We danced around with the witch Erichtho quite a bit in the last episode. Seven different interpretive stances toward her that can arise out of Dante's poem. That is, seven possible ways she functions in the text. Seven ways to interpret her presence, all from a single line of medieval poetry.
Which at first begs but really brings up a giant question for us as we walk with Dante-the-pilgim: Did Dante-the-poet, the man behind the curtain, intend all of this?
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I explore the various answers to that question over the ages to help us all understand how this poem could support the interpretive weight it does.
Here are the segments to this episode:
[01:28] The medieval answer: Yes, he did.
[04:22] The neoclassical answer: It doesn't matter because the poem's a mess.
[06:07] No, he didn't--but he did intend to build the open framework of a structure that could allow . . . no, actually encourage so much movement. I've got five ways how he built that structure.