The Fine Art Of Seduction Can Land You In Hell: Inferno, Canto XVIII, Lines 67 - 99

We're about to climb up on a bridge and look down at the other sinners in the first of the evil pouches. These guys are going the other way--and they're not engaged in any metamorphosis.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we let Virgil show us Jason of the Argonauts. Jason is the prime example of seduction. Poor Hypsipyle. Poor Medea. Yet Virgil is still quite taken with this figure from mythology. Why?

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

[00:55] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XVIII, lines 67 - 99. If you'd like to see this translation, you can find it on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:37] The spiny, rocky nature of the landscape of the eighth circle may show us something about the poetry: its bones are getting exposed, too.

[10:06] Virgil's profound admiration of Jason.

[14:05] More about Jason's rather foul character and his deceptions.

[17:27] What are polished words worth? Maybe less than they used to be.

[20:01] Jason's seductions and Medea's vendetta: the cycle of violence goes on.

[21:54] "Deception" is a key word in the passage. And we end with the imagery of eating. It's all a neat package. Quite structural. Like bones.

[22:57] A bit about the increasing notion of hell's circularity.