The Inferno:
This is a Terror That Cannot
Be Told (Compound
Fraud/Betrayal)
Feraco
Myth to Science Fiction + SDAIE
19 November 2014
Circle Nine
In The Inferno, Dante separates simple
fraud from compound fraud by defining
the latter as violations of individuals with
whom the sinner shares special bonds –
love, or even “unbreakable” trust.
Those who commit compound fraud
are sent to Cocytus, the Ninth Circle of
Hell; Dante describes it as a gigantic
frozen lake, divided into four concentric
circles, with Satan (Dis) at its center.
The four regions – Caïna, Antenora,
Ptolomea, and Judecca – are separated
less by the gravity of the crime than by the
nature of the bond that’s been broken.
Cocytus
This is the last of the four rivers of sin
that pour forth from the Old Man of Crete.
In The Aeneid,Virgil describes Cocytus
very differently: it’s a nearly-black pool of
water that encircles a forest, with sand
pouring into it from a whirlpool.
This is where Dante drew his inspiration
for the Second and Third Rounds of the
Seventh Circle, with the Wood of the
Suicides and the Burning Plain of Sand; the
image’s last element turns up here.
In the Vulgate (the Latin Bible), Cocytus
is the Valley of Death for the Wicked,
although it’s alternately described as a
giant torrent; Dante’s frozen lake is his own
creation.
Caïna
Caïna, named after Cain, a Biblical figure
who slew his own brother out of jealousy,
houses the souls of those who betrayed their
kinsmen.
This is where Gianciotto, Paolo’s brother
and Francesca’s husband, was sent; notice
that neither of them ended up here.
The souls are punished by being frozen in
place within the lake; only their heads and
neck are exposed, and the only movement
they can make is to bow their heads.
This is actually a bit of a blessing; the ice
is frozen by a tremendous wind, and the
souls who can bow their heads not only get to
hide (a little bit) from it, but can allow their
tears to fall to the ice without freezing their
eyes shut.
Antenora
Antenora is named after Antenor, a
Trojan prince who had tried to return
Helen to the Greeks in order to save his city.
His reputation had been so badly twisted
by medieval pro-Trojan Romans that he
was essentially seen as a Judas figure –
someone who had set out to betray those
he’d sworn to follow and protect.
Antenora houses the souls who have
betrayed their political party or nation.
The souls are also frozen within the lake;
they’re sunk in the ice a bit lower, so while
they still have the ability to speak, they
cannot bend their necks – with the
exception of Ugolino and Ruggieri, whose
punishment is unique.
Ptolomea
Ptolomea is named after one of two figures
(or both) named Ptolomy.
One was the captain of Jericho, who presented
his father-in-law and his two sons with a feast
before murdering them; the other was
Cleopatra’s brother, who arranged for Pompey’s
murder as soon as he arrived seeking refuge
following his defeat at Pharsalia.
Ptolomea houses the souls who betrayed their
friends or guests; they’re so deep in the ice that
only half of their head rises out of the ice; their
faces are forever looking upwards, and their
tears freeze their eyes shut.
Moreover, these souls were ripped out of their
bodies before they reached the end of their
natural lives; demons currently inhabit their
bodies, controlling them like marionettes until
they finally expire.
Judecca
Judecca is named after Judas Iscariot, the
apostle who betrayed Jesus; interestingly,
Judas himself isn’t punished here.
(It’s also another piece of evidence that
commentators cite when debating Dante’s
anti-Semitism;“Judecca” recalls the names of
the ghettos (areas of cities like Venice) where
Jews were forced to live, segregated from the
medieval Christian population: Iudeca,
Judaica, etc.)
Judecca houses the souls who not only
betrayed their masters or benefactors, but
whose sins had important historical or societal
ramifications.
The souls are completely locked in ice,
trapped forever in various poses with no ability
to move or speak.
The Center
At the center, the poets find Satan
trapped within the ice, flapping his
gigantic wings, struggling to escape; this is
the source of the wind that freezes the ice.
Since Satan himself is trapped within the
ice, he’s the source of his own punishment –
just as he brought his horrible fall from
grace on himself by rising up against God,
he now freezes himself by trying to rise
again.
With three faces – Dante’s ironic
perversion of the Holy Trinity – Satan uses
his three mouths to chew three sinners:
Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ, and
Brutus & Cassius, the murderers of Caesar.
The Contrapasso
Since the Treacherous refused
God’s love and light in the worst
possible way, they are farthest
removed from both in death.
Since they turned human
warmth into a weapon, freezing
ice punishes them.
As they destroyed all ties in life,
they are now bound by ice that
cannot break.
Camicon / Bocca
Alberto Camicon de Pazzi simply
murdered his kinsman.
Camicon’s function resembles Pier de
Medicina’s from the previous circle; he’s a
minor figure who’s mainly here to fill an
expository need (i.e., tell Dante about how
things work in that particular region of
Hell, who’s in there, and why they’re there).
Pier della Vigne’s a more important
example (from the Second Round of the
Seventh Circle) of the same character
usage.
Camicon / Bocca
Bocca degli Abati, whom Dante’s really cruel
towards (not only does he accidentally kick him
in the head, but he starts pulling out chunks of
his hair in an attempt to torment Bocca into
revealing his name), fought in the Battle of
Montaperti with the Guelfs against forces under
the command of Farinata degli Uberti.
He was a member of a prominent Ghibelline
family, and he was only pretending to side with
the Guelfs; at a key moment, he sliced off the
hand of the Guelf flag-bearer.
The loss of their flag – and the realization that
a traitor had infiltrated their ranks – caused the
Guelfs to panic, and the well-organized forces
under Uberti’s command annihilated them.
Ugolino / Ruggieri
This is the single longest speech any of the
shades in Hell give; it’s Dante’s ultimate depiction
of the depths of human depravity, which is why the
souls involved are punished so gruesomely.
Count Ugolino della Gherardesca lived in a city
called Pisa, one of Florence’s rivals, and he
betrayed Pisa in a series of different moves.
He was born into an important Pisan Ghibelline
family, but switched sides once the Guelfs started
gaining power; Ugolino was exiled after failing to
install a Pisan Guelf government, but he would
return and, years later, be elected as podesta
(political head) of Pisa.
His nephew, Nino Visconti, served as “captain of
the people” – nearly the same in rank.
Ugolino / Ruggieri
At this point, Ugolino capitulated to political
expedience and gave away Pisan castles to
Florence and Lucca; this led to a split between
him and Nino, as well as between their
followers.
At the same time, Ghibellines led by
Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini were
gaining power in nearby Tuscany; Ugolino
conspired with them to have Nino driven from
the city, and was intentionally absent from Pisa
when their forces arrived.
When he returned, Ruggieri betrayed him,
inciting the public against him by bringing up
his “betrayal of the castles”; with popular
pressure against him, Ugolino, two sons, and
two grandsons were arrested and locked away.
Ugolino / Ruggieri
Dante changes the conditions of Ugolino’s
imprisonment; he makes the sons much
younger and pretends the grandsons don’t
exist, then really lengthens the duration of
their stay (years instead of months).
However, fact and fiction end the same way,
albeit for different reasons (change in
Ghibelline leadership vs. Ruggieri’s cruelty):
the key to Ugolino’s cell is thrown away, and
food delivery ceases.
Ugolino must watch helplessly as his sons,
begging for food, starve to death over the
course of a week, and expires a couple of days
later.
Ugolino doesn’t even pretend that he hasn’t
earned his punishment in Cocytus; instead, he
wants Dante to understand the monstrosity of
Ruggieri’s crime.
Friar Alberigo
Friar Alberigo (Fra Alberigo for short) also suffers at
Dante’s hands, although for different reasons than
Bocca; Dante says he will peel the frozen tears from his
eyes if he reluctantly reveals his name, but the poet does
not keep his promise (for “to be rude to him was
courtesy”).
Chillingly, Dante realizes that “Alberigo” isn’t dead
yet – or, at least, his body isn’t; his soul has been ripped
from his body in the wake of his sin.
In life, Alberigo was a Jovial Friar, the religious order
from the Hypocrites bolgia whose reputation for peacekeeping was soon replaced by one of corruption.
His relative, Manfred, plotted Alberigo’s ruin for
politically-motivated reasons, and eventually hit him.
Alberigo pretended to forgive him, and invited his
attacker (and his son) to join him for a feast at his home;
when they finished eating, Alberigo’s servants
slaughtered them both as the master watched gleefully.
Judas, Brutus, & Cassius
While contemporary audiences tend to think of
Shakespeare’s play when asked to recall the particulars
of Julius Caesar’s life and death, Dante had a much
different view.
Brutus and Cassius fought under Pompey’s
command during the civil war and, following Pompey’s
defeat at Pharsalia, receive high public offices after
Caesar (in Dante’s eyes, one of Rome’s greatest rulers,
and a critical component of God’s plan for human
happiness) pardons them.
Cassius never stops resenting Caesar’s dictatorship,
and he conspired with Brutus to assassinate Caesar in
order to restore the Republic; they succeed in killing
their ruler, but their own ambitions met with ruin, and
both eventually committed suicide.
In Shakespeare’s telling, Caesar has become a
decadent, corrupt, and blind ruler; Brutus and Cassius
betray him, but reluctantly so, particularly in Brutus’s
case.
Judas, Brutus, & Cassius
Finally, Judas Iscariot served as one
of Jesus Christ’s twelve apostles, but
agreed to betray his master for thirty
pieces of silver.
He, too, paid for the consequences of
his betrayal by killing himself.
The three souls’ punishments – being
chewed, ripped, and flayed by Satan’s
teeth for all eternity – are the worst
Dante can imagine.
Satan (Dis)
Satan, also called Dis or Lucifer (“light-bearer,” a
reference to the angel’s originally beautiful
appearance), earned his place at the heart of the Inferno
by rebelling against God.
Just as we see with the other Rebellious Angels, Satan
is now as hideous as he was once gorgeous, and his trifaced heads represent a wicked perversion of the
Christian Holy Trinity.
Following his rebellion, he became what Raffa calls
“the source of evil and sorrow in the world” – although
one could argue that Dante’s text seems to blame
human failures as well.
Dante and Virgil must literally climb over him,
sliding down his flank through the center of the world;
when they pass through it, their perspective flips to the
point where Satan’s legs now appear to jut straight into
the sky.
Ultimately, he’s powerless to do anything to Dante,
despite the poet’s gut-wrenching tower at the mere
sight of him.
In Hell, even Satan weeps.
Beneath the Stars
Once Dante and Virgil pass through the
center, they follow the trickling of the Lethe
toward the surface.
In classical mythology, the Lethe was the
River of Forgetfulness; souls drink from the
River before entering the world.
When they emerge, they walk out “beneath
the stars” – the source of our blog’s name (or
half of it, anyway).
Dante concludes all three parts of his Divine
Comedy in similar fashion, with references to
the stars.
The stars are the physical realm of Paradise,
which Dante explores later during his quest for
redemption; here, it’s just enough that he
stands under them, the “shining symbols of
hope and virtue.”
Beneath the Stars
So we come to the end ourselves.
At the book’s conclusion, Dante
remains an exile, a man without friends,
family, or home, a man without a future.
We know that his life never really gets
better, and we see that he doesn’t drink
from the Lethe to forget what he’s
suffered.
Yet for now, the sky’s opened up
above him, human misery lies far
behind him…and as he stands, like
Gilgamesh looking up at Uruk, for one
fragile, shining moment…
…Dante dares to dream of salvation.