We've come to the last sinner who speaks in INFERNO. And his story is as wild as it gets. He claims that once someone violates the guest/host relationship, their soul exits their body and falls into the ice sheet at the center of the earth. Their body is then made into a puppet for a demon.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk through the third ring of Cocytus, Ptolomea, out on the ice sheet of the ninth circle of Dante's INFERNO. It's one last imaginative blast before the final revelation of INFERNO.

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

[01:50] My English translation of this passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXIII, lines 118 - 157. If you'd like to read along, print it off, make notes, or drop comments, please find it on my website: markscarbrough.com.

[05:37] Brother Alberigo clearly wants to be known.

[07:02] Who is Brother Alberigo as a historical figure?

[09:52] Why is Brother Alberigo here when he's still alive?

[11:09] What's the deal with the dates and figs?

[12:09] Who is Branca Doria?

[14:26] Branca Doria actually outlived the poet Dante!

[15:34] The artistic problem with so much emphasis on the historical identities of the characters in COMEDY.

[18:06] What does "Ptolomea" mean, this third ring of Cocytus, the ninth circle of hell?

[20:52] Theology in the passage: first (strangely) a reference to Atropos.

[21:50] Theology in the passage: the guest/host relationship.

[26:30] Theology in the passage: zombies!

[28:58] The condemnation of Genoa as the last of a list of condemnations of central Italian city-states.

[33:32] What is justice in this passage?

[36:11] I don't need Saint Dante. I need a great poet.

[38:27] Rereading the entire journey across Ptolomea: INFERNO, Canto XXXIII, lines 91 - 157.