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Thieves in Hell: The Seventh Ditch

Dante and Virgil venture into the seventh circle of Hell, encountering the sinner Vanni Fucci and witnessing the punishment of the Five Noble Thieves of Florence. The thieves are constantly attacked by snakes and undergo painful transformations. The allusions to the Phoenix and the centaur Cacus add depth to the narrative.

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Thieves in Hell: The Seventh Ditch

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  1. Bolgia Seven The thieves Zoe Matherne

  2. Setting HELL CIRCLE 8 Malebolge - The Evil Ditches The Seventh Ditch

  3. What Happens XXIV Virgil and Dante cross the bridge of the 7th Bolgia and go down into the pit to observe the sinners; they meet Vanni Fucci, who tells his story and curses Dante. XXV Vanni curses God and is attacked by snakes & the centaur, Cacus. Dante meets the Five Noble Thieves of Florence and watches them undergo painful transformations. Vanni Fucci - Stole ornaments from the chapel of Saint James and then let another take the blame, and that man was put to death. The Five Noble Thieves of Florence- “...very little is known of the lives of these sinners beyond the sufficient fact that they were thieves.” p. 208

  4. The Sinners Thieves! Those who, in life, stole from others consciously.

  5. Their Punishment XXIV They run around in a pit of snakes and monstrous reptiles. The reptiles coil themselves around the sinners and eat them; once the sinners perish they are reborn and attacked again. XXV Four of the Five Noble Thieves-Agnello, Cianfa, Buoso and Francesco-undergo horrific transformations in which they merge with one another. The fifth, Puccio Sciancato, does not, but it is foreshadowed that he will soon meet the same fate.

  6. Contrapasso XXIV XXV John Ciardi, p.194 John Ciardi, p.202 “Thievery is reptilian in its secrecy; therefore it is punished by reptiles….as a thief destroys his fellow men by making their substance disappear, so is he painfully destroyed and made to disappear, not once but over and over again.” “In life they took the substance of others, transforming it into their own. So in Hell their very bodies are constantly being taken from them, and they are left to steal back a human form from some other sinner. Thus they waver constantly between man and reptile, and no sinner knows what to call his own.”

  7. Allusions The Phoenix ...and when he was dissolved into a heap upon the ground, the dust rose of itself and immediately resumed its former shape. Precisely so, philosophers declare, the Phoenix dies and then is born again when it approaches its five hundredth year. Canto XXIV, p. 198, lines 101-108

  8. Allusions The centaur, Cacus My Guide said: “That is Cacus… He does not go with his kin by the blood-red fosse because of the cunning fraud with which he stole the cattle of Hercules. And thus is was his thieving stopped, for Hercules found his den and gave him perhaps a hundred blows with his club, and of them he did not feel the first ten.” Canto XXV, p.203, lines 28-33

  9. Literary Devices Canto XXIV, p.194-195, lines 1-19 Personification & Epic Simile In the turning season of the youthful year, when the sun is warming his rays beneath Aquarius and the hoar-frost copies then the image of his white sister on the ground, but the first sun wipes away the work of his pen. The peasants who lack fodder then arise and look about and see the fields all white, and hear their lambs bleat; then they smite their thighs, go back into the house, walk here and there, despair fails from them when they see how the earth’s face has changed in so little time, and they take their staffs and drive their lambs to feed-so in that place when I saw my Guide and Master’s eyebrows lower, my spirits fell... Personification of the sun in reference to the seasons changing from winter to spring The description of the peasants’ initial frustration and then change of mood when they see how the weather has turned in their favor is in comparison to the mood swing Dante feels when he at first perceives Virgil to be out of spirits, and then regains hope when Virgil gives him a comforting look.

  10. Works Cited Aciman, Alexander. "Recapping Dante: Canto 24, or Serpent, Ashes, Rinse, Repeat." The Paris Review, Strick and Williams, 7 Apr. 2014, www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/04/07/recapping-dante-canto-24-or-serpent-ashes-rinse-repeat/. Accessed 25 Sept. 2019. Aladdin in the Song "One Jump Ahead". The Disney Wiki, disney.fandom.com/wiki/One_Jump_Ahead. Accessed 25 Sept. 2019. Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno. Translated by John Ciardi, Signet Classics, 2009. Blake, William. Centaur Cacus Threatens Vanni Fucci. Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blake_Hell_25_Centaur_Cacus.jpg. Accessed 24 Sept. 2019. Cartwright, Mark. "Centaur." Ancient History Encyclopedia, 5 Oct. 2012, www.ancient.eu/centaur/. Accessed 23 Sept. 2019. Dore, Gustave. Agnello changing into a Serpent. 1 Feb. 2008. Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DVinfernoAgnelloChangingIntoSerpent_m.jpg. Accessed 24 Sept. 2019. ---. The Thieves tortured by Serpents. 31 Jan. 2008. Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DVinfernoThievesTorturedBySerpents_m.jpg. Accessed 24 Sept. 2019. Fournival, Richard De. Bestiare D'Amour. Bibliotheque de Nationale de France, www.bnf.fr/fr. Accessed 24 Sept. 2019. Myn Milkshake. Fair Field, thisfairfield.com/2017/03/17/check-out-our-top-ten-medieval-memes/. Accessed 25 Sept. 2019.

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