Walking With Dante14 Mar 2021

Cosmic Battles And Interpersonal Squabbles: INFERNO, Canto X, Lines 1 - 21

Well within the sixth circle of hell, we haven't yet seen any of the damned. Instead, Dante, our pilgrim, and Virgil, his guide, are picking their way along a secret path between the burning sarcophagi and the walls of Dis.

As these two go along, Virgil brings up the Last Judgment. And he starts to pick a fight with our pilgrim. Or maybe Virgil calls out our pilgrim who then responds with a little passive-aggressive anger.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we hear about cosmic divisions and interpersonal ones, picking our way with the pilgrim into the terrifying landscape of the heretics, buried in tombs in the sixth circle of INFERNO.

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

[01:47] My English translation of this passage from INFERNO: Canto X, lines 1 - 21. If you want to see this passage or find a deeper study guide, it's all on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:21] One overarching point about the circle of the heretics: it's all about human divisions, about tribalism. Look for this thematic as we go forward.

[04:29] My first gloss (or commentary on the text): The secret path is a reference to Vergil's AENEID, Book VI, line 443. In this passage, Aeneas comes to realize his complicity in the suffering of Dido.

[06:32] My second gloss: Dante calls Virgil "highest virtue" (or maybe the "loftiest power," depending on how you want to translate it). Is Virgil that? You sure?

[09:54] My third: There's a twisted reference to the resurrection of Christ in this passage--and that thematic will play out throughout Canto X, which riffs in irony off the resurrection.

[11:23] My fourth: Virgil makes a reference to Jehoshaphat, the site of the Last Judgment according to the Old Testament prophet Joel.

[13:48] My fifth: We are among the Epicureans. Why? And how can Epicurus, who lived long before the Christ, be a heretic?

[20:15] Rereading the passage: INFERNO, Canto X, Lines 1 - 21.

Mentioned in this episode:

A brief introduction to the walk ahead

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