Canto 30

Canto 30

Summary:

Starting in the tenth bolgia of the Eighth circle of hell, Dante sees sinners running towards each other and biting each other with their teeth. These are the Falsifiers of Others’ Persons, which means they acted like someone else by using impersonation. One of the sinners, Myrrha, was overwhelmed by passion for her father that she pretended to be another woman in order to sleep with him. Some of the Falsifiers of Coins mingle with these sinners. The only person Dante tries to speak too is Master Adam, who counterfeited Florentine money, and now is swollen with dropsy as part of his punishment.

Adam points out to Dante two of the sinners, both Falsifiers of Words (liars). One of the sinners is the wife of Potiphar. She had lied and said that Joseph had tried to seduce her after she had tried to seduce him. The other sinner was Sinon, a Greek man, who knows Adam and starts a fight with him. Dante is intrigued and listens. Virgil yells at Dante and tells him to never be tempted, or fascinated to listening.

This is where the Eighth Circle ends.

Sinners/Sin:

The Falsifiers are people who cause destruction on an individual or society by betraying the trust of others by falsifying and finding their only satisfaction in attacking each other.

Punishment/Contrapasso:

The sinners spent their life corrupting nature by misleading and alterations; their time in hell is now spent with some form of corruption, usually a disease. Each type of the four falsifiers receives a different disease that relates to their sin as punishment.  

§  Falsifiers of people suffer madness.

§  Falsifiers of coins suffer dropsy.

§  Falsifiers of things suffer leprosy.

§  Falsifiers of words suffer fever.

The Falsifiers are constantly scratching because they have no control of a great itch, and they are constantly biting at one another.

Characters:

§  Myrrha: pretending to be someone else in order to be able to sleep with her father

§  Master Adam: Is constantly craving the drink of water

§  Sinon: Son of Aesimus, a Greek Warrior during the Trojan War & lied about the Trojan horse saying it was a gift to the gods

§  Potiphar’s Wife: Tried do seduce Joseph but fails, accuses Joseph of seducing her

§  Gianni Schicchi: Used impersonation to inherit his friend’s horse

Important Quotes:

“In a frenzy, like pigs escaped from their sties,

Snapping wildly at everything in sight.

 One of them fastened his teeth like a vise”