The Fourth Circle of INFERNO. We've come down to the great enemy: Plutus. Or is it Pluto? And why's he so great if he makes no sense and is vanquished so easily. By Virgil. Who suddenly has a more sure grip on Christian theology.

Wow, a canto that begins to show lots of fractures in the poem's structure. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as Dante-the-pilgrim and his guide encounter this blustery figure and then get an overview of a bunch of guys who are pushing rocks. Dante-the-poet is full of surprises. Some of them, he may not even have intended.

Here are the segments for this episode:

[00:28] My English translation of the passage from INFERNO: Canto VII, lines 1 - 35.

[03:26] The next guardian: Plutus. Or maybe it's Pluto. Or maybe both. Whatever, he can't speak right. And he's a wolf of some sort. Except we've seen wolves before: the she-wolf from canto I. And we'll see wolves again. And something else: Virgil mentions vendetta, which sets in motion a major thematic of INFERNO. But the way Virgil mentions vendetta. Curiouser and curiouser.

[13:08] The first simile of this canto--masts and sails falling apart--and some thoughts on the patterning of references as a basic notion of narrative structure.

[18:58] The descent to the fourth circle. Some thoughts about neologisms (words Dante-the-poet just makes up). Some thoughts on how every edition of THE COMEDY does it disservice by starting out with a map before the text. And finally, some thoughts about the redefinition of sin here, into two poles: hoarding and wasting. We haven't ever seen any other sin as twinned. As I said, curiouser.