Canto VIII: Summary:
Dante and Virgil came to the foot of a Great Tower. At the summit, two horns of flame flared, and another flame replied from the Great Tower. Phlegyas, the Boatman of Styx, is the link between the Wrathful and the Rebellious Angels who menaced God. Virgil and Dante board the skiff. As they crossed, the slime rose and cried, “Who are you that come here before your time?” The slime explains that he is one who weeps. Dante responds, “May you weep and wail to all eternity, for I know you, hell-dog, filthy as you are.” This is the first time Dante displays the beginning of the reformation of his soul. The reformation of Dante’s soul is confirmed when Virgil to Dante says, “Indignant spirit, I kiss you as you frown” (42).
As Virgil and Dante cross, a muddy soul rises before them. It is Filippo Argenti, one of the Wrathful. Dante say a “Loathsome spirit so mangled by a swarm of muddy wraiths that to this day [Dante] praise and thank God for it” (55-57). All the wrathful cried, “After Filippo Argenti” (58). Filippo Argenti is one of the Adimari family, who were bitter political enemies of Dante.
Dante sees the flaming red towers of Dis, the Capital of Hell. In ancient mythology, Pluto was King of the Underworld, and was sometimes called Dis. Dis is the metropolis of Satan. Within the city walls lies all the Lower Hell. Within the city of Dis, the cities fire is used for the first time as a torment for the damned. At the center of Dis, Satan stands forever fixed in a great ice cap.
The Rebellious Angels will not let Dante and Virgil pass through the Iron Gate. Virgil sends up a prayer for assistance and waits anxiously for a Heavenly Messenger. Virgil to Dante explains, already The Great One has passed the gate and moves down ledge by dark ledge. The Great One is one who needs no guide, and at The Great One’s touch all gates must spring aside.
Canto VIII: Analysis:
Virgil and Dante stand at the edge of the swamp, and they “Came to the foot of a Great Tower” (1-2). A mysterious “Two horns of flame flared from the summit, one from either side, and then, far off, so far [Virgil and Dante] scarce could see it across the mist, another flame replied” from the great tower” (3-6). Virgil and Dante see Phlegyas, the Boatman of Styx, racing toward them across the water, fast as an arrow. Phlegyas calls out, “So, do I have you at last, you whelp of Hell?” (18)
Phlegyas is the mythological king of Boeotia. Phlegyas was the son of Ares, Mars, and the mother was human. Phylegyas was angry at Apollo for seducing his daughter. Phylegyas set fire to Apollo’s temple at Delphi. For this offense, the god killed Phlegyas and threw his soul into Hades under sentence of eternal torment. Phlegyas, a ferryman in the Inferno, is the link between the Wrathful and the Rebellious Angels who menaced God.
Phlegyas comes quickly thinking that he would find new souls to torments, and when he discovers it is Virgil and Dante, Phlegyas, “The madman, blew his rage among those muddy marshes like a cheat deceived, or like a fool at some imagined wrong” (22-24). Virgil “Boarded the skiff, monitoring [Dante] to follow” (26).
As [Virgil and Dante] ran on that dead swamp, the slime rose before [Dante], and the slime cried: “Who are you that come here before your time?” (33) Dante responds, “If I come, I do not remain. But you, who are you, so fallen and so foul?” (34-35) The voice of the slime responds, “I am one who weeps” (36). Dante says, “May you weep and wail to all eternity, for I know you, hell-dog, filthy as you are” (37-38). This is the first time Dante displays the beginning of the reformation of his soul. The reformation of Dante’s soul is confirmed when Virgil to Dante says, “Indignant spirit, I kiss you as you frown” (42).
Virgil to Dante confounds, “Blessed be she who bore you” (43). Those words were Luke’s words to Christ, and were not chosen lightly. The “Commedia” is a vision of the progress of man’s soul toward perfection. By Dante being contemptuous of Wrath, Dante is purging wrath from his soul. Dante is growing nearer to perfection. Virgil welcomes this sign of relentless rejection displayed by Dante towards the wrathful. Only by ruthless enmity toward evil may the soul be purified, and just as Christ is the symbol of ultimate perfection by rejection of Evil, so the birth of that rejection in Dante may aptly be greeted by the words of Luke. It is from this rejection that the soul must be reborn. Righteous indignation is one of the virtues Christ practiced and is the golden mean of right action between the evil extremes of wrath and sullenness.
As Virgil and Dante cross, a muddy soul rises before them. It is Filippo Argenti, one of the Wrathful. Dante say a “Loathsome spirit so mangled by a swarm of muddy wraiths that to this day [Dante] praise and thank God for it” (55-57). All the wrathful cried, “After Filippo Argenti” (58). Filippo Argenti is one of the Adimari family, who were bitter political enemies of Dante. Dante’s savagery toward him was probably intended in part as an insult to the family. Filippo Argenti is set upon by the other sinners, who fall upon Filippo and rip him to pieces.
Virgil says, “My son, the City of Dis lies just ahead, the heavy citizens, the swarming crowds of Hell’s metropolis” (64-66). Dante sees the flaming red towers of Dis, the Capital of Hell. In ancient mythology, Pluto was King of the Underworld, and was sometimes called Dis. Dis is the metropolis of Satan. Within the city walls lies all the Lower Hell. Within the city of Dis, the cities fire is used for the first time as a torment for the damned. At the center of Dis, Satan stands forever fixed in a great ice cap.
Dante to Virgil says, “Master, I already see the glow of its red mosques, as if they came hot from the forge to smolder in this valley” (67-69). In Dante’s time, a mosque is the perversion of a church. A mosque is the impious counterpart of the House of God. The city of Dis is therefore architecturally appropriate, a symbolism that becomes more terrible when the mosques are made of red-hot iron.
The fires of Hell are all within Dis. The great walls of the iron city of Dis block the way to the Lower Hell. The remainder of Hell lies within the city walls, which separate the Upper and Lower Hell. Virgil to Dante replies, “They are eternal flues to eternal fire that rages in them and makes them glow across this lower Hell” (70-72).
Phlegyas drops Virgil and Dante off at a great Iron Gate. The Iron Gate is guarded by the Rebellious Angels. “Above the gates more than a thousand shades of spirits purged from Heaven for its glory cried angrily. [The Rebellious Angels] cried, ‘Who is it that invades Death’s Kingdom in his life?'” (79-82) The Rebellious Angels are the Angels who sinned by refusing to take sides. The Rebellious Angels are of Ultimate Evil. The Rebellious Angels are rebels against God Himself. The Rebellious Angels refuse to let Virgil and Dante pass.
Virgil is powerless against them, for Human Reason by itself cannot cope with the Essence of Evil. Virgil to Dante explains, “This insolence of there is nothing new: they showed it once at a less secret gate that still stands open for all that they could dothe same gate where you read the dead inscription; and through it at this moment a Great One comes” (121-125). According to a medieval tradition, the Rebellious Angels gathered at the outer gate to oppose the decent of Christ into Limbo at the time of the Harrowing of Hell. However, Christ broke down the door and ever since the door remains open. Only Divine Aid or the “Great One” can bring hope.
Virgil sends up a prayer for assistance and waits anxiously for a Heavenly Messenger. Virgil to Dante explains, “Already [The Great One] has passed [the gate] and moves down ledge by dark ledge. [The Great One] is one who needs no guide, and at [The Great One’s] touch all gates must spring aside” (126-128).
Work Cited:
Alighieri, Dante, “The Inferno,” Trans. John Ciardi, Signet Classics, New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., New York, New York, 2009, Print.
