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October 26, 2009
Dante Blogging - Inferno Canto XXIV
Canto XXIV
Again, this canto starts with contrast - the last pocket was full of the deadly tired hypocrites, laboring under their lead cloaks. Dante himself is tired, and Virgil tells him:
..."You must
shake off your sluggisness," the Teacher said,
"for no one comes to fame who sits in soft
pillows of down, or lies easily in bed,
And when his life is wasted utterly
he leaves such traces of himself behind
as smoke in air or foam upon the sea. (24.46-51)
Virgil is preparing Dante not only to get through the Malebolge, but also "to climb a longer stair" (24.56), the mountain of Purgatory.
Dante gets busy and they climb out of the region of the hypocrites into the region of the thieves - a giant clutch of snakes. Ugh. Snakes. It really does sound like a moment in an Indiana Jones movie - snakes knotted around sinners in horrific detail. Certainly one of the punishments I'd rather not picture.
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Posted by CrankyProfessor at October 26, 2009 8:56 AM