CANTO IX

The Divine Comedy - Inferno

by Dante Alighieri

Translated by Charles Eliot Norton

CANTO IX, THE DIVINE COMEDY - INFERNO by Alighieri Dante
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The City of Dis.--Erichtho.--The Three Furies.--The
Heavenly Messenger.--The Sixth Circle, that of the Heresiarchs.

That color which cowardice painted outwardly on me when I saw my
Guide turn back, repressed more speedily his own new color. He
stopped attentive, like a man that listens, for the eye could not
lead him far through the black air, and through the dense fog.

"Yet it must be for us to win the fight," began he, "unless--Such
an one offered herself to us.[1] Oh how slow it seems till Some
one here arrive! "[2]

[1] Beatrice.

[2] The messenger from Heaven, referred to in the last verses of
the last canto.


I saw well how he covered up the beginning with the rest that
came after, which were words different from the first. But
nevertheless his speech gave me fear, because I drew his broken
phrase perchance to a worse meaning than it held.

"Into this depth of the dismal shell does any one ever descend
from the first grade who has for penalty only hope cut off? "[1]
This question I put, and he answered me, "Seldom it happens that
any one of us maketh the journey on which I am going. It is true
that another time I was conjured down here by that cruel Erichtho
who was wont to call back shades into their bodies. Short while
had my flesh been bare of me, when she made me enter within that
wall in order to drag out for her a spirit from the circle of
Judas. That is the lowest place, and the darkest, and the
farthest from the Heaven that encircles all. Well do I know the
road: therefore assure thyself. This marsh which breathes out the
great stench girds round about the woeful city wherein now we
cannot enter without anger."

[1] Dante asks for assurance that Virgil, whose station is in
Limbo, "the first grade," knows the way.


And more he said, but I hold it not in mind because my eye had
wholly attracted me toward the high tower with the ruddy summit,
where in an instant were uprisen suddenly three infernal furies,
stained with blood, who had the limbs of women and their action,
and were girt with greenest hydras. Little serpents and cerastes
they had for hair, wherewith their savage brows were bound.

And he, who well knew the handmaids of the queen of the eternal
lamentation, said to me, "Behold the fell Erinnyes; this is
Megaera on the left side, she who weeps on the right is Alecto,
Tisiphone is in the middle," and therewith he was silent.

With her nails each was tearing her breast, they beat themselves
with their hands, and cried out so loud that I pressed close to
the Poet through dread. "Let Medusa come, so we will make him of
stone," they all said, looking down. "Ill was it we avenged not
on Theseus his assault."

"Turn thy back, and keep thy sight closed, for if the Gorgon show
herself, and thou shouldest see her, no return upward would there
ever be." Thus said the Master, and he himself turned me, and did
not so trust to my hands that with his own he did not also
blindfold me.

O ye who have sound understanding, regard the doctrine that is
hidden under the veil of the strange verses.

And already was coming across the turbid waves a tumult of a
sound full of terror at which both the shores trembled. Not
otherwise it was than of a wind, impetuous through the opposing
heats, that strikes the forest, and without any stay shatters the
branches, beats down and carries them away; forward, laden with
dust, it goes superb, and makes the wild beasts and the shepherds
fly.

My eyes he loosed, and said, "Now direct the nerve of sight
across the ancient scum, there yonder where that fume is most
bitter."

As frogs before the hostile snake all scatter through the water,
till each huddles on the ground, I saw more than a thousand
destroyed souls flying thus before one, who at the ford was
passing over the Styx with dry feet. From his face he removed
that thick air, waving his left hand oft before him, and only
with that trouble seemed he weary. Well I perceived that he was
sent from Heaven, and I turned me to the Master, and he made sign
that I should stand quiet and bow down unto him. Ah, how full of
disdain he seemed to me! He reached the gate and with a little
rod he opened it, for there was no withstanding.

"O outcasts from Heaven, folk despised," began he upon the
horrible threshold, "wherefore is this overweening harbored in
you? Why do ye kick against that will from which its end can
never be cut short, and which many a time hath increased your
grief? What avails it to butt against the fates? Your Cerberus,
if ye remember well, still bears his chin and his throat peeled
for that." Then he turned back upon the filthy road and said no
word to us, but wore the semblance of a man whom other care
constrains and stings, than that of him who is before him.

And we moved our feet toward the city, confident after his holy
words. Within we entered without any strife, and I, who had
desire to observe the condition which such a stronghold locks in,
when I was within, sent my eyes round about; and I see on every
hand a great plain full of woe and of cruel torment.

As at Arles, where the Rhone stagnates, as at Pola, near the
Quarnaro that shuts in Italy and bathes its borders, sepulchres
make all the place uneven; so did they here on every side, saving
that the manner was more bitter here; for among the tombs flames
were scattered, by which they were so intensely kindled that no
art requires iron more so. All their lids were lifted; and such
dire laments were issuing forth from them as truly seemed of
wretches and of sufferers.

And I, "Master, who are these folk that, buried within those
coffers, make themselves heard with their woeful sighs?" And he
to me, "Here are the heresiarchs with their followers of every
sect, and the tombs are much more laden than thou thinkest. Like
with like is buried here, and the monuments are more and less
hot."

And when he to the right hand had turned, we passed between the
torments and the high battlements.