INFERNO, Episode 194. Three Big Bad Giants With Not Much At Stake Except The Nature Of Comedy Itself: Inferno, Canto XXXI, Lines 82 -111

We've walked by one giant, Nimrod, a mighty hunter, with his horn (like Roland). But there are more. Three, at least. Ephialtes, Briareus, and Antaeus. Figures out of classical literature who sit at the bottom of hell and pose more theological questions than we can imagine.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we continue on into Inferno's Canto XXXI, a liminal space where all bets are off. Even theological ones. And especially literary ones.

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

[01:35] My English translation of this passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXI, lines 82 - 111. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment, just scroll down this page.

[03:53] The insistence on turning to the left--except twice when we've turned to the right.

[06:07] The curious insistence on measurable distances in lower hell.

[09:26] Three giants ahead. First up, Ephialtes.

[13:52] Jove? He threatened Jove? Why not God?

[14:14] Next up, Briareus.

[16:48] Finally, Antaeus.

[18:43] The theological riddle in this passage: Antaeus' position in hell. Was he just made bad?

[22:08] Virgil and The Aeneid: back to rewriting it.

[24:36] Shaking Ephialtes for reasons that are not clear, except he's still a tower.

[27:16] The question of the stakes in Canto XXXI.

[29:12] Liminal spaces and the question of authority.

[30:37] Rereading INFERNO, Canto XXXI, lines 82 - 111.

And here’s my English translation of Inferno, Canto XXXI, Lines 82 – 111

So we went quite a ways along our journey,

Having now turned to the left. About a crossbow shot farther on,

We found the next one, a little more bestial and grandiose.

I don’t know what sort of master craftsman did this to him,

Nor can I say, but he was bound

With his right arm behind him and his left out in front

By a chain that held him tight

Around his neck, then went around the exposed part

Of him for five circles.

“This prideful one hoped to test out

His strength against Jove on high,”

My guide said. “So he’s got his reward.

“Ephialtes is his name. He dared grand feats

When the giants struck fear into the gods.

The arms he moved back then can’t be moved at all now.”

Then I to him, “If it’s permissible, I’d like to see

The mammoth Briareus,

To experience him with my own eyes.”

At which he replied, “You’ll see Antaeus

Pretty close by. He speaks. He isn’t bound.

He’ll set us down on the very foundations of all that’s sinful.

That one you wish to see? He’s much farther on

And is bound up and formed just like this one here,

Except that his face looks even more ferocious.”

Never has a rugged earthquake

Made a tower shake so hard

As Ephialtes suddenly shook himself.

I’ve never feared death more than at that moment.

The fear itself would have done me in,

Except I could still see his chains.