Inferno -- Canto XVIII

Panderers, Seducers, Flatterers

Notes

1 Malebolge ("Evil-Pockets") makes up the eighth circle with its ten stone ditch-pouches crammed with the fraudulent.

22 First ditch of the eighth circle —this place is for pimps and seducers, divided in two lines moving in opposite directions. These sinners are whipped by demons.

28 During the Jubilee year of 1300, pilgrims, in two facing  lines, had to cross a bridge near Castel Sant'Angelo in order to go to, or return from, St. Peter's. The "Mount" is a hill near Castel Sant'Angelo.

50 Venedico Caccianemico, a noble Bolognese Guelph, was said to have been a procurer of his sister Ghisolabella to gain the favor of Obizzo II of Este (the Marquis l. 56).

61 Savena and Reno are two rivers, near Bologna (Savena is on the east side, and Reno on the west side of the city); sipa is a word of the Bolognese dialect for "yes." Bologna is thus identified through the linguistic term sipa.

73 Dante sees now the seducers. They are in the line that goes the opposite direction.

86 Jason, leader of the Argonauts, stole the golden fleece with the help of Medea. After leaving Colchis for Athens, he then deserted her (as he had Hypsipyle) and, in revenge, she murdered their two sons.

103 Dante approaches the second ditch, which houses the flatterers, submerged in excrement.

122 Alessio Interminei of Lucca was a noble member of the White Guelph party.

133 Thais, a prostitute in Terence's play Eunuchus, is cited by Cicero in his treatise On Friendship as an example of flattery.

          Lodged in hell is a place called Malebolge,

          All made of stone the color of iron ore,

          As is the cliff wall that encloses it.

 

          Right in the middle of this cankered field

5        A broad and deep-cut chasm opens up —

          In its place I shall describe its structure.

 

          The belt, then, that is left between the chasm

          And the steep stony cliff, forms a circle

          And its bottom has been sliced into ten valleys.

 

10        Just as, where moat on moat encompasses

          A castle to defend its central walls,

          The ground in which they’re dug shapes a design,

 

          Such a pattern here these ditches formed;

          And as such fortresses have footbridges

15       Out from their gates up to the outer banks

 

          So from the bottom of the cliff ran ridges

          Which crossed above the embankments and ditches

          Up to the chasm where they end and merge.

 

          In this spot we found ourselves, dismounted

20       From the back of Geryon; the poet

          Kept to the left and I walked on behind him.

 

          At my right hand I saw fresh cause for pathos,

          Fresh punishments and fresh torturers

          That fully crammed the first of the ten pockets.

 

25       Naked sinners filed by on the bottom:

          On the near side they came facing toward us,

          On the other they moved along with us, but faster:

 

          So the Romans, because of the huge crowds

          During Jubilee year, have people pass

30       Over the bridge so that on the other side all face

 

          (According to the plan fixed to divide them)

          Toward the Castle and walk to Saint Peter’s,

          While on the other they walk toward the Mount.

 

          This side and that, along the gloom-filled rock,

35       I saw horned devils with their huge long whips

          Cruelly lashing those sinners from behind.

 

          Ah how they forced them to lift up their heels

          At the first strokes! There was nobody there

          Who waited for the second or the third!

 

40       While I moved on, my eye caught someone else’s,

          And immediately I said to myself,

          "Surely I have seen this one before."

 

          So I held up my steps to stare at him,

          And my kindly guide halted with me

45       And gave me leave to go a short way back.

 

          That scourged spirit thought that he could hide

          By lowering his head, but little it helped him,

          For I said, "You who gaze upon the ground,

 

          "Unless the features which you wear are false,

50       You are Venedico Caccianemico:

          But what put you in such a juicy pickle?"

 

          And he replied, "I tell it unwillingly,

          But your plain speech forces me to do it

          By reminding me of that world of old.

 

55       "I was the one who led Ghisolabella

          To satisfy the will of the Marquis,

          Whatever way the vile tale is reported.

 

          "But I am not the only Bolognese

          Weeping here; this place is so full of them

60       That not so many tongues have learned to say

 

          "Sipa between the Savena and Reno:

          And if you want a proof or witness for this,

          Recall to mind our sense of greediness."

 

          While he was talking a devil lashed at him

65       With his whip and cried out, "On your way, pimp!

          There are no women here for you to con."

 

          I turned back to be once more with my escort.

          Then, a few steps forward, we walked up

          To where a ridge out-jutted from the bank.

 

70       We climbed across it with no difficulty

          And, turning to the right along its crest,

          We left behind those everlasting circlings.

 

          When we had reached the spot where the ridgeline

          Yawns open to let the scourged pass below,

75       My guide said, "Stop and make sure that the sight

 

          "Of these other misbegotten souls strikes you:

          Their faces you have not observed before

          As they were moving the same direction we were."

 

          From the old bridge we gazed down at the troop

80       Coming toward us along the other tract,

          And they were likewise driven by the lash.

 

          Even without my asking, my good master

          Spoke up, "Look at that mighty one approaching

          Who does not seem to shed a tear for pain.

 

85       "What a kingly look he still retains!

          That is Jason, who with heart and brains

          Robbed Colchis of the gold fleece of their ram.

 

          "He voyaged to the island of Lemnos

          After the brash and merciless women

90       Had put all of their menfolk to the sword.

 

          "There with his love tokens and stylish words

          He beguiled the young Hypsipyle

          Who had first beguiled the other women.

 

          "There he left her, pregnant and forsaken:

95       Such sin condemns him to such punishment,

          And for Medea, too, is vengeance wreaked.

 

          ‘With him go all the beguilers of others —

          Let this now be enough for you to know

          Of the first valley and sinners in its jaws."

 

100      We had already come where the narrow path

          Crosses over to the second bank

          To form a new support for another arch.

 

          From there we heard people in the next pocket

          Whining and snorting gruffly from their snouts

105     And whacking themselves with flat open palms.

 

          The banks were coated with a slimy mold

          From exhalations below; it stuck to them,

          Attacking eyes and nose with stinging must.

 

          The bottom was so deep we could not see it

110     Anywhere, except by climbing up the spine

          Of the arch where the ridge rises highest.

 

          Here we arrived, and down there in the ditch

          I saw a people plunged in excrement

          As if it had been dumped from men’s latrines.

 

115      And as I searched below there with my eyes

          I saw one with his head so smeared with shit

          You could not tell if he were lay or cleric.

 

          He yelled up at me, "Why are you more greedy

          To stare at me than at the other scum?"

120      And I: "Because, if I remember rightly,

 

          "I have seen you before with your hair dry:

          And so I eye you more than all the rest.

          You are Alessio Interminei of Lucca."

 

          And he, smacking his squash, replied to me,

125      "Down here I am sunk by the flatteries

          That my tongue never tired of repeating."

 

          After this my teacher said to me,

          "Stretch your head forward a little farther

          So that your eyes may clearly catch the face

 

130      "Of that slatternly and smutty slut

          Who scratches herself with shit-blackened nails,

          Now squatting and now staggering to her feet.

 

          "She is Thais the whore, who when her lover

          Asked, ‘Are you very grateful to me?' answered,

135     ‘Very! Why, extravagantly so!’

 

          "But now our sight has had enough of this."

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