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
Virgil's (Mis)Understanding Of The Harrowing Of Hell: INFERNO, Canto IV, Lines 46 - 84
Our pilgrim and Virgil begin to walk across Limbo, surely the largest surface in hell since its the uppermost ring. In fact, it's at first like a plain or…
- Walking With Dante
An Interpolated Episode: Limbo Unraveled
Limbo is the first circle of INFERNO . . . although that statement already presents a problem. How can Limbo be in hell? Isn't it a state somewhere between the…
- Walking With Dante
Welcome To Virgil's Home Turf: INFERNO, Canto IV, Lines 1 - 45
Along with our pilgrim and Virgil, we take the first steps into the first circle of hell, the "real deal" of INFERNO.As you might imagine, we encounter some…
- Walking With Dante
When Crossing Acheronte Into The First Ring Of Hell, Don't Faint: INFERNO, Canto III, Lines 109 - 136
We finish canto III of INFERNO, standing on the shores of Acheronte, the river that forms the border of the first rings of inner hell.Charon is busy with this…
- Walking With Dante
Charon, The Pagan Ferryman Of The Christian Damned: INFERNO, Canto III, Lines 70 - 108
We step out of the foyer and enter the second part of Canto III of INFERNO: the part about the storied Charon, the ferryman on Acheronte (or Acheron), as well…
- Walking With Dante
Sometimes, You Get The Hell You Want: INFERNO, Canto III, Lines 22 - 69
Our pilgrim, Dante, and his guide, Virgil, walk beyond hell's entrance to encounter, well, the sort of hell we thought we were going to get all along. Maybe…
- Walking With Dante
Abandon Hope For It's The Gate Of Hell: INFERNO, Canto III, Lines 1 - 21
We follow our pilgrim and his guide, Virgil, on their first steps into hell. Let's pause with these two at the gate of hell with its famous inscription…
- Walking With Dante
Bested By Beatrice, Bested By Virgil: INFERNO, Canto II, Lines 115 - 141
Beatrice has bested Virgil. Virgil has bested Dante, our pilgrim.Dante can do nothing else except set off across the universe.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we…
- Walking With Dante
To Be Saved, Tell A Story: INFERNO, Canto II, Lines 76 - 114
Where's Dante, our pilgrim? Not in this passage! He's fallen out of his own poem as Virgil and Beatrice engage in their rhetorical battle.And where's hell, the…
- Walking With Dante
Jousting To Tell The Tale: INFERNO, Canto II, Lines 43 - 75
After Dante confesses his unworthiness in the opening of Canto II of INFERNO, Virgil clarifies the matter. "You're not modest. You're a coward."Then Virgil…
- Walking With Dante
False Modesty (Or Maybe Not): INFERNO, Canto II, Lines 1 - 42
We thought we were underway, but important things must happen first. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we start the Canto II of INFERNO to discover that the our…
- Walking With Dante
An Interpolated Episode: A Look Back At INFERNO, Canto I, And Look Around The Entire Poem
Let's pause to look back over INFERNO, Canto I. I'll read it through for its scope and arc. Then we'll set about exploring this piece of architecture, not just…
- Walking With Dante
Virgil The Poet Becomes Virgil The Prophet: INFERNO, Canto I, Lines 97 - 136
In a previous episode, I talked about how Dante defines Virgil as a poet, not a philosopher, and why that was important in Dante's medieval context.But there's…
- Walking With Dante
Virgil To The Rescue: INFERNO, Canto I, Lines 67 - 96
We meet the pilgrim Dante's first and great guide, the Roman poet Virgil. He is the pilgrim's master, his "author." Except he's also Virgil, a guy who has a…
- Walking With Dante
Wild Beasts On The Slope And The Slide Into Despair: INFERNO, Canto I, Lines 28 - 66
Dante begins his journey across the known universe--except not. The journey stops almost the moment it begins in COMEDY.What happens when you set off in a new…
- Walking With Dante
Climbing Away From The Turbulence In The Lake Of The Heart: INFERNO, Canto I, Lines 10 - 27
Our pilgrim, Dante, comes awake in a dark wood. Now what? He has to walk out. But to where? And how?This fourth episode of WALKING WITH DANTE is actually the…
- Walking With Dante
An Interpolated Episode: Who was Dante?
Who was Dante? Actually, that's two questions in one. First, how did this hard-working if not formerly brilliant poet and would-be politician from a rather…
- Walking With Dante
Finding Ourselves Lost In A Dark Wood: INFERNO, Canto I, Lines 1 - 9
We take the first steps with our pilgrim, Dante, as he finds himself in a dark wood and starts his walk . . . through hell? No, across the known universe.He's…
- Walking With Dante
An Introduction To The Podcast WALKING WITH DANTE
An introduction to the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE.I'm Mark Scarbrough, a former academic and working author.This podcast is my passion project: to take Dante's…