Walking With Dante

There's much more to be said about this problem of up, down, and spin after Dante the pilgim and Virgil pass the center of the earth. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I explore this problem: the world upside-down and the enforced rereading of INFERNO to turn it into COMEDY, the dominant form of Western civilization. Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [01:28] Once more, a read...

We've seen it all. Now we just have to get out. And to do that, we have to make a big turnaround on Virgil's shoulders. Right at Satan's butt. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we pass the center point in the universe, a place where the action of grace suddenly comes into focus. Satan is the way out of hell. Satan is the pivot for the entire universe. The way down has been the way up all along. Here ar...

We've come to our last moments in hell. Here, our pilgrim Dante sees the three worst sinners in human history: Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius. Wait . . . what? Brutus and Cassius. Indeed, being gnashed by Satan at the center of the earth. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk through this difficult passage and try to figure out its many tricky implications . . . and its little bit of bawdy hum...

Dante the pilgrim has seen the final vision of INFERNO: Satan, looked in the ice sheet of Cocytus. Perhaps it's wise to step back and think about where this figure of Satan comes from--and how it exists as a concept in Dante's day. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I try to clear away modern notions of Satan to see what's so unusual about Dante's portrayal. Here are the segments of this episode of WALK...

We're about to get a good look at Satan, closer and closer, until we can see the color of his faces. Yes, faces. Three of them. Some trinitarian perversion lies at the center of the universe. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk up to Satan with Dante, our pilgrim, and Virgil, his guide. We're nearing the end of the infernal landscape. And we're finding out what will replace it: awe. Here are the...

This episode is an interpolated one in the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE. We've just gone beyond the last of the seven direct addresses to the reader in INFERNO. Let's look back over all seven of them to discover what sort of reader Dante imagines for his poem and what Dante wants out of that reader. Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [01:15] The direct addresses to the read...

We've come to the final revelation of INFERNO, to its climax: the vision of Satan himself, called "Dis" by Virgil (after his own king of the underworld in THE AENEID). The emperor of the kingdom of woe scares the lights out of the pilgrim--and out of the poet. Our final revelation may well be that the poet has gone as far as he can with his infernal poetics. Now he must find new words to express w...

We've come to the last sinner who speaks in INFERNO. And his story is as wild as it gets. He claims that once someone violates the guest/host relationship, their soul exits their body and falls into the ice sheet at the center of the earth. Their body is then made into a puppet for a demon. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk through the third ring of Cocytus, Ptolomea, out on the ice sheet of th...

We've slipped on down to the third ring of Cocytus--where we find a few textual problems, more New Testament references, the return of Virgil for no good reason, and a possible slip from our poet. Hey, it's slick down here! Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we near the end of INFERNO, Canto XXXIII, passing on from Count Ugolino (sort of--one last glance) and toward the last speaking damned soul in all...

Our final episode on Count Ugolino! Yet there's so much left to say. We're going to have to pass on from this ghastly damned soul and let him return to his savage meal of Archbishop Ruggieri's brain. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I add on the condemnation of Pisa and try to come to terms one last time with this overwhelming figure from the COMEDY, a rival to Ulysses and Francesca in the amount of s...

On first glance, Count Ugolino's speech appears to be quite secular. He even appeals to the earth, not God, to save him and his sons. In fact, Dante has woven an incredible tapestry of New Testament references together to make this monologue. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look over Ugolino's speech as both a parody and an affirmation of Jesus' teaching. Here are the segments of this episode of W...

In the last episode of this podcast, we've looked at Count Ugolino's speech as a narrative arc, taking apart and looking at the ways both the poet Dante has changed the historical record and the details that may be too removed by time for us to see clearly. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we now situate the last great sinner of hell, Count Ugolino, inside the larger framework of Dante's INFERNO. Ugol...

We come upon the last great sinner of hell: Count Ugolino, frozen in the ice of Cocytus, munching on the brains of Archbishop Ruggieri. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the first of several episodes on Ugolino. His story won't allow us to forget him. And its place in COMEDY makes sure we'll keep talking about it over several episodes. And the last line he speaks will continue to bedevil Dante’s reade...

Dante the pilgrim and silent Virgil lead us to the most disgusting scene in all of INFERNO as one sinner munches on the skull and brains of another. This scene is the setup at the end of INFERNO, Canto XXXII for the last great sinner of hell, a figure no one ever forgets. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at some of the kinks in this opening passage and start a discussion of the nature of Dante...

Dante the pilgrim has come across an infamous traitor on the ice sheet of Cocytus in the ninth ring of hell. Here in Antenora, the second sub-ring of the bottom of the everything, Dante finds the guy he and many others blame for the troubles of central Italy. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the second half of this conversation with one of the most despicable sinners in Dante's universe. Th...

We're nearing the center of the universe, a place where we can feel the weight of everything bearing down on us. Our pilgrim is showing the strain. Violent. Erratic. Our poet, too. Trying to convince us he really took this journey. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk with Dante and (silent!) Virgil across the final ice sheet of hell, the ninth circle, into Antenora, the realm of those who've been...

We've come a long way down into INFERNO and we'already passed dozens, even hundreds of similes. (It all depends on how you count them.) This podcast episode is an interpolated one in our slow-walk across Dante's masterwork COMEDY. Here, I'd like to look at the six basic types of similes Dante has used to craft his work (so far). Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this admittedly literary episode of WAL...

We've come to the first subset of the last circle of INFERNO, the pit of hell, an ice sheet that start with Caïna, which holds those who've offed family members, mostly for land or money. These guys are frozen solid to their necks, the heads bent down to let their tears spill onto the ice. They're a nasty lot, although one of the damned can't help but speak up. He proves both a snitch and strangel...

We start our trek with the pilgrim Dante and his guide Virgil across the final, ninth circle of hell, an unforgiving ice sheet, where we encounter disembodied voices, questions about perspective, pastoral imagery, and some puzzling questions about how it all works. Dante’s imagination is mechanical and full. But even he nods once in a while. Maybe a couple of times in this passage, in fact. But no...

We've come to the ninth circle of hell. But not quite yet. Dante opens Inferno, Canto XXXII with a metapoetic moment, a passage in which he talks about the limits of the very form he's using to craft these verses. He offers up his second invocation of the poem and finds himself at a place of despair as an artist--the very same emotional landscape that makes up the last circle of hell. Here are the...

We've walked with Dante the pilgrim and his guide, Virgil, to the very foundations of the universe, the ninth circle of hell, the bottom of all that is. All that blather about Antaeus? He's not so bad. He's just a traitor to Satan's kingdom. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we get picked up and set down into the ninth circle of hell by a giant who almost bested Hercules, who seemed immune to Lucan's f...

Dante the pilgrim and Virgil walk on to find Antaeus, the unbound giant who can set them down on the floor of hell--otherwise known as the center of the earth. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Virgil flail around, cite Lucan's PHARSALIA repeatedly, not get his way, and finally resort of a promise of Dante's own success to get what he needs. This passage is a wild ride of literary references....

We've walked by one giant, Nimrod, a mighty hunter, with his horn (like Roland). But there are more. Three, at least. Ephialtes, Briareus, and Antaeus. Figures out of classical literature who sit at the bottom of hell and pose more theological questions than we can imagine. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we continue on into Inferno's Canto XXXI, a liminal space where all bets are off. Even theologic...

Dante the pilgrim thought he saw towers in the gap between the eighth and ninth circles of hell. But no, they were giants. Who were "entowered" in the pit. And now we come to the first one: Nimrod. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we come up to the first of the giants/towers that ring the final pit of hell, a place where the imagination and history meet in a liminal spot and where all bets are off. He...

Virgil has promised Dante the pilgrim clarity if they press on toward the ring of towers ahead. But then maybe they don't need to, since Virgil explains it all anyway. And even after he explains it, Dante the poet insists on the illusion of towers. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the further journey in Canto XXXI, the liminal spot between the eighth and ninth circles of INFERNO. This is a canto of r...