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Transcript

Dante's Inferno Canto XX

Other Significant Sinners

Overview

-located in the 8th Circle of Hell, in the Fourth Bolgia (valley or "pocket" of sin)

-tone of lament and supplication

- "silent, weeping, walking at a litany pace"

- litany means a prayer or supplication in a processional form

- most prosaic canto in the book... most likely a device to convince the reader that the information being conveyed is true

- Eurypylus... Dante believed that he was a Greek augur during the Trojan war asked to divine the best time to launch the Greek fleet (Lines 106-111)

- Michael Scot... Scottish philosopher who translated Arabic commentary on Aristotle's works; part of Frederick II's court; reputation= augur/magician (suspicion, may or may not be true)

- Guido Bonatti... well-known diviner/astrologer for many kings including Frederick II

- Benvenuto... nicknamed "Asdente" meaning "toothless"; cobbler considered to have magical powers; line 119- "wishes he had been more devoted to making shoes..."

Questions

-Who is the main sinner that founded Virgil's home city? What is the name of that city?

-How does the punishment for the soothsayers fit the crime?

-What does the feeling of pity toward the convicted and unsaved sinners reflect about the Pilgrim's conviction of evil?

-Why can Dante not accept that the sinners earned their punishment? What does this say about the natural human tendency to love evil?

Sin and Contrapasso

Other Elements

-Soothsayer: "a person who professes to foretell events" "- dictionary.com definition

-diviners, magicians, witches, enchanters, etc.

-"you see how he has made his back his chest: because he wished to see too far ahead, he sees behind and walks a backward track." -Lines 37-39

- ironic because soothsayers try to see the future and "play God".... only are able to see things behind them in the "past"

-theme of Dante's pity of the sinners because he doesn't understand the justice in the system of hell

- Lines 21-23 "how I could keep my eyes dry when, close by, I saw the image of our human form so twisted- the tears their eyes were shedding..."

-Virgil rebukes Dante saying, "So you are still like all the other fools...in this place piety lives when pity is dead, for who could be more wicked than that man who tries to bend divine will into his own!"

-As well as a theme of Dante trying to learn from his master

-Lines 103-104 "speak to me...if you see anyone that is worth noting"

Founding of Mantua

-Manto: Virgil's home city of Mantua is her namesake

-Virgil gives boring detailed explanation of the founding of Mantua.... factual and prosaic form in which it was written is meant to convince the reader that the information being relayed is true

-"And so, I warn you, should you ever hear my city's origin told otherwise, let no false tales adulterate the truth." Lines 97-99

- text says that Manto left her home a virgin, fleeing human intercourse, to practice magic with her servants in what became Mantua until the day she died

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