Canto XVIII
CANTO XVIII
Virgil and Dante have landed in Malebolge, a name coined to mean both “Evil Ditches” and “Evil Purses,” perhaps referring to the monetary motivation usually underlying the practice of fraud punished in the eighth circle. Constructed like an amphitheater that funnels down from the base of the sheer stone wall to a pit at its center, it divides into ten concentric ditches, like the moats that encircle a castle. At certain intervals, jagged reefs forming natural bridges radiate up from the pit across these trenches, like drawbridges laid across successive moats, to form the figure of a wheel with its spokes sprawhng from the hub out to the rim (1–18). Virgil sets out leftwards on the bank between the stone wall and the first trench with the Pilgrim close behind. Down in the ditch to the right the Poet spies two files of naked sinners: panderers coming towards him along the inner bank, and, in an opposite direction, seducers going with him along the outer bank. Horned demons whip both groups into kicking up their heels (19–39). Although one soul tries unsuccessfully to hide, Dante recognizes Venedico Caccianemico and backtracks to exchange sarcastic words with him (40–51). Venedico reluctantly confesses that he had pandered his own sister to the Marquis of Este and remarks that there are already more Bolognese in his ditch than there are left in Bologna. But while he is still speaking, a demon’s scourge spurs him on (52–66). The Pilgrim catches up with Virgil then, and, coming to a bridge on the right, they climb up to the peak of its arch. There they pause, turning back towards the direction from which they have come, to face the seducers. Virgil points out the regal figure of Jason, who first enjoyed the favors of Hypsipyle and then abandoned her on his quest for the golden fleece just as he later married and then deserted Medea (82–99). Climbing down the first bridge, the Travelers cross the embankment and mount the second, from which they hear the moanings and snortings of those below. From the bridge’s high point they are able to make out the flatterers, steeped in excrement. Among them Dante picks out an obscure Luccan, Alessio Interminei (100–126). Finally, Virgil directs the Poet’s sight to Thais, a strumpet fidgeting in the muck and scratching herself with filthy nails (127–136).
1 A place called “Malebolge” lies in Hell,
Made all of stone and colored iron-grey,
As is the wall that circles it as well.
4 And midmost in that evil field there lay
A gaping pit, quite wide and quite profound,
Whose structure in its proper place I’ll say.
7 And thus the belt that there remains is round,
From pit to footing of the high, hard bank,
Where ten ravines divide its bottom ground.
10 Just as the land with ditches, rank on rank,
All standing for protection of the wall,
Makes figures round the castle that they flank,
13 So was the image made there by them all.
And just as strongholds shoot their bridges out
From threshold to the outer bank, asprawl,
16 So from the bottom of the rock there sprout
Such reefs ’cross dike and ditch down to the pit,
Which cuts them off and joins them all about.
19 We found this place when, shaken off, we’d quit
The back of Geryon. The Poet then
Held to the left; I came behind a bit.
22 Upon the right, I saw new woes again;
New torments and new flailers there were spied,
With which that ditch was full, the first of ten.
25 Below were naked sinners: on our side,[274]
Up to its middle, they approached our face;
Across, they went with us, with greater stride.
28 Thus in the Jubilee, the year of grace,[275]
When on the bridge a multitude must tread,
The Romans take the means to have them pace
31 So one side sees the Castle straight ahead
And goes on towards St. Peter’s while, aligned,
The other side goes towards the Mount instead.[276]
34 Along dark rocks I here and there divined
Horned demons, whose enormous scourges whirred
And beat those spirits fiercely from behind.
37 Ah me! How the first lashings made the herd
Kick up their heels. Indeed, among that corps,
No one awaits the second, nor the third!
40 And as I walked along a little more,
My eyes alighted on another shade.
“I was not spared the sight of him before!”
43 I said at once. To make him out, I stayed
My steps and, stopping thus my gentle Guide,
With his consent trod back, a bit delayed.
46 And though that spirit scourged had sought to hide,
It did not help to drop his sight down low,
For “You with eyes cast on the ground,” I cried,
49 “Unless your traits are false, Venédico
Caccianemico you must truly be.[277]
What brings you here to such tart sauces, though?”[278]
52 “I would not tell it willingly,” said he,
“Except the clarity of what you’ve said
Recalls the former world and forces me.
55 On my account, Ghisolabell’ was led
To do whatever the Marquis might please,
No matter how that filthy tale is read.
58 I’m not the only weeping Bolognese,
For here the place is so filled with their kind
That fewer tongues say sipa now with ease[279]
61 From Sávena to Reno. Should you find
The need for faith and testament thereto,
Just let our greedy hearts be called to mind.”
64 While he spoke on, a demon beat him, who,
With horsewhip, shouted: “Leave, you pimping lout!
There are no women here to coin for you.”
67 Again I joined my Escort on his route,
At which, with but few steps, our way was bent
Where from a bank a rocky reef juts out
70 So that we easily could make ascent.
And on its jagged ridgeway, turning right,
From those eternal circlings off we went.
73 My Leader spoke when we had come to light
Where it yawns wide below to make a way
For spirits scourged: “Stand still and let the sight
76 Impinge on you of all these ill-born prey,[280]
Whom up until this point you have not faced,
Since we have gone along the same as they.”
79 From that old bridge we viewed the train that paced
Towards us, but on the other side instead,
A crowd which, like the first, the lash had chased.
82 Though I asked not, the goodly Master said:
“Behold, a great one comes! For all his pains,[281]
So it appears, no tear of his is shed.
85 O what a royal mien he yet retains!
For that is Jason who by heart and head
Once stole the ram from Colchïan domains.
88 Off to the isle of Lemnos he was led
When women, daring and of ruthless breast,
Had left all men among themselves for dead.
91 With gifts bestowed and comely words addressed,
He soon deceived Hypsípyle as she,
When young, had once before deceived the rest.
94 He left her there alone with child, so he,
For such a fault, is damned to such great woes;
And vengeance for Medea too you see.
97 With him there every like deceiver goes.
This is enough to know of that first vale
And of the souls its jaws have clamped like those.”
100 We stood already where the narrow trail
Had run across the second bank, which stands
As shoulder for another bridge and dale.
103 And from our spot we heard the moaning bands[282]
In that next ditch, and snorts from every snout,
And all who beat themselves with their own hands.
106 The banks were crusted with a moldy grout
That sticks to it from rising breaths of air,
With which their eyes and noses had a bout.
109 The bottom is so deep we could not stare
To fathom it unless we were to go
Atop the arch whose ridge is highest there.
112 We came to it, and in the ditch below
I saw its people, plunged in dung, lament,
Which all from human privies seemed to flow.
115 And while my eyes were searching there, intent,
I spied a head so fouled I could not tell
If here a priest or layman had been pent.
118 “Why be more greedy,” he began to yell,
“To watch me than another filthy show?”
I said to him: “If I remember well,
121 I’ve seen you with dry hair: Alessïo
Interminei are you, a Luccan skate;[283]
Thus, more than all the rest I watch you so.”
124 At that he said, while beating on his pate:
“I’ve been immersed down here by flattery—
I had a tongue which it could never sate.”
127 And after that my Leader said to me:
“Now stretch your sight a little to the fore
So that your eye may fully reach to see
130 The face of that befouled, bedraggled whore,
Who with her filthy nails will scratch her hide,
And first squat down and then stand up once more.
133 That is Thaís, the harlot, there inside,[284]
Whose lover asked, ‘Have I good grace with you?’
At which, ‘Not good, but marvelous!’ she cried.
136 But let these things now satisfy our view.”