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July 28, 2010
Dante Blogging - Canto XXX
Canto XXX
The thirtieth canto begins with 20 lines of epic simile - Dante showing off his myth - wrapping up with:
But none so fury-ridden in Thebes or Troy
had ever lunged with such ferocity
to bite at beasts or even rip men's limbs
As I saw two souls, naked, pale as death,
tearing away and snapping as they ran,
like the tusked swine who's set loose from the sty.
You see, those classical examples of despair were at least still human - these souls are like swine - and one of them WAS at the Trojan War - Sinon, who lied to the Trojans about the Greeks having left.
I'm not sure why Esolen thinks Master Adam the counterfeiter was English (note, 480), but I'm going to have to check. My colleague is under the impression that the only English person in the Commedia is Bede, who shows up in Paradiso (of course!). I'll have to check the commentary tradition, because the text gives no help.
This canto gives one of those regular hints that Dante sat at his desk with a diagram of cosmos pinned to the wall - one of the damned souls reports the dimensions of the 10th Malebolge: "...it's eleven miles around the ditch / and not less than half a mile across" (30.86-87). The tradition of making plans of Hell goes back to the maker, in other words. One of the reasons I chose the Esolen translation is that he doesn't include maps. The students will have to make their own!
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Posted by CrankyProfessor at July 28, 2010 2:32 PM
Comments
That's Gianni Schicchi!
Posted by: Theresa at July 29, 2010 3:09 PM