Dante’s Inferno
Circles 8-9
• Why might Dante have classified Diviners,
Astrologers, and Magicians as committing fraud?
• Who was Tiresias? What is his story? What is this an
allusion to?
• Why does Dante the Poet use this canto to have Virgil
tell Dante the Pilgrim the true story behind the
founding of Mantua, the town where Virgil was born?
Circle 8
Is it immoral to believe something without sufficient evidence that it is
true?
William Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879) believed that it is immoral to believe something without
sufficient evidence that it is true. Clifford came up with a very vivid parable to illustrate his
point:
A shipowner was about to send to sea an emigrant ship. He knew that she was old,
not overwell built, and often had needed repairs. It had been suggested to him that
possibly she was not seaworthy. He thought that perhaps he ought to have her
overhauled and refitted, even though this should put him to great expense. Before
the ship sailed, however, he said to himself that she had gone safely through so
many voyages and weathered so many storms, that it was idle to suppose that she
would not come safely home from this trip also. He would put his trust in
Providence, which could hardly fail to protect all these unhappy families that were
leaving their fatherland to seek for better times elsewhere. He would dismiss
ungenerous suspicions about the honesty of builders and contractors. In such ways
he acquired a sincere and comfortable conviction that his vessel was safe and
seaworthy: he watched her departure with a light heart, and benevolent wishes for
the success of the exiles in their new home; and he got his insurance money when
she went down in mid-ocean and told no tales.
William Kingdon Clifford’s “The Ethics of Belief”
• What is graft?
Graft is a bribe. Usually, it involves the giving of money,
although other things can be used for the bribe, such as
drugs or sexual favors. A politician who takes money to
pass legislation favorable to a certain corporation is guilty
of graft. A judge who takes money to rule a person innocent
is guilty of graft.
• What is the importance of Dante’s necessity to hide in
this boglia?
Circle 8
• Dante: “The Master of the Disgusting”
• Do you know anyone who uses his butt for a bugle?
• In the mid-1800s, a French entertainer named Joseph Pujol was
able to pass gas at will. He created an act in which he would strip
naked (when in front of a male-only audience), use a tube to blow
into and fill his rear end up with gas, then play songs and do other
feats with his anus. Yes, he made his living by farting. He played a
flute with a rubber tube inserted into his anus.
• “The Pardoner’s Tale” in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
• How does the theme of appearance versus reality play a
role in this section of the Inferno?
• The Grafters
• The Devils
Circle 8
• Why is the bridge destroyed?
• Canto 21 and Canto 22 are known as the Gargoyle cantos.
Why? This is a definition of a gargoyle: “A figurine that
projects from a roof or the parapet of a wall or tower and
is carved into a grotesque figure, human or animal.”
• What is the tone of the scene with the trickster Ciampolo?
• Aesop’s fable of the mouse and the frog. How does this
allusion play out in this bolgia? What is the purpose of
the parable?
Circle 8
• The hypocrites
• The thieves
• Climbing up the ruins of the collapsed bridge is very
difficult for Virgil and Dante the Pilgrim. Does this
have any thematic significance?
• Which prediction does Vanni Fucci make, and why
does he make it?
• What is a fig (obscene gesture)?
• The guard of the Thieves is Cacus. Who is Cacus?
Why is he not guarding the river of blood?
Circle 8
• We are still in the 8th Circle—the Circle devoted to simple
fraud as opposed to complex fraud. What is simple fraud?
What is complex fraud?
• Why is Mohammed’s sin punished in Circle 8 (discord) and
not Circle 7 (Violence against God) or Circle 6 (Heresy)?
• Does Canto 28 have a problem?
• Sinners are helpful to Dante and others to avoid their fate
• These sinners know the future, and so they know that what they
predict will occur. What seem like specific warnings may not be
really be warnings, but only predictions.
• John Ciardi writes, “The souls of the damned are not
permitted to repent, for repentance is a divine grace” (Ciardi,
The Divine Comedy, 36).
• Dante respects the sinners and empathizes with them
Circle 8
• Alchemists
The Alchemists have leprosy (the Alchemists tried to change lead into
gold, and now their skin turns from healthy to diseased).
• Evil Impersonators
The Evil Impersonators are insane (the Evil Impersonators made other
people confused about who the Evil Impersonators were; now the Evil
Impersonators, who are insane, are confused about who they are).
• Counterfeiters
The Counterfeiters—who made what they had bigger than it should
be—have dropsy (which makes part of their body swell up and be
bigger than it should be).
• Liars
The Liars—whose testimony stank—are feverous and stink.
Circle 8
• Dante is reprimanded yet again.
• p. 237
Circle 8
• Be able to describe Circle IX and it’s inhabitants.
• What are the divisions?
• Who is Lucifer? For what crime is he being punished, and
what is his punishment?
• How is Lucifer described?
• Who are the three sinners whom Lucifer is chewing on?
• The innermost ring punishes souls who have treacherously
betrayed their rightful lords and benefactors, both temporal
and spiritual. Why would Dante put them in the innermost
ring? (Think about Ancient society.)
Circle 9