Canto 7

                                      The Inferno

                                               CANTO 7

Summary:

         As Virgil and Dante make their way down to the fourth circle, they run into a demon named Plutus. Plutus shouts “Pape Satan, pape satan aleppa!”(A famous line in which no one is certain what it says). Virgil tells Plutus to quiet himself, and then Dante and Virgil continue into the fourth circle. They find that is circle is more sorrowful, and crowded with more people. Dante explains what he sees in the fourth circle. Here there was a circle with a large ditch around the whole thing, in which all of the people in the canto were in the ditch. There were two sides of the circle in which the people would walk pushing weights until the meet the half-circle mark and then turn around, over and over again, on each side of the circle. After seeing this Dante asks why these people were being punished. Virgil answered that these souls are here because during their lives they hoarded and wasted their money, such as clergymen, popes, and cardinals. Dante again wonders if there is anyone in there that he knows. Although Virgil informs him that they are all dark now and cannot be recognized. Virgil says that the people “were not prudent with the goods of fortune”. Dante then asks Virgil to explain what this means. Virgil goes on to say that Fortune takes orders from god to distribute the goods between the people and when men go against this or curse fortune they must be punished. Next the cross the circle to the other side to head to the fifth circle. On there way on the other side of the circle they run into the Styx swamp of sorrow. They saw people in the mud naked and striking each other and tearing each other apart with their teeth, there were also many more people under the mud whom they could not see. These people are the ones who were angry during their lifetime. They then come to the foot of a tower.

Sin/Sinners:

         Fourth Circle: The people that are in the fourth circle have committed the sin of hoarding and wasting their money during their lifetime. Virgil said that “ Everyone of them was so cross-eyed of mind in the first life, that no measure governed their spending… these were the clerics, who have no hairy covering to their, heads and popes and cardinals, in whom avarice does its worth” (page 115). This says that these people are mostly clergymen, popes, and cardinals.

         Styx swamp: The people who live here were because they were angry during their lifetime.

Punishment/Contrapasso

         Fourth Circle: The punishment of these people is that there is a ditch in the form of a circle, and the people walk pushing weights half way around the circle then turn around until they meet the other group from the other side, and they keep doing this over and over. Also these people are dark and not recognizable. Because of their bad giving and bad keeping, they had deprived them of the lovely world and got this punishment.

         Styx circle: the people in this muddy swamp were naked and striking each other and tearing each other apart with their teeth. The people are in the swamp Styx which mean sorrow and their sin is that they were angry during their lifetime.

Characters/People   

Plutus	Was a demon, also is the god of wealth in Greek mythology
Fortune	Although not a person fortune is referred to as a she. She takes her orders from god and transfers good between people and nations.

There are no people who Dante can recognize because the people are dark and unrecognizable as Virgil describes saying “ the undiscerning life that befouled them makes them dark now to all recognition” (page 115).

Places

Styx swamp	Sorrow, in Greek mythology it is the river that formed the boundary between earth and the underworld, and circles the underworld 9 times
Charybdis	From odyssey is a large whirlpool instead of a monster, and this is compared to the circle and the ditch the people were walking around