INFERNO, Episode 185. The Bottom Of Hell, The Beginnings Of Western Civilization: INFERNO, Canto XXX, Lines 91 - 103

We are almost done with the tenth of the evil pouches (the "malebolge") that make up the giant eighth circle of INFERNO, the vast landscape of hell.

We've met several falsifiers and have spent some time with the consummate narcissist, Master Adam--who has managed to stop talking about himself long enough to point out two more falsifiers when the pilgrim Dante asks who they are.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this episode about the very roots of Western civilization and the Christian redemption story, all found down here toward the bottom of hell and the center of Dante's universe.

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

[02:12] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XXX, lines 91 - 103. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:57] The low comedy in this passage (and in the last evil pouch of fraud in INFERNO).

[07:14] Potiphar's wife and Sinon, steaming with fever in this tenth pit.

[10:42] A fourth disease in the tenth pit: a fever in the blood. And a fourth type of falsifier: those who tell lies in court.

[13:10] Adam, Potiphar's wife, and Sinon = the beginnings of everything Dante values.

[15:14] Potiphar's wife and Sinon = two liars who start the stories of two sets of chosen people.

And here is my English translation of Inferno, Canto XXX, Lines 91 – 103

And I to him, “Who are those two, steaming

Like wet hands in the winter,

The ones stretched out near your right frontier?”

“I found them here, and I don’t think they’ve ever even rolled over,”

He said, “Since the moment I rained down this sharp slope,

Nor do I believe they ever will for the rest of eternity.

“One is the woman who falsely accused Joseph.

The other is the false Sinon, the Greek from Troy.

Because of their acute fever, they reek like burned grease.”

And the guy of the pair, who was offended

Perhaps at being named in such a dim way,

Smacked his fist against Master Adam’s distended belly,

Which rang out like a drum.