Canto IX
CANTO IX
Dante is alarmed at the return of his unsuccessful Master. Although the latter tries to conceal his discomfiture and to encourage his comrade, the Pilgrim, undeceived, falters and delicately questions his knowledge of the way. Virgil replies that, shortly after his death, he was summoned by the sorceress Erichtho to retrieve a soul from Judecca, the lowest region of Hell, so that he knows the very depths of the underworld (1–33). Suddenly the three Furies—Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera—appear, stained with blood, girt with hydras, coiffed with serpents, and smiting their breasts. They summon the Gorgon Medusa to turn the Poet to stone, but his Guide manages to shield his eyes with his hands (34–63). When Dante hears a clashing sound and feels the quaking earth, Virgil frees his eyes to behold thousands of souls scampering before an angel crossing the Styx dry-shod. The messenger from Heaven regally opens the gates with a touch of his scepter, rails against the futile resistance of the demons, and then departs (64–103). Entering the sixth circle unopposed, the Poets discover a field of burning sepulchers from whose open lids tormented cries emerge. Upon inquiry, the Pilgrim learns that heretics populate the tombs. The Wayfarers then continue to the right between the graveyard and the city’s walls (104–133).
1 The cowardice that paled my outward hue
On seeing that my Guide had turned around
Repressed more quickly his new color too.
4 He stopped, intent, like one who heeds a sound,
For far his eye could not lead him to see,
Where blackened air and heavy fog abound.
7 “Yet we must win this battle,” started he,
“Or else…. But such a one has offered aid!
How slow that someone’s coming seems to be!”
10 I saw quite well just how he overlaid
The start with other words that followed there,
Which sounded different from those first conveyed.
13 But none the less, his speech gave me a scare,
Since from his broken words I may have well
Drawn meanings worse than they were meant to bear.
16 “And to the bottom of this sorry shell
Has none descended from the first degree,[135]
Where mangled hope’s the only pain of Hell?”
19 I asked this question; in reply said he:
“It rarely happens any of our corps
Should take the road on which you go with me.
22 It’s true that I was down here once before,
Invoked by fierce Erichtho, whose demand[136]
Called shadows to their bodies’ clay once more.
25 When, stripped of flesh, I was not long unmanned,
She had me enter in that rampart so
That I might draw a soul from Judas’ band.[137]
28 And that place is the one most dark and low,
The farthest from the heaven circling all.[138]
So rest assured, for well this road I know.
31 The swamp that breathes a fetor girds the wall
Of that distressing city up ahead,
Where we can not go in without some gall.”
34 I don’t remember just what else he said
Because my eye had wholly drawn me where
A lofty tower’s peak was glowing red.
37 And suddenly three hellish furies there[139]
Had risen up erect, all blood-besoiled;
They had a woman’s members and her air.
40 The greenest hydras round their waists are coiled;
Small serpents and horned snakes bestrew the mane
With which their savage temples are embroiled.
43 And he, who recognized the handmaid train
Of the eternal lamentation’s queen,[140]
Said: “See the fierce Erínyës! That bane,
46 Megaera, on the left-hand side is seen;
Alecto stands there weeping on the right,”
He finished, “with Tisíphone between.”
49 They rend their breasts with taloned nails and smite
Them with their palms—they cried in such a tone
I fastened on the Poet in my fright.
52 “Medusa, come! And we’ll turn him to stone,”[141]
They said, all looking down; “for his attack,
But poor revenge to Theseus was shown.”[142]
55 “Now keep your eyes closed tight and turn your back,
For if the Gorgon shows herself to view,
And you should see, return would come to wrack,”
58 My Master said. And he himself then drew
Me fully round, for fear my hands should fail,
And covered up my eyes with his hands too.
61 O all of you whose intellect is hale,
Search out the doctrine hiding so opaque
Beneath these foreign verses as a veil.
64 Upon the turbid waves there came to break
A clash of sound, one filled with frightful wail,
Which made one shoreline and the other quake.
67 No different was it fashioned than a gale,
Impetuous when heated crosswinds fray,
Which smites the woods unchecked and in its trail
70 Leaves branches rent, cast down, and swept away.
It goes forth proud behind a cloud of dust
And makes the beasts and shepherds flee its way.
73 He loosed my eyes and told me: “Now you must
Direct your sight ’cross ancient suds and spy[143]
The place where bitter fumes are most robust.”
76 As frogs before their foe, the snake, all fly,
Thus disappearing through the waterholes
Till cocked upon the bottom, so did I
79 Behold more than a thousand ruined souls
That fled from one who at a crossing place[144]
Traversed the Styx and did so with dry soles.
82 He cleared that gross air from before his face
By waving his left hand quite frequently,
Which seemed alone to weary him a trace.
85 That he was sent from Heaven I could see,
And turned to face my Guide, whose sign made plain
That I should bow before him quietly.
88 How full he seemed to me of high disdain!
He reached a gate and by his scepter’s grace,
With no resistance, opened up their reign.
91 “O you cast out of Heaven, hated race,”
So he began upon the horrid sill,
“Why do you harbor insolence so base?
94 And why do you rebel against that Will
Whose purpose nothing ever could negate,
And which so often has increased your ill?
97 What does it help to butt against your fate?
Your Cerberus, remember as you may,
Had chin and throat peeled off in such a state.”[145]
100 He then turned back upon the filthy way
And spoke no word to us but had the air
Of one with other cares that gnaw and weigh
103 Than those of us who stood before him there.
We moved our footsteps towards that land once more,
Now, after holy words, secure from care,
106 And so we entered in without a war.[146]
And I, who had a great desire to scout
The state that such a fortress held in store,
109 When once inside it, cast my eye about
To see the spacious country on all hands,
One full of pains, one evil torments clout.
112 And as at Arles, there where the Rhone first stands,[147]
Or as at Pola, near Quarnero’s bay,[148]
Which closes Italy and bathes her strands,
115 The graves give all the land uneven lay,
So here they did as well in every part,
Except, though, in a yet more bitter way.
118 Among the tombstones flames were spread apart,
By which all over they were so emblazed
That hotter iron’s needed by no art.
121 Since all the covers of those tombs were raised,
There issued forth a harsh, lamenting cry
From those whom misery and torment crazed.
124 “O Master, who are all those folk,” said I,
“Who find themselves within these chests entombed
And make themselves be heard with painful sigh?”
127 He said: “Here all heresiarchs are doomed,[149]
With all their followers of every sect;
Their tombs are much more full than you presumed.
130 See, like with like are buried here; inspect
Their monuments made hot, some more, some less.”
And when he turned off to his right, we trekked
133 Between the lofty walls and their distress.