INFERNO, Episode 150. The Beast With Two Backs--Or, Two Things And Nothing: Inferno, Canto XXV, Lines 34 - 78 (Part One)

Dante silences Virgil, silences his reader (me!), and sets out to describe the most daring metamorphosis yet in COMEDY. It’s a weirdly erotic tale of the beast with two backs which becomes two things . . . and not something, but nothing. Lots of Ovid, lots of poetic license, and a wild story that demands so much from its (silenced) reader.

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Mark ScarbroughComment
INFERNO, Episode 149. Cacus, A Centaur Like None Other, Not Even In Classical Literature: Inferno, Canto XXV, Lines 17 -33

Vanni Fucci runs off, pursued by Cacus, a centaur toting lots of snakes and even a dragon. Virgil explains who Cacus is. Too bad Virgil’s explanation doesn’t match his own in THE AENEID. Or Livy’s. Or Ovid’s. Too bad no one else seems to know Cacus is a centaur. This passage from INFERNO gets to the heart of Dante’s poetics.

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Mark ScarbroughComment