Contrapasso

Limbo: A Transitional State For Your Favorite Pagans

Dante's Inferno begins the journey through Hell going through the gates and ending up in Limbo, the first circle of Hell. Virgil tells the pilgrim, “they did not sin; and if they have merits, it is not enough, because they did not receive baptism, which is the gateway to the faith that you believe. And if they lived before Christianity, they did not adore God as was needful" (4.34–8). "There is no weeping, only sighs” (4.26), and the pilgrim gets to meet some of his favorite poets, Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. All six of them travel through seven walls to see a faux paradise, filled with some of history's most virtuous pagans, before continuing into the second circle of Hell, Lust.

This is interesting in more ways than one. Firstly, Limbo is the lightest punishment in the entirety of Hell and sometimes in Purgatory. Limbo is specifically for those whose only sin is not having the chance to be Christian, AKA baptism, but who were virtuous in life otherwise. And as an additional bonus, adding to the significant difference between Limbo and the rest of Hell, and for that matter Purgatory, Virgil is a resident of this circle. This is a lot of unpack, but first, let's look at how has Dante portrayed pagans in the Divine Comedy to start.

Considering we begin The Divine Comedy with Hell, they end up all over the place. While none are in Heaven (because they explicitly did not believe in God), there are many in Hell, and a lot in Limbo. Pagans can be found in every circle of Hell, from Cleopatra to Helen of Troy in Lust to Brutus in Treachery (specifically, in Lucifer's mouth, being chewed on). However, there are plenty in Limbo, which becomes a place specifically for pagans. A strange thing to say, but it's true. This is because Limbo is for those who, other than the sin of not being baptized, were virtuous. Dante gets to award a bunch of pagans he likes and important Jews from the Bible with a "not as bad as you could have been" ribbon without many consequences. Dante gets to hang out with his favorite poets and Virgil without moral consequences. It's also serving as an equivalent to Purgatory/Heaven for pagans. They cannot improve themselves, but they are not severely punished, insofar as they will never see God's light.

Limbo is also the first circle of hell we see. It's tame by comparison. It is generally like Earth, and past the seven walls, it is a beautiful meadow. Because of its qualification of "good but not Christian," it handily sidesteps the religious and moral issue of people from before Christianity being admired by a Christian audience. It also clearly gives him an out of this issue. In a story where he consigns various popes and many other famous historical figures in the many levels of hell, he gives good people (and people he likes) the only out they can get, and confers a special status to those in this circle; a contemporary audience is allowed to like them and their works, a point later examined with Virgil's poetry in Purgatorio.

This circle also has a huge number of people. Dante spends thirty-three stanzas listing people. It's a remarkably well-populated circle. He also doesn't speak with them. We don't get a transcript of his discussions with Homer, Horace, Ovid and Lucan, and he doesn't speak with the people he listed. It’s a big difference with the others, where he continuously engages the denizens of hell in conversation, arguing and confirming their status as sinners. Virgil is the only one from Limbo we meet, and he simply states that their only sin is not having the chance to embrace Christianity, which obviously they would have, because Christianity is the peak of morality. We have the explanation, and contemporary readers know the people he describes. Bu there is no need for conversation about why they are in Hell, Limbo specifically, and so we, the readers, don’t speak to any of them. Or do we?

We do actually get to speak to a denizen of the first circle: Virgil. He is the spokesperson for virtuous but unfortunately unable to discover Christianity. This status also transfers to Virgil as well, which is why he can travel to Purgatory, but cannot enter the Earthly Heaven at the top of the mountain, and is always on the back burner, in a way. Virgil is a representative from Limbo, and exists in a transitional state, because that is Limbo for Dante. It is a place where we can transition from our world to Help. It allows these people, who would otherwise end up in Hell, a place that confers a special status to its denizens by explicitly being for the virtuous. You can enjoy these people's work, both written and otherwise, but in the end, that respected state is transitional. Virgil is eventually unable to lead Dante, and then unable to follow him. As someone who was never baptized in life, he will never be allowed to bask in God's light, like everyone else in Limbo, as his eternal punishment for being unable to be Christian.

In Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, Hell is portrayed with a specific structure, nine circles. In these circles reside different types of sinners, who are condemned to an eternity of punishment for their sins on Earth. Dante uses a technique known as contrapasso, which assigns a specific punishment to each type of sinner, a punishment that is relevant to the sin. The fourth circle of Hell is discussed in canto seven (lines 16–96); in the words of Dante, in this circle he:

saw people more numerous than before, on one side and the other, with great cries rolling weights by the force of their chests. They would collide, and then right there each one, reversing directions, would look back, crying: ‘Why do you hold?’ and ‘Why do you toss?’ (4.25-30).

Dante describes seeing two groups of people on opposite sides. These two groups are people with differing relationships with material goods and wealth. On one side there are the ‘avaricious,’ or the people who have extreme greed for wealth and material gain. Some have described these people as the ‘hoarders’ of wealth. Dante portrayed all the avaricious people as members of the clergy, “These were clerics, who have no hairy covering to their heads, and popes and cardinals, in whom avarice does its worst” (4.46-48). The other group of the people were the ‘prodigal,’ or the people who spend their money recklessly. The different groups can be seen in the insults that they throw at each, the hoarders (“Why do you hold?”) and the spenders (“Why do you toss?”). The reader would have recognized the corrupt clergy and the prodigal Italian citizen, as the accumulation of wealth and the spending of that wealth was a prominent part of late medieval Italian society.

In the fourth circle of Hell, the sinners are all greedy in one way. Thus through Dante’s technique of contrapasso, the damned people’s punishment is related to their sin. Their punishment, as mentioned earlier, is to roll big stones to each other until they collide. Then they must begin the whole process again. The relation of their punishment to their sin is two-parted. First, the punishment is an allusion to Sisyphus, who had to continuously push a stone up a hill just to have it roll back down. Sisyphus was given this punishment because he was a greedy thief. So, this punishment is rooted in classical lore. The second part of the contrapasso in the fourth circle is that, their sins showcase opposing forms of greed, thus their punishment is based on opposing forces. The two groups walk in different directions and then push their stones against each other. Neither force will ever win, but rather butt heads for the rest of eternity. It is through these two parts of the punishment that Dante used contrapasso in the fourth circle of Hell.

Dante’s choice to make the fourth circle of Hell the location of the avaricious and the prodigal highlights the issues around these types of people in late medieval northern Italy. Many clergy members were recognized as quite corrupt. Similarly, this same concern can be seen in some of the stories of Boccaccio’s Decameron, which was created within a similar context. With the financial success of many people in northern Italy came a lot of anxieties about proper displays of wealth and spending. These anxieties can be seen in some laws concerning spreading. One of the most famous of these laws aims to control the lavishness of women’s clothing. Clearly, Dante believed that excessive spending would bring people to hell. Through Virgil’s comments on Fortune, Dante attempts to show that wealth is not permanent, but can be given and taken as Fortune pleases. The readers should take away the idea that, since wealth is not lasting, they should place a greater focus on how morally they live life. Wealth will not last forever, but the afterlife will.

In Canto 12 Virgil and Dante reach the seventh circle, dedicated to sins of violence. Virgil describes to Dante that these next few circles have subdivisions. The seventh circle has three subrings, of which the first is for those who commit violence against others. Here Dante is guided by centaurs around Phlegethon, a boiling river of blood where the souls reside. Centaurs circle the river, shooting those who try to leave or lessen their punishments.

Nessis, the centaur who guides Dante and Virgil, points out many well-known figures still recognized to this day. Amongst those present include Alexander the Great, Ezzelino III da Romano, and Attila the Hun. Alexander the Great was an ancient Greek king who is known for his military gains. His military excellence goes beyond his time, as many know him for being undefeated and an excellent commander. People during the medieval period probably were aware of his fighting abilities. In regards to his placement in the seventh circle, for many years, his work resulted in numerous deaths and pillaged. Blood and souls killed were a result of his decisions, thus placing him at odds against God for the killings of many.

Similarly, Attila the Hun was a ruthless King of the Hunnic Empire. During his reign, he garnered immense fear from the Roman Empire. Throughout his reign, he attacked and attempted to take both Constantinople and Rome. Due to Attila being an enemy of the West and Eastern Roman Empire, his legacy would have probably been known by peoples of Dante’s time.

Ezzelino III da Romano was a tyrant alive around a century before the Divine Comedy was published. He was a well known feudal lord known throughout Tuscany. He was known for his torture and maltreatment to his enemies. Also, within context to Dante, Romano was a Ghibelline. Dante was a known Guelf, thus putting him at higher odds against Romano due to their conflicting ideologies. Given Romano was a local figure amongst the continuing conflict that plagues much of Italy, people would have known of his tactics, which garnered him his tyrant reputation.

These three figures, amongst the other mentioned, were “blood-thirsty” and power-hungry in life, in which their violence cause harm to many. In Greek mythology, Phlegethon is one of the rivers of the underworld. The boiling blood the souls are forever stucks in is representative of the blood lust that consumed these people during their lives. The degree in which the bodies are submerged coincides with their violence while alive. Those who may have murdered a few were partially submerged, while tyrants were fully engulfed. In the cases where the souls fell out of line, the centaurs would shoot them, forcing them back into place.

In comparison to some of the other treatments, this one falls a little short. The degree of submergence is a useful marker for understanding the crimes committed, but they still seem to be more that could have been inflicted upon those such as Attila or Ezzelino. Some say people who hurt others deserve their actions brought against them but, say, tenfold. While that may be a little unrealistic in this sense, more could probably have been done for those who committed mass crimes. Engulfed in boiling blood is more like a prolonged pain rather than the sporadic pain felt by other souls in other regions. The prolonging effect seems to be more numbing rather than intense suffering and torture occurring at random increments.

Despite preferences towards these people’s punishments, Dante does portray the act of violence (in any means) as being highly sinful. His creation of the first ring speaks to the actions and crimes committed against others, yet it seems to also be a commentary on how these people lived their life. Their obsessions led to the destruction of many in which whenever they went left a trail of blood. The ever-present imagery of blood, especially blood on the hands of these men, is damning more to the ego of the person in showcasing how little care they felt for the lives of others. In this sense, there is a strong psychological component. Whether or not the soul has a psyche anymore, but it is scaring to readers as well as a warning. Thus the acts of murder, torture, and violence were horrendous by themselves, yet the fact they occurred as a means to end speaks to the corrupted ego of the soul trapped here.

Different forms of corruption and their resulting actions led people to different sections of hell, though none of the other circles have this drastic depiction of the resulting blood on their ledgers. Violence was everpresent. Ezzelino and his actions occurred only a little before the Divine Comedy, thus violence that would place someone in the seventh circle not unattainable. In Dante’s lifetime, the conflict of the Guelfs & Ghibellines was interwoven throughout many lives, and many casualties occurred due to the situation. Dante is critical though of these actions as he believes these people sport a spot in hell. The description of a bloodthirsty soul is not a compliment; thus, there can be encouragement coming from Dante to avoid these happenings. Hurting others will only seal your fate, a place in hell where you will be reminded day in and out of the actions you committed against others.

One of the more interesting instances of contrapasso in the Divine Comedy is the punishment for usury in Canto 17. Usury ties in heavily to many of the economic themes of this class, as it can either support or detract from claims of this period as early capitalism. Money lending and credit networks were important to the economy of the time and any claim of economic teleology might point to them as a predecessor to our modern systems, but their position in Hell alone demonstrates well the social and religious customs that complicates any claim of capitalist development.

Dante’s description of usurers is very dependent on cultural knowledge that is removed from today but understandable to those reading at the time:

From the neck of each hung a bag of a special color,
with a special emblem, and their eyes seem to feed there.
And as I come gazing among them, on a yellow purse
I saw blue that had the shape and bearing of a lion.
Then, proceeding further with my scrutiny, I saw another,
red as blood, displaying a goose whiter than butter.
And one who had his little white sack signed with a fat blue sow,
said to me: "What are you doing in this ditch?” (17.57-67)

The sitting people become identified as usurers by the bags that hang from their neck, something foreign to us but recognizable as the attire of lenders. The family crests further clarify the identities of the damn, each corresponding to a famous family associated with lending. Dante later goes outside of Florence for the families he wishes to depict, including Reginaldo Scrovegni of Padua who sponsored the chapel by Giotto that we viewed earlier. The families he mentions would have been some of the most wealthy and powerful families of the time, easily recognizable to someone with knowledge of Florence.

The description of the usurers and their position reveals much about how the activity was thought of:

Where the mournful people were sitting
Through their eyes burst forth their pain;
Here, there, they sought remedy with their hands
At times against the fire, at times against the hot ground;
Not otherwise do the dogs behave in the summer,
Now with muzzle, now with foot,
When they are bitten by fleas or gnats or horseflies.
When I turned my eyes to their faces,
On which the painful fire falls down, I recognized none (17.47-57).

Their initial positioning is interesting and indicative of the inactive reputation of money lenders: they are perceived as lazy with their money doing their work for them. The earlier description of their eyes feeding to their bags reinforces the description of laziness, as they even in hell remain obsessed with money and power. The punishment by fire is not as directly fitting of their crimes as those who claimed to see the future, but it is interesting in what it is put alongside. Usury is included in the circle of violence along acts that are against God and nature, a position similar to how others thought of it at the time. Usury was thought of as directly against the Bible: But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:35, KJV), and was argued as a violation of natural law as money should not advance from money.

The positioning of the usurers in hell asks readers to think of the act as a religious and natural violation and an indication of greed and bad character. This view of money lending rooted in religion (or, at least, justified by it) was not uncommon, as laws restricting or condemning the practice were widespread. Usury and lending was obviously very important to trade, but this depiction makes clear the complicating customs surrounding it.

This canto takes place in the 8^th Circle of Hell (the fraudulent) and the 3^rd bolgia (for the sin of simony). According to Durling and Martinez, simony is “the buying and selling of the sacramental powers of the priesthood, or of the priestly office itself; for Dante and his time, simony extended to nepotism in distributing church offices.” The name of this sin comes from Simon Magus, the magician from Samaria who offered payment to Jesus and disciples to allow him to impart the Holy Spirit on anyone that Simon touched. This canto focuses on corrupt clergy, specifically corrupt popes who used their power for self-gain.

The person that Pilgrim Dante encounters in this bolgia is Pope Nicholas III, who was pope 1277–1280. Pope Nicholas III was identifiable through the she-bear emblem, which was an emblem for the Orsini family, which Nicholas was from. “Contemporaries thought of Nicholas as one of the first popes to practice simony and nepotism on a grand scale.” Because of this infamy, it makes sense that this is who the Dante encounters for this sin. In this canto there are other popes that were mentioned to be joining Nicholas in Hell. Boniface VIII would join this bolgia next and succeeding him would be Clement V. Dante even includes the death dates of those still alive, marking how long each pope would serve at the top.

To pay for their simony, the sinners were buried upside down in holes. Their heads are underground and their feet that are sticking upright are covered with oil and set aflame. The next person who commits this sin would be buried on top of the current sinner, pushing that sinner further into the ground, and this would continue on for eternity. Within this punishment for corrupt church official there is a lot of symbolism that mimics and perverts clerical symbols and experiences. Perverting the symbols reflects the ways in which these officials perverted the purpose of the Church and their position within it. There is also a specific emphasis on ceremonial rights, highlighting how these symbols and ceremonies should have brought them to paradise, but instead their actions secured them a spot in Hell.

The oil on the feet could refer to multiple elements, to the anointing of Christ’s feet with oil as well as to the anointment in baptism and ordination ceremonies. Anointment for baptism is on the head and for ordination it is on the hands, by changing the location and turning it into a vessel for pain instead of for pride shows how their positions have changed due to their sins. There are also elements and imagery of a reversed baptism throughout the canto. Baptism is meant to be a blessing and a way to save one’s soul, but here it is a curse and a condemnation of one’s soul. The holes in which they are buried are compared to baptismal fonts, and even the direction of their bodies is a reversal. Baptisms are typically upright, instead here they are upside down emphasizing the reversal and perversion of the sanctity of the church even more. On top of the oil and anti-anointment are the flames, which hold another level of religious symbolism, this is a reference to a biblical event and the ordination ceremony. The flames could be a reference to Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit came down to the Apostles after Christ’s ascension. In the ordination ceremony, a prayer for the descension of the Holy Spirit is said and their heads are anointed; this ceremony is meant to be a reenactment of Pentecost. In Hell these flames are real, hot, and painful. The stacking of the popes is also an inversion of their succession. One pope is buried after the next in a deeper descent into Hell.

Durling and Martinez make another parallel in the notes for this canto that does not relate to the Church. This is the fact that “by Florentine law, professional assassins were placed head down in a pit and buried alive.” This does mirror part of the punishment for those who commit simony. However, I am unsure how to interpret this, if Dante is comparing the sin of simony to those of professional murderers or if it might be where Dante got some of his inspiration. Overall, however, the contrapasso in canto 19 is very religious in nature. Church officials are punished for their misuse of clerical power by perverting the same ceremonies that gave them their power. Since they used their status for self-gain rather than the common good, they are tortured by markers of the path to their status.

In Canto 19 Dante’s protagonist explores the 8th circle of Hell—specifically the 3rd Bolgia, where those who practiced simony during their life are sent to be tortured. At the beginning, Dante references Simon Magus, the man who simony was named after. Simon offered to pay Saint Peter for “laying on of hands” (296). In this part of Hell, men are hung upside down into a pit between rocks, while their feet are being burned. These pits are meant to be the inversion of a baptismal font, the basin where people are baptized. In addition to being on fire, their feet are also anointed, as if with the chrism used to baptize. Dante’s irony is revealed when the reader realizes that those suffering through the burning and anointing of their feet in a baptismal font are religious clergy, particularly popes. The religious are being tortured with what is traditionally meant to save. Being forced to stay upside down in these pits also serves to parody their suffering compared to the suffering that Saint Peter experienced on Earth when he was crucified upside down—the same Peter who refused simony.

The protagonist approaches one man in particular who was in serious pain and turned out to be Pope Nicholas III. Dante’s contemporaries would have known Nicholas III (r. 1277–80) as someone who practiced an immense amount of simony and nepotism when he served as pope. Nicholas mistakes our pilgrim for Pope Boniface VIII (r. 1294–1303), surprised that he had already arrived in hell so early. It is revealed that when Boniface dies, Nicholas will be pushed deeper into the pit and Boniface will reside on top of him. The ascension of the popes into the pit serve as a metaphor for a sort of morbid papal succession.

At the time the Divine Comedy was written, Boniface was still alive and serving as pope. Dante was snarkily suggesting to his audience that Boniface was corrupt and destined for a deep circle in hell, so much so that a place had already been reserved for him. Additionally, Dante’s contemporaries would have known that Pope Boniface had claimed authority over the emperor, a decision that Dante disagreed with and likely added to his condemnation in the Inferno. Furthermore, Dante is condemning Boniface because he believed Boniface bribed his way to the papacy and was the reason for the coup that led to Dante’s exile.

Nicholas also admits to his sins on earth, particularly his greed. After realizing who Nicholas was, Dante’s pilgrim condemns the already condemned man. The pilgrim declares, “You have made gold and silver your god; and what difference is there between you and the idol worshipper, except that he prays to one, and you to a hundred?” (19.295). Through this declaration, the pilgrim (and Dante) express their anger at Nicholas and the church as a whole for its greed. The pilgrim says the church’s greed is basically idolatry, a grave sin in the Old Testament, since the sinners are idolizing and prioritizing wealth over God. Through the pilgrims rant, Dante was clearly expressing his own beliefs on how extremely evil simony and the churches hoarding of wealth was. It had consumed much of Italian society and Dante was making it clear to his audience that it was one of the worst evils and that they should not partake in it. Placing a contemporary pope in hell had political connotations and perhaps Dante hoped that it would lead Pope Boniface to some self awareness. Ultimately, the 3rd bolgia of Hell’s 8th circle is a place where simoniacs are condemned and Dante’s severe distrust of the contemporary papacy is revealed.

Dante’s Inferno includes many famous sinners that would have been recognizable to medieval people of his day. One of those sinners was Count Ugolino, who Dante met in the second ring (Antenora) of the ninth circle of Hell, which is reserved for betrayers of family, country, guests, and benefactors. His state in Hell is mentioned in Canto 32, lines 124-129, although he is not mentioned by name until canto 33, lines 1-87, where he describes his crimes in life and his tragic ending.

In the ninth circle of Hell, Ugolino is frozen in ice with his enemy in life, Archbishop Ruggieri, whose skull he eternally eats at. He tells Dante about how he was forced to eat his children while they were imprisoned before his death. Medieval readers of the time would have known Count Ugolino as a nobleman from Pisa who betrayed the city after being exiled. As a Ghibelline, he became the podestà of Pisa, and later secretly allied with the Guelfs to preserve his power. He was arrested and exiled for trying to undermine the government of Pisa. While in exile, he colluded with Guelfs in Lucca and Florence to attack Pisa, and then became the Pisan leader again after driving out his family members and other Ghibelline families. During a riot, Ugolino killed Archbishop Ruggiero’s nephew, which led the bishop to betray him. Ruggiero convinced the citizens to rise up against Ugolino and then attacked and captured him. Ruggiero then proclaimed himself podestà. This was a very important conflict in that region that many medieval readers would have known about.

The sin that Ugolino exemplifies is the betrayal of one’s country. Ugolino is trapped in ice with his betrayer, so he keeps gnawing away at his skull. It is supposed to show that his hatred for Ruggiero was so strong that it cannot die even though both of them have; his soul will never get to rest. Even though he hates Ruggiero so much for killing him and his children, he has to be stuck with him for eternity. In a way it lets Ugolino get revenge on Ruggiero because he gets to torture him for life. But getting revenge is also a sin, so he is still condemned to Hell. It also references the belief that he ate his children after they died in the tower in which they were imprisoned, which is a whole other sin in itself. The frozen ice they are stuck in is supposed to symbolize how Ugolino’s body was thrown in the Arno river. Even though they were enemies in life, Ugolino and Ruggiero will have to spend eternity together in death.

By including Ugolino in the lowest level of Hell, Dante shows that political corruption and treason was one of the worst things a person could do in society. The graphic nature of Ugolino cannibalizing his enemy is a warning to all those that read that treason and the fight over political power will poison your soul and you will never be able to escape it. Dante felt strongly about this topic because he was involved in politics in Florence and was exiled because of the Guelf and Ghibelline conflicts. Dante would have been very aware of Ugolino’s story because he was involved in politics at the time it happened. Because Dante was so disillusioned with politics, he was trying to tell his audience that getting involved on either side will cause them to do evil things. Dante was a Guelf but was betrayed by factional splits. So, it makes sense that he even condemned Ruggiero, a Guelf, to Hell.