The 4th Circle of Hell: Dante's Version
Christina L Beck
Alighieri...
The 4th circle of hell was reserved for spenders and hoarders ("avarice"),
one of the sins of incontinence. The, um, residents of this particular
circle were condemned to mire in a marsh and assault each other for
eternity. Following is the physical description of the place:
"... We traveled across
To the circle's farther edge, above the place
"Where a foaming spring spills over into a fosse.
The water was purple-black; we followed its current
Down a strange passage. This dismal watercourse
"Descends the grayish slopes until its torrent
Discharges into the marsh whose name is Styx.
Gazing intently, I saw there were people warrened
"Within that bog, all naked and muddy-- with looks
Of fury, striking each other: with a hand
But also with their heads, chests, feet, and backs,
"Teeth tearing piecemeal..."
(Canto VII)
It goes on, but not much longer... it seems a fairly appropriate
comparison to me, but I haven't read through the Inferno in six
years, and I don't know if there's another circle that would have been
better. I'd be curious to know if the writers researched this or just
picked a random circle of hell to throw in.
Christina, who would have been very amused if Carmichael/Harmon had
started reciting from the Inferno itself :-)
--
"If your father was a doctor and your uncles are
doctors and all your cousins are doctors and all
the family ever talks about is medicine, there's
a good chance maybe you're going to be a doctor
too. But maybe you want to be a baker."
Don Porter
> The 4th circle of hell was reserved for spenders and hoarders ("avarice"),
> one of the sins of incontinence.
Yep. That's what my copy says.
> The, um, residents of this particular
> circle were condemned to mire in a marsh and assault each other for
> eternity.
Nope. That's Circle V, the Marsh of Styx where the wrathful and
sullen are punished, the wrathful beating on one another, and the
sullen never surfacing.
Circle IV actually sounds rather dull, with the hoarders and
wasters spending eternity shoving weights against one another,
in extreme opposition just as they were in life.
"Here, too, I saw a nation of lost souls,
far more than were above: they strained against their chests
against enormous weights, and with mad howls
"rolled them at one another. Then in haste
they rolled then back, one party shouting out:
"Why do you hoard?" and the other: "Why do you waste?"
"So back around that ring they puff and blow,
each faction to its course, until they reach
opposite sides, and screaming they go
"the madmen turn and start their weights again
to crash against the maniacs. ..."
--
| Don Porter dgpo...@erols.com |
| "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!" |
| -- Adam West as BATMAN |
|______________________________________________________________________|
Alison M. Ashcroft
I'm personally preferential to the punishment in Canto XXVIII, lines 118-123
(That's the Eighth Circle, ninth pouch for those reading along at home...).
Kind of gory, but very creative, IMHO.
"I surely saw, and it still seems I see,
a trunk without a head that walked just like
the others in that melancholy herd;
"it carried by the hair its severed head,
which swayed within its hand just like a lantern;
and that head looked at us and said: 'Ah me!'"
-- Logan Junkie
"Christina Beck" <6c...@qlink.queensu.ca> wrote in message
news:83c7kg$m9c$1...@knot.queensu.ca...
> In article <83c7j8$16o$1...@localhost.localdomain>, dgpo...@erols.com
says...
> >
> >Christina L Beck <6c...@qlink.queensu.ca> wrote:
> >> The 4th circle of hell was reserved for spenders and hoarders
("avarice"),
> >> one of the sins of incontinence.
> >
> >Yep. That's what my copy says.
> >
> >> The, um, residents of this particular
> >> circle were condemned to mire in a marsh and assault each other for
> >> eternity.
> >
> >Nope. That's Circle V, the Marsh of Styx where the wrathful and
> >sullen are punished, the wrathful beating on one another, and the
> >sullen never surfacing.
>
> And this all just goes to show that it's a good thing I'm not a Lit.
major.
> :-)
>
> Christina
>
Ann Hsiao-Di Ku
pretty appropriate metaphor, given that in one part, the souls seem really
mindless, just fighting and biting each other in the bog. Also, another
interesting part of Circle IV is that most of the souls in it are of the
clergy. I think this fourth circle metaphor could have been used for a
number of other L&O episodes involving the church (Sanctuary, much?). What
do you guys think?
-Ann
Christina Beck
Charles A. Lieberman
Christina L Beck
> Christina, who would have been very amused if Carmichael/Harmon had
> started reciting from the Inferno itself :-)
This is American television; it would've gone over people's heads.
--
Charles A. Lieberman | "When I view a porn video, I am often reminded of
Brooklyn, New York, USA | farm machinery" --Seen on soc.fem
http://calieber.tripod.com/home.html
Alison M. Ashcroft
"Charles A. Lieberman" <yvro...@voicenet.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.12c4d8683...@netnews.voicenet.com...
> 16 Dec 1999 20:51:55 GMT
> Christina L Beck
> > Christina, who would have been very amused if Carmichael/Harmon had
> > started reciting from the Inferno itself :-)
>
> This is American television; it would've gone over people's heads.
>
I totally agree... it would seem as likely to belong as someone reading War
and Peace or Paradise Lost on... (let's see, what's something completely
mediocre....) Days of Our Lives!
--Logan Junkie