So, I did end up utilizing Allen Mandelbaum’s translation of the Inferno. So far, I think I might prefer it over Hollander. Some of the supplements I used was 100 Days of Dante’s videos (and where I get these questions for reflections from!) and Colombia University’s Digital Dante to help answer some of the questions, citations are added at the end of the post. I’m hoping to keep up with reading the cantos 3x/week! Please let me know what you all think!
Read more: 100 Days of Dante: Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy – Inferno: Canto 7Questions for Reflection
Why would Dante the poet start this canto with Pluto inscrutable gibberish?
Dante the poet starts the canto with the words: “Pape Satan, Pape Satan aleppe!”/ so Plutus, with his grating voice, began”. While critics have never conclusively had an idea on what the first line of canto 7 means, you could infer that Plutus is admiring Satan and worshiping him – invoking him like many epic poets utilized the muses. It’s like Plutus is saying that Satan is the first pope of God, or at least one that ends up in hell that Plutus is willing to worship. For example, “Pape Satan, Pape Satan” is two repetition, and it’s striking because it has you pay attention to those two words. “Pape” could possibly mean “father” like in papa, papi, or “pape” as in “pope” in French can mean pope according to Cambridge Dictionary. “Aleppe” could be a reference to “aleph” the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Plutus is putting Satan first and invocating him in a way that servants of the Lord invoke Him to help them. As we later learn in the canto, there are a decent number of popes who ended up in the circle of greed that Plutus leads the punishment of due to avariciousness. Plutus, being a classical god of the dead and wealth, would be seen as bearing the sin of avariciousness as do many people.
Why do you think the circle of the avaricious (greedy) has the most sinners in it? How might this be connected to the she-wolf of canto 1.94-102?
At the beginning of the lecture, Dr. Easterling mentions that “Incontinence literally means not contained or not constrained and it refers to people who practice no restraint; who live lives of greed, avarice, lust, and other sins of excessive human appetite.” As she continues through the lecture, she mentions that the she-wolf “whose frightening ravenousness may symbolize such incontinence”, and incontinence can lead to greedy/avariciousness. Many people are naturally greedy – they want more and more. Many temper it down, but some do not, and so those who give into their greed end up in hell in the circle of greed here in Dante’s Inferno. There is always something that a person wants, something that they have an appetite for. As Dr. Easterling remarks, having an appetite is part of being a human, and “thus sinful excesses of such appetites are also natural though also damnable.” It’s easy to give into avariciousness and with an appetite being naturally human, it would lead to many sinners of avaricious so the circle of greed would have a lot of sinners in it.
Why would Dante include two sins—hoarding and squandering—in this ring? How are they both forms of the sin of greed? Why does Dante the poet deny us as readers knowledge of their individual identities?
First, let’s look at what hoarding and squandering mean. Hoarding, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, means, “the compulsion to continually accumulate a variety of items that are often considered useless or worthless by others accompanied by an inability to discard the items without great distress” and squandering means “to spend extravagantly or foolishly; to lose (something, such as an advantage or opportunity) through negligence or inaction”. Hoarding is a form of greed because one cannot part with what they’re keeping and continually adds to whatever they’re keeping otherwise, they face a great deal of distress. Squandering is a form of greed by spending frivolously or losing an opportunity through negligence. It’s a case of misers and prodigals as Barolini notes: “In Inferno 7, Dante treats both kinds of excess in wealth management and both are sins: holding onto wealth too much (avarice) and holding onto wealth too little (prodigality) are equally sinful. Both forms of excess constitute a lack of misura, a lack of moderation or continence.”
Dante denies the reader knowledge of their individual identities because they’re so full of greed, he cannot recognize them without the help of Virgil, who only points out some of the inhabitants of this circle.
Notice the inclusion of Lady Fortuna in line 62-96. Who is she and how does she govern human lives and experiences? What should our relationship as humans be to her rule? How does she contrast with Pluto?
Dante the pilgrim questions who Lady Fortuna is: “What’s she, who clutches so all the world’s goods?” (line 69), and Virgil replies: “He [GOD] ordained a general minister and guide / to shift, from time to time, those empty goods / from nation unto nation, clan to clan, / in ways that human reason can’t prevent” (lines 77-79). Lady Fortuna is a result of God’s will to administer goods to his creations. Originally a classical goddess, Lady Fortuna’s blindness led credibility to showing that fortune is blind and that good and bad things can happen randomly as she is personified as a being of luck and fortune.
As humans, we cannot go against Lady Fortuna due to her being a result of God’s will, which is clarified when Virgil continues: “Your knowledge cannot stand against her force; / for she foresees and judges and maintains / her kingdom as the other gods do theirs. / The changes that she brings are without respite: / it is necessity that makes her swift; / and for this reason, men change state so often. / She is the one so frequently maligned / even by those who should give praise to her— / they blame her wrongfully with words of scorn. / But she is blessed and does not hear these things; / for with the other primal beings, happy, / she turns her sphere and glories in her bliss.” (lines 85-96). Lady Fortuna will do as she foresees and judges, and as humans, we are simply to accept it even if we blame her for our misfortunes.
Lady Fortuna contrasts with Plutus in that Fortuna is a result of God and is a primal being happy by God’s side. Plutus, on the other hand, worships Satan and thus is a being of hell rather than paradise like Lady Fortuna. Dante remakes a classical goddess into a worshipper of God but keeps a classical god as a worshipper of the devil.
What are the two different forms of wrath that Dante introduces in lines 109-126 and what do they reveal about the nature of unholy anger?
The two different forms of wrath that Dante introduces are the “muddied people in that slime, / all naked and their faces furious” who are now “bitter in the blackened mud” so upon the dry shore though in mud/slime, and the other form is indicated when Virgil points out that there are people in the swamp that “underneath the water there are souls / who sigh and make this plain of water bubble, / as your eye, looking anywhere, can tell.” (Lines 110-111, 118-120, 124). Sinners of the first form of wrath attacked each other and tore at one another as a matter of rabid wrath meanwhile anger has defeated the ones in the water so they can only hymn and not say full words as melancholy. These reveal that wrath is divided into two forms – one that is violent in punishment, and one that is suffering but non-violent against one another. Regardless of how violent the sinners of wrath commit, as long as they remain unrepentant of the wrath in them, they’ll forever suffer in their misery.
Citation:
Barolini, Teodolinda. “Inferno 7: Aristotle and Wealth, with a Note on Cecco d’Ascoli.” Commento Baroliniano, Digital Dante. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2018. <https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/inferno/inferno-7/>
“Inferno Canto 7 with Dr. Heather Easterling.” Youtube, uploaded by 100daysofdante, 6 Sept. 2023. <https://100daysofdante.com/canto-videos-listing.>
Inquisitive Muse 