Summary: Canto V
This one, who now will never leave my
side,
Kissed my mouth, trembling. A Galeotto, that book!
Dante and Virgil now descend into the Second Circle of
Hell, smaller in size than the First Circle but greater in punishment.
They see the monster Minos, who stands at the front of an endless
line of sinners, assigning them to their torments. The sinners confess
their sins to Minos, who then wraps his great tail around himself
a certain number of times, indicating the number of the circle to
which the soul must go. Like Charon, Minos recognizes Dante as a
living soul and warns him not to enter; it is Virgil’s word that
again allows them to pass unmolested.
Dante and Virgil pass into a dark place in which torrential
rains fall ceaselessly and gales of wind tear through the air. The
souls of the damned in this circle swirl about in the wind, swept
helplessly through the stormy air. These are the Lustful—those who
committed sins of the flesh.
Dante asks Virgil to identify some of the individual souls
to him; they include many of great renown, including Helen, for
whose sake the Trojan War was fought, and Cleopatra. Dante immediately
feels sympathy for these souls, for essentially they are damned
by love. With Virgil’s permission, he calls out to the souls to
see if they will speak to him and tell him their story. One woman,
Francesca, recognizes Dante as a living soul and answers him. She
relates to him how love was her undoing: bound in marriage to an
old and deformed man, she eventually fell in love with Paolo da
Rimini, her husband’s younger brother. One day, as she and Paolo
sat reading an Arthurian legend about the love of Lancelot and Guinevere,
each began to feel that the story spoke to their own secret love.
When they came to a particularly romantic moment in the story, they
could not resist kissing. Francesca’s husband quickly discovered
their transgression and had the young lovers killed. Now Paolo and
Francesca are doomed to spend eternity in the Second Circle of Hell.
Overcome with pity, Dante faints again.
Summary: Canto VI
When Dante wakes, he finds that he has been moved
to the Third Circle of Hell, where the rains still fall. Now, however,
the drops consist of filth and excrement, and a horrific stench
fills the air. A three-headed dog, Cerberus, tries to stop Virgil
and Dante’s progress, but Virgil satisfies the beast by throwing
it a chunk of earth. Dante and Virgil then advance into the circle
of the Gluttonous, who must lie on the ground as the sewage rains
down upon them.
One of the Gluttonous sits up when he sees Virgil and
Dante, and asks if Dante recognizes him. When Dante replies that
he does not, the shade announces himself as Ciacco, saying that
he spent his earthly life in Florence. At Dante’s request, he voices
his predictions for Florence’s political future, which he anticipates
will be filled with strife. Dante then asks about figures from Florence’s
political past, naming individuals he believes to have been well
intentioned. Ciacco replies that they reside in a much deeper circle
of Hell. Before lying back down, he asks Dante to remember his name
when he returns to the world above.
As they leave the Third Circle, Dante asks Virgil how
the punishments of the souls will change after the Last Judgment.
Virgil replies that since that day will bring the perfection of
all creation, their punishments will be perfected as well.
