INFERNO, Episode 106. Pimps, Fraud, And Metamorphosis: Inferno, Canto XVIII, Lines 40 - 66
The first evil pouch. And a long podcast episode on WALKING WITH DANTE.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk along the rim of the first of the evil pouches in INFERNO's circle of fraud. Here, we'll see our first fraudster: a pimp.
How's a pimp guilty of fraud and not lust or even avarice. Because of metamorphosis. Because he turns women into money.
And a warning: the language is foul in this passage. Please be careful of kids or others who might be offended by it. Maybe you'll want to listen on your own later.
Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:34] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XVIII, lines 40 - 66. If you'd like to read along, look below.
[03:48] A little bit more about the size, scope, and even directionality of these evil pouches in the eighth circle of hell.
[06:05] Why does our pilgrim halt--and even back up? (No full answers here--just a curious detail.)
[08:05] This damned soul tries to his face from the pilgrim Dante, unlike all the souls we've encountered in the rings above.
[09:13] Who is Venedico Caccianemico? And how can he be in hell is he's still alive up on earth?
[12:39] Venedico is steeped in a "rank braise"? A little bit about the translation of what may be a few tough words in the Florentine.
[15:33] The pilgrim's "plain speech" forces Venedico to speak. Intriguing, since Venedico uses such poetically gorgeous language to describe his own state of affairs.
[20:46] WIth Venedico, we begin our tour of the towns of central Italy that will help structure the various pouches in the eighth circle.
[22:34] Fraud is never far from money for Dante--and thus, turning women into money is the first metamorphosis in the eighth circle, a circle of hell full of changlings.
[25:57] A speculative question: why in the end is this scene in COMEDY rather unsatisfactory?
[30:16] A second speculative question: why if it doesn't really matter which sinners are first and which are second in this pit because the sins of the eighth circle are not ranked according to severity but by other means?
And here’s my English translation of INFERNO, Canto XVIII, lines 40 - 66:
As I was going along, my eyes happened upon one
Of the sinners and all at once I said,
“I certainly haven’t been fasting for the sight of that guy!”
So I halted my footsteps to figure out his features.
And my gentle guide stopped with me
And even let me back up a bit.
That horsewhipped one believed he could hide from me
By lowering his face. Little good it did,
Because I said, “You, with your eyes on the ground,
“Assuming your features haven’t been falsified in some way,
You’re Venedico Caccianemico.
How come you’re held down in this rank braise?”
And he to me, “I don’t want to say anything,
But your plain speech forces me to do so,
Because it forces me to remember the old lost world.
“I was the guy who made Ghisolabella
Submit to the will of the Marquis,
No matter how the filthy story gets told.
And I’m not the only Bolognese wailing here.
This place is crammed so full of us
That not so many tongues have learned how to say
“Sipa between Savena and Reno.
And if you need any confirmation or truthfulness for all this,
Just remember our money-grubbing ways.”
As he was speaking, a demon struck him
With his whip and said, “Get on,
Pimp. There’s no twat for you to mint into coin here.”