Walking With Dante20 Loka 2021

A Look Back Over The Seventh Circle Of Hell In Dante's COMEDY

We've spent over forty (!) episodes of this podcast slow-walking through the seventh circle of INFERNO, among the sins of violence. We've been here a long time, to say the least. So I thought it would be crucial to look back at the sweep of the seventh circle--that is, INFERNO, Cantos XII through XVII.

There's no specific passage for this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE. Rather, I'd like to detail some of the structural and thematic unifying devices in the cantos. And I'd like to ask a two questions for which I have no answer.

Here are the segments of this podcast episode on the Seventh Circle of INFERNO:

[01:29] A look at a few of the structuring devices in Cantos XII through XVII--that is, some of the poetic ways Dante ties this long stretch into one unit, both astride beasts and the possibility of a Crete program in these cantos.

[04:48] More structuring details: court life to start, followed by the ways the middle class can make money in the nascent days of liquid capital. The violent against others and against themselves are largely about courts; the violent against God are partly about how money is made or power is accumulated in this new world. In the middle, almost as a fulcrum, lies Capaneus, the mythic hero, stretched out on the burning sands.

[07:03] The poet and the pilgrim are both becoming more assertive throughout these cantos.

[08:36] The Seventh Circle starts with the Minotaur and perhaps should be seen as a series of labyrinths.

[10:55] The Seventh Circle is controlled by Phlegethon--in other words, by flow.

[12:58] One question for which I have no answer: Why does the Seventh Circle of INFERNO start with a slope and end with a cliff?

[14:21] There are clearly two modes of writing INFERNO so far: the travelogue, a tour of sin; and the exploration of interiority, of personal space, found in the long sequences with some sinners. The Seventh Circle starts and ends with a travelogue, bits which bracket more intense psychological and sociological explorations.

[16:52] A second question for which I have no answer: Does naming the work "COMEDY" in the circle of the violent do violence to the text the poet is writing?

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Incarnated in the Moon: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 19 - 45

After Dante's warning to his readers (or perhaps some of his readers), we return to the plot, ascending through the heavens to arrive at the moon . . . or really, in the moon.Dante and Beatrice find t...

19 Elo 28min

Go Home: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 1 - 18

Our poet steps out of the shadows with an important message: "Go home."Because PARADISO is hard. Because we might get lost. Because we're not prepared.The stark address to all readers--or perhaps to a...

16 Elo 25min

Of Natural Instincts and Their Natural Ends: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 115 - 142

Beatrice continues in her discourse about our natural instincts, making the bold claim that they can lead us to our natural ends . . . which are the good, not the catastrophic bad.Her Scholastic theol...

12 Elo 23min

Sailing Across the Great Sea of "To Be": PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 94 - 114

Beatrice has answered Dante's first doubt, but he has another. He can't quite understand how he, maybe in his body, can make his way across the universe.She doesn't have a quick answer. Instead, she h...

9 Elo 25min

Returning Home Through the Music of the Spheres: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 61 - 93

Our pilgrim finds everything doubled in brightness . . . because he's begun to fly up to the heavens, although he doesn't know it at first.He's too busy figuring out all that light . . . and listening...

5 Elo 37min

Staring at the Sun: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 37 - 60

The plot gets underway in PARADISO.Our pilgrim Dante turns to Beatrice . . . who is paying him no attention. She's staring at the sun.So he does the same! He hasn't even left earth, yet the miraculous...

2 Elo 36min

A Polyvocal Passage With All Its Dissonances: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 13 - 36

Our poet moves from his scholastic and even (medieval) scientific opening of PARADISO into his invocation . . . to Apollo?This passage has often embarrassed Dante scholars who feel the need to excuse ...

29 Heinä 41min

Welcome to a Renegotiated Poem: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 1 - 12

From its opening lines, it's clear that PARADISO is not like what has come before in COMEDY. Dante seems to be renegotiating the terms of his poem, establishing a new voice, a new model, and a new met...

26 Heinä 37min