Tag Archives: eight circle

Dante’s condemnation of corruption in Catholic Church

 

SANDRO BOTTICELLI, CANTO XVIII, COLORED DRAWING ON PARCHMENT, C. 1480https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sandro_Botticelli_-_Inferno,_Canto_XVIII_-_WGA02854.jpg

The pilgrim and Virgil land at the top on the eighth circle of hell on Geryon’s back. The horrifying place that appears in front of Dante’s eyes is called Malebolge. Dante follows his guide around the left side of the first circle until they reach the first pouch (the are ten of them altogether in the eighth circle of hell) where the nude damned are forced to march in lines through a series of ditches. If they attempt to stop or get out if the line they get beaten with a whip by devils with horns. This pouch is a place for the Panders and the Seducers.

Dante compares the hoards of sinners the marching in lines to large crowds of people coming to the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church to pay their indulgences:

“as the Romans, the year of Jubilee, because of

the great throng, found a way to move people, across

the bridge,” (Divine Comedy, Canto XVIII, 28-30)

It is clear to see that the author condemns the Pope Boniface VIII who announced in 1300 that it was a year of Jubilee, also called a Holy Year in the Roman Catholic Church. He also declared “indulgences” to those who visit Roman churches and make “an offering” (which was basically paying the clergy to have sins forgiven). Because of that declaration the numerous groups of peasants kept coming in waves to the home of Pope and were being corralled by the guards, which caused forming two lines moving to and from Vatican. Dante plainly notes the similarity between the horned devils that control the sinners and the servants of Vatican.

Another instance where Dante manifests his antipathy towards the church is found in the description of the sinners from the second pouch called flatterers.

“And while I am searching with my eyes down

there, I saw one with his head so filthy with shit that

whether he was lay or clerk did not show.” (Divine Comedy, Canto XVIII, 115-119)

Dante’s description of the flatterers covered in their own stinking excrement does not exclude a priest (clergy), which strongly suggests his aversion towards the church.

To sum up, the author expresses in Canto XVIII his deep antipathy towards the church and its servants by comparing them to the workers of deep hell and flatterers – sinners drowning in their own excrement. It is also worth mentioning that the way Dante describes the flatterers shows his ability (wit) to navigate easily between every style in his poetry.

 

 

 

 

 

The punishment of looking back vs. the punishment of looking forward

Dante and Virgil are in the fourth pouch of the eight circle. The sinners walk with their heads facing backwards.These sinners are those who “wanted to see ahead.” Therefore,the prophets, astrologists, and magiciansin this circle are punished for attempting to see into the future. Dante states, “for the face was turned toward the kidneys, and they were forced to walk backwards, since seeing forward was taken from them” (canto 20 lines 13-15). The punishment of not being able to foresee the future is the opposite to Farinata’s punishment in which he and his fellow sinners can see the future but know nothing about the present state of human affairs which occurs in Canto 10. Dante asks Farinata how he and other souls in hell seem to be able to foretell the future but cannot know the present. Farinata responds but saying the souls in Canto 10 are only able to see distant things – the future as well as the past, but not the present. Farinata also can foresee Dante’s exile. Farinata also explains that he and the other punished souls are blind to see what is directly in front of them, which is a punishment in itself because he and Cavalcante are left wondering about what is happening with those they knew and cared about. Dante feels pity for the punishment of his friend’s father and Dante asks Farinata to tell Cavalcante that his son Guido is still alive. Although Dante also feels pity at first for the souls in Canto 20, Virgil reminds Dante that the soothsayers are punished because they altered the future ordained by God. Dante writes, “Here pity lives when it is quite dead: who is more wicked than one who brings passion to God’s judgment?” (Canto 20 lines 28-30). This gives Virgil the chance to re-emphasize this idea that all the suffering occurring in hell as well as in this canto is part of God’s divine justice. Virgil teaches Dante that to weep at what God has rightly ordered against the wicked is itself wicked. The fortune-tellers in this circle also guilty of fraud, because they use tricks to make money. Therefore, Virgil tells Dante that he shouldn’t pity these souls unlike how he feels pity towards Farinata and Cavalcante. Virgil tells Dante to look at one of the backwards-facing souls whom is known as Amphiaraus. Virgil explains that because Amphiaraus tried to see too far ahead/ into the future, he now can only see behind him. This is illustrated when Dante writes, “Look how he has made his breast his back; because he wished to see too far ahead, now he looks backward and treads a backward path” (Canto 20, lines 37-39). Virgil also mentions Tiresias and Manto. Manto was a female soothsayer who settled in Mantua, located in northern Italy which is also Virgil’s birthplace. After she died, people named the city Mantua which was a dedication to Manto. The people also gathered and built a city around her burial place. Virgil points out to Dante that these three famous soothsayers are of classical myth. As a demonstration of God’s divine justice, their punishment fits their sin. Because the sinners in this canto wished to see far ahead, they can now only see behind them. Hence their punishment matches and completes their sin.