I’m finally back! There was a lot of things that happened in the past two years including many family members and friends passing. So now that the 100 Days of Dante is starting again, I find it appropriate that it’s something I want to tackle after everything that I’ve gone through in recent years. Hope you all enjoy!

I’m still using the Hollander translation of Dante’s Inferno, but thinking of changing to Allen Mandelbaum as I recently found my hardcover edition of Mandelbaum’s The Divine Comedy. So will probably switch either after this Canto or after I’m finished the next two Cantos for this week.

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Questions for Reflections:

• The circle of gluttony is guarded over by the mythic beast Cerberus. Why might Dante include creatures from pagan mythology in this Christian poem? Does this reveal anything about how Dante imagines the relationship between Christian truth and pagan thought?

Dante might include creatures from pagan mythology in this Christian poem because it follows along with what has already been written to include people and beings of the classical age. For example, Virgil is his guide, who was a pagan author of one of the most lasting classical works that has survived – the Aeneid. Christianity came about during the later classical age and spread widely once Emperor Constantine made Christianity Rome’s national religion. In a way, it does blend Christian truth and pagan thought as it doesn’t erase what came before Christianity became the dominant religion and ties it together with the Christianity of Dante’s day. By utilizing pagan creatures in hell, it also emphasizes the idea that pagan thought belongs in hell while righteous Christians like Beatrice belong in Heaven.

• How does Cerberus perversely parody the Christian picture of God as Trinity?

The trinity is made of three parts: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Cerberus is a perverse parody of the Christian picture of God as Trinity with the Cerberus having three heads. Cerberus is also the pagan creature utilized in the circle of Gluttony as if he’s in charge of dealing out punishment, so even more so he is a parody of a godlike figure.

• What does Dante’s depiction of Cerberus and the contrapasso of foul weather suggest about the nature of the sin of gluttony? Why would Dante the poet depict the punishment of gluttony as the most “displeasing” (“spiacente”) of all of the punishments in hell?

According to Hollander, Cerberus is a fierce and monstrous beast who uses his claws to flay and quarter spirits. Dante mentions that he is in the third circle of which it’s “of eternal, / hateful rain, cold and leaden, / changeless in its monotony. Heavy hailstones, filthy water, and snow / pour down through the gloomy air. / The ground it falls on reeks.” (Lines 7-12). These descriptions possibly reveals that the nature of the sin of gluttony is cold and beastly with it never changing. People who are in this circle of hell becomes unrecognizable due to the punishment they’re suffering – it blots them from Dante’s memories. Living in terrible weather sucks, but it’s worse when you can’t even acknowledge it by your human self. Ciacco, when seeing Dante, becomes human for a moment, but once he’s done talking to Dante, he falls back into a trance where it’s like he’s only functioning but no real human feelings dwell in him besides suffering from punishment.

• Why does Dante the poet connect the punishment of gluttony to the discussion with Ciacco about the politics of the city of Florence? Is there a relationship between gluttony and political decay?

Perhaps because due to gluttony, the political rivalry in Florence got out of control, so Dante the poet connects gluttony to the discussion with Ciacco about Florentine politics. When people want what they don’t have, it can lead to terrible things if they let that glutinous want get out of control. This situation may have fed into the animosity of the White and Black Guelph factions where the Black Guelphs wanted what the White faction had, which ultimately led to the political decay that leads Dante to exile and never return. Envy has laid rot to Florence as the sin of gluttony kept building.

• How do lines 103-111 treat the spiritual bodies of the damned? Will their torment be lessened or heightened at the resurrection of the body? What does this claim reveal about the nature of divine justice as it is exercised in hell?

The spiritual bodies of the damned will experience more pain as they become closer to perfection at the resurrection of the body. This claim reveals that the nature of divine justice as it is exercised in hell will be everlasting as long as they’ve not received mercy from God to move to Paradise. In the words of Christ: “Depart from me, you cursed ones, into everlasting fire” (Matth. 25:41). As long as sinners refuse to repent and God shows them no mercy, it will be eternal punishment even at the time of the resurrection.