Canto III

The Gate of Hell

The Opportunists

I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE.I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE.I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW. SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT.I WAS RAISED HERE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE,PRIMORDIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT.ONLY THOSE ELEMENTS TIME CANNOT WEARWERE MADE BEFORE ME, AND BEYOND TIME I

STAND.ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.

Importance of Inscription

• Portrays Hell as a city, which defines much of the geography of the poem.

• Bound and contained by walls and contains a vast population of souls.

Importance of Inscription

• Portrays hell as a place of eternal woes, pains, and loss, situating it as the center of God’s strict punishment of sinners, a place which there is supposed to be no escape.

• The tradition of St. Augustine’s the city of God, written 5th century A.D.

Augustine's City:• In the city of God, the forces of charity,

kindness, and love hold people together.• In the city of man, everyone is out for

themselves and prey on one another .• In the Inferno’s city of hell, the

Opportunists live there because they are only out for themselves- relating to Augustine’s theory.

• God created hell for the sake of justice- desire to see sin punished and virtue rewarded – consequences of sin.

Opportunists

• Neither good nor evil

• Only out for themselves – “These are the nearly soulless whose lives

concluded neither blame nor praise,” (32-33).

• Outcasts who took no sides in the Rebellion of Angels– “Mixed with that despicable corps of angels who

were neither for God nor Satan, but only for themselves,” (34-36).

Punishment“I saw a banner there upon the mist.

Circling and circling, it seemed to scorn all pause…

These wretches never born and never dead

ran naked in a swarm of wasps and hornets

that goaded them the more the more they fled

And made their faces stream with blood gouts

of pus and tears that dribbled to their feet

to be swallowed there by loathsome worms and maggots” (49-

66).

Symbolic Retribution

• Meaningless of banner parallels their time on earth- pursued own interests now pursue a meaningless banner.

• Sin was a darkness- they are in darkness.

• Guilty conscience pursued them in life- hornets & wasps pursue them in death and force them to take action.

• Actions morally filthy - run in filth.

Celestine V

“I recognized the shadow of that soul

Who, in his cowardice, made the Great Denial“ (56-57)

• Reference to Celestine V• Priest Benedetto told him his soul in danger, that no

man could live without being in danger • He withdrew from worldly affairs and renounced

papacy • Benedetto became Pope- Dante’s biggeswt enemy