Blow Out Your Blood

1
Blow Out Your Blood

• Feraco
• Myth to Science Fiction
• 21 November 2009

2
Canto XII Data File

• Setting The Seventh Circle, Round One
• Figures The Minotaur, Chiron, Nessus
• Allusions The Earthquake, Harrowing of Hell,
  Hercules, Achilles, Alexander the Great,
  Dionysius, Azzolino da Romano, Obizzo da Este,
  Guy de Montefort, Atilla, Sextus, Pyrrhus, Rinier
  da Cometo, Rinier Pazzo
• Punishable Sin Violence (Against Neighbors)

3
Canto XII Data File

• Summary The Poets climb down the fallen rocks
  until they encounter the Minotaur, a horrible
  monster prone to rage and violence. Virgil mocks
  him, and the poets escape when the Minotaur leaps
  about in a frenzy. They descend toward
  Phlegethon, a boiling river of blood that marks
  the beginning of the First Round of the Seventh
  Circle. Murders, tyrants, cruel warriors, bandits
  all are submerged in the blood according to the
  degree of their sin in life. Those who try to
  rise above the blood are shot with arrows by
  Centaurs, half-men/half-horse creatures who prowl
  Phlegethons banks. The Centaurs stop the poets
  at first, but Virgil convinces Chiron, their
  honorable leader, to allow them safe passage.
  Chiron sends another Centaur, Nessus, to bear
  them across Phlegethon at its shallowest point
  Nessus identifies those who were Violent Against
  Their Neighbors by name for the poets, drops them
  off, and leaves.

4
Violence Against Neighbors

• Its one thing to be violent a bad thing,
  obviously
• However, a recognizable pattern emerges as Dante
  recognizes more and more of the sinners
• Most of these arent just killers theyre
  infamous for their audacity and cruelty
• In other words, they arent simple men whose
  tempers got the best of them once or twice those
  ones head up to the Fifth Circle
• These are men who determine pre-meditatively to
  kill or destroy, and who reap profit or enjoy
  doing so

5
The Punishment

• The Violent Against Their Neighbors must stand in
  the boiling blood or risk being shot
• While it doesnt seem like an arrow would scare a
  soul that cant die, its important to remember
  that their punishment is supposed to be eternal
• The arrow wouldnt kill them, but like Cerberus
  tearing at the Gluttons, or the Wrathful tearing
  one another apart it will damage them in
  non-permanent ways that still cause considerable
  pain
• The bloods symbolism is clear youre covered in
  an amount thats proportional to the damage you
  caused during your life
• Thats why warlords like Alexander the Great
  stand up to their lashes in it they killed about
  as frequently as a man could

6
The Minotaur

• Hes the Seventh Circles Threshold Guardian and,
  as with so many of the other guardians of Dantes
  Hell, hes also a Creature of Nightmares hes
  half-man and half-bull
• The Minotaur was conceived in an act of Violence
  Against Nature, committed ritual acts of Violence
  Against Its Neighbors, and it routinely commits
  Violence Against Itself as it rages it was born
  of violence, and died violently
• It is in every way a perfect Guardian for the
  Seventh Circle

7
The Minotaur

• Minoss wife, Pasiphaë, fell in love with a white
  bull, and decided to trick it into mating with
  her
• She asked Daedalus (an inventor well hear about
  again later) to construct a wooden cow that she
  could hide inside Daedalus obliged, the bull
  fell for it, and thus was the monstrous Minotaur
  conceived
• Everyone was horrified by this unnatural creation
  (as you probably are right now), and Minos had
  Daedalus build an elaborate kind of maze the
  Labyrinth that could serve as a prison for the
  beast
• Minoss son, Androgeos, had been killed by
  Athenian citizens rather than wipe them out,
  Minos sought to teach them a lesson, and allowed
  them instead to sacrifice seven boys and seven
  girls each year to the Labyrinth. Nobody could
  escape from it not the children, and not the
  Minotaur (who would eventually devour each one)
• This continued until Ariadne (the Minotaurs
  half-sister) fell in love with Theseus (remember
  him?), one of the youths scheduled to be
  sacrificed the two plotted the latters escape.
  Armed with only a sword and a ball of thread
  (which he unspooled as he walked, Theseus heads
  for the Labyrinths center, where he slays the
  Minotaur, follows his thread back to the
  entrance, and walks out alive (a perfect parallel
  to Dantes journey through the Inferno)

8
The Centaurs

• The Centaurs upper bodies are human, but their
  lower halves are horse-like. They were often
  violent or crude figures in classic myths, and
  almost always warriors modern stories generally
  soften their portrayal
• They guard Phlegethon with that same warrior
  zeal, although their leader, Chiron, was renowned
  for his intellect as well as his courage he was
  reputed to have tutored both Hercules and
  Achilles
• Nessus, on the other hand, was killed by
  Hercules the hero trusted him to carry his wife,
  Deianira, across a river, but had to kill the
  Centaur when he tried to rape her
• He avenged his death immediately by offering his
  blood-soaked shirt to Deianira as he died,
  convincing her that it would serve as a love
  charm when she doubted Herculess devotion, she
  gave him the shirt, not realizing that Nessuss
  blood would poison him.
• The Centaurs are therefore both capable of reason
  and rage, yet another way for Dante to illustrate
  how humans have mixes of virtue and darkness
  within themselves

9
Rogues Gallery

• We see the souls as theyre described to us
  through Dantes eyes, and his reactions fairly
  neutral this will not always be true of the
  souls he encounters in the Seventh Circle
• Alexander the Great Ancient King of Macedonia
  who nearly conquered the world (as best he knew
  it)
• Dante writes favorably of him elsewhere, but
  punishes him here
• His main sources of history (such as Lucans
  Pharsalia) helped fuel Alexanders reputation as
  a cruel, bloodthirsty man who inflicted great
  harm on the world how could Dante not
  acknowledge his deeds, even if he respects him
  (as he did for Farinata and Francesca)?
• Atilla the Hun A warlord so terrible that he
  earned the nickname Scourge of God, Dante
  mistakenly believed that Atilla had been
  responsible for Florences destruction during the
  5th century (Dantes Florence had been built on
  the ruins of the old one, which Totila had
  destroyed)

10
Rogues Gallery

• Dionysius The Tyrant of Syracuse/Sicily,
  infamous for a forty-year rule during which he
  treated his citizens extremely harshly
• Ezzolino da Romano A hairy and cruel-looking
  Ghibelline, and the son-in-law of Frederick II
  he supposedly had a single long hair on his nose
  that would stand on end when he grew furious,
  driving those around him to flee
• Ezzolino was so ruthless (having burned eleven
  thousand men to death during one massacre alone)
  that Pope Alexander IV launched a crusade against
  him
• Opizzo da Este A Guelf noblemen who ruled
  several northern Italian cities with a cruel hand
  (notice the pattern?)

11
Rogues Gallery

• Guy de Montfort An English noble bent on
  avenging his fathers death, he slew his cousin
  during Mass the cousins heart was placed in a
  golden cup, where Nessus says it still rests,
  dripping blood into Phlegethon
• Pyrrhus Either one of two figures one was a
  king who invaded Italy twice in order to attack
  the Romans, while the other was the son of
  Achilles, a warrior who (according to The Aeneid)
  killed a Trojan prince in front of the royal
  family during the sacking of Troy before dragging
  the king out into public and killing him as well
• Sextus The son of Pompey (who waged war on
  Caesar in Pharsalia) who wrought havoc on Italian
  coasts, earning the nickname The Pirate of
  Sicily
• Rinier da Cometo Rinier Pazzo Famous highway
  bandits during the thirteenth century

12
Canto XIII Data File

• Setting The Seventh Circle, Round Two
• Figures The Harpies, Pier della Vigne, Arcolano
  da Siena, Jacomo da Sant Andrea, Unknown
  Florentine Suicide
• Punishable Sin Violence (Against Themselves)
• Summary The poets enter the Wood of the
  Suicides, a realm where the souls of those who
  destroyed themselves (or their substance) stand
  locked within trees where Harpies roost, eating
  and tearing at their leaves. As the Harpies feed,
  they open wounds on the trees limbs and
  leavesand the wounds spout blood. As long as the
  blood flows, the souls can speak when the wound
  seals itself, the souls voices are cut off. One
  of the trees houses the soul of Pier delle Vigne,
  a member of Frederick IIs court, and the poets
  stop to converse with him about the way the Wood
  of the Suicides operates. Then two souls, Jacomo
  and Arcolano, dash through the woods, tearing the
  foliage as their run from a pack of ravenous
  dogs. The dogs catch Jacomo, tear him to pieces,
  and run off carrying the pieces in their mouths.
  After watching the carnage, the poets realize
  that the bush that the dogs tore through to get
  at the souls is gushing blood from its wounded
  limbs, and they talk to the soul of an anonymous
  suicide trapped within it.

13
The Violent Against Themselves

• Dante defines the Violent Against Themselves as
  those who destroy either their physical forms or
  the resources they should use instead
• Those who kill themselves are trying to destroy
  the substance that God gave them, something
  thats meant to be immortal (therefore defying
  Gods will)
• The Suicides will not have their bodies returned
  to them during Judgment instead, the empty
  shells will be slung over the trees in the Wood
• In addition to those who killed themselves, Dante
  populates the Wood of the Suicides with the
  Squanderers
• Theyre similar to the Wasters/Prodigal from the
  Fourth Circle, but whereas the Prodigal simply
  spent money recklessly or needlessly, the
  Squanderers actively destroy the things theyve
  always had or have acquired (which Dante defines
  as a persons substance for the purposes of
  putting them here)

14
Suicide

• Just as Dante seemed to adopt a nuanced view of
  Lust during Canto V (even if God doesnt), he
  seems to take a similarly ambiguous stance
  towards the Suicides
• Dantes favorite writers and teachers essentially
  covered the spectrum of views regarding suicide
• Many of the classical Roman writers Dante
  respected so deeply either presented or praised
  suicide as a legitimate response to personal
  dishonor or political defeat
• Medieval Christianity, however, stated
  unequivocally that suicide was sinful
• Thomas Aquinas argued that suicide not only
  violates the self-preservation instinct God gave
  human beings, but also usurps control of life and
  death from God and Fortune (not to mention the
  nearly incalculable damage it causes to a larger
  community)
• Dante shows the Suicides real compassion, and he
  even puts others (such as Dido) in other circles
  instead its hard to tell how deeply he condemns
  them

15
The Punishment

• The Violent Against Themselves have their souls
  locked away in the Wood of the Suicides Harpies
  damage them, and theyre largely unable to speak
• Theres meaning to each element of their
  punishment, starting with their non-human form
  (they destroyed their human one, so they cant
  have any of the benefits of one)
• As a result, theyre always stationary and
  trapped, just as they were unable to escape their
  darkest urges
• Their ultimate expression was self-destruction,
  so they can now only express themselves as they
  are destroyed as Ciardi puts it, their blood
  becomes their voices
• Finally, the Harpies horrible creatures with
  the heads of women and the bodies of birds of
  prey defile or dirty everything they touch
  thus their means of expression is simultaneously
  defined as hideous and wrong

16
Pier della Vigne

• He was an accomplished poet (particularly when it
  came to sonnets) and a member of the Sicilian
  School
• As a young, well-educated, and rhetorically
  gifted young man, Pier shot through the
  governmental hierarchy until he became the judge
  and official spokesman for Frederick IIs
  imperial court (at which point, his soul implies,
  he claimed final say over Fredericks decisions)
• While he argues that he always served Frederick
  faithfully, history is split while it appears he
  was guilty of some corruption, it looks more like
  he became the victim of political enemies and
  peers who envied his access
• His story is meant to mirror Boethiuss
  Consolation of Philosophy, as Pier is given
  everything only to have it taken away bit by
  agonizing bit
• In the end, Pier cannot accept the horrible hand
  Fortune dealt him after being imprisoned and
  blinded for his supposed crimes before his
  release, Pier either smashed his head against a
  wall until he died or leapt from a window in
  order to smash into the ground beside the emperor
  he supposedly betrayed (the evidence from the end
  of his life isnt the clearest)

17
Jacomo da Sant Andrea

• Jacomo da Sant Andrea was a particularly
  notorious Squanderer who actively committed
  senseless acts of violence against his own
  property
• For example, he set fire to all of the cottages
  on his property in order to provide a welcoming
  ceremony for a group of dinner guests, or simply
  threw his money into the water during a boat ride
• Jacomo enjoyed a position of some influence he
  was the wealthiest private citizen in Padua, one
  of the cities where Ezzolino (from the First
  Round of the Seventh Circle) ruled
• In fact, Ezzolino eventually had him executed for
  his grievous wastefulness
• Hes torn apart by the dogs because he tore apart
  his resources (substance) in life

18
Arcolano da Siena

• Arcolano da Siena belonged to a group of rich
  young men called the Spendthrift Club whose
  members saw burning through money as a point of
  pride (again, different from the Prodigal, who
  simply couldnt help themselves from spending)
• Arcolano reduced himself to poverty fairly
  quickly, at which point he joined the Sienese
  military in order to deliberately court death
  (having decided that living in poverty was
  intolerable)
• When his troop appeared to be caught in an
  ambush, he could have escaped, but escape meant
  returning to the life he abandoned and facing up
  to the problems his earlier behavior had caused
• Unable to bring himself to face the consequences
  of his actions, Arcolano instead decides to let
  himself be killed by the advancing enemy (which
  is why Jacomo mocks him for running from the dogs
  now that hes dead)

19
Unknown Florentine Suicide

• The anonymous soul that Dante and Virgil discover
  in the bush thats destroyed by the dogs pursuing
  Jacomo is supposedly a citizen of Florence who
  hanged himself in his own home
• The man may actually represent Florence itself,
  at least in its original incarnation
• Midway through the fifth century, Florence
  supposedly began expressing its identity as a
  newly Christian city by tearing down the statue
  of Ares (the towns first patron) and replacing
  it with one of John the Baptist that was meant to
  symbolize Man (which the suicide mentions)
• Those of you who remember Ares, the war-god of
  Greece, can imagine that he wouldnt have been
  happy when a wave of factional violence similar
  to the one between the Guelfs and Ghibellines (or
  Blacks and Whites) tore apart the city, people
  chalked it up to the angered gods wrath
• Thus Florence brought destruction needlessly upon
  itself, a curse that (as Dante can attest) has
  never stopped destroying the citys substance
  (its people)

20
Canto XIV Data File

• Setting The Seventh Circle, Second and Third
  Rounds
• Figures Capaneus
• Allusions Old Man of Crete
• Punishable Sin Violence (here, largely Against
  God)
• Summary In a compassionate move, Dante gathers
  up the branches and leaves the dogs broke off the
  bush and re-attaches them before moving off. He
  and Virgil reach the edge of the Wood and look
  out at a Plain of Burning Sand, the terrain of
  the Seventh Circles Third Round (where well
  spend the next few Cantos). Fire rains down
  slowly from above the plain, landing on the
  sinners being punished there. The three groups,
  the Blasphemers (Violent Against God), Sodomites
  (Violent Against Nature), and Usurers (Violent
  Against Art), are punished in different ways, and
  the Blasphemers are the first the poets
  encounter. One in particular, Capaneus, still
  blasphemes God even as he lies stretched out on
  the burning sand. The poets continue walking
  along the edge of the Wood in order to avoid
  burning themselves, eventually reaching a red
  rill (a kind of river) that boils out of the wood
  and over the burning sand. Virgil seizes the
  opportunity to discuss the four rivers of Hell
  with Dante, and the Canto ends as the poets
  decide to walk along the banks of the boiling
  rill across the Third Round.

21
The Punishment

• The Blasphemers are stretched across the burning
  plain on their backs (an allusion to Capaneus,
  who youll study soon), forced to lie under the
  falling flames while being scorched by the sand
  below
• The Burning Plain of Sand represents sterility
  (using the same technique that T.S. Eliot used
  his The Waste Land), for theres no
  fertility/life without water, and even the rain
  is made of fire
• Dante seems to be arguing that nothing natural or
  positive results from any of the violence
  featured here

22
Phlegethon

• The name means river of fire, and its one of
  the four rivers of Hell (including Acheron,
  Styx, and Cocytus, which is currently frozen)
• This is the river of boiling blood that we saw in
  the first round, discovering here that it boils
  its way through the Wood and out onto the Plain
• It gets shallower and deeper as it curves
  depending on which sinner is supposed to stand in
  it
• Virgil will eventually inform Dante that this
  blood is the same stream as before, as well as
  where it originally comes from

23
Capaneus

• One of the giant warrior-kings who waged war on
  the ancient city of Thebes, Capaneus brought
  about his own demise during the attack by daring
  the gods to protect the citizens
• "Come now, Jupiter, and strive with all your
  flames against me! Or are you braver at
  frightening timid maidens with your thunder, and
  razing the towers of your father-in-law Cadmus?"
• Before he could even finish speaking, Zeus (known
  as Jupiter to the Romans) slays him with a
  thunderbolt, and he falls burning from the walls
  until he lies outstretched on his back (Dantes
  inspiration)

24
Old Man of Crete

• We spoke of the different Ages (from Golden to
  Iron) during the Gilgamesh unit, and they return
  here as personified by the Old Man of Crete
• His statue features components made out of each
  Age-associated substance his head is gold, his
  arms and chest are silver, his midsection is made
  of brass, a foot is made of clay (representing
  the Roman Catholic Church), and the rest of him
  is made of iron
• The statue is cracked, and tears flow from the
  fissure these tears form the four rivers in Hell

25
Canto XV Data File

• Setting The Seventh Circle, Third Round
• Figures Ser Brunetto Latini
• Punishable Sin Violence (Against Nature)
• Summary The poets walk along the rills banks,
  protected from the burning sand by its powers.
  They come across a group of the Violent Against
  Nature as it runs below them, and one of the
  sinners calls out to Dante. Dante recognizes him
  Ser Brunetto Latini, a writer who had mentored
  Dante even before Guido entered his life and is
  taken aback to find him here. Latini talks about
  Dante with pride, but warns him that his future
  in Florence will contain a great deal of pain.
  The Canto ends with Latinis time to speak
  expiring, and his punishment reactivates, causing
  him to skitter across the burning sand.

26
Violence Against Nature

• Raffa Dante's inclusion of sodomy--understood
  here as sexual relations between males but not
  necessarily homosexuality in terms of sexual
  orientation--is consistent with strong
  theological and legal declarations in the Middle
  Ages condemning such activities for being
  "contrary to nature." In Dante's day, male-male
  relations--often between a mature man and an
  adolescent--were common in Florence despite these
  denunciations. Penalties could include
  confiscation of property and even capital
  punishment.

27
The Punishment

• The Violent Against Nature run in wandering packs
  across the Burning Plain of Sand, usually in
  circles
• The burning sand represents the same sterility
  that it did before, as does the fire
• The endless circles are meant to symbolize the
  broken cycle of nature a life cycle that
  doubles back on itself due to a lack of
  reproduction
• The wandering behavior results from having lost
  Gods guidance

28
Ser Brunetto Latini

• One of Dantes most painful encounters in Hell
  occurs here, as he barely recognizes his old
  mentor and friend under the damage thats been
  done to him on the Burning Plain
• If Virgil doesnt want him to show much
  compassion for the sinners, he holds back here
• His work, The Little Treasure, actually hints at
  Dantes future work a first-person narrator
  discovers hell have to live in exile (the
  Ghibellines having expelled the Guelfs at this
  point), and is so upset that he lost the great
  highway and went into a strange wood before
  heading for a mountain and journeying through
  strange realms

29
Ser Brunetto Latini

• Brunetto wasnt as strong a writer as Dante would
  become, but he promoted the idea perhaps more
  than anyone before Dante, and certain since
  Cicero that eloquence only benefits society
  when blended with wisdom
• The Inferno isnt worthwhile if there arent any
  ideas at the center of its intricate structure
• Theres not actually any evidence to explain why
  Latinis in this Round he was married with
  several children
• Many commentators have tried assigning a
  substitute sin to Latini, or theorized that his
  sin was a symbolic form of Violence Against
  Nature (a pursuit of immortality for the body,
  for example)

30
Canto XVI Data File

• Setting The Seventh Circle, Third Round
• Figures Jacopo Rusticucci, Guido Guerra,
  Tegghiaio Aldobrandi
• Punishable Sin Violence (Against Nature,
  although Art is also hinted at)
• Summary The poets draw nearer to the Great
  Cliff, which hosts a waterfall that leads down to
  the Eighth Circle. Before they can reach it, they
  encounter another band of the Violent Against
  Nature three souls break away from the group
  this time to approach them. They ask Dante for
  news of Florences current condition (being
  damned, they can only see the future clearly),
  and he rages against the climate in his city.
  After the three return to their group, the poets
  reach the Cliff. Virgil pulls out a cord and
  tosses it over the edge of the cliff, and
  something huge begins flying towards them from
  below.

31
Jacopo / Guido / Tegghiaio

• Weve heard of the first and third before, as
  they were portrayed in Ciaccos final speech in
  Canto III as men who wanted to do good things and
  ended up in Hells depths anyway
• Oddly, Virgil demands that Dante teach them with
  great respect despite their sin a reversal from
  his earlier behavior
• Each of the three Jacopo, Guido, and Tegghiaio
  lived in Florence, and Dante admired their
  political sensibilities before they passed on
• Guido had helped drive the Ghibellines out of
  Florence during the final battle in 1266
• Tegghiaio tried giving the Guelfs military
  advice, yet was (foolishly) ignored during their
  defeat in 1260
• Jacopo was a colleague of Tegghiaios, having
  risen from a low class to an influential position

32
Studying Politics

• O Florence! Your sudden wealth and your upstart
• Rabble, dissolute and overweening,
• Already set you weeping in your heart!
• This doesnt conclude our political discussion so
  much as it reinforces the dark words Dantes
  heard from Ciacco, Farinato, and Latini
• Theres a weird sense of dramatic irony here not
  only do we know whats going to happen to Dante,
  but so does Dante.
• Its only Dante thats unaware of his impending
  downfall

33
Canto XVII Data File

• Setting The Seventh Circle, Third Round
• Figures Geryon
• Allusions Phaethon, Daedalus, Icarus
• Punishable Sin Violence (Against Art)
• Summary The monster from below arrives at the
  cliff Geryon, the Monster of Fraud. Virgil
  negotiates with the beast for safe passage down
  the cliff, and sends Dante to look at the Violent
  Against Art. These sinners crouch at the edge of
  the Burning Plain, separated from the shades of
  their fellow beings. Each of them wears a large
  money-purse around his neck that bears the
  coat-of-arms of his family. After seeing them, he
  quickly turns back and heads for Virgil. The
  elder poet already sits atop Geryon, and
  convinces Dante to climb on the two make a
  terrifying flight down into the Eighth Circle on
  the beasts back.

34
Violent Against Art

• Dante defines art as the crafts we draw from
  nature our industry, whether it be practical or
  creative
• To work hard and honestly while producing
  something is therefore to live in accordance with
  Nature, and Dante defines Art/Industry as
  Natures child which makes it Gods grandchild
• The Usurers (The Violent Against Art) werent
  people who burned paintings or suppressed
  expression
• Rather, they simply tried to make money without
  working for it by charging people exorbitant
  interest rates

35
Violent Against Art

• This doesnt seem like that big of a deal today
  have you tried finding a student loan? but it
  was a huge deal in Florence
• Raffa Based on Biblical passages fallen man
  must live by the sweat of his brow (Genesis
  319), Jesus' appeal to his followers to lend,
  expecting nothing in return (Luke 635)
  medieval theologians considered the lending of
  money at interest to be sinful. Thomas Aquinas,
  based on Aristotle, considered usuryto be
  contrary to nature because it is in accordance
  with nature that money should increase from
  natural goods and not from money iMtself.

36
The Punishment

• The sinners are forced to stare with tear-filled
  eyes at their purses forever
• They arent supposed to look at anything else
  because their entire existence revolved around
  chasing money-purses similar to how the
  Avaricious and Prodigal push their stones,
  although at least those sinners were dealing
  badly with their own money (whereas the Usurers
  occupy a weird place between the Avaricious and
  the Thieves)
• The crest on the purse that clearly identifies
  each sinner with his family indicates that they
  have brought dishonor to their families, quite
  possibly with their families permission
• Dante implies that these powerful families built
  their wealth on these illicit foundations, and
  are therefore undeserving of their influential
  positions in society

37
Geryon

• In classic myth, Geryon was a cruel king who was
  slain by Hercules
• Virgil chose to describe him as a three-bodied
  shade in The Aeneid, and Dante appears to have
  taken that quite literally
• The creature is a crazy mash-up of beast and
  human, with a mans head and honest face atop a
  huge, beastly body covered with pretty and
  intricate reptilian scales. He also has
  fur-covered legs and paws, with a huge, coiling
  scorpions tail finishing off his body.
• Geryons meant to be a creature of Fraud (hence
  the honest face and pretty scales masking the
  scorpions tail)

38
Geryon

• His scales are meant to recall the colorful
  patterns on a leopards hide a sign of his
  realm (hes a quasi-Threshold Guardian for the
  Eighth Circle, which houses the Sins of the
  Leopard)
• Dante mentions in Canto XVI that he actually
  tried using the cord Virgil tosses over the edge
  of the Great Cliff to catch the Leopard when it
  blocked his path, but that it was too quick for
  him here, Virgil uses it to tempt the great
  beast of Fraud out of hiding
• Geryon can also be associated with the sort of
  factual truth so wondrous that it appears to be
  false
• Some have suggested that Geryon is meant to
  recall the incredible journeys of The Divine
  Comedy itself after all, is this truth, or
  fiction?

39
Phaethon

• Dante is (somewhat realistically) completely
  terrified by his flight through Hells air
• He alludes to two earlier stories of mortals
  taking flight by unnatural means (this is
  centuries before the airplane, obviously) with
  terrible consequences
• The first is Phaethon, a figure from Ovids
  Metamorphosis who sought to confirm that he was
  the son of Apollo by seizing the sun-chariots
  reins (against his fathers advice)
• He proved unable to control the horses, and they
  scorched the sky as they tore through the
  atmosphere
• Forced to choose between saving the world and
  sparing Apollos son, Jupiter slew Phaethon with
  a thunderbolt

40
Daedalus and Icarus

• The second story an equally tragic one, and
  also from Ovids Metamorphosis involves
  Daedalus, an inventor we encountered earlier in
  the story of the Minotaur
• Daedalus and his son, Icarus, were imprisoned in
  a tall tower on the edge of the island of Crete.
  In order to escape, Daedalus collected the
  feathers of birds that flew into the tower and
  bound them with wax and thread into wings
• He built a pair for himself and a pair for
  Icarus, warning the boy that the wax would melt
  if he flew too close to the sun
• But Icarus, overcome with joy, ignores his
  fathers advice (just as Phaethon did) and
  streaks into the sky his wax melts, and the boy
  plummeted to his death in the sea before his
  father can reach him
• Daedalus is forced to soar on towards land,
  mourning his son all the way

41
In Conclusion

• The final allusions to Phaethon and Icarus serve
  as indicators that the hardest part of Dantes
  journey lies ahead, and that theres a danger in
  getting too close to the heat
• Fascinatingly, Dante continues to regard many of
  the Circles denizens with either sympathy or
  pity, and Virgil no longer seems to mind not at
  all what one would expect from someone traveling
  through the land of Violence
• Now on to the final sin Fraud