Dante's Inferno: Canto 18- The Flatterers

Canto XVIII (18)

Circle 8

Malebolge- Bolgia 2

"Once there I peered down; and I saw long lines of people in a river of excrement that seemed to overflow of the world's latrines."

(Dante 161)

The Flatterers

Stooped in a pit of

human excrement

with their words

growing like mold

on their backs.

Flattery is deemed worthy of such a punishment for the harm it brings to the innocent. One may be naive and incapable of understanding when they are being taken advantage of. For one who knows this to use others susceptibility for their own personal gain is a wicked deed. Therefore they are stuck in a pit of excrement representing the words they spew out to please the ones around them.

Alessio Interminei of Lucca was a member of the White Guelph party. He used flattery to rise in the ranks. God deemed this as dishonorable.

"And my guide prompted then: "Lean forward a bit and look beyond him, there- do you see that one scratching herself with dungy nails, the strumpet who fidgets to her feet, then to crouch?" "

(Dante 162)

Thaïs: Woman, from De Amicitia 26. Was given to immodest

displays of flattery. Used this to convince her lover to present her with

gifts of his wealth and slaves of his.

ex: He was wealthy - "You are wealthy. You can

provide me with excess possesions, no?"

"Steaming from that pit, a vapor rose over the banks, crusting them with a slime that sickened my eyes and hammered at my nose."

(Dante 161)

Malebolge:

Male- evil

bolge- ditch

"Evil Ditch"

Not so much an evil ditch as what

is inside it is evil. A ditch of evil.

Sources:

The Inferno

Dante Alighieri