CANTO XXXIV.‘Vexilla[858]Regis prodeunt InferniTowards where we are; seek then with vision keen,’My Master bade, ‘if trace of him thou spy.’As, when the exhalations dense have been,Or when our hemisphere grows dark with night,A windmill from afar is sometimes seen,I seemed to catch of such a structure sight;And then to ’scape the blast did backward drawBehind my Guide—sole shelter in my plight.Now was I where[859](I versify with awe)10The shades were wholly covered, and did showVisible as in glass are bits of straw.Some stood[860]upright and some were lying low,Some with head topmost, others with their feet;And some with face to feet bent like a bow.But we kept going on till it seemed meetUnto my Master that I should beholdThe creature once[861]of countenance so sweet.He stepped aside and stopped me as he told:‘Lo, Dis! And lo, we are arrived at last20Where thou must nerve thee and must make thee bold,’How I hereon stood shivering and aghast,Demand not, Reader; this I cannot write;So much the fact all reach of words surpassed.I was not dead, yet living was not quite:Think for thyself, if gifted with the power,What, life and death denied me, was my plight.Of that tormented realm the EmperorOut of the ice stood free to middle breast;And me a giant less would overtower30Than would his arm a giant. By such testJudge then what bulk the whole of him must show,[862]Of true proportion with such limb possessed.If he was fair of old as hideous now,And yet his brows against his Maker raised,Meetly from him doth all affliction flow.O how it made me horribly amazedWhen on his head I saw three faces[863]grew!The one vermilion which straight forward gazed;And joining on to it were other two,40One rising up from either shoulder-bone,Till to a junction on the crest they drew.’Twixt white and yellow seemed the right-hand one;The left resembled them whose country liesWhere valleywards the floods of Nile flow down.Beneath each face two mighty wings did rise,Such as this bird tremendous might demand:Sails of sea-ships ne’er saw I of such size.Not feathered were they, but in style were plannedLike a bat’s wing:[864]by them a threefold breeze—50For still he flapped them—evermore was fanned,And through its depths Cocytus caused to freeze.Down three chins tears for ever made descentFrom his six eyes; and red foam mixed with these.In every mouth there was a sinner rentBy teeth that shred him as a heckle[865]would;Thus three at once compelled he to lament.To the one in front ’twas little to be chewedCompared with being clawed and clawed again,Till his back-bone of skin was sometimes nude.[866]60‘The soul up yonder in the greater painIs Judas ’Scariot, with his head amongThe teeth,’ my Master said, ‘while outward strainHis legs. Of the two whose heads are downward hung,Brutus is from the black jowl pendulous:See how he writhes, yet never wags his tongue.The other, great of thew, is Cassius:[867]But night is rising[868]and we must be gone;For everything hath now been seen by us.’Then, as he bade, I to his neck held on70While he the time and place of vantage chose;And when the wings enough were open thrownHe grasped the shaggy ribs and clutched them close,And so from tuft to tuft he downward wentBetween the tangled hair and crust which froze.We to the bulging haunch had made descent,To where the hip-joint lies in it; and thenMy Guide, with painful twist and violent,Turned round his head to where his feet had been,And like a climber closely clutched the hair:80I thought to Hell[869]that we returned again.‘Hold fast to me; it needs by such a stair,’Panting, my Leader said, like man foredone,‘That we from all that wretchedness repair.’Right through a hole in a rock when he had won,The edge of it he gave me for a seatAnd deftly then to join me clambered on.I raised mine eyes, expecting they would meetWith Lucifer as I beheld him last,But saw instead his upturned legs[870]and feet.90If in perplexity I then was cast,Let ignorant people think who do not seeWhat point[871]it was that I had lately passed.‘Rise to thy feet,’ my Master said to me;‘The way is long and rugged the ascent,And at mid tierce[872]the sun must almost be.’’Twas not as if on palace floors we went:A dungeon fresh from nature’s hand was this;Rough underfoot, and of light indigent.‘Or ever I escape from the abyss,100O Master,’ said I, standing now upright,‘Correct in few words where I think amiss.Where lies the ice? How hold we him in sightSet upside down? The sun, how had it skillIn so short while to pass to morn from night?’[873]And he: ‘In fancy thou art standing, still,On yon side of the centre, where I caughtThe vile worm’s hair which through the world doth drill.There wast thou while our downward course I wrought;But when I turned, the centre was passed by110Which by all weights from every point is sought.And now thou standest ’neath the other sky,Opposed to that which vaults the great dry groundAnd ’neath whose summit[874]there did whilom dieThe Man[875]whose birth and life were sinless found.Thy feet are firm upon the little sphere,On this side answering to Judecca’s round.’Tis evening yonder when ’tis morning here;And he whose tufts our ladder rungs supplied.Fixed as he was continues to appear.120Headlong from Heaven he fell upon this side;Whereon the land, protuberant here before,For fear of him did in the ocean hide,And ’neath our sky emerged: land, as of yore[876]Still on this side, perhaps that it might shunHis fall, heaved up, and filled this depth no more.’From Belzebub[877]still widening up and on,Far-stretching as the sepulchre,[878]extendsA region not beheld, but only knownBy murmur of a brook[879]which through it wends,130Declining by a channel eaten throughThe flinty rock; and gently it descends.My Guide and I, our journey to pursueTo the bright world, upon this road concealedMade entrance, and no thought of resting knew.He first, I second, still ascending heldOur way until the fair celestial trainWas through an opening round to me revealed:And, issuing thence, we saw the stars[880]again.FOOTNOTES:[858]Vexilla, etc.: ‘The banners of the King of Hell advance.’ The words are adapted from a hymn of the Cross used in Holy Week; and they prepare us to find in Lucifer the opponent of ‘the Emperor who reigns on high’ (Inf.i. 124). It is somewhat odd that Dante should have put a Christian hymn into Virgil’s mouth.[859]Now was I where: In the fourth and inner division or ring of the Ninth Circle. Here are punished those guilty of treachery to their lawful lords or to their benefactors. From Judas Iscariot, the arch-traitor, it takes the name of Judecca.[860]Some stood, etc.: It has been sought to distinguish the degrees of treachery of the shades by means of the various attitudes assigned to them. But it is difficult to make more out of it than that some are suffering more than others. All of them are the worst of traitors, hard-hearted and cold-hearted, and now they are quite frozen in the ice, sealed up even from the poor relief of intercourse with their fellow-sinners.[861]The creature once, etc.: Lucifer, guilty of treachery against the Highest, atPurg.xii. 25 described as ‘created noble beyond all other creatures.’ Virgil calls him Dis, the name used by him for Pluto in theÆneid, and the name from which that of the City of Unbelief is taken (Inf.viii. 68).[862]Judge then what bulk: The arm of Lucifer was as much longer than the stature of one of the giants as a giant was taller than Dante. We have seen (Inf.xxxi. 58) that the giants were more than fifty feet in height—nine times the stature of a man. If a man’s arm be taken as a third of his stature, then Satan is twenty-seven times as tall as a giant, that is, he is fourteen hundred feet or so. For a fourth of this, or nearly so—from the middle of the breast upwards—he stands out of the ice, that is, some three hundred and fifty feet. It seems almost too great a height for Dante’s purpose; and yet on the calculations of some commentators his stature is immensely greater—from three to five thousand feet.[863]Three faces: By the three faces are represented the three quarters of the world from which the subjects of Lucifer are drawn: vermilion or carnation standing for Europe, yellow for Asia, and black for Africa. Or the faces may symbolise attributes opposed to the Wisdom, Power, and Love of the Trinity (Inf.iii. 5). See also note on line 1.[864]A bat’s wing: Which flutters and flaps in dark and noisome places. The simile helps to bring more clearly before us the dim light and half-seen horrors of the Judecca.[865]A heckle: Or brake; the instrument used to clear the fibre of flax from the woody substance mixed with it.[866]Sometimes nude: We are to imagine that the frame of Judas is being for ever renewed and for ever mangled and torn.[867]Cassius: It has been surmised that Dante here confounds the pale and lean Cassius who was the friend of Brutus with the L. Cassius described as corpulent by Cicero in the Third Catiline Oration. Brutus and Cassius are set with Judas in this, the deepest room of Hell, because, as he was guilty of high treason against his Divine Master, so they were guilty of it against Julius Cæsar, who, according to Dante, was chosen and ordained by God to found the Roman Empire. As the great rebel against the spiritual authority Judas has allotted to him the fiercer pain. To understand the significance of this harsh treatment of the great Republicans it is necessary to bear in mind that Dante’s devotion to the idea of the Empire was part of his religion, and far surpassed in intensity all we can now well imagine. In the absence of a just and strong Emperor the Divine government of the world seemed to him almost at a stand.[868]Night is rising: It is Saturday evening, and twenty-four hours since they entered by the gate of Inferno.[869]I thought to Hell, etc.: Virgil, holding on to Lucifer’s hairy sides, descends the dark and narrow space between him and the ice as far as to his middle, which marks the centre of the earth. Here he swings himself round so as to have his feet to the centre as he emerges from the pit to the southern hemisphere. Dante now feels that he is being carried up, and, able to see nothing in the darkness, deems they are climbing back to the Inferno. Virgil’s difficulty in turning himself round and climbing up the legs of Lucifer arises from his being then at the ‘centre to which all weights tend from every part.’ Dante shared the erroneous belief of the time, that things grew heavier the nearer they were to the centre of the earth.[870]His upturned legs: Lucifer’s feet are as far above where Virgil and Dante are as was his head above the level of the Judecca.[871]What point, etc.: The centre of the earth. Dante here feigns to have been himself confused—a fiction which helps to fasten attention on the wonderful fact that if we could make our way through the earth we should require at the centre to reverse our posture. This was more of a wonder in Dante’s time than now.[872]Mid tierce: The canonical day was divided into four parts, of which Tierce was the first and began at sunrise. It is now about half-past seven in the morning. The night was beginning when they took their departure from the Judecca: the day is now as far advanced in the southern hemisphere as they have spent time on the passage. The journey before them is long indeed, for they have to ascend to the surface of the earth.[873]To morn from night: Dante’s knowledge of the time of day is wholly derived from what Virgil tells him. Since he began his descent into the Inferno he has not seen the sun.[874]’Neath whose summit: Jerusalem is in the centre of the northern hemisphere—an opinion founded perhaps onEzekielv. 5: ‘Jerusalem I have set in the midst of the nations and countries round about her.’ In theConvito, iii. 5, we find Dante’s belief regarding the distribution of land and sea clearly given: ‘For those I write for it is enough to know that the Earth is fixed and does not move, and that, with the ocean, it is the centre of the heavens. The heavens, as we see, are for ever revolving around it as a centre; and in these revolutions they must of necessity have two fixed poles.... Of these one is visible to almost all the dry land of the Earth; and that is our north pole [star]. The other, that is, the south, is out of sight of almost all the dry land.’[875]The Man: The name of Christ is not mentioned in theInferno.[876]Land, as of yore, etc.: On the fall of Lucifer from the southern sky all the dry land of that hemisphere fled before him under the ocean and took refuge in the other; that is, as much land emerged in the northern hemisphere as sank in the southern. But the ground in the direct line of his descent to the centre of the earth heaped itself up into the Mount of Purgatory—the only dry land left in the southern hemisphere. The Inferno was then also hollowed out; and, as Mount Calvary is exactly antipodal to Purgatory, we may understand that on the fall of the first rebels the Mount of Reconciliation for the human race, which is also that of Purification, rose out of the very realms of darkness and sin.—But, as Todeschini points out, the question here arises of whether the Inferno was not created before the earth. AtParad. vii. 124, the earth, with the air and fire and water, is described as ‘corruptible and lasting short while;’ but the Inferno is to endure for aye, and was made before all that is not eternal (Inf.iii. 8).[877]Belzebub: Called in the Gospel the prince of the devils. It may be worth mentioning here that Dante sees in Purgatory (Purg.viii. 99) a serpent which he says may be that which tempted Eve. The identification of the great tempter with Satan is a Miltonic, or at any rate a comparatively modern idea.[878]The sepulchre: The Inferno, tomb of Satan and all the wicked.[879]A brook: Some make this to be the same as Lethe, one of the rivers of the Earthly Paradise. It certainly descends from the Mount of Purgatory.[880]The stars: Each of the three divisions of the Comedy closes with ‘the stars.’ These, as appears fromPurg.i. are the stars of dawn. It was after sunrise when they began their ascent to the surface of the earth, and so nearly twenty-four hours have been spent on the journey—the time it took them to descend through Inferno. It is now the morning of Easter Sunday—that is, of the true anniversary of the Resurrection although not of the day observed that year by the Church. SeeInf.xxi. 112.
‘Vexilla[858]Regis prodeunt InferniTowards where we are; seek then with vision keen,’My Master bade, ‘if trace of him thou spy.’As, when the exhalations dense have been,Or when our hemisphere grows dark with night,A windmill from afar is sometimes seen,I seemed to catch of such a structure sight;And then to ’scape the blast did backward drawBehind my Guide—sole shelter in my plight.Now was I where[859](I versify with awe)10The shades were wholly covered, and did showVisible as in glass are bits of straw.Some stood[860]upright and some were lying low,Some with head topmost, others with their feet;And some with face to feet bent like a bow.But we kept going on till it seemed meetUnto my Master that I should beholdThe creature once[861]of countenance so sweet.He stepped aside and stopped me as he told:‘Lo, Dis! And lo, we are arrived at last20Where thou must nerve thee and must make thee bold,’How I hereon stood shivering and aghast,Demand not, Reader; this I cannot write;So much the fact all reach of words surpassed.I was not dead, yet living was not quite:Think for thyself, if gifted with the power,What, life and death denied me, was my plight.Of that tormented realm the EmperorOut of the ice stood free to middle breast;And me a giant less would overtower30Than would his arm a giant. By such testJudge then what bulk the whole of him must show,[862]Of true proportion with such limb possessed.If he was fair of old as hideous now,And yet his brows against his Maker raised,Meetly from him doth all affliction flow.O how it made me horribly amazedWhen on his head I saw three faces[863]grew!The one vermilion which straight forward gazed;And joining on to it were other two,40One rising up from either shoulder-bone,Till to a junction on the crest they drew.’Twixt white and yellow seemed the right-hand one;The left resembled them whose country liesWhere valleywards the floods of Nile flow down.Beneath each face two mighty wings did rise,Such as this bird tremendous might demand:Sails of sea-ships ne’er saw I of such size.Not feathered were they, but in style were plannedLike a bat’s wing:[864]by them a threefold breeze—50For still he flapped them—evermore was fanned,And through its depths Cocytus caused to freeze.Down three chins tears for ever made descentFrom his six eyes; and red foam mixed with these.In every mouth there was a sinner rentBy teeth that shred him as a heckle[865]would;Thus three at once compelled he to lament.To the one in front ’twas little to be chewedCompared with being clawed and clawed again,Till his back-bone of skin was sometimes nude.[866]60‘The soul up yonder in the greater painIs Judas ’Scariot, with his head amongThe teeth,’ my Master said, ‘while outward strainHis legs. Of the two whose heads are downward hung,Brutus is from the black jowl pendulous:See how he writhes, yet never wags his tongue.The other, great of thew, is Cassius:[867]But night is rising[868]and we must be gone;For everything hath now been seen by us.’Then, as he bade, I to his neck held on70While he the time and place of vantage chose;And when the wings enough were open thrownHe grasped the shaggy ribs and clutched them close,And so from tuft to tuft he downward wentBetween the tangled hair and crust which froze.We to the bulging haunch had made descent,To where the hip-joint lies in it; and thenMy Guide, with painful twist and violent,Turned round his head to where his feet had been,And like a climber closely clutched the hair:80I thought to Hell[869]that we returned again.‘Hold fast to me; it needs by such a stair,’Panting, my Leader said, like man foredone,‘That we from all that wretchedness repair.’Right through a hole in a rock when he had won,The edge of it he gave me for a seatAnd deftly then to join me clambered on.I raised mine eyes, expecting they would meetWith Lucifer as I beheld him last,But saw instead his upturned legs[870]and feet.90If in perplexity I then was cast,Let ignorant people think who do not seeWhat point[871]it was that I had lately passed.‘Rise to thy feet,’ my Master said to me;‘The way is long and rugged the ascent,And at mid tierce[872]the sun must almost be.’’Twas not as if on palace floors we went:A dungeon fresh from nature’s hand was this;Rough underfoot, and of light indigent.‘Or ever I escape from the abyss,100O Master,’ said I, standing now upright,‘Correct in few words where I think amiss.Where lies the ice? How hold we him in sightSet upside down? The sun, how had it skillIn so short while to pass to morn from night?’[873]And he: ‘In fancy thou art standing, still,On yon side of the centre, where I caughtThe vile worm’s hair which through the world doth drill.There wast thou while our downward course I wrought;But when I turned, the centre was passed by110Which by all weights from every point is sought.And now thou standest ’neath the other sky,Opposed to that which vaults the great dry groundAnd ’neath whose summit[874]there did whilom dieThe Man[875]whose birth and life were sinless found.Thy feet are firm upon the little sphere,On this side answering to Judecca’s round.’Tis evening yonder when ’tis morning here;And he whose tufts our ladder rungs supplied.Fixed as he was continues to appear.120Headlong from Heaven he fell upon this side;Whereon the land, protuberant here before,For fear of him did in the ocean hide,And ’neath our sky emerged: land, as of yore[876]Still on this side, perhaps that it might shunHis fall, heaved up, and filled this depth no more.’From Belzebub[877]still widening up and on,Far-stretching as the sepulchre,[878]extendsA region not beheld, but only knownBy murmur of a brook[879]which through it wends,130Declining by a channel eaten throughThe flinty rock; and gently it descends.My Guide and I, our journey to pursueTo the bright world, upon this road concealedMade entrance, and no thought of resting knew.He first, I second, still ascending heldOur way until the fair celestial trainWas through an opening round to me revealed:And, issuing thence, we saw the stars[880]again.
‘Vexilla[858]Regis prodeunt InferniTowards where we are; seek then with vision keen,’My Master bade, ‘if trace of him thou spy.’As, when the exhalations dense have been,Or when our hemisphere grows dark with night,A windmill from afar is sometimes seen,I seemed to catch of such a structure sight;And then to ’scape the blast did backward drawBehind my Guide—sole shelter in my plight.Now was I where[859](I versify with awe)10The shades were wholly covered, and did showVisible as in glass are bits of straw.Some stood[860]upright and some were lying low,Some with head topmost, others with their feet;And some with face to feet bent like a bow.But we kept going on till it seemed meetUnto my Master that I should beholdThe creature once[861]of countenance so sweet.He stepped aside and stopped me as he told:‘Lo, Dis! And lo, we are arrived at last20Where thou must nerve thee and must make thee bold,’How I hereon stood shivering and aghast,Demand not, Reader; this I cannot write;So much the fact all reach of words surpassed.I was not dead, yet living was not quite:Think for thyself, if gifted with the power,What, life and death denied me, was my plight.Of that tormented realm the EmperorOut of the ice stood free to middle breast;And me a giant less would overtower30Than would his arm a giant. By such testJudge then what bulk the whole of him must show,[862]Of true proportion with such limb possessed.If he was fair of old as hideous now,And yet his brows against his Maker raised,Meetly from him doth all affliction flow.O how it made me horribly amazedWhen on his head I saw three faces[863]grew!The one vermilion which straight forward gazed;And joining on to it were other two,40One rising up from either shoulder-bone,Till to a junction on the crest they drew.’Twixt white and yellow seemed the right-hand one;The left resembled them whose country liesWhere valleywards the floods of Nile flow down.Beneath each face two mighty wings did rise,Such as this bird tremendous might demand:Sails of sea-ships ne’er saw I of such size.Not feathered were they, but in style were plannedLike a bat’s wing:[864]by them a threefold breeze—50For still he flapped them—evermore was fanned,And through its depths Cocytus caused to freeze.Down three chins tears for ever made descentFrom his six eyes; and red foam mixed with these.In every mouth there was a sinner rentBy teeth that shred him as a heckle[865]would;Thus three at once compelled he to lament.To the one in front ’twas little to be chewedCompared with being clawed and clawed again,Till his back-bone of skin was sometimes nude.[866]60‘The soul up yonder in the greater painIs Judas ’Scariot, with his head amongThe teeth,’ my Master said, ‘while outward strainHis legs. Of the two whose heads are downward hung,Brutus is from the black jowl pendulous:See how he writhes, yet never wags his tongue.The other, great of thew, is Cassius:[867]But night is rising[868]and we must be gone;For everything hath now been seen by us.’Then, as he bade, I to his neck held on70While he the time and place of vantage chose;And when the wings enough were open thrownHe grasped the shaggy ribs and clutched them close,And so from tuft to tuft he downward wentBetween the tangled hair and crust which froze.We to the bulging haunch had made descent,To where the hip-joint lies in it; and thenMy Guide, with painful twist and violent,Turned round his head to where his feet had been,And like a climber closely clutched the hair:80I thought to Hell[869]that we returned again.‘Hold fast to me; it needs by such a stair,’Panting, my Leader said, like man foredone,‘That we from all that wretchedness repair.’Right through a hole in a rock when he had won,The edge of it he gave me for a seatAnd deftly then to join me clambered on.I raised mine eyes, expecting they would meetWith Lucifer as I beheld him last,But saw instead his upturned legs[870]and feet.90If in perplexity I then was cast,Let ignorant people think who do not seeWhat point[871]it was that I had lately passed.‘Rise to thy feet,’ my Master said to me;‘The way is long and rugged the ascent,And at mid tierce[872]the sun must almost be.’’Twas not as if on palace floors we went:A dungeon fresh from nature’s hand was this;Rough underfoot, and of light indigent.‘Or ever I escape from the abyss,100O Master,’ said I, standing now upright,‘Correct in few words where I think amiss.Where lies the ice? How hold we him in sightSet upside down? The sun, how had it skillIn so short while to pass to morn from night?’[873]And he: ‘In fancy thou art standing, still,On yon side of the centre, where I caughtThe vile worm’s hair which through the world doth drill.There wast thou while our downward course I wrought;But when I turned, the centre was passed by110Which by all weights from every point is sought.And now thou standest ’neath the other sky,Opposed to that which vaults the great dry groundAnd ’neath whose summit[874]there did whilom dieThe Man[875]whose birth and life were sinless found.Thy feet are firm upon the little sphere,On this side answering to Judecca’s round.’Tis evening yonder when ’tis morning here;And he whose tufts our ladder rungs supplied.Fixed as he was continues to appear.120Headlong from Heaven he fell upon this side;Whereon the land, protuberant here before,For fear of him did in the ocean hide,And ’neath our sky emerged: land, as of yore[876]Still on this side, perhaps that it might shunHis fall, heaved up, and filled this depth no more.’From Belzebub[877]still widening up and on,Far-stretching as the sepulchre,[878]extendsA region not beheld, but only knownBy murmur of a brook[879]which through it wends,130Declining by a channel eaten throughThe flinty rock; and gently it descends.My Guide and I, our journey to pursueTo the bright world, upon this road concealedMade entrance, and no thought of resting knew.He first, I second, still ascending heldOur way until the fair celestial trainWas through an opening round to me revealed:And, issuing thence, we saw the stars[880]again.
FOOTNOTES:[858]Vexilla, etc.: ‘The banners of the King of Hell advance.’ The words are adapted from a hymn of the Cross used in Holy Week; and they prepare us to find in Lucifer the opponent of ‘the Emperor who reigns on high’ (Inf.i. 124). It is somewhat odd that Dante should have put a Christian hymn into Virgil’s mouth.[859]Now was I where: In the fourth and inner division or ring of the Ninth Circle. Here are punished those guilty of treachery to their lawful lords or to their benefactors. From Judas Iscariot, the arch-traitor, it takes the name of Judecca.[860]Some stood, etc.: It has been sought to distinguish the degrees of treachery of the shades by means of the various attitudes assigned to them. But it is difficult to make more out of it than that some are suffering more than others. All of them are the worst of traitors, hard-hearted and cold-hearted, and now they are quite frozen in the ice, sealed up even from the poor relief of intercourse with their fellow-sinners.[861]The creature once, etc.: Lucifer, guilty of treachery against the Highest, atPurg.xii. 25 described as ‘created noble beyond all other creatures.’ Virgil calls him Dis, the name used by him for Pluto in theÆneid, and the name from which that of the City of Unbelief is taken (Inf.viii. 68).[862]Judge then what bulk: The arm of Lucifer was as much longer than the stature of one of the giants as a giant was taller than Dante. We have seen (Inf.xxxi. 58) that the giants were more than fifty feet in height—nine times the stature of a man. If a man’s arm be taken as a third of his stature, then Satan is twenty-seven times as tall as a giant, that is, he is fourteen hundred feet or so. For a fourth of this, or nearly so—from the middle of the breast upwards—he stands out of the ice, that is, some three hundred and fifty feet. It seems almost too great a height for Dante’s purpose; and yet on the calculations of some commentators his stature is immensely greater—from three to five thousand feet.[863]Three faces: By the three faces are represented the three quarters of the world from which the subjects of Lucifer are drawn: vermilion or carnation standing for Europe, yellow for Asia, and black for Africa. Or the faces may symbolise attributes opposed to the Wisdom, Power, and Love of the Trinity (Inf.iii. 5). See also note on line 1.[864]A bat’s wing: Which flutters and flaps in dark and noisome places. The simile helps to bring more clearly before us the dim light and half-seen horrors of the Judecca.[865]A heckle: Or brake; the instrument used to clear the fibre of flax from the woody substance mixed with it.[866]Sometimes nude: We are to imagine that the frame of Judas is being for ever renewed and for ever mangled and torn.[867]Cassius: It has been surmised that Dante here confounds the pale and lean Cassius who was the friend of Brutus with the L. Cassius described as corpulent by Cicero in the Third Catiline Oration. Brutus and Cassius are set with Judas in this, the deepest room of Hell, because, as he was guilty of high treason against his Divine Master, so they were guilty of it against Julius Cæsar, who, according to Dante, was chosen and ordained by God to found the Roman Empire. As the great rebel against the spiritual authority Judas has allotted to him the fiercer pain. To understand the significance of this harsh treatment of the great Republicans it is necessary to bear in mind that Dante’s devotion to the idea of the Empire was part of his religion, and far surpassed in intensity all we can now well imagine. In the absence of a just and strong Emperor the Divine government of the world seemed to him almost at a stand.[868]Night is rising: It is Saturday evening, and twenty-four hours since they entered by the gate of Inferno.[869]I thought to Hell, etc.: Virgil, holding on to Lucifer’s hairy sides, descends the dark and narrow space between him and the ice as far as to his middle, which marks the centre of the earth. Here he swings himself round so as to have his feet to the centre as he emerges from the pit to the southern hemisphere. Dante now feels that he is being carried up, and, able to see nothing in the darkness, deems they are climbing back to the Inferno. Virgil’s difficulty in turning himself round and climbing up the legs of Lucifer arises from his being then at the ‘centre to which all weights tend from every part.’ Dante shared the erroneous belief of the time, that things grew heavier the nearer they were to the centre of the earth.[870]His upturned legs: Lucifer’s feet are as far above where Virgil and Dante are as was his head above the level of the Judecca.[871]What point, etc.: The centre of the earth. Dante here feigns to have been himself confused—a fiction which helps to fasten attention on the wonderful fact that if we could make our way through the earth we should require at the centre to reverse our posture. This was more of a wonder in Dante’s time than now.[872]Mid tierce: The canonical day was divided into four parts, of which Tierce was the first and began at sunrise. It is now about half-past seven in the morning. The night was beginning when they took their departure from the Judecca: the day is now as far advanced in the southern hemisphere as they have spent time on the passage. The journey before them is long indeed, for they have to ascend to the surface of the earth.[873]To morn from night: Dante’s knowledge of the time of day is wholly derived from what Virgil tells him. Since he began his descent into the Inferno he has not seen the sun.[874]’Neath whose summit: Jerusalem is in the centre of the northern hemisphere—an opinion founded perhaps onEzekielv. 5: ‘Jerusalem I have set in the midst of the nations and countries round about her.’ In theConvito, iii. 5, we find Dante’s belief regarding the distribution of land and sea clearly given: ‘For those I write for it is enough to know that the Earth is fixed and does not move, and that, with the ocean, it is the centre of the heavens. The heavens, as we see, are for ever revolving around it as a centre; and in these revolutions they must of necessity have two fixed poles.... Of these one is visible to almost all the dry land of the Earth; and that is our north pole [star]. The other, that is, the south, is out of sight of almost all the dry land.’[875]The Man: The name of Christ is not mentioned in theInferno.[876]Land, as of yore, etc.: On the fall of Lucifer from the southern sky all the dry land of that hemisphere fled before him under the ocean and took refuge in the other; that is, as much land emerged in the northern hemisphere as sank in the southern. But the ground in the direct line of his descent to the centre of the earth heaped itself up into the Mount of Purgatory—the only dry land left in the southern hemisphere. The Inferno was then also hollowed out; and, as Mount Calvary is exactly antipodal to Purgatory, we may understand that on the fall of the first rebels the Mount of Reconciliation for the human race, which is also that of Purification, rose out of the very realms of darkness and sin.—But, as Todeschini points out, the question here arises of whether the Inferno was not created before the earth. AtParad. vii. 124, the earth, with the air and fire and water, is described as ‘corruptible and lasting short while;’ but the Inferno is to endure for aye, and was made before all that is not eternal (Inf.iii. 8).[877]Belzebub: Called in the Gospel the prince of the devils. It may be worth mentioning here that Dante sees in Purgatory (Purg.viii. 99) a serpent which he says may be that which tempted Eve. The identification of the great tempter with Satan is a Miltonic, or at any rate a comparatively modern idea.[878]The sepulchre: The Inferno, tomb of Satan and all the wicked.[879]A brook: Some make this to be the same as Lethe, one of the rivers of the Earthly Paradise. It certainly descends from the Mount of Purgatory.[880]The stars: Each of the three divisions of the Comedy closes with ‘the stars.’ These, as appears fromPurg.i. are the stars of dawn. It was after sunrise when they began their ascent to the surface of the earth, and so nearly twenty-four hours have been spent on the journey—the time it took them to descend through Inferno. It is now the morning of Easter Sunday—that is, of the true anniversary of the Resurrection although not of the day observed that year by the Church. SeeInf.xxi. 112.
[858]Vexilla, etc.: ‘The banners of the King of Hell advance.’ The words are adapted from a hymn of the Cross used in Holy Week; and they prepare us to find in Lucifer the opponent of ‘the Emperor who reigns on high’ (Inf.i. 124). It is somewhat odd that Dante should have put a Christian hymn into Virgil’s mouth.
[858]Vexilla, etc.: ‘The banners of the King of Hell advance.’ The words are adapted from a hymn of the Cross used in Holy Week; and they prepare us to find in Lucifer the opponent of ‘the Emperor who reigns on high’ (Inf.i. 124). It is somewhat odd that Dante should have put a Christian hymn into Virgil’s mouth.
[859]Now was I where: In the fourth and inner division or ring of the Ninth Circle. Here are punished those guilty of treachery to their lawful lords or to their benefactors. From Judas Iscariot, the arch-traitor, it takes the name of Judecca.
[859]Now was I where: In the fourth and inner division or ring of the Ninth Circle. Here are punished those guilty of treachery to their lawful lords or to their benefactors. From Judas Iscariot, the arch-traitor, it takes the name of Judecca.
[860]Some stood, etc.: It has been sought to distinguish the degrees of treachery of the shades by means of the various attitudes assigned to them. But it is difficult to make more out of it than that some are suffering more than others. All of them are the worst of traitors, hard-hearted and cold-hearted, and now they are quite frozen in the ice, sealed up even from the poor relief of intercourse with their fellow-sinners.
[860]Some stood, etc.: It has been sought to distinguish the degrees of treachery of the shades by means of the various attitudes assigned to them. But it is difficult to make more out of it than that some are suffering more than others. All of them are the worst of traitors, hard-hearted and cold-hearted, and now they are quite frozen in the ice, sealed up even from the poor relief of intercourse with their fellow-sinners.
[861]The creature once, etc.: Lucifer, guilty of treachery against the Highest, atPurg.xii. 25 described as ‘created noble beyond all other creatures.’ Virgil calls him Dis, the name used by him for Pluto in theÆneid, and the name from which that of the City of Unbelief is taken (Inf.viii. 68).
[861]The creature once, etc.: Lucifer, guilty of treachery against the Highest, atPurg.xii. 25 described as ‘created noble beyond all other creatures.’ Virgil calls him Dis, the name used by him for Pluto in theÆneid, and the name from which that of the City of Unbelief is taken (Inf.viii. 68).
[862]Judge then what bulk: The arm of Lucifer was as much longer than the stature of one of the giants as a giant was taller than Dante. We have seen (Inf.xxxi. 58) that the giants were more than fifty feet in height—nine times the stature of a man. If a man’s arm be taken as a third of his stature, then Satan is twenty-seven times as tall as a giant, that is, he is fourteen hundred feet or so. For a fourth of this, or nearly so—from the middle of the breast upwards—he stands out of the ice, that is, some three hundred and fifty feet. It seems almost too great a height for Dante’s purpose; and yet on the calculations of some commentators his stature is immensely greater—from three to five thousand feet.
[862]Judge then what bulk: The arm of Lucifer was as much longer than the stature of one of the giants as a giant was taller than Dante. We have seen (Inf.xxxi. 58) that the giants were more than fifty feet in height—nine times the stature of a man. If a man’s arm be taken as a third of his stature, then Satan is twenty-seven times as tall as a giant, that is, he is fourteen hundred feet or so. For a fourth of this, or nearly so—from the middle of the breast upwards—he stands out of the ice, that is, some three hundred and fifty feet. It seems almost too great a height for Dante’s purpose; and yet on the calculations of some commentators his stature is immensely greater—from three to five thousand feet.
[863]Three faces: By the three faces are represented the three quarters of the world from which the subjects of Lucifer are drawn: vermilion or carnation standing for Europe, yellow for Asia, and black for Africa. Or the faces may symbolise attributes opposed to the Wisdom, Power, and Love of the Trinity (Inf.iii. 5). See also note on line 1.
[863]Three faces: By the three faces are represented the three quarters of the world from which the subjects of Lucifer are drawn: vermilion or carnation standing for Europe, yellow for Asia, and black for Africa. Or the faces may symbolise attributes opposed to the Wisdom, Power, and Love of the Trinity (Inf.iii. 5). See also note on line 1.
[864]A bat’s wing: Which flutters and flaps in dark and noisome places. The simile helps to bring more clearly before us the dim light and half-seen horrors of the Judecca.
[864]A bat’s wing: Which flutters and flaps in dark and noisome places. The simile helps to bring more clearly before us the dim light and half-seen horrors of the Judecca.
[865]A heckle: Or brake; the instrument used to clear the fibre of flax from the woody substance mixed with it.
[865]A heckle: Or brake; the instrument used to clear the fibre of flax from the woody substance mixed with it.
[866]Sometimes nude: We are to imagine that the frame of Judas is being for ever renewed and for ever mangled and torn.
[866]Sometimes nude: We are to imagine that the frame of Judas is being for ever renewed and for ever mangled and torn.
[867]Cassius: It has been surmised that Dante here confounds the pale and lean Cassius who was the friend of Brutus with the L. Cassius described as corpulent by Cicero in the Third Catiline Oration. Brutus and Cassius are set with Judas in this, the deepest room of Hell, because, as he was guilty of high treason against his Divine Master, so they were guilty of it against Julius Cæsar, who, according to Dante, was chosen and ordained by God to found the Roman Empire. As the great rebel against the spiritual authority Judas has allotted to him the fiercer pain. To understand the significance of this harsh treatment of the great Republicans it is necessary to bear in mind that Dante’s devotion to the idea of the Empire was part of his religion, and far surpassed in intensity all we can now well imagine. In the absence of a just and strong Emperor the Divine government of the world seemed to him almost at a stand.
[867]Cassius: It has been surmised that Dante here confounds the pale and lean Cassius who was the friend of Brutus with the L. Cassius described as corpulent by Cicero in the Third Catiline Oration. Brutus and Cassius are set with Judas in this, the deepest room of Hell, because, as he was guilty of high treason against his Divine Master, so they were guilty of it against Julius Cæsar, who, according to Dante, was chosen and ordained by God to found the Roman Empire. As the great rebel against the spiritual authority Judas has allotted to him the fiercer pain. To understand the significance of this harsh treatment of the great Republicans it is necessary to bear in mind that Dante’s devotion to the idea of the Empire was part of his religion, and far surpassed in intensity all we can now well imagine. In the absence of a just and strong Emperor the Divine government of the world seemed to him almost at a stand.
[868]Night is rising: It is Saturday evening, and twenty-four hours since they entered by the gate of Inferno.
[868]Night is rising: It is Saturday evening, and twenty-four hours since they entered by the gate of Inferno.
[869]I thought to Hell, etc.: Virgil, holding on to Lucifer’s hairy sides, descends the dark and narrow space between him and the ice as far as to his middle, which marks the centre of the earth. Here he swings himself round so as to have his feet to the centre as he emerges from the pit to the southern hemisphere. Dante now feels that he is being carried up, and, able to see nothing in the darkness, deems they are climbing back to the Inferno. Virgil’s difficulty in turning himself round and climbing up the legs of Lucifer arises from his being then at the ‘centre to which all weights tend from every part.’ Dante shared the erroneous belief of the time, that things grew heavier the nearer they were to the centre of the earth.
[869]I thought to Hell, etc.: Virgil, holding on to Lucifer’s hairy sides, descends the dark and narrow space between him and the ice as far as to his middle, which marks the centre of the earth. Here he swings himself round so as to have his feet to the centre as he emerges from the pit to the southern hemisphere. Dante now feels that he is being carried up, and, able to see nothing in the darkness, deems they are climbing back to the Inferno. Virgil’s difficulty in turning himself round and climbing up the legs of Lucifer arises from his being then at the ‘centre to which all weights tend from every part.’ Dante shared the erroneous belief of the time, that things grew heavier the nearer they were to the centre of the earth.
[870]His upturned legs: Lucifer’s feet are as far above where Virgil and Dante are as was his head above the level of the Judecca.
[870]His upturned legs: Lucifer’s feet are as far above where Virgil and Dante are as was his head above the level of the Judecca.
[871]What point, etc.: The centre of the earth. Dante here feigns to have been himself confused—a fiction which helps to fasten attention on the wonderful fact that if we could make our way through the earth we should require at the centre to reverse our posture. This was more of a wonder in Dante’s time than now.
[871]What point, etc.: The centre of the earth. Dante here feigns to have been himself confused—a fiction which helps to fasten attention on the wonderful fact that if we could make our way through the earth we should require at the centre to reverse our posture. This was more of a wonder in Dante’s time than now.
[872]Mid tierce: The canonical day was divided into four parts, of which Tierce was the first and began at sunrise. It is now about half-past seven in the morning. The night was beginning when they took their departure from the Judecca: the day is now as far advanced in the southern hemisphere as they have spent time on the passage. The journey before them is long indeed, for they have to ascend to the surface of the earth.
[872]Mid tierce: The canonical day was divided into four parts, of which Tierce was the first and began at sunrise. It is now about half-past seven in the morning. The night was beginning when they took their departure from the Judecca: the day is now as far advanced in the southern hemisphere as they have spent time on the passage. The journey before them is long indeed, for they have to ascend to the surface of the earth.
[873]To morn from night: Dante’s knowledge of the time of day is wholly derived from what Virgil tells him. Since he began his descent into the Inferno he has not seen the sun.
[873]To morn from night: Dante’s knowledge of the time of day is wholly derived from what Virgil tells him. Since he began his descent into the Inferno he has not seen the sun.
[874]’Neath whose summit: Jerusalem is in the centre of the northern hemisphere—an opinion founded perhaps onEzekielv. 5: ‘Jerusalem I have set in the midst of the nations and countries round about her.’ In theConvito, iii. 5, we find Dante’s belief regarding the distribution of land and sea clearly given: ‘For those I write for it is enough to know that the Earth is fixed and does not move, and that, with the ocean, it is the centre of the heavens. The heavens, as we see, are for ever revolving around it as a centre; and in these revolutions they must of necessity have two fixed poles.... Of these one is visible to almost all the dry land of the Earth; and that is our north pole [star]. The other, that is, the south, is out of sight of almost all the dry land.’
[874]’Neath whose summit: Jerusalem is in the centre of the northern hemisphere—an opinion founded perhaps onEzekielv. 5: ‘Jerusalem I have set in the midst of the nations and countries round about her.’ In theConvito, iii. 5, we find Dante’s belief regarding the distribution of land and sea clearly given: ‘For those I write for it is enough to know that the Earth is fixed and does not move, and that, with the ocean, it is the centre of the heavens. The heavens, as we see, are for ever revolving around it as a centre; and in these revolutions they must of necessity have two fixed poles.... Of these one is visible to almost all the dry land of the Earth; and that is our north pole [star]. The other, that is, the south, is out of sight of almost all the dry land.’
[875]The Man: The name of Christ is not mentioned in theInferno.
[875]The Man: The name of Christ is not mentioned in theInferno.
[876]Land, as of yore, etc.: On the fall of Lucifer from the southern sky all the dry land of that hemisphere fled before him under the ocean and took refuge in the other; that is, as much land emerged in the northern hemisphere as sank in the southern. But the ground in the direct line of his descent to the centre of the earth heaped itself up into the Mount of Purgatory—the only dry land left in the southern hemisphere. The Inferno was then also hollowed out; and, as Mount Calvary is exactly antipodal to Purgatory, we may understand that on the fall of the first rebels the Mount of Reconciliation for the human race, which is also that of Purification, rose out of the very realms of darkness and sin.—But, as Todeschini points out, the question here arises of whether the Inferno was not created before the earth. AtParad. vii. 124, the earth, with the air and fire and water, is described as ‘corruptible and lasting short while;’ but the Inferno is to endure for aye, and was made before all that is not eternal (Inf.iii. 8).
[876]Land, as of yore, etc.: On the fall of Lucifer from the southern sky all the dry land of that hemisphere fled before him under the ocean and took refuge in the other; that is, as much land emerged in the northern hemisphere as sank in the southern. But the ground in the direct line of his descent to the centre of the earth heaped itself up into the Mount of Purgatory—the only dry land left in the southern hemisphere. The Inferno was then also hollowed out; and, as Mount Calvary is exactly antipodal to Purgatory, we may understand that on the fall of the first rebels the Mount of Reconciliation for the human race, which is also that of Purification, rose out of the very realms of darkness and sin.—But, as Todeschini points out, the question here arises of whether the Inferno was not created before the earth. AtParad. vii. 124, the earth, with the air and fire and water, is described as ‘corruptible and lasting short while;’ but the Inferno is to endure for aye, and was made before all that is not eternal (Inf.iii. 8).
[877]Belzebub: Called in the Gospel the prince of the devils. It may be worth mentioning here that Dante sees in Purgatory (Purg.viii. 99) a serpent which he says may be that which tempted Eve. The identification of the great tempter with Satan is a Miltonic, or at any rate a comparatively modern idea.
[877]Belzebub: Called in the Gospel the prince of the devils. It may be worth mentioning here that Dante sees in Purgatory (Purg.viii. 99) a serpent which he says may be that which tempted Eve. The identification of the great tempter with Satan is a Miltonic, or at any rate a comparatively modern idea.
[878]The sepulchre: The Inferno, tomb of Satan and all the wicked.
[878]The sepulchre: The Inferno, tomb of Satan and all the wicked.
[879]A brook: Some make this to be the same as Lethe, one of the rivers of the Earthly Paradise. It certainly descends from the Mount of Purgatory.
[879]A brook: Some make this to be the same as Lethe, one of the rivers of the Earthly Paradise. It certainly descends from the Mount of Purgatory.
[880]The stars: Each of the three divisions of the Comedy closes with ‘the stars.’ These, as appears fromPurg.i. are the stars of dawn. It was after sunrise when they began their ascent to the surface of the earth, and so nearly twenty-four hours have been spent on the journey—the time it took them to descend through Inferno. It is now the morning of Easter Sunday—that is, of the true anniversary of the Resurrection although not of the day observed that year by the Church. SeeInf.xxi. 112.
[880]The stars: Each of the three divisions of the Comedy closes with ‘the stars.’ These, as appears fromPurg.i. are the stars of dawn. It was after sunrise when they began their ascent to the surface of the earth, and so nearly twenty-four hours have been spent on the journey—the time it took them to descend through Inferno. It is now the morning of Easter Sunday—that is, of the true anniversary of the Resurrection although not of the day observed that year by the Church. SeeInf.xxi. 112.