We've seen so many figures down in the ninth of the evil pouches of fraud, the ninth of the "malebolge" in Dante's INFERNO. And we're about to see more, including the guy who (maybe?) started the entire Florentine civil war that has torn Dante and his family apart.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look through a short passage to discover a figure who is at the root of Dante's own troubles.

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

[01:41] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXVIII, lines 103 - 111. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, just scroll down this page.

[02:52] Mosca has come up before in INFERNO.

[05:42] Who is Mosca dei Lamberti?

[09:25] The damned seemed to have become much more "physical."

[11:50] Is there a parodic reference to Christ's spilled blood here?

[14:59] Mosca offers an elliptical, murky bit of advice that leads to the Florentine civil war.

[18:46] Dante the pilgrim continues the political strife in this passage.

[20:19] Why is the ninth of the evil pouches (of the "malebolge") so crowded? A few speculative answers.

And here is my English translation of Inferno, Canto XXVIII, Lines 103 – 111

And then a guy, who’d had both one and the other of his hands cut off,

Raised the stumps into the stygian air

So that blood befouled his face

And cried out, “You’ll still remember Mosca, too,

The guy, alas, who said, ‘A thing done can’t be undone.’

For the Tuscan people that was a really bad seed.”

“And death to your kin,” I spit back at him.

At that, having heaped sorrow on sorrow,

He walked off like someone gone insane with grief.