Dante #7: Hell Cantos 10-19

Good morning. A few announcements before we start class. First of all, I would like to make a series of apologies. There are a lot of people watching online. So I thank everyone for taking the time to watch these videos online, and some of you have been complaining about the sound quality as well as the video quality. First of all, I want to thank Carol and her team for making all this possible. But I need to remind people that this is an academic facility. This is not set up for a YouTube live stream.

So I apologize if this is not up to par, but the Yale Beijing Center was not set up to be a YouTube live stream facility. It was set up as an academic exchange facility. Okay, that's point one. Point two is I made many factual mistakes yesterday. I've been making a lot of factual mistakes throughout this course. So, to be honest with you, this is actually my first time reading the Divine Comedy in full. Okay? I've taught the Divine Comedy for the past four years, but I always skip through sections that I think are important so that I can teach it.

Because my strategy is to teach to learn. So I basically learn what I need in order to teach, and that's been very unfair to Dante. So if I'm making mistakes it's because a lot of this material is new to me, and so I see teaching as a process of co-creation, of co-discovery. Okay. So thank you for your patience and for your And again, what we're trying to do is understand Dante thematically rather than factually. I hope that after class you do go and review what we've learned and make sure that you understand what's going on, and also to fix a lot of errors.

And my third apology is that I got emotional yesterday, and I think a lot of it is that when I teach I have a lot of goals in mind. I have a plan in mind and I get very impatient when I lose focus. I like feedback. I like to be challenged, but sometimes when I am challenged too much I get a bit exasperated, I get frustrated. Okay. So I apologize for that. Okay. So before we begin class I want to address an issue from last class.

No, actually, first, before I begin, are there any questions from last class that you have? Okay. All right. Right. So I want to address an issue from last class, which is the idea of lust. Okay. And we never really reached a satisfactory resolution to the problem, the sin of lust. Why would lust be an issue? And again, we have to assume that Dante knows what he's doing. So unless we are able to explain it to ourselves clearly and explain it to others clearly, we have not arrived at the solution. Okay. So Edward, when we were talking about lust yesterday, okay, you had a very interesting comment.

Could you repeat that comment? Do you remember your comment about Piccarda and Francesca, the parallels? You may not remember, but Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Jay. Okay. Could you repeat that?

Hope is the idea of arrogance, where you have to believe that you do matter and whatever you do impacts the universe. That's why people like Rachel, ROF, Beatrice, Rebecca are next to God, because these are individuals who had no power, who had no status, but they chose to live a life of goodness, and as a result, God rewards them the most. Okay. Love is action, right? To not just be passive but to be active, to believe that injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. Okay. And so in other words what Dante is really saying is to live a life of love and imagination.

That is the ultimate message of the Divine Comedy. But now we have to reconcile this message with the theology of the Catholic Church at this time and how people understand the world at this time. Now in this time there are the seven deadly sins.

Now what's interesting is that Dante does put four of the seven deadly sins in Inferno, right? They are lust, gluttony, and wrath. Okay, so these four he does put in the Inferno, but there are three others that he does not actually put in the Inferno. He will put them in Purgatory, but not Inferno. Okay? And they are envy, and sloth. Okay? Basically laziness.

All right. Okay. So what Dante does is he replaces these things with other things. Okay. Basically envy, pride, and sloth are not in Inferno. You're not punished for these things, but you're punished for and treachery. Okay, not only that, but he separates the Inferno with geographic dividers. Okay, remember how they cross the Acheron River in order to access the Inferno, but then they also have to cross the river Styx to access Dis, which is the capital city of Inferno. Okay. And even when we go inside Dis, we'll find that there are actually also major geographic dividers as well.

So what Dante is suggesting is that the more you climb into hell, the greater the crime. Okay. So we need to think about what the difference is amongst these different sins. And I mean the most basic difference is lust, gluttony, greed and wrath are things you do to yourself. Okay. And violence, fraud, treachery are things you do to other people. Okay. That is the clearest difference. And what this matters is that with violence, fraud and treachery, you are disrupting others' capacity to live a good life.

All right? So that's point one. Point two is, traditionally these seven deadly sins are an expression of the ego, right? It's like too much, you want things too much, you are expressing ego too much, and that's why you have these seven deadly sins. But we already said that in Paradise arrogance is key to hope. So how do you reconcile this dichotomy? Right? And the answer is that what Dante is going to do is show that you have these things, lust, gluttony, greed, and wrath, because you don't have enough ego.

Does that make sense? Not enough will. All right. Not enough will and desire. All right. So if you reread the Divine Comedy and you look at these four circles, lust, gluttony, greed, and wrath, it's like they don't have enough ego. They don't have enough will. They don't have enough hope. Okay. Do you have a question, Jor?

And if you know your literature, you know that this is the plotline of Madame Bovary, right? By Yes. Right. That's exactly the plotline. Okay. This, you know, very bored woman. And she's bored. She's bored. She read these romance novels and that's why she starts an affair. Okay, so this is how he depicts lust. But normally we depict lust as, maybe the most common example is you really like a woman and you, you know, pay her a lot of money, right, for sex, prostitution, right?

So this is a very different conception, where in the normal understanding, prostitution is the expression of your ego, like, see, I have a lot of money, I can buy you out. Whereas with the Francesca story, it's not enough will and desire. It's like you are escaping your life, right? You're falling in love with an idea as opposed to a person. Okay? And now to illustrate this further, I'm going to give you three examples. And then what I want you guys to do is to rank them according to sin.

Okay? The first example is you love a woman and you give her, I don't know, a million dollars to sleep with her. Okay, basically a million dollars. Second is you fall in love with a beautiful actress. Okay, who, like, who knows, just anyone. Okay, I don't actually know famous Hollywood actresses. Jennifer Lopez, maybe. Okay. All right. So you spend the rest of your life writing love letters to Jennifer Lopez. Okay. I seriously don't know that many Hollywood actresses. And the last thing you do is, okay, we are living in an age of AI.

So you buy yourself an AI wife. Okay. A robotic wife. Now, I want you guys to use your imagination and tell me, of these three, which one is the worst? In Dante's opinion, which one is the absolute worst? Yes, I think probably the third one, because you don't really need that much of a strong will to process a sex robot.

I think it's all right. Unless you don't only want sex, you want to have comfort, maybe it's okay. Just like you give your money to your wife. Right.

So it concerns two persons, which I see as worse.

It's like, you know, what she's doing is she's reading a romance novel and she's trying to project her fantasies onto another person. Right? And she doesn't really care who that person is. She has absolutely no feelings for that person. And when she does that, she's not taking herself seriously enough, right? She doesn't really have faith, hope, and love. Okay? Does that make sense? So that helps us explain why lust is a problem and how it fits into the larger Dantean cosmology. All right? Any questions before I continue?

All right. My next point is this. For the next two, three days we will finish the Inferno, and the Inferno is very different from Paradiso. Okay. So think of Paradiso as ultimately sorry, this is fine. Okay, thank you. Vision. Okay, or the So in the biblical tradition, in the religious tradition, the apocalypse means revelation. Okay. What God shows you, what the vision is. So think of Paradiso as Dante's last will and testament. He's telling us what his vision for the universe is, for the future, for us.

Okay. The Inferno is different. The Inferno is what we call prophecy. And you're like, "Wait a minute. Aren't they the same thing?" Okay, today, yes, they are the same thing. But back then, prophecy is very different from vision. Okay, prophecy is a critique of the present. Right? If you read the Bible, all these people, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, they've come down to criticize the Israelites, to say you guys are sinning. Okay? If you don't stop sinning, God's going to come and punish you. Okay? That's what prophecy is. Not one of fortune-telling, but one of social critique.

So that's what the Inferno is. It's fundamentally a social critique. And so what I want to do today is basically read the Inferno and understand it ultimately as Dante criticizing his society, the people around him. And also what I want to do is I want us to think about, do his criticisms of contemporary society apply to us today. Okay. But what is important is that there's a really good reason for the Commedia, okay? At the time in history when he wrote it, it's called La Commedia, but later on people applied the word divine to it, meaning it is the word of God. Okay. Dante dies in the year 1321, and in the year 1321 when he dies, people don't really understand what this is, what's going on, right?

Because we have in Paradise Peter lambasting the Catholic Church. We also have Beatrice in her final words cursing humanity. Right? You guys are hopeless. We sent the Savior to you and you ignored him and you're all going to burn in hell. Okay? And this is very much part of the prophetic tradition, right? So if you're reading this in the year 1321, you just don't know what's going on. But something happens in the year that convinces everyone that Dante is a prophet. Do you know what happens in the year 1357 in Italy?

Can you guys guess? I'm pretty sure you know what it is. Come on. This thing kills a lot of people. The Black Death. Okay. And how would they interpret the Black Death? Divine retribution, divine judgment. Okay, you understand? What happens after the Black Death is the Renaissance, right? When they fully embrace Dante. You guys understand the sequence of events. 1321, Dante dies and he's cursing humanity. He says like, the heavens curse you, right? And then people were like, well, you know, so what? 1357, the Black Death, where at least, okay, at least a third of Europe dies.

Can you imagine that? A third of Europe dies. Some places it's even half or three-quarters of the population. Okay, this is a complete disaster. Okay. The worst possible calamity to befall humanity at this time. And so you can only interpret this as divine retribution or judgment. Okay.

All right. And Dante knows it's coming, right? Because all prophets know it's coming. That's why they're so angry, right? They're like, you know, if you just read the Bible, whether it's Isaiah or Daniel or just any of the prophets, okay, they're really, really angry because they know it's coming. They know God will have his vengeance, will have his retribution. Okay, but this again creates a paradox for us, because Dante knows it's coming and he's very angry, but he also says that God is all loving, all forgiveness, all mercy.

How can we reconcile this paradox? What's the logic of this?

Yes. Send him to rehab. Send him to rehabilitation.

Okay, does that make sense? Okay, so apply this to the Black Death. Why would God unleash a Black Death? God didn't do this, but I'm saying why would people think it's God?

Okay. So another way of saying this is, society has become so corrupt, has become so evil, so sinful, that an ordinary person like Dante cannot live a life of faith, hope and love anymore. In that situation there will be divine judgment. Okay, God has to intervene, because if God truly loves us, God needs to ensure that we have the opportunity to live a life of hope, faith and love. All right.

I agree with your professor, and it also makes me recall a memory, that you know if your, for example, family member was just in the sickbed and keeps waiting for death, at that time I think a lot of people just don't believe in money, they believe in God, because only God can give him back or can let him recover. So maybe God is trying to test people and just let them know that what you're chasing, the money, the power, is useless in front of this, right? Just like, you know, right now we can call COVID-19, so maybe yeah Okay, all right, okay.

He was a champion who used his hard-earned political power to protect ordinary citizens from a corrupt predatory establishment. In 1300, he was elected as a ruling minister of Florence and immediately passed bold laws to strip the corrupt local Franciscan Inquisitor of his power, stopping the church from weaponizing heresy checklists to extort bribes and plunder the financial purses of wealthy families. Dante even sacrificed his own personal life for the law, voting to exile his own best friend to keep the peace and prove that justice belongs to the people, not political factions.

The papal establishment struck back with absolute malice. Pope Boniface VII lured Dante to Rome on a fake diplomatic mission while secretly launching a military coup that tore down Dante's home, seized all his assets, and locked his name into the infamous book of the nail registry, sentencing him to be burned alive at the stake. Forced into a brutal 19-year exile as a hunted fugitive, Dante never backed down. He proved that the ultimate weapon against a blood-soaked political apparatus is radical, uncensored love and spiritual freedom. He used his poetry to expose the rulers who financialized grace, putting corrupt popes in hell while they were still alive, while preaching that the entire universe is actually powered by his decentralized, unbannable divine love that no empire can ever trap behind a paywall.

The institution was so terrified of his message of human liberation that in 1329, Cardinal Bert de BJ sent armed men to dig up his dead body and burn his bones to ashes, forcing local Franciscan monks to hide his skeleton in a wall for centuries. Dante was a rogue insider who gave up his wealth, his status, and his safety to shield the divine spark and build an eternal escape hatch for humanity.

Okay? It is a promise of divine judgment. All right? And so what we'll do today and tomorrow is we will focus on what's going on in Florentine society to make Dante demand divine vengeance, retribution. Okay. Not only is he a prophet telling people that divine retribution is coming, but he's also a messenger of God, an angel who is demanding from God divine retribution and judgment. Okay. All right. So we're going to pick up from Inferno. Where did we end last time? Okay. So let's do Canto 10.

Okay. All right. But are there any questions about this before we start reading? Again, the goal for today and tomorrow is to figure out what's going on in Florentine society to make Dante so angry at the world. Okay. Why does he feel so hopeless? All right. Okay. All right. So let's Okay.

And Virgil says the main heresy is Epicurus and his followers. The Epicureans believe that there is no soul. There's no heaven and hell. So all that means is, while you're on earth, just have a blast, man. Have a feast. Eat the best food. Have sex every day. Wear the best clothes. Just enjoy yourself. And for Dante, this is just pure heresy. Okay, he hates this idea because if you think about it, why he hates this idea is that it completely removes the need for faith, hope, and love, right?

If there's nothing after this, why have faith? Why have hope? Why have love? Okay. So for Dante, he takes great offense at the Epicureans, and everyone that's burning here is an Epicurean. Okay. All right. Let's keep on going.

Line 19. "'And I, good God, the only reason I have hid my heart was that I might speak briefly, and you long since encouraged me in this.' 'Oh Tuscan, you who pass alive across the fiery city with such seemly words, be kind enough to stay your journey here. Your accent makes it clear that you belong among the natives of the noble city I may have dealt with so vindictively.'" Okay, so Dante and Virgil are talking and then someone overhears them.

I told him all. At this he lifted up his brows a bit, then said, 'They were ferocious enemies of mine and of my parents and my party, so that I had to scatter them twice over.' 'If they were driven out,' I answered him, 'they still returned both times from every quarter. But yours were never quick to learn that art.' At this there rose another shade alongside, uncovered to my sight down to his chin. I think that he had risen on his knees. He looked around me just as if he longed to see if I had come with someone else.

But then his expectations spent, he said in tears, 'If it is your high intellect that lets you journey here through this blind prison, where is my son? Why is he not with you?'" Okay, so this is very important.

Therefore my answer was so fully made. Then suddenly erect, he cried, 'What's that? He did disdain? Is he not still alive? The sweet light does not strike against his eyes?' And when he noticed how I hesitated a moment in my answer, he fell back supine and did not show himself again."

Yes. I mean, so that the father knows that the son is not in hell, because if he was dead, well, I mean, because he is in hell. So if his son were dead, then he would know he would be in hell.

They're both aspiring to go to the Ivy League. One of them gets in, the envelope comes to the other person. What does this other person do with that envelope? Can you guys guess?

And do you guys feel like you're living in a meritocracy? Probably not. Okay. I mean, I don't, but you could. Okay. But so do you guys understand Hey, what's going on?

And so therefore meritocracy today is still in a way affected by aristocracy. But if you truly believe in meritocracy, you'll be like, "Oh, I earned all this because I worked so hard," and you didn't know that your parents actually also gave you the birth lottery.

Right? Okay. That's the first problem. The second problem is I don't think it's actually true that in a meritocracy people care about skills and talent. I think in a meritocracy people care more about credentials, and sometimes credentials and skills are not the same thing. Okay. So again, we're just thinking about our context and how to apply it to Dante's context. Okay. But regardless, one major issue at this time in history in Florence is the competition among people, so that they think that they're all enemies. Even friends think they're enemies.

Okay? And this anecdote illustrates that, right? And I mean, what Dante did, is it pretty bad? It's cruel, right? I mean, it's no different from the classmate ripping up that Princeton offer, right? And just hiding it from her classmate. It's pretty cruel. And that's the idea here, where this competition is leading people to the greatest cruelty, unimaginable cruelty. Like the father is dead, man. The father is burning in hell and you still have to punish him. Excuse me.

Okay. All right. Let's keep on going.

Eventually the Guelphs themselves will fracture between the Black Guelphs and the White Guelphs. Okay. But Farinata is a Ghibelline. Okay. He's an aristocrat. Okay. All right. Can you keep on Line 85.

Okay, they want to kill all the families of the Guelphs and destroy all the property of the Guelphs. And Farinata intervenes and says no, we can't do that because this is Florence. We are first and foremost citizens of Florence, and then we are Ghibellines, then we are partisans. Okay. So he heroically saves Florence and Dante is paying him homage here. Keep on going.

So you can understand how our awareness will die completely at the moment when the portal of the future has been shut.' Then, as if penitent for my omission, I said, 'Will you now tell that fallen man his son is still among the living ones, and if a while ago I held my tongue before his question, let him know it was because I had in mind the doubt you've answered.'" Okay, so here Dante is so embarrassed, he tells Farinata, I can't go back to Cavalcante and apologize, right?

Line 115. "And now my master was recalling me, so that more hurriedly I asked the spirit to name the others who were there with him. He said, 'More than a thousand lie with me; the second Frederick is but one among them, as is the Cardinal. I name no others.' With that he hid himself, and pondering the speech that seemed to me so menacing, I turned my steps to meet the ancient poet. He moved ahead, and as we made our way, he said to me, 'Why are you so dismayed?' I satisfied him, answering him fully.

And then that sage exhorted me, 'Remember the words that have been spoken here against you. Now pay attention,' and he raised his finger. 'When you shall stand before the gentle splendor of one whose gracious eyes see everything, then you shall learn from her your lifetime's journey.' Following that, his steps turned to the left, leaving the wall and moving toward the middle along a path that strikes into a valley whose stench as it rose up disgusted us."

Canto 11. "Along the upper rim of a high bank formed by a ring of massive broken boulders, we came above a crowd more cruelly pent. And here, because of the outrageous stench thrown up in excess by that deep abyss, we drew back till we were behind the lid of a great tomb on which I made out this inscription: 'I hold Pope Anastasius, enticed to leave the true path by Photinus.' 'It would be better to delay our descent so that our senses may grow somewhat used to this foul stench, and then we can ignore it.' So said my master, and I answered him, 'Do find some compensation lest this time be lost.' And he, 'You see, I've thought of that, my son.

Within this ring of broken rocks,' he then began, 'there are three smaller circles like those that you're leaving. They range down. Those circles are all full of cursed spirits, so that your seeing of them may suffice. Learn now the how and why of their confinement. Every malice that earns hate in heaven has injustice as its end. And each such end, by force or fraud, brings harm to other men.

However, fraud is man's peculiar vice. God finds it more displeasing, and therefore the fraudulent are lower, suffering more."

Fraud is you lie to someone. Why is that different? Yes. Because fraud impacts the imagination of someone and you destroy a part of their reality for something that's not even true. So when you kill someone, they're dead. But when you lie to someone, you kill their perception of reality, which is even worse because they can't experience life as it is, but they have to live up to a lie.

"So within the second ring repents, though uselessly, whoever would deny himself your world, gambling away, wasting his patrimony and weeping where he should instead be happy. One can be violent against the godhead, one's heart denying, blaspheming him, and scorning nature and the good in her. So with its sign the smallest ring has sealed both Sodom and Cahors and all those who speak in passionate contempt of God. Now fraud, that eats away at every conscience, is practiced by a man against another who trusts in him or one who has no trust.

This latter way seems only to cut off the bond of love that nature forges. Thus nestled within the second circle Okay.

Line 58. "Hypocrisy and flattery, sorcerers and falsifiers, simony, theft, and barrators, and panders and suchlike trash. And in the former way of fraud, not only the love that nature forges is forgotten, but added love that builds a special trust. Thus in the tightest circle, where there is the universe's center, seat of Dis, all traitors are consumed eternally." "Master, your reasoning is clear indeed," I said. "It has made plain for me the nature of this pit and the population in it. But tell me, those the dense marsh holds, or those driven before the wind, or those on whom rain falls, or those who clash with such harsh tongues, why are they not all punished in the city of flaming red if God is angry with them?

And if he's not, why then are they Okay.

[snorts] Line 76.

Let's keep on. 91. "'Oh sun that heals all sight that is perplexed, when I ask you, your answer so contents that doubting pleases me as much as knowing. Go back a little to that point,' I said, 'where you told me that usury offends divine goodness; unravel now that knot.' 'Philosophy, for one who understands,' he said, 'points out, and not just in one place, how nature follows, as she takes her course, the divine intellect and divine art. And if you read your Physics carefully, not many pages from the start, you'll see that when it can, your art will follow nature just as a pupil imitates his master, so that your art is almost God's grandchild. From these two, art and nature, it is fitting, if you recall how Genesis begins, for men to make their way, to gain their living. And since the usurer prefers another pathway, he scorns both nature and herself, and art, her follower; his hope is elsewhere. But follow me, for it is time to move; the fishes glitter now on the horizon, all the way spread out over Caurus. Only beyond can one climb down the Why are money lenders punished?

Canto 12. "The place that we had reached for our descent along the bank was alpine, and what reclined upon that bank would too repel all eyes, just like the toppled mass of rock that struck, because of earthquake or eroded props, the Adige on its flank, this side of Trent, where from the mountain top from which it thrusts down to the plain the rock is shattered so that it permits a path for those above. Such was the passage down to that ravine, and at the edge of the cracked abyss there lay outstretched the infamy of Crete, conceived within the counterfeited cow, and catching sight of us, he bit himself like one whom fury devastates within.

Turning to him, my sage cried out, 'Perhaps you think this is the Duke of Athens here, who in the world above brought you your death. Be off, you beast. This man who comes has not been tutored by your sister. All he wants, coming here, is to observe your torment.'" So this is the Minotaur, and of course, the person who kills the Minotaur is Theseus, who becomes the first king of Athens.

While climbing down, I thought, he said, 'You wonder perhaps about that fallen mass watched over by the inhuman rage I have just quenched. Now I would have you know the other time that I descended into lower hell, this mass of boulders had not yet collapsed. But if I reason rightly, it was just before the coming of the One who took from Dis the highest circle's splendid spoils, that on all sides the steep and filthy valley had trembled so I thought the universe felt love, by which, as some believe, the world has often been converted into chaos.

And at that moment here as well as elsewhere these ancient boulders toppled in this way. But fix your eyes below upon the valley, for now we're near the stream of blood where those who injure others violently boil. Oh, blind cupidity and insane anger, which goad us on so much in our short life, then steep us in such grief eternally.' I saw a broad ditch bent into an arc so that it could embrace all of that plain, precisely as my guide had said before. Between it and the base of the embankment ran files of centaurs who were armed with arrows, as in that world above they used to hunt.

On seeing us descend, they all reined in, and after they had chosen boughs and shafts, three of their number moved out from their ranks, and from afar one cried, 'What punishment do you approach, you who descend the slope? But speak from there. If not, I draw my bow.' My master told him, 'We shall make reply only to Chiron when we reach the side. Your hasty will has never served you well.' Then he nudged me and said, 'That one is Nessus, who died because of lovely Deianira, and of himself wrought vengeance for himself. In the middle, gazing at his chest, is mighty Chiron, tutor of Achilles.

The third is Pholus, he who was so frenzied.' And many thousands wheeled around the moat, their arrows aimed at any soul that thrusts above the blood more than its guilt allots. By now we had drawn near those agile beasts. Chiron drew out an arrow with the notch. He parted his beard back upon his jaws. When he uncovered his enormous mouth, he said to his companions, 'Have you noticed how he who walks behind moves what he touches? Dead souls are not accustomed to do that.' And my good guide, now near the centaur's chest, the place where his two natures met, said, 'He is indeed alive, and so alone it falls to me to show him the dark valley.

Necessity has brought him here, not pleasure. For she who gave me this new task was one who had just come from singing Hallelujah. He's no robber. I'm not a thief. But by the power that permits my steps to journey on so wild a path, give us one of your band to serve as our companion, and let him show us where to ford the ditch. And let him bear this man upon his back, for he's no spirit who can fly through air.' Then Chiron wheeled about on his right and said to Nessus, 'Then return and be their guide.

If other troops disturb you, fend them off.' Now with our faithful escort, we advanced along the blood-red boiling ditch's bank, beside the piercing cries of those who boiled. I saw some who were sunk up to their brows, and that huge centaur said, 'These are the tyrants who plunged their hands in blood and plundering. Here they lament their ruthless crimes. Here is Alexander and the fierce Dionysius, who brought such years of grief to Sicily. That brow with hair so black is Ezzelino; that other there, the blond one, is Obizzo d'Este, who was indeed undone in the world above by his fierce son."

What's the paradox here? When you think of a great conqueror, who else do you think of?

Right. So if he sees Julius Caesar in one of the worst circles, that'd be pretty problematic.

Okay. We ask ChatGPT. Let's ask ChatGPT. All right. Just Google this. Where is Augustus Caesar in the Divine Comedy? Oh, wait, wait. Sorry. Before we do this, can you guess where he'd be?

Not lower, right? Because who's more important, Julius Caesar or Augustus Caesar? True.

At least Purgatory, at least limbo, possibly even Paradise, right? But let's figure this out. Okay, again, logically speaking, we just extend your logic, right? He should be somewhere nice, whether it's limbo or Purgatory or even Paradise. But where's Augustus Caesar located in the Divine Comedy?

Does he appear? Augustus Caesar is one of the most important historical figures, right? The greatest emperor of Rome, the man who created the Roman Empire. Where is he? Where is he?

He's nowhere, guys. He does not exist physically in the Divine Comedy, but he is referenced in the Divine Comedy by who? Virgil.

This is very confusing, right? Okay. So again, it's meant to be The Divine Comedy is, first and foremost, meant to be subversive. It's meant to undermine our traditional understanding of all things. Okay. So how do you think Dante feels about Augustus Caesar?

Okay. He is beyond the universe. God has forgotten him. God has cast him away from this universe. There can be absolutely no redemption for him. Okay? God wants to forget about him because his crime was so great. It is the greatest crime in the world to try to corrupt the message of God to serve your own political ends.

Does that make sense, guys? Because again, you have to explain to me where Augustus is. He's not in the Divine Comedy. And he is one of the most important historical figures ever in history. Yes.

Okay, does that make sense? It's a journey. Okay. It's not only Dante's journey from sin into virtue, but it's also our journey from ignorance, from the darkness into the light. Okay. All right. Does it make sense, guys? All right. Let's keep on. Line 115. "A little farther on, the centaur stopped above a group that seemed to rise above the boiling blood as far up as their throats. He pointed out one shade alone apart and said, 'Within God's bosom he impaled the heart that still drips blood upon the Thames.' Then I caught sight of some who kept their heads and even their full chests above the tide.

Among them many whom I recognized. And so the blood grew always shallower until it only scorched the feet. And here we found a place where we could ford the ditch. 'Just as you see that on this side the brook continually thins,' the centaur said, 'so I should have you know the rivulet along the other side will slowly deepen its bed until it reaches once again the depth where tyranny must make lament.

And there divine justice torments Attila, he who was such a scourge upon the earth, and Pyrrhus and Sextus to eternity. It milks the tears that boiling brook unlocks from Rinier of Corneto, Rinier Pazzo, those two who waged such war upon the highroads.' Then he turned around and crossed the ford again."

Their wings are wide, their necks and faces human, their feet are talons, their great bellies feathered. They utter their laments on the strange trees. And my kind master then instructed me, 'Before you enter farther, know that now you're within the second ring and shall be here until you reach the horrid sand. Therefore, look carefully. You'll see such things as would deprive my speech of all belief.' From every side I heard the sound of cries, but I could not see any source for them, so that in my bewilderment I stopped.

I think that he was thinking that I thought so many voices moaned among those trunks from people who had been concealed from us. Therefore my master said, 'If you would tear a little twig from any of these plants, the thoughts you have will also be cut off.' Then I stretched out my hand a little way and from a great thorn bush snapped off a branch, at which its trunk cried out, 'Why do you tear me?' And then when it had grown more dark with blood, it asked again, 'Why do you break me off?

Are you without all sentiment of pity? We once were men and now are arid stumps. Your hand might well have shown us greater mercy had we been nothing more than souls of serpents.' As from a sapling log that catches fire along one of its ends, while at the other it drips and hisses with escaping vapor, so from that broken stump issued together both words and blood, at which I let the branch fall, and I stood like one who's afraid. My sage said, 'Wounded soul, if earlier he had been able to believe what he had only glimpsed within my poetry, then he would not have set his hand against you.

But its incredibility made me urge him to do a deed that grieves me deeply. But tell me who you were, so that he may, to make amends, refresh your fame within the world above, where he can still return.' To which the trunk, 'Your sweet speech draws me, so that I cannot be still, and may it not oppress you if I linger now in talk. I am the one who guarded both the keys of Frederick's heart and turned them, locking and unlocking them with such dexterity that none but I could share his confidence.

And I was faithful to my splendid office, so faithful that I lost both sleep and strength. The who never turned her harlot's eyes away from Caesar's dwelling, she who is the death of all and vice of every court, inflamed the minds of everyone against me. And those inflamed so inflamed Augustus that my delight honors turned to sadness. My mind, because of its disdainful temper, believing it could flee disdain through death, made me unjust against my own just self. I swear to you by the peculiar roots of this thorn bush, I never broke my faith with him who was so worthy, with my lord.

If one of you returns into the world, then let him help my memory, which still lies prone beneath the battering of envy."

He was virtuous. He was talented. But once he was accused of treason, he was innocent of treason, but he kills himself in despair. Okay? Why would this be a problem? Why would this be a sin?

Why is suicide a sin? So firstly, you're abandoning all of faith, hope, and love. And secondly, similarly to treachery, I think societywide, it damages other people and could therefore affect other people's potential to love and connect in the Exactly.

Okay. All right. So thank you. Excellent. All right. Let's keep on going. "My mind, because of its disdainful temper, believing it could flee disdain through death, made me unjust against my own just self. I swear to you, by the peculiar roots of this thorn bush, I never broke my faith with him who was so worthy, with my lord. If one of you returns into the world, then let him help my memory, which still lies prone beneath the battering of envy." The poet waited briefly. Then he said to me, "Since he's silent, do not lose this chance, but speak and ask what you would know." And I, "You continue, ask of him whatever you believe I should request."

"'I cannot. So much pity takes my heart.' Then he began again: 'Imprisoned spirit, so may this man do freely what you ask, may it please you to tell us something more of how the soul is bound into these knots. And tell us if you can, if anyone can ever find his freedom from these limbs.' At this the trunk breathed violently. Then that wind became this voice: 'You shall be answered promptly. When the savage spirit quits the body from which it has torn itself, then Minos sends it to the seventh maw.

It falls into the wood, and there's no place to which it is allotted. But wherever fortune has flung that soul, that is the space where, even as a grain of spelt, it sprouts. It rises as a sapling, a wild plant, and then the harpies, feeding on its leaves, cause pain and for that pain provide a vent. Like other souls we shall seek out the flesh that we have left, but none of us shall wear it. It is not right for any man to have what he himself has cast aside. We'll drag our bodies here.

They'll hang in this sad wood, each on the stump of its vindictive shade.' And we were still intent upon the trunk, believing it had wanted to say more, when we were overtaken by a roar. Just as the hunter is aware of chase and boar as they draw near his post, he hears the beasts and then the branches as they crack. And there upon the left were two who, scratched and naked, fled so violently that they tore away each forest bough they passed. The one in front: 'Now come, death, quickly come.' The other shade, who thought himself too slow, was shouting after him:

'Lano, your legs were not so nimble at the joust of Toppo.' And then, perhaps because he'd lost his breath, he fell into one tangle with a bush. Behind these two the wood was filled with black bitches, just as eager and as swift as greyhounds that have been let off their leash. They set their teeth in him where he had crouched. And piece by piece those dogs dismembered him and carried off his miserable limbs. Then he who was my escort took my hand. He led me to the lacerated thorn that wept in vain where it was bleeding, broken.

'Oh Jacopo,' it said, 'da Sant'Andrea, what have you gained by using me as screen? Am I to blame for your indecent life?' When my good master stood beside that bush, he said, 'Who were you, who through many wounds must breathe with blood your melancholy words?' And he to us, 'Oh spirits who have come to witness the outrageous laceration that leaves so many of my branches torn, collect them at the foot of the sad thorn. My home was in the city whose first patron gave way to John the Baptist.

For this reason he'll always use his art to make it sorrow. And if along the crossing of the Arno some effigy of Mars had not remained, the citizens who afterward rebuilt their city on the ashes that Attila had left them would have labored in vain. I made of my own house my gallows place.'" Okay, let's move on to Canto 14.

Here at the very edge we stayed our steps. The ground was made of sand, dry and compact, a sand not different in kind from that on which the feet of Cato once had tramped. Oh vengeance of the Lord, how you should be dreaded by everyone who now can read whatever was made manifest to me. I saw so many flocks of naked souls, all weeping miserably, and it seemed that they were ruled by different decrees. Some lay upon the ground, flat on their backs. Some huddled in a crouch and there they sat, and others moved about incessantly.

The largest group was those who walked about. The smallest, those supine in punishment, but these had looser tongues to tell their torment. Above that plain of sand, distended flakes of fire showered down. Their fall was slow as snow descends on Alps when no wind blows. Just like the flames that Alexander saw in India's hot zones, where fire fell intact into the ground on his battalions, for which wisely he had his soldiers trample the soil to see that every fire was spent before new flames were added to the old.

So did the never-ending heat descend. With this the sand was kindled, just as tinder under flint will flame, doubling the pain. The dance of wretched hands was never done. Now here, now there they tried to beat aside the fresh flames as they fell. And I began to speak: 'My master, you who can defeat all things except for those tenacious demons who tried to block us at the entryway, who is that giant there who does not seem to heed the fire? He who lies in scorn and scowls, he whom the rains can't seem to soften?' And he himself, on noticing that I was querying my guide about him, cried, 'That which I was in life, in death I am.

Though Jove wear out the smith from whom he took in wrath the keen-edged thunderbolt with which on my last day I was to be transfixed, and if he tire the others one by one in Mongibello at the sooty forge while bellowing, "Oh help, good Vulcan, help," just as he did when there was war at Phlegra, and cast his shafts at me with all his force, not even then would he have happy vengeance.' Then did my guide speak with such vehement arguments that I had never heard him use: 'Oh Capaneus, for your arrogance that is not quenched, you're punished all the more.

No torture other than your own madness could offer pain enough to match your wrath.' But then, with gentler face, he turned to me and said, 'That man was one of seven kings besieging Thebes. He held, and still, it seems, holds God in great disdain, despising him. But as I told him now, his malediction stands well as honor ornaments upon his chest. And now follow me and take care. Do not set your feet upon the sand that's burning hot, but always keep them back close to the forest.' In silence we had reached a place where flowed a slender watercourse out of the wood, a stream whose redness makes me shudder still.

As from the Bulicame comes a brook whose waters then are shared by prostitutes, so did the stream run down across the sand. Its bed and both its banks were made of stone, together with the slopes along its shores, so that I saw a passageway lay there.

'Among all other things that I have shown you since we first made our way across the gate whose threshold is forbidden to no one, no thing has yet been witnessed by your eyes as notable as this bread reveal it, which quenches every flame that burns above it.' These words were spoken by my guide. At this I begged him to bestow the food for which he had already given me the craving. 'A devastated land lies in midsea, a land that is called Crete,' he answered me. 'Under its king, the world once lived chastely.

Within that land there was a mountain blessed with leaves and waters, and they called it Ida. But it is withered now like some old thing. It once was chosen as a trusted guard by Rhea for her son, to hide him better. When he cried out, she had her servants clamor. Within the mountain is a huge old man who stands erect, his back turned toward Damietta, and looks at Rome as if it were his mirror. The old man's head is fashioned of fine gold. The pure silver forms his arms and chest, but he is made of brass down to the cleft.

Below that point, he's of choicest iron, except for his right foot, made of baked clay, and he rests more on this than on the left. Each part of him makes up the gold is cracked, and down that fissure there are tears that drip. When gathered, they pierce through that cavern's floor. And crossing rocks into this valley, from Acheron and Styx to And then they make their way down this tight channel. And at the point past which there's no descent, they form Since you're to see what that pool is, I'll not describe it here.'

And I asked him, 'But if the rivulet must follow such a course down from our world, why can we see it only at its boundary?' And he to me, 'You know this place is round, and though the way that you have come is long and always toward the left and toward the bottom, you still have not completed all the circles, so that if something new appears to us, it need not bring such wonder to your face.' And I again, 'Master, where's Phlegethon and where's Lethe? You omit the second and say this rain of tears has formed the first.' 'I'm pleased indeed,' he said, 'with all your questions.

Yet one of them might well have found its answer ready when you saw the red stream boiling. You shall see Lethe, but past this abyss, there where the spirits go to cleanse themselves, where their repented guilt is set aside.' Then he declared, 'The time has come to quit this wood. See that you follow close behind me. These margins form a path that does not scorch, and over them all flaming vapor is quenched.'" Okay.

And if you were to again draw this out, if you were actually to act this out, then that gives you insight into how these things work. But again, I don't have any expertise in symbology, in the occult, in magic. I don't have any comment. Okay? So if you really want to understand Dante, then you need to do a lot more research into the occult. That's point one. Point two is what is strange about this canto is that for the first time we are meeting a nonhuman who's being punished.

Right? Throughout the Inferno, we met humans and they could be mythological or real, but they're being punished. And for the first time, we are meeting a non-human, a giant who's being punished. And what is his reaction to being punished? And in this it's violence against God. Everyone's running. There's fire and brimstone being rained down on them. Okay. So they're trying to dodge all these missiles. And how does this giant feel about all this?

Anyone? What is his reaction?

And again, this is the only time when we have a nonhuman being punished and the entire scene is that he's just complete apathy and Virgil says, "Oh, you're so arrogant." What's the message here?

That's why the punishments are constructed the way they are, to show you what your sin has caused, to visualize the sin for you. Okay. All right. And again, when Virgil talks to these people, what they always say is, talk to Dante so that he will write about you, so that he will be remembered. Okay? And so even though you think you are in hell, remember there are still people who remember who you are. And that is your path to redemption, right? The fact that regardless of how low you've sunk, remember there are still people who remember you.

There are still people who love you, and once you believe that, that is your path to redemption and salvation. Okay. So for Dante what's really important to understand is that we are our own redemption and salvation. Okay. Any questions or comments? All right. Let's move on. Okay. This is Canto 15 of Inferno.

Canto 15. "Now one of the hard borders bears us forward. The river mist forms shadows overhead and shields the shores and water from the fire.

And lowering my face to meet his face, I answered him, 'Are you here, Ser Brunetto?' And he, 'My son, do not mind if Brunetto Latini lingers for a while with you and lets the file he's with pass on ahead.'" Okay.

So Ser Brunetto, he is a homosexual. He's condemned to the circle and he's running with other homosexuals in the circle. And the thing is, if you stop, if you ever lie down, you rest, you're condemned even more. Okay? So what he's saying is, Dante, I love you so much, I'm going to stop and be punished even more so I can talk to you. Right? So this is showing the affection between Ser Brunetto and Dante. But this raises a really huge problem for us. Does Dante really think homosexuality is a problem?

It's a sin. Right. Does he really believe this? So again, this is Ser Brunetto, the person that Dante loves like a father, and Ser Brunetto loves him like a son. And they've always been very close. And you would imagine that Dante would put him in either Purgatory or in And he doesn't do that. He puts him in Inferno. But not only that, but Ser Brunetto was a virtuous person who really only did one thing, which is he was a homosexual. That was it.

Okay. That was the extent of his sin. And for that, and for that only, he's condemned to run around with other homosexuals for all of Okay, this is a huge paradox.

Yes.

But it's Dante who put Beatrice in heaven. Do you understand? So why would Dante do that? Why would Dante put Beatrice in heaven and then put his teacher, his father figure, in hell? And again, I mean, the only crime, the only sin that Ser Brunetto is being accused of is homosexuality. Yeah, he was a homosexual, but do you really think Dante cares that much about Yes.

You cannot have a soul-to-soul talk with her, but you could with a younger boy. And so that's why, yeah, the writer of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, really wanted that kind of Yeah. Because he aspired to the So yeah.

Okay. Welcome back. So, to summarize what we learned, remember that Dante is a prophet. He's basically trying to create an allegory of hell to represent Italy, right? That's why he's focused so much on the geography of hell. He's described it in a way that if you are Italian, you just recognize the geography right away. So hell as an allegory for Italy, and we know that ultimately as a prophet what Dante is trying to convey to his audience is that you either repent or you will be judged.

God's judgment will be swift, brutal and harsh, and no one listens. So in 1357 came the Black Death to wipe out around a third of Europe, even half of Europe at certain places. And so what we're trying to do is figure out how Dante perceived his period at this time. And there are certain things about Florence that made it unredeemable. Okay. And what we're trying to figure out as well is our time. Like today, do these things apply to today? So the first major characteristic about hell is its factionalism, right? So whereas, you know, Virgil is essentially the pope of hell, he is the authority figure there, there are many factions who don't actually listen to him, there's always infighting going on. So there's a lot of factionalism going on in Florence at this time, and the same is happening today, right, where you have wars going on. Right, the second major characteristic of Florence is the intense economic to succeed, right?

All that matters is success and achievement. And today we call this the And in a meritocracy there are certain things that become common and yet at the same time are inhumane. For example, the most obvious is just to apologize, right? So remember the scene where Dante lies to Cavalcante and says your son is dead and burning in hell, and it causes tremendous despair to the father, and Dante recognizes he did wrong, and rather than apologize he runs away and tells someone else to tell him on his behalf.

Okay. So there is almost an incapacity to apologize. So let me ask you this question. Let's go back to the example where at Tsinghua in the '80s or '90s there are two classmates who are good friends, one gets in, the other receives the envelope and rather than tell the friend just throws the envelope in the and do you think that other person ever apologized in her life?

Probably not. Okay, I'm guessing not. But why can't she just Because she probably has a huge ego and she feels like she's superior.

Everything is a test. Everything is a scorecard, right? So if I apologize, that means I'm in this person's debt. I now owe him or her a favor, right? Rather than seeing an apology as rectifying a wrong, I see it as forcing myself to go into someone's debt. Okay? It doesn't make sense. Okay? And that's why people don't apologize in a meritocracy. But the other thing that's even more troubling in a meritocracy is that you delight in others' pain.

Okay, think about this: you are at school and for the past year you delight in others' pain. Okay. So, for this entire year, there's one student in the class, usually a girl, but she scores 100 on every single math test, right? And you get, I don't know, 80, 85. On the final test, on the final exam, she gets a 70. And she is distraught. She's crying. She's going berserk. How do you feel?

No, you don't. I put you on.

Okay, literally tear him apart. And Dante is ecstatic, right? So rather than feel pity, like, great, man. Okay. And you know it's not a good look. But what Dante is doing is he's trying to reveal the problems and consequences of a meritocracy. What a meritocracy ultimately is. Imagine a race. Okay? Imagine a race and everyone's running as fast as they can. The person next to you trips and falls and breaks his or her ankle, right? What you should do as a human being is stop and help that person get up.

But you don't. You just smile and run on and you take delight in that other person falling down. And I mean, we live in China, we see this every single day, right? Unfortunately, where if you're a parent and you have kids, you put your kids through this incredibly harsh system, and you see your child unhappy and you see your child under a lot of stress, and quite honestly a lot of them will develop psychological issues, but you keep on going because you think that if I fall behind I'm dead.

Okay, so that is the first major issue. But now what Dante is going to do is he's also going to bring another issue, which is And this is really confusing for us, right? Because we've all seen Brokeback Mountain. Brokeback Mountain, right? We all know that for the longest time homosexuals were persecuted in society. They had to hide. Their love was forbidden. So, isn't being a homosexual an act of faith, hope, and love? What does Dante have against homosexuals? And you can't be like, well, he's just a product of his times.

Because, as we said in this class, we have to assume that Dante is perfect and that he is timeless. Okay? So what we need to figure out is what is the problem with homosexuality? And also, we need to be careful because if I say anything bad about homosexuality, I'm pretty sure next time I'm at Yale, I'll get stoned to death. Yeah. So, yes. Yes. You think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not.

But if you are gay or homosexual, then you essentially cannot, unless you adopt a kid, right? Like in Modern Family. But then he's saying you go through all this act and love and you don't appreciate the other gender, which is a different perspective. So if you are gay, if you are a man and you like other men, then you don't actually understand the women's perspective in the world. So in that way you are in love with your own kind. You're in love with men's perspective and then that Okay, that's great.

Okay. All right. No, no. Okay. That's a question we want to answer. Okay. But yeah. Okay. Let's keep on reading. Canto 15, line 34.

And he began, 'What destiny or chance has led you here below before your last day came? And who is he who shows the way?' 'There, in the sunlit life above,' I answered, 'before my years were full, I went astray within a valley. Only yesterday at dawn, I turned my back upon it. But when I was nearly lost, he here appeared to guide me home again along this path.' And he to me, 'If you pursue your star, you cannot fail to reach a splendid harbor, if in fair life I judged you properly, and if I had not died too soon, for, on seeing heaven was so kind to you, I should have helped sustain you in your work.

But that malicious, ungrateful people, come down in ancient times from Fiesole, still keeping something of the rock and mountain, for your good deeds will be your enemy, and there is cause: among the sour sorbs the sweet fig is not meant to bear its fruit.

The world has long since called them blind, a people presumptuous, avaricious, envious. Be sure to cleanse yourself of their foul ways. Your fortune holds in store such honor for you, one party and the other will be hungry for you. But keep the grass far from the goat. Let the beasts of Fiesole find forage amongst themselves, and leave the plant alone, if still among their dung it rises up, in which there lives again the sacred seed of those few Romans who remained in Florence when such a nest of wickedness was built.'" Okay, so this is a direct reference to the Aeneid, where Aeneas visits his father in the underworld to receive his prophecy, and this mirrors that.

And I ask of him who are his comrades of repute and excellence. And he to me, 'To know of some is good, but for the rest silence is to be praised. The time we have is short for so much talk. In brief, know that my company has clerics and men of letters and of fame, and all were stained by one same sin upon the earth.'" Okay.

Keep on going.

Of those runners, he appeared to be the winner, not the loser.

When they cried out, my master paid attention. He turned his face toward me, and then he said, "Now wait. To these one must show courtesy. And were it not the nature of this place for shafts of fire to fall, I'd say that haste was seemlier for you than for those three." As soon as we stood still, they started up their ancient wail again. And when they reached us, they formed a wheel, three of them together, as champions, naked, oiled, will always do, each studying the grip that serves him best before the blows and wounds begin to fall.

While wheeling, so each one made sure his face was turned to me, so that their necks opposed their feet in one uninterrupted Okay, so these three individuals are the three most distinguished members of the Florentine nobility.

And I who share this punishment with them was Jacopo Rusticucci. Certainly more than all else, my savage wife destroyed me." If I'd had shield and shelter from the fire, I should have thrown myself down there among them. I think my master would have sanctioned that. But since that would have left me burned and baked, my fear went out against the good intention that made me so impatient to embrace them. Then I began, "Your present state had fixed not scorn but sorrow in me, and so deeply that it will only disappear slowly, as soon as my lord spoke to me with words that made me understand what kind of men were coming toward us, men of worth like yours.

For I am your city, and with fondness I've always told and heard the others tell of both your actions and your honored names. I leave the gall and go for the sweet apples that I was promised by my truthful guide. But first I must descend to the center. So may your soul long lead your limbs, and may your fame shine after you." He answered, "Then tell us if courtesy and valor still abide within our city as they did when we were there, or have they disappeared completely?

For Guglielmo Borsiere, who only recently has come to share our torments and goes there with our companions, has caused us much affliction with his words." "Newcomers to the city and quick gains have brought excess and arrogance to you, Florence, and you weep for it already." So I cried out.

So I cried out with face upraised. The three looked at each other when they heard my answer, as men will stare when they have heard the truth. "If you can always offer reply so readily to others," said all three, "then happy you who speak at will so clearly. So if you can escape these lands of darkness and see the lovely stars on your return, when you repeat with pleasure 'I was there,' be sure that you remember us to men." At this they broke their wheel, and as they fled, their swift legs seemed to be no less than wings.

The time it took for them to disappear was more brief than time it takes to say amen. And so my master thought it right to leave. I followed him. We'd only walked a little when roaring water grew so near to us, we hardly could have heard each other speak. And even as the river that is first to take its own course eastward from Mount Viso along the left flank of the Apennines, which up above is called the Acquacheta before it spills into its valley bed and flows without that name beyond Forlì, reverberates above San Benedetto dell'Alpe as it cascades in one leap where there is space enough to house a thousand, so did we hear that blackened water roar as it plunged down a steep and craggy bank, enough to deafen us in a few hours.

Around my waist I had a cord as girdle, and with it once I thought I should be able to catch the leopard with the painted hide. And after I had loosened it completely, just as my guide commanded me to do, I handed it to him, knotted and coiled. At this he wheeled around upon his right and cast it at some distance from the edge, straight down into the depth of the ravine.

"And surely something strange must here reply," I said within myself, "to this strange sign, the sign my master follows with his eye." How much care men ought to exercise with those whose penetrating intellect can see our thoughts, not just our outer act. He said to me, "Now there will soon emerge what I await and what your thought has conjured. It soon must be discovered to your sight." Faced with that truth which seems a lie, a man should always close his lips as soon as he can. To tell it shames him, even though he's blameless, but here I can't be still.

And by the lines of this my Comedy, reader, I swear, and may my verse find favor for long years, that through the dense and darkened air, I saw a figure swimming, rising up, enough to bring amazement to the firmest heart, like one returning from the waves, where he went down to loose an anchor snagged upon a reef or something else hid in the sea, who stretches upward and draws in his feet.

Okay, why are these four individuals, who commit no other sin other than, why are they in the circle of violence? And in the worst, in the worst part, right, because they have committed violence against God. All right. Yes. It could be seen as Yeah, go ahead.

No, that's violence against yourself, right? There are already three crimes. Violence against others, violence against yourself, and the violence against God and nature. I'm saying, like, what is probably the most unnatural act we could ever do?

Incest, guys. Do you understand? There could be bestiality, having sex with animals, but that's not as bad as having sex with your sister. Okay, do you understand this? Let me ask you this question. Besides homosexuality, what else is pretty common among the elite?

What is it? What's the problem? What is the connection? Yes.

Social mobility. Okay, and openness, right? Homosexuality. It's the expression of self-indulgence. It's the expression of excess and arrogance. Right? We are so superior to you. We'll only have sex with our kind and of ourselves. We refuse to associate with any of you. Right? And then over time, what happens if the elite engage in homosexuality and incest? What happens now?

And the example of this is now just Western culture. If you just turn on TV, homosexuals are not persecuted, right? They are celebrated, right? Before, you know, in America you had a gay politician, Pete Buttigieg. Before, it would blow the imagination that any politician would say, "I'm gay, I'm proud of it, and please vote for me." Right? It would blow the imagination. But now, you know, in 2020 when Pete just ran for the Democrat nomination, his homosexuality made him very popular. All right, so my question to you is, what's the difference?

What's the difference between a society where homosexuality is persecuted and a society which celebrates homosexuality?

So I think Could you repeat that?

So no one won the box. The female champion for boxing was a man, basically. So it excludes and actually, you know, denies the actual, the natural I understand, but I'm still trying to figure out why homosexuality would cause society to decline.

Why do people not follow natural law? Yeah, go ahead.

Now they're just practicing out in the open. What's the difference? Yes, you.

If you're at university, you know the answer. What's the answer? Be yourself. Be yourself. Your identity is what... Right? Am I wrong here? Be yourself. Celebrate yourself. That's why society declines. That's from the elite. That's why homosexuality is a problem, because it's not the act itself. It's the attitude. Be yourself. Indulge yourself. Love. Don't worry about other people. Don't worry about your responsibility to society. Don't try to change the world for better. Just celebrate yourself and be happy. And if you're not happy, complain about it.

Celebrate yourself. Am I wrong? Okay. Okay. That's what Dante is saying here. He's saying that homosexuality, like incest, represents an inward turning, right? A narcissism that is extreme. So, yeah. Go ahead. Yes.

Why is Dante neglecting the narcissist aspect in heterosexuality? Because as we see today, there are people who focus on looks to attract women. And so just pointing out the narcissistic aspect in homosexuality would be neglecting this aspect on the other side.

You have to believe that you are so good, God loves you so much, that you will have the power to change the world for the better. Okay? And that's why the three sins, sorry, there are two sins, envy and pride, he actually doesn't list in the Inferno. He will list them in Purgatory but not the Inferno. Okay. So that's what Dante is trying to do. He's trying to tell us that self-love is a good thing, but self-love as expressed with other men is a bad thing.

Okay? Because it's self-indulgent. Okay? So homosexuality by itself is not bad. The act isn't bad, but the attitude of it is bad, which is like, all I care about is myself. I'm loving myself. I'm celebrating myself. That's the issue. Okay? Does that make sense? All right. So I make this comment, right? And so what Dante is saying is that nobility is not good or bad. It's how the nobility behaves that's good or bad, right? If nobility is behaving towards betterment of society, then they're good. But if they are behaving like narcissists, that's bad.

Okay, that can only mean the destruction of society, because at this point in history, it is not possible to imagine a society without the nobility, right? You can't have communism. No one's going to imagine communism at this point. And think about how unfair that would be, right? This family has spent generations putting all this wealth together and you just take it from them. So Dante would never suggest that. What he's suggesting is that nobility have a distinct responsibility to the rest of society to contribute.

Okay? And when they engage in homosexuality, it just shows that they have abandoned society. Okay? They don't even care about hypocrisy anymore. They can't even bother to demonstrate leadership to everyone else. Okay, does that make sense? Okay, so to confirm that what I'm saying is correct, what we're going to do is we're going to read Paradiso 16. Okay, so Dante has an amazing way of mirroring himself, creating symmetry. So we were in Inferno 16. We're now going to jump to Paradiso 16, where Dante is going to talk to his great-grandfather, and his great-grandfather is going to share the story of his family and the story of Florence.

Okay. So this is the early days of Florence, when the elite were working hard to build a greater Florence, and you can compare and contrast these two cantos. Okay. So let's read Paradiso 16. Paradiso Canto 16. "If here below, where sentiment is far too weak to withstand error, I should see men glorying in you, nobility of blood, a meager thing, I should not wonder, for even where desire is not awry, I mean in Heaven, I too felt such pride. You're indeed a cloak that soon wears out, so that if day by day we add no patch, then circling time will trim you with its shears."

My speech began again with "you," the word that Rome was the first city to allow, although her people seldom speak it now. At this word, Beatrice, somewhat apart, smiling, seemed like the woman who had coughed, so goes the tale, at Guinevere's first fault. So did my speech begin. "You are my father. You hearten me to speak with confidence. You raise me so that I am more than I. So many streams have filled my mind with gladness, so many and such gladness that my mind rejoices that it can bear this and not burst."

"Then tell me, founder of my family, who were your ancestors, and in your boyhood, what were the years of record registered? And tell me of the sheepfold of St. John, how numerous it was, who in that flock were worthy of the highest offices." As at the breathing of the winds, a coal will quicken into flame, so I saw that light glow at words that were affectionate. And as before my eyes it grew more fair, so with a voice more gentle and more sweet, not in our modern speech, it said to me, "Down from that day when 'Ave' was pronounced until my mother, blessed now, by giving birth eased the burden born and bearing me, this fire of Mars had come 580 times to its lion, there to be rekindled underneath its paw.

My ancestors and I were born just where the runner in your yearly games first comes upon the boundary of the final ward. That is enough concerning my forebears. What were their names, from where they came, of that silence, not speech, is more appropriate. All those who at that time between the Baptist and Mars were capable of bearing arms numbered one fifth of those who live there now.

But then the citizens, now mixed with Campi, with Certaldo, and with Figline, were pure down to the humblest artisan. Oh, it would be far better if you had those whom I mention as your neighbors, and your boundaries at Galluzzo and Trespiano, than to have them within and bear the stench of Aguglione, rich, and Signa, whose sharp eyes now are on barratry. If those who in the world go most astray had not been to Caesar like a stepmother, but like a mother to her son been kind, the one who has become a Florentine, trader and money changer, would have stayed in Simifonte where his father peddled. The counts would still be lords of Montemurlo, the Cerchi would be in Acone's parish, perhaps the Buondelmonti in Valdigrieve. The mingling of the populations led to evil in the city, even as food piled on food destroys the body's health. The blind bull falls more quickly, more headlong, than does the blind lamb, and the one blade can often cut more and better than five swords. Consider Luni and Urbisaglia, how they went to ruin, and Sinigaglia follows, and Chiusi too will soon have vanished.

Then if you should hear of families undone, you will find nothing strange or difficult in that. Since even cities meet their end, all things that you possess have their death, just as you do. But in some things that last long, death can hide from you, whose lives are short. And even as the heaven of the moon, revolving ceaselessly, conceals and then reveals the shores, so fortune does with Florence. Therefore there's no cause for wonder in what I shall tell of noble Florentines, of those whose reputations time has hidden. I saw the Ughi, saw the Catellini, Filippi, Greci, Ormanni, Alberichi, famed citizens already in decline, and saw, as great as they were venerable, the Sannella with the Arca, and Ardinghi, Soldanieri, and Bostichi.

Nearby the gate that now is burdened with new treachery, that weighs so heavily that it will bring the vessel to shipwreck, there were the Ravignani, from whose line Count Guido comes, and all who since derived their name from the illustrious Bellincion. And della Pressa knew already how to rule, and Galigaio in his house already had the gilded hilt and pommel. The stripe of Vair had mightiness already, as did the Giuochi, Galli, and Barucci, Fifanti, those who blush for the bushel. And the stock from which sprang the Calfucci was already mighty, and Sizii and Arrigucci were already raised to high office.

Oh, how great were those I saw, whom pride laid low, and the gold balls in all of her great actions flowered Florence. Such were the ancestors of those who now, whenever bishop's sees are vacant, grow fat as they sit in church. The breed so arrogant and dragonlike and chasing him who flees, but lamblike, meek to him who shows his teeth, or else his purse, was on the rise already, but of stock so mean that Ubertin Donato, when his father-in-law made him kin to them, was scarcely pleased. Already Caponsacco had come from Fiesole down to the market.

Already citizens of note were Giuda and Infangato. I shall tell a thing incredible and true. The gateway through the inner walls was named for the della Pera. All those whose arms bear part of the fair name and sign of the great baron, he whose memory and worth are honored on the feast of Thomas, received knighthood and privilege from him. He whose coat of arms has fringed that ensign has taken sides now with the people. The Gualterotti and the Importuni were there already, and the Borgo, had it spared new neighbors, would still be tranquil there.

The house of Amidei, from which your sorrows began by reason of its just resentment, which ruined you and ended years of gladness, were honored then, as were its close companions. O Buondelmonte, through another's counsel you fled your wedding pledge and brought such evil. Many would now rejoice who still lament if when you first approached the city God had given you unto the river Ema. But Florence in her final peace was fated to offer up unto that mutilated stone guardian upon her bridge a victim. These were the families and others with them. The Florence that I saw was in such repose that there was nothing to have caused her sorrow.

These were the families. With them I saw her people so acclaimed and just that on her staff the lily never was reversed nor was it made blood red by factious Okay.

This was a lovely neighborhood and everyone got along great. But then Maybe something about the young people.

No, it's not. I mean, how about contributing to your community? How about working hard to create families? How about making a safe and moral society? Right? But you're not taught that. You're taught just go make a lot of money and be yourself and celebrate yourself. And if you want to be gay, great. Okay. Does that make sense?

All right. So again, this is not politically correct. Okay. But again, we're trying to examine why societies decline. And so you have Dante saying you have immigrants, you have homosexuality, you have factionalism, you have economic... And are they still true today? Yeah, they're very much true today. So according to Dante, we are very much a society in decline. Does anyone want to argue against this? I don't want to be seen as brainwashing you. Okay. Do you want to argue against this?

For our needs and we stop suffering, and so we don't need to engage in anything difficult, also because of technology. Everything is simple for us and so it's just we have nothing to talk about or no energy that can make us create new Okay, you're absolutely right.

Okay. So it makes you really think about what is really valuable in society. Okay. So let's go to Canto 17, please. Canto 17. "Behold the beast who bears the pointed tail, who crosses mountains, shatters weapons and walls. Behold the one whose stench fills all the world." So did my guide begin to speak to me. And then he signaled him to come ashore close to the end of those stone passageways. And he came, that filthy effigy of fraud, and landed with his head and torso, but did not draw his tail onto the bank.

The face he wore was that of a just man, so gracious was his features' outer semblance, and all his trunk the body of a serpent. He had two paws with hair up to the armpits. His back and chest as well as both his flanks had been adorned with twining knots and circlets. No Turks or Tartars ever fashioned fabrics more colorful in background and relief, nor Arachne ever loomed such webs. As boats will sometimes lie along the shore, with part of them on land and part in water, and just as there among the guzzling Germans the beaver sets himself when he means war, so did that squalid beast lie on the margin of stone that serves as border for the sand.

And all his tail was quivering in the void while twisting upward its envenomed fork, which had a tip just like a scorpion's. My guide said, "Now we'd better bend our path a little till we reach as far as that malicious beast which crouches over there." Thus we descended on the right-hand side and moved ten paces on the stony brink in order to avoid the sand and fire. When we had reached the sprawling beast, I saw a little farther on upon the sand some sinners sitting near the fissured rock.

And here my master said to me, "So that you may experience this ring in full, go now and see the state in which they are. But keep your conversation with them brief. Till you return, I'll parley with this beast, to see if he can lend us his strong shoulders." So I went on alone and even farther along the seventh circle's outer margin, to where the melancholy people sat. The despondency was bursting from their eyes. Now here, now there, their hands kept fending off at times the flames, at times the burning soil. Not otherwise do dogs in summer, now with muzzle, now with paw, when they're bitten by fleas or gnats or by the sharp gadfly.

When I had set my eyes upon the faces of some on whom that painful fire falls, I recognized no one. But I did notice that from the neck of each a purse was hung that had a special color and an emblem, and their eyes seemed to feast upon these pouches. Looking about when I had come among them, I saw a yellow purse with azure on it that had the face and manner of a lion. Then, as I let my eyes move farther on, I saw another purse that was blood red and displayed a goose more white than butter. And one who had an azure pregnant sow inscribed as emblem on his white pouch said to me, "What are you doing in this pit?

Now you be off, and since you're still alive, remember that my neighbor shall yet sit here upon my left-hand side. Among these Florentines, I'm a Paduan, and I often hear them thunder in my ears, shouting, 'Now let the sovereign cavalier, the one who brings the purse with three goats, come.'" He twisted his mouth, and then he stuck his tongue out like an ox that licks its nose. And I, afraid that any longer stay might anger him who warned me to be brief, turned back from those exhausted souls.

I found my guide, who had already climbed upon the back of that brute animal, and he told me, "Be strong and daring now, for our descent is by this kind of stairs. You mount in front. I want to be between, so that the tail can't do you any harm." As one who feels the chill of fever near and shivers, with his nails already blue, at the sight of shade enough to make him shudder, so I became when I had heard these words. But then I felt the threat of shame, which makes a servant brave in his kind lord's presence.

I settled down on those enormous shoulders. I wished to say, and yet my voice did not come as I thought, "See that you hold me tight." But he who other times had sustained me against another danger, just as soon as I had mounted, clasped me within his arms and propped me up and said, "Now, Geryon, move on. Take care to keep your circles wide, your landing slow. Remember the new weight you're carrying." Just like a boat that, starting from its moorings, moves backward, backward, so that beast took off, and when he felt himself completely clear, he turned his tail to where his chest had been, and having stretched it, moved it like an eel, and with his paws he gathered in the air.

I do not think that there was greater fear when Phaethon let the reins go free, for which the sky, as one still sees, was scorched, nor in poor Icarus when he could feel his sides unwinged because the wax was melting, his father shouting to him, "You go wrong," than was in me when on all sides I saw that I was in the air and everything had faded from my sight except the beast. Slowly, slowly swimming, he moves on. He wheels and he descends, but I feel only the wind upon my face and the wind rising.

Already on our right, I heard the torrent resounding there beneath us horribly, so that I stretched my neck and looked below. Then I was more afraid of falling off, when I saw fires and I heard laments, at which I tremble, crouching, and hold fast. And now I saw what I had missed before, his wheeling and descent, because great torments were drawing closer to us on all sides. Just as a falcon long upon the wing, whose seeing neither lure nor bird compels the falconer to cry, "Ah me, you fall," descends, exhausted, in a hundred circles where he had once been swift, and sets himself embittered and enraged far from his master, such at the bottom of the jagged rock was Geryon when he had set us down, and once our weight was lifted from his back, he vanished like an arrow from a bow.

Okay? So it can sting you at any time. So that's what fraud is. Okay, fraud seduces you and you believe something and then stings you. Okay, that's the first point. Second point is that while Virgil is taming the beast, Dante is looking around and he meets these moneylenders who are buried in the sand. What traps them in the ground are these purses of money. Right? So this is a fitting [snorts] punishment, because in life they trapped or they enslaved others with debt, right? With interest. So they're getting a taste of their own medicine.

And that's what Hell is. The pain that you cause onto others, you yourself will feel for all eternity. Okay. All right. So any questions before we move on? Are we clear? Okay. So that's the circle of violence. Now we descend to the circle of fraud, which is the majority of the Divine Comedy. Okay. Inferno 18.

And as such fortresses have bridges running right from their thresholds toward the outer bank, so here across the banks and ditches ridges ran from the base of that rock wall until the pit that cuts them short and joins them all. This was the place in which we found ourselves when Geryon had put us down. The poet held to the left and I walked at his back. Upon the right I saw new misery. I saw new torches and new torturers filling the first of Malebolge's ditches along its bottom.

Naked sinners moved to our side of the middle, facing us. Beyond that they moved with us but more quickly, as in the year of Jubilee the Romans, confronted by great crowds, contrived a plan that let the people pass across the bridge. For to one side went all who had their eyes upon the castle, heading toward St. Peter's, and to the other those who faced the mount. Both left and right along the somber rock I saw horned demons with enormous whips who lashed those spirits cruelly from behind. How their first strokes made those sinners lift their heels.

Indeed no sinner waited for a second stroke to fall, or for a third. And as I moved ahead, my eyes met those of someone else. And suddenly I said, "I was not spared the sight of him before." And so I stayed my steps to study him. My gentle guide had stopped together with me and gave me leave to take a few steps back. That scourged soul thought that he could hide himself by lowering his face. It helped him little, for I said, "You who cast your eyes upon the ground, if these your features are not false, you must be Venedico Caccianemico.

But what brings you to such pungent sauces?" And he to me, "I speak unwillingly, but your plain speech, that brings the memory of the old world to me, is what compels me. For it was I who led Ghisolabella to do as the Marquis would have her do, however they retell that filthy tale. I'm not the Bolognese who weeps here. Indeed, this place is so crowded full of us that not so many tongues have learned to say 'sipa' between the Savena and the Reno. If you want faith and testament of that, just call to mind our avaricious hearts." And as he spoke, a demon cudgeled him with his horsewhip and cried, "Be off, you pimp.

There are no women here for you to trick." I joined Okay, so these are pimps, right?

Line 67. I joined my escort once again, and then, with but few steps, we came upon a place where from the bank a rocky ridge ran out. We climbed quite easily along that height, and turning right upon its jagged back, we took our leave of those eternal circlings. When we had reached the point where that ridge opens below to leave a passage for the lash, my guide said, "Stay and make sure that the sight of still more ill-born spirits strikes your eyes, for you have not yet seen their faces, since they have been moving in our own direction." From the old bridge we looked down at the ranks of those approaching from the other side.

They too were driven onward by the lash. And my good master, though I had not asked, urged me, "Look at that mighty one who comes and does not seem to shed a tear of pain. How he still keeps the image of a king. That shade is Jason, who with heart and head deprived the men of Colchis of their ram. He made a landfall on the isle of Lemnos after its women, bold and pitiless, had given all their island males to death. With polished words and love signs he took in Hypsipyle, the girl whose own deception had earlier deceived the other women, and he abandoned her alone and pregnant.

Such guilt condemns him to such punishment. And for Medea too revenge is taken. With him go those who cheated. So this is enough for you to know of that first valley and of the souls it clamps within its jaws."

Can you guys guess what she does?

This was the place we reached. The ditch beneath held people plunged in excrement that seemed as if it had been poured from human privies. And while my eyes searched that abysmal sight, I saw one with a head so smeared with filth I could not see if he were lay or cleric.

And now she crouches. Now she stands upright. That is Thaïs the harlot, who returned her lover's question, 'Are you very grateful to me?' by saying, 'Yes, enormously.' And now our sight has had its fill of this."

Why is this a problem?

O highest wisdom, how much art you show in Heaven, earth, and in this sad world below. How just your power is when it allots. Along the sides and down along the bottom I saw that livid rock was perforated. The openings were all one width and round. They did not seem to me less broad or more than those in my beautiful San Giovanni, which were made to serve as basins for the baptismal font. And one of these, not many years ago, I broke for someone who was drowning in it. And let this be my seal to set men straight.

Out from the mouth of each hole there emerged a sinner's feet and so much of his legs up to the thigh. The rest remained within. The soles of every sinner were on fire. Their joints were quivering with such violence they would have severed withes and ropes of grass. As flame on oily things will only stir along the outer surface, so there that fire made its way from heels to toes. "Master," I said, "who's that shade who suffers and quivers more than all his other comrades, that sinner who's licked by redder flames?"

And he to me, "If you would have me lead you down along the steepest of the banks, from him you'll learn about himself and his sins." And I, "What pleases you will please me, too. You are my lord. You know I do not swerve from what you will. You know what is unspoken." At this we came upon the fourth embankment. We turned and, keeping to the left, descended into the narrow, perforated bottom. My good lord did not let me leave his side until he brought me to the hole that held that sinner who lamented with his legs.

"Whoever you may be, dejected soul whose head is downward planted like a pole," my words began, "do speak if you are able." I stood as does the friar who confesses the foul assassin who, fixed fast, head down, calls back the friar and so delays his death. And he cried out, "Are you already standing there, already standing there, O Boniface? The book has lied to me by several years. Are you so quickly sated with the riches for which you did not fear to take by guile the lovely lady and then to violate her?" And I became like those who stand as if they have been mocked, who cannot understand what has been said to them and can't respond.

But Virgil said, "Tell this to him at once: 'I'm not he, not who you think I am.'" And I replied as I was told to do. At this the spirit twisted both his feet, and sighing, with a despairing voice he said, "What is it then you want of me? If you have crossed the bank and climbed so far to find out who I am, then know that I was one of those who wore the mighty mantle, and surely was the son of the she-bear, so eager to advance the cubs that I pursued wealth above, while here I pursed myself.

Below my head there is the place of those who took the way of simony before me. And they are stuffed within the cliffs of stone. I too shall yield my place and fall below when he arrives, the one for whom I had mistaken you when I was quick to question. But I have baked my feet a longer time and have stood like this upon my head than he will stand planted here with scarlet feet. For after him one uglier in deeds will come, a lawless shepherd from the west, worthy to cover him and cover me.

He'll be a second Jason, of whom we read in Maccabees. And just as Jason's king was soft to him, so shall the king of France be soft to this one." And I do not know if I was too rash here. I answered, "So then tell me now, how much gold did our Lord ask that St. Peter give to him before he placed the keys within his care? Surely the only thing he said was 'Follow me.' And Peter and the others never asked for gold or silver when they chose Matthias to take the place of the transgressing soul.

Stay as you are, for you're rightly punished, and guard with care the money got by evil that made you so audacious against Charles. And were it not that I am still prevented by reverence for those exalted keys that you had held within the happy life, I'd utter words much heavier than these. Because your avarice afflicts the world. It tramples on the good, lifts up the wicked. You shepherds, the Evangelist had noticed, when he saw her who sits upon the waters and realized she fornicates with kings, she who was born with seven heads and had the power and support of the ten horns as long as virtue was her husband's pleasure.

You've made yourselves a god of gold and silver. How are you different from the idolators, save that they worship one and you a hundred? Constantine, what wickedness was born, not from your conversion, but from the dowry that you bestowed upon the first rich father?" And while I sang such notes to him, whether it was his indignation or his conscience that bit him, he kicked hard with both his soles. I do indeed believe it pleased my guide. He listened always with such satisfied expression to the sound of those true words. And then he gathered me in both his arms, and when he had me fast against his chest, he climbed back up the way where he climbed down before. Nor did he tire of clasping me until he brought me to the summit of the arch that crosses from the fourth to the fifth rampart.

And here he gently set his burden down, gently because the ridge was rough and steep and would have been a rugged path for goats, for there another valley lay before me. Okay. So this is another one of Dante's attacks against the church, against church corruption. Okay. So the crime, the sin that is being punished here is simony. Okay. What simony is, it's very common at this time for the church to sell holy relics to people. And this was very profitable, right? Because think about it, right, it's the church.

And a lot of these relics were fake. But even if they weren't fake, you shouldn't do that, right? You shouldn't sell holy relics to the highest bidder. What is the modern equivalent of simony?

Any other examples? All right. That's fine. Let's... Yes.

So right, okay, let's go to Inferno Okay.

This is ironic, right? These are people who are going to look behind them. Fortune tellers.

Here pity only lives when it is dead. For who can be more impious than he who links God's judgment to compassion? Lift, lift your head and see the one for whom the earth was opened while the Thebans watched, so that they all cried, 'Amphiaraus, where are you rushing? Have you quit the fight?' Nor did he interrupt his downward plunge to Minos, who lays hands on every sinner. See how he's made a chest out of his shoulders. And since he wanted so to see ahead, he looks behind and walks a backward path.

And see Tiresias, who changed his semblance when he went from a man and turned into a woman, so totally transforming all his limbs that then he had to strike once more upon the two entwining serpents with his wand before he had his manly plumes again. And Aruns is the one who backs against the belly of Tiresias, Aruns who in Luni's hills, tilled by the Carrarese who lived below, had as his home a cave among white marbles, from which he could gaze at stars and sea with unimpeded view. And she who covers up her breasts, which you can't see, with her disheveled locks, who keeps all of her hairy parts to the far side, was Manto, who had searched through many lands, then settled in the place where I was born.

On this, I'd have you hear me now a while. When Manto's father took his leave of life and Bacchus's city found itself enslaved, she wandered through the world for many years. High up in lovely Italy, beneath the Alps that shut in Germany above Tyrol, lies a lake known as Benaco. A thousand springs and more, I think, must flow out of the waters of that lake to bathe Garda, Val Camonica, and Pennino. And in its middle is a place where three, the bishops of Trent, Brescia and Verona, may bless if they should chance to come that way.

Peschiera, strong and handsome fortress, built to face the Brescians and the Bergamasks, stands where the circling shore is at its lowest. There all the waters that cannot be held within the bosom of Benaco form a river running through green meadows. No sooner has that stream begun to flow than it is called the Mincio, not Benaco, until Governolo, where it joins the Po. It's not flowed far before it finds flat land, and there it stretches out to form a fen that in the summer can at times be foul. And when she passed that way, the savage virgin saw land along the middle of the swamp untilled and stripped of its inhabitants.

And there, to flee all human intercourse, she halted with her slaves to ply her arts, and there she lived, and there she left her empty body. And afterward the people of those parts collected at that place, because the marsh surrounding it on all sides made it strong. They built a city over her dead bones. And after her who first had picked that spot, they called it Mantua. They cast no lots. There once were far more people in its walls, before the foolishness of Casalodi was tricked by the deceit of Pinamonte. Therefore I charge you, if you ever hear a different tale of my town's origin, do not let any falsehood gull the truth."

And I, "O master, that which you have spoken convinces me, and so compels my trust that other words would only be spent coals. But tell me if among the passing souls you see some spirits worthy of our notice, because my mind is bent on that alone." Then he to me, "That shade who spreads his beard down from his cheeks across his swarthy shoulders, when Greece had been so emptied of its males that hardly any cradle held a son, he was an augur, and with Calchas, at Aulis, he gave the time to cut the cables.

His name's Eurypylus. A certain passage of my high tragedy has sung it, as you know well enough, who know the whole. The other there, his flanks extremely spare, was Michael Scot, a man who certainly knew how the game of magic fraud was played. See there Guido Bonatti, see Asdente, who now would wish he had attended to his cord and leather, but repents too late. See those sad women who had left their needle, shuttle and spindle to become diviners. They cast their spells with herbs and effigies. But let us go. Cain with his thorns already is at the border of both hemispheres, and there below Seville touches the sea.

Last night the moon was at its full. You should be well aware of this, for there were times when it did you no harm in the deep wood." These were his words to me. Meanwhile, we journeyed.

What is his problem with fortune tellers? Or I mean, isn't he an oracle? Sorry. Go.

Okay. And become king of Thebes. So the idea of free will, right? You can choose whatever you want. It's hampered by these prophecies, because then you're just a pawn in the game of the gods, right? Okay. Like this prophecy is the idea, like the gods want things a certain way and that's why they give you this prophecy, in order to manipulate you into behaving the way that they want. Okay. Yes. Any other explanations for why Dante really doesn't like these fortune tellers? He doesn't really like the idea of fortune telling.

Okay. Does that make sense? Okay. So then let me ask, yes.

If you're a fortune teller and you predict something, right, then that shows you are the true prophet. But Dante doesn't do that. So how does Dante prove he's the true prophet? And he's able to convince a lot of people he's a true prophet. How Before the plague came.

And I don't know the answer, but I'm just curious as to who you might think would be condemned to Hell with this sort of... And again, I don't know the answer. I'm just asking you guys, who do you think might deserve such a punishment? We don't have fortune tellers today, right? But what kind of people?

You have excess and arrogance, pride, fraud. You have the lack of social mobility, lack of openness, homosexuality, incest among the elite because they want to exclude everyone else, right? Too much self-love, too much self-indulgence, too much individuality, too much immigration. Yes. I feel like extreme wealth inequality.