Dante Book II Canto XXV Scene I

 Canto XXV

The Eighth Circle: Fraud

Bolgia 7: Thieves II

Scene I

 

During the walk across the bridge of rope, Dante had his fears cropping up his mind. He had feared height since a child. When he flew in the craft with the squad members, he had recited prayers in his mind. It was that he felt easier when his feet were on firm grounds than floating in the air. Just when he climbed the slopes earlier, he was relieved that Virgil had gone ahead. He took steps but wary was he with his steps, his climb was slower.

“Hurry up, poet. I have reached the top.” Virgil appeared in front of Dante. “It’s not a long climb but watch your steps. The trail is slippery.”

“Virgil, you could move effortlessly for you are ---” Dante paused to find the word.

“For I am dead? I am dead. I am a soul. A dead soul. I hold no attachment here. I hold nothing tangible.” Virgil stood there at the edge of the slope. “I can’t die here. I am dead.”

“Stop it!” Dante was upset. “There is no reason to taunt me of it. I am not but I have to journey out. Why do you taunt me?”

Virgil looked away.

“I appreciate your companion. I had said it many times. You are my guide here. It all matters to me but ---- I am not you for I need ---reinforcement to my ---soul. Mine is still living. And it comes with limitations.”

“Like dying? I know that. I was once like you.” Virgil turned to look at Dante. “Fear makes us stay alive. Now follow me.”

It was then and on the rope bridge, Dante took the lead on the bridge.

“Poet, do you want me to walk ahead? I can ---”

“No, I am fine. I will lead.” Dante kept on walking. “Fear makes us stay alive as you said.”

“You are in your mood again.” Virgil sighed. “Move on and I will be behind you. Fall and I can’t catch you.” Virgil told Dante. It was how they walked on till they reached the middle part of the bridge. As we know of the rope bridge, snags in the middle but Dante walked on. He took the courage to look below. It was not encouraging.

There was still seen the sight of Vanni who was in flame from probably his many evolutions from whatever he was before. Dante saw an unusual sight there below. He saw three sinners running to hide chased by a lizard that was double the dimension of a Man. The lizard had its fangs displayed and it moved on six legs than the normally seen four legs. With its legs, it was swifter than the normal lizard.

“Did you see Cianfa?” The one in the lead called out to the one in the rear.

“How would I know? I am behind you.” Agnello replied but turned to look. He saw the last one behind was bitten by the lizard, and the sinner was melting like hot wax.

“Oh, mother of God. He is ---taken in.” Agnello ran on with more haste to his legs. “The lizard got him.”

The lizard bite caused the sinner to melt and then swallowed by the creature like sluice past the gated traps in the sewers. What was then seen by Dante was the lizard grew in dimension and a pair of new legs emerged to make it eight on the creature.

“It grew,” Agnello shouted but his legs were not fast and he felt the bite of the lizard. He felt his body melting like hot cheese and soon he was into the lizard but the amazing part took place then. The lizard evolved to be into the frame of a sinner and it ran like a human.

The newly formed sinner cried out in pain in different voices.

“Get me out!” The sinner called out in one voice and then another cried out in pain.

“I am not him. I am me.” The sinner screamed and then a serpent bit him. The sinner burst into flames and appeared out of it were three serpents and four sinners.

The chase and transformation went on from there.

This was seen by Dante and Virgil from the bridge. Dante was baffled by what had happened but Virgil lent a voice to the scene.

“I think the sinners merged inside the lizard up till the last one and it became one again but the different identities remained intact,” Virgil explained. “It’s what we may call multiple personalities in the medical term. It broke free when it was bitten.”

“You are mad, Virgil.” Dante hit back. “That is a disease infliction. It’s not the same as what we had seen here. You make a mockery of those who are inflicted with it.”

“I am for I am mad to be standing on the bridge at where the link is the weakest, and you remain rooted to ---- observe others. Can we move on before we fall, and be like them?”

Dante heard Virgil and pulled at his legs to move. He was rooted there by fear and it was not the drop but the transformation. It was not a disease here but that was a result of metamorphosis gone astray. He had read of it in his literary notes but not in the medical annals. Ovid the ancient poet from the ancient age, called on it by invoking the gods to inspire him. He wrote of it from the transformation of the world till its present time, and Man’s transformation. The creation from the earth to the heaven, sea from the land, the difference in the levels of air, the Gods and the far stars, the unity of the people even in a family, dis-unity may happen.

“My mind carries me to speak of bodies changed into new forms” It was Ovid’s words. He believes what differentiates himself from others was his mind moves him to write. Unlike the others then in his time, Ovid called on the Gods to invoke ideas to write on. (https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/metamorphoses/section1/) It was not many generations before Ovid’s works were said to influence the art of literature and art. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamorphoses#Influence)

It may what Dante saw there in the bolgia and he shudders at the thought that what was envisioned generations ago maybe had been true.

“We are metamorphosis in our creation, as we did from the single cell to the intelligence form we hold now. That is what we saw here. Not some infliction of the mind.” Dante's mind came to conclude when his right hand reached the pole at the end of the rope bridge.

“Well, hold onto that and we can continue,” Virgil spoke from the rear.