Finally, we are done with the fifth circle of hell, with the wrathful (and the sullen) and all that happens standing before the gates of Dis.

We're also done with the seven deadly sins as a structuring device for INFERNO, because we follow our pilgrim, Dante, and his guide, Virgil, into the sixth circle, not of envy, pride, or sloth, but of heresy.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we continue our slow walk with our pilgrim through the infernal worlds. We have finally passed into the sixth circle of hell, a circle that's a bit hard to figure out. Why heresy? And why here? (And these are only the beginnings of the problems in this most curious circle.)

I'll try to answer those questions and more in this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE.

Here are the segments of this episode:

[01:00] My English translation of the passage from Inferno: Canto IX, lines 107 - 133.

[03:48] Five general observations on the sixth circle of hell, the ring of the heretics. 1) They're in tombs--which are INSIDE the city's walls, where they'd rarely be in a medieval landscape. 2) There is no formal descent (or even a step down) to this circle. 3) The sin punished is not self-evident until Virgil fills the pilgrim in. 4) The sin itself--heresy--is a strange one in the poem's schematics where every sin seems to be about the will. And 5) Maybe heresy shows a bit of poetic insecurity, as Dante-the-poet steps beyond and Virgilian landscape and into one of his own creation.

[11:38] Six glosses (or notes) on this particular passage. 1) These are ROMAN tombs. 2) There's a curious reference to art (or craft) in the passage (so maybe more about poetics?). 3) The tombs' lids are "suspended"--as Virgil is in Limbo. 4) The tombs are described as arks--you know, like Noah's. 5) The classical world has definitely been left behind. And 6) Virgil leads Dante to the right, not the left, as he does in almost every other instance in INFERNO.

[24:25] One more time reading through the passage to set it in your mind.

How long have we been standing with Dante-the-pilgrim and Virgil, his guide, in front of the walls of Dis? For ten episodes of this podcast!

And now comes salvation in the form of a messenger from heaven. This has been an epic sequence. Problem is, it all ends with a big anticlimax.

Guess what? Salvation was always on the way. So what was everyone so worried about?

Here are the segments of this episode:

[00:56] My English translation of this passage from INFERNO: Canto IX, lines 64 - 106.

[04:02] Two passages from the Aeneid get fused together right in front of the walls of Dis, offering us a sweep of Virgil's epid right before we pass out of Virgil's landscape.

[07:22] Then a simile from Ovid, that shows all the derring-do Dante-the-poet could ever muster as he renovates a strange allusion into a Christian context. Our poet is nothing if not brave!

[10:32] The messenger arrives. Is he Christ? Or Michael? Or Mercury? Or all of them together. Jesus is the word of God made flesh. Mercury brings the words of the gods. Maybe this figure is the coming of eloquence when you need it most, when you're about to step away from your master's imaginative landscape and into your own.

[16:58] And now proper disdain. We've had disdain from the demons, but here comes the real thing.

Without a doubt, this passage is one of the densest with classical allegory in INFERNO. The references are so thick and fast, in fact, that Dante-the-poet even steps out and asks us to notice it as a giant allegorical scheme in the poem.

But an allegorical scheme of what? Which part of all this time among the wrathful is allegorical? All of it? Even back to Phlegyas' boat? Or just this scene? Just the Furies? Or maybe just the threat of Medusa's arrival? Or even just the bit about Virgil's hands, which get placed over the pilgrim's eyes?

This passage starts with a problem--memory fails in a poem that promises memory won't--and moves through an intense sequence of classical references in front of the walls of Dis. It's surely one of the most complicated passage we've yet encountered in terms of literary traditions and classical literature.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I explore this passage from INFERNO and get a bit lost in the weeds of classical literature--because Dante-the-poet asks me to.

Here are the segments of this episode:

[01:06] My English translation of this passage from INFERNO: Canto IX, lines 34 - 63.

[03:17] Memory fails at the walls of Dis! Understandable, sure, because it's terrifying. Problem is, Dante-the-poet prayed for "unerring memory" back in Canto II. So what's going on?

[04:50] The Furies arrive in all their horror--and all their allegory, too. Here we strike at the heart of this complicated passage in which we're asked to Christianize classical literature and "classicize" a Christian poem.

[11:16] Dante-the-pilgrim presses close to Virgil. But maybe the poet does, too. Maybe the way out of too much classical imagery is to engage more deeply with . . . classical literature. Or maybe engage more humanly?

[14:11] The threat of the Medusa! She'll turn him to stone. But which him? Dante-the-pilgrim? Or Dante-the-poet? Maybe both.

[18:45] In the final tercet, the poet steps out and asks us to look behind the "veil" of his poetry. I've got four points about this complex stance. 1) What about this entire sequence in front of Dis makes the poet break the fourth wall of the narrative twice? 2) What does it mean to get behind the "veil" of his poetry? 3) If we do get behind it to see the allegory, which allegory are we supposed to see? And 4) what if in fact we have the first example of a bit of insecurity, not from the pilgrim, but from the Dante-the-poet?

We danced around with the witch Erichtho quite a bit in the last episode. Seven different interpretive stances toward her that can arise out of Dante's poem. That is, seven possible ways she functions in the text. Seven ways to interpret her presence, all from a single line of medieval poetry.

Which at first begs but really brings up a giant question for us as we walk with Dante-the-pilgim: Did Dante-the-poet, the man behind the curtain, intend all of this?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I explore the various answers to that question over the ages to help us all understand how this poem could support the interpretive weight it does.

Here are the segments to this episode:

[01:28] The medieval answer: Yes, he did.

[04:22] The neoclassical answer: It doesn't matter because the poem's a mess.

[06:07] No, he didn't--but he did intend to build the open framework of a structure that could allow . . . no, actually encourage so much movement. I've got five ways how he built that structure.

At the end of INFERNO, Canto VIII, we left our pilgrim and his guide standing outside the walls of Dis, the city of hell. Virgil appeared to be a bit afraid but putting a good face on it for Dante-the-pilgrim.

Now Virgil's doubts are more pronounced. (And maybe the poet's, too.) To compensate, Virgil launches into one of the strangest moments of INFERNO, the story of his descent to the bottom of hell, conjured by the witch Erichtho, a character in Lucan's PHARSALIA.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I get to this long-awaited passage, one of my favorites in INFERNO. Virgil becomes more fictional, gets a backstory made up out of whole cloth, from a bit of Lucan, all to land in a strange human place of faithful doubt or doubting faith.

COMEDY is becoming more complex with every step.

Here are the segments of this episode:

[01:00] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto IX, lines 1 - 33. If you'd like to see this passage, it's on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[02:58] Two further notes on the fifth circle of hell, the ring of wrath. One, Virgil doesn't appear to be blocked by classical figures, only Christian ones. And two, it's in the circle of wrath that parental references become most pronounced.

[05:58] Working through the passage without mentioning the witch Erichtho. Here are some of the complexities of this passage, bearing in on it as a moment in which the "fictive" quality of COMEDY deepens.

[17:14] Finally, Erichtho! I talk through some of her story from Lucan's PHARSALIA, and the ways in which Lucan is rewriting Virgil's AENEID--and the ways in which Dante may be rewriting Virgil. I then offer seven interpretive knots Erichtho causes for the poem as a whole. It's a wild ride. No wonder I wanted to get here!

Virgil goes off to confer with the demons who then slam shut the gates of Dis, shutting our pilgrim out in the fifth circle of INFERNO, among the wrathful, with no way forward.

But more importantly, Dante-the-pilgrim has been left alone. This hasn't happened since the dark wood in Canto I.

To compensate for the feeling that the pilgrim is being abandoned, Virgil makes a beautiful promise. And something else happens to Virgil: He seems to get his own internal space. And beyond that: a backstory.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the end of Canto VIII of INFERNO which may be one of the most resonant and human passages we've yet encountered in INFERNO. So much is changing in this great poem. Let's see if we can tease out the human problems, not just the classical references.

Here are the segments of this episode:

[01:00] My English translation for this passage in INFERNO: Canto VIII, lines 97 - 130

[03:23] Dante-the-pilgrim's terror at being left alone--or perhaps the poet's terror at being left at the edge of Virgil's imaginative landscape.

[08:16] Virgil's response to the pilgrim: a promise never to leave him. A promise Virgil will break, both in this passage and finally much later in the poem in a heart-wrenching scene.

[11:39] The pilgrim's response--and the poet's technique of a unified point of view. Plus, Virgil's apparent doubts before the walls of Dis.

[18:22] Virgil's reply: faith and encouragement, despite his own doubts.

[26:42] Where are we? What circle is this? What happened to our museum of the damned? So much has changed in the tectonic shift in the poem.

Dante-the-pilgrim and Virgil have made it across Styx, leaving behind Filippo Argenti and the wrathful. They've come to the iron walls of Dis, the city of hell.

These walls are more than that a geopolitical barrier in INFERNO. They're a literary barrier, too. Because this is the farthest point in the afterlife Aeneas got to. Here is the farthest Virgil's imagination could go.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch the poet come up to an important wall: the one Virgil couldn't (or didn't) pass. The poet must decide to go on. This is the point at which our poet's folly is bearing in on him. Maybe at the start of this canto, there was a break. But THIS is more of a moment of true change in the poem.

Here are the segments of this episode:

[01:23] My English translation of this passage from INFERNO: Canto VIII, lines 64 - 96

[04:00] One way to think about hell: a two-part structure of the moments outside of Dis and the moments inside this city.

[08:31] The minarets of Dis are the poet's one last brushstroke on a completely Virgilian landscape painting. From here on out, we're leaving THE AENEID behind.

[13:21] Our first Christian demons! It can't be a mistake that we encounter them here, on the walls of Dis, the farthest point Aeneas (and maybe the poet Virgil) reached.

[14:41] Dante's folly without Virgil--a writer's insecurity writ large.

[19:13] The first direct address to the reader in COMEDY. There will be seven in each of the three parts of the work. And that the first occurs here can't be a mistake. This is the moment in which the poet's folly is beginning to bear in on him.

We've been through some dramatic passages: dark woods, wild beasts, Francesca, and Cerberus. But nothing rivals the crossing of (river? swamp?) Styx in the fifth circle of INFERNO.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take a slow walk through this passage about our pilgrim Dante's time among the wrathful. We'll ferry across and almost get capsized along with him and Virgil.

This passage is loaded: Bible verses, strange references, thematics picked up from previous passages, thematics setting up future passages. These lines deserve a slow walk.

To support this podcast, please consider a very small monthly stipend or a one-time gift. You can do so at this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:24] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 31 - 63. If you want to see this passage or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:19] An overview of the passage, including some notes on how famous this passage has become because of its references in other works.

[05:26] A figure rises out of Styx! He and our pilgrim start into a game of insults. But insults are never simple in a world controlled by vendetta.

[12:00] Our pilgrim Dante gets angry--and Virgil approves.

[13:11] A long section on unpacking Virgil's response to the pilgrim's anger: Bible verses, Messianic gestures, lots of questions about justice, divine or human.

[24:59] Filippo Argenti, the sinner from the muck, is a Black Guelph, the arch enemies of Dante and the White Guelphs . . . which means this passage is about vendetta.

In almost every episode of WALKING WITH DANTE, we take a passage from (so far) INFERNO and analyze it, talk through it, and look at some of the interpretive knots. But in this episode, I'd like for you to hear the storytelling.

To that end, I read all of the fifth circle of wrath in INFERNO, from Canto VII: Line 97 all the way to Canto IX: Line 106. I'd like you to hear it as a story, a narrative, with its rising and falling action, as well as those things that we associate with good storytelling.

We'll come back to all of it passage by passage in the next episode.

Sit back and take in the story. It might be some of the most important "work" you can do in COMEDY.

[02:38] Reading my translation of INFERNO, Canto VII, line 97 to Canto IX, Line 106.

The fifth circle of INFERNO: wrath (and its counterpart to come).

We may or may not be over a break in the poem. Boccaccio thought so. Many modern scholars do not. I'll give you some reasons why this passage may not be a break in COMEDY.

Plus, we'll talk about the uneasy balance between the classical and Christian worlds, starting with Phlegyas, the boatman over this swampy muck.

And we'll discover how Dante attempts to solve the problem of the pilgrim's corporeality. He is indeed in his body. Which means this poem is not a dream vision. Which means that he's starting to claim that this journey "really" happened. And that the journey gains some sort of weight . . . and slows down.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk slowly with the pilgrim Dante across the known universe--or here, set out in a boat to cross the muck of the wrathful.

If you'd like to help underwrite this podcast with a small monthly stipend or a one-time donation, please consider using this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:05] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 7 - 30. (Actually, I'll back up and take it from the first line of the canto for a running start into these lines.) If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website: markscarbrough.com.

[02:53] Does the poem really restart? Most thought so in the Renaissance. Many don't think so now. Here are some of the reasons my interpretation--that it restarts at Canto VIII--may be wrong. It begins with the growth of Virgil's character.

[07:46] Why do the towers signal each other? In other words, the scene opens with a interpretative question, which sets up the interpretive quagmire of the cantos ahead.

[10:58] The little boat arrives! It's "little," as opposed to Charon's big boat.

[12:21] Who is Phlegyas?

[14:04] Perhaps it's not good to think about the poet Dante in terms of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Perhaps it's better to think of him in terms of the classical and the modern world.

[17:44] The problem of corporeality is solved! The boat sinks down under the weight of the pilgrim. But that solution brings with it more problems! And maybe it also exhibits a greater confidence on the part of this poet.