INFERNO, Episode 149. Cacus, A Centaur Like None Other, Not Even In Classical Literature: Inferno, Canto XXV, Lines 17 -33

Vanni Fucci has run off, wrapped up in snakes. But he's now prey for Cacus, a centaur who arrives toting lots of snakes and even a dragon. Can it get any more dramatic?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this strange passage in which we get a centaur who doesn't look much like his classical representations in Virgel, Ovid, and Livy--passages in which Cacus is not even a centaur!

This passage in INFERNO may explain the insistence on poetics throughout the seventh evil pouch, the seventh of the malebolge that make up the eighth circle of fraud in hell.

Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:44] My English translation of the passage: Inferno, Canto XXV, lines 17 - 33. If you'd like to read along, just scroll down this page.

[03:45] Cacus is a centaur but not like any of the other centaurs we've seen.

[05:51] What does Cacus look like? There's a distinct tie between him and Vanni Fucci.

[08:13] Virgil steps up to play the guide and explain who Cacus is.

[10:45] Too bad Virgil's explanation bears only a passing resemblance to his version of Cacus in THE AENEID!

[14:55] Dante the poet is often seen as "coming out of the closet" in the seventh of the malebolge and admitting himself a literary thief. But all medieval poetry is based on theft. It's how the authority structure gets built. We'd expect Dante to be nothing less than a literary thief.

[17:35] Rather than an admission from the poet, this passage may provide us with a clue about his art: poetry = theft + metamorphosis.

And here is my translation of Inferno, Canto XXV, Lines 17 – 33

That’s when I saw a centaur, filled with rage,

Run up and shout, “Where is he? Where’s that acid soul?”

I don’t believe the swampy Maremma has as many serpents

As squirmed on this guy’s back,

From his butt to the spot where our human bits begin.

Just above his shoulders, right at the nape of his neck,

A dragon was hunched there with its wings spread out

And ready to set afire anyone who got close.

My master said, “That’s Cacus,

Who under the rocks of Mount Aventine

Time and again made a lake of blood.

“He doesn’t go the way of his brothers

Because of the fraudulent theft he made

From the great herd that lived near his demesne.

“Because of that, his double-dealing career

Was ended under Hercules’ club, who gave him

A hundred thwacks, although he didn’t even feel the tenth one.”