Gary Dale Burns CRDJ #2 Dantes Inferno Prof.

Tony Wolk Canto 9s Furies and the Strange Verses Apostrophe At the end of Canto 8, after the crossing of the river Styx, the gate at the walls of Dis is barred to both Dante and his guide Virgil. Though Virgil tells Dante that already there is one without a guide (sanza scorta) coming to aid their way, the pilgrims sight of the three Furies atop the tower at Dis prompts Virgil. He warns Dante to cover both his eyes while he turns the pilgrim and covers his eyes with his hands as well. The multiple veilings of his vision, predicated on the Gorgons concretizing gaze, prompts this aside at lines 61-63: O you who have sound intellects, gaze on the teaching hidden beneath the veil of strange verses/O voi chavete li ntelleti sani, mirate la dottrina che sasconde sotto l velame de li versi strani. Durling and Martinezs note cites John Frecceros interpretation of the fear of the Medusa as representative of as that of a kind of erotic fixation on the literal surface of texts, rather than a more metaphorical or allegorical reading, which Dantes apostrophe features. Dante has deliberately spoken as the poet of his own poem with these lines and that the lines must investigated, or for D&M, the entire Canto. This is Canto 9 after all, and in his Vita Nuova, 9 is associated with Beatrice very early on and has significance in this moment particualrly to the angel which clears the way, having no doubt been sent by her in advance. While reading the Furies appearance though, one finds that the Medusa is not present, but merely the threat of the Medusa. The interpretation of Virgil covering up Dantes eyes for mere defense seems not to go far enough. The ancient poet had just been thanked by the pilgrim in the last canto for saving him seven + times. Perhaps it is so that because of Virgil having not

been a Christian he still believes in a power which would not have any hold over a believer like Dante. Perhaps the Furies do indeed represent some metaphorical fixation themselves, the gazing at a text (in this case Dante the poet himself) to merely make it more solid, a reading of a one substance, without spirit and therefore quite static and dead. Guiding a statue of stone would certainly be a failure of Virgil, so perhaps it is self-interest and duty. Nevertheless the double veiling is both Dante covering his own vision and Virgil covering Dantes vision. It is only by the sound of the arrival of the angel that Virgil looses Dantes eyes. Sight and sound are inextricably linked, and when one is without (focused on that which is evil or absent), the other is needed to bring it back into semblance or working order. While Virgil and Dante walk through Dis, Dante cannot see the heretics which are being burned in their red-hot tombs, not until the next Canto at least. Only their cries and writhing are noticed. To this reader, what is most striking is the human level with which one feels both Dante and Virgil share when the heavenly messenger comes to aid their journey.