Inferno Ix: God Is Late

God is late. And because of the lateness of God, the poet too his guide are left exterior the walls of the metropolis of Dis, stranded too worried that the divine assist volition never come.

Remember, the soil forces of demons that guards the iron-walled metropolis had unopen its doors on Virgil’s face. Up to this point, whenever they encountered a roadblock, all he had to say was Vuolsi così colà…, a formula roughly equivalent to ‘We’re on a mission from God’, too the ways would component subdivision earlier them. But non this time. And if Dante is afraid, which is common, so every bit good does Virgil hesitate, which is not. ‘Still nosotros should win this fight,’ he declares. Se non…

Dante calls it a parola rotta, literally a 'broken word', less literally a truncated phrase. Either way, at that topographic point is a earth of feel inward those ii words, too fifty-fifty to a greater extent than so inward the ellipsis. Se non. If not. Or else. Or else… The ellipsis dilates time. How long does the uncertainty last? Long plenty for Dante to query non solely his ain fortitude, but the wisdom of his guide. He asks, most innocently: Say, did you lot e'er come upwardly downwards hither before, you lot who live inward the get-go circle, alongside those whose solely judgement is to receive got no promise of e'er seeing God? By which he means: Are you lot certain you lot know the way? To which Virgil replies that yes, he travelled the total depth of Hell once, non long after his death, having been sent past times the witch Erichtho to collect the mortal of a dead soldier who resided inward the 9th circle – the circle of Judas.

Lots of questions here. The literary reference is to the De Bello Civili (‘Concerning the Civil War’), an epic poesy form past times Lucan which covers the events of the civil state of war betwixt Julius Caesar too the soil forces led past times Pompey. In the episode of the summoning, Lucan makes no reference to Virgil or anybody else venturing through the underworld to pluck the mortal of the dead soldier. More to the point: Virgil was even so rattling much alive. Even to a greater extent than to the point: Judas wasn’t fifty-fifty born at the time. The Hell that Dante alludes to hither was even so inward its primitive state, waiting to live remodelled next the decease of Christ. So for Virgil to claim that he knows that way makes fiddling sense. However, let’s precisely assume that Dante only got a flake confused hither – although it’s difficult to fathom how he wouldn’t know that Virgil died to a greater extent than than ii decades after Caesar, so the events depicted past times Lucan. There is even so the query of why Virgil obeyed the ascendance of an evil sorceress, too what ability she may receive got held over his not-quite-dead-yet soul.

The hasty too somewhat incongruous digression is interrupted when – inward rattling modern fashion – Dante-the-narrator tells us he can’t quite retrieve what Virgil said side past times side because a horrific sight distracted him. They are the Furies, rapidly advancing. Their female-shaped bodies stained with blood, with serpents for hair, vehement at their ain bodies with claws too beating them with the palms of their hands. Megaera, Alecto too Tisiphone, plus, non far away, their absent cousin, the Gorgon known every bit Medusa.

As painted much later on past times Caravaggio

The threat of the possible arrival of Medusa makes Virgil warn Dante to chop-chop screen his eyes – lest he live turned to rock at the sight – too then, inward a rather beautiful too tender image, roll himself around him too pose his ain hands over Dante’s, for extra safety.

There is something zombie-like inward the way that all these souls seem to live attracted past times the odour of Dante’s living body, is at that topographic point not?

So on i side nosotros receive got the Furies, behaving every bit women inward ancient times did at funerals – including professional person mourners, which inward some countries (including mine) existed every bit tardily every bit i hundred years ago. On the other, Dante too Virgil united inward a fearful embrace, awaiting the coming of a fourth, to a greater extent than unsafe monster.

And too then God arrives.

This is the ‘problem’ with the Divine Comedy: that it literally takes house within Deus’ ain machina, so every threat to the security of the travellers – no affair how theatrically elaborate – tin lavatory never live really suspenseful. The solely way Dante volition live lost is if he strays from the path. The appearance of danger, then, tin lavatory solely be within occasional moments of (self-)doubt, inward which to condense both the horror of the hero’s environs too the fright for his life. Such is the predestined nature of the pilgrim’s progress.

When God arrives, it is inward the shape of an angel that strides imperiously over the Styx piece fending too fanning with his left manus the air made thick too greasy past times the presence of so many condemned souls. Having reached the iron, red-hot doors of Dis, he opens them with the slightest touching on of the reed he carries inward his correct hand. Then, after briefly haranguing the demons – off stage, every bit it were, since they fled the scene – too without deigning either Dante or Virgil of so much every bit a glance, he leaves again.

This detail God is similar a cheat canvass for i of the videogames I played with my friends at the fourth dimension nosotros did Dante at school, inward the mid to tardily eighties, too nosotros got stuck on a level, either because nosotros couldn’t solve a riddle or defeat a detail monster. Its business office is to brand it possible to advance. And, similar the side past times side degree of the videogame after the enemies receive got been cheated out existence, the metropolis of Dis appears at get-go empty. Una campagna, a countryside, similar a walled metropolis turned within out. But, really, upon farther inspection, a graveyard, its opened upwardly tombs brimming with fire, each containing non precisely i corpse – souls of souls, people twice dead – but a whole army. Of whom too why, we’ll receive got to larn into side past times side time.

Previously: Inferno I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII.