Inferno
Canto XXXI
Dante has now visited the whole of the Eighth Circle, with its ten concentric chasms; and approaches the central well or pit which leads to the last and lowest circle. He seems to see a ring of towers round the well; but Virgil explains that these are Giants, who stand within it, and whose upper part appears over the bank surrounding the well. One of the Giants is Nimrod, who is by Dante supposed to have built the Tower of Babel, and pays for it by his unintelligible speech. After seeing him the poets go on round the rim of the well to Ephialtes, and then to Antaeus, who takes them up in his grasp and deposits them at the bottom of the pit, in the Ninth Circle. As he leans over he appears to Dante like the Garisenda, one of the leaning towers of Bologna.
THE self-same tongue first dealt to me the wound
So that it coloured both my cheeks with red,
And then itself restoring medicine found.
Thus have I heard that by Achilles sped[i]4. Virgil’s tongue has the same power as the magic spear of Achilles and his father Peleus, which could both wound and cure.
The spear, that was his father’s, where it pierced
Brought hurt and then with healing comforted.
We turned our back upon the valley accurst
Up by the bank about its circle cast
And without any speech the ridge traversed.
To less than night and less than day we passed, [10]
So that my sight not far before me went;
But now, on high, a horn sounded a blast
So loud, it would have made the thunder faint;
Which drew my eyes in reverse course to go
Whence the sound came, all upon one place bent.
When Charlemagne by dolorous overthrow
Had lost his army and sacred enterprise,
No note so terrible did Roland blow.[ii]18. At the battle of Roncesvalles, when all was lost, Roland blew his horn so loud that it was heard thirty leagues away.
Thitherward short while had I turned mine eyes,
When many lofty towers I seemed to see; [20]
Whereat I: “Master, say, what city is this?”
“Because thou travellest,” said he to me,
“The murk at too great distance, thou dost err
And thy imagination cheateth thee.
If thou arrive there, thou shalt see full clear
How much remoteness can the sense confound.
Therefore thy steps I bid thee somewhat spur.”
Thereon he clasped my hand with pressure fond
And said: “I'll tell thee, ere we further go,
So that the truth of it may less astound, [30]
These are not towers but Giants, and thou must know
That each and all, around the bank confined,
Down from the navel are in the well below.”
As, when the mist disperses in the wind,
By little and little the eye discerns anew
Shapes of things dimly in the cloud divined,
So, as the gross, dark air I journeyed through
And toward the brink came near and nearer yet,
My error was dissolved, and my fear grew.
For as with towers on its round rampart set [40]
Montereggione crowns itself, so tall[iii]41. “Montereggione,” a strong castle built by the Sienese, was surmounted by twelve towers.
Around the stony circle of the pit
With half their bodies turreted the wall
The horrible Giants whose rebellious pride
Jove’s thunderings out of heaven still appal.
By now the face of one I well descried,
Shoulders and breast, and of the belly a part,
And arms that hung down by his either side.
Of a truth Nature, when she left the art
Of making the like creatures, did not ill [50]
From Mars such monstrous agents to divert;
And if of elephants and whales she still[iv]52-54. Nature continues to produce elephants and whales, but they have no intelligence and therefore are harmless. Her suppression of giants, then, shows fine discrimination.
Repents not, he that subtly reads her right
Approves the prudent working of her will.
For if with the mind’s instrument unite
Power and an evil purpose both at once,
Men have no means against such force to fight.
His face seemed large as the pine-cone of bronze[v]58. A pine cone of gilt bronze, which is said to have been one of the adornments of the Mausoleum of Hadrian, stood in Dante’s day in the fore-court of St. Peter’s.
That by St. Peter’s has in Rome renown.
In like proportion were his other bones; [60]
So that the bank which from the middle down
Made him an apron, still so much displayed
Above, that to have reached up to his crown
Three Frieslanders in vain their boast had made.[vi]64. “Three Frieslanders” (standing on one another’s shoulders) would have boasted in vain that they could reach from the bank to the giant’s hair. Frisians were noted for their tall stature.
For down from where a man buckles his coat
Thirty large spans of him mine eye surveyed.
Raphel may amech zabi almi, throat[vii]67. These words have no meaning.
And brutish mouth incontinently cried;
And they were fitted for no sweeter note.
“Stupid soul!” towards him then began my Guide, [70]
“Keep to thy horn, and vent thee with its sound
When rage or other passion shakes thy hide.
Search on thy neck until the belt be found
That holds it fastened, O thou soul confused.
See where it girdles thy huge breast around.”
Then to me speaking: “He hath himself accused.
This is that Nimrod, through whose ill design[viii]77. “Nimrod”: see the Argument.
One language through the world is no more used.
Leave we him standing, nor waste words of thine;
For every tongue to him is as to all [80]
Others is his, which no one can divine.”
Then made we a longer journey along the wall
Leftward, and at a cross-bow shot beyond
We found the next, even yet more fierce and tall.
What master it was who put him in such bond
I cannot tell, but his right arm behind
And the other in front of him were pinioned
With a great chain, that held him all entwined
From the neck down, and over what was bared
To view, far as the fifth turn seemed to wind. [90]
“This proud rebellious spirit his prowess dared
To match against the supreme might of Jove,”
Said my Guide; “wherefore he hath such reward.
Ephialtes he, who would the adventure prove
When that the Giants made the Gods afraid.
The arms he shook then, now he cannot move.”
“If it were possible, I should wish,” I said,
“That these mine eyes should have experience
Of Briareus’ immeasurable shade.”
Whereto he said: “Antaeus not far hence [100]
Thou'lt see, who speaks and is not chained; and he
Will lower us to the bottom of all offence.
Far beyond stands he whom thou cravest to see,
And shackled is, and like this one he shows,
Save that he seems of fiercer looks to be.”
Never convulsion of an earthquake rose
To shake with so much violence a tower
As now shook Ephialtes in its throes.
Then more than ever I dreaded my death-hour,
And nought else needed for it but the dread, [110]
Had I not seen what bonds constrained his power.
We then continued on our way that led
Around the hollow, and to Antaeus came
Emerging full five ells, without the head.
“O thou who in the valley of happy fame,[ix]115. In the valley of Bagrada, near Zama, Scipio conquered Hannibal.
Bequeathing Scipio glory on the day
When routed Hannibal was put to shame,
Didst take a thousand lions once for prey,
And through whom, hadst thou been amongst the host
Of thy high-warring brethren, some yet say [120]
The sons of the Earth had not the victory lost,
Set us down then, nor scorn thou to do thus,
Where lies Cocytus locked in the deep frost.
Make us not go to Typho or Tityus![x]124. “Typho” and “Tityus”: two other giants.
This man can give what here is languished for.
Bend thee then down, nor curl thy lip at us.
He can thy fame yet upon earth restore:
He llives, and him long life doth yet abide
If to itself Grace call him not before.”
Thus spake the Master, and quickly from his side [130]
He stretched the hands which Hercules assayed
Of old in mighty grapple, and took my Guide.
When Virgil felt their grasp upon him laid
He said, “Come hither, and let me take thee,” and then
Of me and of himself one bundle made.
Such as the Garisenda seems to men[xi]136-138. “Garisenda”: one of the two famous leaning towers in Bologna. To an observer standing beneath the overhang, and looking upward, a cloud passing over the tower, in the direction opposite to its slope, makes the structure seem to be falling.
Beneath its leaning, when clouds pass on high,
And counter-wise it seemeth then to lean,
Such seemed Antaeus to me, who stood to eye
His bending; and it frighted so my mind [140]
That any other road I longed to try.
But gently on the floor which keeps confined[xii]142. “On the floor . . .”: ninth circle.
Judas with Lucifer, he down at last
Set us, nor lingered over us inclined,
But raised himself, as in a ship the mast.