Dante’s Inferno: The Cantos

Canto I. Prologue.

The Dark Wood (La Selva Oscura).
The three Beasts: leopard, lion, wolf.
Dante meets Virgil.

Canto II. Discouragement.

“I am not Aeneas, I am not Paul.”
We learn how Beatrice called Virgil.

Canto III. Gate of Hell.

Full of Virgilian echoes: Aeneid Book VI.
The old man in the boat.
The neutrals, Dante’s invention.

Canto IV. Limbo.(from Latin for “edge”)

The Virtuous Heathens:
Homer, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Cicero.

Canto V. Second Circle: Paolo and Francesca.

Lustful, Paolo and Francesca, (lines 88-142),
Reading a book; the kiss; “we read no further.”
Dante hears their story and swoons.

Canto VI. The Third Circle. Ciacco.

The Gluttonous, Ciacco of Florence(line 58).
Ciacco the first Florentine Dante meets.
They talk of Florence (60+).

Canto VII. The Fourth Circle.

Hoarders and Spendthrifts.
Attached to earthly possessions.
Fortune (line 68).

Canto VIII. Enter the City of Dis(=Hell).

Filippo Argenti (Florentine).
The violent.

Canto IX. Continue into city of Hell.

Virgil the rationalist falters before evil.
The travelers meet the heretics.

Canto X. The Sixth Circle. Heretics.

Farinata degli Uberti. The great baron.
Florence vs. Siena.
One of greatest figures in the Divine Comedy.

Canto XI. The Seventh Circle.

Virgil explains the plan of Hell (line 16).
Based on Aristotle and Cicero.

Canto XII. The Seventh Circle. Minotaur..

The Violent against others.
Guardians are beasts.
The Minotaur stands for brute force.

Canto XIII. The Seventh Circle:

The Violent against themselves.
Suicides, Piero delle Vigne.

Canto XIV. The Seventh Circle.

The Violent against God: blasphemy.
Capaneus, the old man of Greece.

Canto XV. The Seventh Circle.

The Violent against Nature: sodomites.
Brunetto Latini, important Florentine poet.
(Dante’s friend and teacher in Florence).

Canto XVI. The Seventh Circle:

The Violent against Nature.
Three Florentines: Guido Guerra, Aldobrindini and Jacopo Rusticucci. Big discussion of Florence(73).

Canto XVII. Geryon.

The Usurers. Descent to Malebolge.
Malebolge= evil pouches (in the ledges).
Geryon flies them down to Eighth Circle.
(great image, 79+).

Canto XVIII. The Eighth Circle. Fraud.

Cantos XVIII-XXX cover the Eighth Circle.
Fraud, panderers, (great image 28+, Rome).

Canto XIX. The Eighth Circle. Popes.

Fraud in the church, simony.
Dante angry at church corruption.
Sell spiritual riches of Church.
Pope Nicholas III.

Canto XX. The Eighth Circle.

Intellectual Fraud: astrology.
Astrology perverts freedom of Christian.
Denies free will.

Canto XXI. The Eighth Circle.

Fraud in government, “barratry;” dishonesty in public office. A match for simony of Canto XIX for the Church. This was crime Dante was accused of so he gives more space to this (XXI-XXII) totally unique, sharp, nasty, rough, savage satire.

Canto XXII. The Eighth Circle.

Fraud, barratry.
Ciampolo of Navarre.

Canto XXIII. The Eighth Circle.

Fraud, hypocrites,
Fra Catalano of Bologna.
Talk of Florence (line 91+).

Canto XXIV. The Eighth Circle.

A mood of lasitude. Dante tired.
Fraud, thieves, Vanni Fucci.

Canto XXV. The Eighth Circle.

Fraud, thieves, five Florentines.
The serpents.

Canto XXVI. The Eighth Circle. Ulysses.

Fraud, false counselors, Ulysses=Odysseus. One of greatest of all the cantos. Ulysses one of greatest characters of Inferno. Ulysses is only major character in whole of Inferno who is NOT a contemporary of Dante. Clearly he is special. He gets to tell his story without interruption. A mini-epic. Ulysses is a traveler like Dante himself, classical figure famous as traveler.

Canto XXVII.The Eighth Circle, Guido.

Fraud, false counselors, Guido da Montefeltro.
The Guido story should be read together with the Ulysses story of the previous Canto.

Canto XXVIII. The Eighth Circle.

Fraud, false counselors including false religion such as Mohammed and Moslem, the most powerful religious challenge to Christianity in Dante’s time.

Canto XXIX. The Eighth Circle.

Fraud, alchemists, falsifiers of elements.

Canto XXX. The Eighth Circle.

Fraud, counterfeiters. Notice to this Florentine a falsifier of coinage is really bad. This reminds us of Florence’s pride in its golden coin, the Florin.

Canto XXXI. The Ninth Circle. Treason.

The Giants, bodyguards of Satan, the Towered Castle, the towered structure recalls the great menacing feudal towers of Florence that you saw in our slides including the one right across from his house which was reclaimed from feudal powers to become first home of new democratic government. This towered imagery important.

Canto XXXII. The Ninth Circle. Bocca.

Treason, traitors, Bocca degli Abbati (line 79+), great figure, viewed as supreme traitor to Dante’s Florence at Battle of Montaperti, near Siena.

Canto XXXIII. The Ninth Circle. Ugolino.

Treason, Ugolino, another of Dante’s greatest most tragic characters, along with Paolo-Francesca, and Ulysses.

Canto XXXIV. The Ninth Circle. Satan.

Treason, Satan, Judas, Brutus. Notice great imagery of freezing Lake of Cocytus, far from life, far from light, far from salvation.