Virgil has carefully mapped out hell for the pilgrim, Dante—or at least the three circles yet to come. But in doing so, Virgil has avoided the circles these two have already walked through.

So our pilgrim has questions. Virgil’s none too pleased. What’s going on emotionally in this complex passage?

And more importantly, what’s going on theologically? The nature of evil seems to be changing. It’s not an action. It’s a state of being. Which means that the poem, COMEDY, is being rethought.

How do we know? Because Virgil’s character is being rethought.

Here’s my English translation of the passage for this episode—that is, INFERNO, Canto XI, lines 67 - 90:

And I: “Master, your reasoning

Leads to a lot of clarity and categorizes well

This hole and the people held in it.

 

But tell me: the souls in the oily swamp,

And those lashed about by the wind, and those battered by the rain,

And those who bash into each other with such harsh words,

 

Why are they not punished in this smoldering city

If God’s wrath is indeed on them?

And if not, why are they put under such affliction?

 

And he said to me: “Why does your genius

Wander off like this?

Where does your mind get off to?

 

“Don’t you remember the words

With which your Ethics fully explicates

The three dispositions that heaven rejects:

 

“Incontinence, malice, and insane

Bestiality? And how incontinence

Offends God less and so comes in for less blame?

 

“If you reason well through this line of thought

And bring back to your mind those

Who are punished up there, outside of these fortifications,

 

“You’ll surely see why those are put aside

From these other sinners, and why the divine vendetta

Strikes them less cruelly than those down there.”