The image you see above is not only the cover to arguably the greatest Thrash Metal album of all time, it is also a fitting backdrop to what I’m about to present here. This is my favorite part of Aeneid VI, lines 547-627, the ESSENCE of Dante’s Inferno, and thus the centerpiece of my thesis project. I’ve really gotten in the zone in terms of poetic rendering, and am already well ahead of what is here. So another update should happen in a week or two. But for now, strap yourself in for a Classical Hell-ride. Again, those interested can find the full Latin text here.
He’d spoken this much, then reversed his footfalls.
Aeneas looks back, under cliffs to the left,
at castles colossal embraced by three walls,
surrounded by rapids, a torrent of fire,
the Phlegethon, twisting, resounding through rocks.
Him facing the gates, solid adamant spires,
which men nor immortals could cut down with swords;
a tower of iron stands fast ‘gainst the winds;
Tisiphone dwells there, her gown stained with gore,
who keeps o’er the narthex insomniac vigil.
Such wailings arise, savage torture resounds:
the dragging of chains and the grinding of metal.
Aeneas in shock pandemonium views:
“Oh virgin, describe all the sins of these men.
What pain fills the air! Who deserve such abuse?”
The prophetess spoke: “king of Teucrian blood,
no pure man by law on these thresholds sets foot.
When Hecate gave me th’Avernian wood,
she taught me in full retribution divine.
Crete’s king Rhadamanthus commands these abodes,
his lash draws confessions, he hears of their crimes,
the fraud for which men in superior lands
delayed to atone and in death missed their chance.
Forthwith that avenger, a scourge in her hands,
Tisiphone torments the guilty with snakes,
and summons her sisters, a Furious host.
The thund’rous gates open, the hinges they quake.
Dost see thou what sentry keeps watch o’er these halls?
That figure surveilling the vestibule there?
Huge Hydra, with fifty black jaws, worst of all,
in Tartarus lingers, whose very abyss,
which downwardly reaching extends twice as far
as th’heavenly heights gazed on mount Olympus.
Here Earth’s ancient brood of the Titanic spawn,
cast down by a thunderbolt, writhe in these pits.
Aloeus’ twin scions beheld I, whose brawn
attempted to sunder the sky into shreds,
and topple great Jove from the kingdom of Heav’n.
I saw Salmoneus pay penalties dread.
Th’Olympian thund’rer he dared masquerade;
conveyed by four horses and brandishing torches
through Elis and cities of Greece on parade
he claimed laud and honor reserved for the gods,
with horn-hoofed stampeding and cymbals of bronze,
insanely lampooning the lightning and clouds.
But th’Almighty Father on high missiles hurled,
not torch-lights and smoke but the genuine fire,
which plunged him to Hell in a hurricane swirl.
Indeed also Tityos, stepson of Earth,
whose body entire o’er six acres is stretched;
Gigantic the vulture with beak sharp and curved
devouring his liver for vengeance e’er fresh;
it gropes at its banquet, his ribcage its nest;
nor’s respite permitted to immortal flesh.
Remember the Lapiths, Pirithoüs, Ixion?
There hangs a black crag o’er them now, now it’s slipping,
seems likely to fall: here piled high festal cushions
on couches of gold, kingly feasts ‘fore their eyes;
next to it the greatest of Furies reclines,
who laying their hands on these tables denies,
her deafening voice in eruption, enraged.
Despisers of brothers in life suffer here,
whose parents they beat, and whose clients betrayed,
those lolling in riches, who mined their rewards,
yet slighting their kinsfolk, the largest this throng;
adulterers, fighters of unholy wars,
and men who the hands of their lords they deceived,
awaiting reprisal them all. Do not ask
the fortunes for which retribution’s received.
Some stripped strapped to wheels, or big boulders make roll.
Poor Theseus broods for eternity long,
and Phlegyas, most wretched, admonishes all,
and testifies this, crying out to the shades:
“learn justice, be warned not the gods to offend.”
His homeland he sold to a master of slaves,
forged edicts for bribes, forged them multiple times,
and ravished his daughter and marital hymns.
All dared monstrous sins, for which judgment’s assigned.
Not if I possessed hundred mouths, hundred tongues,
and unyielding speech, count I couldn’t all these sins,
and run through the penalties fit for such wrongs.”
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