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    "slug": "inferno",
    "name": "Inferno"
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  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "divine-comedy",
      "name": "Divine Comedy",
      "url": "/sources/divine-comedy/"
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 12,
    "slug": "canto-12",
    "title": "Inferno · Canto 12",
    "of": 34,
    "words": 1685,
    "text": "## Inferno Canto 12\n\n\nCanto XII\n\nArgument\n\nDescending by a very rugged way into the seventh circle, where the\nviolent are punished, Dante and his leader find it guarded by the Minotaur;\nwhose fury being pacified by Virgil, they step downward from crag to crag;\ntill, drawing near the bottom, they descry a river of blood, wherein are\ntormented such as have committed violence against their neighbor. At these,\nwhen they strive to emerge from the blood, a troop of Centaurs, running along\nthe side of the river, aim their arrows; and three of their band opposing our\ntravellers at the foot of the steep, Virgil prevails so far that one consents\nto carry them both across the stream; and on their passage, Dante is informed\nby him of the course of the river, and of those that are punished therein.\n\nThe place, where to descend the precipice\nWe came, was rough as Alp; and on its verge\nSuch object lay, as every eye would shun.\nAs is that ruin, which Adice's stream[1]\n\n[1: \"Adice's stream.\" After a great deal having been said on the\nsubject, it still appears very uncertain at what part of the river this fall\nof the mountain happened.]\n\nOn this side Trento struck, shouldering the wave,\nOr loosed by earthquake or for lack of prop;\nFor from the mountain's summit, whence it moved\nTo the low level, so the headlong rock\nIs shiver'd, that some passage it might give\nTo him who from above would pass; e'en such\nInto the chasm was that descent: and there\nAt point of the disparted ridge lay stretch'd\nThe infamy of Crete,[2] detested brood\nOf the feign'd heifer:[3] and at sight of us\nIt gnaw'd itself, as one with rage distract.\nTo him my guide exclaim'd: \"Perchance thou deem'st\nThe King of Athens[4] here, who, in the world\nAbove, thy death contrived. Monster! avaunt!\nHe comes not tutor'd by thy sister's art,[5]\nBut to behold your torments is he come.\"\n\n[2: \"The infamy of Crete.\" The Minotaur.]\n\n[3: \"The feign'd heifer.\" Pasiphae.]\n\n[4: \"The King of Athens.\" Theseus, who was enabled by the instruction\nof Ariadne, the sister of the Minotaur, to destroy that monster.]\n\n[5: \"Thy sister's art.\" Ariadne.]\n\nLike to a bull, that with impetuous spring\nDarts, at the moment when the fatal blow\nHath struck him, but unable to proceed\nPlunges on either side; so saw I plunge\nThe Minotaur; whereat the sage exclaim'd:\n\"Run to the passage! while he storms, 'tis well\nThat thou descend.\" Thus down our road we took\nThrough those dilapidated crags, that oft\nMoved underneath my feet, to weight like theirs\nUnused. I pondering went, and thus he spake:\n\"Perhaps thy thoughts are of this ruin'd steep,\nGuarded by the brute violence, which I\nHave vanguish'd now. Know then, that when I erst\nHither descended to the nether Hell,\nThis rock was not yet fallen. But past doubt,\n(If well I mark) not long ere He arrived,[6]\nWho carried off from Dis the mighty spoil\nOf the highest circle, then through all its bounds\n\n[6: Our Saviour, who, according to Dante, when he ascended from Hell,\ncarried with him the souls of the Patriarchs, and of other just men, out of\nthe first circle. See Canto iv.]\n\nSuch trembling seized the deep concave and foul,\nI thought the universe was thrill'd with love,\nWhereby, there are who deem, the world hath oft\nBeen into chaos turn'd: and in that point,\nHere, and elsewhere, that old rock toppled down.\nBut fix thine eyes beneath: the river of blood\nApproaches, in the which all those are steep'd,\nWho have by violence injured.\" O blind lust!\nO foolish wrath! who so dost goad us on\nIn the brief like, and in the eternal then\nThus miserably o'erwhelm us. I beheld\nAn ample foss, that in a bow was bent,\nAs circling all the plain; for so my guide\nHad told. Between it and the rampart's base,\nOn trail ran Centaurs, with keen arrows arm'd,\nAs to the chase they on the earth were wont.\n\nAt seeing us descend they each one stood;\nAnd issuing from the troop, three sped with bows\nAnd missile weapons chosen first; of whom\nOne cried from far: \"Say, to what pain ye come\nCondemn'd, who down this steep have journey'd. Speak\nFrom whence ye stand, or else the bow I draw.\"\n\nTo whom my guide: \"Our answer shall be made\nTo Chiron, there, when nearer him we come.\nIll was thy mind, thus ever quick and rash.\"\nThen me he touch'd and spake: \"Nessus is this,\nWho for the fair Deianira died,\nAnd wrought himself revenge[7] for his own fate.\nHe in the midst, that on his breast looks down,\nIs the great Chiron who Achilles nursed;\nThat other, Pholus, prone to wrath.\" Around\nThe foss these go by thousands, aiming shafts\nAt whatsoever spirit dares emerge\nFrom out the blood, more than his guilt allows.\n\n[7: Nessus, when dying by the hand of Hercules, charged Deianira to\npreserve the gore from his wound; for that if the affections of Hercules\nshould at any time be estranged from her, it would recall them. Deianira had\noccasion to try the experiment; and the venom, as Nessus had intended, caused\nHercules to expire in torments.]\n\nWe to those beasts, that rapid strode along,\nDrew near; when Chiron took an arrow forth,\n\nAnd with the notch push'd back his shaggy beard\nTo the cheek - bone, then, his great mouth to view\nExposing, to his fellows thus exclaim'd:\n\"Are ye aware, that he who comes behind\nMoves what he touches? The feet of the dead\nAre not so wont.\" My trusty guide, who now\nStood near his breast, where the two natures join,\nThus made reply: \"He is indeed alive,\nAnd solitary so must needs by me\nBe shown the gloomy vale, thereto induced\nBy strict necessity, not by delight.\nShe left her joyful harpings in the sky,\nWho this new office to my care consign'd.\nHe is no robber, no dark spirit I.\nBut by that virtue, which empowers my step\nTo tread so wild a path, grant us, I pray,\nOne of thy band, whom we may trust secure,\nWho to the ford may lead us, and convey\nAcross, him mounted on his back; for he\nIs not a spirit that may walk the air.\"\n\nThen on his right breast turning, Chiron thus\nTo Nessus spake: \"Return, and be their guide.\nAnd if ye chance to cross another troop,\nCommand them keep aloof.\" Onward we moved,\nThe faithful escort by our side, along\nThe border of the crimson - seething flood,\nWhence, from those steep'd within, loud shrieks arose.\n\nSome there I mark'd, as high as to their brow\nImmersed, of whom the mighty Centaur thus:\n\"These are the souls of tyrants, who were given\nTo blood and rapine. Here they wail aloud\nTheir merciless wrongs. Here Alexander dwells,\nAnd Dionysius fell, who many a year\nOf woe wrought for fair Sicily. That brow,\nWhereon the hair so jetty clustering hangs,\nIs Azzolino;[8] that with flaxen locks\nObizzo[9] of Este, in the world destroy'd\nBy his foul step - son.\" To the bard revered\nI turn'd me round, and thus he spake: \"Let him\nBe to thee now first leader, me but next\nTo him in rank.\" Then further on a space\nThe Centaur paused, near some, who at the throat\nWere extant from the wave; and, showing us\nA spirit by itself apart retired,\nExclaim'd: \"He[10] in God's bosom smote the heart,\nWhich yet is honored on the bank of Thames.\"\n\n[8: Azzolino, or Ezzolino di Romano, Lord of Padua, Vicenza, Verona,\nand Brescia, who died in 1260. His atrocities form the subject of a Latin\ntragedy, Eccerinis, by Albertino Mussato, of Padua, contemporary of Dante, and\nthe most elegant writer of Latin verse of that age.]\n\n[9: \"Obizzo of Este.\" Marquis of Ferrara and of the Marca d' Ancona,\nwas murdered by his own son (whom, for that most unnatural act, Dante calls\nhis stepson) for the sake of the treasures which his rapacity had amassed.]\n\n[10: \"He.\" \"Henrie, the brother of this Edmund, and son to the\nforesaid King of Almaine (Richard, brother of Henry III of England), as he\nreturned from Affrike, where he had been with Prince Edward, was slain at\nViterbo in Italy by the hand of Guy de Montfort, the son of Simon de Montfort,\nEarl of Leicester, in revenge of the same Simon's death. The murther was\ncommitted afore the high altar, as the same Henrie kneeled there to hear\ndivine service.\" A. D. 1272. - Holinshed's Chron., p. 275. See also Giov.\nVillani, \"Hist.\" lib. vii. c. xl., where it is said \"that the heart of Henry\nwas put into a golden cup, and placed on a pillar at London Bridge for a\nmemorial to the English of the said outrage.\"]\n\nA race I next espied who held the head,\nAnd even all the bust, above the stream.\n'Midst these I many a face remember'd well.\nThus shallow more and more the blood became,\nSo that at last it but imbrued the feet;\nAnd there our passage lay athwart the foss.\n\n\"As ever on this side the boiling wave\nThou seest diminishing,\" the Centaur said,\n\"So on the other, be thou well assured,\nIt lower still and lower sinks its bed,\nTill in that part it reuniting join,\nWhere 'tis the lot of tyranny to mourn.\nThere Heaven's stern justice lays chastising hand\nOn Attila, who was the scourge of earth,\nOn Sextus and on Pyrrhus,[11] and extracts\nTears ever by the seething flood unlock'd\nFrom the Rinieri, of Corneto this,\nPazzo the other named,[12] who fill'd the ways\nWith violence and war.\" This said, he turn'd,\nAnd quitting us, alone repass'd the ford.\n\n[11: Sextus, either the son of Tarquin the Proud or of Pompey the\nGreat; and Pyrrhus, King of Epirus.]\n\n[12: Two noted marauders, by whose depredations the public ways were\ninfested. The latter was of the noble family of Pazzi in Florence.]",
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