Virgil has finished his lesson on the geography of hell, he's answered the pilgrim's two questions, and we're back to the start of Canto XI, only at the start of Canto XII.
Here, Dante, our pilgrim, confronts a dangerous rockslide that leads us straight past the Minotaur, the "infamy of Crete."
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I look over so many questions in the passage. What's the point of the Minotaur right here? What's the point of such a complicated simile about an avalanche near Trento? And can we start to come to terms with one of the cantos of INFERNO that has come in for so much negative criticism over the centuries since COMEDY was written.
Here are the segments of this episode:
[00:50] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XII, lines 1 - 30. If you'd like to see this translation, check it out on my website: markscarbrough.com.
[02:24] An overview of Canto XII, particularly the negative criticism it has endured over the centuries. But there may be ways out of the problems so many critics find--or at least explanations for the problems.
[04:34] The notion that Canto XI, the previous one, is actually parenthetical--which brings us to a question of the alternating modes of COMEDY: discursive and narrative.
[06:57] The ruins of hell. There may be geo-political precedent for the fact that hell lies in ruins, not just a theological explanation (which will come in the next passage and the next episode of this podcast).
[12:09] The Minotaur on the slope. Let's take it line by line to figure out more about this curious figure in the scree.
[20:34] Two questions about the Minotaur: what exactly does he look like and what is his function in the poem, COMEDY?
[25:19] The run down the slope--which emphasizes our pilgrim's corporeality. Why?