We've been through some dramatic passages: dark woods, wild beasts, Francesca, Cerberus and his claws. But nothing so far rivals the crossing of Styx in the fifth circle of INFERNO.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take a slow walk through Dante's masterwork, COMEDY. In this passage from our pilgrim's time among the wrathful, we cross swampy Styx and almost get capsized along with him and his guide.
This passage is loaded: Bible verses, strange references, thematics picked up from previous passages, thematics setting up future passages. In other words, these lines are exactly why I've always wanted to take a slow walk through COMEDY.
Here are the segments of this episode:
[00:54] The passage itself in my English translation: INFERNO, Canto VIII, lines 31 - 63. If you want to see this passage, it lives on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[02:47] An overview of the passage, including some notes on how famous this passage has become because of its references in other works.
[04:36] A figure rises out of Styx! He and our pilgrim do something very special: They start into a little game of insults. But insults are never simple in a world controlled by vendetta.
[11:30] Dante-the-pilgim gets angry--and Virgil approves. Our pilgrim is angry among the angry.
[12:41] A long section on unpacking Virgil's response to Dante-the-pilgrim's ire. Bible verses, Messianic gestures, lots of questions about justice, divine or human. But our poet is up to so much more. He's finding a way to express his theology in storytelling. This move will secure his fame for over 700 years.
[24:29] Filippo Argenti, the sinner from the muck. He's a Black Guelph. Which means he's the arch enemy of Dante and the White Guelphs. Which means this passage really is about vendetta. Vengeance is mine, saith the poet.