INFERNO, Episode 196. Welcome To The Foundations Of The Universe: Inferno, Canto XXXI, Lines 130 - 145

October 02, 2022 by Mark Scarbrough

We've walked with Dante the pilgrim and his guide, Virgil, to the very foundations of the universe, the ninth circle of hell, the bottom of all that is.

All that blather about Antaeus? He's not so bad. He's just a traitor to Satan's kingdom.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we get picked up and set down into the ninth circle of hell by a giant who almost bested Hercules, who seemed immune to Lucan's flattery, and who finally betrays his master and lets the invaders in.

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

[00:57] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXI, lines 130 - 145. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[02:36] One more time back to Lucan's PHARSALIA--here, Hercules' defeat of Antaeus. Intriguingly, after all that flattery, here's a reference to the giant's failure (well, to Antaeus' momentary victory over Hercules before his final defeat).

[09:08] The tower of Garisenda: bristling but ultimately hollow pride.

[13:09] Who wishes he could have traveled by another road? Dante the pilgrim or Dante the poet?

[15:06] A rare instance of the cliché of hell as an open mouth.

[16:07] Antaeus turns from a tower into a ship's mast.

[17:18] What's with the sheer number of similes and metaphors in INFERNO, Canto XXXI?

[21:53] The terrible irony in that reference to Roland and Charlemagne.

[25:00] A rereading of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXI, lines 130 - 145.

And here’s my English translation of Inferno, Canto XXXI, Lines 130 – 145

So said my master—and that one quickly

Stretched out his hands and grabbed hold of my guide,

About as Hercules once felt his powerful grip.

Virgil, when he felt held tight,

Said to me, “Get over here so I can hold you.”

Then he made a single bundle out of himself and me.

When you look up at the tower of Garisenda

Under its leaning wall and a little cloud

Chances to pass by, it looks as if it’s about to fall over—

So seemed Antaeus to me as I watched him

Bend over. At that moment,

I wished I could have traveled by another road.

But he set us down on the foundation

That gulps down Lucifer with Judas.

Nor did he stick around bent over,

But raised himself back up like the mast of a ship.