I was struck by the the focus of the distinction between malice that is intentional and incontinence. To be honest I didn’t know what incontinence meant but the Merriam-Webster definition states it as the, “inability of the body to control the functions of urination or defecation.” This definition very well explains the, “horrible excess of stench” explained at the very beginning of the canto (Inferno 11, 3). It seems a little odd that this punishment of essentially being immersed in ones own waste because of the lack of control would be given to those who have committed fraud, which to my understanding is a choice. I believe Dante did this on purpose. By doing this he created an ironic parallel between the sin and the punishment of these damned souls. This ties in with the fact that fraud is an even greater sin than violence in God’s eyes (Inferno 11, 25). Committing fraud means the manipulation of another’s blind trust that stems from love which, “…seems to cut solely into the bond of love that Nature makes”( Inferno 11, 55). Nature in this case signifies God and we can notice this in the intentional capitalization of “N”. And this all comes full circle to validate why Dante is worthy of going on this journey in the first place by the line, “…your art follows Nature as much as it can, as a disciple follows the master; so that your art is almost God’s grandchild”(Inferno 11, 103). Dante’s romantic poetry is almost like a sign of devotion to God in its own right.
Tag Archives: Canto 11
The Deceitful Are Punished
In canto 11 of Inferno Dante and Virgil reach the edge of a cliff in which lower parts of hell are visible to Dante and Virgil. Dante can already smell that horrible smell that is rising from down below. The two poets take pause during continuing their journey and see a vault with these words written on it: “of a great tomb, on which I made out this,inscribed: ‘I hold Pope Anastasius enticed to leave the true path by Photinus.’” (Digital Dante, note to lines 7-9, canto 11). The imagery of the vault shows how Dante believes that Pope Anastasius accepted the heresy of Acacius patriarch of Constantinople. Acadius believed that Christ possessed only a human nature and denied that Christ had a divine power. Therefore, Pope Anastasius is punished by God—because a pope is supposed to be God’s follower and supposed to believe in God’s power, for God was placed on earth by his father to show humans he was the survivor and the only Christ but Pope Anastasius rejects God hence breaking the promise/ trust he has with God. Therefore, popes who are also humans are capable of doing corrupt things; although Popes are mostly devoted to God and are a symbol of purity, Popes can be still choose evilness because they are capable of straying away from God and are capable of straying away from the path of goodness because they are mortal and humane. This quote relates to the overall theme of this canto because while Dante and Virgil are waiting, Virgil explains the different section of hell. Looking down into hell, Virgil says that there are three circles of hell within the cliffs and the circles that commit more monstrous deeds, receive more serious punishments deeper in hell. Fraud is the most damned sin because it is the opposite of love. Fraud breaks the promise of love because fraud destroys faith/ trust. Therefore, Pope Anastasius receives the worst punishment because he committed a sinful crime such as turning away from God, the connection he has with God is now broken. God no longer trusts him, hence Pope Anastasius broke the love between him and God because the pope was deceitful towards God not believing in God for whom he really was and denying God’s divinity. Furthermore, Virgil says that those who commit wrongdoings against heaven end up getting punished, these punishers go to the lowest parts of Hell. Therefore, Francesca and Paolo weren’t placed in the lowest part of hell because their intimacy and love for one another was stronger than the actual punishment itself.
Evil as Contagion in Canto XI
Before decending into the lower divisions of the Inferno, Dante and Virgil’s “descent will have to be delayed, so that [their] sense can become a little accustomed to the evil smell; and then [they] can disregard it” (Inferno XI: x-xii). This passage indicates two medieval concepts, the concept of Hell as an assult of the human senses and the concept of smell idiosyncratic of contagion. The imagery through out Inferno up until this point has emphasized the exess of the senses being overstymulated by foulness, from deafening noise, hidious oders, to scenes of unspeakable violence to the human physicality. This is the notion that Hell is a display of corporial punishment on the soul for its sins when it once had a true physical form in life. The sense of smell in particular in Hell takes on a whole new layer beyond the notion of over stymulation. Smell in the Middle Ages was considered one of the main ways in which contagion is spread, which is why in the years of the plague the infamous image of plague doctor mask was prominant, because it was believed that smells took longer to travel in these masks and in the beak of the mask there would be sweet smelling herbs to block the foul smell of contagion. When looking at this opening passage in the Inferno (ad just Inferno as a whole) the sense of smell is brought to the center of the delay that Dante and Virgil must edure before their decent. This is because they do not want to be assulted and consequently corrupted by the contagion of evil. Evil, in the Middle Ages, was treated like a disease, which is why evil or unsavory people are usually portrayed as having a form of contagious illness like leprasy or pox and in Dante’s Comedy this notion of evil as contagion, as displayed in this passage in Canto XI, is salient.
