9 (p. 167) “I Camicion de’ Pazzi was, and wait Carlino to exonerate me”: The speaker finally identifies himself; it is possible that he may also be the unidentified speaker of 11. 19—21 who warns the Pilgrim not to step on the heads of the two “miserable brothers,” Alessandro and Napoleone degli Alberti. Little is known about Camicione de’ Pazzi except for the fact that he murdered a relative named Ubertino. Another of his relatives, Carlino (1. 69), died only in 1302, so he was alive during the fictitious date that the Pilgrim’s journey through Hell took place. Camicione foretells a bit of the future here, for he predicts that Carlino will “exonerate” him—commit an even greater sin, making Camicione’s crime seem much less important. In fact, in 1302 Carlino de’ Pazzi was commanding the fortress of Piantra vigne in the Arno valley for the Florentine Whites and betrayed the fortress to the Florentine Blacks and their Lucchese allies. Thus while Camicione is in Caïna for murdering his kin, Carlino will apparently be sent to the next level down, to the second ring of Cocytus (Antenora), where traitors to their party, country, or city are punished.
10 (p. 167) a thousand faces: The passage from Caina to Antenora occurs abruptly, signaled only by the fact that the faces Dante sees look straight ahead and are not bent down as they are in Caïna. Antenora is named for a Trojan warrior, Antenor, who, according to some accounts (but not Virgil’s), betrayed Troy to the Greeks after Paris refused to give Helen back to them and subsequently went on to found the city of Padua in Italy.
11 (p. 167) Montaperti: On September 4, 1260, the Florentine Guelphs met disaster at the hands of the Florentine and Sienese Ghibellines in this village in Tuscany east of Siena (referred to earlier, in canto X: 85-86).
12 (p. 168) “What doth ail thee, Bocca?”: The soul who the Pilgrim kicks hard (1. 78), who seeks not fame in the world of the living but oblivion (1. 94), and whose hair the Pilgrim pulls to force him, without success, to identify himself (1. 101), is identified by another sinner as Bocca degli Abati. Bocca was blamed for the disastrous defeat of the Guelphs at Montaperti, where he cut off the arm of the standard-bearer at the crucial moment in the battle, causing the Florentine Guelphs to panic and to be slaughtered. In revenge for this misdeed, Dante promises to tell the living about Bocca’s punishment in Hell.
13 (p. 168) “the silver of the French ... ’him of Duera ...”‘. Bocca names the soul who identified him to the Pilgrim as Buoso da Duera, a Ghibelline from the city of Cremona. Bribed by the French, Buoso allowed Guelph forces commanded by Charles of Anjou in 1265 to enter a pass near Parma and capture the city uncontested. Bocca also identifies a number of other souls in Antenora.
14 (p. 169) “Beccaria ... Ganellon, and Tebaldello who oped Faenza”: We now learn the identities of other sinners in Antenora. Tesauro de’ Beccheria of Pavia, a legate in Tuscany for Pope Alexander, was beheaded by the Florentine Guelphs in 1258 on a charge of conspiring with the Ghibellines. Gianni del Soldanier, a Florentine Ghibelline, deserted his party and supported a popular Florentine uprising favorable to the Guelphs after Manfred, the Ghibelline leader, was killed at the battle of Benevento in 1266. Ganellon (also often spelled “Ganelon”) betrayed Charlemagne’s rear guard and its commander Roland at the pass of Roncesvalles in 778 (see canto XXXI: 16-18). Tebaldello Zambrasi (d. 1282), a Ghibelline, opened up the city gates of Faenza in 1280 to the Bolognese Guelphs in order to take revenge on some of the Bolognese Ghibellines who had taken refuge in the town.
15 (p. 169) two frozen in one hole: These two sinners will be identified by name only in canto XXXIII: 13-14.
16 (p. 169) even as bread... Tydeus gnawed the temples of Menalippus in disdain: Dante compares the as yet unidentified sinner who is gnawing upon the other’s head to Tydeus, one of the Seven Against Thebes, the mythical expedition against Eteocles, king of Thebes. Tydeus slew Menalippus in battle but was mortally wounded by him. Tydeus asked his men to cut off the head of Menalippus, and he chewed upon it as he died. It is Capaneus (see canto XIV) who brings the head to Tydeus, according to Dante’s source, Statius’s Thebaid, Book VIII.
17 (p. 169) if that wherewith I speak be not dried up: Dante promises to present the sinner’s story so that the living may judge if his actions are justified (something the Poet does in the following canto, XXXIII). The last line of the canto has been interpreted in a number of ways, but ultimately Dante is simply emphasizing that he will fulfill his promise no matter what happens—whether or not his tongue fails him, whether or not he is frozen in Cocytus, whether or not he is paralyzed, and whether or not he survives his journey.
CANTO XXXIII
1 (p. 170) Count Ugolino: Ugolino della Gherardesca (c.1220- 1289) was a Ghibelline from Pisa who joined the Guelph Visconti family to take control of the city but instead was banished. He returned to Pisa and conspired with Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini (1. 14), a Ghibelline, against his own grandson, Nino Visconti, a Guelph judge. When Visconti was forced to leave the city, Ugolino and Ruggieri had a falling out, and the Archbishop falsely accused Ugolino of surrendering the Pisan fortresses to their Florentine and Lucchese enemies. In 1288 Ugolino was imprisoned with two sons and two grandsons, and they all died by starvation in 1289. Ugolino is in Antenora primarily because he betrayed his Ghibelline party and probably not for the false accusation of surrendering Pisa’s fortresses.
2 (p. 170) “A narrow perforation in the mew ... many moons”: Ugolino was able to peer out of a tiny slit in the mew, or molting loft, in a tower that became known as the Torre della Fame (“Tower of Hunger”) because of the fate of Ugolino and the others. Some six months (moons) passed between the time of Ugolino’s imprisonment and his death.
3 (p. 170) “I dreamed the evil dream ... Sismondi and Lanfranchi”: Ugolino’s dream was prophetic: In it, the hunter is the Archbishop (1. 28), who is hunting Ugolino and his offspring (the wolf and his whelps of 1. 29) on the mountain that hides Lucca from Pisa, Monte San Giuliano (1. 30). In ambush are waiting the leading Ghibelline families of Pisa (the Gualandi, Sismondi, and the Lanfranchi of 1. 32), as well as the Pisan populace (the gaunt sleuth-hounds of 1. 31).
4 (p. 171) “before the morrow ... asking after bread”: According to medieval tradition, waking dreams (those that occur just before awakening in the morning) were prophetic. Here Ugolino awakens in the morning to be confronted by the instant materialization of his dream, not just a prophecy of what might occur: His offspring (sons and grandsons) are standing before him asking for food.
5 (p. 171) “what art thou wont to weep at?”: Ugolino’s question underlines the fact that this time, the Pilgrim has not been provoked to a sympathetic reaction—he sheds no tears for this traitor, even though his tale (like that of Francesca da Rimini in canto V, for example) seems heartrending. Near the end of his journey through Hell, the Pilgrim has learned something about the proper reaction to evil.
6 (p. 171) “little Anselm mine”: Anselmuccio (diminutive of Anselmo) was the younger of Ugolino’s grandsons and about fifteen at the time of his imprisonment.
7 (p. 172) “Gaddo ... ’Why dost thou not help me?‘ ”: The accusing words of Ugolino’s son may recall Christ’s last words on the cross, as told in the Bible, Matthew 27: 46: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Gaddo was actually a young man at the time, not a child, but the effect is more shocking on the reader if his age is left unmentioned. Besides Anselmo and Gaddo, the other two relatives of Ugolino who died were his son Uguccione and his grandson Nino. The time that elapses from the moment the prison door is sealed until the deaths of the four children totals seven days.
8 (p. 172) “Then hunger did what sorrow could not do”: The simplest and most obvious explanation for this line is that three days after the death of the last boy, Ugolino died of starvation. In other words, hunger killed him when sorrow was unable to achieve that result. After delivering his remarks, Ugolino returns to gnawing upon Ruggieri’s skull (“the wretched skull” of 1. 77). This fact has led some commentators to interpret Ugolino’s remark as
an admission that he ate his own offspring to prolong his life.
9 (p. 172) Ah! Pisa: Pisa’s shame is not to have executed Ugolino (who is rightfully condemned in Hell) but to have executed his offspring (who, again rightfully, are not in Hell with him).
10 (p. 172) where the Si doth sound: In his De vulgari eloquentia, Book I, Dante divides various European Romance languages into groups by their words for “yes”—therefore, this is Dante’s unusual way of saying “Italy.”
11 (p. 172) the Capraia and Gorgona: These islands in the Mediterranean belonged to Pisa at the time Ugolino was executed.
12 (p. 172) thou modern Thebes!: Classical literature and mythology contain many references to violent episodes in the history of the city of Thebes, some of which are mentioned in the Inferno: Jupiter’s killing of Capaneus (canto XIV: 49-72); the slaying of the sons of Oedipus (canto XXVI: 52-54); King Athamas’s insane killing of his son (canto XXX: 1-12). Ugolino’s tale thus makes modern Pisa fit to be compared to this ancient city.
13 (p. 172) Uguccione and Brigata: Uguccione was the youngestI son of Count Ugolino and brother to Gaddo (mentioned earlier in 1. 68). The eldest son of Count Ugolino was named Nino but was known as “Il Brigata,” the nickname Dante employs.
14 (pp. 172-173) Another people ... beneath the eyebrow full: The brief phrase “another people” alerts the reader to the fact that Virgil and the Pilgrim are now in Ptolomaea (also spelled “Ptolomea” by modern scholars), the third zone of Cocytus in the ninth circle, the part reserved for traitors of the host-guest relationship. The name has occasioned some comment, since it may either be a reference to Ptolemy, the captain of Jericho who had his father-in-law and two sons killed while dining with him (as told in the Apocrypha of the Bible, 1 Maccabees 16:11-17), or to Ptolemy XII, the king of Egypt who gave hospitality to Pompey, who was fleeing Caesar after the battle of Pharsalus (48 B.C.), then arranged to have him murdered to curry favor with the Roman victor. Most ancient civilizations and many modern ones (such as Dante’s) believed that the relationship between guest and host was sacred and violating it was extremely serious. Here the sinners suffer with their heads thrown back so that their tears freeze in their eye sockets (11. 94-99).
15 (p. 173) I felt some wind ... “the cause which raineth down the blast”: Feeling a wind on his frozen face, Dante is puzzled: According to the scientific theory of his time, the sun created wind by heat striking moisture (the “vapor” of 1. 105), and there is no sun in Hell. Virgil promises him that the answer is soon to be revealed (in the next canto, XXXIV: 46-51).
16 (p. 173) “Say who thou wast ... to the bottom of the ice”: Armed now with the kind of righteous indignation for sin necessary to protect himself from false sentimentalism, the Pilgrim lies to the sinner, vowing he will free him or be sent to Judecca, the bottom section of Cocytus and the worst place in Hell. Of course, the Pilgrim knows that he is already going to Judecca as a guest, not to be tortured, and his lie encourages the speaker to identify himself in spite of the usual reluctance in Hell to have one’s sins and name remembered among the living.
17 (p. 173) “Friar Alberigo ... a date am getting for my Jig”: Alberigo was a Guelph from Faenza and a member of the previously mentioned Frati Gaudenti, or “Jovial Friars” (see canto XXIII, note 12). In 1285, he invited several relatives to dinner and had them murdered as he called out for the fruit course to end the meal. Now, he claims he is suffering more than he should, because he is receiving a date for his fig—at that time, dates were more expensive than figs, so he is saying that his crime (the fig) does not warrant the high level of punishment (the more expensive date) he is receiving.
18 (pp. 173-174) “an advantage has this Ptolomæa... his body by a demon is taken from him”: Alberigo presents one of Dante’s most ingenious inventions. Sinners who qualify for occupancy in this part of Cocytus suffer the death of their souls immediately, when they are still living. The souls go directly to Hell, quicker than Atropos, the third of the Three Fates in classical mythology, can perform her usual deed, snipping off the thread of human existence. The souls thus abandon the bodies on earth. Until the physical death of the bodies, a devil inhabits the shells, but those who are so cursed are unaware of the fact that their bodies have no souls.
19 (p. 174) “Of yonder shade ... with him the betrayal”: In order to prove his point about Ptolomaea’s unique manner of punishment, Alberigo offers the Pilgrim an example of a soul “wintering” in Ptolomaea while the body still walks the earth—a soulless person Dante must have encountered in the world of the living. Branca Doria or d’Oria (c.1233-c.1325) was a Ghibelline nobleman from a famous family in Genoa who murdered his father-in-law, Michael Zanche, after inviting him to dinner. The murder took place in 1275, but Branca lived on in his earthly body, inhabited by a demon, until his death. His soul (and that of a co-conspirator, 11. 146-147) fell to Ptolomaea even before Michael Zanche’s soul reached the fifth Bolgia of the eighth circle (1. 144), where the reader has already encountered him (canto XXII: 88) being punished for barratry. Since Branca lived for almost a century and survived Dante, it is tempting to wonder what his reaction might have been if and when he read a manuscript of the Comedy (as he very well might have done) and found himself condemned to Hell.
20 (p. 174) to be rude to him was courtesy: Following the proper procedure toward rightfully condemned souls in Hell, Dante the Pilgrim now has no patience with them whatsoever, refusing even to open the frozen eyes of the sinner as he had promised to do earlier. The Pilgrim now, in short, is much closer in perspective to Dante the Poet. It was generally agreed in Dante’s day (although somewhat contrary to Christian notions of charity and forgiveness) that one need not keep one’s word with a traitor.
21 (p. 174) Ah, Genoese ... the vilest spirit of Romagna: Along with Florence, Lucca, Siena, Arezzo, and Pisa (to mention only a few of the Italian cities that Dante tells us throughout the Inferno are full of sin), Genoa now joins the list of dens of iniquity on the peninsula. Its despicable nature is underscored by the fact that Genoa’s Branca Doria can be found in the same place as the “vilest spirit of Romagna,” Friar Alberigo (he was from Faenza, which is in the Romagna region). It must be said about Dante that his love for his native city of Florence, for Italy, and for his mother tongue of Italian do not blind him to the faults of his fellow citizens and those who share his beautiful language where “si” means “yes”!
CANTO XXXIV
1 (p. 175) “Vexilla Regis prodeunt Inferni”: Dante modifies the opening lines of a Latin hymn by Venantius Fortunatus, a bishop in Poitiers (c.530-610), by adding Inferni (“of Hell”) to it: “The banners of the King of Hell are advancing.” The hymn is sung in celebration of the mystery of the Cross during processions.
2 (p. 175) a mill the wind is turning: In the distance, Virgil points out an object that the Pilgrim will discover is Lucifer. From a distance, Lucifer’s wings (the banners to which the Latin song that opens the canto ironically refers) seem like a windmill in the thick fog.
3 (p. 175) no other shelter: It is notable here that the Pilgrim’s fear is so great that he tries to take shelter behind Virgil, a weightless shade who essentially provides no shelter.
4 (p. 175) wholly covered up: The two travelers have passed into the final and fourth section of Hell, Judecca—named after Judius Iscariot, who betrayed Christ—where those who have been treacherous to their masters are punished. Here the sinners are completely immersed in ice, so it is not possible to speak to them.
5 (p. 175) The creature who once had the beauteous semblance: Before the Fall, Lucifer was the fairest of all the angels in Heaven. After his overweening pride caused him to rebel against God, he was cast down as the arch-traitor of all time and sits fixed in the ice, weeping.
6 (p. 175) “Behold Dis”: Twice before in the poem, in canto XI: 65 and canto XII: 39, Dante has referred to Lucifer as Dis, a name used in classical antiquity for Pluto, god of the Underworld.
7 (p. 175) Ask it not, Reader.... an
d I alive remained not: This last of the seven addresses Dante makes to his reader in the Inferno is a perfect example of what is known as the “classical inexpressibility topos”: by declaring how impossible it is to describe some amazing sight, the writer provides a fitting description of the sight. In effect, the sight of Lucifer renders the Pilgrim half dead and half alive.
8 (p. 176) And better with a giant I compare: Dante’s height is closer to that of the giants we have observed earlier in the poem than a giant’s height is to Lucifer’s. In other words, Lucifer’s length is enormous, even when half of it is buried in the ice—he is literally hundreds and hundreds of feet tall.
9 (p. 176) three faces on his head ... where the Nile falls valley-ward: By giving Lucifer three faces, Dante uses a physical shape to provide a parody of the Christian Trinity. The phrase, “where the Nile falls valley-ward,” refers to Ethiopia, where people are black, and that is the color of one of Lucifer’s faces; the others are red and yellow-white. Some commentators have associated these colors with traits opposed to the Love, Power, and Wisdom associated traditionally with the Trinity.
10 (p. 176) Sails of the sea ... three winds proceeded forth there-from: Lucifer belonged to the highest order of the angels, the Seraphim, creatures who are described in the Bible, Isaiah 6: 2, as having six wings. Dante retains the six wings (two for each head), but he changes them from the resplendent things they were in Heaven into bat-like appendages or sails on a boat, and their motion produces the winds in Hell.
The Inferno (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Page 29