Evening under Lamplight Podcast

We come next in The Inferno to Brunetto Latini, a writer and public servant whom Dante reverse, but who is here with those who were violent against Nature, specifically for his sexual sin, but really - as we explore - for something much deeper, much more problematic.

We're now at Canto 14, the first of three cantos describing those who are Violent against God, nature, and art - a place of flames of fire descending above, onto a vast plain of sand, which is catching fire from the flames coming down. We focus in on one huge man, stretched out on the ground, defying God, proclaiming that these flames aren't hurting him: "You can't make me cry!" What's going on here? Come along and explore this with us.

In Canto 13 we find ourselves in an eerie, dead forest, and meet those who have been violent to themselves, and to their property, who are suffering surreal and horrible fates.

Here is the psychological state of being violent towards other people - and this can range from mass murder and genocide all the way down to making fun of someone you don't like for having buttoned his shirt the wrong way today. Your blood boils, and you keep yourself in a violent state with all the backstories you tell yourself.

Canto 11, one of the shortest cantos in The Inferno, provides a rest from the action, as Virgil explains to Dante what they're about to face as they enter down into Lower Hell, the area of malice, the intentional desire to harm others. 

Here, just inside the walls of the Inner City of Hell, Dante finds the souls of the heretics, boxed in with their own limited vision of reality, almost comic in the absurd way they mistake what's going on around them. Dante learns here more, perhaps, than he wanted to.

In Canto 9, we encounter the Furies, we just miss being turned to stone by Medusa, we are saved by a heavenly presence, and we move on into enemy territory - the Inner City of Hell. What do we find there first? 

In Canto 8 we come face to face with anger, and then are stopped by over a thousand hostile demons blocking the entrance into the lower regions of Hell.

We come to Canto 7, where we encounter two groups of sinners: those who took money to an extreme, and those whom anger conquered. We also learn about Fortune, who controls the distribution of worldly goods.

We come to Circle Three of the Inferno, the disgusting home of the gluttons.