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Welcome to Ascend! We are a weekly Great Books podcast hosted by Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan. What are the Great Books? The Great Books are the most impactful texts that have shaped Western civilization. They include ancients like Homer, Plato, St. Augustine, Dante, and St. Thomas Aquinas, and also moderns like Machiavelli, Locke, and Nietzsche. We will explore the Great Books with the light of the Catholic intellectual tradition. Why should we read the Great Books? Everyone is a disciple of someone. A person may have never read Locke or Nietzsche, but he or she thinks like them. Reading the Great Books allows us to reclaim our intellect and understand the origin of the ideas that shape our world. We enter a "great conversation" amongst the most learned, intelligent humans in history and benefit from their insights. Is this for first-time readers? YES. Our goal is to host meaningful conversations on the Great Books by working through the texts in chronological order in a slow, attentive manner. Our host Adam Minihan is a first-time reader of Homer. We will start shallow and go deep. All are invited to join. Will any resources be available? YES. We are providing a free 115 Question & Answer Guide to the Iliad written by Deacon Harrison Garlick in addition to our weekly conversations. It will be available on the website (launching next week). Go pick up a copy of the Iliad! We look forward to reading Homer with you in 2024.
The frozen heart of hell. Today, Dcn. Harrison Garlick is joined by Mr. Evan Amato to discuss the frozen wastes of the 9th Circle of Hell - the damned guilty of treachery (or complex fraud).
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A few questions from our guide to Dante's Inferno:
78. What happens in the ninth circle of hell: Treachery (Complex Fraud) (Canto 34)?
Pressing onward, Virgil leads the Pilgrim to “Judecca”—named after Judas Iscariot—in which those souls that have betrayed their benefactors or their lords are frozen completely in the ice.[1] The Pilgrim notes the distorted figures, saying: “To me they looked like straws worked into glass.”[2] Finally, the Pilgrim sees the gigantic figure of Satan. The figure of Lucifer, the arch-traitor against his Benefactor and Lord, God, is frozen in the ice to the waist as his six bat-like wings eternally beating—thus, causing the wind that freezes all in the pit of hell.[3] The Pilgrim observes, Satan, who has three faces on his head, “wept from his six eyes, and down three chins were dripping tears mixed with bloody slaver.”[4] Each one of Satan’s faces bears a distinct color—red, yellow, and black—and in each mouth Lucifer “crunched a sinner.”[5] In the mouth of the central red face, Judas, who “suffers most of all,” and is inserted headfirst.[6] The other two souls are inserted legs first and they are Brutus in the black face—“see how he squirms in silent desperation”—and Cassius in the yellow face."[7] Bringing their journey to an end, Virgil, with the Pilgrim on his back, first climbs down the hairy shanks of Satan, and second, after passing the center of the earth, climbs up the legs of Satan.[8] Heading out toward the Mount of Purgatory, the Pilgrim and Virgil exit the earth and behold the stars in the sky.[9]
79. Why does Dante the Poet use ice to describe the bottom of hell?
In Aristotle’s Metaphysics, when he must answer how does the Unmoved Mover move all things if the Unmoved Mover does not move, he answers: love (eros). God is Pure Act, and all things are drawn to him by love—in other words, though unmoved himself, he is the source of all movement in the cosmos. As such, the pit of hell would be the furthest from God; thus, evil, as a type of anti-movement and anti-love finds a poetic home in the imagery of ice. Furthermore, evil is a privation of the good. Evil is not something real but rather something unreal, a lack. Evil is like a hole in the ground or like darkness is to light. Similarly, evil is like cold is the heat. Coldness is not necessarily real per se but is rather the absence of heat. Evil is the absence of good. As such, ice again makes a good image of evil and a fitting pit to a hell structured according to love.
80. Why is the betrayal of family a lesser sin than that of country or political party?
In the ninth circle, we see betrayal of family come before betrayal of a political body or party. Again, one turns to Dante the Poet’s understanding of the common good to order these sins. Things can be ordered according to execution or being. In the order of execution, a chair, for example, would have its parts come first. The leg is made prior to the chair. Here, the family comes before the polis or political body (“state” in modern terms), and would thus seem more important. However, in the order of being, the leg only comes into existence for the sake of the chair—the part for the sake of the whole. Similarly, the family comes into existence for the sake of the polis, and the polis is the common good in which all the parts participate. Without a chair, there is no purpose for the leg. Similarly, no family is autonomous and must participate in the community.
81. How is hell an act of mercy?
No matter how horrific the contrapasso is for a sinner, even Judas, it is a mercy. The finite creature can never truly bear the punishment for its sin against the infinite God. How can the finite make amends for an injustice against an infinite good? The just punishment for rejecting God is not bearable by man. All of hell is tempered by mercy and less than what man deserves for his sin.
[...]
Congrats! You have finished the Inferno.
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If you formed a small group for Lent to read Dante’s Inferno, keep meeting together. Pick a new text, maybe the Iliad, and read it together. Ascend will continue with the Greek plays in first half of 2025 with studies into Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, and we will start to study Plato in the early fall of 2025. We plan to read Dante’s Purgatorio for Lent in 2026. You can read the great books with Ascend!
[1] Musa, 384; the contrapasso of the Ninth Circle of Hell may be, as Musa states, “the gelid abode of those souls in whom all warmth of love for God and for their fellow man has been extinguished.” Musa, 384. It is worth noting that in each region of Cocytus, the sinners are frozen deeper into the ice: in Caina, they are frozen to their waists; in Antenora, they are frozen to the chin; in Tolomea, they are frozen with their faces upward; and in Judecca, they are completely frozen. Also note that Lucifer, the arch-traitor, is the cause of everything being frozen.
[2] XXXIV, 12.
[3] Musa, 384;
[4] XXXIV, 53-4; Musa notes that the three faces are first and foremost another tripart and hellish distortion of the Holy Trinity, see Musa, 384.
[5] XXXIV, 55; for colors, XXXIV, 37-45; Musa adds, “Highest Wisdom would be opposed to ignorance (black), Divine Omnipotence by impotence (yellow), Primal Love by hared or envy (red).” Musa, 385.
[6] XXXIV, 61, cf. 62-3.
[7] XXXIV, 66, cf. 64-9; while Judas betrayed Christ, Brutus and Cassius betrayed Julius Caesar, representing treason against the Church and the State (Empire). See, Musa, 385.
[8] See XXXIV, 79-81; Musa, 385-87.
[9] See Musa, 387.
We finish the 8th Circle of hell! Dcn. Harrison Garlick and Dr. Donald Prudlo of the University of Tulsa discuss pits 8-10 of the 8th Circle of Dante's Inferno (Cantos 26-31). Dr. Prudlo is an incredibly talented Catholic scholar! You'll want to hear what he has to say - especially about Odysseus, Troy, and the Garden of Eden.
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From our guide:
64. What happens in the eighth ditch (Cantos 26-27)?
Overlooking the eighth ditch, the Pilgrim and Virgil view the punishment of those souls King Minos found guilty of deception or evil counsel.[1] The Pilgrim sees columns of flames, and Virgil explains, “there are souls concealed within these moving fires, each one swathed in his burning punishment.”[2] Dante the Pilgrim observes a “flame with its tip split in two,” to which Virgil explains the flame contains the souls of both Ulysses and Diomedes.[3] The contrapasso of the eighth bolgia is that these deceivers burn as tongues of flame just as their tongues in life brought forth pain and destruction.[4] Moving on, the Pilgrim and Virgil meet another soul, Guido da Montefeltro, “a soldier who became a friar in his old age; but he was untrue to his vows when, at the urging of Pope Boniface VIII, he counseled the use of fraud in the pope’s campaign against the Colonna family. He was damned to hell because he failed to repent of his sins, trusting instead in the pope’s fraudulent absolution.”[5] Virgil and the Pilgrim press on, where, coming to the ninth ditch, they see “those who, sowing discord, earned Hell’s wages.”[6]
65. Does fire have a special role in the Inferno?
Given its name, most expect fire to be the normative punishment of the Inferno—but it is not. The question is whether the role fire does play has a special pedagogical purpose. Dr. Prudlo sets forth that fire, especially as seen here as “tongues of fire,” represents an “anti-Pentecostal sin.” Fire plays a role in the punishment of the blasphemers, sodomites, usurers, simonists, and false counselors. Fire, as Dr. Prudlo notes, is the “most noble element in Dante’s world,” and it plays a certain “refined punishment” in the Inferno. It seems to signify a certain “unnatural abuse” within the sin, an “abuse of some special gift that God has given us.” The role of fire in the Inferno merits further consideration.
66. Is there a special relation between Ulysses (Odysseus) and Dante?
Dante the Poet arguably has a certain fondness for Ulysses. As Dr. Prudlo observes: “genius untethered to virtue is one of the most dangerous things that can possibly exist.” Dante the Poet and Ulysses are both geniuses. Yet, Ulysses cannot find rest upon returning to Ithaca—the question for knowledge calls him away from his wife, son, and kingdom to journey out into unknown Ocean. He sails passed the Pillars of Heracles, which mark the boundaries of mortal men, and, upon seeing Mount Purgatory, God strikes his ship and all lives are lost. Dr. Prudlo remarks that where Ulysses attempted to make it to Mount Purgatory despite God, Dante the Pilgrim will make it to Mount Purgatory with God. Ulysses appears as a warning to Dante the Pilgrim—the dangers of genius without virtue.
67. How is the fall of a Troy a secular original sin?
The fall of Troy is the original sin within the Roman mind. As Dr. Prudlo sets forth, for the Romans, the Trojan horse was the deception, the original sin, that led to the fall of Troy. Ulysses, the deceiver, is, as Dr. Prudlo notes, a type of anti-Aeneas. Whereas Aeneas tries to save his family in the fall of Troy, Ulysses abandons his. The escape of Aenaes from Troy to eventually found Rome, as described by Virgil in his Aeneid, is a type of felix culpa or “happy fault” that came about from the fall of Troy. From the fall of Troy, Rome is allowed to rise.
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[1] The sin punished in the eighth bolgia has been traditional thought to be “evil counsel,” but, as the notes below explain, it is probably more likely for the sin to be deception or evil rhetoric. Most notably the souls in the eighth and ninth bolgia are referred to as “like filth,” denoting a special disgust against these sins by Dante the Poet. See Musa, 313-14.
[2] XXVI, 47-8.
[3] XXVI, 52, 55.
[4] cf. Musa, 313-14.
[5] Musa, 315; the fraudulent absolution here is that it was offered before the friar committed the sin. The friar, a victim of fraud, then engages in fraud via deception or evil rhetoric.
[6] XXVII, 136.
Seducers, Flatterers, Sorcerers, and more! Dcn. Harrison Garlick is joined by Noah Tyler, CFO of the Classic Learning Test, and Gabriel Blanchard, a staff writer for CLT, to discuss the first part of the 8th Circle: Simple Fraud (Cantos 18-25).
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Check out our written GUIDE to Dante's Inferno: 80+ Questions and Answer.
FROM THE GUIDE:
53. What happens in the Eighth Circle of Hell: Simple Fraud (Canto 18)
The Eighth Circle of Hell holds the souls of those King Minos found guilty of simple fraud and is composed of “ten stone ravines called Malebolge (Evil Pockets), and across each bolgia is an arching bridge.”[1] Each of the ten bolgias (pits, ditches, pockets, etc.) is filled with souls guilty of a different species of simple fraud: (1) panders and seducers (2) flatters (3) simoniacs (4) sorcerers (5) barrators (6) hypocrites (7) thieves (8) deceivers (9) sowers of discord and (10) falsifiers. Each bolgia in Malebolgia exhibits a different contrapasso.
54. What happens in the first ditch (Canto 18)?
After leaving Geryon, the Pilgrim observes the souls in the first ditch. Here, “two files of naked souls walked on the bottom” with each line walking a different direction.[2] The Pilgrim also notes, “I saw horned devils with enormous whips lashing the backs of shades with cruel delight.”[3] The souls here are pimps or panders in one line and seducers in the other. Notably, Dante the Pilgrim sees Jason the Argonaut suffering amongst the seducers.[4] Notice, however, that these seducers are not those who fell into passion, like Francisca, but rather those who act with malice to deceive others. It is the malice of malevolent nature of these sins that distinguish them from the incontinent sins.
55. What happens in the second ditch (Canto 18)?
Leaving the first bolgia (ditch), the Pilgrim and Virgil come upon the souls of the flatters suffering in the second ditch. The Pilgrim observes, “Now we could hear the shades in the next pouch whimpering, making snorting grunting souls… from a steaming stench below, the banks were coated with a slimy mold that suck to them like glue, disgusting to behold and worse to smell.”[5] Here, grunting in a ditch of excrement, are the flatterers. The contrapasso of the second ditch invites a stark juxtaposition between the honeyed words of flattery and the sordid reality of their deception. The Pilgrim makes this quite evident in his observation of Thais: “that repulsive and disheveled tramp scratching herself with shitty fingernails, spreading her legs while squatting up and down.”[6] Repulsed by Thais, Virgil and the Pilgrim move on. It should be noted, however, that this flattery is a malicious flattery intended to deceive.
56. How is flattery a worst sin than lust, murder, or suicide?
Recall that hell is structured according to three general areas: incontinence, violence, and fraud. Though violence and fraud are malevolent, fraud is worse because it is a greater corruption of the intellect. In general, the corruption of the best is the worst. The higher the angel, the greater the demon it becomes. As such, fraud, for Dante, is the greater than incontinence or violence, because fraud is the corruption of what makes us uniquely human: reason. Truth is the conformity of the mind to reality, and our intellect is an appetite that seeks truth. A person who uses his or her intellect to deceive others uses it for an unnatural purpose. It is a disorder of what is most divine in us. As such, the category of fraud is the worst sin, and within fraud, those who betray natural bonds of love are the worst; therefore, in the ninth circle, we will see fraud against those people held natural bonds of love, e.g., family, country, guests, and benefactors.
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We enter the circle of violence. This week Dcn. Harrison Garlick is joined by Fr. Thomas Esposito, O. Cist., a Cistercian priest who teaches at the University of Dallas, to discuss the seventh circle of Dante's Inferno: (1) violence against neighbor (2) violence against self and (3) violence against God & nature.
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Check out our 80+ Question and Answer Guide to the Inferno.
From the guide:
43. What happens in the Seventh Circle of Hell: Violence Toward Neighbor (Canto 12)?
As Virgil and the Pilgrim press on toward the Seventh Circle of Hell, Virgil explains the topography of hell. The City of Dis marks the transition from upper hell to lower hell, while the Seventh Circle of Hell marks the beginning of the sins of violence (represented by the lion in the dark woods in Canto 1). Virgil explains, “violence can be done to God, to self, or to one’s neighbor.”[1] Next, Virgil explains there are two types of fraud. First, there is the “simple fraud” of the second circle of lower hell, the Eight Circle of Hell overall, in which “hypocrites, flatters, dabblers in sorcery, falsifiers, thieves, and simonists, pander, seducers, grafters, and like filth” are punished.”[2] Second, there is “complex fraud" of the final circle of hell, the Ninth Circle, in which are punished traitors who betrayed the “love Nature enjoys and that extra bond between men which creates a special trust.”[3]
Virgil and the Pilgrim enter into the Seventh Circle of Hell, which is guarded by the Minotaur—a half-man and half-bull creature from classical mythology known for its undying rage.[4] With the Minotaur consumed by its own anger, Virgil and the Pilgrim continue on and come upon a great “river of blood that boils souls of those who through their violence injured others”—known as the Phlegethon.[5] The contrapasso is made more severe by herds of centaurs galloping along the bloody riverbanks and shooting with arrows at “any daring soul emerging above the bloody level of his guilt.”[6]
As the Pilgrim observes, the souls are sunk in a river of blood to a depth commensurate with their violence: the tyrants, such as Alexander, Dionysius, and Attila, who “dealt in bloodshed and plundered wealth” are sunken to their eyelids; the murders who dealt in bloodshed are sunk up to their throats; and the rest of the violent are sunk to various lesser degrees.[7] Musa notes, “the sins of violence are also the Sins of Bestiality,” and the bestial and violent nature of these sins are seen in the theme of half-animal and half-human creatures: the furies on the walls of the City of Dis, the Minotaur whose very enraged existence spawned from an act of bestiality, and the centaurs who were known in classical mythology for violence and rape.[8]
44. What else should be noted about the first area of the seventh circle?
Lower hell is characterized by sins of malice, and Fr. Thomas offered malevolent as another good descriptor of these sins: an evil willing. Fr. Thomas suggested that the Minotaur and the centaurs serve as bridges between incontinence and violence, as, for example, the centaurs are usually violent to satiate an incontinent desire, i.e., lust. Again, what is the distinction between the sin of violence and the sin of wrath? The latter is one of incontinence, while the former is one of malice—and the former is one that has an external action, i.e., harm. Fr. Thomas posits it may also be possible to be violent without being wrathful, i.e., some cold and calculated act of violence not committed out of passion.
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Today, we finish lower hell. Dcn. Harrison Garlick is joined by Dr. Jason Baxter of Benedictine College to discuss cantos 6-11 of Dante's Inferno.
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From our guide:
27. The Third Circle of Hell – Gluttony (Canto 6)
Musa explains the third circle and the contrapasso, “the shades in this circle are the gluttons, and their punishment fits their sin. Gluttony, like all the sins of incontinence, subjects reason to desire; in this case desire is a voracious appetite. Thus, the shades howl like dogs—in desire, without reason; they are sunk in slime, the image of their excess. The warm comfort their gluttony brought them in life here has become cold, dirty rain and hail.”[1] The beast Cerberus—a “three-headed doglike beast”—dwells in the third circle.[2] The beast both represents the sin of gluttony through its own immense appetite and further punishes those shades in the third circle as he “flays and mangles” the shades of that circle.[3] Musa also notes “with his three heads, he appears to be a prefiguration of Lucifer and thus another infernal distortion of the Trinity.”[4] On their way toward the fourth circle, Dante the Pilgrim asks Virgil whether the punishment of the souls in hell will be increased or lessened on the Final Judgment.[5] Virgil explains that the pain of those in hell will be “more perfect” after the Final Judgment, as the souls in hell will be reunited with their bodies after the bodily resurrection.[6]
30. The Fourth Circle of Hell – the Prodigal & Miserly (VII)
As Virgil and the Pilgrim enter into the fourth circle of hell, they are greeted by Plutus (Pluto), the Roman god of wealth, who speaks incoherently and whom Virgil dismisses by calling him “cursed Wolf of hell.”[1] The reference to “wolf” recalls the she-wolf at the beginning and reminds the reader the Pilgrim is still journeying through the circles of sins related to incontinence. Here the Pilgrim sees shades “to the sound of their own screams, straining their chests, they rolled enormous weights, and when they met and clashed against each other… screaming ‘Why hoard?,’ the other side, ‘why waste?’”[2] The Pilgrim sees the contrapasso of the miserly and the prodigal, who, forming two semi-circles, push their heavy weights (symbolizing their material wealth) and shove against each other (as their disordered uses of wealth were opposite).[3] Virgil teaches the Pilgrim about Lady Fortune, who serves as an angel of God determining the fortunes of men and nations.[4] Note that Lady Fortune is often depicted with a wheel, and that this circle of hell resembles a giant broken wheel of the shades that mismanaged their fortune.[5]
34. What happens in the Fifth Circle of Hell: the Wrathful & Slothful (Cantos 7-8)?
Virgil and the Pilgrim leave the broken wheel of the fourth circle and come upon “a swamp that has the name of Styx.”[1] The river Styx, the sordid marsh-like second river of hell, serves as the fifth circle. Here, the Pilgrim sees “muddy people moving in that marsh, all naked, with their faces scarred by rage,” who “fought each other, not with hands alone, but struck with head and chest and feet as well, with teeth they tore each other limb from limb.”[2] These are the wrathful souls, “the souls of those that anger overcame,” who are punished alongside another group of souls who lay face up under the murky surface.[3] The identity of these souls is debated.[4] The souls beneath the surface, “who make the waters bubble at the surface,” say to the Pilgrim: “sluggish we were in the sweet air made happy by the sun, and the some of sloth was smoldering in our hearts; now we lie sluggish here in this black muck.”[5] The best take is that these souls represent slothfulness or acedia; thus, the fifth circle, like the fourth, has two related sins in the same circle: wrath (excess) and acedia (deficient).[6] Virgil and the Pilgrim cross the river Styx with the help of the boatman, Phlegyas, a wrathful son of Mars from Roman mythology.[7] As they cross the river, a wrathful soul rises up and is rebuked by Dante the Pilgrim in stanch contrast to the pity he showed the sinners in the second and third circles.[8] Dante rebuking the sinner and remembering it fondly shows more of an alignment with the Divine Will than pitying them.
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Good work!
Dante approaches the gates of hell! Dcn. Harrison Garlick is joined by Dr. Jennifer Frey, the Dean of the new Honors College at the University of Tulsa, and Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson, the Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University, to discuss cantos 2-5 of Dante's Inferno.
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Check out OUR GUIDE to Dante's Inferno: 80+ Questions and Answers.
13. What happens in the Vestibule of Hell (Cantos 2-3)?
The narrative of the Dark Woods in Canto 1 is arguably the introduction to the entire Divine Comedy, and as such, Canto 2 serves as the introduction to the first volume or canticle, the Inferno.[1] Note that Dante begins the Canto by invoking the Muses, which was common in the “classic epic tradition.”[2] The Canto explains that the Virgin Mary took pity on Dante, and she told Saint Lucia to help him. St. Lucia then asked Beatrice, a soul in heaven who knows Dante, to help Dante; Beatrice then went into hell and asked Virgil to be Dante's guide.[3] Whereas the three beasts of Canto I represent the threefold structure of hell, the three ladies of Canto 2 represent grace.[4] His heart emboldened, Dante and Virgil enter the “deep and rugged road” and arrive at the gate of hell.[5] The inscription of the gate reads:
I AM THE WAY INTO THE DOLEFUL CITY / I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL GRIEF, /
I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN RACE.
JUSTICE IT WAS THAT MOVED MY GREAT CREATOR; / DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE CREATED ME, / AND HIGHEST WISDOM JOINED WITH PRIMAL LOVE.
BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS / WERE MADE, AND I SHALL LAST ETERNALLY. / ABANDON EVERY HOPE, ALL WHO ENTER.[6]
Upon passing through the gates, the Pilgrim hears the “sighs and cries and shrieks of lamentations echo[ing] throughout the starless air of Hell.”[7] Virgil and the Pilgrim enter into the Vestibule of Hell, which is populated by souls who lived a lukewarm life with “no blame and no praise,” and by the angels who at Lucifer's great rebellion remained undecided.[8] Here, Dante the Poet introduces the concept of contrapasso, i.e., “the just punishment of sin, effected by a process either resembling or contrasting with the sin itself.”[9] In the Vestibule, the contrapasso for the souls and angels who lived undecided is to eternally march after a banner.[10] Amongst “great a number,” the Pilgrim sees the shade of the “coward who had made the great refusal.”[11] While there are many interpretations, “perhaps it is most likely that this shade is Pontius Pilate, who refused to pass sentence on Christ.”[12] Virgil and the Pilgrim come to the river Acheron where they are ferried across by the demon Charon—“the boatman of classical mythology who transports the souls of the dead across the Acheron into Hades.”[13] As they cross the Acheron, a mighty wind blows against the Pilgrim and he swoons—a literary device that serves to close a narrative and introduce another.[14]
14. How is Dante the Pilgrim going on a hero’s journey?
The tradition presents many heroes who have adventured down into the underworld and returned, including Heracles, Odysseus, and Aeneas. Dr. Wilson notes that while Dante the Pilgrim will also travel into the underworld, he does not do so as a hero in the classical sense. Dante the Pilgrim is weak and spiritually malformed. He undergoes his journey for the sake of his own formation and spiritual maturation. As Dr. Frey observes, the movement of Providence is evident in these cantos, as everyone is sent: the Blessed Virgin Mary sends St. Lucy, St. Lucy sends Beatrice, and Beatrice sends Virgil. Ultimately, Dante the Pilgrim is sent into hell.
16. Who is Beatrice?
When he was a child, he first saw the young girl Beatrice when she was eight or nine years old. He is said to have fallen in love with her, though it is not clear that he even spoke to her until several years later. When he was a child, Dante was promised in marriage to another, but Beatrice—whom he never seems to have known well—remained his muse. He wrote courtly love poems about her and her beauty. She died in AD 1290. In his Comedy, whereas Virgil represents human reason unaided by grace, Beatrice will represent grace and beauty. Her beauty becomes an icon of God’s beauty calling Dante the Pilgrim’s soul down through hell and up through purgatory. Dante the Pilgrim will have to learn how to allow this love for the beauty of Beatrice to perfect into a love for the beauty of God.
18. What is a contrapasso?
With the lukewarm souls that both heaven and hell reject, the reader is introduced to the concept of the contrapasso. In sum, each punishment of the damned is tailored to their particular sin and this tailoring always has a pedagogical purpose. For example, here the lukewarm, who stood for nothing in life, are forced to march behind a banner for all eternity. The contrapasso reveals something about the nature of the sin punished, which is then catechetical for the reader. Note, as Dr. Frey observed, that the lukewarm are harassed along by insects or rather the source of their movement is external to them. The lukewarm lack the inner capacity to move, just as they did in life.
22. The First Circle of Hell – Limbo (Canto 4)
The Pilgrim awakes, and Virgil leads him into the First Circle of Hell. The Pilgrim hears “the sounds of sighs of untormented grief” of “men and women and of infants.”[18] The circle is known as Limbo and is populated by naturally virtuous non-Christians and by unbaptized infants. As Virgil states: “But their great worth alone was not enough, for they did not know Baptism, which is the gateway to the faith you follow.”[19] The contrapasso of Limbo is that the virtuous souls live out eternity in a paradise devoid of the Beatific Vision. Like themselves, it is naturally good but lacks the grace of God.
Dante the Poet equates Limbo with Sheol or Abraham's Bosom in the Old Testament; thus, Virgil tells him of “a mighty lord” who entered Limbo—Christ's Harrowing of Hell—and liberated Adam, Abel, Noah, Moses, Abram, David, Israel, Rachel, and “many more he chose for blessedness.”[20] Dante sees many famous Greek and Roman poets in Limbo, which in turn greet Dante as a fellow poet.[21] The Pilgrim approaches a castle in Limbo and “the inhabitants of the great castle are important pagan philosophers and poets, as well as famous warriors.”[22] Most notably, the Pilgrim sees Aristotle, the “master sage,” to whom “all pay their homage.”[23] He is sitting with his “philosophy family” with Socrates on one side and Plato on the other.[24] For Dante the Poet, “Aristotle represented the summit of human reason, that point that man could reach on his own without the benefit of Christian revelation.”[25] In fact, “with the exception of the Bible, Dante draws most often from Aristotle.”[26] Virgil and the Pilgrim leave the great castle and approach the “place where no light is.”[27]
25. The Second Circle of Hell – Lust (V)
Virgil and the Pilgrim come upon King Minos, the judge of Hell. In classical literature, King Minos “was the son of Zeus and Europa” and “as the king of Crete he was revered for his wisdom and judicial gifts.”[28] In Virgil's Aeneid, King Minos serves as the “chief magistrate of the underworld,” and Dante the Poet retains this classic notion; however, in the Inferno, King Minos has certain bestial qualities, most notably a tail, which, after the “evil soul appears before him, it confesses all,” wraps around himself and throws them in the corresponding circle of hell.[29] For example, King Minos would wrap his tail twice around himself for a shade condemned to the second circle of hell.
Virgil and the Pilgrim continue and come upon an “infernal storm, eternal in its rage” blowing thousands of souls around in the wind.[30] The contrapasso of the lustful souls who “make reason slave to appetite” is to be blown around and battered by a great wind—just as they allowed their reason to be blown around by their passions.[31] Here, the Pilgrim sees Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, Paris, Tristan, and others.[32] The Pilgrim speaks to two souls buffeted by the winds: Francesca da Rimini and Paolo. It is in the Second Circle of Hell that Dante the Pilgrim’s pity is shown as disordered and contrary to the Divine Will, as he falls prey to the rhetoric of Francesca.[33] As she tells the story of her life that led her to the Second Circle of Hell, the Pilgrim is moved toward pity: “Francesca, the torment that you suffer brings painful tears of pity to my eyes.”[34] The Pilgrim's journey through hell will have several such encounters in which the Pilgrim will need to discern the true nature of sin and comprehend the divine justice that placed the soul there.
[1] Id., 77-9. Canto 1 as an introduction to the whole Comedy is further evidenced by the fact the Inferno as 34 cantos, while Purgatorio and Paradiso have 33 each. The extra canto in the Inferno is an introduction to the whole. Dr. Wilson also noted that canto 1 is the introduction of Dante the Pilgrim, while canto 2 is the introduction of Dante the Poet.
[2] Id., 84, noting that similar invocations will be made at the beginning of the Purgatory and the Paradise.
[3] The Blessed Mother taking “pity” on Dante begins a “major motif of the Inferno,” which plays an important part in the “education of the Pilgrim.” Musa, 83, ln. 5.
[4] Id., 85-6.
[5] Canto II, ln. 142.
[6] Canto III, lns. 1-9. Note the inscription above the gate mentions omnipotence, wisdom, and love—a triad formula that has been interpreted as “the gate of Hell was created by the Trinity moved by Justice.” Musa, 93, ln. 5-6. Dr. Frey and Dr. Wilson note that “through me” not “I am” is a better translation.
[7] Canto III, ln. 22-3.
[8] Canto III, ln. 36, see also 40-42 on angels.
[9] Musa, 94, ln. 52-69.
[10] Id., Canto III, lns. 52-57. The belief that there were neutral angels that would not choose to follow God or Satan seems to be a narrative of Dante’s own invention.
[11] Canto III, ln. 60.
[12] Musa, 95, ln. 60.
[13] Canto III, lns. 78, 94; Musa, 95.
[14] Musa, 96, ln. 136.
[15] See Esolen, 423-24.
[16] Esolen, 19.
[17] Esolen, canto 3, ln. 103.
[18] Canto IV, lns. 28, 30.
[19] Canto IV, lns. 34-6.
[20] Canto IV, lns. 52-63.
[21] Musa, 103, lns 91-93.
[22] Musa, 204; lns. 112-44; along with virtuous Greek and Romans, Dante includes three virtuous medieval Muslims, i.e., the warrior Saladin, and two Islamic commentators on Aristotle: Avicenna and Averroes. See Musa, 106-108.
[23] Canto IV, lns. 130-35.
[24] Canto IV, lns. 132, 134.
[25] Musa, 106; ln. 131.
[26] Id.
[27] Canto IV, ln. 150.
[28] Musa, 114-15, ln. 4.
[29] Canto V, lns. 4-12.
[30] Canto V, lns. 31-33.
[31] Canto V, lns. 31-39.
[32] Canto V, lns. 55-69.
[33] Musa, 114. Dr. Wilson makes a comparison between Paolo and Francesca reading a book and falling into lust, with St. Augustine taking up and reading Scripture to be delivered from lust in the Confessions. Similarly, Dr. Frey posits that Dante the Poet could be acknowledging that poetry can lead people into sin, especially the courtly love poetry popular at the time. Possible Dante the Pilgrim fainting is him realizing his courtly love poetry could lead to a soul being condemned for all eternity.
[34] Canto V, lns. 116-17; in the fourth circle, see Dante's pity for Ciacco (Musa, 126, ln. 59); Francesca is in hell for lust, for seduction, and in telling her tale, she seduces Dante the Pilgrim. She is still practicing the sin for which she was condemned.
We are reading the Inferno together! Dcn. Harrison Garlick is joined by Dr. Jeremy Holmes of Wyoming Catholic College to give an introduction to Dante's Inferno and discuss the first canto.
Visit thegreatbookspodcast.com for more information.
Reading Schedule for Lent 2025:
Introduction & the Dark Woods
1. Intro & Canto 1 (3.4.25) with Dr. Jeremy Holmes (Wyoming Catholic)
Vestibule of Hell, Limbo & Lust
2. Cantos 2-5 (3.11.25) with Dr. Jennifer Frey (TU) and Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson (Pepperdine).
Gluttony, Spendthrift/Hoarders, Wrathful/Acedia & Heretics
3. Cantos 6-11 (3.18.25) with Dr. Jason Baxter of Benedictine College.
Violence: Against Neighbor, Self & God
4. Cantos 12-17 (3.25.25) with Fr. Thomas Esposito, O. Cist., of the University of Dallas.
Simple Fraud: Pits 1-7
5. Cantos 18-25 (4.1.25) with Noah Tyler, CFO of CLT, and Gabriel Blanchard, Staff Writer for CLT.
Simple Fraud: Pits 8-10
6. Cantos 26-31 (4.8.25) with Dr. Donald Prudlo (TU)
Complex Fraud: The Traitors
7. Cantos 32-34 (4.15.25) with Evan Amato.
Questions from our Reader's Guide:
What is the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri?
The Divine Comedy (or the Comedy as Dante called it) tells the story of Dante the Pilgrim’s penitential journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven in three volumes or canticles: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. It is called a comedy in the classical sense of ending well, as opposed to tragedy which ends poorly. Dante the Poet masterfully weaves together Holy Scripture, Greco-Roman mythology, Aristotle, Roman history, St. Thomas Aquinas, and more to present the reader an excellent map of the human soul and its loves. “It is the Summa Theologiae in poetry,” says Dr. Prudlo, “and I think it's one of the greatest, greatest achievements, single achievements by a human being that's ever been attained.”
What is the Inferno?
The Inferno tells of Dante’s pilgrimage through hell alongside his pagan guide, the Roman poet Virgil. The Inferno is less an eschatological treatise attempting to explain the actual geography of hell and more a moral tale on the reality of human desire and the soul. It not a mystical vision akin to St. John’s Revelation or the ecstasies of St. Teresa of Avila. As such, Dante the Poet will place mythological characters in hell, like the three-headed dog Cerberus or the Roman god of the underworld, Pluto. The purpose is not literal but pedagogical. In a similar fashion, the placement of a soul in hell, like a Pope Nicholas III or Helen of Troy, is not a eschatological claim of who is actually in hell but a moral one. Everything in the Inferno is intended to instruct us in virtue and the proper rectitude of the soul.
Why should we read Dante’s Inferno?
The Inferno is an invitation to examine your soul. Dante the Poet is a master of the soul and its loves. He tears away the acceptable veneer on human desire and exposes the ugly reality of sin and its transformative effect upon the human soul into something imploded and bestial. And Dante the Poet invites the reader to contemplate his or her soul and its loves within an ordered whole. As stated, the Divine Comedy is St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae is poetic form, and Dante the Poet weaves together Holy Scripture, Aristotle, mythology, astronomy, and more into one intelligible cosmos. Reality is intelligible and holds lessons for our sanctification and salvation. We are invited to become students of our own souls by understanding a hell structured around love, the horror of sin, and the ugliness of evil. Dante wants to save your soul, as Dr. Holmes notes. We join ourselves to Dante the Pilgrim, an analogue of humanity, and mature with him throughout his penitential journey.
You can read Dante's Inferno with Ascend!
Dcn. Harrison Garlick is joined by Dr. Frank Grabowski and Mr. Thomas Lackey to discuss the end of the Oresteia, the second part of the Eumenides.
Check out thegreatbookspodcast.com.
Check out our guide to the Oresteia.
The first half of the Eumenides demonstrates Aeschylus’ ability to dramatize philosophical questions. The old system of justice, bound to the Furies’ blood-soaked vengeance, has proven incomplete. The Olympian purity rituals are not a sufficient answer either.
Athena’s brilliance is found in pushing the concept of justice forward into a more dispassionate, procedural affair while also discovering how to incorporate the ancient powers. As Lackey notes, “Justice here becomes communal—rooted in reason but enriched by tradition.” The second half of the Eumenides promises a trial that will decide not only Orestes’ fate but that of justice itself.
The second half of Eumenides begins with a dramatic shift in scene. Athena elects to conduct the trial at the Areopagus also known as the “Crag of Ares” or the “Hill of Ares.” It is a mythical place of justice, as it bears its name from when Ares was accused of murder and tried there by the gods. It is a place of divine judgment. It was also said to be an ancient place of council for the Athenians. As such, Aeschylus bridges mythology and Athenian politics to create a new myth on the maturation of justice.
Overall, the trial allows Aeschylus to bring the contrasts he’s been making throughout the Oresteia into explicit dialogue. The trial begins, and Apollo serves as an advocate for Orestes (582). One wonders whether Agamemnon is helping his son as well (604).
Notice the questions from the Furies are reductive and without nuance (591). The Furies again do not recognize the murder of a spouse as meriting their vengeance (611). Apollo appeals to the authority and power of Zeus (626), and one wonders whether justice here is reducible to the will of he who has the most power. The Furies makes the clever argument that even Zeus shackled his own father, Cronos (648), and Apollo retorts that Cronos could be unchained—he was not murdered (655).
Next up we are reading Dante's Inferno for Lent!
Then we'll return to the Greek plays to read Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus.
Dcn. Harrison Garlick is once again joined by Dr. Frank Grabowski and Mr. Thomas Lackey to discuss the first part of the Eumenides, the third play in Aeschylus' Oresteia.
Check out thegreatbookspodcast.com for more information.
Check out our written guide to the Oresteia.
The final play of Aeschylus’ Oresteia, The Eumenides, sets forth the transformation of justice from the familial mechanics of the blood avenger to a more mature procedural justice set within the polis. It is a story of civilizational maturation. Whereas Agamemnon and the Libation Bearers dealt with the house of Atreus, the Eumenides deals with Athens—a movement from family to polis in consideration of justice.
The first half of the Eumenides establishes the groundwork for the plays central conflict: the trial of Orestes with the Furies and Apollo vying against each under with Athena as the judge. The play seeks to find a resolution between two warring worldviews: the more primordial justice of the Furies and the more rational Olympian sensibilities represented by Apollo. What is brought forth by Athena is a new answer to the question: what is justice? To the degree her answer is new, however, is a topic to discuss.
Lean more by checking out our guide!
Dcn. Harrison Garlick, Mr. Thomas Lackey, and the Adam Minihan come together to discuss the second part of the Libation Bearers, the second play in Aeschylus' Oresteia.
Visit thegreatbookspodcast.com for guides and more information.
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The second half of the Libation Bearers moves decisively toward the climax of Orestes’ role as blood avenger, culminating in the deaths of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. He will enact the justice that is demanded, and in turn be guilty of murdering his own blood—his mother. As Adam observed, “Orestes is both hero and victim.” This tangled question of justice—whether Orestes can fulfill his father’s demand without succumbing to his mother’s curse—creates the tension from which Aeschylus will bring forth a narrative not in Homer—the third part of the triad, the Eumenides.
I. Orestes’ Plan: Vengeance Under the Guise of Guest Friendship (634)
Orestes arrives at the house of his father disguised as a stranger (634). Notice, however, that the dynamics of xenia in this scene are subtly off-kilter from the start. First, no one is answering the door (636). Second, the porter asks the stranger for his name (639), an immediate breach of Homeric norms in the Iliad and Odyssey where hospitality was always extended before the host asks who the guest is. The cultural norm of guest-friendship being poorly shown by the house of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus is a subtle sign that the house is disordered and unhealthy. Like Odysseus, Aeschylus has Orestes come home in disguise and lie about his identity (556). Thomas noted the complexity and methodical planning of Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon juxtaposed with the simplicity of Orestes’ plan of revenge.
A key part of this deception is his claim that he, Orestes, has died, a declaration that seems unnecessary for his mission (665). Why does Orestes tell them he’s dead? One answer could be another parallel Aeschylus is making with the Odyssey: like Odysseus the beggar testing the loyalty of those in Ithaca prior to his reveal, so too is Orestes using news of his death to test those in the palace at Argos. In other words, he can observe who shows true despair at the news of his death—those are his friends in this mission of vengeance.
Check out our written guide for more information!
Amanda is a wife. A mother. A blogger. A Christian.
A charming, beautiful, bubbly, young woman who lives life to the fullest.
But Amanda is dying, with a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know.
She starts a blog detailing her cancer journey, and becomes an inspiration, touching and
captivating her local community as well as followers all over the world.
Until one day investigative producer Nancy gets an anonymous tip telling her to look at Amanda’s
blog, setting Nancy on an unimaginable road to uncover Amanda’s secret.
Award winning journalist Charlie Webster explores this unbelievable and bizarre, but
all-too-real tale, of a woman from San Jose, California whose secret ripped a family apart and
left a community in shock.
Scamanda is the true story of a woman whose own words held the key to her secret.
New episodes every Monday.
Follow Scamanda on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Amanda’s blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horn.
