Show Notes
In this canto, Dante and his guide enter a dark forest of mangled trees. They speak with a damned soul who took his own life. He shares his sad story and the gruesome fate that awaits those who use violence against themselves.
More from Dante's History
Dante and Virgil enter the tenth and final bolgia of the 8th circle, the circle of fraud, where they encounter the first of the Falsifiers; those who practiced alchemy. We will meet two souls who knew Dante and learn what the poet can tell us about straw-men arguments, misuse of wealth, and how lies create a toxic, viral culture.
The pilgrim and his guide enter the ninth bolgia and encounter the sowers of discord, those who sought to create division. He will meet a controversial religious leader and a few other disfigured souls and begin to learn how those who divide from within can be worse than an outside threat.
Dante and Virgil are in the 8th bolgia where they meet a former warlord turned friar who broke his vows to help a contested pope defeat his enemies. Though he was promised absolution, he would be the cause of his own damnation.
In this canto, Dante and Virgil climb out of the pit of the thieves and approach the eighth ditch of the 8th circle of the Inferno, where fire itself becomes the instrument of punishment. Here, Dante will behold flickering tongues of flame that speak without mouths — and one mysterious double flame that burns unlike the others. What it reveals offers both wonder and caution.
In this canto, Dante and Virgil continue to observe the thieves that reside in the seventh ditch of the 8th circle of the inferno, aka The Malebolge. Virgil will tell him about us about the raging centaur that terrorizes the inhabitants here and Dante will witness a couple of grotesque transformations.