Wide Awake With Cereberus: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 1 - 33

Our pilgrim wakes up in the weather of the third circle of hell: hail, rain, and snow, making the ground a rancid swamp.

But wait, wakes up? How'd he get there?

In any event, he and Virgil soon come to the guard dog Cerberus. Virgil doesn't try his word spell this time. Instead, he does something wilder: he rewrites his own work, THE AENEID.

Let's take a first look at the third circle of hell, a place where we'll come to understand that gluttony is actually a recipe for social disaster.

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

[00:30] My English translation INFERNO, Canto VI, lines 1 - 33. If you'd like to read along, find a more intense study guide, or even continue the conversation with me by dropping a comment on this episode, go to my website: markscarbrough.com.

[03:27] A question about the mind/body split--which will play out in surprising ways in this canto, including questions about the body politic. And a last look at Francesca and Paolo.

[06:18] How exactly does our pilgrim, Dante, descend a level?

[10:08] The third circle of hell. And the first references to Aristotle, who will come to dominate this canto.

[12:37] Cerberus, the three-headed dog from THE AENEID. Sort of.

[21:48] The canto's only simile--which is rather workaday. Is this a function of the increasing pressure of poem's pace?

[25:10] Or are we running into the limits of writing by topos?

[28:35] Rereading the passage: INFERNO, Canto VI, lines 1 - 33.