Canto IX
The Furies
Scene 1
“Do any of those whose only punishment is
deprivation of hope, ever descend, into the depths of this sad chasm, from the
first circle?” Dante asked of Virgil after they had sat there pondering the
next part of their journey.
“We must pass through the gates. Nothing can
prevent us from doing that. After all, we have been promised help. Or …no, we
will receive help, but it is taking more time than I like for help to get to
us.” Virgil replied. He then looked at Dante.
“I told you I reached here, and I did go in….
rather I was offered a journey. Do you recall the witch named Erichtho from
Lucan Pharsalia?” Virgil smiled.
“She was a witch that uses the body parts from
the dead for her magic spells. In that she delights in otherwise heinous and
macabre acts involving corpses; for instance, "when the dead are confined
in a sarcophagus … then she eagerly rages every limb. She plunges her
hand into the eyes, delights at digging out the congealed eyeballs, and gnaws
the pallid nails on a desiccated hand." Dante recalled his readings.
“In Lucan Pharsalia, she was mentioned.” Virgil
smiled. “I was into theology and myths too.”
“She was sought by Pompey’s on. Sextus
Pompeius. He wanted her to perform a necromantic rife, that he might learn the
outcome of the battle at Pharsalus. Erichtho complies and wanders amidst a
battlefield to seek out a cadaver with "uninjured tissues of a stiffened
lung". She cleans the corpse's organs and fills the body with a potion
(consisting of, among other things, a mixture of warm blood, "lunar
poison", and "everything that nature wickedly bears") to bring
the dead body back to life. The spirit is summoned, but, at first, refuses
to return to its old body. She then promptly threatens the entire universe
by promising to summon "that god at whose dread name earth trembles".
Immediately following this outburst, the corpse is reanimated and offers a
bleak description of a civil war in the underworld, as well as a rather
ambiguous then about the fate that lies in store for Pompey and his kin.”
Sourced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erichtho#Lucan's_Pharsalia.
“And I met her here. She gave me a task to travel
to the pit of Judas at the bottom of the Inferno and bring out a spirit for her
to consult. This is something she had done before. While I was still alive, she
sent a soul to the bottom of the Inferno to retrieve another soul who would
foretell the victor of the Battle of Pharsalia, in which the forces of Julius
Caesar defeated the forces of Pompey. Because I have traveled throughout the
Inferno, I well know the path that we will take and I am familiar with the
place we are now. This swamp of the Styx surrounds the city of Dis, which
we will enter although not — as
you know — without some trouble.”
Extract from https://davidbruceblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/dantes-inferno-canto-9-retelling/
The shivers went up Dante’s body when he heard
that but then he looked up, he saw the descending winged creatures.
“Enrinyes! They are also known as Furies! I read
of them.” Dante recognized the creatures from their serpent for hair, and the
blood on their body. They were said to wreak vengeance against children who
killed their parents.
“I see them. They are named Megaera, Alecto, and
Tisiphone in the middle.” Virgil called out.
The
Furies hovered in the air, shrieking and tearing their skin with their
fingernails, drawing blood. They shouted, “Come, Medusa, and turn this living
man into stone. We let Theseus get away from us too easily.”
This
is a threat that needs to be taken seriously, Virgil thought. Any living
human being who looks at Medusa, who also has snakes for hair, will instantly
be turned into stone.
Virgil
told Dante, “Turn around and cover your eyes because if you see Medusa your
journey is over and you will not return to the Land of the Living.”
Dante
did as he was told, and Virgil also covered Dante’s eyes
Extract from https://davidbruceblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/dantes-inferno-canto-9-retelling/
When all was deemed to be doomed, a miracle
happened.
It was a surreal sound that went above Dante
and Virgil. It was so loud that it is timid even the roar of the hurricane. A
hurricane in its wrath will tear through cities and all that was in its part
was removed. It was God who was often viewed as the one causing such
catastrophes but in the progress of learning, the hurricane was attributed to
the movement of the air when warm air rose and cold air replaced it. It was a
scientific solution but what caused it to be was considered as an act of God.
Such was the roar of the sound, that the
perched ones on the wall wailed and fled the walls. Dante saw Virgil’s hands were
removed from his eyes and he saw the soul of sinners who had earlier clamor to
the surface had dove back in.
“Virgil, are we to be doomed?” Dante called out
and with his ears clasped shut, he heard not the reply. He asked again with his
hands dropped.
“I don’t think so. We may still see salvation.
Virgil saved us.” Virgil spoke out. “Or rather Virgil 3.0 did.”
Dante looked up and saw the small orb was
rotating rapidly in its ascent and it was emitting the sonar beam at a high
frequency towards the furies. The furies were also leaving the wall from the
sonar blasts.
“The orb had done what I could have thought of
if given time on myself. It had out-thought itself here in the programs.”
Virgil was elated to see his invention soaring.
“Good day, Creator. I have what you may term as
‘gave them a harrowing’ experience.” Virgil 3.0 greeted its creator. “I had
heard you mentioned the Harrowing in Hell, and I did my references to it.”
“Why did you …. used the sonar beam?” Virgil
asked.
“It was all I had. And what I was told or
rather discreetly heard, there was a loud sound during the Harrowing of Hell,
and these are intangible beings which I thought of sonar as the one weapon they
may not be able to tolerate.”
“You are the despicable rebel….” Virgil
laughed. “I am glad I gave you the tools to be made illogical decisions.”
Virgil was elated at his invention.
“Despicable is your reference to me when I amazed
you with my analytics. And in the true words of the Vulcan, illogical does not
exist in my mind.” Virgil 3.0 did a series of spins in front of its creator.
“What infernal thing did you create?” Dante
asked of the creator. “It displayed sarcasm.”
“Not much more than what God created in us. The
ability to think for ourselves, and perform the unlikely. I am just recreating
the new life into the mechanical being, but I am dead and my notes are in my
mind. Alas, whatever I do will not see light. I do wish we could have clones.”
“Don’t despair for the works of clones had not
yielded the required results. It was banned after the second generation. We
should not …create an extension of life when life by itself is a gift to us by
God.” Dante reverted to his theology self. There was the acceptance that the
living could be lived on in clones but the latter proved to be defective and
the clones were destroyed.
“Man has one lifetime to journey here. Its
sacrileges if we are given the extension artificially.” The people were divided
but the mass won were the minority wealth was not able to stop their protest.
It was what Dante recalled then.
It was then when Dante saw a gate appeared on
the wall. It opened wide.
“We go in,” Virgil told Dante. He then paused in
his steps. “Before we go in, let me caution you that what you had seen in the
other Circles, these may be more repulsive. You must…”
“I am fine, Virgil. I have learned to accept
Hell.” Dante cut in.
“Clear your mind now. Go in there and see the
new experiences, and offer no judgment.” Virgil told Dante. It then looked at
the orb. “Return to me, Virgil 3.0. We have not completed the journey as yet.”
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