Three Big Bad Giants With Not Much At Stake Except The Nature Of Comedy Itself: Inferno, Canto XXXI, Lines 82 - 111
Walking With Dante25 Syys 2022

Three Big Bad Giants With Not Much At Stake Except The Nature Of Comedy Itself: Inferno, Canto XXXI, Lines 82 - 111

We've walked by one giant, Nimrod, a mighty hunter, with his horn (like Roland). But there are more. Three, at least. Ephialtes, Briareus, and Antaeus. Figures out of classical literature who sit at the bottom of hell and pose more theological questions than we can imagine.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we continue on into Inferno's Canto XXXI, a liminal space where all bets are off. Even theological ones. And especially literary ones.

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

[01:35] My English translation of this passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXI, lines 82 - 111. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment, please go out to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:53] The insistence on turning to the left--except twice when we've turned to the right.

[06:07] The curious insistence on measurable distances in lower hell.

[09:26] Three giants ahead. First up, Ephialtes.

[13:52] Jove? He threatened Jove? Why not God?

[14:14] Next up, Briareus.

[16:48] Finally, Antaeus.

[18:43] The theological riddle in this passage: Antaeus' position in hell. Was he just made bad?

[22:08] Virgil and The Aeneid: back to rewriting it.

[24:36] Shaking Ephialtes for reasons that are not clear, except he's still a tower.

[27:16] The question of the stakes in Canto XXXI.

[29:12] Liminal spaces and the question of authority.

[30:37] Rereading INFERNO, Canto XXXI, lines 82 - 111.

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