So I descended from first to second circle –
Which girdles a smaller space and greater pain,
Which spurs more lamentation.
Here we see Dante and Virgil are traveling downward into the 2nd circle of Hell. Notice the 2nd circle is smaller in circumference so we see the topography of Hell is funnel shaped in circles. We also see that as they go down, the punishments are more severe.
Lamentation – the passionate expression of grief or sorrow; weeping; an expression of sorrow, mourning, or regret; an outward expression of grief; To mourn; to grieve; to weep or wail.
Minos the dreadful
Snarls at the gate. He examines each one’s sin,
Judging and disposing as he curls his tail:
That is, when an ill-begotten soul comes down,
It comes before him, and confesses all:
Minos, great connoisseur of sin, discerns
For every spirit it’s proper place in Hell,
And wraps himself in his tail with as many turns
As levels down that shade will have to dwell.
A crowd is always waiting: here each one learns
His judgment and is assigned a place in Hell.
Minos was the son of Zeus, the king of the gods, and of Europa, a Phoenician princess and personification of the continent of Europe. Minos obtained the Cretan throne by the aid of the Greek god Poseidon, and from Knossos (or Gortyn) he gained control over the Aegean islands, colonizing many of them and ridding the sea of pirates. He married Pasiphae, the daughter of Helios, who bore him, among others, Androgeos, Ariadne, and Phaedra, and who was also the mother of the Minotaur. Minos successfully warred against Athens and Megara to obtain redress after his son Androgeos was killed by the Athenians. In Athenian drama and legend Minos became the tyrannical exactor of the tribute of children to feed the Minotaur. Having pursued Daedalus to Sicily, Minos was killed by the daughters of King Cocalus, who poured boiling water over him as he was taking a bath. After his death he became a judge in Hades. – Brittanica.com
He was famous for creating a successful code of laws; in fact, it was so grand that after his death, Minos became one of the three judges of the dead in the underworld. – greekmythology.com
We are beginning to see that Dante intertwines Greek and Roman mythology, classical history and Biblical themes together in his imagined Hell. Does this mean Dante equates Biblical stories with Greek and Roman myths? Or does it mean that Dante elevates some of the Greek and Roman myths to explain some of the Biblical stories? There is room in the Bible for an explanation of some of the mythological figures. Let’s look at Genesis 6.
Genesis 6:1-2;4-6 (BSB) 1 Now when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives whomever they chose… 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and afterward as well—when the sons of God had relations with the daughters of men. And they bore them children who became the mighty men of old, men of renown. 5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time. 6 And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Who were the “sons of God”? Angels, and in this case, fallen angels or demons. They began mating with human women and producing what I call halflings: half demon and half human. The Bible refers to them as Nephilim which means “giants”. They were so evil that God was grieved. He chose Noah as a man who was not tainted in his bloodlines and was fully human.
Genesis 6:8-12 (BSB) 8 Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
9 This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and full of violence. 12 And God looked upon the earth and saw that it was corrupt; for all living creatures on the earth had corrupted their ways.
Noah was chosen by God for rescue for two reasons: Noah was “blameless in his generations; Noah walked with God”. The KJV says Noah was “perfect in his generations” and, if you have read the book of Genesis, God even gives genealogical data to prove Noah was fully human and not contaminated by demons in his DNA.
God needed a man who was fully human and a man of faith to continue the human race or the human race would be lost. God didn’t send The Flood just to be mean. He had to preserve a human line that could be saved by Jesus Christ. Satan had polluted humanity with halflings that could not be saved. In order to save mankind, God had to wipe out the halfling population. So God chose Noah, his wife, his sons and his son’s wives to be saved in the Ark during the judgement of The Great Flood.
After The Flood, we see mention of some giants in the Bible. Goliath, of the David and Goliath story, was one such giant. These Nephilim must have come through the DNA of one of the son’s wives. But God made sure that the last of these were killed out. He did it to preserve humanity so that Jesus Christ could some and save us.
What does this have to do with mythology?
Mythology (from the Greek mythos for story-of-the-people, and logos for word or speech, so the spoken story of a people) is the study and interpretation of often sacred tales or fables of a culture known as myths or the collection of such stories which deal with various aspects of the human condition: good and evil; the meaning of suffering; human origins; the origin of place-names, animals, cultural values, and traditions; the meaning of life and death; the afterlife; and the gods or a god. Myths express the beliefs and values about these subjects held by a certain culture. Myths tell the stories of ancestors and the origin of humans and the world, the gods, supernatural beings (satyrs, nymphs, mermaids) and heroes with super-human, usually god-given, powers (as in the case of Heracles or Perseus of the Greeks). Myths also describe origins or nuances of long-held customs or explain natural events such as the sunrise and sunset, the cycle of the moon and the seasons, or thunder and lightning storms. – Ancient.eu
The Nephilim “became the mighty men of old, men of renown“. You can imagine that these halflings were giants, super strong, and may have been the medusa-headed, one-eyed, half man/half horse kind of deformed and corrupted creatures. They were monstrous, whatever they looked like, and would have been scary to the normal human being, “for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth” (KJV). But they were NOT gods or demi-gods. They were creatures (i.e. created beings) who may have had some extraordinary characteristics that would frighten normal humans but God is far bigger, stronger and wiser so they were no match for Him, the Creator. Although we know God knows all things, sees all things and capably takes care of all things in His perfect timing… it is frightening to realize how close satan came to extinguishing all hope of the salvation of humanity with his plan of polluting the human race with his fallen angels.
They may be the basis of the Greek and Roman mythologies (or other myths) but for humans to worship them as gods would be blasphemy. There is only one true God, the triune God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These creatures died and are gone. God lives!
Dante incorporates Greek and Roman mythological figures in his comedy. In this case it was Minos who is used by God in his job in Hell. He symbolizes the huge bureaucracy of Hell. He is a mechanical service. He doesn’t decide on what level of Hell the sinner goes to with his head, but merely his tail. His tail wraps around himself so many turns to indicate which level of Hell they go to. He is just doing a job.
That is, when an ill-begotten soul comes down,
It comes before him, and confesses all:
Minos, great connoisseur of sin, discerns
For every spirit it’s proper place in Hell.
Dante uses Minos as a parody of the Catholic Christian’s confession of sins. A Catholic Christian goes to confession with the priest and the priest metes out forgiveness and penance. Here the sinners go before Minos who metes out the level of Hell they will descend to. The sinners here could not be bothered with confession and forgiveness in their life but they are forced to confess their sins before a mindless Minos and receive punishment rather than forgiveness.
As a protestant Christian, I believe in the priesthood of the believer. This means that I don’t have to confess my sins to a priest and receive forgiveness through the priest. I confess my sins to Jesus Christ, directly, and receive forgiveness through Him with no other mediary. The Bible does tell us to confess our sins one to another. This is done in humility by both parties and is for accountability rather than forgiveness. I am called to be a forgiver as Christ forgave me. I am also called to ask forgiveness from those I may have offended as an action of humility and obedience. Forgiveness of our sins comes from Christ alone. Let’s say that I have offended someone and God puts it on my heart. I ask Jesus for forgiveness and go to the offended and ask their forgiveness. If that person is too angry or wounded to forgive me, I am still forgiven by Jesus Christ and they will have to find their own forgiveness for their hardness of heart as the scriptures say we are to forgive others. If they can’t or won’t forgive, they are sinning and God will deal with them. I am released because I repented to Jesus Christ and I obeyed Him in going to the offended person and apologizing. Now let’s say that I have repented and I go to the offended and ask for forgiveness, and they find it in their heart to forgive me… we both go away blessed because we have both obeyed Christ and forgiven each other. Now let’s say I have sinned and repented and I go to my pastor and tell him my problem. He can help me be more accountable if the sin is a persistent one in my life, a particular weakness in me. He forgives me any offense but he is also helping me by holding me accountable when I fall into the same sin. It takes humility for me to accept his remonstance and help. None of this has anything to do with an intermediary between us and Jesus. I don’t need a priest to confess to. I don’t need a priest’s forgiveness. I don’t need a priest to give me acts of penance to earn my way back into God’s good graces. All of that puts a priest between me and Jesus Christ which denies the priesthood of the believer. As a Christian, with the Holy Spirit within me, I have contact with Jesus directly and it is His forgiveness that I seek. Then, as a fruit of that repentance and forgiveness, I should be willing to obey any way He directs me to make amends.
I cannot earn His forgiveness by any acts of penance. He freely gives forgiveness as we repent and confess before Him. Then, if He puts it on our heart to do something in penance, we do it as a fruit of our repentance and forgiveness not as a way to earn forgiveness. We do it in obedience as a sign that our heart is forgiven and changed.
A contrapasso is an Italian word that means the concept of punishment of an individual’s soul in Hell corresponds to the sin that person committed, basically, the punishment fits the crime. Dante uses contrapasso by analogy and contrapasso by contrast.
Contrapasso by analogy – hell’s torments are analogous to the soul’s respective sins; penalty is similar to the sin.
Contrapasso by contrast – the penalty consists of the inverse of the characteristics of sin.
In our last lesson, we saw the uncommitted who refused to choose Jesus Christ while alive and now their punishment is to run forever after nothing. This is a contrapasso by contrast. They failed to commit to Jesus Christ so now they are forced to run naked after no one and under a standard with nothing on it.
In this lesson we see the Lustful who are punished with a contrapasso by analogy.
And now I can hear the notes of agony
In sad crescendo beginning to reach my ear;
Now I am where the noise of lamentation
Comes at me in blasts of sorrow. I am where
All light is mute, with a bellowing like the ocean
Turbulent in a storm of warring winds,
The hurricane of Hell in perpetual motion
Sweeping the ravaged spirits as it rends,
Twists, and torments them. Driven as if to land,
They reach the ruin: groaning, tears, laments,
And cursing of the power of Heaven. I learned
They suffer here who sinned in carnal things –
Their reason mastered by desire, suborned.
As winter starlings riding on their wings
Form crowded flocks, so spirits dip and veer
Foundering in the wind’s rough buffetings,
Upward or downward, driven here and there
With never ease from pain nor hope of rest.
In this circle of Hell, the Lustful Carnal Sinners are punished. The adulterers and fornicators who let passions rule their lives are now subject to a punishment analogous to their sins. Contrapasso by analogy. As they were tossed about and out of control with their passions, they now find themselves tossed about and out of control in the “hurricane of Hell”. They were driven about by every lust and desire and now they are driven about by every wind that buffets them furiously in Hell.
James 1:13-15 (NAS) 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 (NLT) 18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
Dante asks Virgil who all these people are and Virgil begins to point out different people who were famous for their dalliances and sexual intrigues.
- Semiramis – Semiramis was Shammuramat (the original Akkadian and Aramaic form of the name) the Assyrian wife of Shamshi-Adad V (ruled 824 BC–811 BC), ruler of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and its regent for five years until her son Adad-nirari III came of age and took the reins of power. She ruled at a time of political uncertainty and ruling successfully as a woman may have made the Assyrians regard her with particular reverence until the real Shammuramat became the mythical Semiramis. She conquered much of Middle East and the Levant. She was mortally wounded after fighting an Indian king and the Assyrian army was mostly destroyed. According to the legend, Semiramis was of noble parents, the daughter of the fish-goddess Derketo of Ascalon in Assyria and of a mortal. Derketo abandoned her at birth and drowned herself. Doves fed the child until Simmas, the royal shepherd, found her. Semiramis married Onnes or Menones, one of King Ninus’ generals. Her advice led him to great successes, and at the Siege of Bactra, she personally led a party of soldiers to seize a key point in the defense, leading to the city’s surrender. Ninus was so struck that he fell in love with her and tried to compel Onnes to give her to him as a wife, first offering his own daughter Sonanê in return and eventually threatening to put out his eyes as punishment. Onnes, out of fear of the king, and out of doomed passion for his wife, “fell into a kind of frenzy and madness” and hanged himself. Ninus then married her. Semiramis and Ninus had a son named Ninyas. After King Ninus conquered Asia, including the Bactrians, he was fatally wounded by an arrow. Semiramis then masqueraded as her son and tricked her late husband’s army into following her instructions because they thought these came from their new ruler. After Ninus’ death she reigned as queen regnant for 42 years, conquering much of Asia. Semiramis restored ancient Babylon and protected it with a high brick wall that completely surrounded the city. She also built several palaces in Persia. – Wikipedia
- Sychaeus (aka Acerbas) – the husband of Dido. A king of Tyre, whom Justin does not name, made his very beautiful daughter, Dido, and son, Pygmalion, his joint heirs. But on his death the people took Pygmalion alone as their ruler though Pygmalion was yet still a boy. Dido married Acerbas, her uncle, who was priest of Heracles. He is also known as Sychaeus. Her brother, Pygmalion, slew Sychaeus secretly due to his wealth and Sychaeus appeared to Dido in a dream in which he told the truth about his death, urged her to flee the country, and revealed to her where his gold was buried. She left with those who hated or feared Pygmalion. She became the founder of Carthage. Once Carthage was prosperous, a native king of Mauritania demanded Dido for his wife or he would make war on Carthage. Still, she preferred to stay faithful to her first husband and after creating a ceremonial funeral pyre and sacrificing many victims to his spirit in pretense that this was a final honoring of her first husband in preparation for marriage to Iarbas, Dido ascended the pyre, announced that she would go to her husband as they desired, and then slew herself with her sword. After this self-sacrifice Dido was deified and was worshipped as long as Carthage endured. Virgil very much changes the import and details of the story when he brings Aeneas and his followers to Carthage. Dido and Aeneas fall in love by the management of Juno and Venus, acting in concert, though for different reasons. When the rumour of the love affair comes to King Iarbas the Gaetulian, “a son of Jupiter Ammon by a raped Garamantian nymph”, Iarbas prays to his father, blaming Dido who has scorned marriage with him yet now takes Aeneas into the country as her lord. Jupiter dispatches Mercury to send Aeneas on his way and the pious Aeneas sadly obeys. Mercury tells Aeneas of all the promising Italian lands and orders Aeneas to get his fleet ready. Dido can no longer bear to live. She has her sister Anna build her a pyre under the pretence of burning all that reminded her of Aeneas, including weapons and clothes that Aeneas had left behind and (what she calls) their bridal bed (though, according to Aeneas, they were never officially married.) When Dido sees Aeneas’ fleet leaving she curses him and his Trojans and proclaims endless hate between Carthage and the descendants of Troy, foreshadowing the Punic Wars. Dido ascends the pyre, lies again on the couch which she had shared with Aeneas, and then falls on a sword that Aeneas had given her. During his journey in the underworld Aeneas meets Dido and tries to excuse himself, but Dido does not deign to look at him. Instead she turns away from Aeneas to a grove where her former husband Sychaeus waits. – Wikipedia
- Cleopatra – Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. Cleopatra VII was born in early 69 BC to the ruling Ptolemaic pharaoh Ptolemy XII and an unknown mother. Cleopatra’s childhood tutor was Philostratos, from whom she learned the Greek arts of oration and philosophy. During her youth Cleopatra presumably studied at the Musaeum, including the Library of Alexandria. Cleopatra, then 14 years of age, met Marc Antony in Egypt and he fell in love with her then. Ptolemy XII died sometime before 22 March 51 BC. Cleopatra faced several pressing issues and emergencies shortly after taking the throne. These her father’s debt, famine caused by drought and a low level of the annual flooding of the Nile, and lawless behavior instigated by the Gabiniani, the now unemployed and assimilated Roman soldiers left by Gabinius to garrison Egypt. To be sole ruler, she may have married her brother, Ptolemy XIII, although there is no evidence. She rejected him as co-ruler. Ptolemy XIII still retained powerful allies. In the summer of 49 BC, Cleopatra and her forces were still fighting against Ptolemy XIII within Alexandria. Pompey’s son Gnaeus Pompeius arrived, seeking military aid on behalf of his father. Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII agreed to Gnaeus Pompeius’s request and sent his father 60 ships and 500 troops a move which erased some of the debt owed. In Greece, Caesar and Pompey’s forces engaged and Pompey ultimately decided that Egypt would be his place of refuge, where he could replenish his forces. Ptolemy XIII’s advisers, however, feared the idea of Pompey using Egypt as his base in a protracted Roman civil war. Ptolemy XIII believed he had demonstrated his power and simultaneously defused the situation by having Pompey’s head, severed and embalmed, sent to Caesar, who arrived in Alexandria by early October and took up residence at the royal palace. Caesar expressed grief and outrage over the killing of Pompey and called on both Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra to disband their forces and reconcile with each other. Cleopatra heard that Caesar was inclined to having affairs with royal women, she came to Alexandria to see him personally. In her seduction of Caesar she had influence with him that her brother, Ptolemy XIII, didn’t have. After much more fighting, Ptolemy XIII tried to flee by boat, but it capsized, and he drowned. Caesar’s term as consul had expired at the end of 48 BC. However, Antony, an officer of his, helped to secure Caesar’s appointment as dictator lasting for a year, until October 47 BC, providing Caesar with the legal authority to settle the dynastic dispute in Egypt. Caesar appointed Cleopatra’s 12-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIV, as joint ruler with the 22-year-old Cleopatra in a nominal sibling marriage, but Cleopatra continued living privately with Caesar who was married to a Roman noblewoman named Calpurnia. Caesarion, Cleopatra’s alleged child with Caesar, was born 23 June 47 BC. Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March (15 March 44 BC), but Cleopatra stayed in Rome until about mid-April, in the vain hope of having Caesarion recognized as Caesar’s heir. However, Caesar’s will named his grandnephew Octavian as the primary heir, and Octavian arrived in Italy around the same time Cleopatra decided to depart for Egypt. A few months later, Cleopatra had Ptolemy XIV killed by poisoning, elevating her son Caesarion as her co-ruler. Octavian, Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate in 43 BC, in which they were each elected for five-year terms to restore order in the Republic and bring Caesar’s assassins to justice. By the autumn of 42 BC, Antony had defeated the forces of Caesar’s assassins at the Battle of Philippi in Greece, leading to the suicide of Cassius and Brutus. In the summer of 41 BC, Antony established his headquarters at Tarsos in Anatolia and summoned Cleopatra there in several letters. Cleopatra sailed up the Kydnos River to Tarsos in Thalamegos, hosting Antony and his officers for two nights of lavish banquets on board the ship. She convinced Antony to have her exiled sister, Arsinoe IV, executed at Ephesus. Cleopatra’s former rebellious governor of Cyprus was also handed over to her for execution. Cleopatra invited Antony to come to Egypt before departing from Tarsos, which led Antony to visit Alexandria. In Egypt, Antony continued to enjoy the lavish royal lifestyle he had witnessed aboard Cleopatra’s ship docked at Tarsos. Cleopatra carefully chose Antony (who was married to Fulvia, she died in 40 BC) as her partner for producing further heirs, as he was deemed to be the most powerful Roman figure following Caesar’s demise. By the spring of 40 BC, Antony left Egypt due to troubles in Syria. She would not see Antony again until 37 BC, but she maintained correspondence, and evidence suggests she kept a spy in his camp. By the end of 40 BC, Cleopatra had given birth to twins, a boy named Alexander Helios and a girl named Cleopatra Selene II, both of whom Antony acknowledged as his children. In December 40 BC Cleopatra received Herod in Alexandria as an unexpected guest and refugee who fled a turbulent situation in Judea.[227] Herod had been installed as a tetrarch there by Antony, but he was soon at odds with Antigonus II Mattathias of the long-established Hasmonean dynasty. Cleopatra attempted to provide him with a military assignment, but Herod declined and traveled to Rome. Relations between Antony and Cleopatra perhaps soured when he not only married Octavia, but also sired her two children, Antonia the Elder in 39 BC and Antonia Minor in 36 BC, and moved his headquarters to Athens. However, Cleopatra’s position in Egypt was secure. Antony summoned Cleopatra to Antioch and she brought her now three-year-old twins to Antioch, where Antony saw them for the first time. In order to stabilize the east, Antony not only enlarged Cleopatra’s domain, he also established new ruling dynasties and client rulers who would be loyal to him, yet would ultimately outlast him. In 36 BC, Cleopatra accompanied Antony to the Euphrates in his journey toward invading the Parthian Empire. She then returned to Egypt, perhaps due to her advanced state of pregnancy. By the summer of 36 BC, she had given birth to Ptolemy Philadelphus, her second son with Antony. Antony’s Parthian campaign in 36 BC turned into a complete debacle. Antony finally arrived at Leukokome near Berytus (modern Beirut, Lebanon) in December, engaged in heavy drinking before Cleopatra arrived to provide funds and clothing for his battered troops.] Antony desired to avoid the risks involved in returning to Rome, and so he traveled with Cleopatra back to Alexandria to see his newborn son. Antony marched his army into Armenia, defeated their forces and captured the king and Armenian royal family. Antony then held a military parade in Alexandria as an imitation of a Roman triumph, dressed as Dionysus and riding into the city on a chariot to present the royal prisoners to Cleopatra, who was seated on a golden throne above a silver dais. News of this event was heavily criticized in Rome as a perversion of time-honored Roman rites and rituals to be enjoyed instead by an Egyptian queen. In an event held at the gymnasium soon after the triumph, Cleopatra dressed as Isis and declared that she was the Queen of Kings with her son Caesarion, King of Kings, while Alexander Helios was declared king of Armenia, Media, and Parthia, and two-year-old Ptolemy Philadelphos was declared king of Syria and Cilicia. Cleopatra was said to have brainwashed Mark Antony with witchcraft and sorcery and was as dangerous as Homer’s Helen of Troy in destroying civilization. On 1 January 33 BC, Octavian accused Antony of attempting to subvert Roman freedoms and territorial integrity as a slave to his Oriental queen. December 33 BC, Antony declared Caesarion as the true heir of Caesar in an attempt to undermine Octavian. Antony and Cleopatra traveled together to Ephesus in 32 BC, where she provided him with 200 of the 800 naval ships he was able to acquire. Cleopatra’s insistence that she be involved in the battle for Greece led to the defections of prominent Romans. During the spring of 32 BC Antony and Cleopatra traveled to Athens, where she persuaded Antony to send Octavia an official declaration of divorce. On 2 September 31 BC the naval forces of Octavian, led by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, met those of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. Cleopatra, aboard her flagship, the Antonias, commanded 60 ships at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, at the rear of the fleet. The Battle of Actium raged on without Cleopatra and Antony until the morning of 3 September, and was followed by massive defections of officers, troops, and allied kings to Octavian’s side. Lucius Pinarius, Mark Antony’s appointed governor of Cyrene, received word that Octavian had won the Battle of Actium before Antony’s messengers could arrive at his court. Pinarius had these messengers executed and then defected to Octavian’s side, surrendering to him the four legions under his command that Antony desired to obtain. Antony nearly committed suicide after hearing news of this but was stopped by his staff officers. In Alexandria he built a reclusive cottage on the island of Pharos. Cleopatra perhaps started to view Antony as a liability by the late summer of 31 BC, when she prepared to leave Egypt to her son Caesarion. Cleopatra planned to relinquish her throne to him, take her fleet from the Mediterranean into the Red Sea, and then set sail to a foreign port, perhaps in India, where she could spend time recuperating. Malichus I, as advised by Octavian’s governor of Syria, Quintus Didius, managed to burn Cleopatra’s fleet in revenge for his losses in a war with Herod that Cleopatra had largely initiated. Cleopatra had no other option but to stay in Egypt and negotiate with Octavian. Cleopatra requested that her children should inherit Egypt and that Antony should be allowed to live in exile in Egypt, offered Octavian money in the future, and immediately sent him lavish gifts. Octavian sent his diplomat Thyrsos to Cleopatra after she threatened to burn herself and vast amounts of her treasure within a tomb already under construction. Thyrsos advised her to kill Antony. On 1 August 30 BC, Antony’s naval fleet surrendered to Octavian, followed by Antony’s cavalry. Cleopatra hid herself in her tomb with her close attendants and sent a message to Antony that she had committed suicide. In despair, Antony responded to this by stabbing himself in the stomach and taking his own life at age 53. Proculeius infiltrated her tomb using a ladder and detained the queen, denying her the ability to burn herself with her treasures. Cleopatra was then allowed to embalm and bury Antony within her tomb before she was escorted to the palace. Octavian entered Alexandria, occupied the palace, and seized Cleopatra’s three youngest children. When a spy informed her that Octavian planned to move her and her children to Rome in three days, she prepared for suicide as she had no intentions of being paraded in a Roman triumph like her sister Arsinoe IV. It is unclear if Cleopatra’s suicide in August 30 BC, at age 39, took place within the palace or her tomb. It is the popular belief is that she allowed an asp or Egyptian cobra to bite and poison her. Cleopatra decided in her last moments to send Caesarion away to Upper Egypt, perhaps with plans to flee to Kushite Nubia, Ethiopia, or India. Caesarion, now Ptolemy XV, would reign for a mere 18 days until executed on the orders of Octavian on 29 August 30 BC, after returning to Alexandria under the false pretense that Octavian would allow him to be king. – Wikipedia
- Helen of Troy – In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy, was said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda. She was married to King Menelaus of Sparta. When it was time for Helen to marry, many kings and princes from around the world came to seek her hand. Menelaus was chosen to be Helen’s husband. Helen and Menelaus became rulers of Sparta, after Tyndareus and Leda abdicated. Menelaus and Helen rule in Sparta for at least ten years; they have a daughter, Hermione, and (according to some myths) three sons: Aethiolas, Maraphius, and Pleisthenes. Paris, a Trojan prince, came to Sparta to claim Helen, in the guise of a supposed diplomatic mission. Before this journey, Paris had been appointed by Zeus to judge the most beautiful goddess; Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite. In order to earn his favour, Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world. Swayed by Aphrodite’s offer, Paris chose her as the most beautiful of the goddesses, earning the wrath of Athena and Hera. Paris either came as one of the many suitors and given favor by Helen and her family took her fairly, or he came as a supposed diplomat and kidnapped her from Menelaus and raped her. Whatever occurred, it sparked the Trojan War. Helen gradually realized Paris’ weaknesses. Homer paints a poignant, lonely picture of Helen in Troy. She is filled with self-loathing and regret for what she has caused; by the end of the war, the Trojans have come to hate her. When the Trojan horse entered the city, Helen held the attention with a fete of Bacchic rites (using intoxicants and other trance-inducing techniques like dance and music to remove inhibitions) in treachery. After the deaths of Hector and Paris, Helen became the paramour of their younger brother, Deiphobus; but when the sack of Troy began, she hid her new husband’s sword, and left him to the mercy of Menelaus and Odysseus. Helen returned to Sparta and lived for a time with Menelaus, where she was encountered by Telemachus in Book 4 of The Odyssey. As depicted in that account, she and Menelaus were completely reconciled and had a harmonious married life—he holding no grudge at her having run away with a lover and she feeling no restraint in telling anecdotes of her life inside besieged Troy. – Wikipedia
- Achilles – Achilles was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and is the central character of Homer’s Iliad. Achilles was the son of the Nereid Thetis and of Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons. Zeus and Poseidon had been rivals for the hand of Thetis until Prometheus, the fore-thinker, warned Zeus of a prophecy (originally uttered by Themis, goddess of divine law) that Thetis would bear a son greater than his father. For this reason, the two gods withdrew their pursuit, and had her wed Peleus. Thetis tried to make her son, Achilles, immortal by dipping him in the river Styx; however, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him: his left heel thus the Achilles heel. Peleus entrusted Achilles to Chiron the Centaur, on Mount Pelion, to be reared. Thetis foretold that her son’s fate was either to gain glory and die young, or to live a long but uneventful life in obscurity. Achilles chose the former, and decided to take part in the Trojan war. Thetis (or, in some versions, Peleus) hid the young man at the court of Lycomedes, king of Skyros. There, Achilles is disguised as a girl and lives among Lycomedes’ daughters, perhaps under the name “Pyrrha” (the red-haired girl). With Lycomedes’ daughter Deidamia, whom in the account of Statius he rapes, Achilles there fathers a son, Neoptolemus (also called Pyrrhus, after his father’s possible alias). Troilus was a young Trojan prince, Achilles, struck by the beauty of both Troilus and his sister, Polyxena, and overcome with lust, directed his sexual attentions on the youth – who, refusing to yield, instead found himself decapitated upon an altar-omphalos of Apollo Thymbraios. At the end of the decade long Trojan War, Achilles ends his refusal to fight and takes the field, killing many men in his rage but always seeking out Hector. Achilles even engages in battle with the river god Scamander, who has become angry that Achilles is choking his waters with all the men he has killed. Zeus himself takes note of Achilles’ rage and sends the gods to restrain him so that he will not go on to sack Troy itself before the time allotted for its destruction. Achilles finds his prey. Achilles chases Hector around the wall of Troy three times before Athena, in the form of Hector’s favorite and dearest brother, Deiphobus, persuades Hector to stop running and fight Achilles face to face. After Hector realizes the trick, he knows the battle is inevitable. Wanting to go down fighting, he charges at Achilles with his only weapon, his sword, but misses. Accepting his fate, Hector begs Achilles, not to spare his life, but to treat his body with respect after killing him. Achilles tells Hector it is hopeless to expect that of him, declaring that “my rage, my fury would drive me now to hack your flesh away and eat you raw – such agonies you have caused me”. Achilles then kills Hector and drags his corpse by its heels behind his chariot. In the Iliad, and as predicted by Hector with his dying breath, the hero’s death was brought about by Paris with an arrow. – Wikipedia
- Tristan – Tristan is the son of Blancheflor and Rivalen and the nephew of King Mark of Cornwall, sent to fetch Iseult back from Ireland to wed the king. He and Iseult accidentally consume a love potion while en route and fall helplessly in love; the pair undergo numerous trials that test their secret affair. In Malory’s telling, Sir Tristram (Tristan) had met and fallen in love with Isolde (Iseult) earlier. His uncle, King Mark, jealous of Tristan and seeking to undermine him, appears to seek marriage to Isolde for just such a hateful purpose, going so far as to ask Tristram to go and seek her hand on his behalf (which Tristram, understanding that to be his knightly duty, does). Of all the knights, Tristram most resembles Sir Lancelot as he too loves a queen, the wife of another. Tristan is even considered to be as strong and able a knight as Lancelot, although they become beloved friends. Because of King Mark’s treacherous behaviour, Tristram takes Isolde from him and lives with her for some time, but he then returns Isolde to him. Nonetheless, Mark kills Tristram while he is “harping”. Tristan made his first recorded appearance in the 12th century in British mythology circulating in the north of France. – Wikipedia
He pointed out by name a thousand souls
Whom love had parted from our life, or more.
When I had heard my teacher tell the rolls
Of knights and ladies of antiquity,
Pity overwhelmed me.
Dante began his poetic life as a lyric poet working within the conventions of courtly love and in the context of an eros that is viewed as an imperious force that cannot be withstood… in some poems he supports the idea that Love is a compulsive force and in others he challenges that idea… Love is the life force, the force that binds and moves the universe; it is coexistent with intellect and with truth. Therefore, for Dante, that which we can properly call love can never be antithetical to intellect, reason, and truth. – DigitalDante.columbia.edu
It was thought, in Medieval courtly love, that “love” takes over and you lose your reason and free will. But Dante goes against that in his comedy because he makes a soul gripped by LUST as one who may call it love, but because reason and will are lost, it is actually lust. The lustful are defined as controlled not by reason, but by passion. Desire is not wrong but wisdom must be in charge. What is wrong is when wisdom, discretion and reason are lost to passion. The sinners here let passion rule, they allowed these winds and waves to control them.
Dante asks to speak to one couple and Virgil tells him how to call them over. He wants to ask how they got to this horrible place. It is Francesca, daughter of Guido da Polenta, Lord of Ravenna and her lover, Paul Malatesta. It seems Francesca had been married to a much older man, Gianciotto Malatesta, son of the Lord of Rimini. He may have even been deformed. Anyway, Gianciotto had a brother, Paola or Paul who was younger and handsome. Their marriage was one of alliance, not love, and they were married 10 years before the affair. One day, while reading a romance book about Lancelot together, Francesca and Paul’s eyes met.
One day, for pleasure,
We read of Lancelot, by love constrained:
Alone, suspecting nothing, at our leisure.
Sometimes at what we read our glances joined,
Looking from the book each to the other’s eyes,
And then the color in our faces drained.
But one particular moment alone it was
Defeated us: the longed-for smile, it said,
Was kissed by that most noble lover: at this,
This one, who now will never leave my side,
Kissed my mouth, trembling. A Galeotto, that book!
And so was he who wrote it; that day we read
No further.”
Galeotto is an Italian matchmaker.
The result was that Gianciotto Malatesta caught them and either killed them or had them killed. They betrayed him and he betrayed them. She found her only happiness, and now her misery, in Paolo’s love. They remain together for eternity but it is in Hell, not Heaven. Their sin is a sin of incontinence, weakness of will, and falling from grace through inaction of conscience. This circle is one in which the sins of incontinence are punished: the sin of passion, gluttony, and self indulgence.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (NAS) 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.
Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
Galatians 5:19-24 (NLT) 19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.
Galatians 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Excerpts of Inferno are from a new translation by Robert Pinsky.
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