You can read
the previous summaries here: Canto I – X ; Canto XIX – XXVIII
(Lawrence Edward – 1992) |
Canto XIX: The third pouch of eighth circle contained the sinners of Simony, people who buy or sell sacraments
or positions in church. They were punished in a narrow round pit in an upside
down position: head inside and feet protruded in the air, while the soles were
endlessly on fire. Dante saw that one soul was burnt in redder flame than the
others; who turned out to be Pope
Nicholas III. Dante thought the punishment befitted him, but the pope
foresaw that there would be many of corrupt popes would suffer the same or even
more.
Canto XX: In the fourth pouch Dante saw a train of people walked endlessly in
procession with their head twisted backward. They were punished from using unholy power to foretell the future.
Magicians such as Michael Scott were
included here, as well as Diviners.
Canto XXI: It was extremely dark in the fifth pouch, a pit with boiling
substance usually used for repairing ships in Venetia. Then suddenly a black
devil appeared, it grabbed a soul and plunged it to the pit. It was a
punishment for barrators. Every time
the souls rose to the surface to breath, the Malebranche (the devil) would seize
them downward again. Virgil negotiated with the devils to be let pass and to
guide them because one of the bridges had been broken, although Dante was
terrified of their escort.
Canto XXII: Although the souls only
appeared in short moment, Virgil was able to ask one of them, a domestic servant
of King Thibault who received bribe.
Then there’s a small chaos, and when the devils left them, Dante and Virgil
could continue their journey.
Canto XXIII: Dante began to fear of
what the devils would do as they had made them angry. Suddenly they heard the
devils came, Virgil grabbed Dante and carried him in his breast while ran to the sixth pouch where the devils could
not go without leaving their post. Then they saw group of people wore mantles
with hoods, lined with lead, which created heavy burdens for them. They were
punished for hypocrisy. One of them was
crucified—he was Caiphus (Caiaphas),
a Jewish high priest who had provoked the Pharisees to kill Jesus. His father
in law—Annas—and the others of the council were also punished in the same way.
One of the sinners then showed the way to proceed to next pouch.
Canto XXIV: The journey to the seventh pouch was very challenging.
Dante was once so weary, but Virgil kept encouraging him to move on. They came
on the bank full of monstrous serpents biting naked souls who were running
ceaselessly full of fright. A man named Vanni Fucci got bitten on the neck,
then caught fire and burnt to ashes; he was reborn from the ashes (like
phoenix), only to be chased again by the serpents. He was being punished for thieving; he robbed a sacristy. In
anger that Dante witnessed him, the sinner foretold a political fall in
Florence.
Canto XXV: Fucci accursed God, and
being entangled by the serpents. Then three spirits appeared, and suddenly a
six feet long serpent attacked and bit one of the souls until the soul and the
serpent merged into one creature. While the two other souls were watching this,
a serpent came and bit one of them. The soul and the serpent were transfixed at
one another, then they interchanged each other’s form; the soul became serpent
and the serpent transformed into the soul.
Canto XXVI: Dante and Virgil reached the eight pouch, an
area where there were only flames, and with each flame the fire carried a soul.
Ulysses and Diomed from Trojan War were among the souls in the fire. Ulysses
finally confided to Virgil how he had overcome his desire to sail to the
western countries and how the ship had finally sank by a great storm.
~~~~~~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment
What do you think?