Inferno
Canto XII
Down a steep slope of shattered rock (caused by the earthquake at the Crucifixion), guarded by the Minotaur, the poets clamber to the Seventh Circle and find at the bottom of the cliff a River of Blood (Phlegethon) which flows round the circle. Boiling in its stream are those who have been violent against others; this being the first ring of the circle. Centaurs trot about the bank and shoot those who emerge more than their punishment allows. Chiron, their chief, appoints Nessus to guide Dante across the shallowest part of the stream. On the way, Nessus points out certain conquerors, assassins and highwaymen; among them is Guy de Montfort, who avenged his father Simon’s death by murdering Henry, son of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, “on God’s bosom,” i.e. in a church, during Mass, at Viterbo. Henry's heart was said to have been kept in a casket on London Bridge.
CRAGGY the place was where for our advance
We must descend, and by such presence marred,
That any eye would look on it askance.
Like to the desolation hitherward[i]4-5. “The desolation . . . of Trent’: our poet compares this vast slide with one in northeastern Italy.
Of Trent, on Adige, which, by want of prop
Or earthquake, has the river’s flank all scarred,
For down to the level from the mountain-top
The rock there is so ruined by its fall
That one above might scramble down the slope;
Such was the passage down that shattered wall; [10]
And on the ragged coping of the pit
We found the infamy of Crete a-sprawl[ii]12. “The infamy of Crete” is the Minotaur; half man and half beast, he was the offspring of a bull and Pasiphaë, wife of King Minos of Crete, who satisfied her abnormal passion (inflicted by Venus as a curse) by enclosing herself in a wooden cow.
That was conceived in the cow’s counterfeit;
Who, when he saw us, on himself, with look
Of one whom inward spleen convulses, bit.
Toward him my sage: “Thou think’st maybe the Duke[iii]16-17. “The Duke of Athens,” so called by Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Shakespeare, is the Athenian hero Theseus, who slew the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, guided by Ariadne, the daughter of Pasiphaë and Minos.
Of Athens comes to master thee anew
Who in the world above thy life-blood took.
Off, Monster! This one comes not with a clue
Provided by thy sister, on thy track, [20]
But passes on, your penances to view.”
As a bull bursts his tether to attack
Just when he feels the stroke that makes an end
‘And cannot charge but plunges forth and back,
So did the Minotaur his fury spend;
And watchful called my Guide: “To the passage! Haste!
The while he storms, ’tis best that thou descend.”
Ties climbed we downward on that splintered waste
Of stones, that often slid beneath my tread
With the unfamiliar weight upon them placed. [30]
I went in thought: and “Peradventure,” he said,
“Thou musest on this ruin, guarded by
The brute rage I but now discomfited.
I’ld have thee know that the other time when I
Descended hither to the deeps of hell,
The rock was not yet tumbled from on high.
But short while certainly, if I gauge it well,
Ere He came, who the plunder made of Dis
From those who in the upmost circle dwell,
On every deep and foul abyss [40]
Trembled so, that the universe I deemed
Felt love, whereby, as some think oft it is,[iv]42-43. According to Empedocles, the four elements, mixed together, produced chaos; hate, separating the seeds, brought forth from chaos all the things of the universe; love, by drawing the seeds together, can restore chaos. Dante probably got his idea of Empedocles from Aristotle.
The world has been to chaos cracked and seamed;
And in that moment, here and otherwhere,[v]44. “Otherwhere”: in the circle of the lustful (Inf. V, 34).
This ancient rock down into ruin streamed.
But turn thine eyes to the valley, for draws near
The river of blood, wherein are boiling they
Who live by violence and on other’s fear.”
O blind greed and mad anger, all astray[vi]49. The motives of violence to our fellow man are greed and wrath.
That in the short life goad us onward so, [50]
And in the eternal with such plungings pay!
I saw a wide fosse bent into a bow
Embaying all the level ground in front,
Even as my Guide already had made me know.
Between it and the scarp’s base were at hunt
Centaurs, who, armed with arrows, thronged the strand,[vii]56. Along the narrow bank run Centaurs, whose business it is to keep the other souls in their proper place. These half-human guardians are not depicted as hateful or repulsive, nor do they seem to be demons.
Running as in the world once they were wont.
Seeing us descending, each one came to a stand:
And from their company broke three, with bow
And javelin ready chosen in the hand. [60]
And one from far cried: “To what torment go
Ye that have come down by the headlong track?
Tell me from there; if not, I draw the bow.”
My Master said: “Our answer will we make
To Chiron yonder. In thee, to thy rue,[viii]65. Chiron, son of Saturn, skilled in surgery, was the preceptor of Achilles.
Rashness did ever judgment overtake.”
He touched me, and said: “This is that Nessus, who[ix]67. Nessus, while trying to carry off Dejanira through the water, was struck by an arrow from Hercules, her husband. To avenge himself, he left his bloody shirt with Dejanira, which afterwards caused the death of Hercules.
Died for the fair Deianira, and took
Of himself vengeance by the shirt that slew.
He in the middle who on his breast doth look [70]
Is the great Chiron, who Achilles nursed;
The other Pholus, whom such rages shook.[x]72. Pholus figured in the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapithae.
Round the fosse go their thousands; and soon pierced
With arrows is whatever spirit writhes out
From the blood higher than by his guilt immersed.”
We drew near to these creatures fleet of foot;
And Chiron took an arrow, and with the notch
His beard upon his jaw-bones backward put.
When he had uncovered his great mouth thus much,
He said to his companions: “Note ye how [80]
The one behind moves that which he doth touch?
The feet of the dead are not wont so to do.”
And my good Guide, now at the breast of him,
Where the two forms into one nature grew,
Said, “Ay, he lives, and through the valley dim
Solitary must I his steps escort.
Necessity brings him to it, and not whim.
From singing alleluias in Heaven’s court
Came she who for this task commissioned me.[xi]89. Beatrice.
He is no thief, nor I of thievish sort. [90]
But by the Virtue on high, through whose decree
I am bound upon so wild a journey, spare
One of thy band, to bear us company,
That he may show the ford to us, and may bear
Him on his back over to the other side.
For he is no spirit, to walk upon the air.”
Chiron upon his right breast turned and: “Guide
Be thou,” said he to Nessus; “if waylaid
By another troop, compel it to avoid.”
So with our guide we moved on unafraid [100]
By the red bubbles of the scalding ooze
Wherein the boiled their loud lamenting made.
I saw people in it up to the very brows.
And: “These are tyrants,” said the great Centaur
“Who made of blood and plunder their carouse.
Here all their ruthless ravage they deplore—
Alexander, and Dionysius fierce of heart,[xii]107. It is not known whether Dante meant Alexander the Great or Alexander of Pherae, who was coupled with Dionysius as a typical tyrant by Cicero. Dionysius ruled Syracuse from 407 to 367 B.C.
Who made for Sicily the years so sore.
That forehead with the hair on it so swart
Is Ezzelin; and the other, who is fair, [110][xiii]110. “Ezzelin”: Ezzelino da Romano, who held extensive dominions in northeastern Italy in the first half of the thirteenth century, a notoriously cruel tyrant; he was called a son of Satan.
Opizzo of Este, who, the truth to impart,[xiv]111. “Opizzo of Este,” Marquis of Ferrara in the second half of the thirteenth century, was a hard ruler.
Was quenched by his unnatural son, up there.”[xv]112. Virgil, to whom Dante turns in doubt, tells him that in this matter the Centaur is the best authority.
I turned to the poet, and he made reply:
“To him first now, not me, thou may’st refer.”
A little on, the Centaur paused anigh
Another throng of sinners which appeared
To stand above the seething stream throat-high.
And there a spirit whom no other neared[xvi]118. The “spirit whom no other neared” is Guy de Montfort (cf. the Argument of this canto).
He showed us, saying: “He on God’s bosom
Transfixt the heart still upon Thames revered.” [120]
Then saw I from the river emerging some
Who could the head and even the chest uprear;
And many I knew by this doom overcome.
Thus more and more the blood grew shallower
Until it scorched only the feet below.
For us the passage of the fosse was here.
“As on this side thou seest the boiling flow
Its own continual diminution keep,
So,” said the Centaur, “I would have thee know
That on the other it shelves from deep to deep [130]
Along the bottom, till it resumes its way
To where the tyrants are compelled to weep.
Here Divine Justice stings that Attila[xvii]133. Attila, King of the Huns, was called the “Scourge of God.”
Who upon earth was the world’s flail; and here
Pyrrhus and Sextus; and it milketh aye[xviii]135. Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, was a fearful enemy of the Romans. Sextus, son of Pompey, became a pirate.
Wea scald of pain the disimprisoned tear
From Rinier of Corneto, who so warred,[xix]137-138. Rinieri da Corneto and Rinieri de’ Pazzi were two highwaymen apparently famous in the thirteenth century.
With Rinier Pazzo, on the traveller.”
Then he turned backward, and repassed the ford.