Dante and Virgil were in the eighth circle of Hell called Malebolges (evil ditches) in which Fraud is punished. They are leaving the last of the evil ditches and coming to edge of the eighth circle to descend into the ninth circle. The light is changing and it becomes harder for Dante to see.
Crossing in silence. Here it was something less
Than night and less than day, so that my vision
Reached only a little way ahead of us;
But I could hear a horn blast – its concussion
So loud it would make a thunderclap seem faint;
And the sound guided my eyes in its direction
Back to one place, where all my attention went.
After the dolorous rout, when Charlemagne
Had lost his holy army and Roland sent
The signal from his horn, it must have been
Less terrible a sound. Before my head
Was turned that way for long, I saw a line
Of what seemed lofty towers. Then I said,
“Master, what city is this?” “Because you peer
Into the dark from far off,” he replied,
“Your imagination goes astray. Once there,
You will see plainly how distance can deceive
The senses – so spur yourself a little more.”
And then he took me by the hand, with love,
Saying, “Before we go much farther along,
Learn now, in order that the fact may prove
Less strange: these are not towers but a ring
Of giants – each one standing in the pit
Up to the navel.” As mist is vanishing,
Little by little vision starts picking out
Shapes that were hidden in the misty air:
Just so, as I began to penetrate,
Into that thick and murky atmosphere,
Fear gathered in me as my error fled –
For, as on Montereggione’s wall appear
Towers that crown its circle, here, arrayed
All round the bank encompassing the pit
With half their bulk like towers above it, stood
Horrible giants, whom Jove still rumbles at
with menace when he thunders. I descried
The face of one already, and the set
Of his great chest and shoulders, and a wide
Stretch of his belly above the abyss’s walls,
And the arms along his sides. (Nature indeed,
when she abandoned making these animals,
Did well to keep such instruments from Mars;
Though she does not repent of making whales
Or elephants, a person who subtly inquires
Into her ways will find her both discreet
And just, in her decision: if one confers
The power of the mind, along with that
Of immense strength, upon an evil will
Then people will have no defense from it.)
To me his face appeared as long and full
As the bronze pinecone of St. Peter’s at Rome,
With all his other bones proportional,
So that the bank, which was an apron for him
Down from his middle, showed above it such height
Three men of Friesland could not boast to come
Up to his hair. Extending down from the spot
Where one would buckle a mantle I could see
Thirty spans of him. The fierce mouth started to shout
“Raphel mai ameche zabi almi” –
Sweeter psalms would not fit it – and then my guide
addressed him: “Soul, in your stupidity
Keep to your horn, and when you have the need
Use that to vent your rage or other passion;
Search at your neck the strap where it is tied,
And try to see it, O spirit in confusion,
Aslant your own great chest.” Having said that
He told me, “This is Nimrod: his accusation
He himself makes; for through his evil thought
There is no common language the world can use:
Leave him alone then, rather than speak for naught –
For every language is to him as his
Is to all others: no one fathoms it.”
Dante, the poet, is transitioning Dante, the pilgrim, and Virgil from the eighth circle of Hell to the ninth circle of Hell. In the dark, Dante sees what he thinks are towers of a city. But Virgil corrects him and says that it is the top half of giants.
Montereggione is a commune in the province of Siena in the Italian region of Tuscany. Monteriggioni is a medieval walled town, located on a natural hillock, built by the Sienese in 1214–19 as a front line in their wars against Florence. During the conflicts between Siena and Florence in the Middle Ages, the city was strategically placed as a defensive fortification. It also withstood many attacks from both the Florentines. – Wikipedia
In the War of the Titans, the Titans pit themselves against the Olympians. The Titans were the deities in Greek mythology that preceded the Olympians. They were the children of the primordial deities Uranus (heaven) and Gaea (earth). The Titans included Oceanus, Tethys, Hyperion, Theia, Coeus, Phoebe, Cronus, Rhea, Mnemosyne, Themis, Crius and Iapetus. The Olympians were a race of deities, primarily consisting of a third and fourth generation of immortal beings, worshipped as the principal gods of the Greek pantheon and so named because of their residency atop Mount Olympus. They gained their supremacy in a ten-year-long war of gods, in which Zeus (in Greek, Jove/Jupiter in Roman mythology) led his siblings to victory over the previous generation of ruling gods, the Titans. Jove/Zeus/Jupiter defeats them with his thunderbolts from heaven. Jove is the god of the sky and thunder and king of the gods in Ancient Roman religion and mythology. – Wikipedia
The horn blast that Dante hears is one of the giants, Nimrod (Nembrodt to Dante), who is sounding a warning blast that someone is coming.
The feet of the giants are on the floor of the ninth circle, while their torsos and heads stick up over the edge of the eighth circle, thus giving the appearance of towers. Dante, the poet, did this to bring to mind the towers in the cities he knows and how they the represented pride and arrogance of their builders.
The Battle of Roncevaux Pass (French and English spelling, Roncesvalles in Spanish) in 778 saw a large force of Basques ambush a part of Charlemagne’s army in Roncevaux Pass, a high mountain pass in the Pyrenees on the present border between France and Spain, after his invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. The Basque attack was a retaliation for Charlemagne’s destruction of the city walls of their capital, Pamplona. As the Franks retreated across the Pyrenees back to Francia, the rearguard of Frankish lords was cut off, stood its ground, and was wiped out. Many of his notable lords, such as Roland, military governor of the Breton March, and Eggihard, Mayor of the Palace, were placed in the rearguard probably to protect the retreat and the baggage train. In the evening of August 15, Charlemagne’s rearguard was suddenly attacked by the Basques as they crossed the mountain pass. The Franks were caught off guard by the surprise attack, with their army in confusion and disarray as they tried to escape the ambush. The Basques managed to cut off and isolate the Frankish rearguard and the baggage train from the rest of the escaping army, and although the Basques were not as well-equipped, they held the upper ground and the knowledge of the terrain that gave them a huge advantage in the skirmish. As Charlemagne tried to regroup and evacuate his army, Roland and the others held for a considerable amount of time before the Basques finally massacred them completely. Though killed to the last man, the rearguard nonetheless succeeded in allowing Charlemagne and his army to continue to safety. Among those killed in the battle was Roland, a Frankish commander. His death elevated him and the paladins, the foremost warriors of Charlemagne’s court, into legend, becoming the quintessential role model for knights and also greatly influencing the code of chivalry in the Middle Ages. There are numerous written works about the battle, some of which change and exaggerate events. The battle is recounted in the 11th century The Song of Roland, the oldest surviving major work of French literature.
The Three Classic Matters were the Matter of Rome, Matter of France, Matter of Britain with other matters known as the Matter of England. The cycle springs from the Old French chansons de geste, and was later adapted into a variety of art forms, including Renaissance epics and operas. Together with the Matter of Britain, which concerned King Arthur, and the Matter of Rome, comprising material derived from and inspired by classical mythology, it was one of the great literary cycles that figured repeatedly in medieval literature. The Matter of France, aka the Carolingian cycle, is a body of literature and legendary material associated with the history of France, in particular involving Charlemagne and his associates. Ganelon is the knight who betrayed Charlemagne’s army to the Saracens, leading to the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. His name is said to derive from the Italian word inganno, meaning fraud or deception. He is based upon the historical Wenilo, the archbishop of Sens who betrayed King Charles the Bald in 858. Ganilon was a well-respected Frankish baron; Roland’s own stepfather and Charlemagne’s brother-in-law. Ganilon appears in The Song of Roland. Ganelon resents his stepson’s boastfulness, great popularity among the Franks and success on the battlefield. When Roland nominates him for a dangerous mission as messenger to the Saracens, Ganelon is deeply offended and vows vengeance. This revenge takes the form of treachery, as Ganelon plots the ambush at Roncesvals with Blancandrin. Roland and his men are ambushed and killed. At the very last, before dying, Roland blows his horn to warn Charlemagne. At the end, justice is served when Ganelon’s comrade Pinabel is defeated in a trial by combat, showing that Ganelon is a traitor in the eyes of God. Ganelon is torn limb from limb by four fiery horses. – Wikipedia
In the War of the Titans, the Titans pit themselves against the Olympians. The Titans were the deities in Greek mythology that preceded the Olympians. They were the children of the primordial deities Uranus (heaven) and Gaea (earth). The Titans included Oceanus, Tethys, Hyperion, Theia, Coeus, Phoebe, Cronus, Rhea, Mnemosyne, Themis, Crius and Iapetus. The Olympians were a race of deities, primarily consisting of a third and fourth generation of immortal beings, worshipped as the principal gods of the Greek pantheon and so named because of their residency atop Mount Olympus. They gained their supremacy in a ten-year-long war of gods, in which Zeus (in Greek, Jove/Jupiter in Roman mythology) led his siblings to victory over the previous generation of ruling gods, the Titans. Jove/Zeus/Jupiter defeats them with his thunderbolts from heaven. Jove is the god of the sky and thunder and king of the gods in Ancient Roman religion and mythology. – Wikipedia
Who is Nimrod? We look to the Bible.
Genesis 9:18-28 (NLT, After the Flood) 18 The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.) 19 From these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the earth.
20 After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. 21 One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked.
24 When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. 25 Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham:
“May Canaan be cursed!
May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.”
26 Then Noah said,
“May the LORD, the God of Shem, be blessed,
and may Canaan be his servant!
27 May God expand the territory of Japheth!
May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem,
and may Canaan be his servant.”
28 Noah lived another 350 years after the great flood. 29He lived 950 years, and then he died.
Genesis 10:6-20 (Table of Nations, NLT)
Descendants of Ham
6 The descendants of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
7 The descendants of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.
8 Cush was also the ancestor of Nimrod, who was the first heroic warrior on earth. 9 Since he was the greatest hunter in the world, his name became proverbial. People would say, “This man is like Nimrod, the greatest hunter in the world.” 10 He built his kingdom in the land of Babylonia, with the cities of Babylon, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh. 11 From there he expanded his territory to Assyria, building the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, 12 and Resen (the great city located between Nineveh and Calah).
13 Mizraim was the ancestor of the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, 14 Pathrusites, Casluhites, and the Caphtorites, from whom the Philistines came.
15 Canaan’s oldest son was Sidon, the ancestor of the Sidonians. Canaan was also the ancestor of the Hittites, 16 Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, 17 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, 18 Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. The Canaanite clans eventually spread out, 19 and the territory of Canaan extended from Sidon in the north to Gerar and Gaza in the south, and east as far as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, near Lasha.
20 These were the descendants of Ham, identified by clan, language, territory, and national identity.
Genesis 11:1-9 (NLT, Tower of Babel) 1 At one time all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words. 2 As the people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there.
3 They began saying to each other, “Let’s make bricks and harden them with fire.” (In this region bricks were used instead of stone, and tar was used for mortar.) 4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.”
5 But the LORD came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. 6 “Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! 7 Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.”
8 In that way, the LORD scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why the city was called Babel, because that is where the LORD confused the people with different languages. In this way he scattered them all over the world.
There are a lot of natural questions about these passages. Why did Noah get drunk? It is possible that he was not perfect and made a mistake. We are all human. On the other hand, we must take into consideration that his world was far different now than it had been before the Flood. The water canopy that God had protected the earth with was no longer there and gone. That’s where all the water came from that flooded the entire earth. Without that water bubble around the earth, the sun was hotter. Is it possible he didn’t realize the fermentation of the grapes would cause the wine? We don’t know. The Bible doesn’t indicate that Noah did something wrong, although the Bible does consider drunkenness wrong. So that’s why scholars have looked for answers. Drunkenness is wrong but the Bible doesn’t comment on Noah’s drunkenness so maybe he inadvertently got drunk. What we do know is that he was drunk in his tent and passed out.
What did Ham do that was so wrong? Perhaps Ham and his youngest son, Canaan, already displayed an inclination for moral depravity. The Bible says, “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.” What does “saw the nakedness of his father” mean? It could mean he was passed out naked in his tent. That’s the simplest answer. But it could mean something else. Other places in the Bible used this term for a sexual connotation.
Leviticus 20:11 If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
Is it possible that this term meant Ham actually had sex with his mother, Noah’s wife? Is it possible that Canaan was the result of that and is why he was cursed by Noah? Is it possible that discovering this shame was what led Noah to drink too much? Or maybe, while he was lying there drunk, he overheard Ham and his wife and learned the truth about an affair, or about Canaan? Is it possible that it wasn’t his mother that he had sex with but tried to have sex with his passed out father and his father woke up? These are suppositions. All we know for sure is that Ham did something indecent and Noah was angry and cursed, not Ham, but his son Canaan.
The other two brothers tried to cover the shame no matter which way you look at it. While Ham didn’t mind telling the shame, Shem and Japheth tried to cover it. Ham may have come running out of the tent to his brothers with some made up concoction, or mocking his father, or ridiculing, or just gossiping but the other two refused to participate in it and protected their father.
The end result was the prophetic word that came from Noah. Remember, just because we say something doesn’t mean our words become prophetic and truth. God is responsible for that. We are instruments, God is the voice. So Noah could have been mad at Ham, said all this and nothing ever came of it because it was Noah’s words, not God’s. And it probably wouldn’t have been a story recorded in the Bible. But, this time, was important because the words were from God, not just Noah spouting off in anger. God put the prophetic words in Noah’s mouth and they did come true many centuries in the making. So it was from God and prophetic because it did come true. Canaan was the father of many of the nations who were enemies of the Israelites.
Ham means “hot” or “sunburnt”. His sons were Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. Ham’s descendants are interpreted by Flavius Josephus and others as having populated Africa and adjoining parts of Asia. The word Canaanites serves as an ethnic catch-all term covering various indigenous populations—both settled and nomadic-pastoral groups—throughout the regions of the southern Levant or Canaan. The Canaanites were people who lived in the land of Canaan, an area which according to ancient texts may have included parts of modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Scholars doubt that the Canaanites were ever politically united into a single kingdom. After the Israelites escaped from Egypt they fought a series of wars against the Canaanites (and other groups), which led to the Israelites taking over most of the Canaanites’ land. The Canaanites who survived had to do forced labor. The stories also say that this conquered land was incorporated into a powerful Israelite kingdom under King David and King Solomon but that it eventually split in two.
“Exodus 20:5 restricts punishment of those who hate God to only the third and fourth generation, and elsewhere Scripture declares (Deuteronomy 24:16, Ezekiel 18:20) that God doesn’t hold children accountable for their fathers’ sins. If children commit the same sins as their fathers, they will be punished in the same way. This doesn’t involve some kind of “curse,” but the natural consequences of evil behavior.” – Questions.org
Now, on to Nimrod and the Tower of Babel. Nimrod was a descendant of Ham through his son, Cush. Nimrod is described as “the first heroic warrior on earth. Since he was the greatest hunter in the world, his name became proverbial…He built his kingdom in the land of Babylonia, with the cities of Babylon, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh. From there he expanded his territory to Assyria.”
Now we come to Babel. Babel would later be called Babylon. It was where these people gathered. God had commanded them to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”. But, for some reason, these people did not disperse. They stayed together. They had one language. They evidently decided, like humans have before and after, they didn’t need God. They could take care of themselves by sticking together. They preferred settlement to the uncertainties of the unknown, fame and power to obscurity and weakness. And they could get to Heaven without going through God. “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.” In their pride and hubris, they decided they could be God. They thought they could cross the boundaries God set. Who was their leader? Was it Nimrod? In Hebrew and Christian tradition, Nimrod is considered the leader of those who built the Tower of Babel in the land of Shinar. We don’t know for sure, but someone was leading them away from God. Someone was telling these people that they didn’t need God, they could do it themselves. God stepped in to prevent the human race from falling under the sway of it’s first tyrant who wanted to rule over all the earth. Notice, although the people thought their tower, or ziggurat, could take them to Heaven, God still had to come down to earth. They had not penetrated His realm so He came to them as He has done before and since. God decided to confuse their languages so they could not communicate and work together to build the tower which effectively scattered them.
Are our skyscrapers of today also a symbol of pride and hubris? Do we think we are God because we can raise a skyscraper into Heaven with our name on it?
The feet of the giants are on the floor of the ninth circle, while their torsos and heads stick up over the edge of the eighth circle, thus giving the appearance of towers. Dante, the poet, did this to bring to mind the towers in the cities he knows and how they the represented pride and arrogance of their builders.
Now we see Dante and Virgil at the giants. Dante describes them. He says Nature did well “when she abandoned making these animals, did well to keep such instruments from Mars”. Mars was the Roman god of war. As slaves to their passions, these giants are the worst human nature has to offer and Nature was right to stop making them. These giants all rebelled out of pride and envy. They used their God-given intellect and brute strength to do evil, “if one confers the power of the mind, along with that of immense strength, upon an evil will, then people will have no defense from it”.
The men of Friesland were known to be tall.
Thirty spans would be about 35 feet from the waist up. So a total of 70 feet in height.
Nimrod shouts but his words make no sense. Language binds us together because we can communicate. But language can also be used for evil, betrayal, treachery. Nimrod is now so stupid he can’t even find his horn which is strapped to him. He is too stupid to be dangerous any more. He is condemned to babble nonsense through eternity. Empty speech. He lost his ability to lead when God confused the languages. Now he cannot speak in a known language. Our minds use cognitive reasoning to produce a communication through language. But Nimrod can no longer use cognitive reasoning (cannot even find his horn strapped to him) and thus cannot use language to communicate.
So, turning left, we quit that giant’s place,
And at the distance of a crossbow’s shot
Another, fiercer and greater, is what we found:
What master could have fettered him like that
I do not know, but his right arm was chained
Behind him and the other arm before,
Clasped by a chain that also held him bound
From the neck down, so that it was wound as far
As the fifth coil on the part of him that showed.
“This proud one had a wish to test his power
Against supreme Jove: this is how he is paid,”
My guide said, “Ephialtes is his name;
And when the giants made the gods afraid
Awesome endeavors were put forth by him.
He cannot move these arms he strove with once.”
I said, “If it’s possible for me to come
To where my eyes might have experience
Of immense Briareus, I wish I could.”
“Antaeus, whom you’ll see some distance hence,
Can speak, and is unchained as well,” he said;
“He will convey us to sin’s profoundest abyss.
The one you wish to see is farther ahead,
And he is bound and fashioned as this one is,
Though somewhat more ferocious in his look.”
No tower was ever shaken by the throes
Of a great earthquake as Ephialtes shook
Himself at hearing this. As never before
I was afraid of dying, and wouldn’t lack
A cause of death beyond that very fear,
Had I not seen his fetters.
Ephialtes, the son of Neptune (aka Poseidon) and Iphimedia, and his twin brother, Otus, were giants and wanted to storm Mt. Olympus and gain Artemis for Otus and Hera for Ephialtes. They pile mountains up to reach heaven but are killed. – Wikipedia
In Greek mythology, the Hecatoncheires (or Hundred-Handers), also called the Centimanes named Cottus, Briareus (or Aegaeon) and Gyges (or Gyes), were three monstrous giants, of enormous size and strength, with fifty heads and one hundred arms. They were among the eighteen offspring of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), which also included the twelve Titans, and the three one-eyed Cyclopes. They helped Zeus and the Olympians overthrow the Titans. In his Aeneid, Virgil has Aegaeon make war against the gods, “with fifty sounding shields and fifty swords”. Ovid, in his poem Fasti, has Briareus on the side of the Titans. As Ovid tells us, after the Titans had been overthrown, apparently in order to restore the Titans to power, Briareus sacrificed a bull, about which it had been prophesied that whoever burned its entrails would be able to conquer the gods. However just when Briareus was about to burn the entrails, birds snatched them away, and were rewarded with a home among the stars. – Wikipedia
Antaeus was the giant son of Poseidon and Gaia, who lived in the interior desert of Libya. Antaeus would challenge all passers-by to wrestling matches and remained invincible as long as he remained in contact with his mother, the earth. As Greek wrestling, like its modern equivalent, typically attempted to force opponents to the ground, he always won, killing his opponents. His wife was the goddess Tinge, for whom the city of Tangier in Morocco was named, and he had a daughter named Alceis or Barce. Antaeus fought Hercules/Heracles as he was on his way to the Garden of Hesperides as his 11th of the 12 Labours. Heracles realized that he could not beat Antaeus by throwing or pinning him. Instead, he held him aloft and then crushed him to death in a bear hug. He is unchained because he did not partake in the battle against the gods. – Wikipedia
Then we went on
And reached Antaeus – who rose five ells or more,
Not reckoning his head, above the stone.
“O you, who – in that fateful valley that made
Scipio inheritor of glory when
Hannibal along with all his followers fled
Showing his back – once garnered as your prey
A thousand lions: you through whom, it is said
By some, your brothers might have carried the day
In their high war, if you had been there then
Among the sons of earth in battle: pray,
Now set us down below – do not disdain
To do so – where Cocytus is locked in cold.
Do not compel us to seek some other one
Like Typhon or Tityus. This man can yield
The thing that’s longed for here; therefore bend down
And do not curl your lip. He can rebuild
Your fame on earth – he lives, and living on
Longer is his expectation, if grace does not
Summon him to itself untimely soon.”
So spoke my master; and the giant stretched out
In haste those hands whose grip clasped Hercules,
And took my leader. Virgil, when he felt that,
Said to me, “Now come here, that I may seize
Good hold of you,” and of himself and me
He made one bundle. As seems to one who sees
The leaning tower at Garisenda, when he
Is under the leaning side, and when a cloud
Is passing over going the other way
From how the tower inclines, so in my dread
Antaeus seemed to me as I watched him lean –
That moment, I would have wished for another road!
But having stooped he set us gently upon
That bottom Lucifer is swallowed in
Along with Judas; nor did he stay bent down,
But like a ship’s mast raised himself up again.
“Meantime it was necessary to hasten to Antaeus. This Giant had taken no part in the war against the gods, and was therefore left unbound. He was the least ferocious of the Giants, as Chiron was of the Centaurs, and Virgil hoped to persuade him to lift them down from the plain to the ice of Cocytus far below. He did not scruple to flatter his pride by recalling his prowess in slaying a thousand lions in the valley of the Bagrada, where Scipio Africanus won glory by his great victory over Hannibal, and by suggesting that the war with the gods would have gone differently had he joined in it.” – John S. Carroll (1904)
Typhon was a monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology. According to Hesiod, Typhon was the son of Gaia and Tartarus. Typhon attempted to overthrow Zeus for the supremacy of the cosmos. The two fought a cataclysmic battle, which Zeus finally won with the aid of his thunderbolts. Typhon was “terrible, outrageous and lawless”, immensely powerful, and on his shoulders were one hundred snake heads, that emitted fire and every kind of noise. Typhon “was joined in love” to Echidna, a monstrous half-woman and half-snake, who bore Typhon “fierce offspring”. – Wikipedia
Tityos was the son of Elara; his father was Zeus. Zeus hid Elara from his wife, Hera, by placing her deep beneath the earth. Tityos grew so large that he split his mother’s womb, and he was carried to term by Gaia, the Earth. Once grown, Tityos attempted to rape Leto at the behest of Hera. He was slain by Leto’s protective children Artemis and Apollo. As punishment, he was stretched out in Tartarus and tortured by two vultures who fed on his liver, which grew back every night.
“As a group, however, the giants function as anticipations of Lucifer: while not as evil as the king of Hell, the giants too are guilty of having rebelled through hubris against an all-mighty divinity.” – DigitalDante.columbia.edu
Excerpts from Dante’s Inferno are from a new translation by Robert Pinsky.
No comments:
Post a Comment