Canto XIII

1. Inferno Paul Tusa November 20, 2007 Canto XIII The Suicides and Squanderers Colored Etching by William Blake Dante Alighieri

2. The Forest of Suicides Dante and Virgil enter into the second ring. They begin into a wooded area where no path lay Black twisted leaves and thorns fill this strange forest The Harpies rest in this area tormenting the trees

3. Harpies Harpies (Lns 10-24): -Wide wings -Human heads -Human necks -Talons on their Feet -Feathered bellies -Lamenting on the tree tops of this forest

4. Harpies in the Forest pecking at the Trees of Suicides Dante is instructed by Virgil to tear a twig from a tree. It smokes and hisses when the tree begins to speak in pain.(Lns. 55-78) The tree was once a man in service of Emperor Fredrick II. He served in his court and was shamed and killed himself. Once he was a lawyer, poet, secretary in Fredrick’s Court. The tree becomes silent after pleading for Dante to help undo the tarnish to his name.

5. Lano Squanderers He is being chased by black dogs, and then torn to pieces and carried off in pieces. He is followed by Jacopo da Santo Andrea who also a squanderer lived in Florence while the worship of Mars was still being practiced. Mars being the Roman God of War.

6. Attila Florence was ravaged by Attila the Hun after Jacopo’s time which became Monotheistic through the words of John the Baptist. (Lns 133-151) Jacopo boasted that he was from the town where John the Baptist was first given patronage.

7. Their Journey Continues and a picture of Jacopo’s present day Florence

8. Virgil A marble bust of Dante’s guide throughout the Inferno.