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Corey Gruber's avatar

So much to ponder in Canto VI.

One fascinating aspect of Dante’s political thinking is how it’s driven by civil strife. He was a participant and victim — as is anyone subject to the poisonous brew of “envy, pride and avariciousness.” The Alexandrian historian Appian said about the Roman Civil Wars: “It is a story worth the attention of any who wish to contemplate limitless human ambition, terrible lust for power, indefatigable patience, and evil in ten thousands shapes.” Dante had rich inspiration for his “ten thousand evil shapes,” and the political commentary in the Divine Comedy, given the unnatural, irrational, sinful, wicked and devilish political strife of Florence. The city, beset by civil strife, is reproducing the selva obscura (dark wood) Dante first tried to elude.

The parallel between Dante and John Milton (“Paradise Lost”) is striking. Both lived in turbulent times (Dante and the *cosmic-level* disorder of Florence), and Milton during the English Civil War. They were both personally invested — and lost so much. As a result, both their works reflect an intense examination of issues such as justice, authority, divine order, righteousness, betrayal, alienation, and disillusionment. Dante is much more explicit in castigating transgressors than Milton’s oblique approach, but both take a hammer to instigators that revel in human disorder over divine order. The contrast is profound — Florence, as Augustine’s City of Man, with its factions and fratricide and systematic organization of hatreds, or his Civitas Dei, the City of God, heavenly, eternal, and rooted in divine love.

Ciacco’s “Dispatches from the future” set the despairing tone for this Canto, and that tone is amplified by the cacophony surrounding the pilgrim — the relentless frenzy and incoherent clamor — in contrast to Francesca’s sighing lilt in Canto V. In V we learned about the disruptive quality of desire — and now it’s magnified in the insatiable appetite of gluttony. The choice is stark — be consumed by mindless desire, be devoured by glutinous beasts, or partake of the ultimate banquet: Jesus giving the bread and wine to His disciples: “This is my body…this is my blood…”

To the question of what form our own city in Hell would take: The comedian in me says the “Department of Motor Vehicles,” but the historian says Saint Augustine’s Hippo, on the edge of chaos: ““When the Vandals were hammering at the gates of Hippo, Augustine’s city, the groans of the dying defenders on the wall mingled with the roar of the spectators in the circus, more concerned with their daily entertainment than with even their ultimate personal safety.” (Lewis Mumford, “The History of the City,” 1961)

Four short observations (I’m hoping for bonus points):

Cerberus: Dog, or “doglike?” Most importantly, its three-headedness foreshadows the three-headed Lucifer — both are anti-Trinitarian monsters devouring humans.

The “City as a Body” brings the Fable of Menenius to mind.

The “two men” — have variously been interpreted as historical figures, as symbolizing the moral and political decay of the city (“best we can do is two”), or as justice and righteousness.

The fate of the Florence elites illustrates the distance between the human perspective (the Pilgrim’s) and the judgment we make as humans, and the divine judgment on the dealings and doings of famous people — the discrepancy between their “reputation” on earth where they are judged one way, and then the real and final judgment of worth and value.

I’ll crosspost this to the thread, too.

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Susan Scheid's avatar

There is, as always, a surfeit of brilliant commentary and helpful information here. I agree, too, that it is good to be careful about engaging in what historians call “presentism,” and I want to offer a cautionary note on the issue of obesity.

There is a wealth of information available to demonstrate that the causes of obesity in the US, where I live, are much more subtle and multi-dimensional than personal gluttony can possibly encompass. For example, studies like this one show a high correlation of obesity with poverty: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3198075/#:~:text=In%20contrast%20to%20international%20trends,145%25%20greater%20than%20wealthy%20counties.

If we ascribe obesity to gluttony, we are in danger of blaming individuals for circumstances not in their control. As this article notes in conclusion: “Halting U.S. diabesity epidemic and curtailing its health cost may necessitate addressing poverty.” The gluttons in wealthy countries like the US are not the poor, but wealthier individuals who have no concern for or willingness to address the plight of the poor.

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