Ascend - The Great Books Podcast

Dante approaches the gates of hell! Dcn. Harrison Garlick is joined by Dr. Jennifer Frey, the Dean of the new Honors College at the University of Tulsa, and Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson, the Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University, to discuss cantos 2-5 of Dante's Inferno.

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13.      What happens in the Vestibule of Hell (Cantos 2-3)?

The narrative of the Dark Woods in Canto 1 is arguably the introduction to the entire Divine Comedy, and as such, Canto 2 serves as the introduction to the first volume or canticle, the Inferno.[1] Note that Dante begins the Canto by invoking the Muses, which was common in the “classic epic tradition.”[2] The Canto explains that the Virgin Mary took pity on Dante, and she told Saint Lucia to help him. St. Lucia then asked Beatrice, a soul in heaven who knows Dante, to help Dante; Beatrice then went into hell and asked Virgil to be Dante's guide.[3] Whereas the three beasts of Canto I represent the threefold structure of hell, the three ladies of Canto 2 represent grace.[4] His heart emboldened, Dante and Virgil enter the “deep and rugged road” and arrive at the gate of hell.[5] The inscription of the gate reads:

I AM THE WAY INTO THE DOLEFUL CITY / I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL GRIEF, /

I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN RACE. 

JUSTICE IT WAS THAT MOVED MY GREAT CREATOR; / DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE CREATED ME, / AND HIGHEST WISDOM JOINED WITH PRIMAL LOVE. 

BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS / WERE MADE, AND I SHALL LAST ETERNALLY. / ABANDON EVERY HOPE, ALL WHO ENTER.[6]

 Upon passing through the gates, the Pilgrim hears the “sighs and cries and shrieks of lamentations echo[ing] throughout the starless air of Hell.”[7] Virgil and the Pilgrim enter into the Vestibule of Hell, which is populated by souls who lived a lukewarm life with “no blame and no praise,” and by the angels who at Lucifer's great rebellion remained undecided.[8] Here, Dante the Poet introduces the concept of contrapasso, i.e., “the just punishment of sin, effected by a process either resembling or contrasting with the sin itself.”[9] In the Vestibule, the contrapasso for the souls and angels who lived undecided is to eternally march after a banner.[10] Amongst “great a number,” the Pilgrim sees the shade of the “coward who had made the great refusal.”[11] While there are many interpretations, “perhaps it is most likely that this shade is Pontius Pilate, who refused to pass sentence on Christ.”[12] Virgil and the Pilgrim come to the river Acheron where they are ferried across by the demon Charon—“the boatman of classical mythology who transports the souls of the dead across the Acheron into Hades.”[13] As they cross the Acheron, a mighty wind blows against the Pilgrim and he swoons—a literary device that serves to close a narrative and introduce another.[14]

14.      How is Dante the Pilgrim going on a hero’s journey?

The tradition presents many heroes who have adventured down into the underworld and returned, including Heracles, Odysseus, and Aeneas. Dr. Wilson notes that while Dante the Pilgrim will also travel into the underworld, he does not do so as a hero in the classical sense. Dante the Pilgrim is weak and spiritually malformed. He undergoes his journey for the sake of his own formation and spiritual maturation. As Dr. Frey observes, the movement of Providence is evident in these cantos, as everyone is sent: the Blessed Virgin Mary sends St. Lucy, St. Lucy sends Beatrice, and Beatrice sends Virgil. Ultimately, Dante the Pilgrim is sent into hell.

16.      Who is Beatrice?

When he was a child, he first saw the young girl Beatrice when she was eight or nine years old. He is said to have fallen in love with her, though it is not clear that he even spoke to her until several years later. When he was a child, Dante was promised in marriage to another, but Beatrice—whom he never seems to have known well—remained his muse. He wrote courtly love poems about her and her beauty. She died in AD 1290. In his Comedy, whereas Virgil represents human reason unaided by grace, Beatrice will represent grace and beauty. Her beauty becomes an icon of God’s beauty calling Dante the Pilgrim’s soul down through hell and up through purgatory. Dante the Pilgrim will have to learn how to allow this love for the beauty of Beatrice to perfect into a love for the beauty of God.

18.      What is a contrapasso?

With the lukewarm souls that both heaven and hell reject, the reader is introduced to the concept of the contrapasso. In sum, each punishment of the damned is tailored to their particular sin and this tailoring always has a pedagogical purpose. For example, here the lukewarm, who stood for nothing in life, are forced to march behind a banner for all eternity. The contrapasso reveals something about the nature of the sin punished, which is then catechetical for the reader. Note, as Dr. Frey observed, that the lukewarm are harassed along by insects or rather the source of their movement is external to them. The lukewarm lack the inner capacity to move, just as they did in life.

22.      The First Circle of Hell – Limbo (Canto 4)

The Pilgrim awakes, and Virgil leads him into the First Circle of Hell. The Pilgrim hears “the sounds of sighs of untormented grief” of “men and women and of infants.”[18] The circle is known as Limbo and is populated by naturally virtuous non-Christians and by unbaptized infants. As Virgil states: “But their great worth alone was not enough, for they did not know Baptism, which is the gateway to the faith you follow.”[19] The contrapasso of Limbo is that the virtuous souls live out eternity in a paradise devoid of the Beatific Vision. Like themselves, it is naturally good but lacks the grace of God.

Dante the Poet equates Limbo with Sheol or Abraham's Bosom in the Old Testament; thus, Virgil tells him of “a mighty lord” who entered Limbo—Christ's Harrowing of Hell—and liberated Adam, Abel, Noah, Moses, Abram, David, Israel, Rachel, and “many more he chose for blessedness.”[20] Dante sees many famous Greek and Roman poets in Limbo, which in turn greet Dante as a fellow poet.[21] The Pilgrim approaches a castle in Limbo and “the inhabitants of the great castle are important pagan philosophers and poets, as well as famous warriors.”[22] Most notably, the Pilgrim sees Aristotle, the “master sage,” to whom “all pay their homage.”[23] He is sitting with his “philosophy family” with Socrates on one side and Plato on the other.[24] For Dante the Poet, “Aristotle represented the summit of human reason, that point that man could reach on his own without the benefit of Christian revelation.”[25] In fact, “with the exception of the Bible, Dante draws most often from Aristotle.”[26] Virgil and the Pilgrim leave the great castle and approach the “place where no light is.”[27]

25.      The Second Circle of Hell – Lust (V)

Virgil and the Pilgrim come upon King Minos, the judge of Hell. In classical literature, King Minos “was the son of Zeus and Europa” and “as the king of Crete he was revered for his wisdom and judicial gifts.”[28] In Virgil's Aeneid, King Minos serves as the “chief magistrate of the underworld,” and Dante the Poet retains this classic notion; however, in the Inferno, King Minos has certain bestial qualities, most notably a tail, which, after the “evil soul appears before him, it confesses all,” wraps around himself and throws them in the corresponding circle of hell.[29] For example, King Minos would wrap his tail twice around himself for a shade condemned to the second circle of hell.

Virgil and the Pilgrim continue and come upon an “infernal storm, eternal in its rage” blowing thousands of souls around in the wind.[30] The contrapasso of the lustful souls who “make reason slave to appetite” is to be blown around and battered by a great wind—just as they allowed their reason to be blown around by their passions.[31] Here, the Pilgrim sees Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, Paris, Tristan, and others.[32] The Pilgrim speaks to two souls buffeted by the winds: Francesca da Rimini and Paolo. It is in the Second Circle of Hell that Dante the Pilgrim’s pity is shown as disordered and contrary to the Divine Will, as he falls prey to the rhetoric of Francesca.[33] As she tells the story of her life that led her to the Second Circle of Hell, the Pilgrim is moved toward pity: “Francesca, the torment that you suffer brings painful tears of pity to my eyes.”[34] The Pilgrim's journey through hell will have several such encounters in which the Pilgrim will need to discern the true nature of sin and comprehend the divine justice that placed the soul there.

[1] Id., 77-9. Canto 1 as an introduction to the whole Comedy is further evidenced by the fact the Inferno as 34 cantos, while Purgatorio and Paradiso have 33 each. The extra canto in the Inferno is an introduction to the whole. Dr. Wilson also noted that canto 1 is the introduction of Dante the Pilgrim, while canto 2 is the introduction of Dante the Poet.

[2] Id., 84, noting that similar invocations will be made at the beginning of the Purgatory and the Paradise.

[3] The Blessed Mother taking “pity” on Dante begins a “major motif of the Inferno,” which plays an important part in the “education of the Pilgrim.” Musa, 83, ln. 5.

[4] Id., 85-6.

[5] Canto II, ln. 142.

[6] Canto III, lns. 1-9. Note the inscription above the gate mentions omnipotence, wisdom, and love—a triad formula that has been interpreted as “the gate of Hell was created by the Trinity moved by Justice.” Musa, 93, ln. 5-6. Dr. Frey and Dr. Wilson note that “through me” not “I am” is a better translation.

[7] Canto III, ln. 22-3.

[8] Canto III, ln. 36, see also 40-42 on angels.

[9] Musa, 94, ln. 52-69.

[10] Id., Canto III, lns. 52-57. The belief that there were neutral angels that would not choose to follow God or Satan seems to be a narrative of Dante’s own invention.

[11] Canto III, ln. 60.

[12] Musa, 95, ln. 60.

[13] Canto III, lns. 78, 94; Musa, 95.

[14] Musa, 96, ln. 136.

[15] See Esolen, 423-24.

[16] Esolen, 19.

[17] Esolen, canto 3, ln. 103.

[18] Canto IV, lns. 28, 30.

[19] Canto IV, lns. 34-6.

[20] Canto IV, lns. 52-63.

[21] Musa, 103, lns 91-93.

[22] Musa, 204; lns. 112-44; along with virtuous Greek and Romans, Dante includes three virtuous medieval Muslims, i.e., the warrior Saladin, and two Islamic commentators on Aristotle: Avicenna and Averroes. See Musa, 106-108.

[23] Canto IV, lns. 130-35.

[24] Canto IV, lns. 132, 134.

[25] Musa, 106; ln. 131.

[26] Id.

[27] Canto IV, ln. 150.

[28] Musa, 114-15, ln. 4.

[29] Canto V, lns. 4-12.

[30] Canto V, lns. 31-33.

[31] Canto V, lns. 31-39.

[32] Canto V, lns. 55-69.

[33] Musa, 114. Dr. Wilson makes a comparison between Paolo and Francesca reading a book and falling into lust, with St. Augustine taking up and reading Scripture to be delivered from lust in the Confessions. Similarly, Dr. Frey posits that Dante the Poet could be acknowledging that poetry can lead people into sin, especially the courtly love poetry popular at the time. Possible Dante the Pilgrim fainting is him realizing his courtly love poetry could lead to a soul being condemned for all eternity.

[34] Canto V, lns. 116-17; in the fourth circle, see Dante's pity for Ciacco (Musa, 126, ln. 59); Francesca is in hell for lust, for seduction, and in telling her tale, she seduces Dante the Pilgrim. She is still practicing the sin for which she was condemned.