The Inferno

Circle Nine

The Titans

• Guardians of the final circle

• Mythological Creatures

• Titans were the rulers of earth before Zeus and them

The Titans

The Titans

• 12 Titans– Children of Heaven and Earth– The Elder Gods

• Cronus was Zeus’ father• Swallowed his children

Tower of Babel

• Nimrod - Baal

War between the gods

• The Titans are challenged

• Zeus and his brothers & sisters battle

• The Titans are banished

Titans

• Symbols of the ‘earth-trace’– Last vestiges of the earth– Every man needs to cleanse from himself

• Returned to the earth– Guarding the last level of Hell

• Raised from the earth, they make the gods tremble

Anateus

Ninth Circle: Cocytus

• Huge frozen lake• Cocytus– Fourth and last body of water in Hell– Sinners lay frozen in the lake

• Compound Fraud• “Treachery Against Those to whom They

Were Bound by Special Ties”

Cocytus

• Frozen lake stretches before the poets• Consists of four levels– Caina – Treacherous to ______– Antenora – Treacherous to ______– Ptolomea – Treacherous to ______– Judecca – Treacherous to ______

Cocytus: Caina

• Cain and Able– Cain tricked killed his brother– Tricked his father

• Sinners are buried up to their necks– Can bend their heads against the wind– Shield their faces so their tears don’t freeze

The bad guys of Caina

• Mordred– King Arthur’s nephew– Tried to betray King Arthur

• Arthur stabbed him with a lance– It is said, when the lance was withdrawn, a shaft

of light shown through the wound– The light pierced Modred’s shadow in two

• King Aruthur and Mordred

Cocytus: Antenora

• Head above the ice– Can’t bend their necks– Tears freeze

• Dante accidently kicks one head– Read: Cantos XXXII Lines 87 - 111

Cocytus: Antenora

• Two souls frozen in the same hole• The one gnaws at the other– Count Ugolino & Archbishop Ruggieri

• Trapped in ice for treason• Ruggieri betrayed Ugolino– Caused Ugolino’s death – by starvation

• Ugolino & Ruggieri

Cocytus: Antenora

• Read: Cantos XXXIII Lines 37 – 45

• Ptolomea– Treacherous to Guests and Hosts– Lies with half their faces frozen– Ice and tears freeze in their eye sockets– Even tears are denied

Cocytus: Ptolomea

• Worst of all, Dante finds Friar Alberico– Still alive on earth– Sin is so great that, for some, the torments begin

before death•Bodies still on earth •Inhabited by demons

Cocytus: Judecca

• Treacherous to their Masters– Judas is here

• Satan in the distance– Wings beating furiously– The wind keeps the lake frozen– His eternal torment– Trying to escape, only secures him more solidly

Cocytus: Judecca

• Completely sealed in ice• Distorted and twisted in all manner of

positions• Impossible to speak to them

Lucifer

• Three faces– Grotesque parody of the Trinity– Each a different color– In each mouth he clamps a sinner whom he rips

eternally with his teeth

Lucifer

• In his central mouth– Judas

• Left side– Brutus

• Right side– Cassius

Lucifer

• The poets climb down a the hairy flanks of Lucifer

• Last symbolic action– The manifestation of all evil– Powerless to stop the two

• Pass through the center of gravity (earth)– Emerge alongside the river Lethe– Dawn on Easter Sunday

Paradiso!