INFERNO, Episode 214. Noshing On The Worst Sinners In Hell: INFERNO, Canto XXXIV, lines 46 - 69
We've come to our last moments in hell. Here, our pilgrim Dante sees the three worst sinners in human history: Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius.
Wait . . . what? Brutus and Cassius. Indeed, being gnashed by Satan at the center of the earth.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk through this difficult passage and try to figure out its many tricky implications . . . and its little bit of bawdy humor. This is Dante, after all.
Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:23] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXIV, lines 46 - 69. If you'd like to print it off, read along, or drop a comment, just scroll down this page.
[03:53] Satan as a seraph without flight, or as a bird without flight.
[05:59] Satan as a sailing vessel without motion.
[08:05] Satan as a bat, the fourth image--a strange, neither-here-nor-there creature in medieval mythology.
[10:46] Satan's billowing wings.
[12:39] Our last glimpse of hell.
[13:15] Satan's wind as the first (of many) "felix culpa" (or "fortunate fall") in Canto XXXIV.
[15:09] Satan's weeping and gnashing: a traditional Christian notion of hell's torments.
[17:57] Satan's tears and blood as a perversion of the crucifixion of Jesus and/or a cross-reference to the Old Man of Crete.
[19:21] The first sinner in his mouths: Judas Iscariot.
[20:58] A pastoral image at the bottom of hell and in the face(s) of Satan.
[21:49] Satan as an inversion of the eucharist (along with a butt joke).
[23:15] Judas and the allegory of the human spine.
[29:28] The second sinner in his mouths: Brutus.
[32:30] The third sinner in this mouths: Cassius.
[34:14] Treachery against God = treachery against the church AND against the state.
[36:27] The journey through hell took one day.
[37:28] "For we have seen all there is to see."
[39:05] Rereading this passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXIV, lines 46 - 69.
And here’s my translation of Inferno, Canto XXXIV, Lines 46 – 69
Under each of [Satan’s] faces were two grandiose wings,
Big enough that they fitted a giant bird like this.
I never saw any sails that big catch the ocean wind.
They didn’t have any feathers but looked more like those
Of a bat. He was fanning them rather deliberately,
So that three separate winds moved away from him.
That’s why Cocytus was completely frozen over.
He cried from his six eyes, and over his three chins
The tears dripped down with his bloody slobber.
In each mouth, he chomped on a sinner
With his teeth, like a hackle beating flax—
That’s how he kept these three in like-mannered torment.
When it came to the one in front, that gnawing was nothing
Compared to the clawing, which meant that at times
The skin was utterly flayed off of his spine.
“The soul up there who gets the grandest punishment,”
My master said, “is Judas Iscariot.
He’s got his head stuck inside; his legs kick outside.
“Concerning the other two with their heads hanging down,
The one who’s dangling out of the black muzzle is Brutus.
Look how he thrashes about but doesn’t utter a word!
“The other is Cassius, with his muscular arms.
But night is rising again above and it’s time
For us to take our leave, for we’ve seen all there is to see.”