nmeyers

“If the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought” –The Divine Comedy

Through cantos 6-10 Dante continues though the third through sixth circle, and finishes his journey through the Upper Hell. The quote from the Divine Comedy is a representation of why there are people in the circles of hell. The world goes astray because of the ones such as gluttons, wasters, and greedy people, as a result of their actions. As a denouement of their life, they are put into the different circles where their actions are sought out from torture in the circles of hell. “I see new torments and new souls in pain about me everywhere. Wherever I turn away from grief I turn to grief again.” (p 65) this quote tells how the punishments surround Dante, engulfing him in a torture himself.

            This quote relates to the person that Dante meets in the third circle of hell that is designated to gluttons, those who wallowed in the affluence of food and drink, were the producers of garbage, and had no deference for their appearance. He meets a citizen from Florence that tells him how has friends nicknamed him Ciacco, the hog, when he was on earth. “Your citizens nicknamed me Ciacco, The Hog; gluttony was my offense, and for it I lie here rotting like a swollen log.”(p 67) This relates to the quote due to the fact that when Ciacco was on earth it is due to this actions as a glutton that he now has the imprecation of Hell upon him. The cause for his greed for food and drink is continuously being sought through the icy paste, in which he lies forever, and continually being ripped and tarred by the claws and teeth of Cerberus that impairs him further and further into the future.