Dante Book III Canto XXX Scene I

 Canto XXX

The Eighth Circle: Fraud

Bolgia 10: Falsifiers II

Scene I

 

Dante came on another argument between the souls there, that when words failed to reason, the fists were raised. He rushed forth to calm the two souls on their argument.

“I am Master Adam, no last name but my name revelled by many for I was able to make florins from alloyed gold.” The florin was a coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. The fiorino d'oro of the Republic of Florence was the first European gold coin struck in sufficient quantities since the seventh century to play a significant commercial role. As many Florentine banks were international supercompanies with branches across Europe, the florin quickly became the dominant trade coin of Western Europe for large-scale transactions, replacing silver bars in multiples of the mark (a weight unit equal to eight troy ounces). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florin).

“A counterfeiter you were.” The other accused Master Adam. “You manifested the trade that others will soon follow on with the charade. I, Sinon the Greek will stand witness to that.”

“You are not Sinon but Simon Magus, once denounced by St Peter for you tried to bribe him to give you divine influence. You are a ---” Master Adam was interrupted by Virgil.

“A simonist indeed.”

“Who declare me of that? I am banished here for that. A single coin I offered and banished here.” Simon roared out.

“What was yours when I counterfeited thousands? I brought down the finance circle.” Master Adam roared his achievement.

“A bigot you are.” Simon lashed back at Adam. “Where is my accuser here?”

The one named Simon Magus turned to look at Virgil but his opponent was to be side lined on the fight. Adam swung a left fist at Simon and the fight resumed on. Dante decided than that it was better to ignore the two souls in the fist fight and moved on.

“I thought he was a Simonist?” Virgil raced up to Dante.

“He may had been there. And then he left for here, but he had many other sins. He may never leave Hell.”

“I think they are many more of them here.” Dante said to Virgil. “God created the world for the living and it was desecrated by the Fallen. He found the beings he created was foul by the Fallen, and he figured out that those sins needed to be cleansed although not all will be for repentance was out of their reach of the ardent sinners.”

“You speak as you knew of God’s works. We are not out of Hell yet.” Virgil looked at Dante. “What made you said those things? Have you hardened in your beliefs since we embarked on the journey?”

“I don’t know. I am not you or them. I am still living inside me. I am still breathing. I have come find myself with changing emotions inside me. I have felt sympathy and anger, and at times relieved that the sinner was punished here. I can’t change my emotional feels, nor can I change the punishment here. Its beyond me. God made me see all of this, but if I survive this journey, I may do the difference out there.”

“If we make it out, but to do so, I need you to have firm hold on your emotions. Or madness will prevail in you.” Virgil advised the other. “Remember this, Dante. They are sinners. They are many here and some of them held the ability to affect your senses; the living souls, showing what they are damned here to their new lifetime.”

“I can sense their filth, thirst, disease, stench, darkness, horrible shrieking, physical pain.” Dante declared out his pain. “I feel those too and only their pain. That what makes it ---”

“Insane?” Virgil smiled. “Welcome to the real disease here. We can feel it. You know it’s insane to do those sins when they are told not to. Don’t you get it? Madness prevailed here and also when they were breathing.”

“You are not making sense?” Dante was confused.

“Some sins are punished with insanity but some sins are from insanity.” Virgil told Dante. “It may not be here but during the living lifetime. I will tell you of two names. Sinners they were assumed and their penance was done in their lifetime.”

“King Athamas and Hecuba of Greek was the names you may had heard.” Virgil said to Dante. “Athamas was driven mad by Juno, he mistook his son Learchus and wife for a lion cub and lioness. After seeing Athamas kill Learchus, other lover of his, Ino leaped into the sea with her other son.”

“Hecuba, Queen of Troy. She suffered much misfortune. She saw the great Greek warrior Achilles kill her son Hector, the main defender of Troy. During the fall of Troy, she saw Achilles’ son, Neoptolemus, kill her husband, Priam, at the altar of Jupiter. After Troy fell, Hector’s son, Astyanax, was thrown from the high walls of Troy and killed. Hecuba and the other women and children of Troy were made slaves.”

“One of her daughters, Polyxena, was sacrificed on the grave of Achilles, and one of her sons, Polydorus, who had been sent away from Troy to Thrace so that the royal bloodline would continue even if Troy were to fall, was murdered for the treasure he had. Hecuba saw the unburied corpse of this son in Thrace. Because the corpse was unburied, her son’s soul could not enter the Land of the Dead. To be unable to enter the Land of the Dead is a horrible fate for a soul.”

“Anyone who saw all of that was destined to get insane. She did and what was her sins? She took her own life. They were all made sinners by the events.”

“So, was Myrrha. She had wanted her father’s love.” Virgil added that name. “Gianni wanted to wealth. Greed or lust, you can name it but what was it that made them towards it? The truth was insanity and thus they hold it here. The soul is restless for it had not achieve its desire. In plain words, they are punished by the corrupt state of their minds and bodies. Their corrupt sense of values is symbolized by the corrupt state of their minds and bodies. (https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/d/the-divine-comedy-inferno/summary-and-analysis/cantos-xxixxxx)

“Those desires are insane.” Dante snapped back at Virgil.

“Then why were we given those desires if it was sinful? I am a Man of Science. I don’t accept what is given unless I know its worth. Should not God make us without flaws?”

“God gave us a heart to care and a mind to think. We were to improve on our own. We did it or rather some of us transgressed and Hell is the place we are told was we to end if we transgress.” Dante looked at Virgil. “Shall we move on for maybe we will find the answer to our madness elsewhere. Or remain in this madness here with them.”