The Divine Comedy

Twenty-sixth Canto
Dante has just found out that five thieves are from Florence: “Enjoy, Florence, since your name is widespread on land and in the sea, and even in Hell”, says the poet, crying for the corruption of his fatherland, become a den of bribery and robbery.
The two visitors cross another bridge, that of the eighth bolgia. While going forward, they spot a weird spectacle manifesting itself before their eyes. The ditch was filled with countless flames, that looked like fireflies in the summer nights. He likens that spectacle to what Elisha saw when Elijah ascended to Heaven on a fiery chariot.
Those flames were so intense, he could not see what they hid on the inside. Virgil tells Dante that each flame hides a damned. Dante tried to watch as closely as possible, leaning from the high bridge and trying not to fall. And saw a peculiar thing: a double-headed flame with one tip higher than the other.
Virgil explains that that flame there were the soul of Ulysses and Diomedes - punished together for setting up the Horse fraud and causing the destruction of Troy.
Dante yearns to speak with one of the most famous characters in history, the epitome of cunningness, so Virgil satisfies his request, knowing how to speak with a Greek.
Using his capability of persuasion, Virgil tells those two soul he was the poet that glorified the Trojan epic with his Aeneid, and asks Ulysses how and when he died; so the highest tip of the flame, Ulysses, starts telling his story.
He had just left Circe, when he decided to explore all the Mediterranean, disregarding his loved ones in Ithaca. Arrived before the Pillars of Hercules, between Ceuta and Sevilla (Strait of Gibraltar), he tried to persuade his companions to defy the unknown, and to explore the open sea beyond the known world: “Consider your human nature: you were not created to live like brutes, but to pursue virtue and knowledge”. After five months of sailing, the boat had reached the austral hemisphere, arriving at the other edge of the world. They spotted an incredibly high mountain in the middle of the ocean (the mountain of Purgatory). But all of a sudden a sea whirlpool appeared in the middle of the ocean, and the ship was sucked into it. All of them drowned and died.

To deepen the theme of Ulysses in the Divine Comedy

https://www.dantepoliglotta.it/dantes-ulysses-symbol-of-human-nobility/?lang=en

Twenty-seventh Canto
Ulysses had just terminated his story, as soon as another flame, another soul approaches, longing to talk with the two visitors. He reached the highest spot of the flame, trying to talk, mumbling at first, like a cow*. He had noticed the Latin poet could speak his language, so he begged him to remain and speak with him: He said that he came from Romagna (between Urbino and the spring of Tiber).
He wanted to know whether Romagnols were at war or at peace. Virgil lets Dante answer this time, because they speak the same language.
Dante points out that there is no war at the moment, but the cities are still ruled by warlike families: Ravenna is still dominated by the Da Polenta; Forlì by Ordelaffi family, Rimini by the Malatesta; Faenza and Imola by Maghinardo Pagani; while Cesena sways from freedom to tyranny**.
The tormented soul, that cannot sees anything but can hear people, believes Dante is already dead, and cannot return to Earth to disclose the details of his shameful life. So he accepts to reveal his identity.
The Romagnol man is Guido da Montefeltro, a very famous and cunning warlord that, known for his skills and cunningness, who repented when he was already old, and decided to embrace the monastic life, becoming a Franciscan friar.
But Pope Boniface VIII who knew how skilled he was at war strategy, wanted his cooperation to defeat his enemies, the Colonna, that were barricaded within a stronghold near Rome (Penestrino).
Boniface is nicknamed prince of Pharisees because he used to wage war against fellow Christians and not against the enemies of Christianity, in Jerusalem.
The pontiff called Guido, asking him to heal him from the fever***, and after he came, he begged him to help him take that stronghold, and he promised he would absolve him in advance.
That's how he convinced him. But as soon as he died, a devil went to claim his soul, while Saint Francis tried to oppose him.
The demon growled “you probably thought I wasn't rational” and pointed out that Guido sinned with full awareness, because he demanded the absolution in advance: and that is a contradiction, because absolution requires repentance. One cannot repent before sinning.
Minos condemned him to the eighth circle. So the contrappasso is easily understandable: how in life the fraudulent counsellors used their tongue to make others commit a fraud, now they are entrapped in tongues of fire, given that fire is the symbol of intellect and cunningness. The fire prevents them from seeing anything, which is the punishment for wanting to defy the unknown, as Ulysses did.
As soon as the damned departs, the two visitors resume the journey to the ninth bolgia, where the sowers of discord are.


*the poet likens his whimpering to that of the Brazen Bull (Sicilian bull) a torture device introduced by Phalaris of Akragas. The condemned were locked inside the device, and a fire would heat the bronze bull to make the person inside die of a horrific, slow death.
** Dante uses many periphrases to indicate the cities and the families ruling them: Forli is the city that massacred so many French after a siege, and was dominated by the coat of arms of the green lion (Ordelaffi); Rimini by Verrucchio Malatesta (the old and the new mastiff are Malatesta and Malatestino), after getting rid of enemies Montagna dei Parcitati; the city of the river Lamone and Santerno (Imola and Faenza) are ruled by the lion with a white backround (coat of arms of Maghinardo Pagani) ; eventually the city bagnata by the Savio is Cesena.
*** as Constantine I asked Pope Sylvester to heal from leprosy.

Twenty-eighth Canto
The most horrific spectacle reveals itself before Dante's eyes: not even the wounds, the cuts, the blood shed in the cruellest battles of history* can be compared to those of the ninth bolgia.
He sees a damned who is horrendously mutilated, with a vertical cut from the chin to the bottom, letting all the internal organs and the intestines out.
He is prophet Mohammed, who points at Ali, his son-in-law, slashed from forehead to chin. He explains that in that bolgia the sowers of discord are punished. A demon endowed with a long and sharp sword mutilates them terribly, slashing and ripping members and organs, tearing limbs apart. But as soon as they have completed the entire round of the bolgia, the wounds have completely healed, and it starts all over again. As in life they decided to sever religions through schisms and discord, now they are severed themselves, with a sword. As soon as Virgil explains why Dante, a living man, was in hell, all the damned start looking at him with astonishment, and Mohammed begged him to warn Fra Dolcino** about the infernal punishment reserved to those who create new movements.
Another damned with the severed throat, lacking nose and either ear, would spill blood while speaking; his name was Pier da Medicina, and begged Dante to warn the best noblemen in Fano***, Guido del Cassero and Angiolello da Carignano, about the trap that will be set up by the lord of Rimini, Malatestino. He will lure them into his ship and then throw them into the Adriatic See.
Then he points at his companion, Curio, who can't speak because his tongue has been cut off, and who despises Rimini, because he had pushed Caesar to cross the Rubicon river (near Rimini) starting the conflict with Pompey. (The contrappasso of the severed tongue is evident, here)
Another damned had the severed hands, and blood was spilling out, to his face. It was Mosca de Lamberti, who complains about being such a disgrace for Tuscany**** . And Dante, who knew what he had done, added that he had caused the downfall of his own family too.
Then Dante spots something that is utterly terrifying: a headless body proceeding and holding a severed head in his hand, as a man holds a lantern. Dante cannot understand how God can conceive such a cruel punishment. He cried: “you who are alive and visit the dead, consider if there is greater punishment than this (see Lamentations 1:12 )” . It was Bertran de Born, the counsellor who pushed Henry III to rise against his own father, as Ahitofel did with Absalom, son of King David.

* Dante mentions - with several periphrases -, several wars and battles of history: the Second Punic war (narrated by Titus Livius and fought in Apulia by the descendants of the Trojans, the Romans); or the Norman wars fought by Robert the Guiscard; or the battles of Benevento and Tagliacozzo, fought by Angevins and Swabians. Some barons of Apulia had betrayed Manfred of Swabia and delivered the stronghold of Ceprano to Charles of Anjou; in Tagliacozzo, Alard de Valery had won thanks to wisdom.
** Fra Dolcino founded a new movement of mystical Christianity. He was considered heretical by the bishop of Vercelli in 1306. In 1307, the troops of the bishop besieged and took the stronghold where Dolcino and his followers were barricaded, because it was winter and they had run out of goods. So Dante is asked to advise Fra Dolcino, to store a bigger quantity of supplies for the future siege.
*** He says he is from Po Valley, mentioning the flatland between Vercelli and Mercabò. The two noblemen will be thrown into the sea near Cattolica.
**** Mosca de Lamberti was a Tuscan politician who convinced the Amidei family to kill Buondelmonte de' Buondelmonti. This murder ignited the hatred between the two political factions of Florence, resulted in the struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines.

Twenty-ninth Canto
Dante was leaning out to the edge of the ditch, weeping, and Virgil scorns his pity. Dante confesses that he was seeking a relative of his, Geri del Bello*; who had already seen the poet, and threatened him, while he was busy speaking with Bertran de Born. For instance nobody had avenged Geri's violent death yet: vendetta (revenge entrusted to the victim's family), was sacred in a Medieval Italy devastated by endless feuds among aristocratic dynasties.
The two poets finally arrive over the tenth and last bolgia. The laments and the weeping were so loud and heartbreaking that Dante needs to cover his ears.
An unmentionable spectacle reveals itself: countless damned suffering horrific diseases, the ditch looked like those hospitals of Valdichiana, Maremma or Sardinia. The stench of rotting flesh was unbearable.
The poets walk along the left riverbank. Falsifiers, those who falsified words and things (counterfeiters, forgers, frauds, liars) are punished in this bolgia. As in life they deformed truth and nature, now their body is deformed by unspeakable diseases; as they poisoned truth and society with their lies, the same poison runs in his veins and disfigures their bodies.
Dante likens that scene to the plague that stroke Egina**, saying that what he can see is much worse. The damned would lie down, horribly languishing, and gathered in small groups; some would crawl because of the pain.
Two of them, filled with crusts, were sitting on the ground, back to back, scratching one another because of the terrible itch.
Virgil asked them whether there were Italians down there. Either answered they were both Italians, and as soon as they learnt that Dante was alive, they stopped scratching one another and looked towards him.
One was an alchemist from Arezzo***, burnt at the stake by Albero da Siena, because he had promised him he would make him fly as Dedalus did. Since the alchemist failed, Albero executed him. Nevertheless he was condemned to the tenth bolgia because of his activity.
Dante expresses his contempt towards Siena's citizens, a den of fraudsters.
The other damned, Capocchio (a very skilled metal forger from Siena) makes sarcasm about Stricca Salimbeni telling how “frugal” he was and Niccolò, who used clove in cuisine for the first time, or Caccia d'Asciano who squandered all his assets.

* Geri del Bello was an aristocrat that sowed discord and ignited feuds. He would always start violent brawls. He even killed a component of the Sacchetti; that is why he was brutally avenged by the same family members. It is interesting how the aristocratic feuds were a vicious cycle of vendetta, that will be the theme of the sixth Canto of Purgatory.
**In Ovid's Metamorphosis VII 523-660, Egina was devastated by a pestilence where the entire population died out. The king Eachus begged Jupiter to transform all the ants into men, to repopulate it again.
*** it probably deals with alchemist and forger Griffolino D'Arezzo, burnt at the stake by Albero da Siena. Griffolino had promised he would invent wings to make him fly. Since he failed, Albero da Siena accused him of alchemy, punished with the stake. Stricca Salimbeni was a Senese forger, probably brother of Niccolò de Salimbeni. Caccia D'Asciano was another nobleman from Siena, probably known for deceiving and squandering his assets.

Thirtieth Canto
Dante is shocked watching two damned who were running and ragingly biting anyone, as the pig ravenously devours its meal*. Either pounces on Capocchio and bites him in the neckline, dragging him through the rocky ditch.
That enraged damned was Gianni Schicchi, a famous fraud of that time: in life he disguised himself as Buoso Donati**, a wealthy aristocrat, in order to write a fake testament that would have passed all the wealth onto Simone Donati, a friend of his.
The other enraged damned is Myrrha, who fell in love with her own father. She disguised herself as her mother in order to sleep with him.
All of a sudden Dante spots a terribly disfigured man, whose belly looked like a lute because of dropsy, and he suffered a terrible thirst.
He was the famous metal forger Mastro Adamo, who would cry, recalling the clear springs of Arno river (Casentino), in an endless torment. It is there, in the castle of Romena, where he counterfeited florins by adding three carats of worthless metal to the gold***, and because of that he was burnt at the stake. It is the Aghinolfo brothers who made him do that, and he wishes he was able to stand up and move, so he can get revenge on them, because he heard they have arrived in the bolgia, already.
Beside Adamo, Dante notices two damned, whose body would release smoke; one is the biblical Potiphar's wife , who falsely accused Joseph. The other is Sinon, who lied to the Trojans about the horse. Adamo makes him notice they stink like burnt fat.
Sinon, feeling insulted, beats him in the belly, that resounded like a drum, and Adam hits him in his face.
The two start reprimanding each other, mentioning one another's sins: “if I lied, you counterfeited coins, I sinned once, you sinned more than anyone else here”.
Then they curse each other, praying that diseases torment both, even more.
Noticing that Dante was amused by the grotesque verbal fight, Virgil admonishes him for his jovial curiosity. Dante feels shame, and follows him along.


*He likens it to the tragic examples in Greek mythology: Juno filled with vengeance against Semele, Atamas furiously killing his wife and children, or Hecuba who was turned into a ravenous dog because of her own daughter's death.
** Gianni Schicchi inspired a famous opera by Puccini. Since Buoso Donati the Old (not to confuse with the homonymous Buoso, the thief of the seventh bolgia) had written no testament, his gandson Simone Donati had asked a famous impersonator, Gianni Schicchi to impersonate him, so he could dictate a fake testament to a notary. This will made Simone universal heir; Schicchi received a mare as inheritance.
*** A florin was made up of 24 carats of gold, so he would use 21 only, adding 3 carats of worthless metals.

Thirty-first Canto
As Achille's spear would heal the wound inflicted at the second blow, Virgil encouraged Dante after his reproach. The two visitors have reached the point where all bridges reunite: the atmosphere was foggy; all of a sudden a terribly loud horn sound deafened them both; and in the background, very high pillars as tall as towers stood out in the dark.
Virgil warned him that those are not towers, but giants. They were imprisoned in the central pit of the eighth circle, and they were visible from the belly-button up.
Dante could see their face, and body, and thought that the nature wisely decided to stop creating such huge creatures, whose physical invincibility would determine the downfall of mankind. Their face was as long as 30 palms* (from hair to the shoulder).
“Raphél maì amèche zabì almi**” , started shouting one at them. Virgil yelled at him back: “Silly soul, be content with your horn, blow off some steam with it”.
That is Nimrod, the tyrant that built the Tower of Babel, because of which nations speak different languages. His contrappasso is to speak an unknown language and not to understand anything else.
The two visitors now skirt the round pit, until they find another giant, whose body had been chained up so that the left arm was above the right arm. That's Ephialtes, the giant who defied Jupiter and the other gods. Dante asks Virgil whether they can see Briareus, but the Latin poet replied that it will be Antaeus, that they will meet, because the first is too far, and they need to hasten. As soon as Ephialtes moved, the earth started trembling and Dante was so scared that he thought he was dying.
They reach Antaeus, whose bust was 7 allen* high, excluding the head. Virgil knew that Antaeus was the kindest (better than the one beside him, Typhon) giant, so he begs him to help them descend to the bottom of the pit, where lake Cocytus is. To persuade him, the poet uses flattery: he tells him that if he had joined the other giants in the war on Olympus, they would have surely won, adding that Dante can clear his name through his poetry.
Antaeus was persuaded, he stretches out his hand, while Virgil takes Dante into his arms, so the giant could pick both. Dante felt incredible terror, but Antaeus slowly puts the two on his hand, then he bends down and gently lowers them on the bottom of the pit. Then he stands up back again.


* Dante likens their head to the Pignone, a bronze sculpture of a pine cone in the Vatican, nearly 4 meters high.
** Untranslatable sentence, despite the countless attempts by philologists.
*** Unit of measure used in Flanders, now disappeared. 7 allen= 1.40 meter

Thirty-second Canto
Dante feels the need to invoke the Muses*, to help him describe the horror and the terrifying images of the ninth circle more solemnly. In fact, treason is the worst of the sins, because it means to harm those who loved you the most, or saints and benefactors. Dante wishes they were never born as humans, but as animals (goats and sheep).
While the two poets were being deposed onto the bottom of the pit, someone was crying nearby: “Beware, do not step on the heads of those who once were your siblings”.
Dante realizes they are walking on an icy lake (Cocytus), as seamless as glass, inside an enormous dark cave. The poet highlights the thickness of that ice layer**.
The souls of the damned were entirely stuck in that ice, except their head (which was face downward), as frogs get their muzzle out of the water. That circle was nothing but teeth chattering (likened to the sound of storks) and silent tears.
The contrappasso is clear: as in life their heart was as cold as ice, that they violated the most sacred bounds of trust, now traitors are stuck in a frozen lake.
Two damned were so close, that their hair were entangled with one other. They couldn't speak with Dante, and their icy tears would clump their eyelids. Because of that, they got upset and banged their head against one another, like rams do.
Another damned, (Alberto Camicione de Pazzi***) whose ears had been severed by the ice, yells at him: “why do you stare?” He tells him those two were the counts Alberti from Mangona, two brothers who killed one another, in life. They are in the first zone of the ninth circle, called Caina (named after Cain who killed Abel), because the traitors of the kindred are punished there; and nobody, not even Mordred, or Focaccia or Sassolo Mascheroni deserve to be there more than those brothers. Dante felt so much sorrow, watching all that suffering, those frozen faces, and was freezing himself. Unwillingly, he steps on a damned, who cries “Why did you step on me? If you aren't here to harden my punishment for my treason in Montaperti, why are you here?”.
That damned sounded familiar to Dante; so he reveals him he was a living man and a poet, and that he could have cleared his man on Earth (blandishing him to make him disclose his identity). The damned answered harshly: “I will not tell you my name, your blandishments are worthless in this circle”.
Then Dante furiously grabs him by the neck and threatens him: “tell me your name, or else I pull you all your hair out”. But the damned was irremovable, disregarding his threats. All of a sudden another damned yelled: “what's wrong with you, Bocca degli Abati****? Are you barking, besides chattering your teeth?”.
Dante, who was now sure of his identity called him traitor and that he would expose him on Earth. Bocca says he didn't care, but he tells him that he should also mention the fellow traitor who exposed him: it's Buoso da Duera; and other traitors there are Tesauro dei Beccheria, Gianni dei Soldanieri, Ganelon and Tebaldello de' Zambrasi.
Dante is particularly wild over those who betray their own ideals, or their own fatherland: the second zone of the ninth circle is called Antenora after Antenor of Troy, who betrayed his own city, by giving away the statue of Athena to Ulysses and Diomedes. As in life they betrayed their own compatriots or fellow citizens, now they betray and expose one another in hell.
Dante was shocked, by seeing two damned, clinging one above the other; one was mauling his neckline, ravenously eating his brain, in an animalistic fashion. As Tydeus ate Melanippus' brain to avenge Amphiarus. Dante asked that damned who he was, promising him he would clear his name.


* Through a periphrasis he means the Muses: those women that helped Amphion build the walls of Thebes. The very first stanzas are filled with other periphrases, like for example, saying “the language you use to say mom or dad” to mean “childish talk”.
** Dante points out that not even the Danube in Austria or the Don form such a thick layer of ice, in Winter. And with an hyperbole, he says that not even high Alpine mounts (Tambura and Pania) can break the ice layer of Cocytus.
*** Alberto Camicione de' Pazzi betrayed and killed a relative of his, Ubertino de' Pazzi, aided by Carlino de Pazzi, who was still alive, and according to Alberto, he belongs in the ninth circle much more than him; As for the other characters: Napoleone and Alessandro Alberti di Mangona, sons of Alberto were two brothers, who - because of the inheritance and political interests - killed one another in duel, according to the chronicles of the 13th century. Their name is understandable through a periphrasis: the sons of that Alberto from the valley of Bisenzio river (where Mangona is). Mordred is not explicitly mentioned either: "the man whose chest was torn apart by king Arthur" to punish his betrayal; Vanni de' Cancellieri, from Pistoia, nicknamed Focaccia killed a relative of his, Sinisbaldo Cancellieri and this betrayal ignited the hatred between White and Black Guelphs; Sassolo Mascheroni was probably another nobleman who killed his own relatives.
**** Bocca degli Abati was a Guelph who fought on the battlefield of Montaperti (1260), but he was suspected of betraying his fellow Guelphs and this became evident, when he entered Florence triumphally with other Ghibellines. He was defeated with other Ghibellines in the battle of Benevento (1266). He is angry with Buoso da Duera who exposed him, so he exposes him back: Buoso was a Ghibelline who was bribed by the Angevines (by the Frenchmen's silver) to help them arrive in Benevento, so he betrayed his own party. Gianni de' Soldanieri too betrayed his fellow Ghibellines. Tesauro dei Beccheria conspired against his master, Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, and was beheaded for his treason in Florence. Ganelon was a character from the poem Chanson de Roland, who betrayed his fellow Franks, selling information to the Saracens. Tebaldello de' Zambrasi was a Ghibelline from Faenza who betrayed a Ghibelline family, the Lambertazzi, by opening the doors of Faenza to the Bolognese family (Geremei), who were Guelphs.

To deepen the conflicts between Guelphs and Ghibellines:
https://www.britannica.com/event/Guelf-and-Ghibelline

Guelphs and Ghibellines
Papacy and German Empire became opponents after the rise of two German dynasties, the Ottonian Dynasty (Saxony) and the Salian Dynasty (Francony). The latter came into conflict with the Papacy in the Investitures Controversy (XI-XII century). That is, the Emperor wanted to appoint bishops personally as his vassals, arrogating the Pope's religious prerogative to nominate bishops . The conflict resulted in a very fierce rivalry between Papacy and Empire. According to the Emperor, the Pope was not supposed to have secular and temporal powers, but focus on the Christians' spiritual welfare exclusively. In the XII century many wealthy cities of Northern Italy took advantage of this conflict to rise against the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of Hohenstaufen (Swabia). In the Italian part of the Holy Roman Empire, including Tuscany, so many cities wanted to become independent both from Germany and from Rome.
So they started creating municipalities (Comuni), that is autonomous local bodies. But inevitably, there were cities and aristocrats who would want the Pope to have influence in Italy: they were called Guelphs (after Welf of Bavaria) and opposed all those cities and nobles that in Italy would support the Hohenstaufen, which called themselves Ghibellines (after the castle of Weiblingen, in Swabia).
The situation changed when Frederick II of Swabia moved the capital of the German Empire to Palermo. In Italy Frederick restored the imperial authority: in the 13th century Guelphs were called all those who supported the Papacy and Ghibellines all those who supported the German Emperor, in Italy. Exampes of Guelph cities: Perugia, Milan, Mantua, Bologna, Florence, Lucca, Padua; Guelph families: Geremei, Della Torre, Malatesta,,Este; Malaspina.
Examples of Ghibelline cities: Pisa, Siena, Arezzo, Parma, Modena, and Ghibelline families: Della Scala, Lambertazzi, Visconti, Guidi, Ordelaffi, degli Uberti; Della Gherardesca, Salimbeni, Buonconti.
The political debate turned into a civil conflict as soon as Frederick was crowned emperor, in Italy: Florence had always been a traditionally Guelph city, so it became the eternal rival of Siena and Pisa, Ghibelline strongholds. There were several battles, where the Pisans were defeated (1221). But in 1246, Frederick II's son became podestà of Florence, so the Ghibellines of Florence (like Farinata degli Uberti) became more and more powerful, and the Guelphs of Florence were chased away. Frederick II died in 1250 and the city of Florence was ruled by a super partes government who made the Guelphs return. The Ghibellines took advantage of Frederick's death and strengthened their alliance in Siena, aided by king Manfred of Sicily. The Guelphs were defeated in the battle of Montaperti (1260), and Florence was occupied by the Ghibelline army. In those six years the Ghibellines of Florence showed infinite cruelty towards the Guelphs, who were exiled. But things started to change as soon as Charles I of Anjou descended to Italy to conquer the kingdom of Sicily and to take it from the Swabians. In the battle of Benevento (1266) the Guelphs, supported by the Angevins and pope Clement IV, defeated Manfred, king of Sicily. With the downfall of the Imperial authority in Italy, the Guelphs started reconquering so many cities. In 1268 the Guelphs could triumphally enter Florence, and all Ghibellines were forced to take refuge in Arezzo and Siena. In the Battle of Campaldino (1289), the Guelphs of Florence defeated the Ghibellines of Arezzo.

But after this battle, the Guelphs of Florence would disagree on so many matters, also because of the rivalry among aristocrats and among the latter and the new merchants' classes. This struggle resulted in the creation of two factions: the White Guelphs who were for a total independence from the Papacy, and the Black Guelphs who believed in the Pope's authority and guidance. In 1301, the Black Guelphs were caught conspiring against the White ones. The Council of the City exiled all Black Guelph families. The Pope, Boniface VIII asked Charles of Valois to come to Italy and support the exiled Black Guelphs (like the Donati family) reconquer Florence and Pistoia (1302). The podestà of Florence, Cante Gabrielli persecuted and exiled all White Guelphs, including the Alighieri, the Cavalcanti and the Cerchi.

1221: Battle of Castel dal Bosco, where Florence defeats Pisa (Ghibelline city)
1246: The Ghibellines rule Florence thanks to Frederick's II son and exile the Guelphs.
1250: the Guelphs can return to Florence and the Ghibellines exile themselves, fleeing to Siena
1260: Battle of Montaperti: the Ghibellines of Siena and Florence defeat the Guelphs with the help of Manfred of Sicily
1266: Battle of Benevento: Manfred is defeated by the Angevins, and Ghibellines are exiled from Florence
1268: Battle of Tagliacozzo, the Swabians are definitively defeated and the Ghibellines lose power everywhere.
1269: Battle of Colle: The Ghibellines of Siena are defeated by the Guelphs of Florence
1289: Battle of Campaldino: The Ghibellines of Arezzo are defeated by the Guelphs of Florence
1301: the Black Guelphs are exiled from Florence
1302: the Black Guelphs take over and the White Guelphs are persecuted and gradually exiled from Florence.

Ghibelline castles crenellation
Guelph castles crenellation

Thirty-third Canto
“That sinner lifted his mouth from the fierce meal, wiping off his dirty lips with the hair of the mauled skull”. Dante's Florentine accent had caught the attention of the ravenous damned, Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, a Ghibelline from Pisa who had betrayed his own city and party, by giving away strongholds to a Guelph city, Lucca. Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini had lured him into the city and then arrested him. Ugolino was ready to answer the poet's question, because he wanted all the world to know how the archbishop (the man he was mauling, out of vengeance) had betrayed him. He and his four sons were imprisoned by him in Torre della Muda, which the count nicknamed the tower of starvation.
Count Ugolino had a premonitory dream in prison: he dreamt of Ruggieri leading a hunting party* with Pisan aristocrats and ravenous female hounds. They were chasing a wolf with his cubs, and they caught them, after a while. When Ugolino woke up, he understood what his and his son's fate would be. As soon as he heard their jailers nail down the door, he knew they would all starve to death. And it did happen: their sons were the first to die, one after the other; he died two days later, as well. After terminating the horrific story, the Count went back to maul the brains of that miserable damned, as a greedy dog gnaws a bone.
“Alas, Pisa, you are a shame for the beautiful nation that means yes by si (Italy). Since your enemies are slack to punish you, I would like the Capraia and Gorgona isles to dam up the mouth of Arno river, so the entire city is flooded and all Pisans drown.”
Dante's invective**is filled with compassion towards Ugolino's sons. He says, that even if Ugolino might have betrayed his own city, his innocent sons surely didn't deserve that horrific agony. Dante and Virgil are now in the third zone of the ninth circle, where the damned seem lying on their back, with their face upward. This zone - where the traitors to guests are punished - is called Ptolomaea (after king Ptolemy XIII who betrayed Pompey, by killing him, violating the laws of hospitality).
They can't even cry because their tears turn into ice that entirely freeze their eye-sockets. All of a sudden Dante realizes that a strong wind is blowing, wondering how such a thing is possible, in a underground cave. The Latin poet replies him that he will figure it out by himself, later. A damned was shouting, begging other souls to scrape the ice from his eye-sockets, so he could weep for a while. Dante promises he will do it (May I plunge into the ice, if I don't), as long as he reveals his name. As soon as the poet hears his name, Friar Alberigo***, Dante is shocked, because he knew he was still alive. For instance, whenever someone betrays their own guests, the soul is replaced by a demon, and is cast into that infernal cavity, whereas the demon takes over the soulless body, keeping it alive. He points at another damned nearby, Branca Doria, who is still alive too, and Dante knows it very well: he betrayed a barrator, Michele Zanche, that Dante has already mentioned in the fifth bolgia (Canto XXII). Dante is so disgusted and horrified by such traitors that he refuses to scrap the ice from his eyes, since being merciless means to be just in Hell. “Alas, Genoese, devoid of good customs, and stained with every vice, why aren't you wiped off the face of Earth?”, that's the invective towards Genoa, where a traitor like Branca still lives, and yet his soul is already stuck in the infernal lake.

* Count Ugolino della Gherardesca had betrayed by giving away several castles to the Guelphs of Lucca: Asciano, Avane, Ripafratta and Viareggio. He became a great enemy in the eyes of Pisan aristocracy, for his greed and betrayals. In 1289 he was lured into the city and imprisoned together with his sons.
In the Canto, Ugolino uses the hunting party as a metaphor: they were hunting a wolf with his cubs (that stand for himself and his sons Brigata, Gaddo, Anselmo and Uguccione, chased by the aristocrats Gualandi, Sismondi and Lanfranchi.) on Mount San Giuliano (that blocks the view of Lucca from Pisa), while the female hounds stand for the archbishop's servants, defined as skinny, as the peasants are . The female hounds grabbed the cubs' hips, and caught them. So we can figure out how it probably went: Ruggieri's henchmen were chasing Ugolino and his sons that, after a while, fell exhausted. Ugolino and his sons were knocked out and abducted, so that the entire family woke up in prison. The family immediately figured out they would all starve to death, when they saw that the tower door was being nailed down. The all sons wept, but Anselmo, who asked his father why he remained silent. The day after, Ugolino bit his own hand out of rage, and his sons told him that he could feed on their own dead flesh: since their father had given them those bodies, he owned them. At the fourth day, Gaddo begged his father to kill him, to terminate his slow agony. And between the fifth and the sixth day they died one after the other. Ugolino, blinded called their names. Two days later, he died too.
**Dante likens Pisa to a Thebes of his time, since Thebes has always been the epitome of betrayals and hatred in Greek mythology.
***Friar Alberigo Manfredi that Dante defines as “the worst soul of Romagna” belonged to the Order of Jovial Friars; he had invited two relatives of his (Manfredo and Alberghetto) to a banquet, to reconcile with them. But he made them kill, as soon as fruit was served to them. That's what he meant by “I am that of the fruit”, meaning that such an anecdote was already famous in Tuscany. He also uses an idiom as a metaphor (I get dates instead of figs) which means that he didn't deserve such a horrific punishment; it probably was a Florentine idiom of that time. He also uses a periphrasis to mean that the demon takes over the traitors to the guest before their death (before Atropos, one of the Fates, cut the thread of life). The other damned, Branca Doria invited his father-in-law Michele Zanche over in 1275, and after luring him in his house, he killed him to seize all his possessions.

Count Ugolino: the most emblematic character in Inferno

Life
Ugolino della Gherardesca, count of Donoratico, belonged to one of the most prestigious and ancient families in Tuscany, related to the Hohenstaufen, so they owned lands and castles, that were essential for the defense of Pisa's territory. The city had always been proudly Ghibelline, but Ugolino started to have sympathies for the Guelph cause. He gave his onw daughter to Giovanni Visconti di Gallura, a Guelph giudice. He fought together with his son-in-law against the Giudicato of Cagliari, he was arrested, after they were defeated. Eventually he was exiled in Sardinia.
Back to Pisa, Ugolino became a prominent member of the Pisan fleet. Pisa was a maritime republic fighting against Genoa for the supremacy of the Tyrrhenian. The Pisans were defeated in the naval battle of Meloria, in 1284. It was rumored that the Count lost on purpose, by fleeing with the best ships.
In 1284 he became podestà of Pisa, in a very troubled time where the Guelphs of Florence were defeating all Ghibellines, in Tuscany. Lucca and Florence attacked the Ghibelline city, and Count Ugolino tried to obtain peace by bribing some Florentine high representatives. Lucca demanded the strongholds of di Asciano, Avane, Ripafratta e Viareggio, which where essential for Pisa's defense and survival. Ugolino yielded to the Luccans, and that was a great betrayal in the eyes of the Pisan aristocracy. He made peace with Genoa too, giving away Cagliari and a sum of money. Pisa's Ghibellines were gradually exiled, since they didn't want the peace with Florence and the Guelphs.
His grandson Nino Visconti allied himself with the most prominent member of the Ghibelline party, in Pisa: Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, who was against his own grandfather. So Ugolino decided to proclaim himself lord of Pisa and destroyed the palaces of his rivals. Then he made Ghibellines families reenter Pisa, in order to get some allies against the Archbishop. The situation got worse, and the Count was more and more isolated. The aristocratic family Gualandi, Lanfranchi, Orlandi, Sismondi and Ripafratta, were all against him. The Count had even killed Ruggieri's nephew, Farinata.
The archbishop, eventually pretended to seek a reconciliation with Ugolino; he arrived in the city, but was captured and he and his sons were imprisoned in the Tower della Muda, and died of starvation in 1289.

Ugolino Della Gherardesca is surely the most emblematic character in Inferno, because it encompasses all the worst evils of Hell: greed, homicide, betrayal, vengeance. He was greedy because he wanted to obtain more power and wealth; he killed Ruggieri's nephew after betraying his own city; he is getting revenge on Ruggieri, by eating his brains - which symbolize the gray matter that conceived such a horrific punishment.
Besides, the ravenous act of cannibalism highlights the horrific agony of the prisoners who die of starvation: the Count saw his sons die one after the other and his suffering was atrocious, but at the end it was the starvation who killed him (verse 75).
So he died with a great rage towards the assassin of him and his own children, and he gets revenge on him (Ruggieri) by mauling his brain ravenously and brutally, because he died feeling incredible hunger. A sort of contrappasso where the victim (Ugolino) punishes the wicked archbishop, who instead of forgiving him (as a man of the Church should), betrayed him and arrested him.
That's how Godly Justice operates in Hell: evil people victimize their own perpetrators, getting revenge on them (another example is Mastro Adamo who would want to get revenge on the Aghinolfo Brothers, in the XXX Canto) . Not only because they were unable to forgive their own perpetrators, but because the latter need to be punished, according to contrappasso, because they committed a much graver sin than them.
It is similar to the fights between avaricious and prodigals; and the horrific combats among wrathful, in the Styx.
It is very interesting to remark that the reason why Ruggieri is among the traitors of their own party, is unknown: he always remained loyal to his fellow Ghibellines. Actually he had invited Ugolino over to lure him into a trap, so he probably belonged in Antenora, among the traitors to the guests.
The heartbreaking tale of the 33rd Canto is one of the most commented passage in the Cantica of Inferno. He had been watching the moon, day after day, when he had that premonitory dream. A metaphor explaining how he and his sons were caught: they were chased by a patrol, made up by the Archbishop riding his horse, followed by the Lanfranchi, Sismondi and Gualandi, and all the peasants serving Ruggieri on foot. The young sons exhausted, fell victims of those peasants. Ugolino intends to move Dante to pity, speaking of his own children's agony, in order to convince him that his prey deserves to be mauled by his greedy jaws.
And it did work, since Dante is horrified by the cruelty of the Pisans and curses them, praying the city is flooded and they all die.
The description of the waiting, day after day, highlighted by the silent, interior suffering of the father, has been defined as the most moving and heartbreaking moment in the Cantica.
A meager ray of sunlight found its way
to the misery of our cell, and I could see
myself reflected four times in their faces
This stanza underlines how the father's hunger is multiplied by four, knowing his beloved sons are suffering the same.
Oh father, you would make us suffer less,
if you would feed on us. You were the one
who gave us this sad flesh: you take it from us
This is the culmination of the story: it is the sons who break the Cannibalism taboo by saying they love his own father so much that they would be happy to die, knowing his flesh can feed him.
A clear reference to the Eucharist: the sons want to show their love for their own father, by giving all they have left to him. Their bodies.
But Count Ugolino retains his tears and wishes they could all die, so their agony ends.
There, he died. Just as you see me here,
I saw the other three fall one by one,
as the fifth day and the sixth passed. And I,
by then, gone blind, groped over their dead bodies.
Though they were days, two days I called their names,
Then hunger proved more powerful than grief.
So the slow agony is terminated by the tragic death of Ugolino's sons, that fall one after between the fifth and the sixth day. Then he dies too on the seventh day because fasting was greater than spiritual suffering.
Many commentators and scholars have cast doubt on whether Ugolino fed on his children. We must not forget that Dante's tale is just his personal reconstruction. The Count probably didn't touch his sons' bodies because it would have been useless, he would have died anyway, later on. But it probably was reference to horrific legends about prisoners condemned to die of starvation in some underground dungeons, and rumored to engage in cannibalism.
Dante, on the contrary means to highlight that the Count gets revenge on Ruggieri because the latter condemned his sons too, that were innocent.
But the horrific cannibalistic image between the end of the 32nd and the 33rd Canto surely cast doubts in the mind of the reader, whether the Count really fed on his children.

Another interesting article to deepen Canto XXXIII
Cannibalism In Dante's Inferno - 992 Words | Internet Public Library

Thirty-fourth Canto
Vexilla regis prodeunt Inferni*: Virgil warns Dante they are close to Lucifer, the king of Hell. In the foggy, windy atmosphere, Dante spots a huge windmill-like building, but because of that impetuous, restless, wind, he takes shelter behind Virgil's back.
The two visitors are now in the last zone of the ninth circle, called Judecca (after Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus), where the traitors of benefactors are punished. The damned are entirely entrapped under the seamless ice layer of the lake.
All of a sudden Virgil points at the hideous the creature (Dis) that once was a beautiful angel: Dante is not able to describe -with words- the terror that he felt in his heart: Lucifer was visible from the waist up, and was so huge, that the size of his arms was even bigger than the giants' height. He had three faces on one head: the one in the middle was blood-red, the right one was yellowish, the left one was black**. Below each face there was a pair of bat-like wings, larger than ship sail-cloths. He would restlessly flap those three pairs of wings, which caused that stormy, cold wind that would freeze the entire lake. His tears would mix up with his blood-like foam, coming out of the three mouths: each mouth would maul a damned. The mouth in the middle was mauling Judas Iscariot's head, leaving the body out, and its claws, holding that body would flay his skin. The other two damned were Brutus and Cassius, the men who betrayed Julius Caesar, who were mauled by their legs. Virgil tells Dante to hold onto his neck; when the wings of Satan were open enough, he jumps onto his furry hips, and the two, holding together, start descending his body, using the thick clumps of his fur. At the height of the femur, Virgil painstakingly twirls around and instead of going down, starts going up, making Dante think, they were returning upwards, to the frozen lake. Then they reach a hole on the the rock and Dante sits on the edge. Dante could see the furry legs of Lucifer upside down, out of the hole: Virgil tells him to hasten; it was few hours before dawn***. They need to climb up a narrow and harsh underground passageway.
Dante yearns to know how they could quit Hell through Satan's legs and why the latter looked upside down. Virgil explains that Lucifer's waist corresponds to the center of the Earth, and they used his legs to climb up to the surface of the Austral Hemisphere: they are getting to the mountain of Purgatory which is pole apart from Jerusalem (the highest spot in the Boreal Hemisphere). Whenever it's morning in the Boreal hemisphere, it's evening in the Austral one and vice versa (12 hours apart). Dante figures out that Hell is nothing but a huge cavity created back when Lucifer was cast and plunged into the center of the Earth. All of the austral landmass, scared of him, drifted to the northern hemisphere: that is why all continents find themselves in the northern part of the globe. All the rocks who collapsed after the creation of the infernal cavity drifted from Satan and assembled in the highest spot of the Austral Hemisphere, forming the mountain of Purgatory. The underground passageway was dug by a stream, whose sound the poets can hear, and whose waters end up in Cocytus.****
The two visitors restlessly and painstakingly climbed up that underground passageway to the way out. Finally they managed to climb to the surface, and see the sky. “And so we succeeded in seeing the stars again”.



* It's a clear reference to a Christian “Hymn to the Cross” that would say Vexilla Regis prodeunt (The Standards of the King Advance), where King is Jesus Christ. Since in Hell there is an upheaval of God, Satan is renamed “the King of Hell”. In verse 35, through a periphrasis, Dante mentions Satan's rebellion: he lifted his eyelids against his own Creator.
** Another periphrasis to mean black: the color of the people who live where the Nile river enters a valley (Ethiopia).
***Dante can't understand why it was evening when they started to climb down Lucifer, and now it's almost dawn. Virgil says “now within one hour and half of noon the sun returns”, a periphrasis to indicate it was between 6 am (Prime Hour) and 9 am (Terce hour). It was 5-6 am, just before sunrise. In verse 97 Dante describes the underground passageway harshness through an understatement: it certainly was not a walk in a palace. Through a periphrasis, Virgil mentions the Southern Hemisphere: the one poles apart the city where the man who lived a sinless life (Jesus) was killed (Jerusalem). Lucifer was cast down in the locality called Megiddo.
**** It deals with the rivers of Purgatory, that after flowing in the Earthly Paradise enter the gorges of the mountain and reach the center of Earth through the underground passageway.

The Cantica of Inferno is terminated. Now there is that of Purgatorio.

To sum up the Cantica, I wrote my personal impressions, in a short essay

Poetry, significance and moral structure of Inferno
Dante has always been considered a poet rather than a theologian. If he had wanted to write a treatise on theology, in Latin (about the Christian soteriology and Afterlife). Au contraire, he writes an epic poem divided in three perfectly symmetrical Cantiche of 33 Canti each (the first is considered the Introduction to the Poem), and calls such a colossal work of literature Comedìa (the adjective Divine was added later on).
So we are speaking of a comedy that reveals theological truths, even if poetry remains the purpose for the sake of which Dante intends to enhance and promote the Lingua Vulgaris, that is the Florentine language that will evolve into standard Italian. Which in De Vulgari Eloquentia he praises.
And he entirely focuses on aesthetic and poetic perfection: in the key moments of the spiritual voyage (the theme of the poem) he invokes the Muses, particularly Calliopes, the Muse of epic poetry. Virgil represents Dante's reason, but especially the greatness and wisdom of Roman poets, among whom Virgil was the the best of all. By doing so, he necessarily changes and re-invents words from the Florentine dialect, because he needs to find a rhyme to each verse (according to the scheme ABA BCB CDC...that's why so many scholars tend to say that Dante kind of invented the Italian language.
But what is truthful and what is fictional in Dante's Inferno? Well...the references to Greek and Roman mythology are omnipresent in nearly all Canti, and they are strengthened by Virgil's presence, who knows what Dante is talking about. The presence of mythological and fictional characters (like characters of Latin or Greek poems, and plays) in Hell makes the entire work surely fictional. But Dante clearly wanted to express his vision on human salvation (soteriology) and his vision on morality. That's why he restlessly hurls invective at wicked characters and immoral cities (like Pistoia, Pisa, Genoa and above all, Florence).
Dante feels the need to give his work a moral structure. That is, he wants to express his vision of sin and how sin is avoidable.
The second Council of Lyon (1274) had established new theological truths in the Roman Catholic Church: hamartiology had been completely revolutionized through the introduction of Purgatory, which was not present in any other Christian Church at that time.
Catholic soteriology revolves around repentance: those who repent and have good merits can earn their own salvation, but since their heart is still stained with venial sins (pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust) , they need to purge themselves in Purgatory. Whereas the saints and those who avoided sin all life long can easily enter Paradise, thanks to their own merits.
In Canto XI, Virgil explains that there are three kinds of sins: incontinence (gluttony, sloth, lust, wrath, greed), brutality (violence) and wickedness (intentional, malicious evil, like fraud and treason). But what is that distinguishes the sinners of Purgatory from the incontinent damned of Inferno? In Purgatory there are lustful, gluttons, avaricious and wrathful as well.
Some scholars have underlined, that is lack of humility that prevents the damned from acceding to Purgatory. They don't take responsibility for their actions, but they always blame someone else. Francesca da Rimini blames the book Galehaut saying its content made her commit adultery, Filippo Argenti accuses others of the sin he committed himself.
The damned of Lower Hell never blame themselves: they always blame others, like Pope Nicholas III accusing Pope Boniface VIII; or Sinon who accuses Mastro Adamo because the latter had sinned more than anyone else, there. Not to mention that all of the damned don't feel remorse at all; in some cases they are proud of their own sin, and curse God (Capaneus, Vanni Fucci).
In Purgatory all the souls, not only crave for purging themselves and atone for their sins through the penance of (that's why they are called penitents) but blame themselves and acknowledge their guilt. And this guarantees them salvation.

The Ptoleamaic system, Medieval Astronomy and Dante's views
We are at the beginning of the XIV century and all Europeans believed that Earth was a round planet at the center of the Universe. The moon, the sun and all stars would rotate around planet Earth. So there was no difference between stars and planets, since the telescope hadn't been invented yet, so they couldn't see Venus, Mars or Jupiter in detail. They were at a certain distance from Earth. From the nearest to the furthest: Moon; Mercury; Venus; Sun; Mars; Jupiter; Saturn; Fixed Stars; Primum Mobile. Dante considers Earth as a planet divided in two hemispheres: the Boreal and the Austral one. According to the geographic knowledge of that time, there was an entire continent, The Afro-Eurasiatic landmass, that was considered present in the northern hemisphere. Dante radicalizes this thought, saying that the Austral hemisphere was completely land-less, entirely covered with oceans. In the highest spot of the southern hemisphere there was the mountain of Purgatory. Besides Purgatory is filled with astronomic references that could be considered anachronistic in our time, but that in Middle Ages were essential to determine a particular hour of the day. Like Constellations, interpreted according to a Ptolemaic system.

Purgatorio: Introduction and geography




Purgatory is an incredibly high mountain on the only island located in the southern hemisphere, achievable through the Pillars of Hercules. The island of Purgatory has a peculiar layout: it has a large seashore, but then the terrain is constantly uphill, because of the presence of rock cliffs; these cliffs all surround the mountain of Purgatory.
An angel boatman embarks the souls destined to Purgatory at the mouth of the Tiber River.
Once they arrive, a significant part of the penitent souls will remain on the lower slopes of the mountain, that is called Ante-Purgatory, a sort of Vestibule: the excommunicated and the late repentant (negligent people or people who died of violent death). When the late repentant and the excommunicated will have atoned for their guilt, they will be allowed like the rest, to cross the gates of Purgatory, and they will have to go through the seven terraces that stand for the seven deadly sins that they committed in life. The time of permanence in a terrace is proportioned to the severity of the deadly sin they committed.

Ante-Purgatory
Seashore: It's where the souls of Purgatory disembark. It is watched by the Guardian of the island, Cato. Not that far from the seashore there is the underground passageway that allows visitors to reach Purgatory from Hell.
Lower slopes: it's the uphill pathway that leads to the cliffs of the mountain. Here the excommunicate need to remain as many years as their contumacy, multiplied by thirty.
First slope: it's where the late repentant are; those who received the last rites, but were so negligent that they waited for their death to repent. They need to remain there as many years as their lifetime.
Second slope: it's where the late repentant that died violently are. They had no time to receive the last rites because theirs was a sudden, violent death. They need to remain there as many years as their lifetime.
Valley of the Princes: it's a flowery hollow of the second slope where the negligent rulers are.

Purgatory
Gate: It is not accessible from the slopes. Saint Lucy takes Dante into her own arms and carries him to a secret breach of the mountain, where the Gate of Purgatory is. It is accessible through a stairway of three steps. And an angel gatekeeper watches it, sitting on a diamond doorstep.
Terraces: The Purgatory is made up of seven terraces that are ca. five meters wide each. They encircle the hips of the mountain. Each terrace is accessible through a hidden stairway that an angel shows the two visitors. In the first terrace the prideful are forced to walk bent, carrying big boulders on their backs. In the second terrace the envious atone for their sins, with their eyes sealed. In the third terrace the wrathful are forced to walk through a restless smokescreen. In the fourth terrace the slothful restlessly run, shouting example of virtuous alacrity. In the fifth terrace, the greedy are attached to the ground. In the sixth terrace the gluttonous are purged by suffering thirst and hunger. In the seventh terrace, the lustful are purged through fire.

Earthly Paradise
It's where the garden of Eden is located. Here Adam and Eve were created and committed their sin against God. In the middle of the garden, there is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eden is filled with trees and plants, and a spring which is originated by God's will. This spring splits in two, giving birth to the rivers Lethe and Eunoë.

Rule of the Sun: The Sun represents God and Godly Salvation through atonement. As soon as the sun sets on the mountain of Purgatory, nobody can climb up, but only climb down the mountain.

First Canto
Dante invokes the Muses* so they help him speak of the second realm of afterlife solemnly , where souls are purged. The poet can finally see the sky, as blue as a sapphire, with Venus and the constellation of Pisces.
No live person but Adam and Eve had ever seen the sky of the austral hemisphere: he spots four stars that he had never seen before. All of a sudden he looks towards the Boreal hemisphere (where the Ursa Major had already set) and an old, bearded man, with long braids appears. He asks them what they were doing there, and how they could get through that passageway.
Virgil tells Dante to kneel down and lower the gaze before such a great man: Cato Uticensis**. The Latin poet explains him everything: how Beatrice had asked him to guide Dante, through Hell and Purgatory. He points out that it's thanks to Heavenly will that they could overcome all the obstacles of that terrible place. “Please, let him go through. He is seeking Freedom. Which is so precious, as the men who prefer to die for the sake of it, know very well”. Virgil means that Cato preferred to commit suicide in Utica, than to be an obedient servant of Julius Caesar.
In order to persuade him, he says that he has met Martia, Cato's loving wife, in Limbo***. He promises he will thank her too, if he lets Dante visit Purgatory.
Cato reveals that he cannot be moved by the Hell souls, any more.**** So he will let Dante go through the mountain of Purgatory, only because it's a woman from Paradise that wishes so, by God's concession. Eventually Cato asks Virgil to wash Dante's face with sea water and to girdle his waist with a smooth reed, in order to purge him from all the infernal filth. He must be clean before showing up in front of the the Gatekeeper of Purgatory. The seashore is filled with reeds, the only plant that the sea waves cannot break. After saying that, he takes leave of them.
Dante washes his own face with that holy water and his face was clean again. Then Virgil finds a reed on the seashore and girdles it around Dante's waist. After being pulled up, the plant magically started to grow back.


*He particularly invokes Calliopes the Muse of the Epic Poetry. She was defied by the Pierides the daughters of Pierus, and she won. As a punished she turned them into cawing magpies.
** Cato the Younger committed suicide during the siege of Utica. He preferred to kill himself, than to submit to Caesar. Virgil tries to blandish Cato by telling that his wife Martia still loves him and consider him his husband. In Purgatory he becomes the guardian of the seashore and the Ante-Purgatory (the vestibule on the slopes of the mountain). Virgil knows that Cato represents the courage and the commitment to be loyal to one's own ideals and values, that's why he was chosen to be the guardian of the souls that seek freedom from sin. On Doomsday, he will regain his mortal body.
*** Virgil explains that the unbaptized are not judged by Minos, and they don't undergo any punishment in Limbo.
****Cato uses a periphrasis: Martia is beyond the river Acheron, in Hell.

Second Canto
While it was noon in Jerusalem*, Dante and Virgil could see the orange colors of dawn. They were still looking at the sea, when Dante spots a luminous boat in the horizon: it was sailing fast towards the seashore. Dante sees two white gigantic wings, that were on the boat, and Virgil tells him to kneel down and to join hands in prayer, because that was an angel of God. The vessel could sail so fast thanks to his wings and looked like floating on water. The beauty of that angel was indescribable. On the small boat there were at least a hundred souls, singing in choir Psalm 113 (In exitu Israel de Aegypto). Dante lowers the gaze and kneels before the angel of God, who made the sign of the cross, made the passengers descend, and quit, disappearing in the horizon. The sun was already high**, and the souls looked scared in that new place; they ask the two visitors for the path to the mountain, but Virgil answers they were strangers to that place, as well. The souls realize, with amazement, that Dante was a living man, and were all whispering with each other. All of a sudden, a man from the crowd rushed to the poet and hugged him. Dante tried to hug him back, but could not grab or feel anything, for they were all immaterial souls. It was Casella, a famous singer of the XIII century, who admired Dante, and loved his poems.
Dante explains him about his spiritual voyage, and asks him what he was doing there, given that he had probably died many months earlier. Casella replied that, after his death, he had tried so many times to get on that nacelle, at the mouth of the Tiber river, but the angel of God would always deny him the passage.
So Dante figures out that it's where the Tiber flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea that the souls that are not sent to Hell, are embarked to the mountain of Purgatory. Casella adds that the angel boatman had been welcoming any penitent soul on the nacelle of Purgatory, since the beginning of the year***, including him. Dante loved his voice so he begged him to sing something to comfort him, before undergoing the ordeal of the journey. Love that speaks in my mind persuading me was the poem that he started to sing so sweetly, and all the other souls were enjoying that beautiful lyrics written by Dante himself. But Cato interrupted that joyous moment and reprimanded the souls, telling them to hasten, for they needed to reach the mountain of expiation. The souls, and the two poets, embarrassed resumed their path and rushed disoriented to the slopes of the mountain.



* According to Dante's peculiar vision of geocentric system, the mountain of Purgatory was located at the center of the austral hemisphere and whenever it was noon in Jerusalem (the highest spot of the boreal hemisphere), there was the dawn (the sun was rising) in the opposite part of the globe. He also adds that in India (where Ganges is) it was night already in that particular moment of the year (Spring) where night becomes shorter and shorter (before the equinox of autumn). He adds that even if it was dawn, Mars (the planet) was still visible.
**Capricorn constellation had already disappeared in the sky.
*** It was March-April 1300, and the Pope Boniface's jubilee had started. So in order to celebrate it, a plenary indulgence was granted to all repentant souls. So they could be allowed into Purgatory to expiate their sins.

Third Canto
Dante notices Virgil is looking, saddened at the mountain of Purgatory: the poet dreams of being admitted into Purgatory and then to Heaven, but he knows he will not. All of a sudden Dante is weary, noticing that Virgil casts no shadow. Virgil points out that his material body is buried in Naples (moved from Brundisium). But bodiless souls can still feel physical pain, cold, heat, and that is an endless mystery that God only knows. Human minds cannot comprehend the Trinity fully: philosophers like Plato and Aristotle failed to understand the human mind is nothing compared to the mystery of God, and their pretension made them remain in Limbo.
Arrived before the slopes of the mountain, they realize that it's impossible to climb up the high cliff in front of them. It's not even comparable to the steep cliffs of Liguria*.
While trying to find a pathway, they spot a group of souls walking towards them. As the two poets had done, they stopped before the high cliff, disoriented. Virgil yells at them, asking whether they knew a gateway, to go up the cliff. The modest and dignifying souls go to them, one by one, as sheep coming out of the sheepfold. Seeing Dante's shadow, they stop, out of fear, lingering. Virgil explains how he is a living man and his presence is justified by Godly will. The penitent souls, reassured, tell the two poets to follow them along. All of a sudden, a beautiful blonde man with a scar on one eyebrow tells Dante: “don't you recognize me?”, showing him a wound on his chest. It was Manfred, king of Sicily**, grandson of Constance D'Hauteville, and son of Frederick II of Swabia. He begs Dante to tell the truth about his death, especially to his daughter Constance of Aragon***. After he was fatally wounded in the battlefield of Benevento (1266), he had begged God for mercy and forgiveness, which He granted to him: the excommunicate who repent just before dying are saved but, are forced to remain in Ante-Purgatory for as many years as the period of excommunication, multiplied by thirty, unless someone prays for them and shortens this period. So he begs Dante to ask Constance to pray for him, in order to reduce the years of waiting.
As we can see, in the lower slopes in front of the high cliff, the excommunicate are forced to remain as long as they atone for their years of contumacy.



* Dante uses a periphrasis: he says that the cliffs between Lerici (La Spezia) and La Turbie (France), meaning the Ligurian region, are stairways compared to that high cliff.
**Manfred of Swabia was king of Sicily. Clement VII had allied with the Angevins against the Swabians, so he excommunicated Manfred Hohenstaufen, in order to delegitimize him in the battle against Charles of Anjou. After Manfred died in the battle of Benevento and lost the kingdom, he had been buried under the bridge of Benevento. But the bishop of Cosenza ordered to dig up his body and to scatter his bones along the Liri River, (outside of the kingdom of Naples) because he was an excommunicate.
*** Manfred's daughter, Constance of Aragon had married Peter III of Aragon. Her sons were James king of Aragon and Federico III king of Sicily (Manfred defines Constance the parent of the glories of Sicily and Aragon).