Inferno, Canto 15

The Text of Canto 15 (Open PDF)

Summary

While crossing the Sand upon the dyke banking Phlegethon, Dante sees the Violent against Nature, who run perpetually, looking towards the human body against which they offended. He meets his old teacher, Bruttetto Latini, whom he addresses with affectionate regret and deep gratitude for past benefits. Brunetto predicts Dante's ill- treatment at the hands of the Florentines.

The Prepatory Lecture

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Questions for Reflection

• In this canto we meet Brunetto Latini, a significant figure in the highbrow culture of Dante’s Italy, and indeed in Dante’s own intellectual life. But what is Latini’s sin and why is most of their discussion about art and poetry?
• What did Dante learn from Brunetto Latini about how “man makes himself eternal” (15.85)? Is this ‘eternity’ the right kind? (See also lines 118-119).
• Brunetto Latini advises Dante to “follow your star and you will not fail to reach your port of glory” (15.55-57). Is this good advice?
• Latini’s influential work Tresoretto opens with him waking in a dark wood, returning to conscious mind, and attempting to scale a mountain. Note how similar this is to canto 1 of Inferno. Why would Dante recapitulate his previous master’s work in this way?
• How does the physical landscape of this canto fit the moral landscape of Latini’s teaching?

Canto 15, © Jan Hearn

The Images

The Sodomites.  Sodomites are chosen as the image of all perverse vices which damage and corrupt the natural powers of the body.  It is here that he would probably place drug users and the vicious types of alcoholics.  Their perpetual fruitless running forms a parallel, on a lower level, to the aimless drifting of the Lustful in Canto v.

Mark Vernon's Lecture