We're starting to walk along the first of the evil pouches with our pilgrim and his guide, Virgil. Down below, naked people are being whipped by horned demons. This is the hell we expected!

Except maybe not. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I explain some of the historical and cultural references in a passage that may have a garbled bit at its very core. Is that garbling intentional? We'll have to wait for later in the canto to decide.

Here are the segments of this episode on Inferno, Canto XVIII, lines 22 - 39 of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:

[00:51] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XVIII, lines 22 - 39. If you want to read along, just look below.

[02:18] A fine example of Dantean technique: seeding the passage with hints of things to bloom later on. Plus, historical resonances in this jammed pouch of the eighth circle of hell, as well as a possible garbling of the passage in terms of which direction who's walking at any given moment.

[07:46] The demons appear! And they don't disappoint! They're also a complex parody of Paradise itself.

[12:34] The historical analogy in the middle of the passage. It's about the Jubilee Year of plenary indulgences that Pope Boniface VIII called in 1300. But what's it doing here, in our first blush with fraud?

Here’s my English translation of Inferno, Canto XVIII, lines 22 - 39:

On my right hand, I see new sorrows,

New torments, and new scourgers,

All jamming the first pouch full.

At the bottom are naked sinners.

From the middle to one side of the ditch they come toward us,

But from the other side they walk along with us, although with longer strides.

It’s the same with the Romans who, because of the vast hordes

During the Jubilee Year, had to find a way to let

All those people pass over the bridge.

On one side, they all faced Castle Sant’ Angelo

As they went on toward Saint Peter’s,

While on the other side they headed toward the hill.

Now here, now there, all along the dark rocky terrain,

I see horned demons with big horsewhips

Who lash the people mercilessly from behind.

Good grief, how those demons made them pick up the pace

At the first crack of the whip. Rest assured: nobody waited for

A second strike, much less a third.