When Crossing The River Into Hell, Don't Faint: Inferno, Canto III, Lines 109 - 136

In this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE, we finish canto III of INFERNO, standing on the shores of Acheronte, the river that forms the outer border of hell.

Charon is busy with this job, Virgil is suddenly more parental toward the pilgrim than he's been so far, and Dante? When the earthquake hits, he's apparently beyond help.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take a slow walk across THE DIVINE COMEDY and discover the sheer complexity of this masterwork of Western culture.

Here are the segments of this episode:

[00:50] A summary of Canto III to this point.

[02:04] My English translation of the passage from INFERNO: Canto III, Lines 109 - 136.

[03:54] The first three lines of the passage and two problems: the problem of pain and the problem of Charon.

[09:18] A full exploration of the big simile in the passage (all about leaves, falcons, falling, casting, and lures): its problems, its dissonances, and its historical resonances.

[17:42] Virgil's explanation for the motivation of the damned: the fears have morphed into their desires, one of the most modern statements in INFERNO. I also talk about Virgil's delay in the passage: he doesn't explain why the damned act the way they do until the pilgrim has fully seen the scene.

BONUS: Maybe this is a clue from the poet. Maybe the poet, too, cannot offer us, the reader, the "point" before we see the details, lest we miss those details. Maybe Virgil : Dante-the-pilgrim :: Dante-the-poet : us.

[23:43] Dante collapses. What happens here? Something fails. I'll give you three possible answers: Dante-the-pilgrim fails, Virgil fails, or Dante-the-poet fails.