{
  "meta": {
    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "endpoint": "/api/sources/divine-comedy/inferno/canto-6.json"
  },
  "work": {
    "slug": "inferno",
    "name": "Inferno"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "divine-comedy",
      "name": "Divine Comedy",
      "url": "/sources/divine-comedy/"
    }
  ],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 6,
    "slug": "canto-6",
    "title": "Inferno · Canto 6",
    "of": 34,
    "words": 1249,
    "text": "## Inferno Canto 6\n\n\nCanto VI\n\nArgument\n\nOn his recovery, the Poet finds himself in the third circle, where the\ngluttonous are punished. Their torment is, to lie in the mire, under a\ncontinual and heavy storm of hail, snow, and discolored water; Cerberus,\nmeanwhile barking over them with his threefold throat, and rending them\npiecemeal. One of these, who on earth was named Ciacco, foretells the\ndivisions with which Florence is about to be distracted. Dante proposes a\nquestion to his guide, who solves it; and they proceed toward the fourth\ncircle.\n\nMy sense reviving, that erewhile had droop'd\nWith pity for the kindred shades, whence grief\nO'ercame me wholly, straight around I see\nNew torments, new tormented souls, which way\nSoe'er I move, or turn, or bend my sight.\nIn the third circle I arrive, of showers\nCeaseless, accursed, heavy and cold, unchanged\nFor ever, both in kind and in degree.\nLarge hail, discolor'd water, sleety flaw\nThrough the dun midnight air stream'd down amain:\nStank all the land whereon that tempest fell.\n\nCerberus, cruel monster, fierce and strange,\nThrough his wide threefold throat, barks as a dog\nOver the multitude immersed beneath.\nHis eyes glare crimson, black his unctuous beard,\nHis belly large, and claw'd the hands, with which\nHe tears the spirits, flays them, and their limbs\nPiecemeal disparts. Howling there spread, as curs,\nUnder the rainy deluge, with one side\nThe other screening, oft they roll them round,\nA wretched, godless crew. When that great worm[1]\nDescried us, savage Cerberus, he oped\nHis jaws, and the fangs show'd us; not a limb\nOf him but trembled. Then my guide, his palms\nExpanding on the ground, thence fill'd with earth\nRaised them, and cast it in his ravenous maw.\nE'en as a dog, that yelling bays for food\nHis keeper, when the morsel comes, lets fall\nHis fury, bent alone with eager haste\nTo swallow it; so dropp'd the loathsome cheeks\nOf demon Cerberus, who thundering stuns\nThe spirits, that they for deafness wish in vain.\n\n[1: \"When that great worm, descried us . . . he opened his jaws.\" In\nCanto xxxiv. Lucifer is called \"The abhorred worm, that boreth through the\nworld.\"]\n\nWe, o'er the shades thrown prostrate by the brunt\nOf the heavy tempest passing, set our feet\nUpon their emptiness, that substance seem'd.\n\nThey all along the earth extended lay,\nSave one, that sudden raised himself to sit,\nSoon as that way he saw us pass. \"O thou!\"\nHe cried, \"who through the infernal shades art led,\nOwn, if again thou know'st me. Thou wast framed\nOr ere my frame was broken.\" I replied:\n\"The anguish thou endurest perchance so takes\nThy form from my remembrance, that it seems\nAs if I saw thee never. But inform\nMe thou art, that in a place so sad\nArt set, and in such torment, that although\nOther be greater, none disgusteth more.\"\nHe thus in answer to my words rejoin'd:\n\"Thy city, heap'd with envy to the brim,\nAye, that the measure overflows its bounds,\nHeld me in brighter days. Ye citizens\nWere wont to name me Ciacco.[2] For the sin\nOf gluttony, damned vice, beneath this rain,\nE'en as thou seest, I with fatigue am worn:\nNor I sole spirit in this woe: all these\nHave by like crime incurr'd like punishment.\"\n\n[2: \"Ciriaco.\" So called from his inordinate appetite; \"ciacco,\" in\nItalian, signifying a pig. The real name of this glutton has not been\ntransmitted to us.]\n\nNo more he said, and I my speech resumed:\n\"Ciacco! thy! dire affliction grieves me much,\nEven to tears. But tell me, if thou know'st,\nWhat shall at length befall the citizens\nof the divided city;[3] whether any\nJust one inhabit there: and tell the cause,\nWhence jarring Discord hath assail'd it thus.\"\n\n[3: \"The divided city.\" The city of Florence, divided into the\nBianchi and Neri factions.]\n\nHe then: \"After long striving they will come\n\nTo blood; and the wild party from the woods[4]\nWill chase the other[5] with much injury forth.\nThen it behooves that this must fall,[6] within\nThree solar circles;[7] and the other rise\nBy borrow'd force of one, who under shore\nNow rests.[8] It shall a long space hold aloof\nIts forehead, keeping under heavy weight\nThe other opprest, indignant at the load,\nAnd grieving sore. The just are two in number.[9]\nBut they neglected. Avarice, envy, pride,\nThree fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all\nOn fire.\" Here ceased the lamentable sound;\nAnd I continued thus: \"Still would I learn\nMore from thee, further parley still entreat.\nOf Farinata and Tegghiaio[10] say,\nThey who so well deserved; of Giacopo,[11]\nArrigo, Mosca,[12] and the rest, who bent\nTheir minds on working good. Oh! tell me where\nThey bide, and to their knowledge let me come.\nFor I am prest with keen desire to hear\nIf Heaven's sweet cup, or poisonous drug of Hell,\nBe to their lip assign'd.\" He answer'd straight:\n\"These are yet blacker spirits. Various crimes\nHave sunk them deeper in the dark abyss.\nIf thou so far descendest, thou mayst see them.\nBut to the pleasant world, when thou return'st,\nOf me make mention, I entreat thee, there.\nNo more I tell thee, answer thee no more.\"\n\n[4: The wild party from the woods.\" So called, because it was headed\nby Veri de' Cerchi, whose family had lately come into the city from Acona, and\nthe woody country of the Val di Nievole.]\n\n[5: \"The other.\" The opposite party of the Neri, at the head of which\nwas Corso Donati.]\n\n[6: \"This must fall.\" The Bianchi.]\n\n[7: \"Three solar circles.\" Three years.]\n\n[8: \"Of one, who under shore now rests.\" Charles of Valois, by whose\nmeans the Neri were replaced.]\n\n[9: \"The just are two in number.\" Who these two were, the\ncommentators are not agreed. Some understand them to be Dante himself and his\nfriend Guido Cavalcanti.]\n\n[10: \"Of Farinata and Tegghiaio.\" See Canto x. and notes, and Canto\nxvi. and notes.]\n\n[11: \"Giacopo.\" Giacopo Rusticucci. See Canto xvi. and notes.]\n\n[12: \"Arrigo, Mosca.\" Of Arrigo, who is said by the commentators to\nhave been of the noble family of the Fifanti, no mention afterward occurs.\nMosca degli Uberti, or de' Lamberti, is introduced in Canto xxviii.]\n\nThis said, his fixed eyes he turn'd askance,\nA little eyed me, then bent down his head,\nAnd 'midst his blind companions with it fell.\n\nWhen thus my guide: \"No more his bed he leaves,\nEre the last angel - trumpet blow. The Power\nAdverse to these shall then in glory come,\nEach one forthwith to his sad tomb repair,\nResume his fleshly vesture and his form,\nAnd hear the eternal doom re - echoing rend\nThe vault.\" So pass'd we through that mixture foul\nOf spirits and rain, with tardy steps; meanwhile\nTouching, though slightly, on the life to come.\nFor thus I question'd: \"Shall these tortures, Sir!\nWhen the great sentence passes, be increased,\nOr mitigated, or as now severe?\"\n\nHe then: \"Consult thy knowledge; that decides,\nThat, as each thing to more perfection grows,\nIt feels more sensibly both good and pain.\nThough ne'er to true perfection may arrive\nThis race accurst, yet nearer then, than now,\nThey shall approach it.\" Compassing that path,\nCircuitous we journey'd; and discourse,\nMuch more than I relate, between us pass'd:\nTill at the point, whence the steps led below,\nArrived, there Plutus, the great foe, we found.",
    "project_translation": false,
    "license": null,
    "methodology_url": null
  }
}