Mrs. Luckey

Hell proper is said to begin hereEncounter MinosSinners approach Minos and confess

their guiltBy twisting his tail around them a

certain number of times, he sends the sinner to that circle

Gustave Dore

(Sometimes Minos’ tail does the sending)

Minos too challenges Dante, but like before Dante silences him and they’re on their way

Circle 2 is void of all light, but we can assume the two can still see

Here a hellish storm rages

“No hope of less pain, not to say to repose, ever comforts” the sinners here

Sinners of carnal pleasures: lustThose who betrayed reason to their

appetitesThey find themselves on a dark ledge

swept by a great whirlwind that spins with it the sinners’ souls.

They abandoned themselves to their passions, so they are forever swept in the tempest (storm) of Hell, denied light and reason of God

VellutelloMinos/Lustful

“And this I learned, was the never ending flight / of those who sinned in flesh, the carnal and lusty, who betrayed reason to

their appetite.” (l. 37-39)

To Dante the thin line between love and lust is drawn when one acts on misguided desire

First circle where an unrepented sin is punished

Marks it as the least serious sin (???WHY??)

Could also mark reference to the first original sin

Dido CleopatraHelen of TroyAchillesParisTristanA man and woman clinging tightly to each

other: Paolo and Francesca

Only Francesca speaks to DanteShe is Francesca da Rimini and her lover

is PaoloLove brought them deathFrancesca had an affair with Paolo, her

husband’s brother. Her husband found out and killed them both.

Francesca was married to Giovanni Malatesta of Rimini– a brave a powerful warrior

Political marriagePaolo was also married and had childrenGiovanni surprised them in the bedroom

and killed themShe assumes when her husband dies, he

will be sent further in Hell for murder

The souls here are marked so blindly by their guilt that none can feel sympathy for the other or find pleasure in the presence of another

They simply add to each other’s anguish as reminders of their sin and as “shades” of their bodies for which they originally felt great passion

William Blake

“As she said this, / the other spirit,

who stood by her, wept / so

piteously, I felt my senses reel / and faint away with anguish. I was

swept/ by such a swoon as death is,

and I fell, / as a corpse might fall, to the dead floor

of Hell.”(5.136-140)

“The double grief of a lost bliss / is to

recall its happy hour in pain.”(l.118-119)

“Love led us to one death.” (l.103)

Gustave Dore

Gustave Dore

Legendary king of Crete

Creature of half-human and half-beast

Appropriate symbol for the dehumanizing effects of sin

Supreme god of the Underworld- a judge of sorts

References to Lancelot- popularly read during this time period (Galeotto was a go-between for Lancelot and Guinevere…urged them on to love)

Semiramis- queen of Assyria who assumed power at the death of her husband Ninus

Queen of Carthage- Married to Sichaeus, but fell in love with Aeneas. Aeneas abandoned her and she stabbed herself on the funeral pyre she prepared

Aeneas tells Dido the misfortunes of the Trojan city Pierre-Narcisse Guérin. 1815

Beautiful Queen of Egypt

Took her own life to avoid capture by Octavian (the future emperor Augustus)

Octavian had defeated Mark Antony, who was Cleopatra's lover

She had previously been the lover of Julius Caesar

Anthony and Cleopatra Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema(Dutch, 1836-1912)

Evelyn de Morgan. Helen of Troy. 1898.

Waterhouse, J. W. Tristram and Isolde 1916.

Helen, wife of Menalaus was believed to be the cause of the Trojan war: acclaimed as the most beautiful mortal woman, she was abducted by Paris and brought to Troy as his mistress.

Achilles was the most dreaded Greek hero in the war against the Trojans. He was killed by Paris, according to medieval accounts after being tricked into entering the temple of Apollo to meet the Trojan princess Polyxena.

Tristan, nephew of King Mark of Cornwall, and Iseult (Mark's fiancée) became lovers after they mistakenly drank the magic potion intended for Mark and Iseult. Mark shoots Tristan with a poisoned arrow, according to one version of the story popular in Dante's day, and the wounded man then clenches his lover so tightly that they die in one another's arms.

 Why is Dante moved to tears after Francesca's description of love (5.100-7) and why does he finally fall "as a dead body falls" after her personal account of her intimate relationship with Paolo (5.127-38)?  

The episode of Francesca and Paolo, the first in which Dante encounters someone punished in hell for their sins, presents a challenge: Dante’s character is overcome by compassion for the lovers even as Dante-poet has damned them to hell in the first place. What are possible consequences of this apparent gap between the perspectives of the character and the poet who are both "Dante"?

 From Dante's presentation of Francesca and Paolo, we are encouraged to consider the place of moral responsibility in depictions of love, sex, and violence in our own day. We can certainly discuss music, television, movies, and advertising (as well as literature) in these terms. Who is more (or less) responsible and therefore accountable for unacceptable attitudes and behavior in society: the creators and vehicles of such messages or the consumers and audiences?