The Case For Ulysses: Inferno, Canto XXVI, Lines 85 - 142

In the last episode of WALKING WITH DANTE, I built a case against Ulysses without using anything but his own words against him. How do we know Ulysses is damned (other than Dante's placing him in the Inferno)? Where does his culpability lie?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this episode in which I build the case FOR Ulysses. Why does he so stand out among the sinners in hell (and even among the saints above us)? Why has his speech provoked more commentary than any other passage in Dante's COMEDY?

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

[01:42] Once more, my English translation of his speech: Inferno, Canto XXVI, lines 85 - 142. If you'd like to read along or start a discussion about this episode, go to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[05:30] The seven parts of the case against Ulysses. 1. His monologue demands an interpretation because there are few external cues or clues to help us know how to react.

[06:39] 2. Ulysses is a Greek--which means he's part of a world Dante cannot know and desperately wants to explore.

[08:54] 3. Ulysses' story is the definition of talent held in check by (literary) virtue: fully original yet anchored by classical texts.

[10:35] 4. Ulysses uses the loaded word "folle" (folly)--a word so associated with Dante the pilgrim's journey and Dante the poet's COMEDY.

[22:27] 5. We are the children, not of Dante, but of Ulysses, who expresses our hopes and our fears.

[24:20] 6. Ulysses exhorts his men to a higher calling, just as Dante exhorts his readers to a higher calling.

[25:53] 7. Ulysses' speech is so overwhelming that Dante will need a second figure in this evil pouch (this eighth of the malebolge) to balance the poem.