Circle 7 round 3

Circle 7 round 3 is for the blasphemers, sodomites and usurers. Along with the In this round of circle 7, there is a combination of raining fire and

burning sands that are used to torture the inhabitants. The blasphemy and sodomy are represented by the desert plain and the wrath is displayed as fiery rain, as rain is intended to be fertile and nourishing on earth, in hell,

its is hurtful and destructive.

Jacopo Rusticucci

A wraith, Jacopo was once a politician whom Dante admired greatly for personality and policies. Jacopo runs to Dante along with Tegghiaho when he notices his Florentine dress attire in circle 7 round 3. They ask for news from Florence and Dante deters them away by news of its degradation.

Guido Guerra

• Italian politician and military leader• One of the leaders of the Guelph faction

in Florence• Exiled for 7 years after loss at battle of Montaperti• Returned to Florence when Guelph party regained

control

SIGNIFIGANCE: Dante identifies with Guido Guerra because they are both political exiles. He also has heard his name before in Florence and has respect for him and his politics.

Tegghiaio Aldobrandi• Also a military warrior and political leader• Was a night for the Guelph nobles• Political ally of Guido Guerra, also exiled at

battle of Montaperti

SIGNIFIGANCE: Dante also identifies with Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and respects him as well. Both Tegghiaio and Guido were in Hell for the sin of Sodomy. However there’s no record of anything they did that was violent against art and nature, so it is implied that Dante knew something about them that other people did not.

Geryon

• A character from Greek mythology, son of Chrysaor and Medusa, and described as having 3 heads.

• Dwelt on the island of Erytheia and had many riches and good farm animals

• Slain by Hercules

Vitalioano

• Full name: Vitaliano di Iacopo Vitaliani

• Originally a Paduan nobleman who lived in the 1200s around the same time as Dante

• Portrayed as a wicked usurer in the Divine Comedy

Icarus

• He is in Greek mythology.• Icarus, while flying away from a cell with waxed

feathers, does not listen to his father’s words of not going too close to the sun. He goes too close to the sun, melting the wax, and dies.

• Dies mainly because of his enormous pride and arrogance.

• The allusion takes place in Circle 7 Round 3.• Dante recalls Icarus when he’s about to fly down

from the cliff.

Circle 8

• Pope Nicholas III- He was a simonist. Chief sinner of Circle 8 Bolgia 3.

• Pope Boniface VIII- Dante’s main enemy both personally and publicly. Boniface was the Pope from 1294-1303. He believed that the Pope should have the supreme power of an empire, which went against Dante’s political party. He’s mentioned in Circle 8 Bolgia 3.

Canto XVIII, Circle 8• Ghisola serves as the will and lust of men.

• In the first ditch, Dante sees two filesof naked sinners each running in opposite direction, whipped by demons. These sinners are the panderers and the seducers. Dante recognizes Venedico Caccianemico, a man he once knew. Venedico in this case is depicted as having sold his sister, Ghisola to another man, Marquis. Dante at this point uses a fellow contemporary to show what happens when one goes against the will of God and sins.

“It was I who brought the fair

Ghisola ‘round to serve the will

and lust of the Marquis, however

sordid that old tale may sound.”

Canto XVIII, Circle 8• Jason, the Argonaut

The son of Aeson, who was sent by his uncle Pelias, from Iolchos in Thessaly, to bring back the Golden Fleece from Colchis. He sailed the Argo, the first ship, with the Argonauts, the Greek heroes. Medea the witch, the king’s daughter, fell in love with him, and helped him, but he abandoned her for Creusa. He also abandoned Hypsipyle, the daughter of King Thoas of Lemnos.

“It is Jason, who by courage and good advice made off with the Colchian Ram.”

Alessio Interminelli da Lucca

• In Canto XVII, circle 8

Found in the ditch of flatterers, It is in this trench that persons who had sinned as flatterers are punished by being made to wallow in a river of human excrement from which emanates nauseating fumes. Dante recognizes Alessio Interminelli da Lucca.

• flatterers due their abuse of language in excrement which metaphorically symbolizes the words they used in flattering other on earth

“ because if memory serves me, I knew you when your hair was dry. That’s why I pick you from this filthy fry. And he then, beating himself on his clown’s head, “Down to this have the flatteries I sold, the living sunk me hear among the dead”

Jeeda Oulabi

Circle 8 Bolgia 3

• In Canto XIX

The Simonists/Simoniacs

Sin: Clergy who sold offices and forgave sins for money & personal gain

Punishment: held upside down with feet on fire

•The heat of the flames burns according to the guilt of the sinner.

Jeeda Oulabi

Simoniacs:• People guilty of buying or selling spiritual or

Church benefits.• Simon Magus

– “Simony” is derived from him.– Tried to buy the gifts of the Holy Ghost.– Simoniacs in Hell are followers of him.

• Simoniacs are seen in the 3rd Bulgia of the 8th Circle of Hell.– Large frauds: 8th circle is reserved for

fraudulence.• Dante’s criticism of the Catholic Church is seen

in his resentment of the Simoniacs.– Presents simony as a form of spiritual

prostitution.

Synonyms:• bribery• fraud• extortion • malpractice• sacrilege • barratry

Boniface: • Top personal and public enemy of Dante.• Not in Hell yet because he is still living.

– Will take Pope Nicholas III’s place in 3rd Bulgia of 8th Circle of Hell.

– Symbol of sin– Role as emblem of deceit– Simonist

• Came to be Pope because he planted doubts in Pope Celestine V’s head, which convinced him to resign.

• Had view that Pope was spiritual head of Christendom and superior to the emperor– Dante did not share this idea

• Thought Pope and emperor should be co-equals.

“His enemies portrayed him as a heretic, a sorcerer, a sodomite, and a traducer of the faith.”

Cantos 16-21 Circle 8 Bolgia 3, Peter When the apostles in Jerusalem

heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent missionaries, Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the holy Spirit, because they had not yet realized that they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they received the holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the Spirit was conferred by the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money and said, "Give me this power too, so that anyone upon whom I lay my hands may receive the holy Spirit." But Peter said to him, "May your money perish with you, because you thought that you could buy the gift of God with money…”.

By: Lilia Souri

Cantos 16-23 Circle 8 Bolgia 3,She who sits upon the waters

“She Who Sits upon the Waters” are referring to St. John the Evangelist. St John’s vision of She Who Sits upon the Waters is set forth in “Revelations,” XVII. The Evangelist intended it as a vision of Pagan Rome, but Dante interprets it as a vision of the Roman Church in its simoniacal corruption.

By: Lilia Souri

Constantine

•Who was also known as Constantine the Great, controlled the expanding Roman Empire from 306 to his death in 337.•Constantine's most important accomplishment was making Christianity the unofficial sponsored religion in Rome.•Dante believed Constantine was cured of leprosy by Sylvester and rewarded him with the riches of the Roman Empire.•Constantine granted sovereignty to Pope Sylvester I over Italy and the rest of the Western Empire .•He was the first known Christian Roman Emperor and proclaimed religious tolerance in 313 by passing the Edict of Milan.•The city of Constantinople, which eventually became the capital of the Roman Empire was named after him.

“Ah Constantine, what evil marked the hour not of your conversion, but of the free the first rich Father took from you in dower!” (Canto 19 ,circle 8 line 110)

Circle 8 Bolgia 4

•In this fourth trench of the 8th circle, Dante sees the souls of fortune tellers and diviners (those who predict the future).

•Their contrapasso is to have their heads twisted backwards so they cannot see in front of them .

•They are unable to speak because of their twisted necks and can only cry.

•Since they distorted Gods law, they are forced in hell to have contorted bodies.

•Dante reacts to them with tears because of his own guilt with his involvement in astrological predictions.

“And when I looked down from their faces ,I saw that each of them was hideously distorted ….for the face was reversed on the neck and they came on backwards , staring backwards at their loins, for to look before them was forbidden.”( Canto 20 10-15)

TiresiasTiresias was a magician who changed himself from man to woman by transforming all his limbs and parts. Later, he had to strike apart two entwined serpents with his wand to turn back into a man.

He is in Circle 8, the fraudulent and malicious, and in Bolgia 4, the fortune tellers/diviners group of this circle.

Tiresias is significant because sorcery is a distortion of God’s law. That is why he is in Hell.

ArunsAruns was an Etruscan fortune teller who foretold the war between Pompey and Julius Caesar. He predicted that Caesar would win and Pompey would die. Also, he had a white marble cave as a den where he observed the sea and the constellations.

Aruns is with Tiresias in Circle 8, the fraudulent and malicious, and in Bolgia 4, the fortune tellers/diviners group of the eighth circle.

He is significant to the 4th Bolgia of Circle 8 because he also tried to look into the future which goes against God’s rules, according to Dante. These offenders are punished here in Hell.

Canto 20, Circle 8: Bolgia 4Thebes, the city of Bacchus

“After his death, Thebes, the city of Bacchus, became enslaved, and for many years she [Manto] roamed about the earth” (lines 58-60).

- The city hosting the Greek myths of the blind prophet Tiresias and Manto, as well as the famous play Oedipus Rex

- Holds the citadel Cadmeia, made by Cadmus- Contains a seven-gaited wall, most likely

representing the ‘Seven Against Thebes’ wars and the seven kings who fought against Thebes.

Virgil’s speech in Canto 20 talks of Manto, the daughter of Tiresias, who left Thebes after the death of Tiresias and traveled for years before settling in Italy. Because she left Thebes and wandered, the site of her death became the foundation for the city of Mantua, Virgil’s native city.

Peschiera

Canto 20, Circle 8: Bolgia 4

“Peschiera, the beautiful fortress, strong in war against the Brescians and the Bergamese, sits at the lowest point along that shore” (lines 70-72).

- A beautiful fortress that worked as a fortified military citadel (the jail closed in 2002)

- On an island in the Mincio River in Italy- The fortress was important in many

military campaigns in northern Italy after 1400

Virgil talks about Peschiera only briefly, but uses it to lead into where the foundation of Mantua was to be set. Therefore, the significance of Peschiera here is not very noteworthy, but still a nice touch when describing and leading into Mantua’s foundation.

Map of the fortress of Peschiera

Eurypylus-Trapped in circle eight Bolgia four

- Among the Fortune tellers and

Diviners-He is significant

because he supposedly “cut

the cables” at Aulis-He also was a Greek Augar

-An Augar was a person who was

summoned before each voyage to

choose the exact propitious moment

for departure

Aulis

• The place where Dante says that Eurypylus chose the time to cut the cables

• Aulis is a Greek city that was very important

• Aulis is mentioned in Circle 8 Bolgia 4 in the Inferno

Michael Scott

• Scottish Wizard• In the eight circle, circle of diviners,

soothsayers, and magicians.• Was a tutor to the Pope, educator and

studied mathematics.

• “The next, who is so slender in the flanks, Was Michael Scott, who of a verity Of magical illusions knew the game.”

Guido Bonatti

• Astrologer, in Hell because studying Astrology was againstPapal forces.

• During his lifetime, his workers combated the Geulphs. Dante was a Geulph, this may have led to Guido’s fate.“Behold Guido Bonatti, behold Asdente, Who now

unto his leather and his thread Would fain have stuck, but he too late repents.”

Asdente of Parma• Humble Cobbler who prophesized events

like the death of Nicholas 3rd and election of Martian 4th. Also predicted the destruction of Parma's rival Modena and the defeat of the Pison Navy By Genoa.

• Found in Dantes 8th circle under False prophets because Dante thought that his prophecies were fraudulent.

• Referenced in The Cities of the Gods. “No local prophet took second place to the

illiterate cobbler Asdente of Parma.”• In The Inferno he is referenced when this is

said. “See Guido Bonatti; see Asdente, Who

wishes now he had kept to his thread and shoe-leather, but he repents too late.”

Santa Zita’s Elders

•

• Location- Circle 8: Bolgia 5• -Santa Zita was the Patron Saint of Lucca. She was born to a poor

family in a small village located in Lucca. At the young age of twelve Zita began working for the Fatinelli Family as a maid. She believed that she was serving God rather than her employer. Zita was hardworking, generous, and warm-hearted. Her fellow servants resented her and did not treat her with respect, so she often prayed to God for patience. She was rewarded for her hard work by being named head house keeper of the Fatinelli home. Loved by the many citizens of Lucca Zita was proclaimed a saint to the city of Lucca after her death.

• Santa Zita was also known as one of Lucca’s senators. The city of Lucca itself was thought to be the city of grafters. The grafters in circle eight are punished by being sunken in a pitch guarded by demons that rip them to pieces. Santa Zita’s elders are the grafters of circle eight.

“Blacktalons of our bridge, he began to roar, I bring you one of Santa Zita’s Elders ! Scrub him down while I go back for more.” ( Canto XXI line 37)

Serchio• Location- Circle 8: Bolgia 5

• -Serchio is a river near Lucca in the region of Tuscany, Italy

• The river of Serchio is the third longest river in Italy at 126 kilometers.

• The bridge that is also known as Ponte della Maddalena, stretches across the river near the village of Borgo a Mozzano in Lucca.

• In the circle of the grafters , they sink in pitches and if they are caught above the surface, the grafters are torn to pieces by grappling hooks. The river of Serchio is used as a comparison to the pitch of the grafters in The Inferno.

“This is no dip in the Serchio: take your look and then get down in the pitch. And stay below unless you want a taste of the grappling hook.” ( Canto XXI line 52)

Explanation: Panderers and Seducers run from one side of the pouch to the other, being whipped by demos with whips.

Location: Takes place in Circle 8.

Allusion/Significance: During their life the panderers and seducers deceived people to do their bidding. Now demons with whips drive them to march back and forth in the pouch for all eternity.

Explanation: Flatterers are forced to lay in a vile and filthy river filled with muck and sewage.

Location: Takes place in Circle 8

Allusion/Significance: The flatterers used language to deceive people and the muck and sewage represents the words they spoke.