We've come to the first subset of the last circle of INFERNO, the pit of hell, an ice sheet that start with Caïna, which holds those who've offed family members, mostly for land or money. These guys are frozen solid to their necks, the heads bent down to let their tears spill onto the ice.

They're a nasty lot, although one of the damned can't help but speak up. He proves both a snitch and strangely reticent. A poor storyteller, really, who just wants to get back to his misery.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at a pack of traitors who've killed family members for land or money (or power) in this nightmarish subset of hell which is actually controlled by the shadow of another sinner, someone far above us in the circles of INFERNO.

Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:40] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXII, lines 40 - 69. If you want to read along, print it off, or drop a comment, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:26] Disorientation (and focus) as one of the thematics of the ninth circle of hell.

[08:49] A frozen, infernal parody of a brotherly kiss of affection (or maybe even the liturgical kiss of peace).

[13:42] Dante's strange (and perhaps unnecessary?) interest in the damned, expressed by their physicality.

[16:50] The traitor's question invokes a larger one about how Dante the poet and/or the pilgrim is mirrored here.

[20:15] The last fifteen lines of this passage--first, a quick reading with the details filled in.

[23:34] Caïna: unpacking the name of the first subcircle of the ninth circle.

[25:47] Unpacking the characters in this passage: Alessandro and Napoleone degli Alberti, Modred, Focaccia (or Vanni dei Cancellieri), Sassol Mascheroni, Camicione de' Pazzi, and Carlino de' Pazzi.

[35:01] Reasons for the (mostly) obsessive regionalism of this passage: the locale and time (mostly) in which Dante lived.

[40:33] Francesca's control of this passage from way up above in Canto V.