We've come to the most complex opening of any canto in INFERNO. Canto XXX opens with two, long allusions about the tragedy of Thebes and Troy, both of which morph into similes for the damned, a medieval literary tour de force.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we stick around the final of the evil pouches (the "malebolge") of fraud, the eighth circle of Dante's INFERNO. We're almost done with fraud, but Dante saves the best for last: a canto that's part funny, part horrific, part repulsive, and part elegant. In other words, the heights of the poet's art.

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

[01:39] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXX, lines 1 - 33. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment, head over to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:53] The ornate, elaborate opening of Canto XXX: two classical allusions, one about Thebes and the other about Troy.

[06:00] The first allusion: to Thebes, from Ovid's METAMORPHOSES.

[11:55] The second allusion: to Troy, again from Ovid's METAMORPHOSES.

[15:49] A summary of these two opening allusions.

[17:00] Morphing the allusions into similes.

[19:46] The wealth of animal imagery in the passage--and madness as the final metamorphosis.

[22:22] The plot (finally!) at the end of this long passage: Capocchio dragged off.

[23:58] A bit about this rabid soul: Gianni Schicchi.

[25:38] The biggest disruption of human civilization: contagion.

[29:34] Canto XXX as the heart of falsification--and Dante's art.

[32:02] Rereading INFERNO, Canto XXX, lines 1 - 33.