Dante's Inferno
Go To Hell
The Thieves
Sin
- People who have stolen are punished in this hell.
Sinners
- Vanni Fucci
Landscape
- Ruined bridge
Monsters
- One monster named Cacus shows up in Cantos XXV. He is depicted as a centaur with a fire-breathing dragon behind him and snakes covering his back. He guards over the thieves in the Thieves section of Hell's Circle of Fraud. He chases the wretched and punishes them.
What does Dante see? his concerns?
- Dante sees Vanni Fucci being reborn from the ashes.
Virgil
- When Dante struggles to climb the cliff, Virgil encourages him to continue on.
Simile
- “In the turning season of the youthful year, when the sun is warming his rays beneath Aquarius and the days and nights already begin to near their perfect balance; the hoar-frost copies then the image of his white sister on the ground, about the first sun wipes away the work of his pen. The peasants who lack fodder then arise and look about and see the fields all white, and hear their lambs bleat; then they smite their thighs, go back into the house, walk here and there, pacing fretting, wondering what to do, then comes out doors again, and there, despair falls from them when they see how the earth's face has changed in so little time, and they take their staffs and drive their lambs to feed” (XXIV, 1-15)
Image
- “One of the damned came racing round a boulder, and as he passed us, a great snake shot up and bit him where the neck joins with the shoulder. No mortal pen - however fast it flash over the page - could write down o or i as quickly as he flamed and fell in ash; and when he was dissolved into a help upon the ground, the dust rose of itself and immediately resumed its former shape. Precisely so, philosophers declare, the Phoenix dies and then is born again when it approaches its five hundredth year” (XXIV, 97-108).
Literary Device
- “The man who lies asleep will never waken fame, and his desire and all his life drift past him like a dream, and the traces of his memory fade from time like smoke in air, or ripples on a stream. Now, therefore, rise. control your breath, and call upon the strength of soul that wins all battles unless it sinks in the gross body ‘s fall. there is a longer ladder yet to claim: this much is not enough. If you understand me, show that you mean profit from your time” (XXIV, 47-57).
Summary
o Dante opens this canto with a simile; he compares himself to a peasant to show Dante’s feeling as they go toward the 7th pouch.
o Dante struggles to climb the cliff to reach Bolgia Seven.
o He stops climbing at one point due to exhaustion, but Virgil gives him some word of encouragement.
o After climbing the cliff, he goes over the bridge and looks over the valley and sees serpents chasing sinners.
o As soon as the sinners have been bitten by the snake, they turn into ash are reborn like a phoenix to suffer the same fate.
o Virgil asks one of the sinners that has just been born what his name is and the sinner says that his name is Vanni Fucci.
o Dante asks Vanni Fucci what his crime is because Dante thought he was a man of blood and anger.
o Vanni reveals that he stole a holy relic from a church.
o Before this canto ends, he prophesizes that Dante's group called the Whites are going to fail
o After Vanni finishes speaking, he throws his fists in figs against God.
o In response, the serpents attack him, and he soon flees away.
o Vanni's presence is immediately replaced by a centaur named Cacus.
o Virgil explains that Cacus stole cattle from Hercules.
o As soon as Cacus leaves, a voice asking "who are you" grabs their attention.
o Before the question is answered, one of them asks "where is Ciafna?", and before the questions is answered, Ciafna shows up.
o Cianfa appears as some kind of a serpent and attacks the man who has called him.
o Dante witnesses transformation of this group of five man transforming; the serpent becomes human and the human becomes the serpent, and this is a never-ending cycle.
