hBjcDQfnMguRXVnjTNgM Abandon Hope For It's The Gate Of Hell: INFERNO, Canto III, Lines 1 - 21 - Walking With Dante

Episode 13

Abandon Hope For It's The Gate Of Hell: INFERNO, Canto III, Lines 1 - 21

Published on: 28th October, 2020

We follow our pilgrim and his guide, Virgil, on their first steps into hell. Let's pause with these two at the gate of hell with its famous inscription ("Abandon hope!").

You enter hell through an act of reading. The words on the gate, yes. But also perhaps these words in the text.

And if we read the words right, we can get a most unusual thing: a cheerful look from Virgil.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I walk with Dante the pilgrim passage by passage across the known universe. If you'd like to help support this podcast, please consider a one-time donation or a very small monthly stipend at this PayPal link right here.

Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:11] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto III, lines 1 - 21. If you want to see my translation, find a larger study guide, or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:05] The words over hell's gate, perhaps one of the most iconic passage in COMEDY. The gate speaks truth autobiographically.

[05:21] We're entering a civic vision of the afterlife.

[08:28] A bit about justice and the definitely non-Thomistic (and non-Aristotelian) words written over the gate. Justice moved God? How is that possible?

[12:54] Dante-the-pilgrim is a reader! He has to enter hell through an act of reading.

[14:43] Virgil is what every reader needs: a great writer who can move the text out of its space and into the reader's space.

[19:00] Virgil is cheerful at a very desperate spot.

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About the Podcast

Walking With Dante
A passage-by-passage stroll through Dante’s DIVINE COMEDY with Mark Scarbrough
Ever wanted to read Dante's Divine Comedy? Come along with us! We're not lost in the scholarly weeds. (Mostly.) We're strolling through the greatest work (to date) of Western literature. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I take on this masterpiece passage by passage. I'll give you my rough English translation, show you some of the interpretive knots in the lines, let you in on the 700 years of commentary, and connect Dante's work to our modern world. The pilgrim comes awake in a dark wood, then walks across the known universe. New episodes every Sunday and Wednesday.
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About your host

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Mark Scarbrough

Former lit professor, current cookbook writer, creator of two podcasts, writer of thirty-five (and counting) cookbooks, author of one memoir (coming soon!), married to a chef (my cookbook co-writer, Bruce Weinstein), and with him, the owner of two collies, all in a very rural spot in New England. My life's full and I'm up for more challenges!