How to Avoid Mental Confusion in a World of Infinite Knowledge

(Inferno, Canto XXXI): Lessons from Giants, Towers, and the Limits of Language

“He asked me several things, but I couldn't answer, indeed I didn't even understand his questions. So I said: 'Perhaps you are sorry now that you invited me, so I'd better go,' and I was about to get up. But he stretched his hand out over the table and pressed me down. 'Stay,' he said, 'that was only a test. He who does not answer the questions has passed the test.'”

~ Franz Kafka’s Parables and Paradoxes

Welcome to Dante Read-Along! 🌒

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Welcome to Dante Book Club, where you and I descend into Hell and Purgatory to be able to ascend to Paradise. Our guide is the great Roman poet Virgil and in this Thirty-first Canto we approach the Ninth Circle and encounter the giants. You can find the main page of the read-along right here, reading schedule here, the list of characters here (coming soon), and the list of chat threads here.

In each post you can find a brief summary of the canto, philosophical exercises that you can draw from it, themes, character, and symbolism explanations.

All the wonderful illustrations are done specially for the Dante Read-Along by the one and only Luana Montebello.

This Week’s Circle ⭕️

Moving from the Eighth Circle to the pit of the Ninth - Dante sees what he thinks are great towers in the distance - The giants circling round the pit of the Ninth Circle - Nimrod, Ephialtes, and Antaeus - Antaeus places Dante and Virgil into the Ninth Circle

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The Giant by Francisco Goya

Canto XXXI Summary:

Dante remembers the last words that Virgil spoke to him at the end of Canto XXX when he rebuked him for becoming drawn into the arguments between Adamo, the coiner, and Sinon, the liar. Those words were like the legend of Achilles lance — Achilles, the Greek warrior of the Iliad whose father was Peleus and whose mother was the sea nymph Thetis. His lance had the power to heal the wound just inflicted, just as Virgil's words of remedy have soothed Dante.

The hand that gave the wound will now bring aid.
the same soil nurtures healing herbs and harmful,
the nettle's often neighbour to the rose.
Achilles' spear that once had wounded Telephus
gave succour to the wound and cured his woes.
Ovid, Remedia Amoris 44-48

As they make their way from the banks of the Eighth Circle, they approach the edge of the Ninth and last circle. There was a strange twilight to the air:

Here it was less than night and less than day,
so that my sight could only move ahead
slightly, but then I heard a bugle blast

so strong, it would have made a thunder clap
seem faint; at this, my eyes-which doubled back
upon their path-turned fully toward one place.
XXXI.10-15

So intense was this bugle call that it put to shame the horn of Roland - the chivalric hero from the eleventh century French epic poem the Song of Roland, as he called for aid from Charlamagne in the battle of Roncesvalles with the horn called Olifant:

Roland has set Olifant to his lips,
Firmly he holds it and blows it with a will.
High are the mountains, the blast is long and shrill,
Thirty great leagues the sound went echoing.
King Carlon heard it and all who rode with him.
Song of Roland 133

Looking in that direction, Dante saw what he thought were the towers of a city, and asks Virgil to explain; but things are not as they seem:

And he to me: “It is because you try
to penetrate from far into these shadows
that you have formed such faulty images.

When you have reached that place, you shall see clearly
how much the distance has deceived your sense;
and therefore, let this spur you on your way.”
XXXI.22-27

What Dante thought were towers are in fact massive giants, so arranged in a circle around the rim of the pit that they resemble the towers circling the fortified walls of the castle of Montereggioni. Half of their bodies were visible above the rim, and they still - as certain of them did in the battle on the plains of Phlegra - felt threatened by the thunder of Zeus, who had overthrown them in battle.

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. Genesis 6:4

Federico Zucchari - Dante and Virgil Meeting the Giants

The first giant they encounter is Nimrod, he who “was a mighty hunter before the Lord” (Gen 10:9). His gigantic stature is such that Dante compares his measurements both to the bronze statue of St. Peter’s pine cone in Rome — making his face alone 7 ½ feet high — and to the Frisians, a notoriously tall group of people from Northern Netherlands. From neck to waist he was thirty spans, with estimates of his total height based on Dante’s examples ranging from 20-27 meters tall. Nimrod cried out:

“Raphèl maì amècche zabì almi,”
began to bellow that brute mouth, for which
no sweeter psalms would be appropriate.
XXXI.67-69

These words have been debated as to their meaning by commentators in every generation; however Dante has Virgil tell us that finding their meaning is in vain:

Leave him alone-let’s not waste time in talk;
for every language is to him the same
as his to others-no one knows his tongue.
XXXI.79-81

Virgil rebukes Nimrod, and tells him to use his horn rather than his confused speech when he needs to take out his anger. The reason behind this confused speech stems from the biblical account of the Tower of Babel; while that rendering does not indicate Nimrod as a giant, he is attributed as such by St. Augustine, who was Dante’s source.

This city, which was called Confusion, is the same as Babylon, whose wonderful construction Gentile history also notices. For Babylon means Confusion…[and] we conclude that the giant Nimrod was its founder.
St. Augustine De civitate Dei XVI.4

They come upon the second giant, larger and fiercer than Nimrod, arms pinned and his body chained: this was Ephialtes. He and his twin brother Otus were known as the Aloidae after their human father Aloeus, although their true father was Neptune. The brothers, in their strength, stacked the mountains Pelion and Ossa atop each other in their attempt to make war upon the gods of Olympus. Virgil places them in Tartarus:

Here I have seen Aloeus’s twins. Their bodies are monstrous.
They, bare-handed, attacked and attempted to tear down the vast sky’s
vault, to cast Jupiter down from his realms up above in the heavens
Virgil Aeneid VI.582-584

A giant that Dante wants to see is Briareus - also known as Aegaeon - another famously massive giant who battled against the Olympian gods, yet Virgil turns his attention to Antaeus instead. Virgil describes Briareus in the Aeneid thus:

Aegaeon, they say, had a hundred
arms and a hundred hands, all either clashing their matching
shields or unsheathing swords. He had fifty chests from which fifty
mouths flared fire that day when he fought against Jupiter’s lightning.
Virgil Aeneid X.566-569

Virgil’s description of Briareus is counter to Dante’s depiction of him as human in shape. Some have pointed to this small exchange as Dante’s way of contradicting Virgil’s description of him, when he has Virgil say of Briareus, almost dismissively:

The one you wish to see lies far beyond
and is bound up and just as huge as this one,
and even more ferocious in his gaze.
XXXI.103-105

While Virgil points out Antaeus instead, he describes Briareus as looking just like Ephialtes; that is, not with the hundred arms and fifty heads as Virgil described him in the Aeneid.

No earthquake ever was so violent
when called to shake a tower so robust,
as Ephialtes quick to shake himself.

Then I was more afraid of death than ever;
that fear would have been quite enough to kill me,
had I not seen how he was held by chains.
XXXI.106-111

Leaving Ephialtes, they arrive at Antaeus, the mighty giant who was the son of Earth and Neptune, and invincible as long as he was in contact with his mother Earth. Hercules fought with Antaeus while on the journey for his eleventh labor - stealing the golden apples of the Hesperides - and in order to best him, Hercules lifted him from the ground - his mother - and was able to crush him to death. Antaeus is the unbound giant in the Ninth Circle, as he did not engage like the others in the battles of the gods of Olympus

She crowned the vast strength of her child with this gift, that his limbs, whenever they touched their mother, recovered from weariness and renewed their strength. Yonder cave was his dwelling; men say that he hid beneath the towering cliff and feasted on the lions he had carried off; when he slept, no skins of wild beasts made him a bed, nor did the trees supply him with bedding; but his custom was to lie on the bare earth and so recover strength. He slew the tillers of the Libyan fields; he slew the strangers whom the sea brought to the shore; and for long, in his might, he spurned his mother’s aid and never availed himself of the help that falling gave; so strong was he that even when he stood upright none could overcome him.
Lucan Pharsalia IV.593-609

Virgil asks, using flattery by naming his many attributes, if he may put them down into the next level, the Ninth Circle and the frozen lake of Cocytus, the fifth and final waterway of the Underworld - although in Dante, it is a lake of ice rather than a river.

Virgil tells Antaeus that they prefer not to go to other giants for this favor, such as Tityus or Typhon. Virgil makes clear through his words that he thinks Antaeus is stronger than these two together, and that as a benefit, Dante can immortalize him in his poetry if he grants their request.

The Titans Tityus and Typhon were respectively the giant who was killed by the twins Apollo and Diana for attempting to violate their mother Leto, and the Titan who was defeated by Jupiter in the storming of Olympus, for which Jupiter placed him under Mt. Aetna: when the volcano erupted, it was the result of Typhon trying to free himself from his bondage.

So said my master; and in haste Antaeus
stretched out his hands, whose massive grip had once
been felt by Hercules, and grasped my guide.

And Virgil, when he felt himself caught up,
called out to me: “Come here, so I can hold you,”
then made one bundle of himself and me.
XXXI 130-135

Antaeus, looking from Dante’s perspective like the leaning tower at Garisenda, bent down to receive them into his mighty hands, and placed them gently into the well of the very deepest pit of hell; like Geryon flying Virgil and Dante down from the Seventh to the Eighth circle,¹ returns back to his standing position, leaving the poet and the pilgrim in the realm where Lucifer and Judas dwell.

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💭 Philosophical Exercises:

“If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted.”

~ Franz Kafka

The Tower of Babel by Peter Brueghel the Elder

I’d only turned my head there briefly when
I seemed to make out many high towers; then
I asked him: “Master, tell me, what’s this city?”

…

Just as, whenever mists begin to thin,
when, gradually, vision finds the form
that in the vapor—thickened air was hidden,

so I pierced through the dense and darkened fog;
as I drew always nearer to the shore,
my error fled from me, my terror grew;

(lines 19-21 and then 34-39)

Why does Dante hide deep meanings in plain sight? Why does he want us to decipher his genius? Why not convey wisdom directly and openly?

I believe Dante does this because when a reader deciphers Dante’s hidden wisdom he understands it, and hence makes wisdom his own. You can explain wise ideas to someone fruitlessly for months, years, even decades; a teacher may try to teach, but it is the student who must be ready to understand.

We need to begin our deciphering with the first verses of this canto. At the start, Dante sees what appears to him as “many high towers.” I would like to invite my reader to pause and recall the ugliest building they have ever seen, a structure so architecturally offensive that it left a lasting impression.

Why do you think the building you just visualised was built in the first place?

In my experience, many of the ugliest, most soulless buildings I have seen were offices, perhaps, yours is one of them. Yet I must admit: buildings that are offensive not only to our eyes but to our hearts are not raised merely for utilitarian purposes.

Ugly structures rise in our cities because our souls, our societies, and our ways of life have become corrupt, meaningless, and empty.

‘We shape our buildings and then our buildings shape us’ said Winston Churchill. So, when Dante first sees, what seems to him towers, he also sees symbols of corruption and decaying societies, because towers in the cities represented power rivalries, desire of domination, and particularly pride.²

Virgil answers Dante’s question by saying:

And he to me: “It is because you try
to penetrate from far into these shadows
that you have formed such faulty images.

When you have reached that place, you shall see clearly
how much the distance has deceived your sense;
and, therefore, let this spur you on your way.”

“…how much the distance has deceived your sense” - I believe the word distance here carries a dual meaning.

High towers and ugly buildings do not rise by themselves; nature is capable of growing beautiful flowers and magnificent trees, but it is we humans who build prideful towers and soulless structures.

When Virgil says ‘the distance has deceived your sense’, I believe he tells Dante: “You see high towers, but tune in your senses, for behind every high tower there is a prideful architect.”

And, of course, once Dante tunes his senses following Virgil’s instruction, they approach and meet one giant prideful soul, whom we all know…

What does the Tower of Babel called ‘Babel’?

Behind the famous tower, beautifully depicted by Brueghel, stood the tyrant King Nimrod, whom Dante and Virgil meet here as a chained giant.

But what I want to draw my reader’s attention to is not Nimrod’s character, which represents prideful rebellion against God, but the result that his grand project brought upon humanity.

I want to do this because I believe this story is often misinterpreted and is a key to understanding this canto.

The way this story was presented to me - both by people in life and in lectures across the internet - was this: God punished prideful humans, who thought they could equal Him, by making them speak different languages, and thus confused them.

‘Different languages,’ in turn, are often misinterpreted as if one group of people speaks Russian, another Mandarin, another Arabic, and so on, therefore, nobody can understand each other.³

But when we look at Dante’s interpretation, we can clearly see that by ‘languages’ he means something different, an idea expressed brilliantly in a separate work by one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Wittgenstein believed that we speak different languages; of course, there are languages as we traditionally understand them, like German or English, but there are also languages of science, of art, of nature. Science is as much a language through which we understand the world as English or German are.⁴

The construction of the Tower of Babel descended into chaos because humans, in their attempt to grasp the complexity of God, and thus equal Him, became confused and could no longer understand one another. It is much like how a theologian and a physicist often fail to understand each other: though they both seek to explain the world, they speak entirely different languages, shaped by distinct ways of seeing and interpreting reality.

Thus, the true meaning behind the word Babel is confusion. Yet what we witness in the giants is something far worse than mere disagreements or the natural confusion of views that a philosopher, a poet, and a physicist might encounter when discussing a grand topic.

There is a reason why Dante portrays giants Nimrod, Ephialtes, Briareus and Antaeus as giants, not as sinners of the same height as the sinners we have met before. This is when we must look at first philosophical exercise…

Philosophical Exercise: How to Heal a Confused Mind

My reader must remember Plutus, the beast and guardian of Canto VII, in the fourth circle where we found the hoarders and the wasters. You may recall that Plutus, too, could not speak properly and only uttered gibberish.⁵

Nimrod, in this canto, utters a similar kind of gibberish; but unlike Plutus, who could not speak but did understand Virgil, none of the giants - except for Antaeus - can understand or use proper speech.

Their prideful minds, in trying to seize everything, reached too far and attempted to grasp the totality of knowledge without understanding their own limits. That is why their end is not mastery, but incoherence - like Nimrod, like Ephialtes, like Briareus. They lose even their ability to speak.

“The limits of my language are the limits of my world,” said Wittgenstein. When finite mortals attempt to seize infinite truths, they stretch their minds beyond their natural bounds — and in doing so, they lose the very ability to articulate themselves.

How does this apply to us - finite and mortal beings?

There is a reason why thinkers like Simone Weil and others devoted vast parts of their work to understanding the nature of attention and focus. Mastering one’s focus is the key to leading a meaningful life. In Dante’s worldview, only an infinite God can read all the books in existence; a prideful, finite giant would attempt the same and become lost. A mortal being would need a thousand lifetimes just to read the greatest books ever written.

Thus, you and I, each time we choose which book to read next, must also remember that by making that choice, we are also deciding what we will leave unread. An unfocused life leads us, like the giants, into a state of confusion, speaking in gibberish; a focused life, however, leads to mastery of thought, to a meaningful existence, and to humility.

(More on why giants are giant in the next section)

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This Week’s Sinners and Virtuous 🎭

(Themes, Quotes, Terms and Characters)

Achilles’s Lance: The difference between slave and master morality

In parallel with Dante’s masterpiece, I am reading Tom Holland’s history of the Persian Empire. There is a chapter on Sparta and its methods of educating citizens that particularly fascinated me. The Spartans believed that a whip could teach a Spartan discipline and nobility, while the very same whip would teach a slave only obedience and servility. The same tool, the same pain - yet two entirely different results, depending on the state of mind.

This is where Achilles’s lance enters the picture. The same lance that inflicted a wound with its first strike could heal it with the second. What injures us often carries within itself the medicine that can heal us.

Why Giants are giant?

In the previous post, I mentioned that Dante’s hierarchy of sin is structured so that in every sinner we can witness a fragment of the sinners who came before them. Giants are depicted here in their enormous size - leaving Dante speechless - because they represent a corruption far greater than mere individual failing. Ulysses is not portrayed as a giant because his influence was limited, whereas within Nimrod there lives a part of Ulysses, as well as a part of every other sinner we have encountered before.

Antaeus: The giant who cannot speak but can understand

It is with the help of a giant that Dante and Virgil descend to the lowest depths of Inferno, but who is Antaeus and why is he privileged enough to be able to understand speech?

Antaeus, in contrast to the other giants who rebelled through pride of mind, retains the ability to understand speech, for his transgression was purely physical. Known for his brute strength, Antaeus was ultimately defeated by Heracles, a reminder that raw power, though formidable, does not descend into the same confusion as the rebellion of intellect against the divine.

Quotes 🖋️

(The ones I keep in my journal as reminders of eternal wisdom):

“The very tongue that first had wounded me,
sending the colour up in both my cheeks,
was then to cure me with its medicine—

as did Achilles’ and his father’s lance,
even as I have heard, when it dispensed
a sad stroke first and then a healing one.”

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1. Inf XVI-XVII

2. Of course, there was a nuance of towers serving to protect people, but at Dante’s time, many wealthy families (bankers and co), built towers with the purpose of showing their dominance. After all, it was a great marketing move, higher your tower, more visible it is from every corner of within the city and outside.

3. I chose modern languages as examples since they will give us a clearer example than, lets say, biblical languages, such as Aramaic, Greek or Hebrew. Forgive me!

4. My maths teacher used to say that mathematics is the universal language of the world. I must admit she was obviously biased, since it was her subject, but there was wisdom in her words. While I respect and sometimes regret not having a mathematically inclined mind, I am grateful that I see the world more through poetic eyes or at least, I attempt to.

5. Here’s post where we explored Plutus’s nature:

Crushed by Gold, Consumed by Hate: Avarice and Wrath in Hell