Inferno, Canto 25

The Text of Canto 25 (Open PDF)

Summary

(Continuing from the last canto...) Vanni Fucci defies God and flees, pursued by the monster Cacus. Three more spirits arrive, and the Poets watch while one of them becomes blended with the form of a reptile containing the spirit of a fourth, and the second exchanges shapes with yet another transformed Thief.

The Prepatory Lecture

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Questions for Reflection

• In recent cantos, Dante has presented himself in some degree of contrast or competition with other great poets: Ovid, Lucan, perhaps even Virgil himself. Why do you think Dante is asserting his poetic genius here and now? Why draw a distinction between himself and his poetic forebears? Is the difference primarily poetic or is there a moral aspect as well?
• Why would these violent scenes of metamorphosis be the imagined justice against thievery? What is Dante revealing about the nature of sin here?
• Given Vanni’s blasphemous gesture that opens the canto, are we to believe that there is an integral connection between religious blasphemy and the act of thievery?

Canto 25 © Jan Hearn

The Images

The Thieves (cont.) In this canto we see how the Thieves, who made no distinction between meum and tuum - between the “mine" and the "thine" - cannot call their forms or their personalities their own; for in Hell’s horrible parody of exchange the “I” and the “thou” fluctuate and are lost.

A summary of various transformations may be a convenience:

1. Agnello: appears as a man, and is blended with
2. Cianfa, who appears as a six-legged monster.
3. Buoso: appears first as a man, and changes shapes with
4. Francesco, who appears first as a four-legged “lizard”. 
5. Puccio: remains unchanged.

Mark Vernon's Lecture