{
  "meta": {
    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "endpoint": "/api/sources/divine-comedy/inferno/canto-18.json"
  },
  "work": {
    "slug": "inferno",
    "name": "Inferno"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "divine-comedy",
      "name": "Divine Comedy",
      "url": "/sources/divine-comedy/"
    }
  ],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 18,
    "slug": "canto-18",
    "title": "Inferno · Canto 18",
    "of": 34,
    "words": 1307,
    "text": "## Inferno Canto 18\n\n\nCanto XVIII\n\nArgument\n\nThe Poet describes the situation and form of the eight circle, divided\ninto ten gulfs, which contain as many different descriptions of fraudulent\nsinners; but in the present Canto he treats only of two sorts: the first is of\nthose who, either for their own pleasure, or for that of another, have seduced\nany woman from her duty; and these are scourged of demons in the first gulf:\nthe other sort is of flatterers, who in the second gulf are condemned to\nremain immersed in filth.\n\nThere is a place within the depths of Hell\nCall'd Malebolge, all of rock dark - stain'd\nWith hue ferruginous, e'en as the steep\nThat round it circling winds. Right in the midst\nOf that abominable region yawns\nA spacious gulf profound, whereof the frame\nDue time shall tell. The circle, that remains,\nThroughout its round, between the gulf and base\nOf the high craggy banks, successive forms\nTen bastions, in its hollow bottom raised.\n\nAs where, to guard the walls, full many a foss\nBegirds some stately castle, sure defence\nAffording to the space within; so here\nWere model'd these: and as like fortresses,\nE'en from their threshold to the brink without,\nAre flank'd with bridges; from the rock's low base\nThus flinty paths advanced, that 'cross the moles\nAnd dykes struck onward far as to the gulf,\nThat in one bound collected cuts them off.\nSuch was the place, wherein we found ourselves\nFrom Geryon's back dislodged. The bard to left\nHeld on his way, and I behind him moved.\n\nOn our right hand new misery I saw,\nNew pains, new executioner of wrath,\nThat swarming peopled that first chasm. Below\nWere naked sinners. Hitherward they came,\nMeeting our faces, from the middle point;\nWith us beyond, but with a larger stride.\nE'en thus the Romans,[1] when the year returns\nOf Jubilee, with better speed to rid\nThe thronging multitudes, their means devise\nFor such as pass the bridge; that on one side\nAll front toward the castle, and approach\nSaint Peter's fane, on the other toward the mount.\n\n[1: In the year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII, to remedy the inconvenience\noccasioned by the press over the bridge of St. Angelo during the time of the\nJubilee, caused it to be divided lengthwise by a partition. G. Villani, who\nwas present, describes the order that was preserved, lib. viii. c. xxxvi. It\nwas at this time, and on this occasion, that he first conceived the design of\n\"compiling his book.\"]\n\nEach diverse way, along the grisly rock,\nHorn'd demons I beheld, with lashes huge,\nThat on their back unmercifully smote.\nAh! how they made them bound at the first stripe!\nNone for the second waited, nor the third.\n\nMeantime, as on I pass'd, one met my sight,\nWhom soon as view'd, \"Of him,\" cried I, \"not yet\nMine eye hath had his fill.\" I therefore stay'd\nMy feet to scan him, and the teacher kind\nPaused with me, and consented I should walk\nBackward a space; and the tormented spirit,\nWho thought to hide him, bent his visage down.\nBut it avail'd him naught; for I exclaim'd:\n\"Thou who dost cast thine eye upon the ground,\nUnless thy features do belie thee much,\nVenedico[2] art thou. But what brings thee\nInto this bitter seasoning?\" He replied:\n\"Unwillingly I answer to thy words.\nBut thy clear speech, that to my mind recalls\nThe world I once inhabited, constrains me.\nKnow then 't was I who led fair Ghisola\nTo do the Marquis' will, however fame\nThe shameful tale have bruited. Nor alone\nBologna hither sendeth me to mourn.\nRather with us the place is so o'er throng'd,\nThat not so many tongues this day are taught,\nBetwixt the Reno and Savena's stream,\nTo answer Sipa[3] in their country's phrase.\nAnd if of that securer proof thou need,\nRemember but our craving thirst for gold.\"\n\n[2: Venedico Caccianimico, a Bolognese, who prevailed on his sister\nGhisola to prostitute herself to Obizzo da Este. (See Canto xii.)]\n\n[3: \"To answer Sipa.\" He denotes Bologna by its situation between the\nrivers Savena to the east and Reno to the west, and by a peculiarity of\ndialect, the use of the affirmative \"sipa\" instead either of \"si\" or of\n\"sia.\"]\n\nHim speaking thus, a demon with his throng\nStruck and exclaim'd, \"Away, corrupter! here\nWomen are none for sale.\" Forthwith I join'd\nMy escort, and few paces thence we came\nTo where a rock forth issued from the bank.\nThat easily ascended, to the right\nUpon its splinter turning, we depart\nFrom those eternal barriers. When arrived\nWhere, underneath, the gaping arch lets pass\nThe scourged souls: \"Pause here,\" the teacher said,\n\"And let these others miserable now\nStrike on thy ken; faces not yet beheld,\nFor that together they with us have walk'd.\"\n\nFrom the old bridge we eyed the pack, who came\nFrom the other side toward us, like the rest,\nExcoriate from the lash. My gentle guide,\nBy me unquestion'd, thus his speech resumed:\n\"Behold that lofty shade, who this way tends,\nAnd seems too woe - begone to drop a tear.\nHow yet the regal aspect he retains!\nJason is he, whose skill and prowess won\nThe ram from Colchis. To the Lemnian isle\nHis passage thither led him, when those bold\nAnd pitiless women had slain all their males.\nThere he with tokens and fair witching words\nHypsipyle[4] beguiled, a virgin young,\nWho first had all the rest herself beguiled.\nImpregnated, he left her there forlorn.\nSuch is the guilt condemns him to this pain.\nHere too Medea's injuries are avenged.\nAll bear him company, who like deceit\nTo his have practised. And thus much to know\n\n[4: She deceived the other women, by concealing her father Thoas,\nwhen they slew their males.]\n\nOf the first vale suffice thee, and of those\nWhom its keen torments urge.\" Now had we come\nWhere, crossing the next pier, the straiten'd path\nBestrides its shoulders to another arch.\n\nHence, in the second chasm we heard the ghosts,\nWho gibber in low melancholy sounds,\nWith wide - stretch'd nostrils snort, and on themselves\nSmite with their palms. Upon the banks a scurf,\nFrom the foul steam condensed, encrusting hung,\nThat held sharp combat with the sight and smell.\n\nSo hollow is the depth, that from no part,\nSave on the summit of the rocky span,\nCould I distinguish aught. Thus far we came;\nAnd thence I saw, within the foss below,\nA crowd immersed in ordure, that appear'd\nDraff of the human body. There beneath\nSearching with eye inquisitive, I mark'd\nOne with his head so grimed, 't were hard to deem\nIf he were clerk or layman. Loud he cried:\n\"Why greedily thus bendest more on me,\nThan on these other filthy ones, thy ken?\"\n\n\"Because, if true my memory,\" I replied,\n\"I heretofore have seen thee with dry locks;\nAnd thou Alessio[5] art, of Lucca sprung.\nTherefore than all the rest I scan thee more.\"\n\n[5: Of the old Interminei family.]\n\nThen beating on his brain, these words he spake:\n\"Me thus low down my flatteries have sunk,\nWherewith I ne'er enough could glut my tongue.\"\n\nMy leader thus: \"A little further stretch\nThy face, that thou the visage well mayst note\nOf that besotted, sluttish courtesan,\nWho there doth rend her with defiled nails,\nNow crouching down, now risen on her feet.\nThais[6] is this, the harlot, whose false lip\nAnswer'd her doting paramour that ask'd,\n'Thankest me much!' - 'Say rather, wondrously,'\nAnd, seeing this, here satiate be our view.\"\n\n[6: \"Thais.\" In the Eunuchus of Terence, Thraso asks if Thais was\nobliged to him for his present; and Gnatho replies, that she had expressed her\nobligation in the most forcible terms.]",
    "project_translation": false,
    "license": null,
    "methodology_url": null
  }
}