Feraco Myth to Science Fiction 6 December 2011

1. Set Your Live Feet to the Dead Dusts of Hell: The Seventh Circle, Round Three)(The Violent Against God, Nature, and Art) Feraco Myth to Science Fiction 6 December 2011

2. Canto XIV: Data File • Setting: The Seventh Circle, Second and Third Rounds • Figures: Capaneus • Allusions: Old Man of Crete • Punishable Sin: Violence (here, largely Against God) • Summary: In a compassionate move, Dante gathers up the branches and leaves the dogs broke off the bush and re-attaches them before moving off. He and Virgil reach the edge of the Wood and look out at a Plain of Burning Sand, the terrain of the Seventh Circle’s Third Round (where we’ll spend the next few Cantos). Fire rains down slowly from above the plain, landing on the sinners being punished there. The three groups, the Blasphemers (Violent Against God), Sodomites (Violent Against Nature), and Usurers (Violent Against Art), are punished in different ways, and the Blasphemers are the first the poets encounter. One in particular, Capaneus, still blasphemes God even as he lies stretched out on the burning sand. The poets continue walking along the edge of the Wood in order to avoid burning themselves, eventually reaching a red rill (a kind of river) that boils out of the wood and over the burning sand. Virgil seizes the opportunity to discuss the four rivers of Hell with Dante, and the Canto ends as the poets decide to walk along the banks of the boiling rill across the Third Round.

3. The Punishment • The Blasphemers are stretched across the burning plain on their backs (an allusion to Capaneus, who you’ll study soon), forced to lie under the falling flames while being scorched by the sand below • The Burning Plain of Sand represents sterility (using the same technique that T.S. Eliot used his The Waste Land), for there’s no fertility/life without water, and even the rain is made of fire • Dante seems to be arguing that nothing natural or positive results from any of the violence featured here

4. Phlegethon • The name means “river of fire,” and it’s one of the four “rivers” of Hell (including Acheron, Styx, and Cocytus, which is currently frozen) • This is the river of boiling blood that we saw in the first round, discovering here that it boils its way through the Wood and out onto the Plain • It gets shallower and deeper as it curves depending on which sinner is supposed to stand in it • Virgil will eventually inform Dante that this blood is the same stream as before, as well as where it originally comes from

5. Capaneus • One of the giant warrior-kings who waged war on the ancient city of Thebes, Capaneus brought about his own demise during the attack by daring the gods to protect the citizens • "Come now, Jupiter, and strive with all your flames against me! Or are you braver at frightening timid maidens with your thunder, and razing the towers of your father-in-law Cadmus?" • Before he could even finish speaking, Zeus (known as “Jupiter” to the Romans) slays him with a thunderbolt, and he falls burning from the walls until he lies outstretched on his back (Dante’s inspiration)

6. Old Man of Crete • Here’s an allusion to the different Ages (from Golden to Iron) Edith Hamilton mentioned during your frosh Mythology unit • The Old Man of Crete’s statue features components made out of each Age-associated substance: his head is gold, his arms and chest are silver, his midsection is made of brass, a foot is made of clay (representing the Roman Catholic Church), and the rest of him is made of iron • The statue is cracked, and tears flow from the fissure; these tears form the four rivers in Hell

7. Canto XV: Data File • Setting: The Seventh Circle, Third Round • Figures: Ser Brunetto Latini • Punishable Sin: Violence (Against Nature) • Summary: The poets walk along the rill’s banks, protected from the burning sand by its powers. They come across a group of the Violent Against Nature as it runs below them, and one of the sinners calls out to Dante. Dante recognizes him – Ser Brunetto Latini, a writer who had mentored Dante even before Guido entered his life – and is taken aback to find him here. Latini talks about Dante with pride, but warns him that his future in Florence will contain a great deal of pain. The Canto ends with Latini’s “time to speak” expiring, and his punishment reactivates, causing him to skitter across the burning sand.

8. Violence Against Nature • Raffa: “Dante's inclusion of sodomy--understood here as sexual relations between males but not necessarily homosexuality in terms of sexual orientation--is consistent with strong theological and legal declarations in the Middle Ages condemning such activities for being "contrary to nature." In Dante's day, male-male relations--often between a mature man and an adolescent--were common in Florence despite these denunciations. Penalties could include confiscation of property and even capital punishment.”

9. The Punishment • The Violent Against Nature run in wandering packs across the Burning Plain of Sand, usually in circles • The burning sand represents the same sterility that it did before, as does the fire • The endless circles are meant to symbolize the broken cycle of nature – a life cycle that doubles back on itself due to a lack of reproduction • The wandering behavior results from having lost God’s guidance

10. Ser Brunetto Latini • One of Dante’s most painful encounters in Hell occurs here, as he barely recognizes his old mentor and friend under the damage that’s been done to him on the Burning Plain • If Virgil doesn’t want him to show much compassion for the sinners, he holds back here • His work, The Little Treasure, actually hints at Dante’s future work: a first-person narrator discovers he’ll have to live in exile (the Ghibellines having expelled the Guelfs at this point), and is so upset that he “lost the great highway” and went into a “strange wood” before heading for a mountain and journeying through strange realms

11. Ser Brunetto Latini (Cont’d) • Brunetto wasn’t as strong a writer as Dante would become, but he promoted the idea – perhaps more than anyone before Dante, and certain since Cicero – that eloquence only benefits society when blended with wisdom • The Inferno isn’t worthwhile if there aren’t any ideas at the center of its intricate structure • There’s not actually any evidence to explain why Latini’s in this Round; he was married with several children • Many commentators have tried assigning a substitute sin to Latini, or theorized that his sin was a symbolic form of Violence Against Nature (a pursuit of immortality for the body, for example)

12. Canto XVI: Data File • Setting: The Seventh Circle, Third Round • Figures: Jacopo Rusticucci, Guido Guerra, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi • Punishable Sin: Violence (Against Nature, although Art is also hinted at) • Summary: The poets draw nearer to the Great Cliff, which hosts a waterfall that leads down to the Eighth Circle. Before they can reach it, they encounter another band of the Violent Against Nature; three souls break away from the group this time to approach them. They ask Dante for news of Florence’s current condition (being damned, they can only see the future clearly), and he rages against the climate in his city. After the three return to their group, the poets reach the Cliff. Virgil pulls out a cord and tosses it over the edge of the cliff, and something huge begins flying towards them from below.

13. Jacopo / Guido / Tegghiaio • We’ve heard of the first and third before, as they were portrayed in Ciacco’s final speech in Canto III as men who wanted to do good things and ended up in Hell’s depths anyway • Oddly, Virgil demands that Dante teach them with great respect despite their sin – a reversal from his earlier behavior • Each of the three – Jacopo, Guido, and Tegghiaio – lived in Florence, and Dante admired their political sensibilities before they passed on • Guido had helped drive the Ghibellines out of Florence during the final battle in 1266 • Tegghiaio tried giving the Guelfs military advice, yet was (foolishly) ignored during their defeat in 1260 • Jacopo was a colleague of Tegghiaio’s, having risen from a low class to an influential position

14. Studying Politics • “O Florence! Your sudden wealth and your upstart / Rabble, dissolute and overweening, / Already set you weeping in your heart!” • This doesn’t conclude our political discussion so much as it reinforces the dark words Dante’s heard from Ciacco, Farinato, and Latini • There’s a weird sense of dramatic irony here: not only do we know what’s going to happen to Dante, but so does Dante. • It’s only “Dante” that’s unaware of his impending downfall

15. Canto XVII: Data File • Setting: The Seventh Circle, Third Round • Figures: Geryon • Allusions: Phaethon, Daedalus, Icarus • Punishable Sin: Violence (Against Art) • Summary: The monster from below arrives at the cliff: Geryon, the Monster of Fraud. Virgil negotiates with the beast for safe passage down the cliff, and sends Dante to look at the Violent Against Art. These sinners crouch at the edge of the Burning Plain, separated from the shades of their fellow beings. Each of them wears a large money-purse around his neck that bears the coat-of-arms of his family. After seeing them, he quickly turns back and heads for Virgil. The elder poet already sits atop Geryon, and convinces Dante to climb on; the two make a terrifying flight down into the Eighth Circle on the beast’s back.

16. Violent Against Art • Dante defines art as the crafts we draw from nature – our industry, whether it be practical or creative • To work hard and honestly while producing something is therefore to live in accordance with Nature, and Dante defines Art/Industry as Nature’s child – which makes it God’s grandchild • The Usurers (The Violent Against Art) weren’t people who burned paintings or suppressed expression • Rather, they simply tried to make money without working for it by charging people exorbitant interest rates

17. Violent Against Art (Cont’d) • This doesn’t seem like that big of a deal today – have you tried finding a student loan? – but it was a huge deal in Florence • Raffa: Based on Biblical passages – fallen man must live “by the sweat of his brow” (Genesis 3:19), Jesus' appeal to his followers to “lend, expecting nothing in return” (Luke 6:35) – medieval theologians considered the lending of money at interest to be sinful. Thomas Aquinas, based on Aristotle, considered usury…to be contrary to nature because ‘it is in accordance with nature that money should increase from natural goods and not from money iMtself.’”

18. The Punishment • The sinners are forced to stare with tear-filled eyes at their purses forever • They aren’t supposed to look at anything else because their entire existence revolved around chasing money-purses – similar to how the Avaricious and Prodigal push their stones, although at least those sinners were dealing badly with their own money (whereas the Usurers occupy a weird place between the Avaricious and the Thieves) • The crest on the purse that clearly identifies each sinner with his family indicates that they have brought dishonor to their families, quite possibly with their families’ permission • Dante implies that these powerful families built their wealth on these illicit foundations, and are therefore undeserving of their influential positions in society

19. Geryon • In classic myth, Geryon was a cruel king who was slain by Hercules • Virgil chose to describe him as a “three-bodied shade” in The Aeneid, and Dante appears to have taken that quite literally • The creature is a crazy mash-up of beast and human, with a man’s head and honest face atop a huge, beastly body covered with pretty and intricate reptilian scales. He also has fur-covered legs and paws, with a huge, coiling scorpion’s tail finishing off his body. • Geryon’s meant to be a creature of Fraud (hence the honest face and pretty scales masking the scorpion’s tail)

20. Geryon (Cont’d) • His scales are meant to recall the colorful patterns on a leopard’s hide – a sign of his realm (he’s a quasi-Threshold Guardian for the Eighth Circle, which houses the Sins of the Leopard) • Dante mentions in Canto XVI that he actually tried using the cord Virgil tosses over the edge of the Great Cliff to catch the Leopard when it blocked his path, but that it was too quick for him; here, Virgil uses it to tempt the great beast of Fraud out of hiding • Geryon can also be associated with “the sort of factual truth so wondrous that it appears to be false” • Some have suggested that Geryon is meant to recall the incredible journeys of The Divine Comedy itself; after all, is this truth, or fiction?

21. Phaethon • Dante is (somewhat realistically) completely terrified by his flight through Hell’s air • He alludes to two earlier stories of mortals taking flight by unnatural means (this is centuries before the airplane, obviously) with terrible consequences • The first is Phaethon, a figure from Ovid’s Metamorphosis who sought to confirm that he was the son of Apollo by seizing the sun-chariot’s reins (against his father’s advice) • He proved unable to control the horses, and they scorched the sky as they tore through the atmosphere • Forced to choose between saving the world and sparing Apollo’s son, Jupiter slew Phaethon with a thunderbolt

22. Daedalus and Icarus • The second story – an equally tragic one, and also from Ovid’s Metamorphosis – involves Daedalus, an inventor we encountered earlier in the story of the Minotaur • Daedalus and his son, Icarus, were imprisoned in a tall tower on the edge of the island of Crete. In order to escape, Daedalus collected the feathers of birds that flew into the tower and bound them with wax and thread into wings • He built a pair for himself and a pair for Icarus, warning the boy that the wax would melt if he flew too close to the sun • But Icarus, overcome with joy, ignores his father’s advice (just as Phaethon did) and streaks into the sky; his wax melts, and the boy plummeted to his death in the sea before his father can reach him • Daedalus is forced to soar on towards land, mourning his son all the way

23. In Conclusion • The final allusions to Phaethon and Icarus serve as indicators that the hardest part of Dante’s journey lies ahead, and that there’s a danger in getting too close to the heat • Fascinatingly, Dante continues to regard many of the Circle’s denizens with either sympathy or pity, and Virgil no longer seems to mind – not at all what one would expect from someone traveling through the land of Violence • Fraud and Betrayal are up next…