrew xi 1 ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen.’
Paradiso Canto XXVIII:94-139. He was supposed to
have revealed the Angelic Hierarchies to Dionysius the Aeropagite.
Camicion, one of
the Pazzi of Valdarno, killed his kinsman, Ubertino. Carlino, still living at
the time of the Vision, held the castle of Piantravigne for the Whites of
Florence against the Blacks of Florence and Lucca, but was bribed to surrender
it treacherously to the enemy, causing the deaths of many of the Bianchi.
Inferno Canto XXXII:40-69. He has a place reserved
for him in the Antenora, in the Ninth Circle, as a traitor against his country.
Pazzo,
Rinieri
A notorious
highwayman of Dante’s time.
Inferno Canto XII:100-139 He is in the seventh
circle.
The son of Aeacus,
and father of Achilles by Thetis the sea-goddess.
Inferno Canto XXXI:1-45. Peleus’s spear was given to
him by Chiron the Centaur. It was cut from an ash on
Mount Pelion. Hephaestus forged its blade, and Athene polished the shaft. At
Troy Achilles wounded Telephus with it. He was a king of Mysia and the son of Hercules and the nymph Auge. Rust from the spear, rubbed
on the wound, cured it. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses XII 112 and XIII 171.
The wife of Ulysses.
Inferno Canto XXVI:85-142. She is mentioned.
The Amazon queen,
the daughter of Otrere and Ares, killed by Achilles when she fought for the Trojans during the Trojan War. The type of a noble
woman. She had sought refuge at Troy from the Furies after accidentally killing
her sister Hippolyte.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. She is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
He made the bronze
bull for Phalaris, the tyrant of Sicily. Heated by fire victims were roasted
inside it, Perillus himself being the first victim.
Inferno Canto XXVII:1-30. He is mentioned,
indirectly.
Persius Flaccus,
the Roman satirist (34-62AD)
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. He is in Limbo.
Inferno Canto I:112-136. Christ entrusted the keys of
the Church to Peter, as the ‘rock’ on which the Church would be built (Matthew
xvi,18). The Angel at the Gate of Purgatory holds the keys. Peter died at Rome
as a martyr in the persecutions under Nero. His memorial monument at the
cemetery on the Vatican Hill was built about AD160-170. The Bishops of Rome (from
Stephen onwards, bishop AD 254-256), and the Popes, were his successors.
Inferno Canto XIX:88-133. Dante refers to Christ’s injunction to Peter, ‘Follow me’, see Matthew iv
19, and John xxi 19.
Purgatorio Canto IX:106-145. Purgatorio Canto XXI:34-75. The Angel at the Gate of
Purgatory hold his two keys to Confession on Peter’s behalf, with instructions
to err on the side of leniency with the truly contrite.
Purgatorio Canto XIII:46-84. The shades repeat the
Litany of the Saints.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:55-93. He is Simon Peter,
called the Fisherman. See Mark i 16. (‘I will make you to become fishers of
men’)
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:133-154. He appears in the Divine Pageant.
Purgatorio Canto XXXII:64-99. He was present at
the Transfiguration, see Matthew xviii 1-8 when Christ shone like the sun in white raiment, and Moses and Elias appeared talking with him, and after they were overcome
Christ said ‘Arise, and be not afraid’. Christ is the apple-tree, in accord
with the Song of Solomon ii 3, ‘As the apple tree among the trees of the wood,
so is my beloved among the sons.’
Paradiso Canto XI:118-139. The Church and Papacy is
Peter’s ‘boat’.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:100-136. He is alive in the
living religion.
Paradiso Canto XXI:52-142. He was Simon Peter the son
of Jona, called Cephas, ‘a stone’ by Christ. See John i 42.
Paradiso Canto XXII:1-99. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto XXIII:88-139. He holds the keys of
the Faith.
Paradiso Canto XXIV:115-154. See John xx 3-6.
Though the other disciple runs more quickly to the tomb of Christ, it is Peter,
according to John, who enters it before him.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:115-151. He sits at the right
hand of the Virgin.
Saint Peter
Damian, of Ravenna, some time Abbot of the monastery of Santa Croce di Fonte
Avellana in the Apennines, beneath Monte Catria, near Gubbio. (Dante is said to
have found refuge there after the death of Henry VII.)
His parents’ poverty lead to him being exposed as an infant, but he was rescued
and educated by his brother Damian, taking the name Damiani, ‘Damian’s Peter’,
He was made Cardinal Bishop of Ostia in 1058, against his will, by Pope Stephen
IX. He styled himself Peter the Sinner, Petrus peccator, and visited the
monastery of Pomposa on an island at the mouth of the Po, near Commachio. He
was an ardent reformer of Church discipline and one of the chief ecclesiastical
writers of the eleventh century. He was a friend and ally of Hildebrand
afterwards Saint Gregory VII. He died at Faenza in 1072.
Paradiso Canto XXI:52-142. He is in the seventh
sphere.
Peter (c1100-1160)
an Augustinian, known as ‘the Master of the Sentences’ wrote his four
books on God, the Creation, Refdemption, and the Sacraments and Last Things, as
the chief summary of medieval theology before Aquinas,
who commented on it. In the prologue he speaks of himself as ‘desiring with the
poor widow (Luke xxi 1-4) to cast something out of our poverty into the
treasury of the Lord.’
Paradiso Canto X:100-129. He is in the fourth sphere
of Prudence.
Pere III
(1276-1285), took Sicily from Charles I of Anjou after the Sicilian Vespers in 1282. He had married Manfred’s
daughter Costanze. He and Charles both died in
1285. He was succeeded by his son Alfonso III who died
in 1291. Aragon and Sicily were ruled by his younger sons, James and Frederick at the time of the Vision. Dante regards them as degenerates, but Manfred calls
them the honour of Aragon and Sicily in Purgatorio III.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is one of the
negligent rulers.
A Franciscan friar
(and comb-seller) from Chianti who settled in Siena, where he died in 1289. He
was renowned for his piety, and venerated as a saint, being recognised
officially in 1328.
Purgatorio Canto XIII:85-154. He prayed for Sapia.
The daughter of Pasiphae and Minos, sister of Ariadne. She married Theseus, but
loved Hippolytus her stepson. Repulsed by him she
accused him to his father, and so brought about his death. See Racine’s Phaedra.
See Ovid’s Metamorphoses XV 500 et seq.
Paradiso Canto XVII:1-99. She is mentioned as being
one who accused another of a crime, which they themselves were guilty of.
Inferno Canto XVII:79-136. The son of Phoebus Apollo and Clymene, the wife of the
Ethiopian king Merops, and the grandson of Tethys. He asked Phoebus for proof
of his paternity, and, being granted a wish, requested to drive the chariot of
the sun. He could not control it, and was killed by Jupiter’s thunderbolt to
prevent the earth being destroyed. He was buried, by the Naiads, on the banks
of the River Po. The Milky Way was supposed by the Pythagoreans to be the sign
of his journey, still visible in the heavens. (See Dante’s Convivio ii)
See Ovid’s Metamorphoses I 751, and II passim.
Purgatorio Canto IV:52-87. He is mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:106-132. His death is
mentioned, when Jupiter for the good of all destroyed
the one.
Paradiso Canto XVII:1-99.He asked his mother to tell
him the truth about his paternity.
Paradiso Canto XXXI:94-142. He is mentioned.
Philip the Bold
(1270-1285) attempted to seize the throne of Peter III of Aragon on behalf of his son Charles de Valois,
with the connivance of Pope Martin IV. He was defeated by Roger di Loria,
Peter’s admiral at Gerona, and died at Perpignan. His son was Philip IV.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is one of the
negligent rulers.
King of France
(1285-1314), son of Philip III, he strengthened the
monarchy, and dissolved the Knights Templars in 1307. He supported the Avignon
Papacy, and won Champagne, Flanders and other territories for the Crown. He married
Joan, the daughter of Henry I of Navarre, ‘the
Fat’.
See Ciacco’s prophecy and Inferno
Canto VI:64-93 for an indirect reference.
Inferno Canto XIX:31-87He reputedly accepted a bribe
from Bertrand de Goth, to make him Pope (as Clement V).
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is mentioned,
adversely.
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. Dante calls him the new
Pilate, because he delivered Boniface to his enemies
the Colonnesi, as Pilate delivered Christ to the Council of the Jews. He caused the Templars to be persecuted from 1307,
greedy, it was said, for their immense wealth.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He debased the coinage by
two-thirds in 1302 to defray the cost of his Flemish campaign. He is held as an
example of poor kingship.
Avenged his
daughter Coronis, raped by Apollo, by burning down the
god’s temple at Delphi for which he was condemned to Tartarus.
In the Aeneid vi
618-620 he issues a warning against scorning the gods.
Inferno Canto VIII:1-30. He is the ferryman of the
marsh in the Fifth Circle.
A centaur who entertained Hercules and was accidentally killed by one of his arrows. He was present at the battle
of the Lapiths and Centaurs.
Inferno Canto XII:49-99. He is in the seventh circle.
Inferno Canto XI:1-66. Deacon of Thessalonica. See Anastasius.
The daughter of
the Thracian King Sithon (living near Mount Rhodope in Thrace) who was loved by Demophoön, King of Melos,the son of Theseus and Phaedra. He failed to keep his promise to return to
her, and when he did eventually return to find her she had committed suicide,
but had been transformed into an almond tree by Athene.
(See Burne-Jones painting ‘The Tree of Forgiveness’, Lever Art Gallery, Port
Sunlight, Merseyside, England) See Ovid’s Heroides.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126. She is mentioned.
The traditional
story is that La Pia belonged to the Tolomei of Siena, and married Nello d’Inghiramo dei Pannocchiesci, the Podestà of
Volterra in 1277, of Lucca in 1314, the captain of the Tuscan Guelphs in 1284
and still alive in 1322. He put her to death at the Castello della Pietra, in
the marshes of the Sienese Maremma, in 1295, throwing her from a window, or
alternatively she died of disease in that unhealthy place. He was said to be
jealous, or to want rid of her in order to marry the Countess Margherita degli
Aldobrandeschi, the widow of Guy de Montfort. The
identification of La Pia may well be wrong, but the story survives.
Purgatorio Canto V:130-136. She is with the late
repentants who died of violence.
(See D. G.
Rossetti’s Oil painting – La Pia de’ Tolomei – University of Kansas.) In La
Pia’s words to Dante there is an echo of the lines on Virgil’s tomb, at Naples,
‘MANTUA ME GENUIT, CALABRI RAPUERE, TENET NUNC PARTHENOPE : CECINI PASCUA,
RURA, DUCES.’
An ancient Florentine
family. See the note to Paradiso Canto XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned. Their arms
barred with ermine=vair.
Pontius Pilate the
Governor of Judea, before whom Christ was arraigned. See Matthew xxvii 11.
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. He is mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto XV:82-145. The lord of Athens, who
gave this answer, when urged by his wife to put to death a young man, who had
kissed their daughter in public. ‘Si eos, qui nos amant, interficimus, quid
his faciemus, quibus odio sumus?’ (Valerius Maximus) The right to name the
city of Athens was disputed by Pallas Athene (Minerva)
and Poseidon (Neptune). See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VI 70.
Saint Pius I, Pope
(140-155AD).
Paradiso Canto XXVII:1-66. He died for the faith.
The Greek
Philosopher, 428/7?-348/7BC, born at Athens of a distinguished family. His
father was named Ariston, his mother Perictione was the sister of Charmides and
niece of Critias who both figured in the Oligarchy of 404/3. He was a follower
of Socrates, and developed the search for universals
with his concept of the Ideas, or the Doctrine of Forms. He made massive
contributions to the theory of knowledge, moral theory and politics (The
Republic).
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the
philosophers in Limbo.
Purgatorio Canto III:1-45. The pagan philosophers
cannot hope to understand the ‘why’ of God’s works, and are condemned to
an unsatisfied desire for supreme knowledge. (Aquinas:
‘the one demonstrates by means of the cause and is called propter quid....
the other by means of the effect and is called the demonstration quia.)
Purgatorio Canto IV:1-18. Dante gives a refutation of
the doctrine of the multiplicity of souls, ascribed to Plato by Thomas Aquinas. If souls were plural, we would not
become so absorbed as to neglect the passage of time.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. Dante refers to Plato’s
Timaeus, available to him in Chalcidius’s Latin paraphrase. The doctrine he repeats,
as understood by Dante, gives excessive power to the stars, fatal to freewill.
The Roman
playwright and poet (254-184BC). His plays were adapted from Menander and other
Greek writers.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. He is in Limbo.
Pluto was the son
of Saturn and the brother of Jupiter and Neptune, and was
assigned the rule of the Underworld. Dante merges him with Plutus, god of the riches
dug from the ground, and therefore the source of the sin of avarice, and the ‘great
enemy’.
Inferno Canto VI:94-115. Dante and Virgil find him at
the start of the descent to the Fourth Circle of Hell.
Inferno Canto VII:1-39. He mutter words in an unknown
language, that Virgil understands, and collapses at Virgil’s reply.
The lord of
Ravenna, father of Francesca da Rimini, and
grandfather of Guido Novello, who employed Dante on various missions (See
Dante: Epistolae viii) and may have assisted him to find a last refuge in
Ravenna, where Dante’s tomb is sited. The family arms were an eagle, half
argent, on an azure field, half gules on field or.
Inferno Canto XXVII:31-57. He ruled Ravenna, and
Cervia, twelve miles south, in 1300.
The Greek sculptor
(c452-412BC), mentioned by Aristotle and others, and of the same generation as
Pheidias. He made the gold and ivory statue of Hera, in the Heraion near
Mycenae, famous for its grandeur and beauty, and it was engraved in miniature
on the coins of Argos. See Pausanias II xvii 3.
Purgatorio Canto X:1-45. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. The son of Priam and Hecuba, sent by Priam to the court of Polymestor of Thrace, and done to death by Polymestor,
Priam’s son-in-law. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses XIII 432 et seq. and Virgil’s
Aseneid iii 49.
Purgatorio Canto XX:97-151. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. The son-in law of Priam and Hecuba, who sent their son Polydorus to his court in Thrace. He murdered Polydorus
and threw his body into the sea to be found subsequently by Hecuba. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses XIII 430 et seq.
Purgatorio Canto XX:97-151. He is mentioned.
The son of Oedipus
and Jocasta, and brother of Eteocles.
They fought over the succession, in the war of the Seven against Thebes. Both
brothers were killed and, according to Statius in the
Thebaid xii 429 et seq. the flames of their funeral pyre itself were divided.
Inferno Canto XXVI:43-84. They are mentioned.
Purgatorio
Canto XXII:55-93. They are indirectly mentioned.
Inferno Canto V:52-72. The Trojan princess, daughter of Priam and Hecuba. According to Ovid
(Metamorphoses XIII 448) she is slaughtered at Achilles’s
tomb after the fall of Troy, but according to later versions of the myths his
love for her brought about his death, when he was killed by Paris in a temple where he had gone to marry her, after being promised her hand if he
would join forces with the Trojans.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. She is mentioned.
Consul, General,
Julius Caesar’s son-in-law having married Julia. Defeated by Caesar in the Civil War, ended by the
battle of Pharsalus in Thessaly. Fled to Alexandria. Murdered by Ptolemy XIII.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
The son of Pompey
the Great (died 35BC). He was defeated by Julius Caesar at Munda in 45BC and by Octavian’s (Augustus’s) admiral
Agrippa at Mylae and Naulochus off Sicily in 36BC. Lucan gives him a very bad
press.
Inferno Canto XII:100-139. He is in the seventh
circle.
A native of
Ravenna. He died c1245.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. He is mentioned.
Cardinal Nicholas
of Prato was sent to Florence by Pope Benedict XI in early 1304 to attempt a reconciliation
between the warring factions. He failed, and laid the city under an interdict,
excommunicating several citizens. Several local disasters at the time, such as
a fire caused by a factional fight, destroying many houses, and a bridge
collapse during a May day festival (the wooden Ponte Carraia) were attributed
to divine disapproval.
Inferno Canto XXVI:1-42. He is mentioned.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
Priam
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. King of Troy, during the Trojan
War. The son of Laomedon, and husband of Hecuba. He was
killed by Pyrrhus, at the fall of Troy.
A Latin grammarian
of the early sixth century AD.
Inferno Canto XV:100-124. He is in Hell for sodomy.
The daughter of
Pandion, wife of Tereus, mother of Itys, and sister of Philomela. Her sister is
raped and mutilated by Tereus, and the two sisters together conspire to kill
the son, Itys, and serve his flesh to Tereus at a banquet. In Latin sources
(Virgil’s Georgics etc) she is changed into the swallow, Philomela into the
nightingale, and Tereus into the hoopoe. See also Ovid’s Metamorphoses VI 428
et seq. In Greek sources of the myth, Procne is the nightingale and Philomela
the swallow. Ovid does not clarify the point. Dante hints at the Greek sources,
Procne being the more impious of the two sisters.
Purgatorio Canto IX:1-33. The swallow sings its sad
songs in memory of the pain.
Purgatorio Canto XVII:1-39. The nightingale is
mentioned in the context of impiety, suggesting Procne. Procne killed Itys,
though Philomela immediately slit his throat, so that both committed an
impiety, but Procne more so, since it was her own child.
The daughter of
Demeter(Ceres), seized by Pluto(Dis) on the plain of Enna
in Sicily. Ceres-Demeter searched for her. Because Persephone had eaten food in
Hades, pomegranate seeds, she was allowed to return to earth for only six
months of the year, and spent the other six in Hell. The vegetation rituals of
Ceres-Demeter and Persephone formed the essence of the secret mysteries at
Eleusis. Persephone is one of the incarnations of the triple moon-goddess. (See
Skelton: ‘Diana in the leaves green, Luna who so bright doth sheen, Persephone
in Hell.’) See Ovid’s Metamorphoses V 376-564.
Inferno Canto X:73-93. Farinata mentions her moon-incarnation.
Purgatorio Canto XXVIII:1-51. Dante, seeing Matilda, recalls her.
Claudius
Ptolemaeus, fl.127-51 AD, codified astronomical knowledge in his work the Almagest. He was the authority throughout the Middle Ages. His earth-centred theory was
subsequently overturned by the heliocentric theory of Copernicus.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the group of
wise men in Limbo.
Ptolemy XII of
Egypt, overthrown by Caesar in 47BC.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
King of Tyre,
brother of Dido, who murdered her husband, their uncle, Sychaeus, out of greed for gold. See Virgil’s Aeneid i
350.
Purgatorio Canto XX:97-151. He is mentioned.
A Babylonian, who
in Ovid’s story (Metamorphoses IV 55-166) believes that a lion has killed his
lover Thisbe when he reaches their meeting place, He
kills himself, and then Thisbe, finding him, kills herself also. The mulberry
tree under which they were to meet has red fruit thereafter, its leaves and
roots being soaked with his blood. The story is one of true love, and
Shakespeare used it as a basis for the ending of Romeo and Juliet, despite his
unfortunate ridiculing of the story in The Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:1-45. The story is
mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto XXXIII:58-102. He is mentioned.
King of Epirus
(318-272BC) who campaigned against the Carthaginians in Sicily, and against the
Romans (his costly victory at Asculum led to the expression ‘a Pyrrhic
victory’) was defeated by the Romans under Curius Dentatus at Beneventum in
275BC.
Inferno Canto XII:100-139. He is in the seventh
circle, unless Pyrrhus the son of Achilles is
intended.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
Neoptolemus,
called Pyrrhus, who killed Priam and sacrificed Polyxena on Achilles’s grave.
Virgil stresses his cruelty in Aeneid ii 469.
Inferno Canto XII:100-139. He is placed in the
seventh circle unless the reference is to Pyrrhus, King
of Epirus.
Bishop of Mayence
(c766-856) compiled a cyclopaedia De Universo in twenty-two books, and
was in favour of orthodoxy to the point of unwitting heresy. He was a
Benedictine and pupil of Alcuin. He wrote voluminously, summarising ninth
century learning.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is in the Fourth
Sphere of the Sun.
The wife of Jacob in the Bible (Genesis 29), for whom he served Laban her
father seven years, and the sister of Leah. She is for
Dante the type of Contemplation. See Genesis xxix and xxx. Her New Testament
equivalent is Mary the sister of Martha. See Luke x 38-42.
Inferno Canto II:94-120. Beatrice is sitting with her. (Divine Philosophy sits with Contemplation)
Inferno Canto IV:1-63. Christ takes her spirit from Limbo into Paradise.
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:94-114. She is mentioned in Dante’s dream.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. She sits with Beatrice in
Heaven, below the Virgin, in the third rank. See
above.
The prostitute of
Jericho who helped Joshua’s spies. They in turn swore to
save her and her family (‘our life for yours’). She was told to fasten a
scarlet thread to her window so that she and her family could be identified at
the taking of the city. She was converted to the Israelite cause, and became a
symbol of the Church, the scarlet cord signifying the blood of Christ, and the
two spies the two Testaments. See Joshua ii and vi 23-25.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126. She is in the third sphere,
of Venus.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. He is shown with human form
though beyond the human. He helped Tobias to cure his father Tobit’s blindness.
See Apocrypha, Book of Tobit. His name means ‘God heals’. He is traditionally
identified with the Angel who stirred the waters of the pool of Bethesda, John
v 1-15.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
The wife of Isaac.
An ancestress of Christ. See Genesis.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. She is seated in Heaven,
below the Virgin.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:37-84. Dante refers to
Genesis xxv 22-27 where Jacob and Esau struggle in her womb, representing ‘two nations, and two manner of people’.
Jacob was a tent-dweller and Esau a hunter, a man of the field, representing
the ancient struggle between the raw and the cooked, civilisation and the wild,
and ‘the elder shall serve the younger’, the wild shall serve the civilised, at
the foundation of Jewish and Christian culture.
The ten tribes
revolted against Rehoboam, king of Israel, because he refused to lighten their
taxes. He fled to Jerusalem. See First Kings xii 1-18.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. He is depicted on the
roadway.
A converted
Saracen, the mythical brother-in-law of William of
Orange and his companion in battle, retiring with him to become a monk.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:1-57. He is in the Fifth Sphere
of Mars.
The sister of Saturn (Cronus) whom he married.
Inferno Canto XIV:73-120. He swallowed his children
to avoid them dethroning him. Enraged she bore Jupiter at night in Arcadia and he was carried to Crete and hidden in the cave of
Dicte. The armed Curetes (Corybantes) stood round his golden cradle clashing
weapons to hide his cries. She gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes
which he swallowed thinking it was Jupiter (Zeus).
The Augustinian
mystic (died 1173), and friend of Saint Bernard who
wrote a treatise called De Contemplatione.
Paradiso Canto X:130-148. He is in the fourth sphere
of Prudence.
A Trojan, who was
killed at the fall of Troy. Virgil in Aeneid ii 426 et seq. says ‘he the most
just of the Trojans, who never wavered from right, though the gods did not
recognise his righteousness.’
Dante connects
this incident with Acts x 34 ‘God is no respecter of persons, but in every
nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him.’
Paradiso Canto XX:1-72. He is in the sixth sphere of
Jupiter.
Paradiso Canto XX:73-148. Aquinas suggests that the good unbeliever will receive inspiration, or a teacher, from
God to achieve his conversion. This opens the door to the virtuous Pagans, but
note Paul’s weeping over Virgil’s tomb (traditionally), which suggests Virgil
could not be saved in this way. Dante struggled with the whole concept,
regarding its natural justice.
Robert, Duke of Calabria, afterwards King of Naples
The son of Charles II of Naples, and brother of Charles Martel. After Charles Martel’s early death,
Robert ousted the son Caroberto from the throne of Naples, in 1309 after the
date of the Vision. Robert and his brothers Louis and John were hostages in
Spain after the release of their father Charles in 1288 (see the entry for
Charles II) until 1295. Robert was accompanied back to Italy by certain greedy
Catalonian adventurers who he have office to when he succeeded to the throne of
Naples, and their greed made they and him detested in Apulia. He was
shipwrecked in 1301.
Paradiso Canto VIII:31-84.
Robert I, the son
of Hugh Capet, whom he succeeded in 996.
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. He is mentioned.
The sister of Ezzolino the tyrant. She was born in the castle of Romano
between Venice and the sources of the Brenta and Piave. She was famous for her
love affairs, had four husbands and many paramours, of whom Sordello was one. In 1265 (when she was about 67 years old) and the last survivor of her
father’s family, in the house of Cavalcante de’
Cavalcanti, she executed a deed of manumission liberating her father’s
serfs. She died in Florence in 1279 or 1280. Dante suggests she was a penitent.
Paradiso Canto IX:1-66. She is in the third Heaven of
those who yielded to earthly love.
See
Azzolino.
Romeo of
Villeneuve (1170-1250) was the seneschal, or chamberlain of Count Raymond Berenger IV of Provence, who died in 1245 leaving
his lands to his youngest daughter Beatrice,
whom he had made heiress under Romeo’s guardianship. According to the legend
Romeo (which simply means pilgrim) came to Raymond’s court, managed his
business, and arranged the marriages of Raymond’s four daughters. The Provençal
Barons persuaded Raymond to demand account of Romeo, at which he asked for his
mule, staff and scrip, and vanished, as poor as he had come. The story is
probably fable.
The eldest
daughter Margaret married Louis
IX of France, Eleanor married Henry III of England, Sancha married Richard of Cornwall, titular King of the Romans, and Beatrice, who
inherited, married Charles of Anjou, King of
Naples and Sicily, and, through her inheritance, King of Provence, in Dante’s
view a fitting revenge on the Provençal barons!
Paradiso Canto VI:112-142. He is in the second
sphere, of Mercury, and of those who were ambitious for honour.
A member of the
Onesti family of Ravenna. He was a monk of Camaldoli in the Casentino district,
who saw a vision of the heavenly ladder, and founded the Camaldolese Order, a
white-robed stricter branch of the Benedictines. He
died in 1027.
Paradiso Canto XXII:1-99. He is in the seventh
sphere.
The founder and
first king of Rome (the city was traditionally founded on 21st April 753BC,
Roman dates were recorded from the founding of the city, ab urbe condita).
He was the brother of Remus, and the son of Mars and Ilia,
called genitor, father, of the Roman people. The two brothers were
reared by a she-wolf. Romulus united the Latins and Sabines (‘The Rape of the
Sabine Women’) He was received into the company of the gods, as Quirinus and
worshipped by the Romans. The name Rome derives from the Etruscan gens ruma.
Paradiso Canto VIII:85-148. The type of a great man
born from obscure origins.
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. A demon guarding the eighth
circle, the fifth chasm, of the barrators.
Inferno Canto XXII:31-75. The other demons urge him
on.
The Emperor
(1273-1291) who served under Ottocar II, King of Bohemia (1253-1278), but asserted
his supremacy, when elected Emperor. Ottakar paid
homage, but refused to return Imperial lands, and died at the battle of the
Marchfeld near Vienna in 1278. Ottocar’s son Wenceslas II (1278-1305) (not the earlier king and Saint) was allowed to retain
Bohemia and Moravia, but had to give up Austria and Styria (Rudolph’s sons Albert and Rudolph were invested with these), Carinthia and
Carniola.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is one of the
negligent rulers.
Paradiso Canto VIII:31-84. His daughter Clemenz
married Charles Martel.
A Florentine who
was driven to immoral practices by an unhappy marriage.
Inferno Canto VI:64-93. Dante asks after him.
Inferno Canto XVI:1-45. He is in the seventh circle
for sodomy.
A Moabite woman,
the wife of Boaz, and great grandmother of David. See the
Book of Ruth.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. She is seated in Heaven,
below the Virgin.
Sabellius (3rd
century). The Sabellian heresy identified the Son with the Father as one Person
differing only in name. (It is later called Patripassianism ie. the Father
suffers, and Modalism)
Paradiso Canto XIII:91-142. He is mentioned.
Sabellus
Lucan,
in Pharsalia ix 763 and 790, tells of the two soldiers of Cato’s
army who were stung by snakes while marching across Libya. Sabellus melted,
while the other swelled.
Inferno Canto XXV:79-151. The story is mentioned.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
The Sultan or
Soldan, Salhad-din, 1137-1193 AD, the Kurdish founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty of
Egypt. He took Jerusalem in 1187AD, after defeating the Christians earlier at
the battle of The Horns of Hattin. He is Dante’s type of Islamic
nobility and magnificence. (See Scott’s ‘Ivanhoe’ for an image of how Saladin
was perceived in terms of chivalry.)
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. He is among the heroes and
heroines in Limbo.
The daughter of
Herodias, who was married to Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee, who was
therefore Salome’s stepfather. She danced before him and he granted her a
request. Her mother Herodias whom John the Baptist had reproved for marrying Herod, her previous husband Philip’s brother, took
her revenge by telling Salome to ask for his head. Herod reluctantly fulfilled
the wish, and Salome danced naked, holding the Baptist’s head on a dish. See
Mark vi 21-28.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:100-136. The incident is
alluded to.
A corrupt
political lawyer, exiled with Dante and the Whites in 1302.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. He is mentioned.
The leading
Ghibelline among the Sienese, at Montaperti, in 1260, where the Florentines
were defeated. He was the strongest advocate for the destruction of the city at
the subsequent council, held at Empoli, after the battle. He is said to have
once humbled himself by dressing as a beggar to procure the money to ransom a
friend imprisoned by Charles of Anjou. He was
defeated and killed at Colle, in Valdelsa, in June 1269, leading a mixed body
of Tuscan Ghibellines and foreign mercenaries. He was captured by French
cavalry under Guy de Montfort, and murdered by an
exiled Guelph of the Tolomei family. ‘Siena’s plain’ is the famous piazza known
as the Campo in front of the palace of the Commune.
Purgatorio Canto XI:73-117. Purgatorio
Canto XI:118-142. He is among the proud.
A woman of Samaria, who came to draw water
at the well, to whom Christ offered water, even though
the Jews and Samaritans had no dealings with each other. ‘Whosoever drinketh of
the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst.’ See John iv 7-15.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:1-33. She is mentioned.
The prophet. The
son of Elkanah and Hannah, called by God. See First Samuel iii.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. He exists with God in the
Empyrean.
Sannella, della of Florence
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
A noble lady of
Siena, the wife of Viviano dei Saracini, lord of Castiglioncello. She was on of
the Guelph exiles, at Colle in the Val d’Elsa, who watched the rout of the
Sienese Ghibellines, under Provenzan Salvani, who died
there, on June 11th 1269. In 1265 she had assisted her husband in founding a
hospice for travellers, and, after his death in 1269, gave his castle to the
commune of Siena. Piero Pettignano, a Franciscan, who
was beatified, prayed for her. The Sienese purchased the harbour of Talamone in
1303, for 8000 florins from the Abbot of San Salvatore, hoping to create a
viable port. Talamone is on the Tyrrhenian Sea, southwest of the Sienese
Maremma. It consumed vast sums of money, but could not be kept clear, and was
in an unhealthy area, which caused the death of a number of the admirals
(contractors) directing the dredging. Previously, in 1295, the Sienese had
spent money, searching, in vain, for the stream of Diana, that was supposed to
flow beneath the city.
Purgatorio Canto XIII:85-154. She is among the
envious in Purgatory.
She and her
husband Ananias sold possessions but kept back part of
the price when other followers of Christ sold everything and gave everything
into common ownership, to allow distribution according to need. They were
rebuked by Peter for hypocrisy and died. See Acts
iv 32-37 and V 1-11.
Purgatorio Canto XX:97-151. She is mentioned.
The wife of Abraham. An ancestress of Christ. See
Genesis.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. She is seated in Heaven,
below the Virgin.
King of Assyria,
the type of luxury.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. He is mentioned.
The rebellious
angel, identified with Dis, and with Lucifer ‘the son of morning’ (an incarnation
of Dionysus and the other consorts of the pre-Christian great Goddess, and
sharing her ‘star’ Venus) who was banished from Heaven for his pride, and in
his fall penetrated into the cavern of Hell, and threw up behind him the
Mountain of Purgatory. He tempted Christ in the wilderness, see Matthew iv.
Inferno Canto VIII:64-81. The city of Dis is his
city of the dead.
Inferno Canto XI:1-66. His throne is in the ninth, the
smallest circle, in the last ring, the Giudecca, of Cocytus.
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145. The poets are set down in
the Ninth Circle that swallowed him.
Inferno Canto XXXIV:1-54. Lucifer’s banners (his
wings) advance, in a parody of a Latin hymn by Fortunatus (6th century), Vexilla
regis prodeunt. His red, yellow and black faces indicate Hate,
Powerlessness, and Ignorance, contrasted to the attributes of the Holy Trinity,
namely Love, Power, and Wisdom. He is triple-faced as a representative of the
pagan triple-Goddess. The three winds produced by his wings are lust, pride and
avarice. He is identified with Dis.
Inferno Canto XXXIV:70-139. He is also called
Beelzebub. Virgil, carrying Dante, clambers downwards on Satan’s body, towards
his thighs, and then at the centre of the earth reverses. The poets now climb
again upwards, through a tunnel under the hemisphere of the earth opposite
Jerusalem, to emerge at the foot of the Mountain of Purgatory. They move from
evening to dawn of Easter Monday, since the opposite hemisphere is twelve hours
behind Jerusalem. The little stream, they climb up alongside, is Lethe, which
takes away the memory of sin and evil.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. He is depicted on the
roadway.
Paradiso Canto IX:127-142. Identified by Dante with Mars, the patron god of Florence.
Paradiso Canto XIX:1-90. He fell through desiring what
he did not have, and ought not to have, at that time: by anticipating knowledge
and God’s Will.
Paradiso Canto XXIX:1-66. Pride was the source of his
fall, and he is imprisoned at the base of the universe.
The son of heaven
and Earth and ruler of the Golden Age. He was dethroned by his three sons.
Warned of this he devoured his offspring at birth (see Goya’s painting of the
Giant) but Rhea hid Jupiter on Ida.
Inferno Canto XIV:73-120. He ruled Crete in the
Golden Age.
Paradiso Canto XXI:1-51. His was the Golden Age.
Saturn signifies duty, control and constriction in Astrology, and placed in the
fire-sign Leo, noted for its expansiveness, and pride, Dante indicates the need
for temperance and moderation, the one force balancing the other, in a golden
mean.
Paradiso Canto XXII:100-154. The father by Rhea of
Jupiter (and of Ceres-Demeter, Juno-Hera, Dis-Hades
and Neptune-Poseidon)
The son of Kish,
and the first King of Israel, anointed so by Samuel at
Mizpeh. See First Samuel. He was defeated by the Philistines at Mount Gilboa,
and fell on his sword. (First Samuel xxxi 1-4) David’s
lament on Saul says ‘Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let
there be rain upon you’ (Second Samuel i. 21)
Purgatorio Canto X:46-72. His daughter was Michal.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. He is depicted on the
roadway.
Paradiso Canto IV:64-114. Caius Mucius Scaevola, an
early Roman who demonstrated the strength of will of the Roman people, and
their disregard for their own lives, to his enemies, by setting his right hand
in the coals. He had penetrated the enemy lines to kill Lars Porsena, King of
Clusium, but killed the king’s secretary sitting beside him instead. He was
afterwards called Scaevola, ‘left-handed’. He signifies constancy in later art.
See Livy 2:12-13.
Lord of Verona,
and father of Can Grande della Scala, he died the
year after the Vision in 1301, having appointed his deformed and depraved, illegitimate
son Guiseppe to the abbacy of San Zeno.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:112-145. He is mentioned.
Lord of Verona,
his arms a ladder surmounted by the imperial eagle. Dante took refuge with him
sometime between the summer of 1302 and Bartolommeo’s death in March 1304.
Paradiso Canto XVII:1-99. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto I:61-99. Francesco (1291-1329), probably
the ‘Greyhound’ of Canto I, Dante’s patron at Verona to whom Paradiso was
dedicated and who sheltered him from 1316. He received the last thirteen Cantos
of Paradiso, left unfinished at Dante’s death, from Dante’s son Jacopo. He
was born in Verona (between Feltre in Venetia and Montefeltro in Romagna see Canto I). He became lord of Verona in 1311, was an Imperial Vicar, and in 1318
the head of the Ghibelline party. He was an art patron, and kept a civilised
and stately court. His elder brother was Bartolommeo,
who Dante took refuge with around 1303. Can Grande was one of the great
military men of his age. In 1311 he showed his mettle by recovering Brescia and
taking Vicenza.
Paradiso Canto XVII:1-99. He is mentioned as being
nine years old (nine years and one month in April 1300).
The illegitimate,
deformed, and depraved son of Alberto della Scala
who held the abbacy of San Zeno from 1291 to 1314. Dante may have known him
during his stay in Verona in 1303-4.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:112-145. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. A demon guarding the eighth
circle, the fifth chasm, of the barrators.
A Florentine of
the Cavalcanti family, known for his powers of mimicry. He was induced by Buoso Donati’s son, Simone, to impersonate his dead
father and dictate a will in his favour, acquiring, in the process, the
beautiful mare known as the donna della torma, the Lady of the Herd.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. He is a rabid spirit in the
tenth chasm.
Puccio Sciancato,
‘The Lame’, de’ Galigai. A noble Florentine, and a thief.
Inferno Canto XXV:79-151. He is in the eighth circle.
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145. Publius Cornelius Scipio,
who conquered Hannibal at the battle of Zama near Carthage
in 202 BC. He received the title Africanus. He opposed the razing of Carthage
in 146 BC when the Carthaginian survivors of the Third Punic War were sold into
slavery. He was ultimately accused of high treason by Cato the Elder, the
censor, and others, and died in self-imposed exile in 183 BC.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:106-132. His Triumph is
mentioned.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
The son of Marzucco, whose father showed great fortitude
when his son was murdered by pardoning the murderers.
Purgatorio Canto VI:1-24. He is with the late-repentant.
The father of Farinata who showed great fortitude when his
son was murdered, by pardoning the murderers. He was a Pisan noble who became a
Franciscan friar.
Purgatorio Canto VI:1-24. He is mentioned.
Michael Scot of
Balwearie (c1109-1250) studied at Oxford, Paris and Toledo. He followed the
Emperor Frederick II to his court, though he died
in Scotland. He was a translator of Aristotle, and a
famous astrologer.
Inferno Canto XX:100-130. He is in the eighth circle.
Inferno Canto XVII:31-78. A Paduan usurer, said to
have been the father of Enrico who had the Madonna of the Arena built at Padua
(c1303) and was painted by Giotto, offering up a model of
the chapel, in Giotto’s fresco of the Last Judgement. The family arms were ‘an
azure sow on field argent’.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. The daughter of Cadmus of Thebes, loved by Jupiter,
and destroyed by Juno who tricked her into asking Jupiter
to make love to her in the guise in which he made love to Juno herself. His
divine fire killed Semele. Their child was the ‘twice born’ Dionysus-Bacchus.
See Ovid’s Metamorphoses II 261.
Paradiso Canto XXI:1-51. She is mentioned.
Sammuramat, Queen
of the New Assyrian Empire, ruled 810-805 BC, whose policies were successful during
the minority of her son Abadnirari III. She was supposed to have succeeded her
husband Shamshi-Adad V, Ninus, (according to Orosius).
Though Dante is correct in believing that the Assyrians held Egypt (the
Soldan’s land) it was not till much later under Esarhaddon. She surrounded
Babylon with brick walls, and was the ancestress of Polydaemon. Ovid in the Metamorphoses links her to the Babylonian goddess Dercetis worshipped in
Syria as Atargatis, who was half-woman and half-fish and identified with
Aphrodite by the Greeks. Semiramis was her daughter, and was said to have been
cast out at birth, and tended by doves. Fish and doves were sacred to Dercetis
who was the consort of the Babylonian great god Adad.
Inferno Canto V:52-72. Dante takes her as a type of
licentiousness, has her ruler of Egypt (the Sultan’s land) and has her rule
over many languages, presumably a reference to Babylon’s identification with
the Tower of Babel.
Lucius Annaeus
Seneca, the Roman philosopher, moralist and senator, d.65 AD. He was a member
of Zeno’s Stoic school, and tutor to the Emperor
Nero who drove him to commit suicide.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the group of
wise men in Limbo.
King of Assyria
was defeated by Hezekiah, King of Judah and killed by his own sons. See Second
Kings xix 37.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. He is depicted on the
roadway.
Saint Sixtus or
Sextus I, Pope (115-125).
Paradiso Canto XXVII:1-66. He died for the faith.
Paradiso Canto XXXIII:49-145. The Sibyl at Cumae,
the oracular voice of Apollo, wrote her oracles on
leaves, which the wind scattered. See Aeneid iii 441 and vi 74.
The husband of Dido, and a Phoenician of Sidon, whom his brother, Pygmalion King of Tyre, killed, out of greed for gold.
Roused by a vision of the dead Sychaeus, Dido fled from Sidon and founded
Carthage in North Africa. See Virgil’s Aeneid I 340.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126 Dido’s love for Aeneas wrongs the memory of Sychaeus. See Virgil’s Aeneid I
720.
Sigier (d. c.
1283) a professor in the University of Paris, where the ‘straw-littered’ Rue du
Fouarre ran close to the river in the Latin Quarter, and was the centre of the
Arts Schools at Paris. He disputed with the mendicant orders, and Aquinas was one of his opponents. He was driven from
his University chair, and was assassinated, or executed, at the papal Court at
Orvieto.
Paradiso Canto X:130-148. He is in the fourth sphere
of Prudence.
The Guelph, Fazio de’
Mori Ubaldini da Signa, held several Florentine offices from 1310 inwards. He
was a fierce opponent of the Whites.
Paradiso Canto XVI:46-87. He is mentioned.
Simon of Samaria
(Simon the Sorcerer) who was rebuked by Saint Peter for thinking that ‘the gift of God may be purchased with money’ in Acts viii
9-24. The Simonists or Simoniacs, guilty of trading in holy offices, derive
their name from him.
Inferno Canto XIX:1-30. They are punished in the
eighth circle.
Paradiso Canto XXX:97-148. He is mentioned.
The Greek lyric
poet (c556-467BC).
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. He is in Limbo.
A Greek, who
allowed himself to be captured by the Trojans, and lied to them, convincing
them to admit the Wooden Horse into Troy.
See Homer’s Iliad
and Virgil’s Aeneid ii 57 et seq. (Dante, as a Tuscan considers himself of
Trojan descent and opposed to the Greeks.)
Inferno Canto XXX:91-129. He is in the tenth chasm.
Purgatorio Canto XIX:1-36. The Sirens were the daughters
of Acheloüs, companions of Proserpine, who were
changed to birds in order to search for her over the seas. They inhabited three
small rocky islands off Campania from which they lured sailors to destruction
by their sweet songs. They had the heads of women and the bodies of birds. They
lured Ulysses’s sailors towards them. He resisted by
having his ears plugged with wax, and having himself tied to the mast.
See Homer’s Odyssey XII, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, V 552 and XIV 88.
Purgatorio Canto XXXI:43-69. The Siren is
mentioned, as the voice of temptation.
Paradiso Canto XII:1-36. They are mentioned.
See Ugolino.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
The Greek
philosopher, 470?-399BC. He was born after the Persian defeat at Platea in 479,
and in the flowering of Athenian splendour. His greatest pupil was Plato who in his dialogues portrays Socrates critical and
analytical style of philosophy. Socrates fought at Potidaea and in other
actions of the Peloponnesian War with Sparta. His philosophy according to Plato
was noted for his use of inductive arguments and the search for universal
definitions, and his use of the conversational ‘dialectic’ to explore ideas. He
died in prison, after drinking hemlock, being charged with the corruption of
the State. See Plato, The Apology, Crito, etc.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the
philosophers in Limbo.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
Gianni was a
Ghibelline who nevertheless became leader of the Guelph commons of Florence,
when they rebelled against the government of Guido Novello, and the Ghibelline
nobles after Manfred’s defeat at Benevento in 1265.
Inferno Canto XXXII:70-123. He is in the Ninth
Circle.
The King of
Israel, son of David and Bathsheba, so wise, before
Christianity, that there was a debate, here resolved, as to whether as a Jew he
was damned or saved. See First Kings iii 12.
Paradiso Canto X:100-129. He is in the fourth sphere
of Prudence.
Paradiso Canto XIII:1-51. He is unequalled in earthly
wisdom, ‘the understanding heart’.
Paradiso Canto XIII:91-142. He chose as his gift,
practical Wisdom. See First Kings iii 5-15.
Appointed Archon
of Athens in 594BC and given dictatorial powers to serve as ‘conciliator’. He
made laws that brought about the emancipation of the individual, who became a
member of the polity rather than his clan, and promoted trades and crafts. The
laws were codified and each citizen was allowed to bring his case to court. The
peasants were emancipated and the aristocracy curtailed. The Constitution was
reformed providing for a Popular Assembly and Court elected by the people (in
cross-class phyles) who also elected their Council of 400. The Archons and
Treasurer were elected from the members of the first class by the Popular
Assembly. The new laws unfortunately created internal division.
Paradiso Canto VIII:85-148. He is an archetypal
lawgiver.
Sordello, the
poet, was born at Goito near Mantua c1200, and wrote in the Provençal language.
He carried on an affair with Cunizza da Romano, Ezzelino III’s sister, and wife of Count Ricciardo di San
Bonifazio, while staying at Treviso, and was obliged to flee to Provence in
1229. Sordello had abducted her for political reasons at her brother’s request.
He returned in 1265 as a knight in the service of Charles
of Anjou, and received possessions in the Kingdom of Naples. He died a
violent death some time after June 1269. His finest poem, written about 1240,
is a planh (lament) on the death of Blacatz, a Provençal baron, in the
service of Count Raymond Berenger IV, in which her
rebukes the kings and princes of Europe, and tells them to eat the dead man’s
heart, and be inspired to valiant action. Sordello inspires Dante to a similar
invective.
Purgatorio Canto VI:49-75. He is one of the
late-repentant.
The monstrous
daughter of Typhon and Echidne with woman’s head,
lion’s body, serpent’s tail, and eagle’s wings.Themis was
the goddess of Justice, daughter of Heaven and Earth, with oracular powers, and
the Sphinx was her oracular priestess, who set Oedipus the famous riddle ‘ What goes on four legs in the morning, two at midday, and
three in the evening?’ which he answered correctly with ‘Mankind’. Themis in
anger at the riddle being solved sent a wild beast to ravage the countryside.
Dante says Naiades, instead of Laiades for Oedipus the son of
Laius, following a textual corruption of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (corrected by
Heinsius) in VII 759 et al where the story is referred to.
Purgatorio Canto XXXIII:1-57. She is mentioned.
The poet Publius
Papinius Statius, born at Naples c50AD, not Toulouse, and died there c96AD. He
lived at Rome in Vespasian’s and Domitian’s reigns, and dedicated his Thebaid to the latter, an epic about the War of the Seven against Thebes. His Achilleid,
dealing with the Trojan War, was left unfinished. His shorter poems the Silvae were unknown to Dante.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:76-136. He accompanies the Poets
through the rest of Purgatory.
Purgatorio Canto XV:82-145. The first Christian
Martyr who was stoned to death. See Acts vii 54-60.
Stephen Ouros II
(1275-1321) of Servia, called Rascia from its capital. He issued counterfeit
Venetian coins.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He is held as an example
of poor kingship.
A member of the Brigata
Spendereccia, the Spendthrift Brigade, a club founded by twelve wealthy
Sienese, in the second half of the thirteenth century, who vied with each other
in squandering their money on riotous living. Stricca was a noted spendthrift.
Inferno Canto XXIX:121-139. He is in the tenth
chasm.
Inferno Canto XIX:88-133. The Pope, Sylvester I, who
according to the forged document of the Middle Ages called the Donation of Constantine, received temporal power in Italy from the
Emperor Constantine. Dante regarded this as a fatal confusion of the temporal
and spiritual spheres.
Inferno Canto XXVII:58-136. He lived on Mount
Soracte, and was summoned by Constantine, to cure his leprosy.
He was a priest of
Assisi, a kinsman of Saint Clare, and the only ecclesiastic
among the first Franciscans. He is supposed to have tried to cheat Francis over
some stone for his church, and was overcome by his unworldly generosity.
Paradiso Canto XI:43-117. He is mentioned.
See Siren.
Purgatorio Canto XXXII:64-99. Mercury lulled Argus, by telling her tale. She was pursued by Pan, and
turned into a reed. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses i 568 et seq.
The mythical
husband of Dido, Queen of Carthage. See Virgil’s
Aeneid.
Inferno Canto V:52-72. He is referred to as Dido’s husband.
Taddeo (Thaddeus)
was a writer on medicine who made a poor translation of Aristotle’s Ethics into Italian. He died in 1303.
Paradiso Canto XII:37-105. He is mentioned.
The head of the Ghibellines in Arezzo, who drowned in the
Arno, while pursuing or being pursued by the Bostoli, a family of exiled
Aretine Guelphs who had taken refuge in the Castel di Rondine, after the battle
of Campaldino in 1289.
Purgatorio Canto VI:1-24. He is with the
late-repentant.
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. The second of the two
Etruscan Kings of Rome of that name, Tarquin the Tyrant, Tarquinius Superbus,
who was expelled from Rome in a rising led by Junius
Brutus in 510BC.
The son of Ulysses.
Inferno Canto XXVI:85-142. He is mentioned
indirectly.
The Roman
playwright and comic poet (195-159BC).
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. He is in Limbo.
Inferno Canto XVIII:100-136. A character in Terence’s play Eunuchus. Thraso, her lover, sent her a
slave girl as a present by his servant Gnaso, and when asked she gave this
flattering reply via Gnaso. Cicero quotes it in De
Amicitia 38. Dante turns it into direct question and answer.
The pre-Socratic
Greek philosopher of Miletus. He is said to have died shortly before the fall
of Sardis in 546/5 BC. The early scientific work ascribed to him included an
almanac and the introduction of the Phoenician practice of navigating by Ursa
Minor, the Little Bear. He postulated a primary element of matter, and chose water.
He therefore raised the issue of the One and the Many, and is the first
individual philosopher of Ionia, the cradle of Western thought.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the
philosophers in Limbo.
Themis was the
goddess of Justice, daughter of Heaven and Earth, with oracular powers. The Sphinx was her oracular priestess, who set Oedipus the famous riddle ‘ What goes on four legs in the morning, two at midday, and
three in the evening?’ which he answered correctly with ‘Mankind’. Themis in
anger at the riddle being solved sent a wild beast to ravage the countryside.
Dante says Naiades, instead of Laiades for Oedipus the son of
Laius, following a textual corruption of Ovid’s Metamorphoses VII 759 et al
where the story is referred to.
Purgatorio Canto XXXIII:1-57. She is mentioned.
Legendary king of
Athens who killed the Minotaur, aided by Ariadne the daughter of King Minos of
Crete. He also made an unsuccessful attempt to rescue Proserpine.
He was punished, by being placed in Hades, and, in the version of myth Dante
follows, was rescued by Hercules.
Inferno Canto IX:34-63. The Furies seek a fuller revenge than they were able to take on Theseus, for his attempted
rescue of Persephone.
Inferno Canto XII:1-27. The killer of the Minotaur.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:100-154. He was present at
the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs.
The sea goddess,
the daughter of Nereus and Doris. The wife of Peleus, and
mother of Achilles.
Purgatorio Canto IX:34-63. She hid her son Achilles on Scyros to try and save him from his fate at
Troy.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. She is in Limbo. One
of the people celebrated by Statius in his epic poetry.
Teobaldo II,
Thibaut V Count of Champagne, King of Navarre (1253-1270), son of the poet-king
Thibaut I mentioned by Dante in his De Vulgari Eloquentia.
Inferno Canto XXII:31-75. He is Ciampolo’s
master.
A Babylonian girl,
who in Ovid’s story (Metamorphoses IV 55-166) kills herself, when she finds
that Pyramus, her lover, has, in turn, killed himself.
He wrongly believes that a lion has savaged and taken her, on reaching their
meeting place. The mulberry tree under which they were to meet has red fruit
thereafter, its leaves and roots being soaked with his blood. The story is one
of true love, and Shakespeare used it as a basis for the ending of Romeo and
Juliet, despite his unfortunate ridiculing of the story in The Midsummer
Night’s Dream.
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:1-45. The story is
mentioned.
Didymus ‘twin’,
doubting Thomas, the apostle who needed physical verification of the
resurrection. (See Verrochio’s wonderful bronze in Florence which Leonardo may
have had a hand in.)
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned. His feast day
is December 21st.
The ‘Angelic
Doctor’ of theology, and medieval philosopher (c1225-1274). He entered the Dominican order, and sought to achieve a synthesis between
Aristotelian philosophy and Christian thought. There was an erroneous
tradition that he was poisoned in the Abbey of Fossanuova, at the instigation
of Charles of Anjou, while travelling to the
Council of Lyons in 1274.
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. His death is mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:115-154. He recommended
sobriety to women and young people, quoting Valerius Maximus II i. 3 ‘Vini
usus olim romanis feminis ignotus fuit: the use of wine was once unknown to
young Roman women.’
Paradiso Canto X:64-99. He is in the fourth sphere of
Prudence. He was the pupil of Albertus Magnus, and with
him ‘christianised’ Aristotle. Aquinas completed the
work in Summa contra Gentiles, and Summa Theologica. A man of
sweetness and holiness he was canonized in 1323, two years after Dante’s death,
and influenced Dante greatly.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. Paradiso
Canto XII:106-145. He is mentioned.
The third Caesar
(14-37AD) in whose reign Christ was crucified. He
campaigned against the German tribes. He stifled the conspiracy of Sejanus, who
was executed, and, embittered, retired to Capri in 27AD and died at Misenum.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
The Theban seer.
He spent seven years in the form of a woman after striking a pair of coupling
snakes. On striking them again he was changed back. He was therefore called
upon, by Jupiter, to judge an argument, between himself and Juno, as to whether
men or women get the most pleasure from lovemaking. Deciding in favour of
women, and so Jupiter, Juno struck him blind, Jupiter giving him the power of
prophecy to compensate for his blindness.
See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses III 324-332.
Inferno Canto XX:31-51. He is in the eighth circle.
The son of
Laomedon, and husband of Aurora, the goddess of the dawn.
His wife gained eternal life for him, but not eternal youth. Dante makes the
lunar aurora his mistress, while the solar aurora is his wife. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses IX 421.
Purgatorio Canto IX:1-33. He is mentioned.
The Roman Emperor
(79-81 AD), son of Vespasian, who captured Jerusalem and destroyed and looted
the Temple in 70AD. The eruption of Pompeii occurred in his reign.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:76-136. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history. Dante’ views him as having revenged the death of Christ, which was in turn God’s vengeance on Mankind for the
sin of the Fall.
A Giant, hurled
into Tartarus beneath Mount Etna, by Jupiter.
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145. He helps guard the
central pit.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. The Archangel Raphael helped his son Tobias to cure his blindness. See O.T. Apocrypha, the Book of
Tobit.
The Scythian queen
whose son was murdered by Cyrus, the Persian King, and who
in turn murdered Cyrus, throwing his head into a cauldron of blood, saying ‘Satia
te sanguine quem sitisti cuius per annos triginta insatiabilis perseverasti’
‘Be sated with the blood you thirsted for, that you insatiably persisted in
drinking for thirty years.’ (Orosius ii 7, ch 6).
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. She is depicted on the
roadway.
Titus Manlius
Torquatus ,dictator and consul 353-340BC.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of
Imperial history.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned indirectly.
Adopted Emperor
(98-117AD), after the mutiny of the Praetorian Guard (97). The first Emperor of
Provincial origin. He was given the title Optimus by the Senate in 117.
He oversaw the greatest extent of the Roman Empire, conquering Dacia, Armenia,
Assyria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. Dante gives the popular story of Trajan and
the widow derived from the Fiore di Filosofi. Pope Gregory supposedly interceded on his behalf through prayer, to bring about Trajan’s
deliverance from hell, to allow him time for repentance.
Purgatorio Canto X:73-96. The story is depicted on the
frieze.
Paradiso Canto XX:1-72. He is in the sixth sphere of
Jupiter.
Paradiso Canto XX:73-148. He returned from hell to his
body at Gregory’s intercession which was predestined and then was saved
at the second death.
A Ghibelline of
Ravenna, (c1145-1225), and the most distinguished member of the Traversara
family. He was repeatedly Podestà of Ravenna. From a family of noble
Ghibellines, Pier’s son Paolo turned Guelph on his father’s death, and the
family influence declined until the Traversari were virtually extinct by 1300.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. He is mentioned.
One of the
Zambrasi of Faenza who had a spite against the Ghibelline Lambertazzi, a
Bolognese family, opened the gate to their enemies, the Geremei, a Bolognese
Guelph family, after the Lambertazzi had taken refuge in Faenza in 1280.
Inferno Canto XXXII:70-123. He is in the Ninth
Circle.
The legendary
lover of Isolde (Iseult) in the Medieval stories centred around King Arthur. The type of the great lover. (See Gottfried Von
Strassburg’s Tristan). He was Tristan of Lyonesse, one of King Arthur’s knights
who loved Iseult (Yseult) the wife of King Mark of Cornwall, who subsequently
killed him.
Inferno Canto V:52-72. He is a carnal sinner in Limbo.
Marcus Tullius
Cicero, 106-43BC, the Roman orator and statesman, born at Arpinum of a wealthy
family. He was elected Consul in 63BC, and supported Pompey.
His writings were influential on medieval thinking.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the group of
wise men in Limbo.
Inferno Canto I:100-111. The young king of the
Rutulians, an Italian people with their capital at Ardea, south of Rome, not
far from modern Anzio. His death at the hands of Aeneas is described in Book XII of the Aeneid and concludes the work. Also see Ovid,
The Metamorphoses Book XV. Aeneas married Lavinia,
Turnus’s intended bride.
He killed
Menalippus, in the war of the Seven against Thebes, though mortally wounded by
him. When Menalippus’s head was brought to him he gnawed at the skull, in a
frenzy of rage. See Statius, The Thebaid viii.
Inferno Canto XXXII:70-123. He is mentioned.
A Giant, hurled
into Tartarus beneath Mount Etna, by Jupiter.
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145. He helps guard the
central pit.
Paradiso Canto VIII:31-84. He is mentioned in
connection with Sicily.
Cardinal
Ottiaviano degli Ubaldini who died in 1273 was known simply as ‘the Cardinal’.
He is reported to have rejoiced at the outcome of Montaperti, the only one at
the Papal Court to do so, and to have said: ‘If I have a soul, I have lost it a
thousand times over on behalf of the Ghibellines.’ The Ghibellines were often
unfairly accused of heresy for political reasons. Dante seems to assess
individuals purely on spiritual grounds.
Inferno Canto X:94-136. He is among the heretics in the
Sixth Circle.
In 1288 Ugolino
della Gherardesca A leading Guelph of Pisa, who led
one party while his grandson Nino de’ Visconti led
the other, intrigued with Ruggieri, the Archbishop, the nephew of Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, and leader of the
Ghibellines in Pisa, who was supported by the Lanfranchi, Sismondi, Gualandi and other
families, and Nino was expelled. The Archbishop however betrayed him and had
Ugolino and four of his sons and grandsons (his sons were Gaddo, and Uguccione,
his grandsons Nino, called Brigata, and Anselmuccio or ‘little Anselm’)
imprisoned in the Torre dei Gualandi in July 1288. When Guido da Montefeltro took command of the Pisan
forces, in March 1289, the keys were thrown into the river Arno and the
prisoners left to starve to death, even a priest being denied them. The tower
was known afterwards as the Torre della Fame, the Tower of Famine. (See
Blake’s tempera illustration ‘Ugolino with his sons and grandsons in Prison’,
Private Collection.) Ugolino had previously acquired a reputation by the
surrender of certain castles to the Florentine and Lucchese after the defeat of
the Pisans by the Genoese at Meloria in 1284. (The islands of Caprara and
Gorgona mentioned, north-west of Elba, and south-west of Livorno respectively,
were held by Pisa at the time.)
Inferno Canto XXXIII:1-90. He is in the Ninth
Circle.
A member of the
Tuscan Ghibelline family, and brother to Cardinal Ottaviano,
father of Archbishop Ruggieri of Pisa, and
uncle of Ugolino d’Azzo.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:1-33. He is among the
gluttonous.
A wealthy nobleman
of Faenza. He married Beatrice Lanzia the daughter of Provenzan
Salvani and died in 1293 at a great age.
Bishop of Gubbio
1160, selected a hermitage site on the mountain nearby, but was unable ever to
retire there.
Paradiso Canto XI:43-117. He is mentioned.
Inferno Canto XVII:31-78. The Florentine Ubbriachi
family were Ghibellines. Their arms were ‘a goose argent upon field gules’.
The head of the
Uberti clan from 1239, who supported the Ghibellines, Dante’s party,
annihilated the Florentine Guelfs at the battle of Montaperti (a village near
Siena, no a hill near the River Arbia) on September 4th 1260. Farinata opposed
the destruction of Florence urged by the Sienese, and Pisans, but after the
final triumph of the Guelfs in 1266, the family were excluded from amnesty, and
banished forever. When Arnolfo di Cambio built the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence
he was forbidden to build where the rebel Uberti houses had stood. Farinata
died around 1264.
Inferno Canto X:22-51. Farinata is in the Sixth Circle
as a heretic, and recalls the overthrow of his Guelf enemies in 1248 and 1260,
and their return in 1251 and 1266. The Uberti were forbidden to return, even
after the pacification in 1280.
Inferno Canto X:73-93. He prophesies Dante’s failed
attempt to return from exile, and then explains the knowledge the dead have of
the world above, having prophetic vision, but unable to see things that
actually happen, once they are dead.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. The family and its pride
mentioned.
Ubertino
(1259-1138) leader of the Spirituals, the party of strict observance
within the Franciscan Order.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is mentioned.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
Hugo of
Brandenburg, Imperial Vicar of Tuscany for Otho III, died on Saint Thomas’s day. He had created many knights of
the families who all retained his coat of arms (barry white and red with divers
charges). The Della Bella had a gold border to the arms.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned.
See Ugolino.
The Greek hero,
from Ithaca, the son of Laërtes ( or by repute Sisyphus, and the great-grandson
of Mercury through his mother Anticlea, daughter of the thief Autolycus. He was
noted for his cunning and intelligence. See Homer The Iliad, and The Odyssey,
and Ovid’s Metamorphoses XIII and XIV. He discovered Achilles hiding on Scyros, where his mother Thetis had concealed
him, at the court of Lycomedes, and took him to the Trojan War. Deidamia fell in love with him , and bore him a son, and
died of grief when he left. Ulysses stole the Palladium, a wooden statue of
Pallas Athene, the safety of which guaranteed the safety of Troy, and he
invented the Trojan Horse, by which the Greeks entered Troy. However Troy’s
destruction led to Aeneas’s wanderings and the later
founding of Rome, by Romulus. Dante is in that sense a
Trojan descended from Aeneas, and therefore hostile to Greeks, and vice versa.
Inferno Canto XXVI:43-84. He is in the eighth
circle, eighth chasm.
Inferno Canto XXVI:85-142. He makes a last voyage,
Of Dante’s invention, to the Mount of Purgatory, in the southern hemisphere,
via Gibraltar and the Atlantic, where he is wrecked.
Purgatorio Canto XIX:1-36. The Siren’s
song seduced his sailors, and drove his ship off course. He resisted by having
himself tied to the mast, and filling his ears with wax. See Homer’s Odyssey
XII.
Paradiso Canto XXVII:67-96. His voyage beyond Cadiz
is mentioned.
One of the Nine
Muses, the mother of Linus the poet by Apollo (though some say otherwise). She was later the Muse
of Astronomy, and heavenly things, including the music of the spheres.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:37-61. Dante invokes her aid.
Saint Urban I,
Pope (222-230 AD).
Paradiso Canto XXVII:1-66. He died for the faith.
Purgatorio Canto X:46-72. Uzzah is referred to
indirectly. He was the son of Abinadab who, when King David danced before the Ark of the Covenant, put his hand out to steady it, because
the oxen shook it, and God struck him down, and he died there. See Second
Samuel vi 6.
See Lizio.
Publius Terentius
Varro Atacinus, the Roman author of epics and satires (82-36BC)
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. He is in Limbo.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. One of the ancient Guelph
families. The Vecchio.
The daughter of Jupiter and Dione, and the goddess of Love. As Cytherea she
sprang from the sea-foam near that Aegean island. (See Botticelli’s painting
The Birth of Venus, Uffizi Gallery, Florence). She is the mother of Cupid,
mother of Aeneas by Anchises,
lover of Mars and Adonis, and the dove is her sacred bird.
As the planet Venus, she is the morning and evening star, and an incarnation of
Ashtaroth, or Ishtar, the Assyro-Babylonian goddess. Her attributes, assumed
from that goddess, were inherited by the Virgin Mary.
She is stella maris, the star of the sea etc.
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:94-114. The planet is
called, Cytherea.
Purgatorio Canto XXVIII:52-138.Cupid accidentally
wounded her, making her fall in love with Adonis. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses X
524-735.
Paradiso Canto VIII:1-30. She is called the Cyprian,
the island of Cyprus being sacred to her. Dione is her
mother, Cupid her son.
Paradiso Canto XXII:100-154. Dione’s daughter.
Saint Veronica
gave her handkerchief to Christ to wipe his brow as he
carried the Cross, and when he returned it to her it was said to carry the
imprint of his features. It was exhibited at Rome each year at New Year and
Easter.
Paradiso Canto XXXI:94-142. It is mentioned.
Vigne, Piero delle
Chancellor of the
Two Sicilies, and minister to the Emperor Frederick II. (c1190-1249) He recast
the laws, and was in Frederick’s confidence until 1247, when he was accused of
plotting with Pope Innocent IV, was blinded, and imprisoned, subsequently
committing suicide. He was born in poverty in Capua. He was a poet, and said to
have composed the first Italian sonnet. He was compared, at the height of his
power, to St Peter, holding the keys of punishment
and mercy.
Inferno Canto XIII:31-78. He is in the seventh
circle.
Publius Vergilius
Maro, the Roman poet, born at Andes near Mantua 70BC, author of the Aeneid, and
Dante’s guide from Inferno I to Purgatorio XXX. Julius Caesar died too early to
be his patron, in 44BC.He is the type of Human Philosophy, which guides the
mind from unworthiness to bliss. Virgil wrote the pastoral Eclogues, the
philosophic Georgics, and the epic Aeneid, based on models provided by
Theocritus, Hesiod and Homer. He died 19BC and was buried at Naples. The
Aeneid, the story of Aeneas, provided the link to Dante between the Greek world
of Homer and Troy, and the Roman Empire.
Inferno Canto I:61-99. He meets Dante and becomes his
guide. His position is amongst the virtuous pagans, and he must turn back from
Paradise.
Inferno Canto XIII:31-78. In Aeneid iii 22, Virgil
gives the episode of Polydorus from which Dante developed the wood of suicides.
Purgatorio Canto III:1-45. Virgil’s biographers,
Suetonius and Donatus, record that Augustus ordered
Virgil’s body moved from Brindisi (Brundisium) in southeast Italy, where he
died on an abortive journey to Greece, back to Naples (Parthenope). In La Pia’s words to Dante there is an echo of the lines on
Virgil’s tomb, at Naples, ‘MANTUA ME GENUIT, CALABRI RAPUERE, TENET NUNC
PARTHENOPE : CECINI PASCUA, RURA, DUCES.’ ‘Mantua bore me, Calabria took
me, Naples holds me: I sang of pastures, farms, and heroes.’
Purgatorio Canto VI 25-48. See Aeneid vi 372 where Aeneas, in the underworld, guided by the Sibyl,
meets his pilot Palinurus, who, drowned at sea, and not properly buried, cannot
cross the Acheron for a hundred years. He entreats Aeneas to carry him across,
at which the Sibyl tells him: ‘Cease to imagine that divine decree can be
altered by prayer.’ Virgil explains that the words were uttered in a Pagan
world, where Christian prayer had as yet no efficacy, since they were not
uttered from a state of grace.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:25-54. Statius refers to the
lines from the Aeneid iii 56-57: ‘quid non mortalia pectora cogis Auri sacra
fames: why do you not drive the human heart, accursed greed for gold?’
Though Statius suffers for his prodigality, not avarice, he was alerted to his
sin by all the dimensions of the power of gold.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:55-93. Statius refers to Virgil’s Eclogue iv 5-7, The Golden Age renews. (‘Iam nova
progenies caelo demittitur alto: Now a new race descends from the high
heavens.’)
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:115-142. He speaks to
Dante for the last time, is still present, but silent, in Canto XXIX 55-56, and
Dante mourns his loss in Canto XXX 46-59. He crowns Dante as king and bishop
over himself i.e. Dante is beyond earthly temporal and spiritual power and in
the primal realm beyond the worldly institutions of Empire and Church.
Purgatorio Canto XXX:1-48. Those in the chariot
repeat words from Aeneid vi 884, ‘Manibus o date lilia plenis: Give
lilies from full hands! I too shall scatter scarlet flowers...’ the words said
by Anchises regarding the funeral of Iulus (Ascanius)
his grandson.
Purgatorio Canto XXX:49-81. Just prior to the
appearance of Beatrice, Dante’s guide in
Paradise, Virgil, has turned back towards Limbo, his guidance no longer needed,
or possible. Dante’s last words directed towards him, though he has already
departed, are a quotation from his own Aeneid.
He married Beatrice d’Este, after the death of her first husband Nino de’ Visconti of Pisa. His arms were a viper.
Purgatorio Canto VIII:46-84. He is alluded to.
Nino Visconti of
Pisa, judge of Gallura, one of the four jurisdictions of Sardinia (Cagliari,
Logodoro, Gallura, and Arborea) which belonged at the time to Pisa. He hanged
Friar Gomita who took bribes to release prisoners etc. He
married Beatrice d’Este, daughter of Obizzo d’Este II of Ferrara, by whom he had a daughter Giovanna, voted a pension by the Guelphs in 1328.
After Nino’s death Beatrice married Galeazzo
Visconti of Milan, a separate branch. The Milanese Visconti suffered
misfortune in 1302. The arms of the Milanese Visconti was a viper, that of
Nino, a cock. Giovanna married Riccardo da Cammino of Treviso. The arrangements for Beatrice’s marriage were in progress at easter
1300, and the wedding took place in the June.
Inferno Canto XXII:76-96. Gomita is in the eighth
circle.
Purgatorio Canto VIII:46-84. Nino is with the
negligent rulers.
An ancient
Florentine family. See the note to Paradiso Canto
XVI.
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. Mentioned indirectly.
Inferno Canto XVII:31-78. One of these Paduan
usurers may be intended here.
The son of Juno,
who was the god of fire and the blacksmith of the gods, and with the Cyclopes forged Jupiter’s lightning
bolt in the fires of Mount Aetna on Sicily.
Inferno Canto XIV:43-72. Mentioned.
Ottocar’s
son Wenceslas II (1278-1305)(not the earlier king and Saint) was allowed
to retain Bohemia and Moravia, after his father’s death, but had to give up
Austria and Styria (Rudolph I’s sons Albert and Rudolph were invested with these), Carinthia and Carniola. He was seemingly
noted for his sybaritic ways. He was still alive at the time of the Vision.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is mentioned,
unfavourably.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He is held as an example
of poor kingship.
The hero of French
Romance, historically one of Charlemagne’s knights,
who, after fighting the Saracens, retired to die as a monk in 812.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:1-57. He is in the Fifth Sphere
of Mars.
William, the Good,
Norman King of Sicily and Naples (1166-1189), the last king of the House of
Tancred, reigning over ‘The Two Sicilies’. He was the nephew of the Empress Constance. He is considered a model ruler by
Dante.
Paradiso Canto XX:1-72. He is in the sixth sphere of
Jupiter.
William Longsword,
Marquis of Montferrat and Canavese (1254-1292), one of the most powerful and
active warrior lords of his age. He also ruled Tortona, Pavia and Vercelli. He
favoured Charles of Anjou but turned against him,
joined by several towns including Alessandria in Piedmont. Alessandria rebelled
against William himself in 1290. He was captured by the citizens, and exhibited
in an iron cage until his death seventeen months later in 1292. His son John
tried to avenge him, but failed, though causing great suffering in Alessandria,
and Canavese, which was part of its territory.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is one of the
negligent rulers.
King of Persia
(495-465BC) who crossed the Hellespont, the modern Dardanelles, at the gateway
to the Black Sea, by a bridge of boats, and returned, having lost an army and a
navy, defeated by the Greek Alliance. See Orosius ii 9,10.
Purgatorio Canto XXVIII:52-138. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto VIII:85-148. The type of the military
leader.
The Vicar in
Logodoro, Sardinia, of Enzio, the natural son of Frederick
II, who made Enzio King of Sardinia. He married Adelasia di Torres,
mistress of Logodoro and Gallura (northwest and northeast respectively). Enzio
was captured by the Bolognese in 1249, and died a prisoner in 1271. Adelasia
divorced him and married Zanche, who governed corruptly till his murder by his
son-in-law Branca d’Oria, about 1290.
Inferno Canto XXII:76-96. He is in the eighth
circle.
Inferno Canto XXXIII:91-157. His murderer Branca
is in the ninth.
This is not Zeno
the Eleatic philosopher, but Zeno of Cittium c.310BC, the founder of the Stoic
school of which Seneca was a member.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the
philosophers in Limbo.
Gherardo II (d
1187), Abbot of the church and monastery of San Zeno in Verona, who lived
during the reign of Frederick Barbarossa.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:112-145. He is among the
Slothful.
Inferno Canto XXI:31-58. The patron saint of Lucca.
The cathedral there has a crucifix with the face of Christ, santo volto,
supposed to have been carved by Nicodemus, and finished by the Angels. Its help
was invoked in times of need. (The River Serchio flows a few miles north)
Notes to Dante's Inferno
InfNote 1. Structure
The regions of
Dante's Hell are subdivided, mirroring his descent with Virgil, as follows. The
conception derives from Aristotle, Cicero,
and Christian teachings. There are twenty-four divisions in all. There
are three major groupings divided into seven Circles, consisting
of those who failed to exercise self-control (Circles 2-5), the violent (Circle
7), and the fraudulent and traitorous (Circles 8-9). Added to these are
the Heathen (Circle 1), the Heretics (Circle 6) and, outside the Acheron, the
spiritually neutral. There are thus nine Circles, plus the region this
side of Acheron, making ten major divisions. This pattern of three,
divided to make seven, augmented to nine and then ten, is
the fundamental architecture of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. The keynote of Hell is Charity or
Pity, of Purgatorio, Hope, and of Paradiso, Faith.
Canto
III. This side of Acheron. The Dark Plain.
The spiritually
neutral, who lived 'without praise or blame' and the angels who 'were neither
faithful nor rebellious'. Their punishment is to ' have no hope of death' and
to 'envy every other condition than their own'.
Canto
IV. The First Circle. Limbo. The Heathens.
Those who lived
before Christianity or were unbaptised. Their punishment is 'without hope to
live in desire'
Canto
V. The Second Circle.
Hell proper. The first division of those lacking self-restraint. The Carnal
sinners.
The carnal
sinners, blown endlessly though the air in darkness.
Canto
VI. The Third Circle.
The second division of those lacking self-restraint. The Gluttonous.
The gluttons,
drenched in hail, snow and dark water.
Canto
VII. The Fourth Circle.
The third division of those lacking self-restraint. The Avaricious and the
Prodigal.
The misers and the
spendthrifts, endlessly rolling heavy weights.
Canto
VII. The Fifth Circle.
The Styx. The fourth division of those lacking self-restraint. The Angry
and the Sullen.
The angry and
sullen, sunk in the Stygian marsh. On top are the wrathful struggling with each
other, below under the bog are the sullen and lazy who 'sigh and make it bubble
at the surface'.
Cantos
IX and X. The City of
Dis (Lucifer, Satan). The Sixth Circle. The Heretics.
The Heretics and
their followers, incarcerated in red-hot tombs.
Canto
XII. The Seventh Circle
of the Violent. The First Round. The River of Blood. The Violent against
others.
The violent
against others, the murderers, tyrants, and assassins, sunk in the River of
Blood. They are guarded by Centaurs.
Canto
XIII. The Seventh Circle
of the Violent. The Second Round. The Wood of Suicides. The Violent against
themselves.
The suicides,
transformed to trees which bleed etc.
Cantos
XIV-XVII. The Seventh
Circle of the Violent. The Third Round. The Plain of Burning Sand. The violent
against God and Nature.
The violent
against God, the blasphemers, lying supine on the burning sand. The violent
against Nature, the sodomites, roaming the sand. The violent against Nature and
Art, the usurers, crouched on the sand.
Canto
XVIII. The Eighth Circle
of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The First Chasm. The pimps and seducers.
The pimps and
seducers scourged by horned Demons.
Canto
XVIII. The Eighth Circle
of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Second Chasm. The flatterers.
The flatterers,
smeared with filth and excrement.
Canto
XIX. The Eighth Circle
of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Third Chasm. The Simonists, those who sell spiritual
offices.
The Simonists, the
soles of their feet seared endlessly with fire.
Canto
XX. The Eighth Circle of
the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Fourth Chasm. The augerers, diviners,
astrologers and prophets.
The augerers,
their faces twisted round, forced to walk backwards.
Cantos
XXI-XXIII. The Eighth
Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Fifth Chasm. The Barrators, who
exploited their public office.
The barrators,
barterers, or peculators covered in boiling pitch, and guarded and tormented by
Demons.
Canto XXIII. The Eighth Circle of the
Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Sixth Chasm. The hypocrites.
The hypocrites,
weighed down with cloaks of gilded lead.
Cantos
XXIV-XXV. The Eighth
Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Seventh Chasm. The thieves.
The thieves, in
the ditch of dragons and serpents.
Cantos
XXVI-XXVII. The Eighth
Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Eighth Chasm. The evil counsellors.
The evil
counsellors, wrapped in flames of conscience.
Canto
XXVIII. The Eighth
Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Ninth Chasm. The sowers of discord.
The sowers of
dissension, discord, scandal, sectarianism and schism. Their bodies are split
or mutilated in some way reflecting their sin.
Cantos XXIX-XXX.
The Eight Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Tenth and last Chasm. The
forgers.
The forgers and
falsifiers in things, actions and words, tormented by disease and putrefaction.
Canto XXXII. The Ninth Circle of the
Treacherous. Cocytus. The Central Pit or Well. The First Ring. Caïna. Treachery
against kin.
The traitors to
their kin, frozen in the ice. The ring is named after Cain,
who murdered Abel.
Canto
XXXII-XXXIII. The Ninth
Circle of the Treacherous. Cocytus. The Central Pit or Well. The Second Ring.
Antenora. Treachery against country.
The traitors to
their city or country, frozen in the ice. The ring is named after Antenor who was supposed to have betrayed Troy to the
Greeks.
Canto
XXXIII. The Ninth Circle
of the Treacherous. Cocytus. The Central Pit or Well. The Third Ring.
Ptolomaea. Teachery against friends and guests.
The treacherous to
friends and guests, frozen in the ice. The ring is named after Ptolemy the
murderer of Simon Maccabeus.
Canto
XXXIV. The Ninth Circle
of the Treacherous. The Central Pit or Well. The Fourth and Last Ring. The
Judecca. The traitors to their lords and benefactors.
The betrayers of
their masters and benefactors, fixed solid under the ice. The winged form
of the Arch Traitor Satan at the centre, towards whom all streams of Guilt
flow, frozen from the chest downwards. The ring is named after Judas, the disciple who betrayed Christ.
InfNote
2. Chronology, See also the Chronology of the Purgatorio and Paradiso.
The Vision is set
in 1300, when Dante was thirty-five, in the middle of a
seventy-year life-span (Inf I:1, Inf XVIII:28-33, Inf XXI:112-114,
Purg II:98-99, Par IX: 40). It is Easter. The poem begins at the Spring
Equinox and the sun’s position remains fixed throughout, in Aries, as
according to medieval tradition it was at the Creation. (Inf I:38-40, Par
X:7-33, Par I:37-44).
Inferno begins
on the evening prior to Good Friday (Inf XXI:112-114) at the full
moon (Inf XX:124-127, Inf XXI:112-114, Purg IX:1-9). The full set of
conditions is imaginary, not corresponding to the actual equinox of 1300.
With the sun at
the equinox, the following signs will be rising during the day:
Sunrise,
6-8am Aries
8-10am Taurus
10-12noon Gemini
12-2pm Cancer 2-4pm Leo
4-6pm, Sunset Virgo
The following
signs will be rising in the east and setting in the west during the night:
Rising 6pm Libra
8pm Scorpio 10pm Sagittarius
12midnight Capricorn 2am Aquarius 4am Pisces
Setting 6pm Aries
8pm Taurus
10pm Gemini
12midnight Cancer
2am Leo
4am Virgo
Canto
I.
Inferno Canto I:1-60.The poem opens on the evening prior
to Good Friday in the dark wood. Dante witnesses the dawn of Good Friday at 6am
on the equinox with the sun rising in Aries. He
meets Virgil and travels with him until the evening of Good Friday.
Canto
II.
Inferno Canto II:1-42. The canto starts at the evening
of Good Friday.
Canto
VII:97-99
Inferno Canto VII:67-99. At this point in the Fifth
Circle it is past midnight since the stars of Libra (The scales of Justice) that were ascending in the evening sky are now falling
from the mid-heaven. It is now Saturday pre-dawn.
Canto
XI:112-114
Inferno Canto XI:94-115. At the end of the canto, before
the descent to the Seventh Circle, Pisces, the
Fishes, is visible on the horizon and must have risen in the east at 4am some
time before. Bootës, or the Wain, is (correctly: see a star chart for the
northern hemisphere in April, or observe it) in the north-west. (Caurus is the
north-west wind). It is therefore near dawn of Saturday.
Canto
XX:124-129
Inferno Canto XX:100-130. At the end of the canto, in
the Fourth Chasm of the Eighth Circle, the moon is about to set over the
Pillars of Hercules in the West. Being full it will have set at dawn on Good
Friday and now a day later will set after dawn. Dante does take account of the
moon’s daily movement (See Purg IX:1-11). The moon moves about 12 degrees a
day, relative to the ‘fixed’ stars, which equates to 48 minutes, and has not
yet set, though it is touching the horizon, so subject to Dante’s astronomical
sources, it is approximately 6.45am on Saturday morning, possibly a little
earlier.
Canto
XXI:112-114
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. At this point of the Fifth
Chasm of the Eighth Circle it is five hours earlier than the time of Christ’s
death, at noon, so it is 7am Saturday. (At the Easter of the year 1300 =1266+34
full years from the crucifixion on Good Friday, supposing Christ to be
incarnated in December of BC1 and to die at age 33, celebrating the anniversary
of his 33rd year in December 33AD)
Canto
XXIX:10
Inferno Canto XXIX:1-36. The moon is at nadir, in the
Tenth Chasm, and allowing for its daily movement it is therefore approximately
1pm on the Saturday.
Canto
XXXIV:67
Inferno Canto XXXIV:55-69. It is 6pm Saturday and
night is falling as the poets leave Hell by clambering down Satan’s sides then
turning and climbing up to the little sphere which marks the reverse side of
the deepest point of the Judecca. This takes them an hour and a half until 7.30pm Saturday.
Canto
XXXIV:94-97 and 103-118
Inferno Canto XXXIV:70-139. It is morning on the
opposite side of the earth to Jerusalem, and evening in Hell is dawn there.
It is now mid-tierce, the middle of the first of the four canonical divisions
of the day. At the equinox each takes three hours, so tierce is 6am to 9am and
we may take it that it is now 7.30am Sunday as the poets begin their
ascent by the channel cut there by the River Lethe. Their ascent to the foot of
Mount Purgatory takes them all this Sunday and Sunday night, so that they
complete it just before dawn on the morning of Easter Monday.
InfNote 3. The Salvation of Italy
There are various
interpretations of Dante’s imagery, for example that the lynx represents Florence and worldly pleasure, lust or envy; the lion the Royal
House of France, and ambition or pride; the she-wolf the Papacy, and avarice.
Lust, pride and avarice are the three roots of sin. The imagery of the three
animals may come from Jeremiah (v.6). The she-wolf, the Papacy, made many
alliances.
The Greyhound (Veltro)
has been suggested to be Can Grande della Scala,
born in Verona, between Feltro in Venetia and Montefeltro in
Romagna, the great Ghibelline leader. Dante’s later patron, he may have been
regarded by Dante as the deliverer who would restore Imperial power,
reinstitute Roman law, eliminate avarice, bring peace, and establish a reformed
order of things.
Dante,
whose father Aldighiero was a Guelf, and supporter of the papacy, traced his
ancestry back to Cacciaguida, a crusader under
Emperor Conrad III, and identified with the Romans who had allied Florence to
Imperial Rome. He was of the populo vecchio, the populus, the old
inhabitants, not the plebs, from Fiesole etc. Dante’s opposition
however to the dishonesty and corruption of the Papacy under Boniface VIII
aligned him with the Ghibelline pro-Imperial cause, and opposed him to the
pro-Papacy Guelfs. The Florentine families also split between the local Bianchi
(white) and Neri (black) factions. Dante’s family belonged to the Bianchi.
Ultimately the Bianchi combined with the old half-suppressed Ghibelline party,
and the Neri aligned with the Papacy, claiming to represent the old Guelph
traditions of Florence.
Dante’s
personal ideals when fully developed were for an apolitical Church, and
an earthly Empire, both enfranchised by God, supreme in their own spheres, one
of spiritual and the other temporal power. He was therefore opposed to the
Guelf principles of his father (the Ultramontanism of Gregory VII and Innocent
III), and to the democracy and plutocracy of Florence. He was equally opposed
to the supremacy of State over Church asserted by the Emperors Henry IV and
Frederick II, by Henry II of England, and Philip the Fair of France. Dante
therefore found himself ‘a party of one’ caught in the cross-currents of his
time, supporting an autocratic view of the Imperial State, and a desire for a
reformed, spiritual Papacy.
An
alternative candidate for ‘the Greyhound’ is Uguccione della Faggiuola, head of
the Ghibelline forces at Lucca in 1315 when the Guelphs were driven out, and at
the siege of Montecatini (within ten miles of Florence) where he gained a decisive
victory. However Uguccione was eclipsed by 1316.
InfNote 4. Ciacco’s prophecy in Canto
VI.
Inferno Canto VI:64-93. Ciacco prophesies the events in
Florence between April 1300, the date of the vision, and April 1303. Pope
Boniface the VII exerted pressure on Florence to accept his authority. Dante
was at Rome in May 1300, and returned quickly to Florence where he was
appointed to the electoral body. Boniface then gave support to the Black (Neri)
Guelphs against the White (Bianchi) Ghibellines who insisted on church reforms,
and political liberty. The Whites lead by Vieri de’ Cerchi,
were ‘the party of the woods’ since the Cerchi came from the wooded Val di
Sieve in the Mugello.
The city expelled both Corso Donati, the leader of
the Blacks, and the Cerchi (who included Dante’s friend, the poet Guido Cavalcanti.) This action, that Dante supported, led
to life-long enmity against him. Corso Donati went to Rome, and allied himself
to the Pope. Boniface VII allied himself in turn to Philip the Fair, Philip the IVth, of France against the
Empire of Albert of Hapsburg. (‘King of the Romans’),
Dante called this the alliance of the new Pilate and the New Pharisees, or the
giant and the harlot (the Papacy) embracing.
Charles of Valois, the French king’s brother,
crossed the Alps in August of 1301, and after treating with Florence, entered
the city peaceably on November 1st. The banished Blacks followed him in large
numbers. Corso Donati returned on November 5th. The houses of the Whites were
sacked and burned, and the Prior, the magistrates were deposed. The Bianchi,
the Whites were condemned and exiled. Dante was aligned with a weak Ghibelline
party supporting a weak and uncommitted Imperial presence, and opposed by a
strong Guelf party (aligned with France, and therefore a caricature of Dante’s
Ghibelline beliefs) supporting a corrupt Papacy. What Dante desired was a
reformed Papacy in the spiritual sphere, balanced with a strong Imperial
presence derived from Roman Imperial history in the secular sphere. In
different times he would have been a Guelph like his father in spirit, and a supporter of the Ghibelline Empire in secular practice. In April 1302 he
heard that he had been exiled with the Whites, the Ghibellines. He never
returned to Florence.
In March 1303 the exiled Whites under Scarpetta degli Ordelaffi (strangely a
papal vicar, indicating a growing rift between Boniface and the French) tried
to force an entry into Florence. It failed and many were taken prisoner and
beheaded. France, the ‘giant’, had triumphed, and his ‘paramour’ Boniface VII
died in October 1303, his policy having led to Italian disaster.
See also Vanni Fucci’s prophecy.
InfNote 5. Arles and Pola.
Inferno Canto IX:106-133. Dante compares the plain of
Dis full of heretic tombs with Arles and Pola. Arles, in Provence, in southern
France, at the mouth of the River Rhone, has at Aleschans (Les Alyscamps) rows
of tombs, the graves of Charlemagne’s warriors, according to legend, buried
there after the rout at Roncesvalles (See ‘The Song of Roland’), and of the
Christian dead from the battle of Aleschans where the Saracens defeated William
of Orange. (See Van Gogh’s painting ‘Les Alyscamps’, Niarchos Collection,
Athens, and his letter to Theo, no559, Nov 1888, where he talks of ‘rows of old
Roman tombs’.)
Pola (modern Pula) is a seaport, at the southern tip of Istria (modern Istra),
that promontory, once belonging to Venice, and hence part of Italy, that hangs
down into the Adriatic to the East of the Golfo di Venezia. The promontory on
the East is bounded by the Gulf of Quarnaro (modern Kvarner). It is said that
numbers of Slavonians were brought there for burial, and it has Roman remains.
InfNote 6. Sodom and Cahors.
Inferno Canto XI:1-66. The city of Sodom represented
unnatural vice (Genesis XIX), while Cahors in Guyenne (on the River Lot) in
southern France was notorious for its usurers, in the Middle Ages, so that
‘Caorsinus’ was a synonym for ‘usurer’.
InfNote 7. The Old Man of Crete.
Inferno Canto XIV:73-120. An allegory of human
history. The concept is from Daniel ii. 32. The four metals are the four ages
of man: gold, silver, bronze, and iron (See also Ovid’s Metamorphoses I). The
iron and clay feet, are secular and spiritual authority, the latter foot being
the one humanity looks to for support, but weakened and corrupted by temporal
power. Crete in Virgil’s Aeneid iii 104-5 is the ‘cradle of our (Roman) race’
traced back via Troy to Teucer. Damietta stands for Egypt, superseded by Rome.
The golden age alone was free of tears.
InfNote 8. The Origins of Florence.
Inferno Canto XV:43-78. According to tradition
Catiline was besieged, by Caesar, in Fiesole
(Faesulae), in the hills, three miles north-west of Florence. When the town
fell a new town was established, in the valley, by the River Arno. The
inhabitants were a mixture of Fiesolans and Roman soldiers. The Florentine
commoners (Whites) were held to be descended from the Fiesolans, the nobility
(Blacks) from the Romans. This was regarded as a source of the future
conflicts. Dante was for a reformed Papacy and a strong (Holy Roman) Empire,
and was active in the expulsion of both Whites and Blacks from Florence, he was
therefore opposed by both parties, though ostensibly a Ghibelline (his father
having been a Guelf) and courted and vilified by both. Dante is reconciled to
this, and Farinata’s, prophecy, of a troubled exile.
InfNote 9. Vanni Fucci’s
prophecy.
Inferno Canto XXIV:130-151. Vanni
Fucci prophesies the defeat of the Ghibelline Whites (Bianci) by the Black
Guelph (Neri) faction. The Blacks were expelled from Pistoia in May 1301. Dante
was one of those who voted for the expulsions. In November 1301 the Blacks
entered Florence, aided by Charles de Valois,
and in April 1302 made the city drive out the Whites (changing the people, and
its laws). Pistoia became a rallying point for the Whites in Tuscany, until
their defeat by the Florentine and Lucchese Guelfs, under Moroello Malaspina, Marquis of Giovagallo in
Valdimagra (the extremity of Lunigiana). Piceno’s field is the area between
Serravalle and Montecatini. Malaspina took Serravalle in 1302, and reduced
Pistoia in 1306. Pistoia was said to have been founded by the remnants of
Catiline’s army, leading to Dante’s comment in the next Canto (‘you outdo your
seed in evil-doing’)
See also Ciacco’s Prophecy
InfNote 10. Montereggione and the bronze pine-cone of St
Peter’s.
Inferno Canto XXXI:1-45The Giants appear like the
twelve turrets of the castle of Montereggione eight miles north-west of Siena,
between it and San Gimignano. They were the monstrous sons of Earth and
Tartarus, with many arms, and serpent feet, who made war against the gods,
scaling heaven by piling mountains on one another (Mount Pelion on Mount Ossa,
and both on Olympus.). They were overthrown by Jupiter’s thunderbolts and
buried under Sicily.
Inferno Canto XXXI:46-81. The bronze pine-cone, to
which Dante compares the size of Nimrod’s head, once on
the top of the Mausoleum of Adrian and then moved to the Vatican Gardens, stood
in front of St Peter’s, and was between seven and eight feet high.
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