Inferno Cantos IV-V

Virgil One of the Virtuous Pagans –“’The pain of these below us here, drains the color from my face of pity..” (19-20) Guides Dante –“’You do not question what souls these are that suffer here before you? I wish you to know before you travel on…’”(31-33)

Circle One: Limbo The Virtuous Pagans There is no harsh punishment –“No tortured wailing rose to greet us here, but sounds of sighing rose from every side…a grief breathed out of untormented sadness…” (25-29). –“Sinners” born before Christ’s teachings –“Their birth fell before the age of the Christian mysteries, and so they did not worship God’s trinity,” (36-39). Still considered virtuous – respected

The Virtuous Pagans “For such defects are we lost, though spared the fire and suffering of hell in one affliction only: that without hope we live on in desire,” (40-43) –They now know Christ’s teachings –They will never know him (heaven)

The Harrowing of Hell “has any, by his own or another’s merit, gone ever from this place to blessedness” “…a Mighty One descended here among us, crowned with the sign of His victorious years…” (49-63).

The Harrowing of Hell The gates of heaven did not open until the death of Christ Those born before Christ and considered virtuous waited in Limbo After his death, Christ descended into Hell to choose the souls worthy of Heaven –Figures from the Old Testament Caused an earthquake in Hell

The Virtuous Pagans “’The signature honors left on earth is recognized in Heaven and wins them ease in Hell out of God’s favor.’” (76-78) –Honored in life and respected in death (heaven) Homer, Lucan, Ovid, Horace, Virgil

Citadel of Human Reason “…we reached the base of a great Citadel circled by seven towering battlements and by a sweet brook flowing all around them… This we passed over as if firm ground. Through seven gates I entered with those sages and came to a green meadow blooming round” ( ). Citadel= philosophy 7 liberal arts/ sciences Water separates them from those in darkness

Inhabitants Heroes and Heroines –Trojans Hector, Aeneas The Philosophers –Acceptable to the church Plato, Aristotle The Naturalists –Theoreticians, historians of science

Canto V Circle Two The Carnal

Minos “There Minos sits, grinning, grotesque, and hale./ He examines each lost soul as it arrives/ and delivers his verdict with his coiling tail” (4-6). –Judges and delivers the realm the soul will reside in –From mythology, King of Crete –Known for wisdom –Presented as horrific in Inferno Zeus took form of bull and raped Europa

Minos “…when the ill-fated soul appears before him it confesses all, and the grim sorter of the dark and foul decides which place in Hell shall be its end, then wraps his twitching tail about himself one coil for each degree it must descend.” (7-12) –Souls want to confess –They choose their fate, free will –No repentance in Hell

The Carnal “I came to a place stripped bare of every light and roaring on the naked dark like seas wracked by a war of winds. Their hellish flight Of storm and counter storm through time foregone, sweeps the souls of the damned before its charge. Whirling and battering it drives them on…” (28-34) –Committed in dark –Swept by temptations –Had no restraint so brutally hit –Sins of the she-wolf, first division of Hell Incontinence

The Carnal –Destructive nature and consequences of sexual desire –Desire takes over reason –Associated with love –Least severe punishment

Sinners Dido –Left husband for Aeneas Achilles –Deserted Greeks for Love

Francesca and Paolo Francesca & Paolo “Love, which permits no loved one not to love,/ ok me so strongly with delight in him/ that we are one in Hell” ( ). –Affair –Husband killed them “In the depths of Hell/ Caina waits for him who tok our lives” ( ). He is in Caina, treacherous to kin

Dante’s Emotional Reaction “…and I was swept by pity and confusion” (72) “…I felt my sense reel and faint away with anguish. I was swept by such a swoon as death is, and I fell, as a corpse might fall, to the dead floor of Hell” ( ). –Pities souls –Resemble his love for Beatrice