INFERNO, Episode 80. Exploring A Coda To A Canto And Cleaning Up The Canto As A Whole: Inferno, Canto XIV, Lines 121 - 142

We've come to the end of this strange and wonderful canto. We've passed Capaneus. We've heard about the Old Man of Crete. We've seen the weird snowfall of fire. We've even begun to explore the natural landscape of hell with a long talk about its hydraulics.

But Dante is not done. He wants to clarify those hydraulics. So our pilgrim is going to ask two questions about how exactly the waters of hell work.

And we're not done with Canto XIV. We've got some listener questions and clean-up duty to get through in this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE.

So join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we finish off Canto XIV and discuss some of the great things listeners have said about this canto as we've been walking through it.

Here are the segments of this episode:

[01:15] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XIV, lines 121 - 142. If you want to see these lines "in the flesh," check them out on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:25] A review of the Old Man of Crete to establish the rationale for our pilgrim Dante's two questions.

[04:10] The pilgrim Dante's first question: Why haven't I seen any water flowing to the bottom of hell until now? This brings up fascinating answers about the geography of hell--and causes us to pause on Dante's poetics: the raw brilliance of not only imagining the afterlife but reconfiguring our world, too.

[09:38] The pilgrim Dante's second question: Where is Phlegethon and Lethe? Virgil's got some quick answers: right in front of you and on ahead. But more's at stake here, since Virgil offers us a Christian answer to the classical river of Lethe.

[13:18] Virgil's prompt to get going because this journey is far from over--although Canto XIV now is.

[14:59] An added section to this podcast episode: listener questions and discussions via emails and DMs about Canto XIV.

[15:29] The first question: Is Virgil nude?

[17:19]            The second question: How can the violent be the passive recipients of violence if they are slapping themselves?

[19:08] The third question: Maybe the pilgrim offers more than just emotional reactions to the landscape. Maybe there are emotional reactions as well as intellectual reactions. And what about that right foot of that statue in Mount Ida?

[23:31] My own clean-up job: Aristotle and the Christian tradition.

My English translation of Inferno, Canto XIV, Lines 121 - 142:

And I to him, “If this stream in front of us

Flows down from our world,

Why does it appear only at this border?”

And he to me, “You know this place is circular,

And all of it that you’ve come through,

Only going left, has been heading toward the bottom.

“Look, you haven’t turned a full circle yet;

So if something new appears,

There’s really nothing for you to marvel at.”

And I again, “Master, where is Phlegethon

And Lethe found? I ask because about one you’re silent

And about the other you say how it was formed into this river.”

“All of your questions really make me happy,”

He replied, “but that boiling river of red

Should answer one of the ones you pose.

“Lethe you will see, but not in this latrine.

It’s where the souls come to wash themselves

When their absolved guilt has been crossed out.”

Then he said, “It’s time to skedaddle

Out of the wood. Force yourself to stay right behind me.

The embankments that form our way aren’t on fire

And put out every falling flame.”