The Witch Erichtho And The Complications In Virgil's Backstory: INFERNO, Canto IX, Lines 1 - 33
At the end of INFERNO, Canto VIII, we left our pilgrim and his guide standing outside the walls of Dis, the city of hell. Virgil appeared to be a bit afraid but putting a good face on it for Dante-the-pilgrim.Now Virgil's doubts are more pronounced. (And maybe the poet's, too.) To compensate, Virgil launches into one of the strangest moments of INFERNO, the story of his descent to the bottom of hell, conjured by the witch Erichtho, a character in Lucan's PHARSALIA.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I get to this long-awaited passage, one of my favorites in INFERNO. Virgil becomes more fictional…
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