We've come to one of the most difficult cruxes in all of INFERNO: a passage that’s loaded with Christian symbolism but also includes a bit of biographical detail on Dante, the historical figure.

That biographical detail remains the subject of much curiosity! Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this difficult but ultimately rewarding passage: a condemnation of churchly corruption and a revelation of Dante's personal life, all bound up in the eighth circle of hell with the sins of fraud until the whole thing becomes a tour de force of meta-reality.

Here are the segments for this episode:

[01:00] My English translation of this passage. If you'd like to read along, just look below.

[03:38] What's up with the "livid stones"? For one thing, Jesus. He founded his church on the rock of Peter's faith: "Upon this rock will I build my church." But these rocks aren't as firm, to say the least.

[05:47] A curious bit of Dante's biography, inserted into this passage. What's going on here? Let's look back at the commentary's answer and also explore a relatively new interpretation of this strange passage.

[11:38] Is the guy Dante saves drowning or suffocating? It all comes down to translation problems in this passage which only muddy it further.

[15:30] Why is this biographical detail here?

[17:21] What exactly is the poet's "seal"?

[21:07] The emotional center of this curious passage: "my beautiful San Giovanni."

[22:58] The feet and thighs of these sinners are visible, but not their buttocks. That may be an important detail.

[25:38] A fusion of Christian images: Pentecost and the anointing with oil that happens at ordination.

[28:08] Inversion is a crucial motif for Inferno, Canto XIX as a whole.

And here’s my English translation of Inferno, Canto XIX, Lines 13 – 30

I see that on the abutments and along the bottom

The livid stones were full of holes,

All of the same size and perfectly round.

 

To me, they look no more roomy nor really any bigger

Than those that make up the baptistery fonts

Of my beautiful San Giovanni—

 

One of which, not so many years ago,

I cracked open to save someone drowning inside it.

Let this be my seal to disabuse everyone about that!

 

Poking up out of the mouth of each hole were

The feet and the thighs of a sinner,

While the rest of the guy remained inside.

 

All of them had the soles of their feet on fire.

That’s what made them kick their knees so forcefully

That they could have shredded twisted vines or ropes.

 

Just as flames only move across the surface

Of something coated in oil,

So these flames moved out from the toes to the heel of each foot.