Dante AlighieriThe Infernofrom The Divine Comedy The Divine Comedy is an epic poem in three parts, describingthe poet’s imagined journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, andculminating in his vision of God. To this extent it has much in common with the epicmasterpieces of Homer and Virgil whose roots are in history and myth; but theCommedia is also an allegory, dealing with nothing less than man’s relationshipwith and place within the universe. Dante’s universe was, of course, a medievalone in which the sun and stars revolved around the Earth, and while theCommedia takes account of contemporary science in minute detail, his vision ofthe way in which the regions of the afterworld might be contained within thisframework is brilliant in its originality. Hell (the Inferno) is conceived as atapering funnel plunging down into the earth beneath the Northern hemisphere.At its deepest point a passage leads out into the Southern hemisphere, whereMount Purgatory — its shape mirroring that of Hell — tapers upwards towardsHeaven. Paradise itself is conceived as a series of ten ‘spheres’ encirclingthe Earth, with God somewhere beyond the tenth, merely glimpsed by Dante asconsciousness ebbs from him. This colossal construction is subdivided to create a zonefor every facet of human nature. In Hell and Purgatory a place is allotted forevery sin and foible, which exists within the world, while in Paradise, thepure and just, the saints and the Holy Trinity are arranged in a stricthierarchy. Dante peoples each region with figures from literature, history andfrom his own contemporary society. This allows him to comment on issues ofmorality not in merely abstract terms, but in relation to actual people andevents, many of them of titillating contemporary relevance. Because of thismany of the names encountered mean nothing to modern readers, and this is oneof the reasons why most editions of Dante incorporate many pages of notes foreach page of text (a practice which began, incidentally, within a few years ofthe poem’s first publication). The main purpose, however, is not to point thefinger or poke fun at friends and enemies (though there is undoubtedly anelement of this, especially in The Inferno), but to examine the reality ofman’s human and spiritual nature in all its various and complex manifestations. One of the principal characters in The Divine Comedy (thoughshe does not actually appear in The Inferno) is Beatrice, whose significance inDante’s life needs to be understood. Dante first met and fell in love withBeatrice Portinari when she was eight and he nine years old. He worshiped herfrom afar until her early death at the age of twenty-four. (Dante, in his LaVita Nuova, tells the full story of this strange ‘love affair’). Beatrice thencame to symbolize for Dante all that is pure and worthy. In the Commedia it isBeatrice who sends the poet Virgil to guide Dante through Hell and Purgatory.There she herself assumes responsibility for his journey of discovery, and itis she who reveals to him the splendors of Paradise, leading him eventually to“that love that moves the Sun and other stars.” Dante calls the three books of The Divine Comedy ‘canzoni’.Each contains 33 chapters or ‘cantos’, except The Inferno, which has anadditional introductory canto — making 100 cantos in all. Each canto containsroughly 150 lines composed according to a strict metrical and rhyme scheme. Thelanguage of the poem is, importantly, not Latin (as was customary for high artin Dante’s day) but the language used by educated people in 14th centuryFlorence. In addition, Dante made liberal use of archaic language and regionaldialects, all of which makes life very difficult for the modern translator. ButDante’s purpose was to make his work readable by the ‘ordinary’ reader — notmerely clerics and academics — for despite its lofty theme and layers ofsymbolism, The Divine Comedy is intended to speak to us directly through thepower of Dante’s imagery and narrative skill. This work has not only endured, but has exerted a powerfulinfluence on Western thought for almost seven centuries, especially perhaps TheInferno, whose characters and images can be found peppered throughoutliterature and art right up to the present day. Tchaikovsky’s Francesca daRimini and Puccini’s Gianni Schicci are borrowed from it. Illustrations forDante editions inspired well-known masterpieces by Botticelli, Blake and Doré,while the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (his first name anobvious choice for a father who was a Dante scholar and reputedly able torecite the entire Commedia from memory) returned time and again to Dante forinspiration, notably in the enigmatic “Beata Beatrix”. Samuel Beckett’s plays and novels are full of allusions toboth The Inferno and Purgatory — shades walking slowly weighed down by leadencloaks (Inferno-Canto XXIII), creatures swimming in mud poking and whistling atone another (Inferno-Canto XXII), and indolent characters with littleinclination to struggle any further (Purgatory-Canto IV). Listeners to this reading of The Inferno may be struck, too,by Dante’s extraordinary vision when, in Canto XXV, a serpent and sinnercombine and transform one another in a way which, it might be supposed, wasinvented by computer ‘morphing’. And no horror film has yet surpassed thefrozen wastes of the deepest region of Dante’s Hell, where the tears of thedamned make their eyes freeze over, and where the mortal body of a sinner canbegin its torture even before the point of actual death. Be warned. Notes by Roger Marsh CANTO IDante awakens in a gloomy wood. He tries to leave climbing asunlit mountain but is driven back by three beasts (Leopard, Lion and She-wolf,symbolizing worldly pleasure, ambition, and avarice). He meets Virgil, thepoet, who offers to guide him. Son of Anchises: This was Aeneas. In the Aeneid Virgilretells the story ofAeneas’ flight from Troy after its defeat by the Greeks andhis foundationof the city, which would become Rome. A soul worthier than I: Beatrice who, in Purgatory, willtake over the role of guide from Virgil. CANTO IILate that evening. Dante doubts his worthiness for thejourney. Virgilcomforts him explaining that Beatrice sent him. Dante takesheart and theyset out. Silvius’ father: Aeneas, who also journeyed to theunderworld (in theAeneid.) where he met his father who prophesied his son’srole in the future glory of Rome. the dead… in suspense: see Canto IVA noble Lady: the Virgin Mary, signifying compassion.Interceding on behalf on the Pilgrim Dante, she begins the process of hisrescue by Divine Grace, without which he would be lost. Lucia is IlluminatingGrace. Beatrice, whose name means blessedness or salvation appears to revealthe will of God to Virgil and Dante. CANTO IIIThe Poets arrive at the door of Hell and pass through to theantechamber.Within are shades who achieved neither praise nor blame inlife, rejected by Heaven and Hell. Charon, who ferries the souls of the damnedto Hades,refuses to ferry the living soul across the Acheron. Dantefalls unconscious. Good of intellect: souls who lost sight of the ‘SupremeTruth’ or God.Great refusal: either Pontius Pilate or Celestine V whoabdicated in favorof Boniface VIII. CANTO IVDante awakens in the First Circle, or Limbo whoseinhabitants were virtuous but lived without Christianity. He encounters Homer,Horace, Ovid, Lucan and the great poets, heroes and philosophers of antiquity. A Man of Power: Christ.They are not sinners: The virtuous souls of Limbo aresuspended between the joys of heaven and the pains of Hell.The master of men of knowledge: Aristotle CANTO VThey descend to the Second Circle where the lustful arecarried aloft in aviolent wind. Minos, who judges the dead and assigns themtheir place inHell, bars their way. Dante hears Francesca da Rimini’s taleof love anddeath and faints with pity. Semiramis: the Assyrian empress, rumored guilty of incestwith her son.That other one: Dido, who broke her oath of fidelity to herdead husband by falling in love with Aeneas.The couple who fly together: Francesca di Rimini and PaoloMalatesta,brother of Francesca’s husband Gianciotto, lord of Rimini.Paolo became her lover, until Gianciotto surprised them in flagrante delictoand murdered them.Caïna’s depths: one of the four divisions of Cocytus, thelowest (ninth)circle of Hell.Galahad: the name of Lancelot and Guinevere’s go-between inLancelot du Lac the medieval romance. CANTO VIDante awakens in the Third Circle where the Gluttonous aretormented byfreezing filthy rain and the three-headed dog Cerberus, thewatchdog ofHell. Ciacco recognizes Dante. He makes a prophecy. Virgildescribes TheFinal Judgment. Solid human flesh: shades only appear to have corporealform, although they feel actual physical pain.Your city: Florence.Tell me, if you know: a passage referring to events inItaly, especiallyFlorence, after 1300, the year of Dante’s descent throughHell. Shades inHell see the future and the past but know nothing of thepresent. Ciacco isreferring to the struggle between factions of the Guelphparty. PopeBoniface VIII whose sail trims to any breeze waited for anoverall victorbefore committing his support. Ciacco’s ‘prophecy’ isaccurate, because theevents had already taken place.Farinata: a Florentine politician. Farinata is in the circleof Heretics (Canto X); Tegghiaio and Jacopo Rusticucci are among the Sodomites(Canto XVI); Mosca is with the Sowers of Discord (Canto XXVIII); Arrigo, doesnot re-appear.Great adversary: in Hell the enemy is Christ. CANTO VIIThe poets meet Plutus at the entrance to the Fourth Circle.Here the Avaricious and the Spendthrifts roll weights against each other inopposing semi-circles. They descend to the Fifth Circle where the Wrathful tearat each other and the Slothful bubble beneath the Styx. Plutus: god of wealth in myth. The words are gibberish. Michael took his vengeance: against the rebellious angels.Charybdis: the whirlpool in the straits of Messina.These tonsured ones: the avaricious are mostly priests.Styx: second of the five rivers of Hades. The Acheronemerges from underground as the spring. CANTO VIIIStill in the Fifth Circle, Dante and Virgil come to a talltower. They crossthe Styx with Phlegyas, encountering Filippo Argenti. Theydraw near thered-hot walls of the city of Dis. Their progress to lowerHell is obstructed. Phlegyas: guardian and ferryman of the Styx.Until I was in: Dante, a mortal, has weight. Virgil, ashade, does not.Filippo Argenti: an enemy of Dante’s. Little else is known.The city of Dis: Dis was the Roman name for Pluto god of theunderworld. Here it is applied to Lucifer and the city whose walls mark theboundary between upper Hell and lower Hell. CANTO IXAt the gate of Dis. Virgil tries to calm Dante’s fear. TheFuries appear andVirgil warns Dante not to look at Medusa. The divinemessenger arrives andorders the demons to let the poets through. They enter Disand reach theSixth Circle where they encounter the Arch-heretics in theirred-hot sepulchers. Three Furies: Tisiphone, Megaera and Alecto bringers ofretribution andtorment. The Queen of endless misery is Hecate, wife ofPluto.Let Medusa come: one of the three Gorgon sisters, whose hairwas turned into snakes by Minerva. Theseus, the Athenian hero, descended toHell to kidnap Hecate but was kept by Pluto in the Chair of Forgetfulness.Hercules set him free.Cerberus: when Hercules rescued Theseus he dragged Cerberusup from Hell by a chain, stripping the fur from his throat. CANTO XStill in the Sixth Circle the poets come to the Heretics andthe Epicureans.Farinata degli Uberti explains that souls in Hell knownothing of thepresent but are able to remember the past and foresee thefuture.Jehosephat: a valley near Jerusalem where the Last Judgmentwill take place and souls will be reunited with their bodies.Farinata: di Jacopo degli Uberti, a Ghibelline(pro-imperial) leader inFlorence, died 1264. The Ghibellines drove the (pro-papal)Guelph’s fromFlorence on two occasions, but by 1300, the Guelphs hadreturned to the city.Her whose eyes: Beatrice. CANTO XIDante and Virgil pause beside Pope Anastasius’ tomb beforedescending to the Seventh Circle. Virgil explains the arrangement of punishmentin Hell.Violence in the three rounds of the Seventh Circle; ordinaryfraud in theEighth Circle and complex fraud in the Ninth. Having passedthrough thecircles punishing the (lesser) Mortal sins of Incontinence,Lust, Gluttony,Avarice, Sloth, and Wrath, the sins prompted by Envy and Pridelie ahead. Anastasius: Pope 494-498. Held as heretic because of hissupport forPhotinus of Thessalonica who denied Christ’s divine birth.Aristotle’s Ethics: a work on politics, the Physics his workon natural science.Genesis: Man is to work and earn his bread by the sweat ofhis brow. Usurers do not, hence usury is sin. CANTO XIIThe Seventh Circle, First Round: the Violent Against theirNeighbors. TheMinotaur and the Centaurs, half man, half horse, led byChiron. Nessusguides them across the boiling blood of Phlegethon where theTyrants andMurderers are immersed. Infamy of Crete: the Minotaur, part man, part bull born ofQueen Pasiphaë who satisfied her lust with a bull. Theseus, duke of Athens,killed him.Before he came: Christ, in the harrowing of Hell.Chiron: centaur celebrated for his wisdom, tutor to theGreek heroes.Nessus: centaur killed by Hercules after attempting to rapehis wifeDeianara. As Nessus died he gave her a robe dipped in hisblood, which, hesaid, would preserve Hercules’ love. She hanged herself whenthe robepoisoned Hercules.God’s sanctum: In 1272, Guy de Montfort avenged his father,killed by Edward I of England, by murdering Edward’s cousin Prince Henry.Henry’s heart was set up on a column on London Bridge to be venerated.Pyrrhus: son of Achilles. Sextus, pirate son of Pompey theGreat.Rinier da Corneto: highwayman of Dante’s time, as was RinierPazzo, who made a habit of attacking clerics. CANTO XIIISeventh Circle, Second Round: the Violent againstThemselves. The Wood ofSuicides. Harpies and The Profligates, hunted by hounds. Cecina and Corneto: the limits of the Maremma, a Tuscanswamp.The tree spoke: Pier delle Vigne, advisor to EmperorFrederick II. Disgraced in 1248 he was imprisoned and committed suicide. Thatwhore is envy; Caesar’s household is Frederick’s court; Augustus is the Emperori.e., Frederick II.Two figures: Profligates who deliberately destroyed theirworldly goods.Pier delle Vigne, is Arcolano da Squarcia of Padua. Toppo, afamous defeatof the Sienese in 1288, at which Lano willfully refused toretreat, dyingrather living in poverty. Giacomo da Sant’Andrea is reputedto have thrownmoney into the river Brenta to while away the time.My home city: Florence, whose first protector was Mars,changed to John the Baptist when the citizens became Christian. In revenge MarspunishesFlorence with constant fighting, allowing it to rebuilditself so long asfragments of his statue remain at Arno. CANTO XIVSeventh Circle, Third Round: the violent against God, Natureand Art.Blasphemers, supine on the burning sand. The Ancient Man ofCrete whosetears form the rivers of Hell. Capaneus: one of the Seven who besieged Thebes was struck byJove’sthunderbolt after blaspheming that the gods could not defeathim.Ancient man: an allegory for the ages of man and the declineof human nature from Golden Age to Age of Iron. The statue in Crete, the centerof the known world, is midway between the pagan East (Darmatta, an Egyptianseaport) and the Christian West, Rome. The fissure, which cracks every partexcept the head, is the sorrow in every Age but the first. The tears are thesource of the rivers Acheron, Styx and Phlegethon, which collect at Cocytus, the lowest point of Hell.Lethe: river of forgetfulness. CANTO XVSeventh Circle, Third Round: Sodomites (scholars andclerics) eternallymoving across the burning sand beneath a rain of fire. Brunetto Latini: the Florentine, Guelph statesman-politicianand writer1212-94 wrote Livres dou Tresor an encyclopedic work andTesoretto adidactic poem. He was in some way an early mentor of Dante.Fiesole: the hill town where Catiline took refuge againstCaesar. After itsdestruction the survivors with a number of Roman familieswere used topeople Florence. This mix was seen as the root of Florentinecivil discord.Priscian: a sixth century Latin grammarian.Francesco d’Accorso: (1225-94) a celebrated Florentinejurist.Servant of Servants: Pope Boniface VIII, who transferred thewell-knownsodomite Andrea de’ Mozzi, bishop of Florence, to Vicenza. CANTO XVISeventh Circle, Third Round: Sodomites (warriors andleaders). The decadence of Florence. Phlegethon plummets over the precipice.Dante’s cord summons a monstrous figure. Guido Guerra and Tegghiaio Aldobrandi: Guelph leaders.Little is known of Jacopo Rusticucci. My downfall was my wife suggests shedrove him to homosexuality.The center: to Cocytus, the center of the earth and thelowest part of Hell. CANTO XVIIGeryon. Seventh Circle Third Round: Violent Against Natureand Art. Usurers with their purses. Virgil and Dante descend to the EighthCircle.The monster: Geryon was the mythological Spanish giant kingkilled byHercules in the course of his Labours.Arachne: the weaver whose work rivaled Minerva’s. She wasturned into aspider.Beaver dips its tail: the beaver was supposed to catch fishby dangling its tail in the water.The sovereign cavalier: held to be Gianni Buiamonte diBecchi, a usurer who held high office in Florence.Phaeton: begged Apollo to let him drive the Sun-chariot. Hewas unable tocontrol it and burnt the streak of sky known as the MilkyWay. CANTO XVIIIThe Eighth Circle, Malebolge, with Ten Ditches containingthose who committed Fraud against mankind in general. The First Ditch: Pandersand Seducers, scourged by demons. The Second Ditch: Flatterers immersed infilth. Malebolge: a word invented by Dante meaning ‘evil pouches’,where sinners are pocketed in a set of concentric ditches.Jubilee year: 1300, when Boniface VIII granted absolution tothose who made a pilgrimage to Rome. Many thousands came and a traffic controlsystem was instituted.Venedico Cacciamenico: a Bolognese Guelph who procured hissisterGhisolabella for the Marchese of Ferrara.Sipa: the word for ‘yes’ in the Bolognese dialect.Caccianemico suggeststhere are more Bolognese in the ditch than in Bologna.Other misbegotten spirits: seducers, who defraud theinnocent for their gain.Jason: leader of the Argonauts, who captured the goldenfleece. Sailing home he stopped at Lemnos where he seduced Hypsipyle, butabandoned her, pregnant. The men of Lemnos were slaughtered because they hadbrought home Thracian concubines. Hypsipyle gulled the other women by hidingher father, Thoas, the king, pretending she had slain him. Later Jason marriedMedea, the sorceress, but abandoned her too. Medea took her revenge by killingCreusa, for whom Jason had abandoned her and murdered her own children. CANTO XIXThe Eighth Circle, Third Ditch: the Simonists set head downinto holes inthe rock, flames tormenting their feet. Simon Magus: tried to buy the power of the Holy Spirit fromPeter and John. The sin of simony, the fraudulent use of the Church and sale ofits offices for money or power, derives from his name.Whoever you may be: Pope Nicholas III.Vile assassin: in the Florence of Dante’s time murdererswere executed by being placed upside down in a hole which was then filled withearth.Is that you Boniface: the soul, able to see the future knowsBoniface VIII will take his place on his death, in 1303. Since it is 1300Nicholas thinks the writings lied; Boniface is early. Boniface trickedCelestine V intoabdicating the See of St. Peter and was infamous for simony.Fairest of Women: the Church.Great mantle: the papacy.One of the she-bear’s sons: Nicholas III was a degli Orsini,which means of the little bears (orsa = bear), notorious for simony andnepotism — his desire to advance the bear-cubs.Lawless shepherd: another corrupt pope, Clement V, puppet ofPhilip King of France. CANTO XXEighth Circle, Fourth Ditch: Soothsayers, Astrologers,Magicians, whoseheads are twisted so that they look only backwards. Virgilexplains theorigin of Mantua. Amazing deformation: these sinners who attempted to divinethe future, are forced to look backwards eternally.Amphiareus: another of the seven kings who assaulted Thebesand a seer.Tiresius: a soothsayer of ThebesMichael Scott: a Scottish philosopher (1175-1235) Reputedlya magician.Cain with his thorns: the medieval Italian equivalent of‘the man in the moon’. CANTO XXIEighth Circle, Fifth Ditch: Barrators, swindlers in civicand public office,plunged beneath boiling pitch guarded by demons. A newarrival from Lucca. Dante and Virgil proceed, escorted by demons. Malebranche: the generic name for the demons.Sacred Face: a crucifix at the cathedral in Lucca. TheSerchio is a nearbyriver — perhaps the sinner is lying on his back in the pitchwith his arms open.Smashed to bits: broken by the earthquake at the death ofChrist. CANTO XXIIEighth Circle, Fifth Ditch Barrators. The demons fork out aNavarrese barrator from the pitch. The Navarrese plays a trick; two demons endup in the pitch. You Aretines: Dante was at the battle of Campaldino 1289,when Guelphs from Florence and Lucca defeated Ghibellines from Arezzo.Gomita: a Sardinian friar hanged when it was discovered hewas sellingprisoners freedom.Don Michele Zanche: governor of another Sardinian district,Logodoro.Murdered in 1275 by his son-in-law Branca d’Oria. CANTO XXIIIEighth Circle, Fifth Ditch: Barrators. Pursued by demons,Dante and Virgilescape by scrambling down the bank into the Sixth Ditchwhere the Hypocrites file along beneath cloaks of lead. The Jovial Friars ofBologna. King Frederick’s: a punishment instituted by EmperorFrederick II fortraitors. They were given a leaden cape, which was melted ontheir bodies.Jovial Friars: the nickname of a religious Order of Knightsdedicated to the Virgin; disbanded because of scandalous corruption.Nailed down figure: Caiaphas, High Priest of the Phariseesurged the death of Jesus. Annas, Caiaphas’ father-in-law, is one of thecounselors who seeded so much evil; the destruction of Jerusalem and thedispersal of the Jews. CANTO XXIVA difficult passage to the Eighth Circle, Seventh Ditch. TheThieves. Thesinner bitten by a serpent turns to ash, and then resumeshis shape. VanniFucci, and his prophecy. Heliotrope: a stone that protected the wearer fromsnakebite. Vanni Fucci: violent bastard of Fuccio de’ Lazarri a leaderof the Black Guelph faction in Pistoia. He is here because of his theft oftreasure from the chapel of Saint James in Pistoia. Vanni’s ‘prophecy’ meantthe Florentine White Guelphs would help the White Pisoians score a victory overthe Blacks in May 1301. That autumn Charles of Valois arrived in Florence,sided with the Blacks and turfed out the Whites. Moroelo Malaspina lord ofLunigniana (Valdimagra) is the fiery thunderbolt, who drove the Whites fromtheir last stronghold in Tuscany. CANTO XXVEighth Circle, Seventh Ditch: the Thieves. The centaurCacus. Three Florentine thieves arrive, then two more in the form of snakes.Bizarre metamorphoses occur. Pistoia: was supposedly founded by the remnants of the armyof Catiline,composed of criminals and brigands.Fell from Thebes rampart: Capaneus.Cacus: the son of Vulcan and Medusa. Dante makes him acentaur.Deceitful robbery: Cacus stole the oxen of Geryon belongingto Hercules.From where unborn we feed: the navel.Lucan is silent here: in the Pharsalia Lucan tells of twosoldiers bitten bysnakes; Sabellus was reduced to a puddle of liquid, theother Nassidiusswelled up until he died. Ovid describes Cadmus turning intoa snake andArethusa into a fountain.Puccio Sciancato: ‘Sciancato’, the nickname of Puccio deiGaligai, aFlorentine thief.Gaville: a village in the Arno valley. The inhabitantskilled Francesco deiCavalcanti. His family avenged his death. CANTO XXVIThey leave the Seventh Ditch for the Eighth Ditch, Dantecondemns Florence. The poets view the Eighth Ditch, where those who counseledfraud burn in the flames that enclose them. Ulysses and Diomedes share a flame.Ulysses describes his final voyage. Avenged by bears: Elisha, mocked by some boys who were latereaten by bears.He saw Elijah ascend to heaven in a fiery chariot.Eteocles and his brother: Polynices, sons of Oedipus, sohated each otherthe flames on their joint funeral pyre refused to mingle.Ulysses: (Odysseus) the Greek hero who fought at Troy withDiomedes anddevised the stratagem of the Wooden Horse. Deïdamia was thedaughter of king of Scyros and mother of Achilles’ child. The Palladium was thesacred symbol of Troy and guarantee of its safety: its theft meant the citywould fall.Leaving Circe: journeying home from Troy, Ulysses wasdetained by thesorceress Circe.Gaëta: a promontory near Naples Aeneas named after hisnurse, Caita.Narrow strait: Gibraltar, where the pillars of Herculesmarked thewesternmost end of the known world.A mountain: the Mount of Purgatory. CANTO XXVIIEighth Circle, Eighth Ditch: Fraudulent Counselors. Thestate of Romagna.Guido’s tale of self-deception. As the torturer’s Sicilian bull: Perillus of Sicilyconstructed a brass bullas an instrument of torture for the tyrant Phalaris. Victimswere roastedinside the bull so fashioned that their cries sounded as ifthe bull itselfwas bellowing. Perillus was its first victim.Those hills between Urbino: a region called Montafeltro. Thespeaker isGuido da Montefeltro.If I believed: Guido was known as one of the wiliestsoldiers andpoliticians of his time. He fought successfully for theGhibellines againstPapal and Guelph forces in Romagna between 1274 and 1282.Excommunicated and banished he returned to Pisa to lead its Ghibellines, butwas reconciled with the church by 1296 and became a Franciscan friar.Prince of Pharisees: Boniface VIII, who rather thancrusading against the traditional enemies of the church, Saracens or Jews, choseto subdue the Colonna family, who refused to recognize his papacy. “He asked me for my counsel…”: The Colonna family tookrefuge in their fortress of Palestrina, near the Lateran, the papal palace inRome. Advised by Guido da Montefeltro Boniface falsely promised them a pardon.They surrendered and lost everything.The two keys: symbols of papal authority. CANTO XXVIIIEighth Circle, Ninth Ditch: the sowers of discordperpetually circlingwounded after each turn by a demon. Mohammed and Ali.Warnings to those still alive. Apulia’s fateful earth: to Dante ‘Apulia’ described southernItaly, scene of the following wars.Mohammed: founder of Islam, was traditionally held to be aChristianschismatic. Mohammed’s son-in-law Ali was responsible forthe Sunni-Shi’iteschism in Islam.Fra Dolcino: lead a dissenting sect preaching simplicity andcommunity of property.Pier de Medecina: stirred up the feud between the houses ofPolenta andMalatesta. Malatesta drowned Guido and Angiolello off theAdriatic coast.Mosca: Moscadei Lamberti fomented Guelf-Ghibelline strife inFlorence.Bertran de Born: 12th century troubadour. Stirred upanimosity between Henry II of England and his son. CANTO XXIXEighth Circle, Ninth Ditch: sowers of discord. Dante expectsto see anancestor. He and Virgil cross the bridge into the TenthDitch where theFalsifiers lie with their hideous diseases. The Alchemists. Geri del Bello: kinsman of Dante and troublemaker. Altaforteis Bertran de Born.Maremma to Sardinia: an area famous for breeding malaria.Capoccio: burned for alchemy in Siena, in 1293. CANTO XXXEighth Circle, Tenth Ditch: the Falsifiers. Gianni Schicchiand Myrrha(impersonators); Master Adamo (counterfeiter) Potiphar’swife and Sinon the Greek (perjurers). The quarrel between Adamo and Sinon. Semele: a Theban princess seduced by Jupiter. In revengeJuno drove madSemele’s brother-in-law Athamas. He took his wife Ino for alioness andtheir children for cubs then killed them.Hecuba: wife of Priam, taken prisoner after the fall of theTroy, went madwhen her children Polyxena and Polydorus were killed.Gianni Schicchi: a Florentine mimic, who cheated the familyof Buoso Donati out of a mare.Myrrha: tricked her father into incest and gave birth toAdonis.Master Adamo: falsifier of money.False wife: Potiphar’s wife.Sinon: who pretended to swap sides in the Trojan war so theTrojans wouldtake in the Wooden Horse. CANTO XXXIDante and Virgil descend to the Ninth Circle, the well atthe bottom of theabyss. Around it the Giants visible from the waist up. Dantesees Nimrod and Ephialtes. Antaeus lowers them to the frozen Lake of Cocytus,fourth river of Hell. Achilles’: Achilles and his father Peleus possessed a lancethat could healthe wounds it inflicted.Roland’s horn: From the medieval epic Le Chanson de Roland,The blast on Roland’s horn was heard eight miles away.Raphèl maì: nonsense language spoken by Nimrod, builder ofthe Tower of Babel.Ephialtes: he and his brother Oti attempted to invade heavenby placingMount Pelion on Mount Ossa.Briareus: a monster with fifty heads and a hundred arms thatattacked Mount Olympus.Anteus: another Titan, unchained since he did not take theirpart againstthe gods. He lived in Libya on a diet of lions, in thevalley where Scipiodefeated Hannibal. CANTO XXXIINinth Circle, First Ring: Caïna, named after Cain who killedhis brotherAbel. Traitors to their kin immersed in ice up to the neck.The Second Ring:Antenora, named after the Trojan traitor. Betrayers of theircountry. Danteencounters two traitors, one gnawing at the other’s head. Those ladies: the muses.Bizensio: The two are the Alberti brothers who killed eachother over aninheritance in the Bizensio valley.Arthur: struck his treacherous nephew Mordred a blow thatpierced his body so sunlight shone through the hole onto his shadow.Focaccia: a Pistoian who murdered his cousin through greed.Sassol Mascheroni: murdered his nephew to gain hisinheritance.Camiscon de’ Pazzi: murdered a kinsman Carlino, a relative,betrayed his party, the White Guelphs surrendering a castle for money; his fatewill be worse.Bocca degli Abati: betrayed his party at Montaperti bycutting off theGuelph standard-bearer’s hands, throwing his troops intoconfusion.Da Duera: a Ghibelline who sold Parma to the French.Beccharia: Pope Alexander IV’s legate decapitated forplotting against the Guelphs.Gianni de’ Solanieri: betrayed the Ghibellines during aGuelph uprising.Ganelon: betrayed Charlemagne and the rearguard in theChanson de Roland,Tebaldello: opened the gates of Faenza to enemy Guelphs.Tydeus: one of the Seven against Thebes. Mortally wounded byMenalippus, who he managed to kill before dying, Tydeus gnawed on his skull. CANTO XXXIIINinth Circle, Second Ring: Ugolino’s tale of his death.Virgil and Dante proceed to the Third Ring, named ‘Tolomea’ after Ptolomy,the captain of Jericho, who killed his guests as they ate with him. Thetraitors to hospitality, eyes sealed by frozen tears. Some alive on earth butalready in Hell. Count Ugolino: a Ghibelline of Pisa, betrayed Pisanstrongholds to Florence and Lucca in 1284. Later, plotting with ArchbishopRuggieri and the Gualandi, Sismondi and Lanfranchi families against his kinsmenthe Visconti, he was betrayed by Ruggieri who imprisoned him in the Tower ofHunger to starve.Friar Alberigo: a Jovial Friar who murdered his enemies at abanquet towhich he had invited them, the signal for the act being anorder for the fruit.Atropos: one of the three FatesSer Branca: aided by his unnamed kinsman murdered hisfather-in-law Michel Zanche, a guest. CANTO XXXIVThe final division of Hell. Ninth Circle, Fourth Ring;Judecca, named afterJudas Iscariot. Traitors to their benefactors totallyimmersed in ice.Lucifer rending Judas, Brutus and Cassius. Descent of thepoets down Lucifer’s body, to the southern hemisphere. The stars. Judas Iscariot: who betrayed Christ; Brutus and Cassiusconspired to kill Caesar. Grasped the shaggy flank: Dante and Virgil climb feet firstdown Lucifer’s leg. But since Lucifer’s navel is the world’s center of gravity,once past it they must turn round to clamber up towards Lucifer’s feet. Gravityisacting now in reverse. The side covered by dry land: the northern hemisphere. Thesouthernhemisphere contains no dry land except the Mount ofPurgatory. Notes by Benedict Flynn Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265 into a familyof the city’slesser nobility in reduced circumstances. They were Guelphs,a partyoriginally identified with the claims of papal authority andopposed by theGhibellines, who offered allegiance to the German Emperorsin Italy. ByDante’s time both parties had developed into vehicles forfeud and privateinterest. In 1302 control of Florence fell into the hands of‘Black’ Guelphsand the faction exiled Dante. It was during this permanentexile fromFlorence that The Divine Comedy was written, completed theyear of his death in Ravenna, 1321. Heathcote Williams As poet, playwright and actor, Heathcote Williams has made asignificant contribution to many fields. He is best known for his extendedpoems on environmental subjects, Whale Nation (1988); Falling for a Dolphin(1988); Sacred Elephant (1989) and Autogeddon (1991). But his plays have alsowon acclaim, notably AC/DC produced at London’s Royal Court, and Hancock’s LastHalf Hour. As an actor he has been equally versatile — among his most memorableroles was Prospero in Derek Jarman’s film of The Tempest.