Luogo è in inferno detto Malebolge,
tutto di pietra di color ferrigno,
come la cerchia che dintorno il volge.
Nel dritto mezzo del campo maligno
vaneggia un pozzo assai largo e profondo,
di cui suo loco dicerò l'ordigno.
Quel cinghio che rimane adunque è tondo
tra 'l pozzo e 'l piè de l'alta ripa dura,
e ha distinto in dieci valli il fondo.
Quale, dove per guardia de le mura
più e più fossi cingon li castelli,
la parte dove son rende figura,
tale imagine quivi facean quelli;
e come a tai fortezze da' lor sogli
a la ripa di fuor son ponticelli,
così da imo de la roccia scogli
movien che ricidien li argini e ' fossi
infino al pozzo che i tronca e raccogli.
In questo luogo, de la schiena scossi
di Gerïon, trovammoci; e 'l poeta
tenne a sinistra, e io dietro mi mossi.
A la man destra vidi nova pieta,
novo tormento e novi frustatori,
di che la prima bolgia era repleta.
Nel fondo erano ignudi i peccatori;
dal mezzo in qua ci venien verso 'l volto,
di là con noi, ma con passi maggiori,
come i Roman per l'essercito molto,
l'anno del giubileo, su per lo ponte
hanno a passar la gente modo colto,
che da l'un lato tutti hanno la fronte
verso 'l castello e vanno a Santo Pietro,
da l'altra sponda vanno verso 'l monte.
Di qua, di là, su per lo sasso tetro
vidi demon cornuti con gran ferze,
che li battien crudelmente di retro.
Ahi come facean lor levar le berze
a le prime percosse! già nessuno
le seconde aspettava nè le terze.
Mentr' io andava, li occhi miei in uno
furo scontrati; e io sì tosto dissi:
“Già di veder costui non son digiuno.”
Per ch'ïo a figurarlo i piedi affissi;
e 'l dolce duca meco si ristette,
e assentio ch'alquanto in dietro gissi.
E quel frustato celar si credette
bassando 'l viso; ma poco li valse,
ch'io dissi: “O tu che l'occhio a terra gette,
se le fazion che porti non son false,
Venedico se' tu Caccianemico.
Ma che ti mena a sì pungenti salse?”
Ed elli a me: “Mal volontier lo dico;
ma sforzami la tua chiara favella,
che mi fa sovvenir del mondo antico.
I' fui colui che la Ghisolabella
condussi a far la voglia del marchese,
come che suoni la sconcia novella.
E non pur io qui piango bolognese;
anzi n'è questo loco tanto pieno,
che tante lingue non son ora apprese
a dicer 'sipa' tra Sàvena e Reno;
e se di ciò vuoi fede o testimonio,
rècati a mente il nostro avaro seno.”
Così parlando il percosse un demonio
de la sua scurïada, e disse: “Via,
ruffian! qui non son femmine da conio.”
I' mi raggiunsi con la scorta mia;
poscia con pochi passi divenimmo
là 'v' uno scoglio de la ripa uscia.
Assai leggeramente quel salimmo;
e vòlti a destra su per la sua scheggia,
da quelle cerchie etterne ci partimmo.
Quando noi fummo là dov' el vaneggia
di sotto per dar passo a li sferzati,
lo duca disse: “Attienti, e fa che feggia
lo viso in te di quest' altri mal nati,
ai quali ancor non vedesti la faccia
però che son con noi insieme andati.”
Del vecchio ponte guardavam la traccia
che venìa verso noi da l'altra banda,
e che la ferza similmente scaccia.
E 'l buon maestro, sanza mia dimanda,
mi disse: “Guarda quel grande che vene,
e per dolor non par lagrime spanda:
quanto aspetto reale ancor ritene!
Quelli è Iasón, che per cuore e per senno
li Colchi del monton privati féne.
Ello passò per l'isola di Lenno
poi che l'ardite femmine spietate
tutti li maschi loro a morte dienno.
Ivi con segni e con parole ornate
Isifile ingannò, la giovinetta
che prima avea tutte l'altre ingannate.
Lasciolla quivi, gravida, soletta;
tal colpa a tal martiro lui condanna;
e anche di Medea si fa vendetta.
Con lui sen va chi da tal parte inganna;
e questo basti de la prima valle
sapere e di color che 'n sé assanna.”
Già eravam là 've lo stretto calle
con l'argine secondo s'incrocicchia,
e fa di quello ad un altr' arco spalle.
Quindi sentimmo gente che si nicchia
ne l'altra bolgia e che col muso scuffa,
e sé medesma con le palme picchia.
Le ripe eran grommate d'una muffa,
per l'alito di giù che vi s'appasta,
che con li occhi e col naso facea zuffa.
Lo fondo è cupo sì, che non ci basta
loco a veder sanza montare al dosso
de l'arco, ove lo scoglio più sovrasta.
Quivi venimmo; e quindi giù nel fosso
vidi gente attuffata in uno sterco
che da li uman privadi parea mosso.
E mentre ch'io là giù con l'occhio cerco,
vidi un col capo sì di merda lordo,
che non parëa s'era laico o cherco.
Quei mi sgridò: “Perché se' tu sì gordo
di riguardar più me che li altri brutti?”
E io a lui: “Perché, se ben ricordo,
già t'ho veduto coi capelli asciutti,
e se' Alessio Interminei da Lucca:
però t'adocchio più che li altri tutti.”
Ed elli allor, battendosi la zucca:
“Qua giù m'hanno sommerso le lusinghe
ond' io non ebbi mai la lingua stucca.”
Appresso ciò lo duca “Fa che pinghe,”
mi disse, “il viso un poco più avante,
sì che la faccia ben con l'occhio attinghe
di quella sozza e scapigliata fante
che là si graffia con l'unghie merdose,
e or s'accoscia e ora è in piedi stante.
Taïde è, la puttana che rispuose
al drudo suo quando disse 'Ho io grazie
grandi apo te?': 'Anzi maravigliose!'
E quinci sian le nostre viste sazie.”
There is a place in Hell called Malebolge,
Wholly of stone and of an iron colour,
As is the circle that around it turns.
Right in the middle of the field malign
There yawns a well exceeding wide and deep,
Of which its place the structure will recount.
Round, then, is that enclosure which remains
Between the well and foot of the high, hard bank,
And has distinct in valleys ten its bottom.
As where for the protection of the walls
Many and many moats surround the castles,
The part in which they are a figure forms,
Just such an image those presented there;
And as about such strongholds from their gates
Unto the outer bank are little bridges,
So from the precipice's base did crags
Project, which intersected dikes and moats,
Unto the well that truncates and collects them.
Within this place, down shaken from the back
Of Geryon, we found us; and the Poet
Held to the left, and I moved on behind.
Upon my right hand I beheld new anguish,
New torments, and new wielders of the lash,
Wherewith the foremost Bolgia was replete.
Down at the bottom were the sinners naked;
This side the middle came they facing us,
Beyond it, with us, but with greater steps;
Even as the Romans, for the mighty host,
The year of Jubilee, upon the bridge,
Have chosen a mode to pass the people over;
For all upon one side towards the Castle
Their faces have, and go unto St. Peter's;
On the other side they go towards the Mountain.
This side and that, along the livid stone
Beheld I horned demons with great scourges,
Who cruelly were beating them behind.
Ah me! how they did make them lift their legs
At the first blows! and sooth not any one
The second waited for, nor for the third.
While I was going on, mine eyes by one
Encountered were; and straight I said: "Already
With sight of this one I am not unfed."
Therefore I stayed my feet to make him out,
And with me the sweet Guide came to a stand,
And to my going somewhat back assented;
And he, the scourged one, thought to hide himself,
Lowering his face, but little it availed him;
For said I: "Thou that castest down thine eyes,
If false are not the features which thou bearest,
Thou art Venedico Caccianimico;
But what doth bring thee to such pungent sauces?"
And he to me: "Unwillingly I tell it;
But forces me thine utterance distinct,
Which makes me recollect the ancient world.
I was the one who the fair Ghisola
Induced to grant the wishes of the Marquis,
Howe'er the shameless story may be told.
Not the sole Bolognese am I who weeps here;
Nay, rather is this place so full of them,
That not so many tongues to-day are taught
'Twixt Reno and Savena to say 'sipa;'
And if thereof thou wishest pledge or proof,
Bring to thy mind our avaricious heart."
While speaking in this manner, with his scourge
A demon smote him, and said: "Get thee gone
Pander, there are no women here for coin."
I joined myself again unto mine Escort;
Thereafterward with footsteps few we came
To where a crag projected from the bank.
This very easily did we ascend,
And turning to the right along its ridge,
From those eternal circles we departed.
When we were there, where it is hollowed out
Beneath, to give a passage to the scourged,
The Guide said: "Wait, and see that on thee strike
The vision of those others evil-born,
Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the faces,
Because together with us they have gone."
From the old bridge we looked upon the train
Which tow'rds us came upon the other border,
And which the scourges in like manner smite.
And the good Master, without my inquiring,
Said to me: "See that tall one who is coming,
And for his pain seems not to shed a tear;
Still what a royal aspect he retains!
That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning
The Colchians of the Ram made destitute.
He by the isle of Lemnos passed along
After the daring women pitiless
Had unto death devoted all their males.
There with his tokens and with ornate words
Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden
Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived.
There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn;
Such sin unto such punishment condemns him,
And also for Medea is vengeance done.
With him go those who in such wise deceive;
And this sufficient be of the first valley
To know, and those that in its jaws it holds."
We were already where the narrow path
Crosses athwart the second dike, and forms
Of that a buttress for another arch.
Thence we heard people, who are making moan
In the next Bolgia, snorting with their muzzles,
And with their palms beating upon themselves
The margins were incrusted with a mould
By exhalation from below, that sticks there,
And with the eyes and nostrils wages war.
The bottom is so deep, no place suffices
To give us sight of it, without ascending
The arch's back, where most the crag impends.
Thither we came, and thence down in the moat
I saw a people smothered in a filth
That out of human privies seemed to flow;
And whilst below there with mine eye I search,
I saw one with his head so foul with ordure,
It was not clear if he were clerk or layman.
He screamed to me: "Wherefore art thou so eager
To look at me more than the other foul ones?"
And I to him: "Because, if I remember,
I have already seen thee with dry hair,
And thou'rt Alessio Interminei of Lucca;
Therefore I eye thee more than all the others."
And he thereon, belabouring his pumpkin:
"The flatteries have submerged me here below,
Wherewith my tongue was never surfeited."
Then said to me the Guide: "See that thou thrust
Thy visage somewhat farther in advance,
That with thine eyes thou well the face attain
Of that uncleanly and dishevelled drab,
Who there doth scratch herself with filthy nails,
And crouches now, and now on foot is standing.
Thais the harlot is it, who replied
Unto her paramour, when he said, 'Have I
Great gratitude from thee?'—'Nay, marvellous;'
And herewith let our sight be satisfied."
The extended introductory passage interrupts the narrative in order to set the new scene: Malebolge, the eighth Circle, with its ten varieties of fraudulent behaviors. Only in Inferno does an equal number of cantos (17 and 17) create a precise center for a cantica in the space between two cantos, and we have just passed it. The last canto ended with a sort of 'comic' conclusion to Dante's dangerous voyage on Geryon. He has now traversed precisely half of the literary space devoted to the underworld. Thus, fully half of the cantica, cantos XVIII to XXXIV, is dedicated to the sins of Fraud. That division tells us something about the poet's view of human behavior, namely that it is better typified by the worst of sins than by the lesser ones.
Robert Durling has developed the schematic idea that all of hell is depicted as having a structure parallel to that of the human body, with Malebolge representing the belly. See his “Deceit and Digestion in the Belly of Hell,” in Allegory and Representation: Selected Papers from the English Institute, 1979-80, ed. Stephen A. Greenblatt (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981), pp. 61-93; and see the commentary of Durling and Martinez (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 552-55; 576-77.
The poetry of Malebolge, studied by Edoardo Sanguineti (Interpretazione di Malebolge [Florence: Olschki, 1962]), is strikingly self-confident. One has the feeling that Dante, having finished his apprenticeship, now has achieved a level of aesthetic performance that may have surprised even him. In the seventh canto he had conjoined two kinds of sinners, the avaricious and the prodigal; but these are two sides of the same sin. Here for the first time, as something of a tour de force, he includes two entirely separate categories of sin in a single canto, one of them itself subdivided into two groups, as in Canto VII – all of this in 115 lines. The precision of the operation is noteworthy, and may be represented as follows:
(1) panders & seducers (2) flatterers
disposition of both (22-39) disposition (100-114)
modern exemplar (52-66) modern exemplar (115-126)
classical exemplar (82-99) classical exemplar (127-136)
For the self-conscious, deliberately Virgilian opening of the canto ('Locus est' is found several times in the Aeneid marking the transition from one poetic place to another), see Marino Barchiesi's long article, “Arte del prologo e arte della transizione,” Studi Danteschi 44 (1967), pp. 115-207, a meditation on Dante's narrative technique, including a substantial discussion of this passage.
The hellscape offers a grey stone circular wall surrounding a stone 'field,' which in turn surrounds a pit (the 'keep' of this 'castle'); the field is divided into ten valleys, which resemble moats set around a castle. The analogy is complete, but works in reverse, since a castle rises above its surroundings, while this 'castle' is a hole leading into hell. Our first view of Malebolge (the name is a Dantean coinage made up of words meaning 'evil' and 'pouches') makes it seem like a vast, emptied stadium, e.g., the Colosseum, which Dante might have seen in 1301 if he indeed visited Rome then, or the arena of Verona, which he probably saw at least by 1304. The former hypothesis is attractive in that the second image of the canto is also modelled on Roman architecture: the bridge over the Tiber between Trastevere and the city.
The narrative is now joined to the action concluding the last canto and the poets resume their leftward circling movement.
The panders, moving from left to right as Dante views them, are moving in a direction contrary to his; the seducers, moving from his right to his left, and thus moving in parallel with him, are going faster than he; but then he has no demons lashing him with whips.
The simile, reflecting the Roman invention of two-way traffic in 1300 for the crowds thronging to the holy places, on the bridge across the Tiber, from the city (to St. Peter's, after they pass Castel Sant'Angelo) and back again (to the area of Monte Giordano, just off the Tiber), has caused some to argue that Dante had been in Rome during the Jubilee. It is more likely that he was in fact there in 1301 and heard tell of this modern wonder of crowd control. That the first city that Malebolge calls to mind is Rome in the Jubilee Year is not without its ironic thrust, especially since it had been Pope Boniface VIII, so hated by Dante, who proclaimed this great event (the first in the Church's history). For a recent bibliography, 172 items regarding this first Jubilee Year see Enzo Esposito, “Bibliografia 'essenziale' del Giubileo (1300) di Dante e di Bonifacio VIII,” L'Alighieri 16 (2000), pp. 139-51.
Benvenuto da Imola (comm. to XVIII.34-36) suggests that the panders are punished by horned devils because their actions resulted in the cuckoldry of others.
Venedico was an important political figure of Bologna in the second half of the thirteenth century. His sin was in selling his own sister to Opizzo of Este (see Inf. XII.111). He actually died in 1302, although Dante obviously believed he had died before 1300.
Venedico's pleasantry insists that there are more Bolognesi in this zone of hell than currently populate the city itself. 'Sipa' is ancient dialectical Bolognese for 'yes,' and thus the phrase means 'have grown up speaking Bolognese dialect' between the rivers that mark the eastern and western confines of the city.
The demon's rough remark is variously understood: either 'there are no women here to defraud' (as Venedico did his sister), or 'there are no women here for sale' (to offer to Dante). And there may also be a hint of the slang for female genitalia. In our translation we have tried to keep both of the first meanings possible.
The circlings of the whipped sinners, not of the ditches themselves, are almost certainly what is referred to, just as Francesco da Buti said centuries ago (comm. to XVIII.67-72). However, it was only some 80 years ago that Enrico Bianchi (“Le 'cerchie eterne,'” Studi Danteschi 3 [1921], pp. 137-39) brought such a comprehension back to the verse, thereby increasing its power: the reference is to the Florentine custom of whipping a condemned man along the route to his execution. Most contemporary commentators accept this reading.
At the high point of the bridge over the ditch on their way toward the next bolgia the travelers stop to observe the second set of sinners in this one, whom they have not been able to examine because these were going along in the same direction as were they, and at a faster clip.
Like Capaneus (Inf. XIV.46-48), the heroic Jason is allowed to keep some of his dignity and his stoical strength.
Jason, who will be remembered in Paradiso in a far more positive light, as the precursor of Dante in his having taken a great voyage and returned with the golden fleece (Par. II.16-18; Par. XXV.7; Par. XXXIII.94-96), is here presented as the classical exemplar of the vile seducer. Dante has Virgil condense the lengthy narrative of Jason's exploits found in Ovid (Metam. VII.1-424) into two details, the seductions of Hypsipyle (daughter of the king of Lemnos) and of Medea (daughter of the king of Colchis).
For the resonance at v. 91 of Beatrice's description of Virgilian utterance as 'parola ornata' see the note to Inf. II.67. As for Jason's segni (signs of love), Dante may be thinking of his ability to move Medea by tears as well as words (see Ovid, Metam. VII.169).
The second ditch is filled with supernatural excrement (it only seems to have come from the toilets of humans). What do flatterers do? It is unnecessary to repeat the slang phrases that are used in nearly all languages to characterize their utterance. What they did above, they do below, wallowing in excrement, their faces ingesting it as animals guzzle food from their troughs (see v. 104).
Alessio Interminei is the first Lucchese whom we encounter, but there will be others, below. Dante seems systematically to include in hell representatives of all the major Tuscan cities.
Thaïs is a courtesan in Terence's comic play Eunuchus, and had a reputation even into the middle ages as a flatterer. Whether Dante is citing Terence directly (most currently dispute this) or through Cicero (De amicitia XXVI.98 – a text that Dante assuredly did know and which explicitly associates Thaïs with flattery, though there and in Terence she is the one flattered, not the flatterer) is a matter that still excites argument. For the most recent claims for Dante's knowledge of Terence see Claudia Villa (La “lectura Terentii” [Padua: Antenore, 1984]), esp. pp. 137-89, but see also the countering arguments of Baranski (“Dante e la tradizione comica latina,” in Dante e la “bella scola” della poesia: Autorità e sfida poetica, ed. A. A. Iannucci [Ravenna: Longo, 1993]), pp. 230-38 (and now Villa's rejoinder [“Comoedia: laus in canticis dicta? Schede per Dante: Paradiso, XXV.1 e Inferno, XVIII,” Rivista di Studi Danteschi 1 (2001)], pp. 325-31. After Moore (Studies in Dante, First Series: Scripture and Classical Authors in Dante (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969 [1896]), pp. 12, 261-62, many modern commentators rightly suggest that Dante's account closely reflects Cicero's, but not Terence's, further maintaining that we have not a single citation of any play by Terence anywhere in Dante's work. It is amusing to see that the seeds of the debate had already been planted in Pietro di Dante's second redaction at mid-fourteenth century (Pietro2, comm. to these verses) when Pietro cites the pertinent passage in Terence and then goes on to cite Cicero's reproduction of the scene in De amicitia. After Pietro, whose second and third redactions were not published until late in the twentieth century, and before Moore, Terence is the main source mentioned by those commentators who refer to a classical text, and none refers to Cicero. More recently Barchiesi (“Arte del prologo e arte della transizione,” Studi Danteschi 44 [1967], p. 203n., argues that Dante, if he only knew the passage indirectly from Cicero, knew of its Terentian source from John of Salisbury's Policraticus.
Satiety comes quickly when one watches people breathing excrement.
Commentary text is copyrighted and reproduced by permission.
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Luogo è in inferno detto Malebolge,
tutto di pietra di color ferrigno,
come la cerchia che dintorno il volge.
Nel dritto mezzo del campo maligno
vaneggia un pozzo assai largo e profondo,
di cui suo loco dicerò l'ordigno.
Quel cinghio che rimane adunque è tondo
tra 'l pozzo e 'l piè de l'alta ripa dura,
e ha distinto in dieci valli il fondo.
Quale, dove per guardia de le mura
più e più fossi cingon li castelli,
la parte dove son rende figura,
tale imagine quivi facean quelli;
e come a tai fortezze da' lor sogli
a la ripa di fuor son ponticelli,
così da imo de la roccia scogli
movien che ricidien li argini e ' fossi
infino al pozzo che i tronca e raccogli.
In questo luogo, de la schiena scossi
di Gerïon, trovammoci; e 'l poeta
tenne a sinistra, e io dietro mi mossi.
A la man destra vidi nova pieta,
novo tormento e novi frustatori,
di che la prima bolgia era repleta.
Nel fondo erano ignudi i peccatori;
dal mezzo in qua ci venien verso 'l volto,
di là con noi, ma con passi maggiori,
come i Roman per l'essercito molto,
l'anno del giubileo, su per lo ponte
hanno a passar la gente modo colto,
che da l'un lato tutti hanno la fronte
verso 'l castello e vanno a Santo Pietro,
da l'altra sponda vanno verso 'l monte.
Di qua, di là, su per lo sasso tetro
vidi demon cornuti con gran ferze,
che li battien crudelmente di retro.
Ahi come facean lor levar le berze
a le prime percosse! già nessuno
le seconde aspettava nè le terze.
Mentr' io andava, li occhi miei in uno
furo scontrati; e io sì tosto dissi:
“Già di veder costui non son digiuno.”
Per ch'ïo a figurarlo i piedi affissi;
e 'l dolce duca meco si ristette,
e assentio ch'alquanto in dietro gissi.
E quel frustato celar si credette
bassando 'l viso; ma poco li valse,
ch'io dissi: “O tu che l'occhio a terra gette,
se le fazion che porti non son false,
Venedico se' tu Caccianemico.
Ma che ti mena a sì pungenti salse?”
Ed elli a me: “Mal volontier lo dico;
ma sforzami la tua chiara favella,
che mi fa sovvenir del mondo antico.
I' fui colui che la Ghisolabella
condussi a far la voglia del marchese,
come che suoni la sconcia novella.
E non pur io qui piango bolognese;
anzi n'è questo loco tanto pieno,
che tante lingue non son ora apprese
a dicer 'sipa' tra Sàvena e Reno;
e se di ciò vuoi fede o testimonio,
rècati a mente il nostro avaro seno.”
Così parlando il percosse un demonio
de la sua scurïada, e disse: “Via,
ruffian! qui non son femmine da conio.”
I' mi raggiunsi con la scorta mia;
poscia con pochi passi divenimmo
là 'v' uno scoglio de la ripa uscia.
Assai leggeramente quel salimmo;
e vòlti a destra su per la sua scheggia,
da quelle cerchie etterne ci partimmo.
Quando noi fummo là dov' el vaneggia
di sotto per dar passo a li sferzati,
lo duca disse: “Attienti, e fa che feggia
lo viso in te di quest' altri mal nati,
ai quali ancor non vedesti la faccia
però che son con noi insieme andati.”
Del vecchio ponte guardavam la traccia
che venìa verso noi da l'altra banda,
e che la ferza similmente scaccia.
E 'l buon maestro, sanza mia dimanda,
mi disse: “Guarda quel grande che vene,
e per dolor non par lagrime spanda:
quanto aspetto reale ancor ritene!
Quelli è Iasón, che per cuore e per senno
li Colchi del monton privati féne.
Ello passò per l'isola di Lenno
poi che l'ardite femmine spietate
tutti li maschi loro a morte dienno.
Ivi con segni e con parole ornate
Isifile ingannò, la giovinetta
che prima avea tutte l'altre ingannate.
Lasciolla quivi, gravida, soletta;
tal colpa a tal martiro lui condanna;
e anche di Medea si fa vendetta.
Con lui sen va chi da tal parte inganna;
e questo basti de la prima valle
sapere e di color che 'n sé assanna.”
Già eravam là 've lo stretto calle
con l'argine secondo s'incrocicchia,
e fa di quello ad un altr' arco spalle.
Quindi sentimmo gente che si nicchia
ne l'altra bolgia e che col muso scuffa,
e sé medesma con le palme picchia.
Le ripe eran grommate d'una muffa,
per l'alito di giù che vi s'appasta,
che con li occhi e col naso facea zuffa.
Lo fondo è cupo sì, che non ci basta
loco a veder sanza montare al dosso
de l'arco, ove lo scoglio più sovrasta.
Quivi venimmo; e quindi giù nel fosso
vidi gente attuffata in uno sterco
che da li uman privadi parea mosso.
E mentre ch'io là giù con l'occhio cerco,
vidi un col capo sì di merda lordo,
che non parëa s'era laico o cherco.
Quei mi sgridò: “Perché se' tu sì gordo
di riguardar più me che li altri brutti?”
E io a lui: “Perché, se ben ricordo,
già t'ho veduto coi capelli asciutti,
e se' Alessio Interminei da Lucca:
però t'adocchio più che li altri tutti.”
Ed elli allor, battendosi la zucca:
“Qua giù m'hanno sommerso le lusinghe
ond' io non ebbi mai la lingua stucca.”
Appresso ciò lo duca “Fa che pinghe,”
mi disse, “il viso un poco più avante,
sì che la faccia ben con l'occhio attinghe
di quella sozza e scapigliata fante
che là si graffia con l'unghie merdose,
e or s'accoscia e ora è in piedi stante.
Taïde è, la puttana che rispuose
al drudo suo quando disse 'Ho io grazie
grandi apo te?': 'Anzi maravigliose!'
E quinci sian le nostre viste sazie.”
There is a place in Hell called Malebolge,
Wholly of stone and of an iron colour,
As is the circle that around it turns.
Right in the middle of the field malign
There yawns a well exceeding wide and deep,
Of which its place the structure will recount.
Round, then, is that enclosure which remains
Between the well and foot of the high, hard bank,
And has distinct in valleys ten its bottom.
As where for the protection of the walls
Many and many moats surround the castles,
The part in which they are a figure forms,
Just such an image those presented there;
And as about such strongholds from their gates
Unto the outer bank are little bridges,
So from the precipice's base did crags
Project, which intersected dikes and moats,
Unto the well that truncates and collects them.
Within this place, down shaken from the back
Of Geryon, we found us; and the Poet
Held to the left, and I moved on behind.
Upon my right hand I beheld new anguish,
New torments, and new wielders of the lash,
Wherewith the foremost Bolgia was replete.
Down at the bottom were the sinners naked;
This side the middle came they facing us,
Beyond it, with us, but with greater steps;
Even as the Romans, for the mighty host,
The year of Jubilee, upon the bridge,
Have chosen a mode to pass the people over;
For all upon one side towards the Castle
Their faces have, and go unto St. Peter's;
On the other side they go towards the Mountain.
This side and that, along the livid stone
Beheld I horned demons with great scourges,
Who cruelly were beating them behind.
Ah me! how they did make them lift their legs
At the first blows! and sooth not any one
The second waited for, nor for the third.
While I was going on, mine eyes by one
Encountered were; and straight I said: "Already
With sight of this one I am not unfed."
Therefore I stayed my feet to make him out,
And with me the sweet Guide came to a stand,
And to my going somewhat back assented;
And he, the scourged one, thought to hide himself,
Lowering his face, but little it availed him;
For said I: "Thou that castest down thine eyes,
If false are not the features which thou bearest,
Thou art Venedico Caccianimico;
But what doth bring thee to such pungent sauces?"
And he to me: "Unwillingly I tell it;
But forces me thine utterance distinct,
Which makes me recollect the ancient world.
I was the one who the fair Ghisola
Induced to grant the wishes of the Marquis,
Howe'er the shameless story may be told.
Not the sole Bolognese am I who weeps here;
Nay, rather is this place so full of them,
That not so many tongues to-day are taught
'Twixt Reno and Savena to say 'sipa;'
And if thereof thou wishest pledge or proof,
Bring to thy mind our avaricious heart."
While speaking in this manner, with his scourge
A demon smote him, and said: "Get thee gone
Pander, there are no women here for coin."
I joined myself again unto mine Escort;
Thereafterward with footsteps few we came
To where a crag projected from the bank.
This very easily did we ascend,
And turning to the right along its ridge,
From those eternal circles we departed.
When we were there, where it is hollowed out
Beneath, to give a passage to the scourged,
The Guide said: "Wait, and see that on thee strike
The vision of those others evil-born,
Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the faces,
Because together with us they have gone."
From the old bridge we looked upon the train
Which tow'rds us came upon the other border,
And which the scourges in like manner smite.
And the good Master, without my inquiring,
Said to me: "See that tall one who is coming,
And for his pain seems not to shed a tear;
Still what a royal aspect he retains!
That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning
The Colchians of the Ram made destitute.
He by the isle of Lemnos passed along
After the daring women pitiless
Had unto death devoted all their males.
There with his tokens and with ornate words
Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden
Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived.
There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn;
Such sin unto such punishment condemns him,
And also for Medea is vengeance done.
With him go those who in such wise deceive;
And this sufficient be of the first valley
To know, and those that in its jaws it holds."
We were already where the narrow path
Crosses athwart the second dike, and forms
Of that a buttress for another arch.
Thence we heard people, who are making moan
In the next Bolgia, snorting with their muzzles,
And with their palms beating upon themselves
The margins were incrusted with a mould
By exhalation from below, that sticks there,
And with the eyes and nostrils wages war.
The bottom is so deep, no place suffices
To give us sight of it, without ascending
The arch's back, where most the crag impends.
Thither we came, and thence down in the moat
I saw a people smothered in a filth
That out of human privies seemed to flow;
And whilst below there with mine eye I search,
I saw one with his head so foul with ordure,
It was not clear if he were clerk or layman.
He screamed to me: "Wherefore art thou so eager
To look at me more than the other foul ones?"
And I to him: "Because, if I remember,
I have already seen thee with dry hair,
And thou'rt Alessio Interminei of Lucca;
Therefore I eye thee more than all the others."
And he thereon, belabouring his pumpkin:
"The flatteries have submerged me here below,
Wherewith my tongue was never surfeited."
Then said to me the Guide: "See that thou thrust
Thy visage somewhat farther in advance,
That with thine eyes thou well the face attain
Of that uncleanly and dishevelled drab,
Who there doth scratch herself with filthy nails,
And crouches now, and now on foot is standing.
Thais the harlot is it, who replied
Unto her paramour, when he said, 'Have I
Great gratitude from thee?'—'Nay, marvellous;'
And herewith let our sight be satisfied."
The extended introductory passage interrupts the narrative in order to set the new scene: Malebolge, the eighth Circle, with its ten varieties of fraudulent behaviors. Only in Inferno does an equal number of cantos (17 and 17) create a precise center for a cantica in the space between two cantos, and we have just passed it. The last canto ended with a sort of 'comic' conclusion to Dante's dangerous voyage on Geryon. He has now traversed precisely half of the literary space devoted to the underworld. Thus, fully half of the cantica, cantos XVIII to XXXIV, is dedicated to the sins of Fraud. That division tells us something about the poet's view of human behavior, namely that it is better typified by the worst of sins than by the lesser ones.
Robert Durling has developed the schematic idea that all of hell is depicted as having a structure parallel to that of the human body, with Malebolge representing the belly. See his “Deceit and Digestion in the Belly of Hell,” in Allegory and Representation: Selected Papers from the English Institute, 1979-80, ed. Stephen A. Greenblatt (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981), pp. 61-93; and see the commentary of Durling and Martinez (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 552-55; 576-77.
The poetry of Malebolge, studied by Edoardo Sanguineti (Interpretazione di Malebolge [Florence: Olschki, 1962]), is strikingly self-confident. One has the feeling that Dante, having finished his apprenticeship, now has achieved a level of aesthetic performance that may have surprised even him. In the seventh canto he had conjoined two kinds of sinners, the avaricious and the prodigal; but these are two sides of the same sin. Here for the first time, as something of a tour de force, he includes two entirely separate categories of sin in a single canto, one of them itself subdivided into two groups, as in Canto VII – all of this in 115 lines. The precision of the operation is noteworthy, and may be represented as follows:
(1) panders & seducers (2) flatterers
disposition of both (22-39) disposition (100-114)
modern exemplar (52-66) modern exemplar (115-126)
classical exemplar (82-99) classical exemplar (127-136)
For the self-conscious, deliberately Virgilian opening of the canto ('Locus est' is found several times in the Aeneid marking the transition from one poetic place to another), see Marino Barchiesi's long article, “Arte del prologo e arte della transizione,” Studi Danteschi 44 (1967), pp. 115-207, a meditation on Dante's narrative technique, including a substantial discussion of this passage.
The hellscape offers a grey stone circular wall surrounding a stone 'field,' which in turn surrounds a pit (the 'keep' of this 'castle'); the field is divided into ten valleys, which resemble moats set around a castle. The analogy is complete, but works in reverse, since a castle rises above its surroundings, while this 'castle' is a hole leading into hell. Our first view of Malebolge (the name is a Dantean coinage made up of words meaning 'evil' and 'pouches') makes it seem like a vast, emptied stadium, e.g., the Colosseum, which Dante might have seen in 1301 if he indeed visited Rome then, or the arena of Verona, which he probably saw at least by 1304. The former hypothesis is attractive in that the second image of the canto is also modelled on Roman architecture: the bridge over the Tiber between Trastevere and the city.
The narrative is now joined to the action concluding the last canto and the poets resume their leftward circling movement.
The panders, moving from left to right as Dante views them, are moving in a direction contrary to his; the seducers, moving from his right to his left, and thus moving in parallel with him, are going faster than he; but then he has no demons lashing him with whips.
The simile, reflecting the Roman invention of two-way traffic in 1300 for the crowds thronging to the holy places, on the bridge across the Tiber, from the city (to St. Peter's, after they pass Castel Sant'Angelo) and back again (to the area of Monte Giordano, just off the Tiber), has caused some to argue that Dante had been in Rome during the Jubilee. It is more likely that he was in fact there in 1301 and heard tell of this modern wonder of crowd control. That the first city that Malebolge calls to mind is Rome in the Jubilee Year is not without its ironic thrust, especially since it had been Pope Boniface VIII, so hated by Dante, who proclaimed this great event (the first in the Church's history). For a recent bibliography, 172 items regarding this first Jubilee Year see Enzo Esposito, “Bibliografia 'essenziale' del Giubileo (1300) di Dante e di Bonifacio VIII,” L'Alighieri 16 (2000), pp. 139-51.
Benvenuto da Imola (comm. to XVIII.34-36) suggests that the panders are punished by horned devils because their actions resulted in the cuckoldry of others.
Venedico was an important political figure of Bologna in the second half of the thirteenth century. His sin was in selling his own sister to Opizzo of Este (see Inf. XII.111). He actually died in 1302, although Dante obviously believed he had died before 1300.
Venedico's pleasantry insists that there are more Bolognesi in this zone of hell than currently populate the city itself. 'Sipa' is ancient dialectical Bolognese for 'yes,' and thus the phrase means 'have grown up speaking Bolognese dialect' between the rivers that mark the eastern and western confines of the city.
The demon's rough remark is variously understood: either 'there are no women here to defraud' (as Venedico did his sister), or 'there are no women here for sale' (to offer to Dante). And there may also be a hint of the slang for female genitalia. In our translation we have tried to keep both of the first meanings possible.
The circlings of the whipped sinners, not of the ditches themselves, are almost certainly what is referred to, just as Francesco da Buti said centuries ago (comm. to XVIII.67-72). However, it was only some 80 years ago that Enrico Bianchi (“Le 'cerchie eterne,'” Studi Danteschi 3 [1921], pp. 137-39) brought such a comprehension back to the verse, thereby increasing its power: the reference is to the Florentine custom of whipping a condemned man along the route to his execution. Most contemporary commentators accept this reading.
At the high point of the bridge over the ditch on their way toward the next bolgia the travelers stop to observe the second set of sinners in this one, whom they have not been able to examine because these were going along in the same direction as were they, and at a faster clip.
Like Capaneus (Inf. XIV.46-48), the heroic Jason is allowed to keep some of his dignity and his stoical strength.
Jason, who will be remembered in Paradiso in a far more positive light, as the precursor of Dante in his having taken a great voyage and returned with the golden fleece (Par. II.16-18; Par. XXV.7; Par. XXXIII.94-96), is here presented as the classical exemplar of the vile seducer. Dante has Virgil condense the lengthy narrative of Jason's exploits found in Ovid (Metam. VII.1-424) into two details, the seductions of Hypsipyle (daughter of the king of Lemnos) and of Medea (daughter of the king of Colchis).
For the resonance at v. 91 of Beatrice's description of Virgilian utterance as 'parola ornata' see the note to Inf. II.67. As for Jason's segni (signs of love), Dante may be thinking of his ability to move Medea by tears as well as words (see Ovid, Metam. VII.169).
The second ditch is filled with supernatural excrement (it only seems to have come from the toilets of humans). What do flatterers do? It is unnecessary to repeat the slang phrases that are used in nearly all languages to characterize their utterance. What they did above, they do below, wallowing in excrement, their faces ingesting it as animals guzzle food from their troughs (see v. 104).
Alessio Interminei is the first Lucchese whom we encounter, but there will be others, below. Dante seems systematically to include in hell representatives of all the major Tuscan cities.
Thaïs is a courtesan in Terence's comic play Eunuchus, and had a reputation even into the middle ages as a flatterer. Whether Dante is citing Terence directly (most currently dispute this) or through Cicero (De amicitia XXVI.98 – a text that Dante assuredly did know and which explicitly associates Thaïs with flattery, though there and in Terence she is the one flattered, not the flatterer) is a matter that still excites argument. For the most recent claims for Dante's knowledge of Terence see Claudia Villa (La “lectura Terentii” [Padua: Antenore, 1984]), esp. pp. 137-89, but see also the countering arguments of Baranski (“Dante e la tradizione comica latina,” in Dante e la “bella scola” della poesia: Autorità e sfida poetica, ed. A. A. Iannucci [Ravenna: Longo, 1993]), pp. 230-38 (and now Villa's rejoinder [“Comoedia: laus in canticis dicta? Schede per Dante: Paradiso, XXV.1 e Inferno, XVIII,” Rivista di Studi Danteschi 1 (2001)], pp. 325-31. After Moore (Studies in Dante, First Series: Scripture and Classical Authors in Dante (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969 [1896]), pp. 12, 261-62, many modern commentators rightly suggest that Dante's account closely reflects Cicero's, but not Terence's, further maintaining that we have not a single citation of any play by Terence anywhere in Dante's work. It is amusing to see that the seeds of the debate had already been planted in Pietro di Dante's second redaction at mid-fourteenth century (Pietro2, comm. to these verses) when Pietro cites the pertinent passage in Terence and then goes on to cite Cicero's reproduction of the scene in De amicitia. After Pietro, whose second and third redactions were not published until late in the twentieth century, and before Moore, Terence is the main source mentioned by those commentators who refer to a classical text, and none refers to Cicero. More recently Barchiesi (“Arte del prologo e arte della transizione,” Studi Danteschi 44 [1967], p. 203n., argues that Dante, if he only knew the passage indirectly from Cicero, knew of its Terentian source from John of Salisbury's Policraticus.
Satiety comes quickly when one watches people breathing excrement.
Commentary text is copyrighted and reproduced by permission.
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Luogo è in inferno detto Malebolge,
tutto di pietra di color ferrigno,
come la cerchia che dintorno il volge.
Nel dritto mezzo del campo maligno
vaneggia un pozzo assai largo e profondo,
di cui suo loco dicerò l'ordigno.
Quel cinghio che rimane adunque è tondo
tra 'l pozzo e 'l piè de l'alta ripa dura,
e ha distinto in dieci valli il fondo.
Quale, dove per guardia de le mura
più e più fossi cingon li castelli,
la parte dove son rende figura,
tale imagine quivi facean quelli;
e come a tai fortezze da' lor sogli
a la ripa di fuor son ponticelli,
così da imo de la roccia scogli
movien che ricidien li argini e ' fossi
infino al pozzo che i tronca e raccogli.
In questo luogo, de la schiena scossi
di Gerïon, trovammoci; e 'l poeta
tenne a sinistra, e io dietro mi mossi.
A la man destra vidi nova pieta,
novo tormento e novi frustatori,
di che la prima bolgia era repleta.
Nel fondo erano ignudi i peccatori;
dal mezzo in qua ci venien verso 'l volto,
di là con noi, ma con passi maggiori,
come i Roman per l'essercito molto,
l'anno del giubileo, su per lo ponte
hanno a passar la gente modo colto,
che da l'un lato tutti hanno la fronte
verso 'l castello e vanno a Santo Pietro,
da l'altra sponda vanno verso 'l monte.
Di qua, di là, su per lo sasso tetro
vidi demon cornuti con gran ferze,
che li battien crudelmente di retro.
Ahi come facean lor levar le berze
a le prime percosse! già nessuno
le seconde aspettava nè le terze.
Mentr' io andava, li occhi miei in uno
furo scontrati; e io sì tosto dissi:
“Già di veder costui non son digiuno.”
Per ch'ïo a figurarlo i piedi affissi;
e 'l dolce duca meco si ristette,
e assentio ch'alquanto in dietro gissi.
E quel frustato celar si credette
bassando 'l viso; ma poco li valse,
ch'io dissi: “O tu che l'occhio a terra gette,
se le fazion che porti non son false,
Venedico se' tu Caccianemico.
Ma che ti mena a sì pungenti salse?”
Ed elli a me: “Mal volontier lo dico;
ma sforzami la tua chiara favella,
che mi fa sovvenir del mondo antico.
I' fui colui che la Ghisolabella
condussi a far la voglia del marchese,
come che suoni la sconcia novella.
E non pur io qui piango bolognese;
anzi n'è questo loco tanto pieno,
che tante lingue non son ora apprese
a dicer 'sipa' tra Sàvena e Reno;
e se di ciò vuoi fede o testimonio,
rècati a mente il nostro avaro seno.”
Così parlando il percosse un demonio
de la sua scurïada, e disse: “Via,
ruffian! qui non son femmine da conio.”
I' mi raggiunsi con la scorta mia;
poscia con pochi passi divenimmo
là 'v' uno scoglio de la ripa uscia.
Assai leggeramente quel salimmo;
e vòlti a destra su per la sua scheggia,
da quelle cerchie etterne ci partimmo.
Quando noi fummo là dov' el vaneggia
di sotto per dar passo a li sferzati,
lo duca disse: “Attienti, e fa che feggia
lo viso in te di quest' altri mal nati,
ai quali ancor non vedesti la faccia
però che son con noi insieme andati.”
Del vecchio ponte guardavam la traccia
che venìa verso noi da l'altra banda,
e che la ferza similmente scaccia.
E 'l buon maestro, sanza mia dimanda,
mi disse: “Guarda quel grande che vene,
e per dolor non par lagrime spanda:
quanto aspetto reale ancor ritene!
Quelli è Iasón, che per cuore e per senno
li Colchi del monton privati féne.
Ello passò per l'isola di Lenno
poi che l'ardite femmine spietate
tutti li maschi loro a morte dienno.
Ivi con segni e con parole ornate
Isifile ingannò, la giovinetta
che prima avea tutte l'altre ingannate.
Lasciolla quivi, gravida, soletta;
tal colpa a tal martiro lui condanna;
e anche di Medea si fa vendetta.
Con lui sen va chi da tal parte inganna;
e questo basti de la prima valle
sapere e di color che 'n sé assanna.”
Già eravam là 've lo stretto calle
con l'argine secondo s'incrocicchia,
e fa di quello ad un altr' arco spalle.
Quindi sentimmo gente che si nicchia
ne l'altra bolgia e che col muso scuffa,
e sé medesma con le palme picchia.
Le ripe eran grommate d'una muffa,
per l'alito di giù che vi s'appasta,
che con li occhi e col naso facea zuffa.
Lo fondo è cupo sì, che non ci basta
loco a veder sanza montare al dosso
de l'arco, ove lo scoglio più sovrasta.
Quivi venimmo; e quindi giù nel fosso
vidi gente attuffata in uno sterco
che da li uman privadi parea mosso.
E mentre ch'io là giù con l'occhio cerco,
vidi un col capo sì di merda lordo,
che non parëa s'era laico o cherco.
Quei mi sgridò: “Perché se' tu sì gordo
di riguardar più me che li altri brutti?”
E io a lui: “Perché, se ben ricordo,
già t'ho veduto coi capelli asciutti,
e se' Alessio Interminei da Lucca:
però t'adocchio più che li altri tutti.”
Ed elli allor, battendosi la zucca:
“Qua giù m'hanno sommerso le lusinghe
ond' io non ebbi mai la lingua stucca.”
Appresso ciò lo duca “Fa che pinghe,”
mi disse, “il viso un poco più avante,
sì che la faccia ben con l'occhio attinghe
di quella sozza e scapigliata fante
che là si graffia con l'unghie merdose,
e or s'accoscia e ora è in piedi stante.
Taïde è, la puttana che rispuose
al drudo suo quando disse 'Ho io grazie
grandi apo te?': 'Anzi maravigliose!'
E quinci sian le nostre viste sazie.”
There is a place in Hell called Malebolge,
Wholly of stone and of an iron colour,
As is the circle that around it turns.
Right in the middle of the field malign
There yawns a well exceeding wide and deep,
Of which its place the structure will recount.
Round, then, is that enclosure which remains
Between the well and foot of the high, hard bank,
And has distinct in valleys ten its bottom.
As where for the protection of the walls
Many and many moats surround the castles,
The part in which they are a figure forms,
Just such an image those presented there;
And as about such strongholds from their gates
Unto the outer bank are little bridges,
So from the precipice's base did crags
Project, which intersected dikes and moats,
Unto the well that truncates and collects them.
Within this place, down shaken from the back
Of Geryon, we found us; and the Poet
Held to the left, and I moved on behind.
Upon my right hand I beheld new anguish,
New torments, and new wielders of the lash,
Wherewith the foremost Bolgia was replete.
Down at the bottom were the sinners naked;
This side the middle came they facing us,
Beyond it, with us, but with greater steps;
Even as the Romans, for the mighty host,
The year of Jubilee, upon the bridge,
Have chosen a mode to pass the people over;
For all upon one side towards the Castle
Their faces have, and go unto St. Peter's;
On the other side they go towards the Mountain.
This side and that, along the livid stone
Beheld I horned demons with great scourges,
Who cruelly were beating them behind.
Ah me! how they did make them lift their legs
At the first blows! and sooth not any one
The second waited for, nor for the third.
While I was going on, mine eyes by one
Encountered were; and straight I said: "Already
With sight of this one I am not unfed."
Therefore I stayed my feet to make him out,
And with me the sweet Guide came to a stand,
And to my going somewhat back assented;
And he, the scourged one, thought to hide himself,
Lowering his face, but little it availed him;
For said I: "Thou that castest down thine eyes,
If false are not the features which thou bearest,
Thou art Venedico Caccianimico;
But what doth bring thee to such pungent sauces?"
And he to me: "Unwillingly I tell it;
But forces me thine utterance distinct,
Which makes me recollect the ancient world.
I was the one who the fair Ghisola
Induced to grant the wishes of the Marquis,
Howe'er the shameless story may be told.
Not the sole Bolognese am I who weeps here;
Nay, rather is this place so full of them,
That not so many tongues to-day are taught
'Twixt Reno and Savena to say 'sipa;'
And if thereof thou wishest pledge or proof,
Bring to thy mind our avaricious heart."
While speaking in this manner, with his scourge
A demon smote him, and said: "Get thee gone
Pander, there are no women here for coin."
I joined myself again unto mine Escort;
Thereafterward with footsteps few we came
To where a crag projected from the bank.
This very easily did we ascend,
And turning to the right along its ridge,
From those eternal circles we departed.
When we were there, where it is hollowed out
Beneath, to give a passage to the scourged,
The Guide said: "Wait, and see that on thee strike
The vision of those others evil-born,
Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the faces,
Because together with us they have gone."
From the old bridge we looked upon the train
Which tow'rds us came upon the other border,
And which the scourges in like manner smite.
And the good Master, without my inquiring,
Said to me: "See that tall one who is coming,
And for his pain seems not to shed a tear;
Still what a royal aspect he retains!
That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning
The Colchians of the Ram made destitute.
He by the isle of Lemnos passed along
After the daring women pitiless
Had unto death devoted all their males.
There with his tokens and with ornate words
Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden
Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived.
There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn;
Such sin unto such punishment condemns him,
And also for Medea is vengeance done.
With him go those who in such wise deceive;
And this sufficient be of the first valley
To know, and those that in its jaws it holds."
We were already where the narrow path
Crosses athwart the second dike, and forms
Of that a buttress for another arch.
Thence we heard people, who are making moan
In the next Bolgia, snorting with their muzzles,
And with their palms beating upon themselves
The margins were incrusted with a mould
By exhalation from below, that sticks there,
And with the eyes and nostrils wages war.
The bottom is so deep, no place suffices
To give us sight of it, without ascending
The arch's back, where most the crag impends.
Thither we came, and thence down in the moat
I saw a people smothered in a filth
That out of human privies seemed to flow;
And whilst below there with mine eye I search,
I saw one with his head so foul with ordure,
It was not clear if he were clerk or layman.
He screamed to me: "Wherefore art thou so eager
To look at me more than the other foul ones?"
And I to him: "Because, if I remember,
I have already seen thee with dry hair,
And thou'rt Alessio Interminei of Lucca;
Therefore I eye thee more than all the others."
And he thereon, belabouring his pumpkin:
"The flatteries have submerged me here below,
Wherewith my tongue was never surfeited."
Then said to me the Guide: "See that thou thrust
Thy visage somewhat farther in advance,
That with thine eyes thou well the face attain
Of that uncleanly and dishevelled drab,
Who there doth scratch herself with filthy nails,
And crouches now, and now on foot is standing.
Thais the harlot is it, who replied
Unto her paramour, when he said, 'Have I
Great gratitude from thee?'—'Nay, marvellous;'
And herewith let our sight be satisfied."
The extended introductory passage interrupts the narrative in order to set the new scene: Malebolge, the eighth Circle, with its ten varieties of fraudulent behaviors. Only in Inferno does an equal number of cantos (17 and 17) create a precise center for a cantica in the space between two cantos, and we have just passed it. The last canto ended with a sort of 'comic' conclusion to Dante's dangerous voyage on Geryon. He has now traversed precisely half of the literary space devoted to the underworld. Thus, fully half of the cantica, cantos XVIII to XXXIV, is dedicated to the sins of Fraud. That division tells us something about the poet's view of human behavior, namely that it is better typified by the worst of sins than by the lesser ones.
Robert Durling has developed the schematic idea that all of hell is depicted as having a structure parallel to that of the human body, with Malebolge representing the belly. See his “Deceit and Digestion in the Belly of Hell,” in Allegory and Representation: Selected Papers from the English Institute, 1979-80, ed. Stephen A. Greenblatt (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981), pp. 61-93; and see the commentary of Durling and Martinez (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 552-55; 576-77.
The poetry of Malebolge, studied by Edoardo Sanguineti (Interpretazione di Malebolge [Florence: Olschki, 1962]), is strikingly self-confident. One has the feeling that Dante, having finished his apprenticeship, now has achieved a level of aesthetic performance that may have surprised even him. In the seventh canto he had conjoined two kinds of sinners, the avaricious and the prodigal; but these are two sides of the same sin. Here for the first time, as something of a tour de force, he includes two entirely separate categories of sin in a single canto, one of them itself subdivided into two groups, as in Canto VII – all of this in 115 lines. The precision of the operation is noteworthy, and may be represented as follows:
(1) panders & seducers (2) flatterers
disposition of both (22-39) disposition (100-114)
modern exemplar (52-66) modern exemplar (115-126)
classical exemplar (82-99) classical exemplar (127-136)
For the self-conscious, deliberately Virgilian opening of the canto ('Locus est' is found several times in the Aeneid marking the transition from one poetic place to another), see Marino Barchiesi's long article, “Arte del prologo e arte della transizione,” Studi Danteschi 44 (1967), pp. 115-207, a meditation on Dante's narrative technique, including a substantial discussion of this passage.
The hellscape offers a grey stone circular wall surrounding a stone 'field,' which in turn surrounds a pit (the 'keep' of this 'castle'); the field is divided into ten valleys, which resemble moats set around a castle. The analogy is complete, but works in reverse, since a castle rises above its surroundings, while this 'castle' is a hole leading into hell. Our first view of Malebolge (the name is a Dantean coinage made up of words meaning 'evil' and 'pouches') makes it seem like a vast, emptied stadium, e.g., the Colosseum, which Dante might have seen in 1301 if he indeed visited Rome then, or the arena of Verona, which he probably saw at least by 1304. The former hypothesis is attractive in that the second image of the canto is also modelled on Roman architecture: the bridge over the Tiber between Trastevere and the city.
The narrative is now joined to the action concluding the last canto and the poets resume their leftward circling movement.
The panders, moving from left to right as Dante views them, are moving in a direction contrary to his; the seducers, moving from his right to his left, and thus moving in parallel with him, are going faster than he; but then he has no demons lashing him with whips.
The simile, reflecting the Roman invention of two-way traffic in 1300 for the crowds thronging to the holy places, on the bridge across the Tiber, from the city (to St. Peter's, after they pass Castel Sant'Angelo) and back again (to the area of Monte Giordano, just off the Tiber), has caused some to argue that Dante had been in Rome during the Jubilee. It is more likely that he was in fact there in 1301 and heard tell of this modern wonder of crowd control. That the first city that Malebolge calls to mind is Rome in the Jubilee Year is not without its ironic thrust, especially since it had been Pope Boniface VIII, so hated by Dante, who proclaimed this great event (the first in the Church's history). For a recent bibliography, 172 items regarding this first Jubilee Year see Enzo Esposito, “Bibliografia 'essenziale' del Giubileo (1300) di Dante e di Bonifacio VIII,” L'Alighieri 16 (2000), pp. 139-51.
Benvenuto da Imola (comm. to XVIII.34-36) suggests that the panders are punished by horned devils because their actions resulted in the cuckoldry of others.
Venedico was an important political figure of Bologna in the second half of the thirteenth century. His sin was in selling his own sister to Opizzo of Este (see Inf. XII.111). He actually died in 1302, although Dante obviously believed he had died before 1300.
Venedico's pleasantry insists that there are more Bolognesi in this zone of hell than currently populate the city itself. 'Sipa' is ancient dialectical Bolognese for 'yes,' and thus the phrase means 'have grown up speaking Bolognese dialect' between the rivers that mark the eastern and western confines of the city.
The demon's rough remark is variously understood: either 'there are no women here to defraud' (as Venedico did his sister), or 'there are no women here for sale' (to offer to Dante). And there may also be a hint of the slang for female genitalia. In our translation we have tried to keep both of the first meanings possible.
The circlings of the whipped sinners, not of the ditches themselves, are almost certainly what is referred to, just as Francesco da Buti said centuries ago (comm. to XVIII.67-72). However, it was only some 80 years ago that Enrico Bianchi (“Le 'cerchie eterne,'” Studi Danteschi 3 [1921], pp. 137-39) brought such a comprehension back to the verse, thereby increasing its power: the reference is to the Florentine custom of whipping a condemned man along the route to his execution. Most contemporary commentators accept this reading.
At the high point of the bridge over the ditch on their way toward the next bolgia the travelers stop to observe the second set of sinners in this one, whom they have not been able to examine because these were going along in the same direction as were they, and at a faster clip.
Like Capaneus (Inf. XIV.46-48), the heroic Jason is allowed to keep some of his dignity and his stoical strength.
Jason, who will be remembered in Paradiso in a far more positive light, as the precursor of Dante in his having taken a great voyage and returned with the golden fleece (Par. II.16-18; Par. XXV.7; Par. XXXIII.94-96), is here presented as the classical exemplar of the vile seducer. Dante has Virgil condense the lengthy narrative of Jason's exploits found in Ovid (Metam. VII.1-424) into two details, the seductions of Hypsipyle (daughter of the king of Lemnos) and of Medea (daughter of the king of Colchis).
For the resonance at v. 91 of Beatrice's description of Virgilian utterance as 'parola ornata' see the note to Inf. II.67. As for Jason's segni (signs of love), Dante may be thinking of his ability to move Medea by tears as well as words (see Ovid, Metam. VII.169).
The second ditch is filled with supernatural excrement (it only seems to have come from the toilets of humans). What do flatterers do? It is unnecessary to repeat the slang phrases that are used in nearly all languages to characterize their utterance. What they did above, they do below, wallowing in excrement, their faces ingesting it as animals guzzle food from their troughs (see v. 104).
Alessio Interminei is the first Lucchese whom we encounter, but there will be others, below. Dante seems systematically to include in hell representatives of all the major Tuscan cities.
Thaïs is a courtesan in Terence's comic play Eunuchus, and had a reputation even into the middle ages as a flatterer. Whether Dante is citing Terence directly (most currently dispute this) or through Cicero (De amicitia XXVI.98 – a text that Dante assuredly did know and which explicitly associates Thaïs with flattery, though there and in Terence she is the one flattered, not the flatterer) is a matter that still excites argument. For the most recent claims for Dante's knowledge of Terence see Claudia Villa (La “lectura Terentii” [Padua: Antenore, 1984]), esp. pp. 137-89, but see also the countering arguments of Baranski (“Dante e la tradizione comica latina,” in Dante e la “bella scola” della poesia: Autorità e sfida poetica, ed. A. A. Iannucci [Ravenna: Longo, 1993]), pp. 230-38 (and now Villa's rejoinder [“Comoedia: laus in canticis dicta? Schede per Dante: Paradiso, XXV.1 e Inferno, XVIII,” Rivista di Studi Danteschi 1 (2001)], pp. 325-31. After Moore (Studies in Dante, First Series: Scripture and Classical Authors in Dante (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969 [1896]), pp. 12, 261-62, many modern commentators rightly suggest that Dante's account closely reflects Cicero's, but not Terence's, further maintaining that we have not a single citation of any play by Terence anywhere in Dante's work. It is amusing to see that the seeds of the debate had already been planted in Pietro di Dante's second redaction at mid-fourteenth century (Pietro2, comm. to these verses) when Pietro cites the pertinent passage in Terence and then goes on to cite Cicero's reproduction of the scene in De amicitia. After Pietro, whose second and third redactions were not published until late in the twentieth century, and before Moore, Terence is the main source mentioned by those commentators who refer to a classical text, and none refers to Cicero. More recently Barchiesi (“Arte del prologo e arte della transizione,” Studi Danteschi 44 [1967], p. 203n., argues that Dante, if he only knew the passage indirectly from Cicero, knew of its Terentian source from John of Salisbury's Policraticus.
Satiety comes quickly when one watches people breathing excrement.
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