The Third Great Sinner of Hell, Pier delle Vigne: Inferno, Canto XIII, Lines 46 - 78
Dante, our pilgrim, has done as Virgil instructed: he's torn a branch off a bramble, only to have it spit blood and air--and words!The bush is the soul of one of the great courtiers of the Middle Ages...
23 Maj 202132min
Maybe You Can't Trust Those Old Roman Poets: Inferno, Canto XIII, Lines 1 - 45
Nessus has dropped our pilgrim, Dante, off on the other side of the river where he and Virgil step into a gloomy wood with thorns rather than fruit, twisted limbs rather than shapely trees.We know fro...
19 Maj 202128min
Getting Ready For Canto XIII Of Dante's Inferno
Without a doubt, Canto XIII of INFERNO is one of the most astounding in the enter canticle of pain. It ranks up there with Canto V and the lustful, with X and the heretics, and with some of the ones w...
16 Maj 202122min
At Long Last, The Violent Appear: Inferno, Canto XII, Lines 103 - 139
INFERNO, Canto XII, comes to its conclusion with a "zoo" of those who have been violent against others, including Alexander the Great (perhaps), Attila the Hun (more sure), and even local brigands fro...
12 Maj 202132min
Astride a Centaur: Inferno, Canto XII, Lines 76 - 102
In INFERNO, the question of our pilgrim's corporeality continues to dog us (and perhaps the poet). Is the pilgrim in his body? Is this "merely" a dream sequence in which he's imagining he's in a body?...
9 Maj 202133min
The Centaurs--A Rider Without A Horse Or A Horse Without A Rider: Inferno, Canto XII, Lines 49 - 75
We've come to the river of blood in the seventh circle of INFERNO, the first ring of the violent--and we don't meet any sinners. Instead, we meet the tormentors: the centaurs who fire cruel arrows at ...
5 Maj 202129min
More On Virgil's Life Outside Of Comedy: Inferno, Canto XII, Lines 31 - 48
In this passage from INFERNO, Virgil offers us (and the pilgrim, Dante) more of a glimpse into his last trek to the bottom of hell. Here, he tells us that things have changed, that hell now lies in ru...
2 Maj 202126min
This Way To The Violent, Down The Slope, Past The Minotaur: Inferno, Canto XII, Lines 1 - 30
Virgil has finished his lesson on the geography of hell, he's answered the pilgrim's two questions, and we're back to the start of Canto XI, only at the start of Canto XII.Here, Dante, our pilgrim, co...
28 Apr 202127min
