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October 21, 2009
Dante Blogging - Inferno Canto XXIII
Canto XXIII
After all the noise of squabbling devils in Canti XXI and XXII, XXIII begins with silence.
Taciti, soli, sanza compagnia
n'andavam l'un dinanzi e l'altro dopo
come frati minor vanno per via.
Silent, alone, no escort at our side,
we set out, one before and one behind
as Friars Minor walk in single file. (23.1-3)
The silence doesn't last long, and the pilgrims end up fleeing devils coming back for more. Virgil grabs Dante and runs with him - and they tumble into the 6th ditch. There they find the hypocrites, walking slowly, wearing beautiful golden cloaks whose inside is all lead.
Dante runs into two Bolognese friars who recognize his Tuscan dialect. Tedious Guelphage and Ghibellinage passes. Esolen seems more tolerant - "Note how severely Dante condemns those who meddled in political affairs, even when the meddling benefited Dante's own party" (464). Maybe it's because my coffee hasn't set in yet, but I figure Dante's faction inside the Guelphs didn't come out so well in the 1266 settlement of the 36 Good Men. Nevertheless, as Esolen points out in another note, all the named occupants of the Ditch of the Hypocrites are clergy in one way or another.
Just as Dante is about to abuse the friars he catches sight of a man crucified to the path where all the lead-weighed souls pass over him - and one of the two friars reveal that his father-in-law and the whole council of which they were a part suffer the same punishment.
"That soul you wonder at, who lies transfixed,
advised the Pharisees that it was fit
to martyr one man for the people's sake. (23.115-117)
This is Caiphas, who Esolen points out did not call directly for the death of Jesus, since that is not how hypocrites operate. "Yet thought hypocrites usually intend more than they will say, in this case Caiphas spoke more than he intended, and was the victim of his own irony. For Jesus was slain for the people, but not as the priest supposed..." (464).
Dante, as a medieval Christian, has no doubt about Jewish blood guilt for the crucifixion. He identifies that guilt as sown by these men - but he does not pardon it. One of the sad truths of the world is that great art does not heal. It can help, but Dante, the poet of individual responsibility, who finds people in Hell who no one else thought might be there and will find folks in Purgatory who repented great wickedness still believes in inherited group guilt for the Jews.
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Posted by CrankyProfessor at October 21, 2009 7:45 AM
Comments
I am not questioning that Dante believed in "inherited group guilt" for the Jews, but this example does not show it. It shows Caiphas suffering for his own sin, as well as Annas and the Sanhedrin for their own sins. They are personally responsible for the hypocritical condemnation of Jesus.
....You're right - it's not there. Continue, though: "Naked he lies, spreadeagled in the road, / as you may see, and by necessity / he feels the weight of all the pasing souls.// His father-in-law is racked in this same ditch / along with all the other councillors / who sowed the seeds of evil for the Jews."
.....That pretty well gets the inherited guilt. --MCT
Posted by: JSTB at October 23, 2009 5:49 AM