torrents through the murky air, and the earth is stinking from this soaking rain.
12
Cerberus, a ruthless and fantastic beast, with all three throats howls out his doglike sounds above the drowning sinners of this place.
15
His eyes are red, his beard is slobbered black, his belly swollen, and he has claws for hands; he rips the spirits, flays and mangles them.
18
Under the rain they howl like dogs, lying now on one side with the other as a screen, now on the other turning, these wretched sinners.
21
13-22. In classical mythology Cerberus is a fierce three-headed dog that guards the entrance to the Underworld, permitting admittance to all and escape to none. He is the prototype of the Gluttons, with his three howling, voracious throats that gulp down huge handfuls of muck. He has become Appetite and as such he flays and mangles the spirits who reduced their lives to a satisfaction of appetite. With his three heads, he appears to be a prefiguration of Lucifer and thus another infernal distortion of the Trinity.
When the slimy Cerberus caught sight of us, he opened up his mouths and showed his fangs; his body was one mass of twitching muscles.
24
My master stooped and, spreading wide his fingers, he grabbed up heaping fistfuls of the mud and flung it down into those greedy gullets.
27
As a howling cur, hungering to get fed, quiets down with the first mouthful of his food, busy with eating, wrestling with that alone,
30
so it was with all three filthy heads of the demon Cerberus, used to barking thunder on these dead souls, who wished that they were deaf.
33
We walked across this marsh of shades beaten down by the heavy rain, our feet pressing on their emptiness that looked like human form.
36
Each sinner there was stretched out on the ground except for one who quickly sat up straight, the moment that he saw us pass him by.
39
“O you there being led through this inferno, ” he said, “try to remember who I am, for you had life before I gave up mine. ”
42
I said: “The pain you suffer here perhaps disfigures you beyond all recognition: I can’t remember seeing you before.
45
But tell me who you are, assigned to grieve in this sad place, afflicted by such torture that—worse there well may be, but none more foul. ”
48
“Your own city, ” he said, “so filled with envy its cup already overflows the brim, once held me in the brighter life above.
51
36. The shades in Hell bear only the
appearance
of their corporeal forms, although they can be ripped and torn and otherwise suffer physical torture—just as here they are able to bear the Pilgrim’s weight. Yet they themselves evidently are airy shapes without weight (cf. Canto VIII, 27), which will, after the Day of Judgment, be possessed of their actual bodies once more (see Canto XIII, 103).
You citizens gave me the name of Ciacco; and for my sin of gluttony I am damned, as you can see, to rain that beats me weak.
54
And my sad sunken soul is not alone, for all these sinners here share in my pain and in my sin. ” And that was his last word.
57
“Ciacco, ” I said to him, “your grievous state weighs down on me, it makes me want to weep; but tell me what will happen, if you know,
60
to the citizens of that divided state? And are there any honest men among them? And tell me, why is it so plagued with strife? ”
63
And he replied: “After much contention they will come to bloodshed; the rustic party will drive the other out by brutal means.
66
Then it will come to pass, this side will fall within three suns, and the other rise to power with the help of one now listing toward both sides.
69
52. The only Glutton whom the Pilgrim actually talks to is Ciacco, one of his Florentine contemporaries, whose true identity has never been determined. Several commentators believe him to be Ciacco dell’Anguillaia, a minor poet of the time and presumably the Ciacco of one of Boccaccio’s stories (
Decameron
IX, 8). However, more than a proper name,
ciacco
is a derogatory
12
Cerberus, a ruthless and fantastic beast, with all three throats howls out his doglike sounds above the drowning sinners of this place.
15
His eyes are red, his beard is slobbered black, his belly swollen, and he has claws for hands; he rips the spirits, flays and mangles them.
18
Under the rain they howl like dogs, lying now on one side with the other as a screen, now on the other turning, these wretched sinners.
21
13-22. In classical mythology Cerberus is a fierce three-headed dog that guards the entrance to the Underworld, permitting admittance to all and escape to none. He is the prototype of the Gluttons, with his three howling, voracious throats that gulp down huge handfuls of muck. He has become Appetite and as such he flays and mangles the spirits who reduced their lives to a satisfaction of appetite. With his three heads, he appears to be a prefiguration of Lucifer and thus another infernal distortion of the Trinity.
When the slimy Cerberus caught sight of us, he opened up his mouths and showed his fangs; his body was one mass of twitching muscles.
24
My master stooped and, spreading wide his fingers, he grabbed up heaping fistfuls of the mud and flung it down into those greedy gullets.
27
As a howling cur, hungering to get fed, quiets down with the first mouthful of his food, busy with eating, wrestling with that alone,
30
so it was with all three filthy heads of the demon Cerberus, used to barking thunder on these dead souls, who wished that they were deaf.
33
We walked across this marsh of shades beaten down by the heavy rain, our feet pressing on their emptiness that looked like human form.
36
Each sinner there was stretched out on the ground except for one who quickly sat up straight, the moment that he saw us pass him by.
39
“O you there being led through this inferno, ” he said, “try to remember who I am, for you had life before I gave up mine. ”
42
I said: “The pain you suffer here perhaps disfigures you beyond all recognition: I can’t remember seeing you before.
45
But tell me who you are, assigned to grieve in this sad place, afflicted by such torture that—worse there well may be, but none more foul. ”
48
“Your own city, ” he said, “so filled with envy its cup already overflows the brim, once held me in the brighter life above.
51
36. The shades in Hell bear only the
appearance
of their corporeal forms, although they can be ripped and torn and otherwise suffer physical torture—just as here they are able to bear the Pilgrim’s weight. Yet they themselves evidently are airy shapes without weight (cf. Canto VIII, 27), which will, after the Day of Judgment, be possessed of their actual bodies once more (see Canto XIII, 103).
You citizens gave me the name of Ciacco; and for my sin of gluttony I am damned, as you can see, to rain that beats me weak.
54
And my sad sunken soul is not alone, for all these sinners here share in my pain and in my sin. ” And that was his last word.
57
“Ciacco, ” I said to him, “your grievous state weighs down on me, it makes me want to weep; but tell me what will happen, if you know,
60
to the citizens of that divided state? And are there any honest men among them? And tell me, why is it so plagued with strife? ”
63
And he replied: “After much contention they will come to bloodshed; the rustic party will drive the other out by brutal means.
66
Then it will come to pass, this side will fall within three suns, and the other rise to power with the help of one now listing toward both sides.
69
52. The only Glutton whom the Pilgrim actually talks to is Ciacco, one of his Florentine contemporaries, whose true identity has never been determined. Several commentators believe him to be Ciacco dell’Anguillaia, a minor poet of the time and presumably the Ciacco of one of Boccaccio’s stories (
Decameron
IX, 8). However, more than a proper name,
ciacco
is a derogatory
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