David Bruce: Dante’s INFERNO: A Discussion Guide — “Canto 23: The Hypocrites”

“Canto 23: The Hypocrites”

What animal fable does Dante allude to at the beginning of Canto 23?

All animal fables were attributed to Aesop in the Middle Ages, and so Dante the Poet — mistakenly — attributed this animal fable to Aesop: A mouse wishes to cross a pool of water, and he asks a frog to help him across the pool of water. The frog agrees to help the mouse, but halfway across the pool of water the frog attempts to drown the mouse. A hawk sees the frog and mouse, captures both of them, eats the frog, and allows the mouse to go free.

What is the correct interpretation of the beginning of the animal fable that Dante alludes to at the beginning of Canto 23?

Perhaps the mouse in the fable is meant to be compared to Virgil and Dante, who are deceived by the devils (the frog). The hawk can represent Divine Justice, who punishes the wicked and helps the innocent. This is Mark Musa’s interpretation, although other commentators regard the frog as equating Ciampolo, who fools the mouse (Alichino).

What is the moral of the animal fable?

The moral of the animal fable is that the wicked are punished and the innocent go free. We certainly see that two black devils, who deceived Virgil and Dante about a bridge being intact over the 6^thbolgia, are punished by falling into the boiling pitch, In addition, the innocent Virgil and Dante escape from the Malebranche.

How do Dante and Virgil escape from the Malebranche?

Dante and Virgil talked to the Grafter Ciampolo, thus giving him an opportunity to talk to the devils and escape being tormented by them. The devils are angry when Ciampolo escapes, and the devils start running after Dante and Virgil, but Virgil takes good care of Dante and gets Dante and himself to the next bolgia.

How do we know that Virgil can read Dante the Pilgrim’s thoughts?

We have seen some evidence that Virgil knows Dante the Pilgrim’s thoughts. Here Virgil specifically confirms that he has this power when Dante says that he is afraid that the Malebranche are after them:

And he: “If I were made of leaded glass,

Thine outward image I should not attract

Sooner to me than I imprint the inner.”

(Longfellow 23.25-27)

Note: “leaded glass” is a mirror.

How does Virgil take good care of Dante?

Virgil does take good care of Dante here. We read that Virgil is like a mother taking care of her son in an emergency:

My Leader on a sudden seized me up,

Even as a mother who by noise is wakened,

And close beside her sees the enkindled flames,

Who takes her son, and flies, and does not stop,

Having more care of him than of herself,

So that she clothes her only with a shift;

(Longfellow 23.37-42)

By the way, “chemise” (the word used in another translation) is pronounced sha-MEZ. A chemise is a sleeveless undergarment that is worn by a woman.

Of course, mothers really do protect their children. For example, this is a story told to me by one of my students: When Ohio University student Nathaniel Sturgil was a child, an alarm clock caused a major panic in his family. The alarm was set very loud to allow the family to wake up to music, but one morning a radio drama was playing on the station. The radio drama was about a house fire, and the crackling of the flames could be heard very clearly. His mother ran screaming through the house, waking up her children and making them go outside until she realized her mistake.

Why can’t the devils follow Virgil and Dante after they leave the devils’ bolgia?

We learn that once Virgil and Dante have left this particular bolgia (ditch) the devils cannot follow them. God does not allow the guards to leave the area that they are guarding:

For the high Providence, which had ordained

To place them ministers of the fifth moat,

The power of thence departing took from all.

(Longfellow 23.55-57)

What is Hypocrisy?

Hypocrisy is making a show of holding beliefs that you do not actually hold.

A politician could pretend to care about the people he represents, but in reality be taking bribes to help corporations fleece the people while in public saying that he fights for the people. Such a politician would be guilty of both barratry and hypocrisy.

A person could also profess in public to be a Christian while in private doing things no true Christian would ever do.

What is the punishment given to the Hypocrites, and why is it fitting?

In the sixth bolgia are punished the Hypocrites. The Hypocrites appeared golden on the outside although on the inside they were made of base metal, so for eternity they appropriately wear heavy cloaks that are gold on the outside but lead on the inside. We should note that the clothing the Hypocrites wear resemble the cloaks of friars. Dante writes, “(the style was much the same / as those the Benedictines wear at Cluny)” (Musa, Inferno23.62-63). In his notes to his translation of this passage, John Ciardi writes that these monks had habits that were “especially ample and elegant” (186). Mr. Ciardi also notes, “St. Bernard once wrote ironically to a nephew who had entered this monastery, ‘If length of sleeves and amplitude of hood made for holiness, what could hold me back from following [your lead]’” (186).

The Hypocrites are the only sinners in the Inferno who wear clothing. (Homer does carry a sword in Limbo.)

These sinners do not have guards. The heavy clothing they wear makes it impossible for them to climb out of the ditch they are in.

Saint Matthew criticized hypocrisy, using words that influenced Dante:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. (Matthew 23:27; King James Version)

The heavy cloaks of the Hypocrites make them walk very slowly. This slowness is mimicked in Dante’s verse. He (or his translator, Mark Musa) uses many commas and a colon in this passage to slow down the reader:

And now, down there, we found a painted people,

slow-motioned: step by step, they walked their round.

(Musa, Inferno23.58-59)

Who are the Jovial Friars?

Dante meets two Jovial Friars in this part of the Inferno: the Guelf Catalano and the Ghibelline Loderingo. They were brought into Florence to help keep the peace, but instead they took sides and increased the violence of Florence. (Florentines would not trust the other faction to keep the peace, so outsiders were sometimes brought in to keep the peace.) These two Jovial Friars pretended to be peacekeepers but actually fomented violence. According to Mark Musa, Pope Clement IV gave these two men orders, which they followed. Pope Clement IV wanted to drive the Ghibellines from power and give the power to the Guelfs.

As a whole, the Jovial Friars became known for the laxness with which they took their vows, and eventually their order, by papal decree, was disbanded.

Who was Caiaphas? Was Caiaphas present the last time Virgil visited this part of Hell?

Caiaphas, the High Priest of the Jews, allowed Jesus to be crucified although he believed him to be innocent.

In the 11st chapter of John (King James version), we read:

46:But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done.

47:Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.

48:If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.

49:And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all,

50:Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.

51:And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation;

52:And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.

53:Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.

Caiaphas is crucified on the ground with three stakes, and all the other Hypocrites (except those who are crucified on the ground like him) walk over him on their journey around the Circle. Annas (Caiaphas’ father-in-law), who delivered Jesus to Caiaphas, is also crucified on the ground, along with the other Jewish counselors who allowed Jesus to be crucified.

Virgil was surprised to see this because the crucified Caiaphas was not here when Virgil made his previous journey to the journey. That journey occurred shortly after Virgil had died and before Caiaphas had died. Of course, other sinners are now in the Inferno whom Virgil did not previously see, so what strikes Virgil is this kind of contrapasso, which he has not seen before.

Caiaphas is an Evil Counselor as well as a Hypocrite. We will see the Evil Counselors punished in the 8^thbolgia. (The hypocrites are punished in the 6^thbolgia, and the thieves are punished in the 7^thbolgia.) Once again, Dante has a transition figure between parts of the Inferno.

In which way is the punishment given to Caiaphas and Annas and some council members fitting?

Caiaphas, the High Priest of the Jews, allowed Jesus to be crucified although he believed him to be innocent. Caiaphas’ father-in-law, Annas, delivered Jesus to Caiaphas for judgment. Members of the council also thought it best that Jesus be crucified.

These people are Hypocrites and Evil Counselors. They are Hypocrites because they thought that Jesus was innocent yet allowed him to be crucified. Thus, it is fitting both that they be crucified and that they bear the weight of the Hypocrites who walk on them.

Virgil is not perfect. He can be fooled.

Of course, Virgil represents Human Reason. According to Christian believers such as Dante, Human Reason is useful, but we also need Divine Justice and help from God.

Occasionally, Virgil needs divine help, as when an angel came to open the gate of the City of Dis when the rebellious angels shut it. Also, occasionally, Virgil makes a mistake, as when he believed the winged devils in the previous bolgia who said that they would take him to an unbroken bridge although in that part of the Inferno no unbroken bridge existed.

We find out that being deceived bothers Virgil:

The Leader stood awhile with head bowed down;

Then said: “The business badly he recounted

Who grapples with his hook the sinners yonder.”

(Longfellow 23.139-141)

Note: “Leader” is a word that Longfellow uses for Virgil; Mark Musa prefers to use the word “guide.”

However, we also note that Virgil’s mistake does not diminish Dante’s respect for him:

Thereat my Leader with great strides went on,

Somewhat disturbed with anger in his looks;

Whence from the heavy-laden I departed

After the prints of his beloved feet.

(Longfellow 23.145-148)

Based on what you have read so far, was Dante anti-Semitic? (For example, many Christians of Dante’s time would have placed Jews among the Heretics, Usurers and Counterfeiters. Did Dante?)

Many medieval Christians would have placed Jews among the Heretics, Usurers, and Counterfeiters, but Dante does not.

Joseph Gallagher, in his A Modern Reader’s Guide to Dante’sThe Divine Comedy, cites the Encyclopedia Judaica, which says this about The Divine Comedy(48):

The Comedycontains no insulting or pejorative references to Jews …. There are no Jews among Heretics, Usurers and Counterfeiters, whose sinful ranks Jews during the Middle Ages were commonly alleged to swell. (p. 1,296)

Dante, however, did accept what the New Testament said about individual Jews; thus, Caiaphas and other individual Jews appear among the Hypocrites.

Do you know of any famous Hypocrites?

Any person who is gay and practices gay sex in private yet publicly speaks out against gay people is probably a Hypocrite. The Reverend Ted Haggard is perhaps one such person. A pastor of a church, he spoke out publicly against homosexuality while having gay sex on the side with a male prostitute. These people would not be Hypocrites if they truly believe that being homosexual is evil yet cannot control their own urges.

Any person who is gay and practices gay sex in private yet publicly claims to be heterosexual is a Hypocrite.

Jimmy Swaggart, another pastor, spoke out against prostitutes while at the same time paying a prostitute.

These people may be punished as lustful or as hypocrites. Of course, if they repent their sins sincerely before they die, they will go to Purgatory and then to Paradise.

David Bruce: Dante’s INFERNO: A Discussion Guide — “Canto 23: The Hypocrites”

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