Hi there. I'm Mark Scarbrough and this episode is one of the interpolated ones for the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE. I'd like to pause in Inferno, Canto XXI, before we move on to its end and into Canto XXII to talk about demons in Dante's INFERNO: who they are, why they are, and how they function.

No passage from COMEDY in this episode. Just a little to give you some background about Dante's demons because they're becoming more and more prominent in the plot.

Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[00:50] The medieval debates about demons. Tormentors or tempters? And corporeal or not?

[03:45] Two sorts of demons in Dante's day: theological and folkloric.

[06:29] More about folkloric demons.

[08:54] The origins of Satan. And while we're at it, where is he?

[10:54] The two Florentine words Dante uses: demonio and diavolo. Are they interchangeable? Maybe not.

[13:20] Were the pagan gods demons? Maybe not for Dante.