Summary: Canto XVIII
Virgil and Dante find themselves outside the Eighth Circle
of Hell, known as Malebolge (“Evil Pouches”). Dante describes the
relationship between the circle’s structure and its name: the circle
has a wall running along the outside and features a great circular
pit at its center; ten evenly spaced ridges run between the wall
and the pit. These ridges create ten separate pits, or pouches,
in which the perpetrators of the various forms of “ordinary fraud”
receive their punishments. Virgil leads Dante around the left side
of the circle, where they come upon the First Pouch.
Here, Virgil and Dante see a group of souls running constantly from
one side of the pouch to the other. On both of the pouch’s containing
ridges, demons with great whips scourge the souls as soon as they
come within reach, forcing them back to the opposite ridge. Dante
recognizes an Italian there and speaks to him; the soul informs
Dante that he lived in Bologna and now dwells here because he sold
his sister to a noble. This pouch is for the Panders (pimps) and
the Seducers—those who deceive women for their own advantage. Moving
on, Virgil and Dante also see the famous Jason of mythology, who
abandoned Medea after she helped him find the Golden Fleece.
As Virgil and Dante cross the ridge to the
Second Pouch, a horrible stench besieges them, and they hear mournful
cries. Dante beholds a ditch full of human excrement, into which
many sinners have been plunged. From one of these souls, he learns
that this pouch contains the Flatterers. After a few seconds, Virgil says
that they have seen enough of this foul sight. They progress toward
the Third Pouch.
Summary: Canto XIX
Dante already knows that the Third Pouch punishes the
Simoniacs, those who bought or sold ecclesiastical pardons or offices.
He decries the evil of simony before he and Virgil even view the
pouch. Within, they see the sinners stuck headfirst in pits with
only their feet protruding. As these souls writhe and flail in the
pits, flames lap endlessly at their feet.
Dante notes one soul burning among flames redder than
any others, and he goes to speak with him. The soul, that of Pope
Nicholas III, first mistakes Dante for Boniface. After Dante corrects
him, the soul tells Dante that he was a pope guilty of simony. He
mourns his own position but adds that worse sinners than he still
remain on Earth and await an even worse fate. Dante asserts that
St. Peter did not pay Christ to receive the Keys of Heaven and Earth
(which symbolize the papacy). He shows Nicholas no pity, saying
that his punishment befits his grave sin. He then speaks out against
all corrupt churchmen, calling them idolaters and an affliction
on the world. Virgil approves of Dante’s sentiments and helps Dante
up over the ridge to the Fourth Pouch.
Summary: Canto XX
In the Fourth Pouch, Dante sees a line of sinners trudging
slowly along as if in a church procession. Seeing no apparent punishment other
than this endless walking, he looks closer and finds, to his amazement,
that each sinner’s head points the wrong way—the souls’ necks have
been twisted so that their tears of pain now fall on their buttocks.
Dante feels overcome by grief and pity, but Virgil rebukes him for
his compassion.
