Summary of the cantos
Dis is the first city of Hell, and whoever crosses it leaves the circles in which sin is weakness, the desire that overcomes reason, and enters those in which sin is choice. The four cantos treat this passage as a problem of sight. In IX, Dante must not look at Medusa and, at the same time, look at the doctrine hidden beneath the veil of the verses. In X, the damned see what is far away in time and lose the present, and it is this failure that brings down Guido's father (tradition calls him Cavalcante) because of a verb in the past tense. In XI, Virgil draws the map of everything still to be seen. In XII, the poet himself calls blind the greed that hurls the violent into the river of blood. At the center is the conversation with Farinata degli Uberti, the politician who treats Hell as a detail, and the question the part leaves is whether the very clear order of canto XI can account for the damned whom canto X sets on their feet before the reader.
Canto IX: The Furies, Medusa, and the Angel
Summary of the canto
Virgil returns from the gate of Dis without having overcome the demons, and Dante, who has gone pale with fear, sees the guide hold back his own pallor so as not to frighten him, and cut the sentence in half: we must win the fight, or else, and at once he says that someone has offered to help them. Dante understands the break as worse than it is and asks whether anyone from Limbo, whose punishment is hope cut off, has ever descended to this depth; he fears the guide does not know the way. Virgil reassures him: he was there once, summoned by the sorceress Erichtho to bring a spirit out of the Judecca, the circle of Judas, and he knows the way.
Analysis
Dante no longer hears him, because his gaze has been drawn to the top of the tower, where the three Furies, the Erinyes, suddenly rise, with women's limbs and serpents in place of hair. They tear at their breasts, cry out for Medusa, who would turn Dante to stone, and lament not having avenged the assault of Theseus, who went down to Hades to carry off Proserpina. Virgil orders the disciple to turn around and keep his face closed, and gives the reason:
«Volgiti ’n dietro e tien lo viso chiuso; / ché se ’l Gorgón si mostra e tu ’l vedessi, / nulla sarebbe di tornar mai suso». / Così disse ’l maestro; ed elli stessi / mi volse, e non si tenne a le mie mani, / che con le sue ancor non mi chiudessi
, turn yourself back and keep your face shut; for if the Gorgon shows herself and you were to see her, there would be no returning ever up. So said the master; and he himself turned me, and did not trust my hands, but closed my eyes with his own as well.
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Canto X: Farinata and Cavalcante
Summary of the canto
Virgil follows a path between the wall and the torments, and Dante asks him whether it is possible to see those who lie in the tombs, lids raised and unguarded. The answer covers also what he keeps silent: they will all be shut when the dead return from the valley of Jehoshaphat with the bodies they left on earth, and there lies Epicurus with those who make the soul die with the body.
Analysis
Canto XI: The Map of What Remains
Summary of the canto
On the edge of a high cliff of broken stones, the stench of the abyss forces the poets to take shelter behind the lid of a tomb, where it is written that there lies Pope Anastasius, whom Photinus led off the straight path. Virgil says that the sense of smell must be accustomed before descending, and, at the request of Dante, who does not want to waste time, uses the wait to explain what lies below: three smaller circles, in steps, full of the damned. Of all the malice that heaven hates the end is injustice, and every such end afflicts another either with force or with fraud:
Analysis
Canto XII: The Minotaur and the River of Blood
Summary of the canto
The place where they descend is a slope of fallen rock, and on the edge of the slab lies the infamy of Crete, the Minotaur, conceived in Pasiphae's false cow; on seeing the poets, he bites himself in rage. Virgil confronts him: do you believe that Theseus is here, who killed you up there? Be off, beast, for this one does not come taught by your sister Ariadne, but to see the punishments of those below. The monster writhes like a bull mortally wounded, and Virgil bids them hurry past while he rages; Dante climbs down over the stones, which shift under his feet because of the weight of a living body.
Analysis
Reading of the Canto Block
Analysis