Hi everyone! I’m late with this post as I was struggling with the reflection questions (still am!) but I did my best. Enjoy!
Questions for Reflection
The sixth circle of hell is dedicated to the punishment of Heresy, a vice of the intellect and the will: it is obstinacy in error. There Dante meets the souls of the Epicurean philosophers who live eternally in burning tombs for having denied the immortality of the soul. Why would this intellectual vice be the first (even foundational) sin for the city of Dis?
The sin of heresy was strong around the time of Dante as religion had a stronghold on the populace, so if you didn’t go along with religion, in particular, Christianity, you’re going to the first circle of the lower circles of hell. It’s a vice of the intellect and the will because those in particular tended to be secular compared with those with lesser education. For example, in the modern world such as in the US, those who had a high school diploma or less believed in God with absolute certainty at 66% compared to those with post-graduate degree at 52% while only 6% of those with a high school diploma or less didn’t believe in God compared to 15% of those with a postgraduate degree (Educational Distribution). The more education one got, the more uncertain of God they became. This intellectual vice would be the first and even foundational sin for the city of Dis because it is the beginning of the lower circle of hell, which shows that it’s a sin that weighs heavily upon one’s soul, and the fallen angels reflect the idea of rebelling against God by two ways to do so: by one’s intellect and will. The heavenly messenger was the one that needed to open the gates of the city of Dis, so the beginning of the lower levels of hell have more of a Christian touch to it. While those like Epicurus and his followers are found in the circle of heresy as people from classical times, the beings of hell that guarded the city of Dis were fallen angels. The fallen angels that accompanied Lucifer in the battle against Heaven and were tossed down set up the foundation of evil, and that rebellion against God can be seen reflected in the heresy of not believing in him or thinking like Epicurus that the goal of human life is pleasure, so like the fallen angels who rebelled, they did so upon their pleasure and not on the word of God.
To look upon some found in the circle of Heresy, there are Epicurus and his followers and other people like the two Florentines Farinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti along with the mention of Frederick II and Cardinal. Epicurus believed that the “supreme goal of human life is pleasure. The word ‘Epicurean’ described those who lived only for the pleasures of this life, as if there were no afterlife, thus effectively denying the doctrine that the human soul is immortal. For Dante, this heresy, which would deprive the Comedy of its entire foundation, was the most foolish and damnable of all, as it contradicted the teachings of the Bible, the Greek and Roman philosophers, and the world’s other religions of the Jews, Muslims, and Tartars [Convivio]. Eternal imprisonment in tombs is a particularly suitable punishment for those who believed that life ended with the earth and burial of the body (line 15).” (565). The lack of believing that the human soul is immortal only to end up imprisoned in tombs is a suitable punishment for those in the sixth circle. If they don’t believe in the afterlife, their human soul which in the Divine Comedy is immortal, remains in the sepulcher that they were buried in when they died on earth.
How, by way of contrast with the damned we encounter in this canto, does believing in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body grant the human person an eternal dignity that can and should be reflected in our shared life together?
Believing in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body grants the human believer an eternal dignity as a believer of those things and of God leads them to eternal life after the resurrection done so by God. There will be no sadness, no punishment, no death – only joy and happiness thanks to God who we’d worship for eternity. This is in contrast to those in the circle of heresy where they’re forced to be in tombs as their punishment, and they do not enjoy life presently compared to those who were saved and resurrected by God. They’re forced to remain in sepulchers although they can rise up from it when encountering people like Dante, which is extremely rare, but otherwise, it’s like remaining in eternal sleep in a box. They lived out their present lives on earth, but in the afterlife, it’s almost like they cease to exist besides remembering the past and knowing there is nothing for them after the final end of days and subsequent resurrection. Beyond that, as Barolini notes: “the contrapasso for heresy – burial within tombs in the city of Dis – is a troping of death itself, suggesting that somehow these souls are “more dead” than the other dead souls (Barolini)”. There will be no eternal dignity for them. They’re to suffer in the sepulchers until their second death.
For Dante, sin involves some kind of distortion, disordering, or misapplication of love. The loves of the damned are often good things, but good things that have been bent out of shape and have become disproportionate to justice, often squeezing God out of the picture. How does Farinata’s patriotism and Cavalcante’s filial love, together with their heretical beliefs, contribute to their damnation? If the soul dies with the body, what does that mean for political and familial relationships?
Love can be a good thing, but there is too much of a good thing. We see this in the circle of Lust, where Franchesca and Paolo’s love gets distorted into incestrous lust. So, in this case, Farinata’s patriotism together with his heretical beliefs contribute to his damnation because it is too much. Same with Calvalcante’s filial love as it is filled with pride for his son, a pride so strong that he believed his son to make it to Heaven rather than be in hell, so much pride that together with his heretical beliefs, contribute to his damnation. If the soul dies with the body, it means that for political and familial relationships that the soul will remember the past, but are unable to create present and near future memories. They’re trapped into the past until their destruction by being thrown into the lake of fire, which is foretold in Revelation 20.
The damned can know the past and the future but they don’t know the present. According to Mary Carruthers, the souls in Inferno cannot form new memories because they are deprived of their (physical) bodies; the damned are stuck in their “recollected pasts.” How do we see this phenomenon at play in Dante’s meeting with Farinata and Cavalcante?
Mary Carruthers’s theory of the souls in Inferno cannot form new memories because they are deprived of their (physical) bodies with the damned stuck in their “recollected pasts” is on target specifically for the sixth circle of hell: heresy. For Farinata when he is in conversation with Dante, Dante observes about how the damned as stuck knowing the past and far future: “It seems, if I hear right, that you can see / beforehand that which time is carrying, / but you’re denied the sight of present things (lines 97-99)”. This matches with Carruthers’s theory that the souls stuck in Inferno cannot form new memories. Then Farinata replies to Dante:
We see, even as men who are farsighted, / those things,” he said, “that are remote from us / the Highest Lord allots us that much light. / But when events draw near or are, our minds / are useless; were we not informed by others, / So you can understand how our awareness / will die completely at the moment when / the portal of the future has been shut. (Lines 100-108).
Here, we are to understand that what Dante observes is true, with the caveat that the souls stuck in the circle of heresy understand that they can only recollect the past with no ability to form the present, but they know the ultimate future, which their awareness will die completely at the second death where the unbelievers will be thrown into the lake of fire. In addition, for Cavalcante, we see this phenomenon at play due to him being unable to know whether his son lives or not. He has to rely on Dante for information about Guido, who was Dante’s friend in his earthly life.
What does the inability to form new memories in hell mean for the possibility of interpersonal relationships among the damned and what does this mean for what we should expect for the social life of the city of Dis?
The inability to form new memories in hell means the possibility of interpersonal relationships among the damned is that the damned can no longer form any relationship with anyone new. They’re left as souls with a past, but no present or future except in eternal death. There is no concept for them to grasp during the present time, that while Farinata and Calvacante were able to talk with Dante, that is exceptional and not the norm. Therefore, we should expect that there’s not much of a social life in the city of Dis unless it’s between the fallen angels rather than human souls. Whether this is the case or not, we shall see in the upcoming cantos.
Work Citations:
Alighieri, Dante; Mandelbaum, Allen. “The Inferno.” The Divine Comedy. Everyman’s Library. 1 Aug. 1995. Book.
Barolini, Teodolinda. “Inferno 10: Love in Hell.” Commento Baroliniano, Digital Dante. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2018, 14 Sept. 2023. Web. <https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/inferno/inferno-10/>.
“Education distribution.” Religious Landscape Study. Pew Research Center. 13 Sept. 2023. Web. <https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/educational-distribution/>.
Inquisitive Muse 