The Beast With Two Backs--Or, Two Things And Nothing: Inferno, Canto XXV, Lines 34 - 78 (Part One)

First, a guy burns up, turns to ashes, comes back to life, and prophesies the future. Then a centaur run by with snakes and dragons on his back. And if that wasn't enough, now one of the most daring metamorphoses of all.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch the second metamorphosis in the seventh evil pouch in the sub-circles of the thieves. This passage is so complex that this episode is the first of two on it. Poor Angello. He never knew what hit him.

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

[01:59] My English translation of the passage: Inferno, Canto XXV, lines 34 - 78. If you'd like to read along, you can find this translation on my website: markscarbrough.com.

[05:50] Questions about dialogue and discourse in Canto XXV (as opposed to the longer, fuller conversations and speeches of Canto XXIV).

[10:53] The pilgrim Dante silences Virgil--and maybe the poet Dante, too. This is one of the many silencings in the seventh of the evil pouches (the "malebolge").

[14:17] Dante the poet steps out to address the reader--thereby silencing me (!) to make a reality claim for these events.

[19:20] Ovid's story from METAMORPHOSES that forms the basis for this metamorphosis in COMEDY. It's an erotic tale about the danger of the beast with two backs.

[27:06] The metaphors Dante uses to explain the metamorphosis he lifts from Ovid.

[30:09] Who are these guys in the seventh of the evil pouches? The early commentators know for sure--but maybe they miss the point.

[34:46] A final hint of nihilism at the end of this most incredible metamorphosis.