Post VI - Dante's Divine Comedy - The FLATTERERS in the Inferno

As a Pilgrim guided by Virgil, Dante and Virgil find themselves an a high ledge beneath very high cliffs looking down into an area of water in which individuals are covered from head to toe with dirty sticky liquid.

This is where, in Hell, those who on Earth flattered others, can be found.

Dante, on Earth, saw these individuals (in Hell and Purgatory all individuals being called "Shades") as those who "corrupt language." He experienced them as "Yes men." He abhorred this type of individual. Dante himself stuck to his principles which ultimately resulted in his exile from Florence.

His verse-text below provides a vivid description of the horror and punishment these individuals experience in Hell because of their behaviour on Earth.

Before reading this text, first, look at the Illustration created by Gustave Dore reflecting, for him, what  Dante wrote. To look at this Illustration type into Google: "Gustave Dore's Illustration of Flatterers Dante's Divine Comedy" A number of illustrations will be shown. Within the first three is the one that will be described here. Two of the three pictures are the same. The "Getty" image is the clearest.  This Illustration by Dore shows very high cliffs, then a ledge below on which Virgil and Dante are standing, beneath which is the filthy water which the Flatters are unable to get out of.

Look at, study the sheer cliffs standing exactly at a 90% right angle from the liquid and being impossible to climb. Look at the faces of the individuals and their overall gestures. What do they tell you about their plight in Hell.

A way of appreciating the way these figures feel is to imitate their gesture. Look particularly at one individual, a person who is a darker shade of colour than the others. He is immediately adjacent to the lower cliff face that stands furthest to the right of the picture.

See how he is holding his head by one of his arms - how the top of his back, together with his equally bent head, is bent forward remorsefully. Feel his pain, sorrow, apology, remorse, regret?

Now read the verse-text, preferably aloud. The translation is by Mark Musa.

"Now we could hear the shades in the next pouch

     whimpering, making snorting grunting sounds,

     and sounds of blows, slapping with open palms.

From a steaming stench below, the banks were coated

     with a slimy mould that stuck to them like glue,

     disgusting to behold and worst to smell.

The bottom was so hollowed out of sight,

     we saw it only when we climbed the arch

     and looked down from the bridge's highest point:

there we were, and from where I stood I saw

     souls in the ditch plunged into excrement

     that might well have been flushed from our latrines;  (Lines 103 - 114)

I am stuck down here by all these flatteries

     that rolled unceasing off my tongue up there."  (Lines 125 - 126)

Speaking these verses and forming gestures may enable experience of pain and remorse of a Flatterer.

 

 



 

 

Please use this Blog to share your experiences. Thank you.

The next Post will look at Hypocrites  - Dante's next concern. Gustave Dore's Illustration for these individuals is particularly stunning.