Dante's Inferno Cantos 9-12 Furies to the Violent

Summary

This summary traverses through Cantos 9 to 12 of Dante’s Inferno, providing an insightful look into Dante's journey through Hell’s layered circles. The discussions focus on the Furies and Medusa as symbols of fear, the interactions with heretics and historical figures like Farinata and Cavalcanti, Virgil’s explanations on sins like violence and heresy, and the allegorical figures like the Minotaur and Centaurs. Each canto reveals the depth of sin, punishment, and moral reflections as interpreted by Prof. T.

Highlights

• Dante and Virgil encounter the fearsome Furies and Medusa, representing terror and petrification. 👹
• Virgil's loss of certainty parallels Dante's journey towards clarity amidst confusion. 🌀
• Conversations with heretics reveal the complex web of belief, politics, and societal norms. 🤝
• Introduction to the concept of malice and its manifestations in violence and sin. 🚫
• A dive into Greek mythology with characters like the Minotaur and Centaurs, symbolizing primal instincts versus reason. 🦄

Key Takeaways

• Dante’s journey through Hell reflects complex layers of allegory and symbolism. 📚
• Medusa and the Furies symbolize fear and rage, underpinning the journey’s psychological elements. 😱
• The recurring theme of blind ignorance versus clarity, as both Dante and Virgil experience moments of uncertainty. 🤔
• Historical and mythological references abound, enriching the narrative with cultural depth. 🌍
• Discussions on political and societal beliefs challenge the dogmas of Dante's era. ⚖️

Overview

Venturing through Cantos 9 to 12 of Dante’s Inferno, readers encounter a labyrinth of allegories and myths. These cantos delve into the city of Dis, where Dante and his guide confront mythological beings like the Furies and Medusa, grappling with themes of fear and paralysis both metaphorically and literally. Dante’s blending of classical myth with Christian moralism adds a rich layer of complexity to his exploration of human sin and divine justice.

Canto 10 to 11 branches into the murky domains of heretics, where historical figures engage in dialogues that bring forth themes of power dynamics, ideological conflicts, and the moral underpinnings of belief. These conversations explore the consequences of wrong beliefs, translating historical and biblical narratives into Dante’s poetic and philosophical journey. Prof. T’s insights reflect the juxtaposition of personal and political, as Dante navigates familial legacies and prophetic forewarnings.

Finally, Canto 12 ushers in discussions on the sin of violence seen through mythical lenses—Minotaurs, Centaurs, and a river of boiling blood. These symbols of raw emotion and unchecked passion underscore the duality of human nature, bridging ancient Greek myth with medieval Christian ethics. The inclusion of these allegories invites readers to ponder the eternal struggle between reason and instinct, making Dante’s journey as much an internal odyssey as it is a moral voyage.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Intro and Overview of Cantos 9-12 The introduction and overview of Cantos 9-12 provides a brief insight into the structure and content planned for discussion. Canto 9, focusing on the Furies and Medusa, serves as a transitional piece as the journey moves through the city of Dis. This canto is noted for its interesting content and aims to deliver concise yet informative insights. The presenter mentions that it won't take as long as other videos, implying a focused and direct exploration of themes and narratives.
• 00:30 - 06:30: Canto 9: The Furies and Medusa The chapter 'Canto 9: The Furies and Medusa' describes Dante's journey into the seventh circle of Hell, particularly focusing on the circle of the violent. The narrative emphasizes the presence of a thick fog, which Dante has encountered since the beginning of the poem. This fog symbolizes Dante's confusion and inability to perceive the surroundings clearly, reflecting an inner turmoil or metaphorical blindness. The fog can be interpreted both as a literal and symbolic element, serving as a manifestation of Dante's internal state of mind as he navigates this fearful and violent realm.
• 06:30 - 15:00: Canto 10: Heretics In this chapter, themed around 'Heretics', the focus is on a consistent motif where Dante struggles with his ability to see, which is metaphorical. The narrative starts with lines 5 and 6 that depict Dante and his companions waiting for an angel or a messenger believed to assist them in passing through the City of Dis. Here, for the first time, a palpable sense of uncertainty is introduced, echoing the broader thematic elements of doubt and waiting for divine intervention within the poem.
• 15:00 - 19:00: Canto 11: Introduction to Violence Canto 11 introduces violence, showing both Dante and Virgil's uncertainty as they enter the city of Dis. It highlights their need to rely on Providence, as they lack experience in this treacherous part of their journey.
• 19:00 - 24:00: Canto 12: Infamy of Crete and The Violent Canto 12 introduces the Furies, mythical figures drawn from Virgil's Aeneid, who serve as gatekeepers to the city of Dis in Dante's Inferno. The Furies are depicted as fearsome beings, often conflated with the Fates in literary tradition, symbolizing relentless vengeance. As they beat their chests, they signify the continuation of Dante's tumultuous journey through the circles of Hell, emphasizing their role in guiding souls to confront their sins.

Dante's Inferno Cantos 9-12 Furies to the Violent Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 all right so now we're gonna get into canto is 9 through 12 and we're gonna be looking at these hi these are some pretty interesting kantos probably will not take as long as some of the other videos but they should become it should be full of information that is helpful for you as well alright so canto 9 we're looking at the Furies in Medusa and Cantor 9 is sort of a segue as we're moving through the city of dis we're gonna be moving there and we're gonna kind of stop for a second as
• 00:30 - 01:00 we go under the to the circle of the violent of the seventh circle so in mines 5 and 6 you see once again don't taste talking about there being a thick fog we've had this as the very beginning of the entire poem and where Dante can't see things where Dante is confused when Dante is sort of unable to tell what's going on around him so whether the thick fog is metaphorical or a physical symbol for what's going on internally inside of
• 01:00 - 01:30 him it becomes this sort of part of the thematic motif that's consistent throughout the entire point with Dante's difficulty to see so that's what we start with with lines 5 and 6 here in there now they're waiting on some sort of angel or a messenger to arrive to help them get through the city of dis and there's this real sense of uncertainty it's the first time that we've seen that same uncertainty that
• 01:30 - 02:00 was in Dante throughout also in Virgil and so Virgil has also lost his certainty at this point and this junk so now not only Dante's uncertain but also virginal is and that just shows sort of how they have not been able to neither of them have been in the city of dis he and this point and shows just you know how much that they're gonna have to rely on sort of sense of Providence to get them through it not just Virgil alone as
• 02:00 - 02:30 being the one who takes Dante so they meet up with the Furies now the three Furies of course civil describes them in the Aeneid and she describes them as sort of the gatekeepers to the city of des so Dante's of course getting it from it they are consistently you know referred to in Shakespeare's were the fate so you had the fates the Furies and here you see that they're sort of beating their chests and their their
• 02:30 - 03:00 clawing of themselves and so there's that's just just sort of rage and grief and then we come of course to Medusa who's a bore go on and she basically turns people into stone so that's something that we see consistently happening right so Medusa is of course the Gorgon that turns people into stone and if there's this really interesting plan word as the Furies talk about how they want to turn Dante into concrete and so there's a real sort of like little humor there in line fifty-two thesis was of course in prison and Hades
• 03:00 - 03:30 and Hercules rescues him and that's sort of the Greek version of the harrowing of hell - Dante of course taking the Greek ideas and synchronizing them to the Christian idea so you see with with Medusa there's that sense in there for Thea system Hercules and that sort of harrowing hope it of course interprets Medusa has sort of this rep event representative of fear somebody who would be able to paralyze people and
• 03:30 - 04:00 then others around the same time saw her as a prostitute that was so beautiful she destroys men that's of course a lot of that patriarchal interpretation that's gonna kind of come on and develop as people look at women as whether they're so beautiful they destroy men they did that or whatever but we Dante really doesn't seem to go in that direction he seems to focus more on this idea of fear and then Agustin also interprets his innocence of the the
• 04:00 - 04:30 hardening of the heart that she turns people into stone that sort of hardening of the heart that you see happening in Egypt in the Exodus and you know all throughout the New Testament as well the thundering sound there's this thundering they represent the combs and it's representing the approach of that messenger from even though it's interesting that it subsides when he becomes visible it also draws on the account of the harrowing of hell as well being sent from heaven and also the in the idea of sent from heaven
• 04:30 - 05:00 and an angel from heaven are really interchangeable sent being sort of the it's a it's it's the verbal form of messenger and messengers the same thing as what English means in Greek and then in line line before why you came back this is this line is echoing the words that Christ gave to Paul hey Paul why are you you know why are you going on against me and Jesus nobody
• 05:00 - 05:30 ever reads that second verse there where it says you know why are you persecuting me Paul and he says is it hard for you to kick against the goat and that's this sort of Greek idiom where I go to sort of like a cattle prod it's hard to kick against the cattle prod it's hard to go against this so it's a reference here that Dante is using as the same thing
• 05:30 - 06:00 that Jesus says to Paul in acts and then it lines 112 to 115 there's this talking about these tombs that they're coming to and they're talking about the Arles tombs and then according to legend these tombs are heartless sort of miraculously enclosed all the Christians that were dead after this huge battle that Charlemagne had led against the Muslims during the Crusades so it's drawing on
• 06:00 - 06:30 that imagery there as well then at the end of the canto Dante and Virgil book turned to the right Aeneas and Sybil they turn to the right outside the walls because they can't enter in and that way they can't CEO they can't bear it but since Dante is inside the walls this is sort of emphasizing this idea of his he turns to the right he has to see the evil he's got to see evil and its entire and that's the importance of of being
• 06:30 - 07:00 able to turn to the right here that Dante is drawing on so then we move on to canto 10 which is the heretics and simple in simple terms heresy is just this belief of I'm sorry I wrong belief and that's what the sin is just to send them wrong bleep believing the wrong thing so Dante has conversations with two different sinners and one conversation is about politics and the other is about poetry therefore it's
• 07:00 - 07:30 really important for us to ask what it is have to do with heresy and we'll get to that in just a second but both of these men are in a tomb their covers are lifted off no one is standing guard so that's sort of this play on the iconography of the resurrection narrative the contrapasso once again happening here where the punishment fits the crime so the idea here is that these two men are not going to be resurrected
• 07:30 - 08:00 they're not going to have a significant err look of what the resurrection was like because they are heretics they're the wrong belief and so they're the opposite version of that the resurrection narrative at the very beginning of it there's this mission of Epicurus Epicurus would of course be here because of his denial of immortality according to Dante he of course didn't believe in that per years
• 08:00 - 08:30 did not believe in immortality and he would assert that the soul dies so these people that are in here they're also serving them the soul dies but Dante's suggesting that secondly its adherence to this belief that actually causes the death of their souls which is a really interesting way to put it Agustin once again Dante draws from augustiner now Agustin is actually so a lot of people think that Epicurus is the one to write this quote let us drink and let's eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die they
• 08:30 - 09:00 say think that's an epicurean quote it's actually not it's more of an attitude that was developing and Augustan sort of references that dude in his confessions it's also on a play I'm Dante is also playing on Psalms 49 where he's talking about the sepulchers being in their house being their houses forever sort of their tombs forever so first we need to begin with this this context here Dante is walking
• 09:00 - 09:30 along and there are these flaming tombs of in hell and all of a sudden he sees somebody who's a fellow citizen of his own world in fact this is it even says hey Oh Tess can you you know time you Italian and the next thing that the guy said so it was who are your ancestors now that does not seem to make sense in any form of the word but this is what farinata this person that we are meeting does but we're a long way from Florence
• 09:30 - 10:00 so it appears that that's what they should be talking about as hey they know they are from Florence let's talk about sports but what farinata is actually going to ask him before he gets into Florence issues is who are your ancestors what he's really saying is is your family as good as mine is your family are you part of the aristocracy and then he asked so what side are you on right I remember talking about politics
• 10:00 - 10:30 coming into this canto so instead of uniting between them as Florence citizens instead farinata is asking questions of division yes yes don't take questions of division both socially and politically but Dante can tell farinata here who fair not as Iggy Bellini that yeah you know the gibble ladies are not power anymore and guess what the gilfs my people have Trump shoe so Dante
• 10:30 - 11:00 actually seems to be doing the same thing fair not is doing here and then another character sort of appears behind or beside fair so let's talk just a second about farinata so from 12 39 until his death he was the leader of the Ghibelline ease which given any sort of represented that old military aristocracy he led the G Bellinis against people in Florence in this horrible bloody battle in 1260 outside
• 11:00 - 11:30 of Florence and many of the people there wanted to actually raise Florence but based on him alone like his decision them no do not raise Florence they didn't do that later on after he died the Franciscan Inquisitor Salamone DeLuca probably lucha and Italian posthumously condemned farinata and his wife and they unburied then they exhume their bodies and they burned their bodies into hash and scattered the ashes on hallowed ground that's how big
• 11:30 - 12:00 of a deal it became and it actually continued into farinata x' ancestors as well not that they would kill them but they were ostracized by society of course so who is this guy beside farinata so you got farinata he got this guy beside farah not all and that's Cal contain that's the father's Cavalcanti McClintock he's a father of one of Dante's friends the man asked Dante if he's in hell because of his great genius
• 12:00 - 12:30 and so we of course know that's false but Dante is messed up and he needs this journey to get back on the right path right that's the reason he's there but dante decides to accept the premise and he suggested yeah sure maybe i'm in hell as a reward dante suggests that his son guido that's Cavalcanti son is not as good as dante now but the father then notices he actually says Guido's not was not as good as men that father noticed this notices this sort of past tense and
• 12:30 - 13:00 he springs out of the tomb he says his my son dead is my son dead he's not interestingly enough the son would die seven months into 1300 so he was about to die but at this point Dante is writing right he's considering it's the holy month of April so April of 1300 so his son would not be dead Guido's guido about be dead in this so upon hearing
• 13:00 - 13:30 that his son's not dead the conversation he then disappears in the conversation with farinata then continues welfare not is looking for a way to Trump Dante and so he finds it because he's able to foretell Dante's exile he's able to tell Dante oh yeah but you you were gonna go and dad you're going to be thrown out of Florence and so it's important that we remember that dante is constructing this point in exile the pilgrim is at the
• 13:30 - 14:00 height of his own political power and he hears essentially hey you're gonna be going into exile so once in a way this is prophecy but then another way is also of course history and then at the end of can't attend the heretic sirs is mentioned in line 119 a frederick ii it was a holy roman emperor i remember at the beginning that we're talking about how italy needed to be people were vying for that power in italy and she had
• 14:00 - 14:30 frederick ii and becoming the holy roman emperor also one of the power there and then the public was like no you can't so there's this fight that's where the Gilson ghibli me is gone aggi Bellinis of course would be the ones that would go and support pressure in a second but they are way on the power by this time and so there's this sort of reference to Frederick's again it's an ambiguous terms but most people interpret it that way and I think that it's this way
• 14:30 - 15:00 because what's interesting is even though he was called the wonder of the world he passed and he passed laws against heresy he was also opposed to the Pope's and to the gilfs Dante's people and he had a lot of fiddly diplomatic relationships with Muslim rulers in fact he had a lot of interaction with them and allowed them to move throughout the country unabated and abetted so according to Dante here he of course would be part of the heretical so things change can't
• 15:00 - 15:30 till 11 real quickly as sort of an introduction to violence it's it's mostly Virgil just kind of talking about the different types of violence that we're about to see and then we're about to move into Dante explains these differences in canto 11 through Virgil and so Virgil classifies them in three different ways the violence can be directed at others ourselves or and then violence against God includes
• 15:30 - 16:00 blasphemy sodomy Ussuri and others that he lists but the last who were also sins against nature and art and Virgil and Dante consider nature God's child and art God's grandchild the the creative process of creation through that so the violence against God is also violence against them as well and we'll get into a lot more details with that with future
• 16:00 - 16:30 kantos at the beginning of this canto there's this stench of the sinner that this is smell and there's this sort of smell of evil that Dante is referring to he probably uses proverbs 10:7 as the example here name of the wicked will rot and that's that's just probably an illusion that he's giving but there's this inscription here as they move in to this seventh circle to this later circle and it says I hope Pope I hold Pope
• 16:30 - 17:00 anastacio s' 14 is drew from the straightaway now we don't know who Pope and sausage is but an astonishes Hernandez tossus is the Greek word for resurrect and then patinas means little light so we're not exactly sure what that means but there's this inscription there and it's probably playing on this idea of doing the opposite once again the contrapasso and then in
• 17:00 - 17:30 line 22 you have the introduction of malice and that about what violence does what the malice does and how it goes against the law and we're not talking about just like made-up lots of it dante is putting all law together then the law of nature human law and god's law the violence goes against all those because after all it's a Neoplatonic idea that love love is the bond that unites
• 17:30 - 18:00 everything to get it sort of creates the sort of systemic connection between all things that's a platonic idea from Plato of course and here we're first introduced to the idea of a malleable which just means evil pouch so you're gonna be hearing a lot about that it's just a little section as we look at the circle the circles may cut into sections and that's something called a malleable just
• 18:00 - 18:30 alright so that's just little evil pouches of sections of different centers Dante looks and virginal in the ass for Julie okay so what about all these sinners before we got here like what all the what about all the ones that you know the less full and you know and you know all these guys the gluttonous why are they not here why are they why are they not taking on such a hard punishment and so he uses the idea that why are they
• 18:30 - 19:00 with the swamp the rain the wind the stone and and that of course is gonna be part of the elements that then equal into blood bile and black bile and then also the elemental idea of hot wet dry cold in other words what virgil says back to us those sins infects humans but they don't destroy humans and so they're they're much more of the idea of infection they're they're a virus and they infect things but they don't
• 19:00 - 19:30 destroy them they don't kill them they're not violently destroyed from that so that's kind of Virgil's answer to him alright so moving on to Cantor twelve we're getting into cancer twelve we see that there's the infamy of create and that is the mine at art and the mile tar is the child of pacify and whose keen - his wife and a white bull now yes
• 19:30 - 20:00 we need to stop here lots of metaphorical things going on here yes there's a sense of bestiality but come on that's Greek mythology for you right so in the story basically dead list helps her she falls in love with this white bull and she wants to have the white bull impregnate her into the club to her and so Daedalus helps her by creating a sort of wooden box bull and puts her in it into the fake people
• 20:00 - 20:30 things that's her and then is able to impregnate her and so then - is like Oh - his revenge he has Daedalus make the labyrinth and the knee put stimulus in the labyrinth forever so the - or represents her that that problematic union of the rational and animal and human beings that sense of irrational but then are also passions or that that sort of animalistic primal instinct that we have
• 20:30 - 21:00 that's what the minus part represents that sort of interchange between the two now there's also a bunch of landslides here there's a lot of reference to the land science at the very beginning and then throughout these simply correlate to the harrowing of hell the idea that they have curd once the heroine of Hell harrowing of hell came down when Jesus comes down rips people out these landslides occurred and so people shriek
• 21:00 - 21:30 and they're upset with them when I was going to see them and as they passed them because it reminds them of their Redemption that they were excluded from and then we meet the Centaurs and we get to the Centaurs who once again are very similar to the mind bars but Dante and and Virgil go up and they see that there's this gigantic river the river blood that the people that are violent you know these violent people are in and
• 21:30 - 22:00 there's that river of blood obviously represents the irascible temperament the idea of people having fire in their blood right it's an ancient that comes from the ancient sayings that that idea that violence is inside a blood so the Centaurs really interestingly enough here they're not conceived as demons here and they're also exempt from the punishment that people are getting the shortage is watching and there are two centaurs that are sort of becoming noticeable one is neccessity there's a
• 22:00 - 22:30 Chiron now Nesta said tempted to carry Hercules wife off which is very normal for centaur to go around and take the version of the wedding and take the burden away and try to carry her off or whatever but Hercules killed him with an arrow that was dipped in the blood of fire from a fire-breathing Hydra and then the Chiron Chiron was the wisest of centaurs especially he knew a lot about medicine music and astronomy and he was considered to be the teacher of both Hercules and Achilles you might know him
• 22:30 - 23:00 from the Percy Jackson in the movies as well that's Chiron so if you don't know it from Greek mythology I tends to be that pop-culture references make more sense these days all right so in 83 and 84 they're talking about the breasts of the Centaurs how about two nature's wedded not sort of the place of the union of the rational animal being and according to Aristotle that was the breast right
• 23:00 - 23:30 and he believed that the soul with all its powers dwells in the heart and that's the place where passion and mind struggle it out and so that's what's being referred to there by Dante and then Dante lists you know some violent people throughout time Alexander most likely Alexander the Great until the Hun and then sexist we don't know if sexist is Achilles son or maybe somebody else there's a few there's quite a few
• 23:30 - 24:00 different people that that could possibly be but they're all mentioned they're there they're violent offenders and so Dante sees them there that's basically kantos 9 through 12 we've gone from the fates and the Furies all the way now to the violent and we will be continue looking at the violent in the next videos that we see