Recap of Canto 14 of Dante’s “Inferno”, Alexander Aciman. Priamo della Quercia, Dante Meets the Sodomites, c. 15th century. This winter, we’re recapping the Inferno. Read along! Dear Dante, I’ve received your manuscript for Canto 14 of the Inferno, and I have quite a few notes. The language and poetry of this passage is absolutely magical; a few passages in particular caught my attention, such as “The gloomy forest rings it like a garland,” (line ten), which is such a beautiful way of phrasing it. That said, certain parts left me wanting more, and they confused me enough to wonder if you were really trying your hardest. This canto focuses on those who have sinned against God. Virgil then yells at Capaneus—in fact, he’s downright nasty to Capaneus, which was a treat to read.
The two move on. Virgil tells Dante a story about some woman taking a baby into the mountain. But that’s not even the worst of it. I like what I’ve seen so far, and I hope we can do a playback on this Canto to get it back on track. Warmest regards,Johann Neumeister P.S. Recapping Dante: Canto 16, or the Pilgrim’s Progress, Alexander Aciman. Giovanni Stradano, Canto XVI, 1587. This winter, we’re recapping the Inferno. Read along! At this point in The Inferno, as Dante continues to test, stretch, and deplete Virgil’s patience, let us imagine for a moment what Virgil might say given the opportunity to write a performance review for the pilgrim. Performance Review Pilgrim name: Dante AlighieriOccupation: Poet/expert stalker/political commentator (fascist?)
Supervisor’s notes: Dante has done well on this divine quest so far, especially considering the fact that I found him lost in a forest not long ago. I still worry about him, however. He is prone to pity, and when we passed through the realm of the sodomites, I instructed him to treat the few sinners we would encounter with respect and kindness. Dante can be irritating, but he has strong interpersonal skills—they almost make me wish I were a Florentine myself. To catch up on our Dante series, click here. Recapping Dante: Canto 12, or A Concerned Parent Contacts the FCC, Alexander Aciman.
Gustave Doré, Canto XII, lines 73, 74. This winter, we’re recapping the Inferno. Read along! To whom it may concern: For the last several months my child has been watching the program The Inferno. I’ve had concerns about the moral integrity of this show since the beginning, but a recent episode, “Canto 12: Dante with a Vengeance” is perhaps the worst of it. The episode, which I heard about from my son and then felt concerned enough to watch myself, begins as the two main characters meet a Minotaur. But it gets worse. Allow me to set my faith aside for a minute, because the worst of The Inferno is not in its hunger for blasphemy.
I can’t even begin to tell you all the questions my son asked after seeing this episode. My son also pointed out that the punishment fit the crime very well. Let’s get back to the river of blood. Cordially, An American mother To catch up on our Dante series, click here. Recapping Dante: Canto 3, or Abandon Hope, Alexander Aciman. Charon Carries Souls Across the River Styx, Alexander Dmitrievich Litovchenko, 1861, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. I am writing this from the lobby of the Ace Hotel in New York; as I ascend from the basement with Dante under my arm, I see the following text printed on the stairs: EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT. This inscription offers an appropriate contrast to the opening of the third canto, which gives us the famous line written above the gates of hell, a line so famous that many know it well without knowing exactly who wrote it: ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER HERE. And just like the inscription in hell, these words too are written in the hotel’s neo-Victorian “dark hue.”
Canto 3 is our first real contact with hell. This canto is loud. At this point, Dante starts crying. Dante can only see the sinners in what he calls the “dim light.” Charon tells Dante to move aside, and can see that Dante is in fact alive. This fall, we’re recapping the Inferno. Recapping Dante: Canto 2, Alexander Aciman. William Blake, Dante and Virgil Penetrating the Forest (1824-7) This fall, we’re recapping the Inferno. Read along! It’s called a remix. That’s how this segment begins.
It’s a living pastiche, a breathing exercise in allusion and homage. Every scholar seems to agree that the opening lines of this canto are Virgilian, but none know exactly which passage Dante is imitating. This canto is all about due diligence. “O Muses, O lofty genius, aid me now!” Dante goes on to imply how excited he is to take the same journey as Aeneas, and says “I am not Aeneas, nor am I Paul. Virgil reveals that he was asked to help guide Dante to safety by a woman named Beatrice, who, as will be explained endlessly in the rest of the poem, is Dante’s beloved.
In her conversation with Virgil, Beatrice says that Dante is “no friend of Fortune,” which is a polite way of comparing him to a clumsy, wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time Woody Allen character. To catch up on our Dante series, click here. Recapping Dante: Canto 18, or Beware the Bolognese, Alexander Aciman. Sandro Botticelli, Canto XVIII, colored drawing on parchment, c. 1480 Canto 18 is perhaps the unsung workhorse of the Inferno—at only 136 lines, it is filled to the brim with political commentary, mythology, personal attacks, and feces.
There’s a distinct energy in the way this canto is written; even the obligatory geographical descriptions feel alive, and Dante, when he sets the scene, uses the word new: new suffering, “new torments,” “new scourgers.” In short, this is a sort of broad-spectrum dis track that deals with two different kinds of sinners: the panderers/seducers and the flatterers. After Dante and Virgil get off Geryon’s back, they end up in the eighth circle of hell. (The seventh really dragged on, didn’t it?) This is Malebolge, where sinners are made to run through a series of ditches; if they slow down, demons descend to flog them. Dante meets Venedico of Bologna—a sinner, and as such, not exactly a model human being. To catch up on our Dante series, click here.