Canto XXXI
CANTO XXXI
Virgil’s rebuke and subsequent words of comfort at the close of the last canto have worked like Achilles’ spear with the power to wound and then to heal. The Wanderers now make their way across the plain from the final embankment to the central pit. Through the murky air Dante hears a thunderous trumpet blast louder than that of Roland at the battle of Roncesvalles. Directing his eyes to its source, the Poet descries what he at first imagines to be towers. As he approaches, however, these surpassing figures gradually reveal themselves as giants standing in a pit, with their upper bodies projecting above the bank, and resemble the battle towers surmounting the walls of the Sienese fortress Montereggioni (1–45). Nimrod, who measures taller from waist to shoulders than three Frisians, and whose head alone compares to a bronze pine cone seven and a half foot tall at St. Peter’s, is bound with chains for his part in building the Tower of Babel. Appropriately, he can only blather gibberish, unable to speak any intelligible language, and must vent his animal emotion through his hunter’s horn (46–81). Within an arrow’s shot to the left, Ephialtes likewise stands chained for having stormed Mount Olympus as does the even fiercer Briareus farther ahead. Closer, however, is Antaeus, who, since he had not been born when the giants attacked the gods, remains unfettered and able to speak (82–111). The Travelers proceed up to him, noting that he rises a full five ells above the ledge, not counting his head. Virgil addresses him in flattering terms and asks the giant to set Dante and himself down on the floor of Cocytus, the icy bottom of Hell, in exchange for the earthly fame that the Pilgrim can bring him. He bends over and, in doing so, seems to Dante like the leaning Bolognese tower Garisenda, which at times, to one standing under it, appears to be falling. Then, like a ship’s mast, he straightens up again (112–145).
1 The very tongue that first had wounded me
And tinged the one and other cheek was here
Once more to cure me with its remedy.
4 Just so, Achilles’ and his father’s spear
Was formerly the cause, as I have heard,
That first sad wounds, then healing gifts appear.[479]
7 Upon the bank that circles round to gird
The wretched vale from which we’d turned away
We made our path across without a word.
10 It here was less than night and less than day
So that my sight advanced but little space,
But when I heard so loud a trumpet play
13 All thunder would be made the faintest trace,
Straight back along its course my eyes were cast,
Directed wholly to a single place.
16 And after the distressing rout had passed,
And Charlemagne had lost the sacred band,
Great Roland did not sound so dread a blast.[480]
19 And having briefly turned my head, I scanned
There many towers, seemingly quite high,
And asked: “O Master, tell me, what’s this land?”
22 He said to me: “It is because you try
To pierce through dark from far and to explore
That your imagination goes awry.
25 But you will see when you have reached that floor,
How much the sense from far can go astray;
So, therefore, spur yourself a little more.”
28 Then lovingly he took my hand to say:
“Before we travel any farther, know
—And thus the fact may seem less strange that way—
31 That these aren’t towers here but giants so
That from the navel downwards they stand square
Around the bank and in the pit below.”[481]
34 As when the fog will thin so that a stare
Will bring a figure bit by bit to view,
First hidden in the vapor-thickened air,
37 So when the gross, dark mist had been pierced through,
And I drew near the edge there bit by bit,
My error fled me, but my terror grew.
40 For as Montereggioni’s towers sit[482]
Like crowns on circling walls, the horrid crew
Of giants towered here around the pit
43 Above the bank with half their bodies too—
All those whom Jove still menaces to stun
Each time he thunders from the heavens’ blue.[483]
46 Already I discerned the face of one,
His shoulders, chest, and belly’s greater part,
And then the sides down which his two arms run—
49 For surely Nature, when she left the art
Of forging brutes like these, did well indeed
To make that kind of minister depart
52 From Mars. If she does not regret a breed[484]
Like elephant or whale, we count her wit
More just and wise, on paying subtle heed;
55 For where the faculty of mind is knit
To both an evil will and strength as mate,
There no defense of man can conquer it.
58 It seemed that to a face so long and great
St. Peter’s cone in Rome would well compare,[485]
The other bones apportioned to his pate.
61 And thus the bank, which formed a skirt from where
The middle lies on down, displayed to sight
So much of him that just to reach his hair
64 Three Frisians in vain would vaunt their height;[486]
For thirty spans of him I well could see,
Straight down from where man’s coat is buttoned tight.
67 “Raphél maí améck zabí almí,”[487]
The shouts from that brute mouth began to roll,
Which was not fit for sweeter psalmody.
70 My Guide had turned to him: “O stupid soul,
Keep to your horn to give your feelings vent,
When rage or other passion takes its toll!
73 Look at your neck and find the rope that went
To hold it tied in place, O soul confused,
And see it cross your chest’s immense extent.”
76 And then to me: “That one is self-accused;
That’s Nimrod, by whose evil thought, not one,
But many tongues within the world are used.[488]
79 Leave him alone, don’t speak in vain, my son;
For thus all languages to him will sound
As his to others, which is known to none.”
82 Turned towards the left, we journeyed further round;
And at the distance of an arrow’s flight,
Another, far more huge and fierce, was found.
85 Just who the master was who’d tied him tight
I cannot say, but both his arms were bound
—His left, in front of him; behind, his right—
88 By chains that held him; these were wrapped around
Down from the neck so that the coils which tied
The part exposed had some five times been wound.
91 “This giant in his arrogance had tried
His strength against the most high Jove before,
And this is his reward,” declared my Guide.
94 “His name is Ephïaltes, he who bore[489]
Great trials when giants set the gods in fright;
The arms he plied he now will move no more.”
97 I said to him: “I still should like my sight
To gain experience of the immense
Briáreus ahead, if but I might.”[490]
100 “You’ll see Antaeus just a little hence,”[491]
He answered, “who can speak, unbound and free;
He’ll place us at the depths of all offense.
103 Much farther on, the one you wish to see
Is fettered and of just as huge a make,
Except his look seems much more fierce to me.”
106 There never was so violent a quake
That shook a tower with such force, I swear,
As Ephïaltes’ limbs were quick to shake.
109 Then more than ever death gave me a scare,
For which there would have well sufficed the dread
If I had not just seen his fetters there.
112 We now proceeded farther on ahead
Up to Antaeus, who above the den
Stood five full ells, not reckoning his head.[492]
115 “O you, who stalked that fateful valley’s pen[493]
(Where Scipïo fell heir to glory’s pay
When Hannibal turned back with all his men)
118 And took a thousand lions as your prey
—Though had you been with your fraternal kin
In their high war, it seems that some still say
121 Those sons of earth would yet have come to win—
Do not disdain to set us down below,
Down where the cold has locked Cocytus in.
124 Let’s not to Tityus or Typhon go;[494]
This man can give you what is longed for here,
So do not curl your lip, but bend down low.
127 He yet can make your fame on earth appear:
He lives and hopes for long life yet, unless
God’s grace should call him back before his year.”
130 Thus spoke my Master. He, then, in the press
Of haste stretched out his hands and took my Guide
(Those hands where Hercules once felt great stress).
133 And when he sensed his grasp, my Virgil cried:
“Come here, that I may lay a hold of you.”
Thus, in one bundle he and I were tied.
136 The Garisenda seems to someone who[495]
Stands underneath its slant when clouds pass by
Against the way in which it hangs askew
139 Just as Antaeus did to me when I
First saw him bending over—that was when
I wished I’d had another road to try.
142 He set us gently on the bottom then,
Which swallows Lucifer and Judas too;
Nor did he stay thus bent, but rose again
145 Just as the mast upon a ship will do.