Inferno, Canto 21

The Text of Canto 21 (Open PDF)

Summary

In the Fifth Bowge, Barrators, who made money by trafficking in public offices, are plunged in Boiling Pitch, guarded by demons with sharp hooks. Virgil crosses the bridge and goes down to parley with the demons. Belzecue, the chief demon, says that the spur of rock which the Poets have been following was broken by an earthquake (at the moment of Christ's entry into Hell) and no longer bridges the Sixth Bowge; but he will give them an escort of ten demons to "see them safe as far as the bridge which is still unbroken." In this disagreeable company, Virgil and Dante set off along the lower brink of the Bowge.

The Prepatory Lecture

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Questions for Reflection

• Dante’s journey through the malebolgia of circle 8 seems to invoke a different tone from other parts of the infernal journey. Why do you think that is?
• What are the demons of malebolgia like? Are they some kind of grotesque comic relief or is Dante revealing something to us through them about the effects of fraud on human persons and the ability to live together?
• How do we see themes of authoritarianism, the dissolution of social relationships, and friendship playing out in this canto?
• How is Virgil as a guide in this canto and those immediately following? Are we seeing some failure in his leadership? If so, why would Dante choose to depict Virgil in this way?

Canto 21, © Jan Hearn

The Images

The Barrators and the Pitch. The Barrators are to the City what the Simoniacs are to the Church: they make profit out of the trust reposed in them by the community; and what they sell is justice. As the Simoniacs are imbedded in the burning rock, so these are plunged beneath the black and boiling stream, for their dealings were secret. Money stuck to their fingers: so now the defilement of the pitch sticks fast to them.

Mark Vernon's Lecture