Inferno: Cocytus

I have passed through the center of Cocytus...

This time reading Inferno I got so involved with the Dante's journey... I eagerly followed Virgil, awaiting the spectacle of each new division of Hell. When I finished the canticle late last evening, I couldn't help but feel the relief of the poet as they stood again 'neath the heavenly cars. I'm not sure if this had to do with the translation that I was reading (American poet John Ciardi's in yes, yes the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces), which I should not was crisp, accessible, and lovely in terms of the attention devoted to meter and rhyme. It has been a long time since I have been so enveloped by verse, pushing on as I would a "page-turner" novel. Should I even write how satisfying the journey was?

Dante's Inferno is certainly what Norton proclaims it to be, and as such, my couple of pennies here couldn't begin to do justice to the depth of conversation that could be had around this text. Also, being primarily an explication of personal theology, I find the work difficult to converse about without referencing my own: opinions about this text, I would think, cannot help but be first altered by the lens of one's own cosmology. My disclaimers aside, I found a few things specifically interesting to me.

First, the poem features Dante as himself (or, the autobiographical self, which is to say the mythic self), who throughout the journey is keeping mental notes on the poem he will write once this trip is through. Dante the traveler throughout his descent expresses deep sympathy for the damned - he weeps at their stories, and were it not for his deep belief in Divine Justice, we wonder whether he doesn't question a hellish sentence or two. But wait: isn't it Dante the poet that has, in effect, invented this appalling, if not awesome and majestic walking tour? So what does Dante really think? On one level, he has devised a meticulous system of punishment for the damned, and on another, he mourns its harshness?

As someone that does happen to believe in the idea of sin, and that all of our actions are associated with material and metaphysical consequences, the symbolic punishments for sin are profound. As someone who has difficulty with the idea of eternal damnation, well, there's that lens again... Whatever your cosmology, I think that Dante's song is masterfully sung.

Beautiful moments in the Inferno? There were many, even if they tend to be monstrously beautiful. The vast valley of the evil counsellors: infinite fireflies flickering in the dark; and the burning plain of the violent against God and Nature; the sad, stately light of the noble pagans in limbo encroached upon all sides by eternal night... Ah, that's lovely verse.

I'm recognizing that the blog medium limits what I might like to say about a text - I can't say a fraction of what I've thought. I deeply enjoyed my return to the Inferno - I'm certaily curious about Purgatory and Paradiso.

As a last note, will someone please gift me Barlowe's Inferno - an artist that distinguished himself by science fiction and fantasy art's interpretation of Dante's descent. Here's the link to Barlowe's own website. It's also available through any old big, jungly, online retailer.