Poetry Summary: the Inferno, by Dante Alighieri, Canto XI

Virgil and Dante have reached the inner edge of the Sixth Circle. Below Virgil and Dante lies the Seventh Circle. Virgil and Dante draw back from the stink of Hell. Dante notices an inscription in the stone: 'I guard Anastasius, once Pope, he whom Photinus led from the straight road.' Aristotle details the division of the lower Hell. Virgil's description is a theological discourse based on The Ethics and The Physics of Aristotle with subsequent medieval interpretations. Aristotle made three categories of sin: Incontinence, Violence and Bestiality, and Fraud and Malice.

Malice is the sin most hated by God. And the aim of malice is to injure others whether by fraud or violence. But since fraud is the vice of which man alone is capable, God loathes it most. Therefore, the fraudulent are placed below, and their torment is more painful."

Virgil to Dante explains, "The first below are the violent. But as violence sins in three persons, so is that circle formed of three descending rounds of crueler torments. Against God, self, and neighbor is violence shown. Against their persons and their goods, I say, as you shall hear set forth with open reason. Murder and mayhem are the violation of the person of one's neighbor: and of his goods; harassment, plunder, arson, and extortion. Therefore, homicides, and those who strike in malice destroyers and plunderer shall lie in the first round, and like suffers with like."

Circle Seven include the violent and bestial, the sins of the lion. They are sins against neighbors, murderer and war-makers, against self, suicide and destroyers of their own substance, and against God, art and nature, blasphermers, perverts, and usurers.

The fraudulent and malicious, sins of the leopard are included in Circle VIII and Circle IX. In Circle VIII are seducers and panders, flatterers, simoniacs, fortune tellers and diviners, grafters, hypocrites, thieves, evil counselors, sowers of discord, counterfeiters and alchemists. In Circle IX are treachery against kin, treachery against country, treachery against guests and hosts, treachery against lords and benefactors.

Canto XI: Analysis:

Virgil and Dante have reached the inner edge of the Sixth Circle. Dante describes the scene, Virgil and I "Came to the edge of an enormous sink rimmed by a circle of great broken boulders" (1-2). These boulders are broken from the earthquake that shook Hell at the death of Christ. Below Virgil and Dante lies the Seventh Circle so fetid is that air that arises from it. Virgil and I "Found ghastlier gangs. And here the stink thrown up by the abyss so overpowered us that we drew back, cowering behind the wall of one of the great tombs" (3-6). The stink is symbolic of the foulness of Hell and its sins. The action of Virgil and Dante drawing back from the stink, and their meditations on the nature of sin, are subject to allegorical and literal interpretations.

Dante sees "An inscription in the stone, and read: 'I guard Anastasius, once Pope, he whom Photinus led from the straight road'" (7-9). Anastasius II was Pope from 496 to 498. During that period, it was the time of schism between the Eastern Greek and Western Roman Churches. Photinus, deacon of Thessalonica, was of the Greek Church and held to the Acacian heresy, which denied the divine paternity of Christ. Dante follows the report that Anastasius gave communion to Photinus, thereby countenancing his heresy.

Before moving onward, Virgil and Dante pause until their breaths can grow accustomed to the stench below. Virgil takes advantage of this pause by detailing the division of the lower Hell. Virgil's description is a theological discourse based on The Ethics and The Physics of Aristotle with subsequent medieval interpretations. Aristotle made three categories of sin: Incontinence, Violence and Bestiality, and Fraud and Malice.

Virgil to Dante explains, "There are below this wall three smaller circles, each in its degree like those you are about to leave and all are crammed with God's accurst. Accordingly, that you may understand their sins at sight. I will explain how each is prisoned, and why. Malice is the sin most hated by God. And the aim of malice is to injure others whether by fraud or violence. But since fraud is the vice of which man alone is capable, God loathes it most. Therefore, the fraudulent are placed below, and their torment is more painful" (16-27).

Virgil to Dante explains, "The first below are the violent. But as violence sins in three persons, so is that circle formed of three descending rounds of crueler torments. Against God, self, and neighbor is violence shown. Against their persons and their goods, I say, as you shall hear set forth with open reason. Murder and mayhem are the violation of the person of one's neighbor: and of his goods; harassment, plunder, arson, and extortion. Therefore, homicides, and those who strike in malice destroyers and plunderer shall lie in the first round, and like suffers with like" (28-39).

Virgil to Dante continues the explanation, "A man may lay violent hands upon his own person and substance; so in that second round eternally in vain repentance moan the suicides and all who gamble away and waste the good and substance of their lives and weep in that sweet time when they should be gay" (40-45).

Virgil to Dante says, "The smallest round brands with its mark both Sodom and Cahors, and all who rail at God and His commands in their hearts' dark" (49-51).

Both Sodom and Cahors are cities used as symbols for the sins that are said to have flourished within them. Sodom is identified with unnatural sex practices. Cahors, a city in southern France, was notorious in the Middle Ages for its usurers.

Circle Seven include the violent and bestial, the sins of the lion. They are sins against neighbors, murderer and war-makers, against self, suicide and destroyers of their own substance, and against God, art and nature, blasphermers, perverts, and usurers.

The fraudulent and malicious, sins of the leopard are included in Circle VIII and Circle IX. In Circle VIII are seducers and panders, flatterers, simoniacs, fortune tellers and diviners, grafters, hypocrites, thieves, evil counselors, sowers of discord, counterfeiters and alchemists. In Circle IX are treachery against kin, treachery against country, treachery against guests and hosts, treachery against lords and benefactors.

Virgil to Dante explains, "Hence, at the center point of all creation, in the smallest circle, on which Dis is founded, the traitors lie in endless expiration" (64-66). In the Ptolemaic system the earth was the center of the universe. In Dante's geography, the bottom of Hell is the center of the earth.

Dante to Virgil questions, "Those who lie in the swamp's bowels, those the wind blows about, those the rain beats, and those who meet and clash with such mad howelswhy are they not punished in the rust-red city if God's wrath be upon them?" (70-74) The rust-red city is Dis. All of Lower Hell is within the city walls of Dis. Virgil to Dante responds, "Have you forgotten that your Ethics states the three main dispositions of the soul that lead to those offenses Heaven hatesincontinence, malice, and bestiality? And how incontinence offends God least and earns least blame from Justice and Charity? Now if you weigh this doctrine and recall exactly who they are whose punishment lie in that upper Hell outside the wall, you will understand at once why they are confined apart from these fierce wraiths, and why less anger beats down on them from the Eternal Mind" (79-90). Your Ethics and Physics are reference to Aristotle's Ethics and Physics.

Virgil to Dante asks, "But come, for it is my wish now to go on: the wheel turns and the Wain lies over Caurus, the Fish are quivering low on the horizon, and there beyond us runs the road we go down the dark scarp into the depths below" (112-116). "The Wain lies over Caurus" refers to the Wain, a constellation of the Great Bear.

Caurus was the northwest wind in classical mythology. Hence the constellation of the Great Bear now lies in the northwest. The Fish is the constellation and zodiacal sign of Pisces. The Fish is just appearing over the horizon. The next sign of the zodiac is Aries. The sun is in Aries, and since the twelve signs of the zodiac each cover two hours of the day, it must now be about two hours before dawn. Therefore, it is approximately 4:00 A.M. of Holy Saturday. Although the stars are not visible in Hell, throughout the Inferno Virgil reads the stars by some special power.

Work Citied:

Alighieri, Dante, "The Inferno," Trans. John Ciardi, Signet Classics, New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., New York, New York, 2009, Print.