Canto V

Canto V- Lust

Ln 1-3: “Thus I descended from the first circle down to the second, which encloses a smaller space, but so much more suffering that it goads the souls to shriek”.

As we enter the second circle, Dante emphasizes the difference between the souls within the first versus the second circle. This circle now has so much more suffering that in Dante’s words, causes the souls to scream. Hell is also made out to be somewhat narrow and funnel shaped so these souls are trapped in smaller spaces and cannot move around on their own. Dante and Virgil are no longer in Limbo but before they can enter hell proper, where the true punishments begin, they must pass through Minos. (KD)

Ln 4-6: “There stands Minos bristling and snarling: he examines the soul’s guilt at the entrance; he judges and passes sentence by how he wraps”.

Minos stands guard at the entrance to the second circle and condemns the souls to where he believes they should go after they confess their sins to him. This somehow makes him the ruler of hell because Satan is condemned even further down into the pits of it, while Minos is the one to cast the judgement. In Greek mythology, Minos is the King of Crete and the son of Zeus and Europa who every nine years, made King Aegeus pick seven boys and girls to be sent to be eaten by the Minotaur. We see a historical and classical reference here as well as Minos brother, Rhadamnthus has been seen once before being the one to interrogate and condemn. Another historical opinion that can be said is that in Christian faith, God is the one to condemn unjust souls to hell, not even Satan has that power. (KD)

Ln 32-37: “The infernal whirlwind, which never rests, drives the spirits before its violence; turning and striking, it tortures them… there they curse God’s power”.

It is important to consider and put the treatment of lust as a sin into historical context. Barolini explains that we can do this by comparing numerous moralistic traditions, to vision literature, didactic poetry, and sermons, and contemporary work. The outcome is what moralists call fornication (Barolini, 5). Barolini also explains that in the Commedia, Dante does not include the genital tortures that were visions of literature and contemporary artwork. However, in Canto V, Dante de-sexualizes Lust by not focusing on its illicit sexual actions such as the fornication which occurred, but instead he emphasizes the incorrect belief that love is controlling and deprives us from our own free will. (KD)

The contrapasso that occurs for those lustful sinners are the whirlwinds of torture. They are swung back and forth by the winds of a violent storm without being able to rest. The metaphor here is that the power of lust blows passionately and aimlessly. Dante chooses specifically to not focus on historical punishments of lust (genital torture), instead he decides to emphasize the psychology of desire. Barolini speaks on how visionaries followed a tradition in which a form of punishment was inflicted on the sinful body parts and torture was inflicted on fornicators genitals. Barolini goes on to explain that in the earliest Christian vision, St. Peter’s Apocalypse (2^nd c. CE), women were hung by their plaited hair “not for the sake of beauty but to turn men to fornication” and men “hung by their loins in that place of fire” (Eileen Gardiner, ed. Visions of Heaven and Hell before Dante [New York: Italica Press, 1989], p. 6). (KD)

Ln 100-103: “Love, which is swiftly kindled in the noble heart, seized this one for the lovely person that was taken from me; and the manner still injures me”.

Dante encounters Francesca da Rimini who was killed by her husband for having an affair with his younger brother Paolo. Francesca tells Dante that she started this affair after reading Lancelot du Lac, which encouraged them to love. Francesca explains that this was actual love that she had for Paolo and not just lust and can be seen taking a passive role in this affair.

“Love, which in gentlest hearts will soonest bloom

seized my lover with passion for that sweet body

from which I was torn unshriven to my doom.

Love, which permits no loved one not to love,

took me so strongly with delight in him

that we are one in Hell, as we were above.

Love led us to one death. In the depths of Hell

Caïna waits for him who took our lives.

This was the piteous tale they stopped to tell”.

According to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics 3.1, Aristotle illustrates the idea of compulsion in which one is being carried involuntarily by a wind, not as if they should. Francesca is an example of this translated by Dante into the Christian afterlife. Barolini says, “she speaks of her past actions as involuntary; she casts herself as having been acted upon rather than acting, and she is now carried by a wind” (Barolini, 5.10). This is one place where we can see Dante’s analysis of a person and their sin and I believe therefore Francesca is placed here and pitied rather than anywhere else, although she is still placed in hell proper. (KD)