Fate And The Cracks In Dante's Poetry: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 36 - 66
We finally get a glimpse at the hoarders and the wasters, the avaricious and the prodigal. They're mostly clergy, from run-of-the-mill clerics all the way up to popes.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the...
20 Jan 202132min
Jousting With Greedy Plutus: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 1 - 35
We descend a level of hell and 'come to the "il gran nemico," the great enemy: Plutus.But why is he so great if he makes babbles nonsense and is easily vanquished? And by Virgil? Who also suddenly has...
17 Jan 202131min
Virgil Gets The Apocalypse Wrong: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 94 - 115
Ciacco has fallen back into the muck, never to be seen again--at least not until the last judgment.As the pilgrim and Virgil start to descend to the fourth circle, they talk about that future. They ta...
13 Jan 202123min
The Bloodbath That Was, Is, And Will Be Florence: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 58 - 93
In the last passage, Ciacco the glutton seemed to have come to a halt in his conversation. But our pilgrim has not had enough. He prompts this damned shade for more. And more. Until he finds out the f...
10 Jan 202138min
The Curious Case Of Ciacco: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 34 - 57
In the third circle of hell, our pilgrim finds an emblematic glutton, Ciacco. This strange soul offers us a few problems. He mixes gluttony with another sin, thereby complicating the structure of the ...
6 Jan 202131min
Wide Awake With Cereberus: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 1 - 33
Our pilgrim wakes up in the weather of the third circle of hell: hail, rain, and snow, making the ground a rancid swamp.But wait, wakes up? How'd he get there?In any event, he and Virgil soon come to ...
3 Jan 202131min
The Case For Francesca: INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 88 - 142
Francesca has long been a subject of fierce debate. By the mid-nineteenth century, she had been turned into an almost Byronic hero.Maybe the truth of the matter is that she's bigger than her sin. Not ...
20 Dec 202034min
The Case Against Francesca: INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 88 - 142
Dante, our pilgrim, calls the two who are light on the winds of lust to float down to him. When they arrive, he gets more than he bargained for. Francesca (with her Paolo) proves the greatest danger y...
16 Dec 202034min
