Shows / Walking With Dante
Walking With Dante
Ever wanted to read Dante's Divine Comedy? Come along with us! We're not lost in the scholarly weeds. (Mostly.) We're strolling through the greatest work (to date) of Western literature. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I take on this masterpiece passage by passage. I'll give you my rough English translation, show you some of the interpretive knots in the lines, let you in on the 700 years of commentary, and connect Dante's work to our modern world. The pilgrim comes awake in a dark wood, then…
Episodes
- Walking With Dante
The Old Man Of Crete PART TWO--Sewing The Canto Back Together: Inferno, Canto XIV, Lines 94 - 120
Canto XIV of Dante's INFERNO is often seen as a misstep. Or at least an uneasy two-parter. First, there's Capaneus on the burning sands. Then there's this…
- Walking With Dante
The Old Man Of Crete PART ONE--A Statue Rises From Four Other Texts: Inferno, Canto XIV, Lines 94 - 120
We come to one of the strangest moments in INFERNO. While Virgil may have claimed that stream burbling out of the wood of the suicides was the most astonishing…
- Walking With Dante
Dante Calmly Tells The Tale And Virgil Makes A Wild Claim: Inferno, Canto XIV, Lines 76 - 93
We've left Capaneus spread eagle on the burning sands and have begun to pass into this hellish desert-on-fire--that is, the third ring of the seventh circle of…
- Walking With Dante
Blaspheming Against Jove Smack In The Middle Of A Christian Poem: Inferno, Canto XIV, Lines 43 - 78
Finally, a blasphemer. A monk who wrote a heretical treatise? A priest who tainted orthodoxy? A run-of-the-mill atheist?Nope. A classical figure out of…
- Walking With Dante
It's Snowing Fire And You're Naked: Inferno, Canto XIV, Lines 19 - 42
We now get a fuller glimpse of the third ring of the seventh circle of hell, of inferno, in this passage that lays out the ranks of the damned before us and…
- Walking With Dante
Welcome To The Arid Plains Of The Blasphemers: Inferno, Canto XIV, Lines 1 - 18
Here's a fascinating opening passage of a canto--breaking over from the previous one, including quirky rhetorical techniques, showing us classical references…
- Walking With Dante
Further Questions About Inferno, Canto XIII
On this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE, I'm headed toward the mail bag--or maybe the email bag--to look at three questions from listeners. These questions have…
- Walking With Dante
One Last Suicide, One Last Irony, One Last Intertextuality: Inferno, Canto XIII, Lines 127 - 151
A bush has been torn apart by a crazed squanderers and black dogs. But it's got something to say, too, just like Pier delle Vigne.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as…
- Walking With Dante
The Limits Of Credulity In A Poem About The Afterlife: Inferno, Canto XIII, Lines 109 - 126
Pier may have stopped speaking--Virgil and Dante, our pilgrim, aren't sure--but he doesn't carry on because through the underbrush crash two naked souls, all…
- Walking With Dante
Sorrows And Windows For Sorrow: Inferno, Canto XIII, Lines 79 - 108
Pier seemed to have come to a conclusion in his last speech with Virgil and our pilgrim, Dante. But he's clearly not done. Prompted by Dante, Virgil asks the…
- Walking With Dante
The Third Great Sinner of Hell, Pier delle Vigne: Inferno, Canto XIII, Lines 46 - 78
Dante, our pilgrim, has done as Virgil instructed: he's torn a branch off a bramble, only to have it spit blood and air--and words!The bush is the soul of one…
- Walking With Dante
Maybe You Can't Trust Those Old Roman Poets: Inferno, Canto XIII, Lines 1 - 45
Nessus has dropped our pilgrim, Dante, off on the other side of the river where he and Virgil step into a gloomy wood with thorns rather than fruit, twisted…
- Walking With Dante
Getting Ready For Canto XIII Of Dante's Inferno
Without a doubt, Canto XIII of INFERNO is one of the most astounding in the enter canticle of pain. It ranks up there with Canto V and the lustful, with X and…
- Walking With Dante
At Long Last, The Violent Appear: Inferno, Canto XII, Lines 103 - 139
INFERNO, Canto XII, comes to its conclusion with a "zoo" of those who have been violent against others, including Alexander the Great (perhaps), Attila the Hun…
- Walking With Dante
Astride a Centaur: Inferno, Canto XII, Lines 76 - 102
In INFERNO, the question of our pilgrim's corporeality continues to dog us (and perhaps the poet). Is the pilgrim in his body? Is this "merely" a dream…
- Walking With Dante
The Centaurs--A Rider Without A Horse Or A Horse Without A Rider: Inferno, Canto XII, Lines 49 - 75
We've come to the river of blood in the seventh circle of INFERNO, the first ring of the violent--and we don't meet any sinners. Instead, we meet the…
- Walking With Dante
More On Virgil's Life Outside Of Comedy: Inferno, Canto XII, Lines 31 - 48
In this passage from INFERNO, Virgil offers us (and the pilgrim, Dante) more of a glimpse into his last trek to the bottom of hell. Here, he tells us that…
- Walking With Dante
This Way To The Violent, Down The Slope, Past The Minotaur: Inferno, Canto XII, Lines 1 - 30
Virgil has finished his lesson on the geography of hell, he's answered the pilgrim's two questions, and we're back to the start of Canto XI, only at the start…
- Walking With Dante
Too Many Footnotes and Not Enough Time to Reflect
At the end of INFERNO Canto XI, we've already come a long with our pilgrim Dante. We've also encountered lots of moments that need explanation and lots of…
- Walking With Dante
Usury + Violence = A Theory Of Art: INFERNO, Canto XI, Lines 91 - 114
Our pilgrim, Dante, dares to ask Virgil a second question. This one's harder. So much so that even Virgil seems hesitant.Why is usury punished so far down in…
- Walking With Dante
Virgil, Your Map Of Hell Needs Work: INFERNO, Canto XI, Lines 67 - 90
Most of INFERNO Canto XI is taken up with Virgil's "mappa inferno." The old poet claims he's laying it out with "clear reasoning."But maybe not, because our…
- Walking With Dante
The Greatest Sin Isn't Pride--It's Fraud: INFERNO, Canto XI, Lines 52 - 66
We've left the seven deadly sins behind. We got through lust, gluttony, avarice, and wrath, then dumped sloth, envy, and pride in favor of heresy, violence…
- Walking With Dante
The Sins Of Violence Explained (Sort Of): INFERNO, Canto XI, Lines 28 - 51
Virgil begins to detail his mappa mundi--or perhaps his mappa inferno--with a longer look at the seventh circle of hell, the next we'll encounter.He's already…
- Walking With Dante
Mapping the Uncharted at the Beginning of the Age of Discovery: INFERNO, Canto XI, Lines 16 - 27
Settled in the shade of the tomb for a heretic pope, Dante hears Virgil's first take on the nature of lowest hell: malice, injury, the heart of evil itself…
- Walking With Dante
The Dazzle of Beatrice, The Stench Of Hell: INFERNO, Canto X, Line 121b, through Canto XI, Lines 15
Our pilgrim leaves Farinata's and Cavalcante's tomb hesitantly. Something about his encounter with the heretics is so profound, it stops the forward momentum…
- Walking With Dante
Where Is My Son? A Thematic And Structural Overview Of INFERNO, Canto X
Why is Farinata in the sixth circle of the heretics in hell? And why is he damned in the first place?The answers may lie in the structure of Canto X of…
- Walking With Dante
Repenting To A Heretic: INFERNO, Canto X, Lines 94 - 121a
We finish our time with Farinata with a discussion that gets stranger by the minute. There's definitely a camaraderie between our pilgrim and this Ghibelline…
- Walking With Dante
How To Be Human And How To Quit Being Human: INFERNO, Canto X, Lines 73 - 93
After out time with Cavalcante, that passage about human loss and suffering, we now return to Farinata, our Greco-Roman statue--who becomes less so over the…
- Walking With Dante
Poetic Rivalry And Poetic Guilt: INFERNO, Canto X, Lines 52 - 72
In this passage from INFERNO, our poet (and our pilgrim) comes face to face with the suffering he caused. It takes a brave writer to face his fears head on.A…
- Walking With Dante
The Second Great Sinner Of Hell, Farinata degli Uberti: INFERNO, Canto X, Lines 22 - 51
Rising out of the burning sarcophagus and pulling himself upright, Farinata confronts our pilgrim by interrupting Virgil.This is no ordinary encounter with the…
- Walking With Dante
Cosmic Battles And Interpersonal Squabbles: INFERNO, Canto X, Lines 1 - 21
Well within the sixth circle of hell, we haven't yet seen any of the damned. Instead, Dante, our pilgrim, and Virgil, his guide, are picking their way along a…
- Walking With Dante
Straight On, Then Right For The Burning Tombs Of The Heretics: INFERNO, Canto IX, Lines 107 - 133
Finally, we're done with the fifth circle of hell, with the wrathful (and the sullen) and all that happens before the gates of Dis.Curiously, we're also done…
- Walking With Dante
Saved At Last . . . By Mercury, Jesus, The Archangel Michael, Someone: INFERNO, Canto IX, Lines 64 - 106
How long have we been standing with the pilgrim and his guide in front of the walls of Dis? For ten episodes of this podcast!Now comes salvation . . . in the…
- Walking With Dante
How Much Classical Imagery Can One Poem Take? INFERNO, Canto IX, Lines 34 - 63
This passage is surely the densest thicket of classical allegory we've yet encountered in INFERNO. The references are so heavy and quickly applied that the…
- Walking With Dante
An Interpolated Episode: Did Dante Intend All These Interpretive Games In COMEDY?
We danced around with the witch Erichtho quite a bit in the last episode with seven interpretive stances toward and over her. (That is, seven possible ways she…
- Walking With Dante
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…
- Walking With Dante
Being Human, Even In Hell: INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 97 - 130
Virgil goes off to confer with the demons who slam shut the gates of Dis, shutting our pilgrim out in the fifth circle of INFERNO with no way forward.But…
- Walking With Dante
The Walls Of Dis, Virgil's Limits, and Our Poet's Folly: INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 64 - 96
Our pilgrim, Dante and his guide, Virgil, have made it across Styx, leaving behind Filippo Argenti and the wrathful/sullen. Our main characters have now come…
- Walking With Dante
An Angry Pilgrim Among The Angry Sinners: INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 31 - 63
We've been through some dramatic passages: dark woods, wild beasts, Francesca, and Cerberus. But nothing rivals the crossing of (river? swamp?) Styx in the…
- Walking With Dante
Consider The Plot: An Overview Of INFERNO's Fifth Circle Of Wrath
In almost every episode of WALKING WITH DANTE, we take a passage from (so far) INFERNO and analyze it, talk through it, and look at some of the interpretive…
- Walking With Dante
Dante, The Poet Between The Classical And Modern Worlds: INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 7 - 30
The fifth circle of INFERNO: wrath (and its counterpart to come).We may or may not be over a break in the poem. Boccaccio thought so. Many modern scholars do…
- Walking With Dante
An Interpolated Episode: Nothing In Dante's Hand, Or A Brief History Of COMEDY's Manuscripts
In this interpolated episode, I want to give you a brief history of the manuscript of COMEDY. None exists in Dante's own hand. So how do we trust what we…
- Walking With Dante
Hell's Biggest Crack Is In The Poetry, Not The Landscape: INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 1 - 6
With the wrathful, COMEDY seems to back up and start over. Although Boccaccio had a story to explain this break, its rationale may be more in terms of the the…
- Walking With Dante
On To The Wrathful, Sort Of: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 97 - 130
Here's something new: a descent from one ring to another within a single canto.Our pilgrim and Virgil scramble down to find themselves on the shore of Styx…
- Walking With Dante
O, Fortuna: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 67 - 96
Dante wants to know why some people have it good and some, bad. Virgil, seemingly impatient, sets into his sermon on the goddess Fortune who controls this…
- Walking With Dante
Fate And The Cracks In Dante's Poetry: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 36 - 66
We finally get a glimpse at the hoarders and the wasters, the avaricious and the prodigal. They're mostly clergy, from run-of-the-mill clerics all the way up…
- Walking With Dante
Jousting With Greedy Plutus: INFERNO, Canto VII, Lines 1 - 35
We descend a level of hell and 'come to the "il gran nemico," the great enemy: Plutus.But why is he so great if he makes babbles nonsense and is easily…
- Walking With Dante
Virgil Gets The Apocalypse Wrong: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 94 - 115
Ciacco has fallen back into the muck, never to be seen again--at least not until the last judgment.As the pilgrim and Virgil start to descend to the fourth…
- Walking With Dante
The Bloodbath That Was, Is, And Will Be Florence: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 58 - 93
In the last passage, Ciacco the glutton seemed to have come to a halt in his conversation. But our pilgrim has not had enough. He prompts this damned shade for…
- Walking With Dante
The Curious Case Of Ciacco: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 34 - 57
In the third circle of hell, our pilgrim finds an emblematic glutton, Ciacco. This strange soul offers us a few problems. He mixes gluttony with another sin…
- Walking With Dante
Wide Awake With Cereberus: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 1 - 33
Our pilgrim wakes up in the weather of the third circle of hell: hail, rain, and snow, making the ground a rancid swamp.But wait, wakes up? How'd he get…
- Walking With Dante
The Case For Francesca: INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 88 - 142
Francesca has long been a subject of fierce debate. By the mid-nineteenth century, she had been turned into an almost Byronic hero.Maybe the truth of the…
- Walking With Dante
The Case Against Francesca: INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 88 - 142
Dante, our pilgrim, calls the two who are light on the winds of lust to float down to him. When they arrive, he gets more than he bargained for. Francesca…
- Walking With Dante
Damning Lust, Then Confusing It With Love: INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 52 - 87
The pilgrim, Dante, has just asked his guide who is tossed in lust's whirlwind.Virgil answers with a list of the "greats" out on the wind: figures from…
- Walking With Dante
The Lush Poetry Of The Lustful: INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 25 - 51
Our pilgrim, Dante, turns from Minos to discover the hellish hurricane that's the punishment of lustful.It's hard to miss the lush language in this passage…
- Walking With Dante
An Interpolated Episode: An Introduction to the Seven Deadly Sins
Seven deadly sins: They almost seem like a cliché these days. But here they are: lust, gluttony, sloth, avarice, anger, pride, and envy.It wasn't always so in…
- Walking With Dante
Minos, The Connoisseur Of Sin: INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 1 - 24
We've walked to the second circle of hell, where the winds of lust howl. But not yet. First, we must meet a connoisseur of sin: Minos. He determines your…
- Walking With Dante
An Interpolated Episode: A Look Back At The First Four Cantos of INFERNO
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I look back over the first four cantos of INFERNO with an overview of where we've been and a discussion of the structure of the…
- Walking With Dante
Cataloguing The Greats You Know And The Ones You Wish You Knew: INFERNO, Canto IV, Lines 115 - 151
Our pilgrim, Dante, gets to a vantage point where he can look across the "enameled" green to see the crowd gathered in and around Limbo's castle. He then lists…
- Walking With Dante
The Great Poets Of Limbo: INFERNO Canto IV, Lines 85 - 114
We follow our pilgrim, Dante, into Limbo. He sees four great shades coming toward him: Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. They welcome Virgil back and do…