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August 21, 2009

Dante Blogging - Inferno Canto V


Canto V

Canto IV ended with the pair of pilgrims heading "out of the quiet, into the trembling air--/Into a place where nothing ever shines" (4.150-151). In Canto V we are assaulted by the shouting and grunting of Minos -- who is very rude for a king and judge. I suppose that Minos also presents the first horrible body of Hell, as he whips his tail around his torso, with the number of loops representing the circle of Hell to which the soul is sent. I've never quite understood the monstrous conflation of Minos and the Minotaur - I wonder where Dante would have learned Greek myths other than Ovid? He certainly knew the Metamorphoses, but would he have known the Heroides? I'm not at all sure. It's been so long since i've read the Ariadne and Theseus section of the Heroides that I don't remember how much topical detail about Minos it carries. I've always wondered if Dante was running together Minos and Midas - specifically the Midas-judging-Apollo-and-Pan story.

Canto V begins with a quick explanation of the structural principle of Hell, narrowing from the top as one descends:

So I descended from the outer ring   down to the next, which belts less space about   but stings the souls to greater agony. (5.1-3)

and Minos's body provides a weird echo:

Discerns what place in Hell is fit for him:   belts himself with his tail as many times   as there are grades the sinner must descend. (5.10-12)

The hardest Canto for big-R and little-r Romantics to deal with is probably Canto V, where Courtly Love comes in for some hard knocks. I'm not in the mood to blog about Paolo and Francesca except to say that luckily I will be team teaching with a friend who regularly teaches troubador material and has no illusions about chaste ladies and ideal knights, even if she does want to believe that Arthur existed.


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Posted by CrankyProfessor at August 21, 2009 7:58 AM