Canto 20 The Diviners Fourth Bolgia Important Stuff

Canto 20 The Diviners / Fourth Bolgia

Important Stuff ❖ Self Awareness at the beginning of this canto, along with 19 shows a parallel between Simoniacs and soothsayers (1 -3). ➢ This is a poetic anecdote, as seen as the canto being referred to as a song ➢ “Which is of those submerged” (3) refers to every soul in Hell, and we see more submersion references in Canto 21. ❖ Dante weeps, Virgil asks who is more wicked than one who brings passion to God’s judgement (28 -30) ➢ This is important because we don’t know who Virgil is talking to. He could be referring to Dante, or the sinners.

Questions ❖ Who are the Diviners? How do they suffer? ❖ How does the punishment that Diviners receive, reflect their sin(s)? What is this called? ❖ Why does Dante weep for the Diviners?

Diviners ❖ ❖ A diviner is a person who believes in God, but they think the future is predetermined. Another name for this is “Soothsayer”, but that tends to specify to those who try and read the “laid out” future. Punishment : Body is twisted at the neck so their head faces behind them Stranadus, 1587

People ❖ Amphiaraus : Performs augury (predictions by the flight of birds), and foresees the war of the Thebans ❖ Tiresias : Granted ability to see the future after argument of the Gods ❖ Arruns : Soothsayer described by Lucan in his stories ❖ Manto : Daughter of Tiresias, however she is disconnected with sin from the founding of Mantua ❖ Eurypylus : Soothsayer who talked to the Delphic oracle to learn about the coming war ❖ Pinamonte : Tricked the ruler of Mantua and massacred families ❖ Calchas : Priest of Apollo, boss to Eurypylus, predicted outcome of war ❖ Guido Bonatti : Astrologer

Canto 21 The Barrators / Fifth Bolgia

More Important Stuff ❖ Speaking of things my comedy doesn’t discuss (1 -3). Both describing the fact that Virgil and Dante have more than just the Inferno to discuss (could be poetry, politics, we don’t know) and this is the last time the word “comedy” is used. ❖ Violently boiling body of liquid, likely to be blood, heated by God’s wrath (7 -18) Bartolomeo Pinelli, 1825

Questions ❖ What are barrators? What is their punishment? ❖ How is the demon depicted in this canto? ❖ Describe the relationship between Virgil and the “Evil Claws”

Barrators and their punishment ❖ A Barrator is a person who does a political action for money, as see in lines 41 -42 ❖ When the devil is carrying the sinner over his shoulder, it is “like a butcher carrying a slaughtered animal” (metaphor lines 34 -36 & 55) ➢ Parodic? Good Shepherd carrying lost lamb on shoulders ❖ Punishment is to be submerged in the pitch, and if they ever rise, they are skewered by the demons ➢ 53 -54 you have to dance. . . grab secretlycontrapasso? Gregorio de ➢ Gregoriis, 1515 This is an allusion to cooking, as seen throughout the Malebolge.

Interpretation of the Devil ❖ Malicious sarcasm--- came into play previously 18. 35 -36 ❖ Closer description of the devil as a black, horned, winged demon, light on his feet as he too has no body ❖ Dante provides the reader with many inventive names for the devil - Evil Claws, Evil Tail, Evil Dog ➢ These represent their features, and we see this with the name given to the Malebolge, or Evil Pockets. ❖ Biting tongue and trumpet of the butt is a http: //www. anselm. edu/homepage/dbanach/dantenotes. htm

Virgil and traveling between bolgias ❖ (Lines 67 -70) Simile that depicts/introduces Virgil’s confidence or rather over confidence ➢ Virgil has encountered them before (Canto 9) / many parallels are drawn between negotiations ➢ Only the threat of God’s will keeps them safe. . . temporarily (127 -129) but the pilgrim sees that they mean him harm (127 -35) ❖ Is this divine justice or over-confidence on Virgil’s part? Why? ❖ Bridge between this bolgia and the next is crumbled, so they need a safe guide to a different crossing. This shows a separation between the upper levels of fraud and what is to come. ➢ The bridge collapsed (112 -14), broken by the earthquake that followed Christ’s

Lucca ❖ Santa Zita’s elders came from Lucca, which was a republic-run town ❖ This town was taken over by Black Guelfs ➢ This is likely why Lucca was chosen as the city of Barrators for Dante. He was exiled for barratry by Black Guelfs in Florence, so he chose another town that is likely to have political corruption, and returned the favor