Contagion, Fraud, And The Fall Of Civilizations: INFERNO, Canto XXX, Lines 1 - 33
We've come to the most complex opening of any canto in INFERNO. Canto XXX opens with two, long allusions about the tragedy of Thebes and Troy, both of which morph into similes for the damned, a medieval literary tour de force.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we stick around the final of the evil pouches (the "malebolge") of fraud, the eighth circle of Dante's INFERNO. We're almost done with fraud, but Dante saves the best for last: a canto that's part funny, part horrific, part repulsive, and part elegant. In other words, the heights of the poet's art.Here are the segments for this episode of…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.