Dante Book II Canto VIII Scene II

 Scene II

 

Dante saw for himself then the view of Malebolge. It was wholly of stone and of an iron color, the shade of red as seen in the molten lava. The layers of it were seen in the circle wide and deep. And within the circle, were seen the figure forms, own at the bottom were the sinners naked and beheld the horned demons with great scourges, with cruelly were beating the souls.

Dante saw them souls lift their legs on the blows and soothe not anyone for the second was waited for, nor from the third and on it continues.

“What punishment they encounter here that their sins were to allow?” Dante asked. Virgil looked at the other and gave his thoughts out.

“Have you not said are we not to avoid listening to that even so far deep in Hell? Well, each circle held its sinners.”

“Show me one whom can satiate my question?” Dante looked to the nearby circle. He saw one soul had staggered behind and was single out. He approached the solitary soul. As he was near the other, Dante was shooed away.

“Thou that castest down thine eyes, I may know you. Are you Venedico Caccianimico? What did bring thee to such pungent sauces?” The lost soul there was a Guelf leader of Bologna, who was the political head of several cities. Venedico is rumored to have curried favor with the Marquis of Este by subjecting his sister, Ghisolabella, to the man's lascivious desires.

“Unwillingly I tell it,” The other replied. “I was the one who the fair Ghisola was to induced to grant the wishes of the Marquis. It’s my shameless story may be told on my sins but I’m not the only Bolognese who weeps here.”

“So, it was true what I had heard.” Dante was taken aback by the sins of the one he had known. “Are they all here; these sinners? If so, not a soul of Bolognese is I to weeps here.”

“Stay thyself in the line, pimp. There are no women here for coin.” A demon with the double horns and with a pitch fork design at the tip of its unnatural tail had stepped in between Dante and the soul. The demon held a whip which it used on the soul.

“Get back in line.” The demon then turned towards Dante. It took the view from the head to the toe.

“You are not a sinner of this Circle. I will have you removed.” The demon told Dante.

“I will be moving. Spare me the whipping.” With Dante took to return with Virgil. The two of them continued their walk on in haste. Soon they reached a safe distance at what may be called a crag by the bank of the circle.

“Alas, Luke 8:17 For all that is secret will eventually be brought into the open, and everything that is concealed will be brought to light and made known to all,” Dante spoke to himself.

“Wait, and see that on thee, strike the vision of those others evil-born, of whom thou hast not yet beheld the faces because together with us they have gone.” Virgil gave a dose of Dante’s medicine.

“I know what you meant. We need to move on as we did in the other Circles. They are deserving what they have committed before.” Dante then smiled. “You surprised me at the time when you entrail your words with what I will say is my domain.”

“Well observed, poet.” Virgil laughed. “If I had spoken most times in my logical approach, then we would not have made good companions here.”

‘We shall move on or Beatrice may not wait for me.” Dante told the other. They walk on crossing the other rims and more were seen; many more souls kept on their feet by the demons, with the whips, the souls cried out in despair.

“See that tall one who is coming. And for his pain seems not to shed a tear; his frame still proud. What a royal aspect he retains!” Virgil commented. Dante looked over and saw the soul mentioned. He had seen that face.

“He is Jason of the Argonauts. They are an elite unit of the Empire.” Dante recalled the unit leader. The Argonauts modeled after the ancient famed warriors also led by one named Jason, the son of Aeson, the King of Lolcos. Like the ancient heroes, the present Argonauts were assigned tasks that others won’t dare to venture. It was reported that their leader Jason had perished in one of the tasks.

Jason was not without his sins. He was mentioned to have a lover not of his own, but he took on her regardless. He defiled the faith when he seduced her; he fouled one of the ten commandments; thou shalt not commit adultery. For his sins, Jason was banished there.

“Do you want to speak to him?” Virgil asked of Dante.

“With him go those who in such wise deceive; And this sufficient be of the first valley to know and those that in its jaws it holds,” Dante replied. “Jason is where he belongs now. There is no other passage to overcome his sin but here in Hell.”

The journey was soon to take them to a dyke and from there to the buttress that was to reinforced the arch built there.

“It’s unusual that an arch is here.” Virgil looked at it. It was a simple structure yet it supports the structure to the dyke.

“The arch may be for a reason as arches were built to lent support. In its work, the arch serves to lift the sight of the beholder, and in that it lifts the spirit to a higher level.” Dante explained in the spiritual term. Then they heard the wails of people, who are moaning the next Bolgia, snorting with their muzzles, And with their palms beating upon themselves. He saw the souls smothered in filth that out of human privies seemed to flow; and whilst below there with his eye, he saw one with the head so foul with ordure.”

“Are those ---” Virgil was to ask.

“They are the excrements of ours. Such are their sins, I perceived that they are to submerged in it.” Dante replied. “Many generations ago when our sewage system was in its infantile, waste waters were removed via ducts or by hands. They were called latrines but today, we hardly named it except as sanitation system. Even up to the late twentieth century, latrines were still very much the manual removal.”

It was then a soul immersed in the ordure, roared out in anger at Dante.

“Wherefore art thou so eager to look at me more than the other foul ones?” The soul drowning in the excrement was pounding his head then.

“If I remember well, you are Alessio Interminei of Lucca? Once of seen with the elites, and even at my presence once, you bewildered the attendees with your flattery. I have known you for a swindler and now you are here speaking to me that I am not mistaken.”

“The flatteries have submerged me here below, wherewith my tongue was never surfeited.” The one whom I had accused reply to me. “See that thou thrust thy visage somewhat farther in advance, that with thine eyes thou well the face attained of that unclean and dishevelled drab, who there doth scratch herself with filthy nails, and crouches now, and now on foot is standing. She was a thais; or whore you may heard of.”

Dante had heard of the term ‘thais’ which denote prostitution much later in the vocabulary of Man. He had avoided them for he had taken a vow of the celibate journey for the one that he desired and yet was not his to own. He has been tempted by others but he held onto his vow to remain pure.

“Is she---” Virgil asked. He had patronized some in his living journey; an itch too great to be ignored, if the self-induced of it will not satiate the urge.

“Yes, she was a prostitute or in the better terms of today, the lady of services, or for worse, the harlot. The name ‘thais’ was from a fictional character in the play named Eunuchus by Terrence. It was a comedy written by the 2nd century BC Roman playwright Terence featuring a complex plot of familial misunderstanding.”

“And its relevance to Thais?” Virgil asked.

“Thais was the character in the play. Phaedria or Thais her other name was a courtesan or branded as above. She was loved by another but she had shielded her love for she was on the trail to recover her slave sold to another. Thais was gifted with two slaves by her admirer, and one of them was her admirer’s brother in place of the real slave which was a eunuch. Such as the play went on, Thais; the slave was raped by the admirer’s brother. The slave that was Thais soon recovered. In the end, the admirer wedded slave.”

“And what has that to do with the sin here? She may be courtesan but ---” Virgil cut in.

“Thais was indeed a courtesan and in the last passages of the play, she agreed to be shared by the others. Let me recite you the last passages of the play.”

“GNAT HO Just thinks about it: you like living with her, Phaedria—in fact, you’re very keen on living with her—but you haven’t got much to give her, and Thais must be given a lot, If you want someone to finance your love-life and meet all her demands without costing you a penny, there’s no one more convenient or more useful to you. For a start, he’s got the money to give, and no one gives more generously than he does. lie’s stupid, boring, and slow, and he snores night and day. And you needn’t be afraid the woman will fall in love with him; you can easily drive him out whenever you like!”

C H A ER E A What shall we do?

GNATHO What’s more, there’s this point, which 1 think the most important of all: there isn’t a host anywhere who entertains better or more lavishly! CHAEREA It rather looks as if we’ll have to put up with that man, whether we like it or not!

PHAEDRIA Iagree.

GNATHO You’re quite right. I’ve just got this one further request: please let me join your gang: I’ve been pushing this rock up the hill* for long enough now.

PHAEDRIA We’ll let you join.

CHAEREA And gladly! GNATHO And I in return, Phaedria—and you too, Chaerea— present him to you: eat up his larder and have a good laugh at him!

CHAEREA Well said!

PH A ED RI A Just what he deserves!

GNATHO Thraso, come and join us whenever you like.

“She does what she was then. I doubt there was any sin.” Virgil defended the act. “If you recalled the act of Tamar in the Book, she was…” Virgil hit back with his own views. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamar_(Genesis)#Tamar_and_Judah)

“I am on a journey towards a task and not for me to judge. You said so yourself many times to me. We move on.” Dante told Virgil. “I have seen enough.”

With haste, Dante paced on followed by Virgil. The latter kept his silence on the poet’s dismissal of the sinners there. Virgil's thoughts were that Dante may be hurt inside to see the level of depths that a Man may do in certain sins, and the punishment here justifies it. Or did God err in condemning what was another sin.

“Are you in your mood once more?” Virgil asked. “Or was it the last soul you met that repulse you?”

Dante had remained silent and moved on at his fast pace.