Dantes Inferno Canto VI BY MICHAEL MURRAY Canto

Dante’s Inferno: Canto VI BY: MICHAEL MURRAY

Canto VI: Overview Canto VI is about Dante’s journey with Virgil into the third circle of hell. This is where the Gluttonous are punished. Dante finds himself in a “mixture of stinking snow and freezing rain, ” where he sees “new torments and new souls in pain… everywhere. ” The three headed dog Cerberus stands guard over them. As they pass through, Dante has a run-in with Ciacco, who was a citizen of Dante’s own Florence. They briefly chat about the city and what is happening there. Dante and Virgil leave and encounter the monster Plutus, the “great enemy” of the next canto.

Canto VI: Sinners and their Punishment All of the sinners in this canto are guilty of gluttony; one of the seven deadly sins of the Catholic church. Gluttony is associated with greed and worship of food and drink rather than God. “In life, they made no higher use of the gifts of God than to wallow in food and drink, producers of nothing but garbage and offal. ” The gluttons punishment is quite fitting for what they had done on earth. They all lie there, naked, wallowing in a foul smelling slush with an everlasting cold rain falling over them. This punishment represents the selfish and cold ways the gluttonous lived their lives. The three-headed dog Cerberus devours most of the souls of the gluttonous and is never satisfied, just as the gluttonous were on earth. In this sense, their owns sins is their own punishment.

Canto VI: Allusions and Literary Devices Allusion: Cerberus is the famously known threeheaded guard dog of the gates of hell. He’s knows as the “hound of Hades. ” Literary Devices: Anaphora when describing Cerberus’ details to the reader-”His eyes are red, his beard is greased with phlegm, his belly swollen, and his hands are claws to rip the wretches and flay and mangle them. ” Simile: Cerberus is described to howl “through his triple throats like a mad dog” and those who are being mangled by him “too, howl like dogs in the freezing storm. ”

Works Cited “Cerberus/Gallery. ” Disney Wiki, disney. fandom. com/wiki/Cerberus/Gallery. “Dante's Inferno, Canto 6: CERBERUS. ” Davidbruceblog #1, 14 Oct. 2017, davidbruceblog. wordpress. com/2017/10/14/dantes-inferno-canto-6 -cerberus/. Dore, Gustave. “The Inferno, Canto 6 - Gustave Dore. ” Www. wikiart. org, www. wikiart. org/en/gustavedore/the-inferno-canto-6 -1. Shmoop Editorial Team. “Inferno Allusions. ” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008, www. shmoop. com/inferno/allusions. html. Dante Alighieri, and John Ciardi. The Inferno. New York: Signet Classic, 2001.