WEBVTT 00:00.320 --> 00:05.250 Prof: Today we are going to look at three cantos. 00:05.250 --> 00:12.790 They are connected in a number of interesting ways: 00:12.791 --> 00:16.261 Cantos IX, X, and XI. 00:16.260 --> 00:22.510 They describe--they focus on the pilgrim and the guide, 00:22.510 --> 00:27.720 Virgil, being--approaching the city of Dis. 00:27.720 --> 00:31.830 So we are moving--they are moving and we with them, 00:31.830 --> 00:35.690 away from the area of incontinence, 00:35.690 --> 00:40.170 which is the section of Inferno we read through 00:40.169 --> 00:42.619 from Canto V to Canto VIII. 00:42.620 --> 00:48.180 They are approaching the gates of the city of Dis in Canto IX 00:48.182 --> 00:52.632 and the pilgrim experiences a serious impediment, 00:52.633 --> 00:55.603 an impasse, we will call it. 00:55.600 --> 00:58.230 He cannot go any further. 00:58.230 --> 01:01.910 The guidance of Virgil fails him and we are going to examine 01:01.914 --> 01:05.724 why it fails him and what is the problem that the pilgrim will 01:05.724 --> 01:06.854 have to solve. 01:06.849 --> 01:09.829 Once he is in canto--within the city of Dis, 01:09.828 --> 01:15.488 the first sinners he meets are the so-called heretics, 01:15.489 --> 01:19.039 heresiarchs, among whom--chief among whom is 01:19.040 --> 01:21.740 really Epicurus, the Epicureans, 01:21.739 --> 01:26.259 and in many ways you understand already that link between the 01:26.256 --> 01:28.586 city and these philosophers. 01:28.590 --> 01:31.590 Let me just add one thing so you have-- 01:31.590 --> 01:35.370 the idea is a bit clearer: Dante acknowledges in this 01:35.372 --> 01:39.592 philosophical text that he writes called the Banquet 01:39.592 --> 01:41.922 three schools of philosophy. 01:41.920 --> 01:45.930 The so-called academics or Aristotelians, 01:45.929 --> 01:50.339 then the Stoics, and the third Epicureans; 01:50.340 --> 01:54.390 now he handles--he just examines who these Epicureans 01:54.387 --> 01:58.897 are and for him they appear as those who are guilty of some 01:58.900 --> 02:01.190 form of pride, if you wish, 02:01.185 --> 02:04.405 intellectual pride, since heresy is a question of 02:04.406 --> 02:08.226 intellect and not of will, we'll talk about that. 02:08.229 --> 02:11.579 They deny the immortality of the soul, and in fact, 02:11.580 --> 02:15.600 it's really a problem to figure out why should Dante think of 02:15.599 --> 02:17.409 them as sinners at all. 02:17.408 --> 02:23.228 In antiquity they were viewed as one more school of opinion, 02:23.229 --> 02:26.439 a philosophical opinion: my mind does not convince me, 02:26.438 --> 02:29.918 my reason does not find it convincing the belief in the 02:29.919 --> 02:31.529 immorality of the soul. 02:31.530 --> 02:32.660 Why should I be punished? 02:32.658 --> 02:37.638 It's intellect, since the logic of Dante's own 02:37.637 --> 02:43.607 idea of sinfulness is that the will has to be involved, 02:43.609 --> 02:49.139 the will is at the center of the habit to sin. 02:49.139 --> 02:52.869 We'll talk about this, then in Canto XI, 02:52.873 --> 02:56.133 there really is no great action. 02:56.128 --> 03:02.568 Dante goes on explaining the so-called topography of evil, 03:02.567 --> 03:07.647 goes on explaining the arrangement of sins. 03:07.650 --> 03:11.280 What is the principle of construction of Inferno? 03:11.280 --> 03:14.270 There now he turns to Aristotle, we'll turn to 03:14.270 --> 03:17.860 Aristotle's Ethics first of all as the plan, 03:17.860 --> 03:21.040 as the model to--for the arrangement of sins and then 03:21.043 --> 03:24.413 also we shall see in a very interesting way he will turn 03:24.409 --> 03:26.949 to-- he will allude to his 03:26.954 --> 03:28.524 Physics. 03:28.520 --> 03:33.940 You see he goes on talking about--from a personal problem 03:33.937 --> 03:38.097 which we have to understand in Canto IX, 03:38.098 --> 03:40.628 the crisis of, then the questions of the 03:40.633 --> 03:43.563 intellect and its relationship to the will; 03:43.560 --> 03:47.770 and then in Canto XI this idea of what are the dispositions to 03:47.772 --> 03:51.712 sinfulness and we shall see--and the turn to Aristotle. 03:51.710 --> 03:58.490 Let me go back to--now looking at exactly the crisis of Canto 03:58.485 --> 04:03.225 IX, Dante's progressing in this journey. 04:03.229 --> 04:08.829 He reaches the gate of Dis and now--this is around lines 40 and 04:08.825 --> 04:09.905 following. 04:09.908 --> 04:13.978 Three Furies, the so-called three Erinyes of 04:13.978 --> 04:17.198 Greek mythology: Alecto, Tesiphone, 04:17.196 --> 04:18.706 and Megaera. 04:18.709 --> 04:23.869 They appear and they stop him. 04:23.870 --> 04:26.700 They say you cannot go into the city, a city described very much 04:26.704 --> 04:27.654 as a medieval city. 04:27.649 --> 04:37.219 In fact, it's a kind of swamp for reasons that we-- 04:37.220 --> 04:40.310 having nothing to do with really ecology but the idea that 04:40.314 --> 04:43.464 medieval cities were built near swamps because the land was 04:43.463 --> 04:46.833 always more malleable and there was water clearly in the-- 04:46.829 --> 04:51.609 that's not the reason for Dante but the reason for the certain 04:51.607 --> 04:54.737 ways of understanding medieval cities. 04:54.740 --> 04:58.020 The three Furies, Alecto, Tisiphone, 04:58.016 --> 05:03.816 and Megaera will stop and they call on Medusa who doesn't come, 05:03.822 --> 05:06.352 but they summon Medusa. 05:06.350 --> 05:08.830 That's why they say, "let Medusa come." 05:08.829 --> 05:12.719 They threaten the pilgrim, with the sight of the Medusa, 05:12.723 --> 05:15.773 "let Medusa come," she isn't here, 05:15.769 --> 05:16.689 I repeat. 05:16.689 --> 05:20.959 This is--if you had to translate it into let's say from 05:20.959 --> 05:25.069 English into Italian you would use a subjunctive, 05:25.069 --> 05:28.429 "may she come, I wish she came, 05:28.430 --> 05:31.060 we wish she came, let her come and we will turn 05:31.059 --> 05:32.259 him to stone." 05:32.259 --> 05:34.569 That's the threat. 05:34.569 --> 05:38.599 A threat of petrifaction, because according to the myth, 05:38.600 --> 05:40.920 and if you don't know all of it for instance, 05:40.920 --> 05:43.140 you may have seen a movie about the Medusa, 05:43.139 --> 05:48.589 if you look at the--if you gaze at the face of the Medusa, 05:48.589 --> 05:53.029 one who gazes at the head of the Medusa who was a great 05:53.028 --> 05:56.378 virginal beauty, a vestal in the Temple of 05:56.379 --> 05:58.669 Neptune, according to the myth. 05:58.670 --> 06:02.860 It was violated by Neptune and Minerva takes revenge on her by 06:02.855 --> 06:06.835 metamorphosing her into this ugly repulsive figure with her 06:06.836 --> 06:10.676 hair turned into snakes and yet she has this power, 06:10.680 --> 06:15.840 this magic power of turning all the onlookers into stone. 06:15.839 --> 06:17.429 That's the threat. 06:17.430 --> 06:20.770 "Let Medusa come and we will turn him to stone they all 06:20.769 --> 06:21.959 cried looking down. 06:21.959 --> 06:26.259 We avenged ill, the assault of Theseus," 06:26.257 --> 06:32.017 Theseus who also violated the boundaries of Hell to free the 06:32.019 --> 06:34.299 Eurytus, another little story that there 06:34.300 --> 06:36.940 were-- Theseus was successful in the 06:36.939 --> 06:38.849 liberation of Eurytus. 06:38.850 --> 06:49.650 The drama involving the pilgrim directly, this is a menace on 06:49.649 --> 06:50.729 him. 06:50.730 --> 06:53.640 "Turn thy back," this is Virgil who intervenes, 06:53.639 --> 06:57.879 "and keep thine eyes shut, for should the Gorgon" 06:57.884 --> 07:01.364 the Medusa, "show herself and thou see 07:01.355 --> 07:04.755 her there would be no returning above." 07:04.759 --> 07:07.069 And now that's the turn. 07:07.069 --> 07:09.319 Listen to this: "My Master said this, 07:09.319 --> 07:13.829 and himself turned me round and, not trusting to my own 07:13.827 --> 07:17.417 hands, covered my face with his own 07:17.415 --> 07:18.625 also." 07:18.629 --> 07:23.879 The poet interrupts the narrative and talks to us as a 07:23.877 --> 07:24.567 poet. 07:24.569 --> 07:28.869 This is the first so-called address to the reader. 07:28.870 --> 07:31.260 I will talk about this little technical detail. 07:31.259 --> 07:33.689 That is to say, this is no longer part of the 07:33.687 --> 07:36.007 action, now it's no longer the pilgrim, 07:36.014 --> 07:39.204 the story of the pilgrim, but the poet who is sitting in 07:39.196 --> 07:41.906 his study and who says, "you who are of good 07:41.910 --> 07:44.070 understanding," the Italian says, 07:44.069 --> 07:46.219 "you who have healthy intellect, 07:46.220 --> 07:48.250 who you have a good an understanding, 07:48.250 --> 07:52.360 note the teaching that is hidden under the veil of the 07:52.355 --> 07:54.055 strange lines." 07:54.060 --> 07:57.910 The poet assuming authority turns to us readers, 07:57.906 --> 08:01.426 and in a sense, he needs readers so that his 08:01.427 --> 08:05.437 authority can be constituted and he warns us. 08:05.439 --> 08:09.749 He admonishes us, to engage in what clearly 08:09.750 --> 08:13.960 appears is as an allegorical operation. 08:13.959 --> 08:15.949 We have to read, and the language is the 08:15.954 --> 08:17.134 language of allegory. 08:17.129 --> 08:21.609 We have to know how to read underneath the veil of language, 08:21.607 --> 08:24.867 there's something hidden underneath this. 08:24.870 --> 08:26.710 What is the allegory about? 08:26.709 --> 08:32.139 Let me just give you more about the story of the myth of the 08:32.139 --> 08:34.689 Medusa, so you will see the relevance 08:34.690 --> 08:39.960 maybe of that myth and the-- what I left out of the myth to 08:39.955 --> 08:41.405 this scene. 08:41.408 --> 08:43.778 As you know, the Medusa will be conquered, 08:43.780 --> 08:44.880 will be defeated. 08:44.879 --> 08:51.589 She will be defeated by the poet, by Perseus who--it's the 08:51.591 --> 08:56.421 origin of Pegasus, the horse of poetry. 08:56.418 --> 08:58.998 Pegasus--I'm sorry, Perseus who, 08:59.004 --> 09:03.794 using the shield of Minerva-- the shield Minerva had given 09:03.787 --> 09:07.317 him--and by looking not at Medusa directly, 09:07.320 --> 09:10.180 at her face directly, but at a reflected image in 09:10.177 --> 09:12.007 this shield, in a mirror, 09:12.013 --> 09:16.633 the shield of Minerva, manages to see her and will 09:16.629 --> 09:21.079 kill, he will slay the Medusa in the story. 09:21.080 --> 09:25.470 Within the Ovidian narrative, this is clearly a means to 09:25.466 --> 09:30.326 evoke for us the need for a kind of--not a direct vision but a 09:30.333 --> 09:31.933 mediated vision. 09:31.928 --> 09:34.718 That is to say, through the mediation of poetry 09:34.721 --> 09:36.641 for us, for the mediation of--I'll come 09:36.643 --> 09:39.683 back to the scene in a moment, but through the mediation of 09:39.678 --> 09:42.318 the shield can Perseus really take flight, 09:42.320 --> 09:46.150 kill and then take flight on the back of Pegasus. 09:46.149 --> 09:48.879 For us, the shield of Minerva is the text, 09:48.879 --> 09:52.569 because at this point there is a sort of direct-- 09:52.570 --> 09:58.780 let's say, divergence between what the pilgrim is enjoined to 09:58.782 --> 09:59.302 do. 09:59.298 --> 10:02.168 Virgil says to him, "don't look, 10:02.168 --> 10:05.018 shut your eyes," and not trusting the pilgrim, 10:05.019 --> 10:08.529 either his quickness, he must have been awed by this 10:08.525 --> 10:10.415 situation-- such a situation he doesn't 10:10.423 --> 10:10.873 understand. 10:10.870 --> 10:15.600 He covers, Virgil covers, the pilgrim's own eyes. 10:15.600 --> 10:20.390 In turn, the poet addresses us and tells us to open our eyes. 10:20.389 --> 10:22.419 You open your eyes and look. 10:22.418 --> 10:25.698 You can because you have the shield of Minerva. 10:25.700 --> 10:30.410 You have this textual mediation that will allow you to escape 10:30.409 --> 10:33.629 the direct threat and glance of Medusa. 10:33.629 --> 10:38.669 So you do know that the story Mercury, who is the messenger, 10:38.669 --> 10:42.599 that clearly--the figure of the interpreter. 10:42.600 --> 10:46.740 That's what the messenger means, the bearer of messages, 10:46.735 --> 10:48.385 the bearer of words. 10:48.389 --> 10:53.509 He comes and manages to make a breach within the wall of the 10:53.508 --> 10:58.018 city and the pilgrim and the guide can continue their 10:58.019 --> 10:59.059 descent. 10:59.059 --> 11:00.609 This is really the story. 11:00.610 --> 11:02.760 What is happening? 11:02.759 --> 11:05.169 What--how do I--can we explain? 11:05.169 --> 11:06.629 What is this allegory? 11:06.629 --> 11:09.669 Let me say a few things so that you can understand the whole 11:09.669 --> 11:11.009 technique of allegories. 11:11.009 --> 11:12.329 Whenever you read the Divine Comedy, 11:12.330 --> 11:15.180 probably much more than I would ever do, 11:15.178 --> 11:19.118 other scholars will tell you that the Divine Comedy is 11:19.120 --> 11:20.570 a vision, which it is, 11:20.570 --> 11:23.270 and that it's allegorical which at times it is, 11:23.269 --> 11:26.699 and the allegory is supposed to explain everything that the 11:26.697 --> 11:29.177 pilgrim finds himself lost in the woods. 11:29.178 --> 11:31.338 That's not the woods--to me it's the woods, 11:31.340 --> 11:36.860 but they say it's a state of sin in a way and there he meets 11:36.857 --> 11:40.317 three beasts that stand for pride, 11:40.320 --> 11:43.330 and wrath, and what not; they're three beasts and they 11:43.328 --> 11:44.678 may stand for other things. 11:44.678 --> 11:47.298 The significance of that initial landscape, 11:47.297 --> 11:50.717 as you may recall when we talked about that scene is not 11:50.724 --> 11:53.844 all that clear and that's part of the problem. 11:53.840 --> 11:57.450 That's what I call the land of unlikeness within which the 11:57.447 --> 11:59.217 pilgrim will find himself. 11:59.220 --> 12:04.550 The inability to join together signs and their significations, 12:04.548 --> 12:07.578 the awareness that there are no signs which are so 12:07.581 --> 12:10.981 self-transparent as to be understood or de-codified in a 12:10.984 --> 12:12.164 particular way. 12:12.159 --> 12:14.049 What is this idea of allegory? 12:14.048 --> 12:17.518 Dante here is clearly asking--telling us that it is an 12:17.517 --> 12:18.757 allegory at work. 12:18.759 --> 12:23.559 'You readers have good understanding of healthy minds 12:23.558 --> 12:28.638 look, open your eyes and look underneath the veil of the 12:28.635 --> 12:30.385 strange verse.' 12:30.389 --> 12:32.089 Why are they so strange? 12:32.090 --> 12:32.950 What's so strange? 12:32.950 --> 12:34.120 What is the story? 12:34.120 --> 12:35.090 What's going on here? 12:35.090 --> 12:36.730 What is allegory first of all? 12:36.730 --> 12:40.960 Allegory, as you know, the word means to speak 12:40.961 --> 12:42.091 otherwise. 12:42.090 --> 12:45.840 It's a figure but it related--but not quite, 12:45.844 --> 12:50.734 to enigmas within the manuals, the primers of--rhetorical 12:50.732 --> 12:54.752 primers from medieval and classical times. 12:54.750 --> 12:58.040 Enigmas, irony, when you say one thing and you 12:58.042 --> 13:00.162 mean another, but to say this, 13:00.163 --> 13:04.923 is to say very little because Dante has been very thoughtful. 13:04.918 --> 13:09.208 He has been probing this issue very deeply, and in a couple of 13:09.211 --> 13:10.761 places in his works. 13:10.759 --> 13:13.989 In the Letter to Cangrande that he writes, about which I will 13:13.985 --> 13:17.205 talk later--it's a letter that he sends as an introduction to 13:17.210 --> 13:19.630 the first ten cantos of Paradise, 13:19.629 --> 13:23.509 Cangrande being the lord of Verona where Dante had lived for 13:23.508 --> 13:24.098 awhile. 13:24.100 --> 13:28.280 And also in the Banquet, this philosophical text where 13:28.279 --> 13:31.689 he explores the idea of what--how a meaning can be 13:31.693 --> 13:32.743 arrived at. 13:32.740 --> 13:34.140 I have a statement. 13:34.139 --> 13:37.919 How can I go on drawing a particular significance, 13:37.922 --> 13:41.862 or more than one significance out of a statement? 13:41.860 --> 13:43.820 He distinguishes two types of allegory. 13:43.820 --> 13:49.470 And there is a so-called allegory of poets and allegory 13:49.470 --> 13:51.250 of theologians. 13:51.250 --> 13:54.380 How does he distinguish them? 13:54.379 --> 13:56.739 How would he ask us to distinguish between them? 13:56.740 --> 14:01.470 The allegory of poets is an allegory where the literal in 14:01.467 --> 14:05.857 which, the literal sense is a fable, is a fiction. 14:05.860 --> 14:11.900 To say, that's the example he gives, Orpheus by the power of 14:11.897 --> 14:17.727 his language moved stones, that's an allegory of poets. 14:17.730 --> 14:23.190 It really means that the power of the voice of the poet manages 14:23.186 --> 14:27.586 maybe to edify cities, whether we need poetic myths 14:27.586 --> 14:30.576 for the edification of a city. 14:30.580 --> 14:32.350 That's understandable. 14:32.350 --> 14:35.720 Or to say Orpheus, that by the power of his words, 14:35.716 --> 14:36.676 tamed lions. 14:36.678 --> 14:40.258 It's to say that whatever ferociousness we may have inside 14:40.259 --> 14:43.089 us can partly be tamed by the music, the song, 14:43.087 --> 14:44.907 the poetry, and so forth. 14:44.909 --> 14:46.969 That's the allegory of poets. 14:46.970 --> 14:48.980 The literal sense is a fiction. 14:48.980 --> 14:52.480 To say that it's an allegory of theologians is completely 14:52.480 --> 14:53.230 different. 14:53.230 --> 14:57.710 The example that Dante gives is taken--sends us to Exodus, 14:57.711 --> 15:00.151 the biblical story of Exodus. 15:00.149 --> 15:02.479 You all know, I take, what the biblical story 15:02.482 --> 15:04.182 is, so once again movies help. 15:04.178 --> 15:07.908 The biblical story of Exodus, the story where the Jews 15:07.905 --> 15:10.745 abandon, leave the bondage, 15:10.746 --> 15:16.326 the slavery of Egypt, go through the desert and reach 15:16.327 --> 15:18.127 the Promised Land. 15:18.129 --> 15:22.129 This is happening historically, it's true. 15:22.129 --> 15:25.669 This is not a fiction, this is--the Red Sea did open 15:25.668 --> 15:28.858 up and the Jews could pass through the Red Sea, 15:28.861 --> 15:31.431 could cross the Red Sea that way. 15:31.428 --> 15:34.448 This is history and in the allegory of theologians, 15:34.446 --> 15:36.796 the literal level must be historical. 15:36.799 --> 15:38.179 It must be an event. 15:38.179 --> 15:40.549 So this is the distinction. 15:40.548 --> 15:43.698 Of course, the question is what kind of allegories are used 15:43.698 --> 15:44.078 here? 15:44.080 --> 15:47.420 We'll come to that in a moment, but keep that in mind. 15:47.418 --> 15:52.238 This is--I hope--it's more than of archaeological interest. 15:52.240 --> 15:55.900 Within the allegory of theologians, they distinguish 15:55.897 --> 15:59.697 four levels of exegesis, exegesis being a word meaning 15:59.697 --> 16:01.057 interpretation. 16:01.058 --> 16:02.468 Four levels: the literal, 16:02.474 --> 16:03.304 the moral... 16:03.298 --> 16:06.258 An allegory is telling you what to do, teaching you. 16:06.259 --> 16:08.899 It has an ethics involved: that you read and there is an 16:08.899 --> 16:10.339 ethics when you are reading. 16:10.340 --> 16:11.810 You have more or less a text. 16:11.808 --> 16:15.018 It's time to direct your will or tell you what you should be 16:15.024 --> 16:15.464 doing. 16:15.460 --> 16:18.480 A tropological telling you what--tropological meaning what 16:18.479 --> 16:21.609 does it mean in terms of your whole life, not just an action 16:21.605 --> 16:22.925 in a particular case. 16:22.928 --> 16:25.988 And then the so-called analogical or eschatological. 16:25.990 --> 16:30.540 So that the story of the Jews crossing the wilderness and 16:30.538 --> 16:35.088 going to the Jerusalem means having a kind of a spiritual 16:35.090 --> 16:37.670 conversion, moral conversion, 16:37.671 --> 16:41.971 means that this is really the way that life ought to go. 16:41.970 --> 16:45.720 You go from sin to glory or the peace of the city, 16:45.720 --> 16:49.930 and then anagogically, this is the story of the soul. 16:49.928 --> 16:53.598 It prefigures what the soul ought to be. 16:53.600 --> 16:56.440 In the case of the allegory of poets you only have two levels, 16:56.437 --> 16:57.737 the literal and the moral. 16:57.740 --> 17:02.020 There are a lot of difficulties with this way of distinguishing 17:02.015 --> 17:05.395 between the two types of allegory because both the 17:05.395 --> 17:09.185 allegory of theologians and the allegory of poets, 17:09.190 --> 17:13.570 even if the allegory of theologians refers to events, 17:13.568 --> 17:16.248 it's still words that we are reading. 17:16.250 --> 17:20.830 There is a way in which Dante seems to at one point dodge the 17:20.825 --> 17:25.095 whole thing of how can you really distinguish between the 17:25.096 --> 17:27.286 two modes-- the rhetorical 17:27.290 --> 17:30.370 modes--independently one from the other. 17:30.368 --> 17:34.568 And actually he goes on saying, really, the difference is in 17:34.569 --> 17:36.919 how you take the literal sense. 17:36.920 --> 17:39.600 In the kind of act of faith that you may have, 17:39.597 --> 17:42.987 that the literal sense--that the Bible is the word of God, 17:42.990 --> 17:45.490 then you are reading it theologically. 17:45.490 --> 17:47.460 But if you decide, and one might, 17:47.458 --> 17:51.148 to say that the Bible is really a collection of extraordinary 17:51.148 --> 17:54.368 poetic stories, then you are reading according 17:54.372 --> 17:56.102 to the allegory of poets. 17:56.098 --> 17:59.948 How is Dante circumventing this whole issue? 17:59.950 --> 18:03.450 He's circumventing the whole issue by saying, 18:03.450 --> 18:06.560 my story may well be taken as a story of allegory of poets, 18:06.558 --> 18:10.728 but it's also an allegory of theologians because the literal 18:10.729 --> 18:11.789 sense is 'I.' 18:11.789 --> 18:15.459 The historical sense is in me. 18:15.460 --> 18:18.940 I am the historical cipher moving through these 18:18.935 --> 18:20.935 experiences, and therefore, 18:20.940 --> 18:24.360 it is my life that they will give a particular sense, 18:24.358 --> 18:29.308 a particular truth value, to whatever poetic fable I may 18:29.308 --> 18:30.568 be relating. 18:30.568 --> 18:33.548 We only have taken care of one little problem here, 18:33.549 --> 18:36.589 very external to the story, the allegory of poets or 18:36.589 --> 18:38.259 allegory of theologians. 18:38.259 --> 18:42.809 It's time to decide that this is what is going on here, 18:42.809 --> 18:47.949 but, how are we to understand this threat of petrification. 18:47.950 --> 18:50.110 And you cannot really understand it, 18:50.105 --> 18:51.765 but I'm here to tell you. 18:51.769 --> 18:55.429 You cannot really understand it on your own, so you have to 18:55.426 --> 18:56.496 trust my words. 18:56.500 --> 19:02.020 The fact is that Dante had written in his youth a number of 19:02.019 --> 19:05.349 poems for a so-called Lady Stone. 19:05.348 --> 19:07.458 In Italian, it's not as bad as that, 19:07.460 --> 19:11.370 though 'stone' could be a good word in English, 19:11.368 --> 19:14.528 Donna Petra--petra meaning 19:14.529 --> 19:16.989 stone, and the passion--it's a 19:16.990 --> 19:20.300 description of a love that was unrequited, 19:20.298 --> 19:24.118 but a passion for this woman was such that he felt that his 19:24.115 --> 19:28.185 intellect would be petrified, that he could be--in other 19:28.190 --> 19:30.920 words he was unable to go anywhere. 19:30.920 --> 19:33.500 It's a statement of despair, if you wish, 19:33.500 --> 19:38.140 whenever you have this sense of a death that is going to take 19:38.137 --> 19:42.387 over and you are going to be paralyzed in your will, 19:42.390 --> 19:44.910 then this is a petrification. 19:44.910 --> 19:47.060 This is what I think is happening here. 19:47.058 --> 19:49.428 Dante is engaged in retrospection, 19:49.426 --> 19:53.726 to an experience of his past, and that experience of his past 19:53.730 --> 19:57.390 is now ahead of him threatening him once again. 19:57.390 --> 20:00.350 He has to cleanse himself, he has to move beyond it, 20:00.348 --> 20:04.148 but to explain better this idea of the closing of the eyes-- 20:04.150 --> 20:07.070 this is why Medusa, though he talks of Medusa there 20:07.067 --> 20:09.517 and this lady Petra is a kind of Medusa. 20:09.519 --> 20:15.019 Let me give you--read a little scene from--that I think really 20:15.021 --> 20:20.161 explains what's going on and prepare us to move forward to 20:20.163 --> 20:22.693 the next canto, Canto X. 20:22.690 --> 20:27.290 It's a little scene from the Confessions of Augustine. 20:27.288 --> 20:30.338 As you know, a book that Dante knew very 20:30.342 --> 20:30.892 well. 20:30.890 --> 20:37.720 Dante even goes on quoting it at very strategic places, 20:37.718 --> 20:44.418 so there's not issue of bringing it in gratuitously to 20:44.421 --> 20:47.331 explain this scene. 20:47.328 --> 20:52.938 It's actually direct--it could be viewed--forgive the reversal, 20:52.936 --> 20:58.266 but this would be viewed as a gloss on what Dante will go on 20:58.273 --> 20:59.363 writing. 20:59.358 --> 21:01.318 The Confessions is written with-- 21:01.318 --> 21:04.688 it's an intellectual autobiography: 21:04.694 --> 21:10.454 the story of a young man who will go on being fascinated by 21:10.453 --> 21:13.833 various schools of philosophy. 21:13.828 --> 21:18.358 He's a Manichean, and then he will turn into a 21:18.358 --> 21:22.888 neo-Platonist, goes on--is very flattered by a 21:22.890 --> 21:25.910 skeptical, rhetorical way. 21:25.910 --> 21:30.980 He's a professor of rhetoric--a rhetorical way of dealing with 21:30.981 --> 21:33.811 values and the world around him. 21:33.808 --> 21:36.818 And then in Book IX, he'll go on telling the story 21:36.815 --> 21:40.065 in the garden of Milan, the famous story under the fig 21:40.065 --> 21:41.655 tree, very emblematic. 21:41.660 --> 21:44.900 We could talk about these things, about why the fig tree 21:44.902 --> 21:48.092 in Milan, which leads many scholars to go on wondering, 21:48.085 --> 21:50.085 were there fig trees in Milan? 21:50.089 --> 21:52.209 Isn't the climate too cold? 21:52.210 --> 21:56.080 You need really the southern climes for that kind of thing, 21:56.077 --> 21:59.677 forgetting that the fig tree is always in the Bible. 21:59.680 --> 22:03.960 It appears as the tree under which the prophets go and rest 22:03.959 --> 22:07.939 in the mistaken belief that everything is over and that 22:07.942 --> 22:11.192 somehow a time for complacency may come. 22:11.190 --> 22:12.610 They're denouncing it of course. 22:12.608 --> 22:14.888 This is all done in a mode denunciation, 22:14.890 --> 22:18.240 and that's exactly where Augustine puts himself, 22:18.240 --> 22:22.800 under the fig tree and there he goes on experiencing a 22:22.796 --> 22:25.456 particular drama by reading St. 22:25.461 --> 22:26.581 Paul, etc. 22:26.578 --> 22:30.298 Throughout this text, though this is about 22:30.303 --> 22:33.213 neo-Platonists and Manicheans. 22:33.210 --> 22:37.080 As you know Augustine--as you probably know, 22:37.078 --> 22:39.578 Augustine goes on reflecting about his love of shows, 22:39.578 --> 22:42.718 the biggest one of them, at the beginning of Book III, 22:42.720 --> 22:46.070 is his love of theatre and his critique of the theatre. 22:46.068 --> 22:50.158 Now, why do I go to the theatre and how do I explain the fact 22:50.164 --> 22:53.784 that there may be some well-meaning young man who sees 22:53.784 --> 22:57.884 the maid in distress and jumps on the scene to free her. 22:57.880 --> 23:01.500 And he goes on talking about how can I be a spectator, 23:01.496 --> 23:04.086 what does it mean to be a spectator? 23:04.088 --> 23:06.568 What does it mean to be involved? 23:06.568 --> 23:07.878 And then there is another little scene. 23:07.880 --> 23:12.560 A friend of his, Alypius--Alypius is a Greek 23:12.556 --> 23:17.446 intellectual in the best sense of the word. 23:17.450 --> 23:21.260 A man who believes in self-mastery, 23:21.258 --> 23:27.308 in intellectual self-mastery, a young man who witnesses 23:27.306 --> 23:30.886 Augustine's own experiences. 23:30.890 --> 23:35.320 In narratives you always have Sancho accompany Don Quixote; 23:35.318 --> 23:38.808 there's always the other, more or less skeptical, 23:38.808 --> 23:42.698 who gives authenticity and who exactly will go on making claims 23:42.704 --> 23:46.664 for the truth value of what the narrator or the protagonist will 23:46.663 --> 23:48.113 go on experiencing. 23:48.109 --> 23:49.579 His name is Alypius. 23:49.578 --> 23:53.178 Alypius will eventually rejoin him. 23:53.180 --> 23:53.970 He's in Carthage. 23:53.970 --> 23:55.250 They grew up together. 23:55.250 --> 23:56.510 Augustine and he grew up together. 23:56.509 --> 23:58.479 Augustine goes to Rome. 23:58.480 --> 24:02.150 Alypius will rejoin him in Rome, and they go on from there, 24:02.154 --> 24:03.934 eventually going to Milan. 24:03.930 --> 24:06.250 When in Rome, Alypius does what nobody-- 24:06.250 --> 24:09.300 we would all do, first thing he wants to do is 24:09.300 --> 24:13.100 to go and watch the games played at the amphitheatre, 24:13.098 --> 24:16.568 at the Colosseum and the games are horrifying games to 24:16.573 --> 24:17.363 Augustine. 24:17.358 --> 24:19.548 He says, how can an intellectual such as you, 24:19.548 --> 24:23.748 want to go to the games where actually human beings are being 24:23.750 --> 24:27.310 thrown, for the delight of the crowds, 24:27.313 --> 24:30.943 are being thrown to beasts, to lions. 24:30.940 --> 24:35.810 Alypius, of course, he tries to justify himself. 24:35.808 --> 24:38.058 I really want to go, but exactly because, 24:38.058 --> 24:40.768 he'll say, but I really do, because I'll read you the whole 24:40.769 --> 24:43.339 passage: 'I will go but because I'm an intellectual, 24:43.338 --> 24:47.888 I promise that at the crucial moment when the sign is given 24:47.885 --> 24:52.425 for the animal to devour the human being lying there I will 24:52.432 --> 24:53.532 not watch. 24:53.529 --> 24:57.629 I will--I'm going to turn my eyes away and I will shut my 24:57.625 --> 24:58.205 eyes.' 24:58.210 --> 24:59.750 Let's see what happens. 24:59.750 --> 25:03.560 This is from Book VI, Chapter VIII. 25:03.559 --> 25:04.779 It's a great little story. 25:04.778 --> 25:08.428 By the way, a scholar of romance philology who used to 25:08.432 --> 25:12.432 teach here many years ago by the name of Eric Auerbach, 25:12.430 --> 25:16.190 a great Dante scholar and he wrote this book called, 25:16.190 --> 25:18.190 Mimesis, he reflects on this scene, 25:18.190 --> 25:20.870 not connecting it with Dante, but it doesn't matter. 25:20.868 --> 25:25.178 I read it first in his book and says, this is really--it's a 25:25.175 --> 25:29.405 little scene that marks the end of Hellenic rationalism. 25:29.410 --> 25:31.610 Let's read this; it's interesting just because 25:31.607 --> 25:34.437 of that, and then we'll see how we could apply it to Dante. 25:34.442 --> 25:35.812 I think it's very clear. 25:35.808 --> 25:40.268 "He had gone to Rome to study law," 25:40.265 --> 25:44.455 this is Alypius, "and there he was carried 25:44.455 --> 25:48.455 away incredibly with an incredible eagerness after the 25:48.461 --> 25:50.201 shows of gladiators. 25:50.200 --> 25:55.760 For being utterly adverse to and detesting such spectacles, 25:55.759 --> 25:59.219 he was one day by chance met by diverse of his acquaintances and 25:59.218 --> 26:02.398 fellow students coming from dinner and they with a familiar 26:02.401 --> 26:05.051 violence, hailed him vehemently refusing 26:05.046 --> 26:08.296 and resisting into the amphitheatre during this cruel 26:08.298 --> 26:09.548 and deadly shows. 26:09.548 --> 26:13.128 He thus protesting, 'Though you hail my body to 26:13.134 --> 26:17.324 that place,' this is Alypius, "And there set me, 26:17.315 --> 26:21.415 can you force me also to turn my mind or my eyes to those 26:21.420 --> 26:22.080 shows? 26:22.078 --> 26:26.988 I shall then be absent while present and so shall overcome 26:26.987 --> 26:28.707 both you and them. 26:28.710 --> 26:31.700 They, hearing this, led him on, nevertheless, 26:31.699 --> 26:35.909 desirous per chance to try that very thing, whether he could do 26:35.912 --> 26:37.342 as he said." 26:37.338 --> 26:41.508 "When they will come thither and had taken their 26:41.512 --> 26:46.092 places as they could, the whole place kindled with 26:46.087 --> 26:49.177 that savage pastime, but he," 26:49.175 --> 26:52.965 Alypius, "closing the passage of his eyes, 26:52.970 --> 26:56.260 forbade his mind to range abroad of such evil, 26:56.259 --> 26:59.389 and would he had stopped his ears also. 26:59.390 --> 27:03.790 For in the fight when one fell, a mighty cry of the whole 27:03.791 --> 27:07.811 people striking him, strongly overcome by curiosity 27:07.814 --> 27:11.584 and as prepared to despise and be superior to it, 27:11.578 --> 27:14.058 whatever it were, even when seen, 27:14.061 --> 27:18.481 he opened his eyes and was stricken with a deeper wound in 27:18.482 --> 27:21.512 his soul, than the other whom he desired 27:21.506 --> 27:23.246 to behold was in his body. 27:23.250 --> 27:27.530 And he fell more miserably than he upon whose fall that mighty 27:27.527 --> 27:30.967 noise was raised, which entered through his ears 27:30.971 --> 27:35.121 and unlocked his eyes to make way for the striking and beating 27:35.124 --> 27:36.354 down of a soul. 27:36.348 --> 27:40.108 Bold rather than resolute, and the weaker in that it had 27:40.105 --> 27:44.125 presumed on itself which ought to have relied on Thee for so 27:44.134 --> 27:46.374 soon the-- " the whole confession is 27:46.368 --> 27:48.558 addressed to God, for it's a confession, 27:48.561 --> 27:52.081 a witnessing to God so in case you are confused about the 27:52.079 --> 27:52.959 references. 27:52.960 --> 27:56.630 "For so soon as he saw that blood, 27:56.630 --> 28:01.570 he therewith drank down savageness, 28:01.568 --> 28:06.318 not turned away, but fixed his eye drinking in 28:06.315 --> 28:09.955 frenzy, unawares and was delighted with 28:09.964 --> 28:14.574 that guilty fight and intoxicated with bloody pastime. 28:14.568 --> 28:19.238 Nor was he now the man he came, but one of the throng he came 28:19.243 --> 28:19.793 unto. 28:19.788 --> 28:23.878 Yea, a true associate of theirs that brought him thither. 28:23.880 --> 28:25.690 Why say more? 28:25.690 --> 28:31.550 He beheld, shouted, kindled, carried thence with 28:31.547 --> 28:34.227 him, the madness which should goad 28:34.230 --> 28:38.100 him to return not only with them who first drew him thither, 28:38.098 --> 28:40.908 but also before them, yea and to join others. 28:40.910 --> 28:45.070 Yet, thence it did start with a most strong, a most merciful 28:45.065 --> 28:48.935 hand, pluck him and taught him to have confidence not in 28:48.939 --> 28:50.629 himself but in Thee. 28:50.630 --> 28:53.200 But this was after," and that's really the story. 28:53.200 --> 28:55.300 What is the meaning of this story? 28:55.298 --> 29:00.368 In the Confessions, I think that Augustine is very 29:00.368 --> 29:05.438 clear: the failure of the mind to master its own will. 29:05.440 --> 29:06.600 It's about the crisis. 29:06.598 --> 29:09.258 It's about the weakness of the will to begin with, 29:09.259 --> 29:14.389 but it's also the pride: the belief that one can rise 29:14.394 --> 29:19.924 above the contingency of temptations and be in control of 29:19.923 --> 29:21.113 oneself. 29:21.108 --> 29:25.728 And yet, it's a story of a temptation which he, 29:25.732 --> 29:28.852 Alypius, cannot quite resist. 29:28.848 --> 29:32.328 I think that this is exactly what's happening in Canto IX. 29:32.328 --> 29:36.558 Dante's dramatizing not only the failure of the intellect; 29:36.558 --> 29:40.088 he's already been talking about the early part of the canto, 29:40.093 --> 29:42.313 the failure of Virgil to guide him. 29:42.308 --> 29:46.538 He's discussing now the failure of his will, at least seen 29:46.544 --> 29:50.934 in--as an event of the past but clearly is seen as something 29:50.928 --> 29:53.378 that can happen to him again. 29:53.380 --> 29:59.720 The passage to the city can take place after this scene and 29:59.723 --> 30:06.513 now he enters into the City of Dis and against the walls of the 30:06.506 --> 30:10.856 city, he finds the Epicureans--again, 30:10.857 --> 30:16.637 those who do not believe in the mortality of the soul. 30:16.640 --> 30:19.750 Let me just read in Canto X some passages. 30:19.750 --> 30:22.790 By the way, each Canto X of the Divine Comedy, 30:22.790 --> 30:26.130 they're really are all cantos intimately related with each 30:26.125 --> 30:26.705 other. 30:26.710 --> 30:29.160 So if you were looking for a paper you want to connect Canto 30:29.155 --> 30:31.585 X of Inferno, Canto X of Purgatorio, 30:31.592 --> 30:35.402 and Canto X of Paradise, I would encourage you to do so. 30:35.400 --> 30:37.870 Let me just read a few lines. 30:37.868 --> 30:44.638 Dante asks who these souls are and the answer he gets is this 30:44.638 --> 30:48.518 line 12, "All will be shut in when 30:48.519 --> 30:51.509 they return from Jehoshaphat," 30:51.510 --> 30:54.680 which is the valley in Jerusalem; 30:54.680 --> 30:59.860 in the valley, into the valley of Jerusalem 30:59.857 --> 31:06.757 where, according to the law, the resurrection of the dead 31:06.762 --> 31:09.232 will take place. 31:09.230 --> 31:11.270 That's where they would be meeting. 31:11.269 --> 31:14.149 It's interesting then, that there is this contrast in 31:14.151 --> 31:16.701 the canto between the so-called Epicureans, 31:16.700 --> 31:20.340 who do not believe in their immortality of the soul, 31:20.338 --> 31:23.978 and clearly, this view, this opposition as 31:23.977 --> 31:26.907 one could call it, between Athens, 31:26.909 --> 31:29.689 very classical, Athens, and Jerusalem. 31:29.690 --> 31:33.760 You may have heard of this, the city of Athens by the way, 31:33.759 --> 31:37.259 the word itself means immortality, the immortality of 31:37.261 --> 31:40.291 athanatos, the immortality of wisdom. 31:40.288 --> 31:45.868 Wisdom survives, but not the people. 31:45.868 --> 31:50.588 There is a kind of--the kind of contrast between the two cities, 31:50.590 --> 31:53.140 very old, very ancient contrast. 31:53.140 --> 31:57.170 And now we have in this part, Epicurus and all his followers, 31:57.165 --> 31:59.175 what we call the Epicureans. 31:59.180 --> 32:03.910 Let me just gloss the Epicureans a little bit further 32:03.913 --> 32:06.283 from--than I did before. 32:06.278 --> 32:10.178 There are two types--in the mythography of the Epicureans, 32:10.183 --> 32:12.653 there are two types of Epicureans. 32:12.650 --> 32:14.560 Whenever we think about the Epicureans, 32:14.558 --> 32:17.418 we think about those, the vulgar Epicureans, 32:17.420 --> 32:21.140 those who think about--worship their stomach, 32:21.140 --> 32:25.150 the pleasures of food, an Epicurean in that sense. 32:25.150 --> 32:28.650 I think that Dante has dramatized that kind of 32:28.647 --> 32:31.677 Epicurean in Canto VI when he meets, 32:31.680 --> 32:33.840 remember Ciacco, whose name means 32:33.836 --> 32:35.046 "pig." 32:35.048 --> 32:38.478 In fact we talked about the hogs of Epicurus, 32:38.478 --> 32:40.268 the herd of Epicurus. 32:40.269 --> 32:42.789 But then there is the noble version of the Epicureans, 32:42.788 --> 32:45.088 the canto here, in Canto X those who are 32:45.085 --> 32:47.435 interested in intellectual pleasures, 32:47.440 --> 32:51.070 the pleasures of conversations, the pleasures of friendship, 32:51.069 --> 32:53.589 the pleasures of meditation. 32:53.588 --> 32:57.798 And they are those who do not--who remove themselves to 32:57.798 --> 33:01.188 the garden, do not seem to really care much 33:01.194 --> 33:05.434 about what happens around them, because in the belief that they 33:05.432 --> 33:08.782 should really take-- cultivate their soul and 33:08.781 --> 33:12.911 cultivate their own pursuits, take care of their own pursuits. 33:12.910 --> 33:14.610 That's what we are having here. 33:14.608 --> 33:18.138 These are the noble, philosophical Epicureans, 33:18.144 --> 33:22.154 not the vulgar sort that believe in the supremacy of 33:22.150 --> 33:23.800 bodily pleasures. 33:23.798 --> 33:26.908 Nonetheless, pleasure is the aim of an 33:26.914 --> 33:29.614 Epicurean ethics, my pleasure. 33:29.608 --> 33:33.558 This continues, "in this part Epicurus and 33:33.564 --> 33:37.354 all his followers, who make the soul die with the 33:37.351 --> 33:39.731 body have their burial place." 33:39.730 --> 33:44.180 How fitting, how fitting is the punishment 33:44.184 --> 33:47.124 for this crime, this sin. 33:47.118 --> 33:50.868 It's perfect because these people never really believed in 33:50.874 --> 33:55.094 the immortality of the soul and they are condemned to be dead. 33:55.088 --> 34:00.338 That's what they think and they dwell literally in sarcophagus, 34:00.337 --> 34:02.537 in sarcophagi, entombed. 34:02.539 --> 34:04.909 That's how they appear. 34:04.910 --> 34:07.940 There is another little detail I have given you-- 34:07.940 --> 34:12.480 sometimes we may wonder about the appropriateness of a sin, 34:12.480 --> 34:14.260 of a punishment for a particular sin, 34:14.260 --> 34:19.120 but here we have no reason to really be surprised at all by 34:19.117 --> 34:23.387 this kind of destiny reserved for the Epicureans. 34:23.389 --> 34:25.069 "But for thy question to me, 34:25.070 --> 34:27.380 thou shalt soon have satisfaction from within there, 34:27.380 --> 34:29.850 and for the desire too about which thou art silent." 34:29.849 --> 34:32.159 Then they're interrupted. 34:32.159 --> 34:34.989 All of a sudden, now Dante's once again 34:34.987 --> 34:38.227 involved, and what's here primarily is no 34:38.228 --> 34:41.638 longer the question of immorality of souls, 34:41.639 --> 34:47.909 but how the political aspect, the political implications of 34:47.911 --> 34:53.781 this kind of belief, of believing in immorality of 34:53.777 --> 34:57.547 the soul, how is this refracted onto the 34:57.552 --> 34:59.882 political scene as it were? 34:59.880 --> 35:03.100 Again, therefore, this is almost a Platonic 35:03.097 --> 35:05.817 conceit, the relationship now between no 35:05.815 --> 35:09.515 longer bodies and cities, as we saw in Inferno VI, 35:09.523 --> 35:11.133 but here soul and city. 35:11.130 --> 35:13.210 Is this a soulless city? 35:13.210 --> 35:14.570 What happens? 35:14.570 --> 35:16.270 How do we experience it? 35:16.269 --> 35:17.409 How livable? 35:17.409 --> 35:22.069 Which is--I mean it is also a pun, how livable is this kind of 35:22.065 --> 35:22.595 city? 35:22.599 --> 35:25.229 What happens and what is the--what are the 35:25.233 --> 35:28.643 relationship--what is the relationship between various 35:28.639 --> 35:29.409 figures? 35:29.409 --> 35:33.699 Dante singles out two people, one a Guelf and one a 35:33.702 --> 35:34.822 Ghibelline. 35:34.820 --> 35:38.830 We are in the middle of the civil war of Florence once 35:38.833 --> 35:39.443 again. 35:39.440 --> 35:45.260 It's going to be Farinata, a Ghibelline and Cavalcanti, 35:45.260 --> 35:49.790 the father, the old man, who is a Guelf. 35:49.789 --> 35:52.529 By the way, they're also related to each other because 35:52.534 --> 35:55.304 Cavalcanti's son, Dante's best friend--you 35:55.298 --> 35:59.118 remember he dedicates his Vita nuova to him, 35:59.119 --> 36:02.809 he calls him 'my first friend Guido Cavalcanti'-- 36:02.809 --> 36:05.399 had married the daughter of Farinata. 36:05.400 --> 36:09.290 They stand there in their tombs ignoring each other and each 36:09.293 --> 36:12.403 ignoring the pangs, worries, and perplexities of 36:12.396 --> 36:13.316 the other. 36:13.320 --> 36:18.130 It's a little picture of what we call "any city." 36:18.130 --> 36:21.760 This is the city in the beyond where everybody's squabbling. 36:21.760 --> 36:24.780 Nobody's paying attention to anybody else, 36:24.777 --> 36:28.087 and everybody believes that one's own passion, 36:28.090 --> 36:32.140 one's own concern is really paramount and foremost. 36:32.139 --> 36:34.429 There's nothing that can come near to it, 36:34.429 --> 36:39.679 so it's all--it's a canto that interestingly enough is marked 36:39.675 --> 36:42.905 by interruptions: one is speaking, 36:42.909 --> 36:45.429 the other says forget it, I got to talk now it's my turn. 36:45.429 --> 36:50.529 And so it is the--it is a little vignette of Florence in 36:50.534 --> 36:55.184 the year 1300 probably, or later but 1300 is a good 36:55.175 --> 36:56.655 date for us. 36:56.659 --> 36:58.619 So, he's interrupted, Virgil and Dante are 36:58.617 --> 37:01.857 interrupted by someone who says, "'O Tuscan who makest thy 37:01.855 --> 37:05.085 way alive through the city of fire and speakest so modestly, 37:05.090 --> 37:10.440 may it please thee to stop at this point: thy tongue shows 37:10.443 --> 37:15.143 thee native of that noble fatherland to which I was 37:15.139 --> 37:17.299 perhaps too harsh.' 37:17.300 --> 37:19.550 Suddenly this sound issued from one of the chests," 37:19.548 --> 37:20.038 and so on. 37:20.039 --> 37:22.689 So they go on, "Turn round, 37:22.693 --> 37:27.743 what ails thee?"--says Virgil--"See there Farinata 37:27.744 --> 37:31.594 who has risen erect; from the middle up thou shalt 37:31.590 --> 37:33.260 see his full height." 37:33.260 --> 37:36.660 He appears from the navel up in the tomb. 37:36.659 --> 37:38.579 Now, a little historical detail. 37:38.579 --> 37:44.339 There used to be in Rome, a church is still there, 37:44.340 --> 37:47.550 but it was already there in the year 1300, 37:47.550 --> 37:52.470 when Dante went on an embassy to Rome: the church so-called of 37:52.467 --> 37:55.447 the Holy Cross in Jerusalem which, 37:55.449 --> 37:57.859 according to the legend, was built with material, 37:57.860 --> 38:02.120 with stones from Jerusalem that had been brought to Rome by 38:02.121 --> 38:04.401 Constantine's mother, Helena. 38:04.400 --> 38:09.220 In the basement of that church, which would be opened only once 38:09.224 --> 38:13.804 a year around the Easter season, there would be a mosaic 38:13.797 --> 38:17.087 showing--and you can say it would only-- 38:17.090 --> 38:22.580 on Good Friday that the--that basement would be open. 38:22.579 --> 38:25.609 And that mosaic, it's no longer there so I 38:25.610 --> 38:28.420 cannot--I'm not encouraging tourism; 38:28.420 --> 38:30.640 it's just I'm giving you a little detail. 38:30.639 --> 38:36.219 There used to be a mosaic of the rising Christ from-- 38:36.219 --> 38:40.919 shown from the navel up and it's clear here that the 38:40.918 --> 38:46.078 representation of Farinata showing himself from the navel 38:46.077 --> 38:52.157 up is meant as a caricature of the belief in the Resurrection. 38:52.159 --> 38:54.139 There are two--this is the really--of the story of a man 38:54.141 --> 38:55.691 who doesn't believe in the Resurrection, 38:55.690 --> 39:00.200 and iconographically Dante will go on focusing, 39:00.199 --> 39:02.259 insisting on this--on the counter. 39:02.260 --> 39:04.460 This man doesn't believe in the Resurrection. 39:04.460 --> 39:09.340 That is another possibility of looking at it so there is a--the 39:09.342 --> 39:13.442 description is clearly meant to evoke all of that. 39:13.440 --> 39:16.000 There is a great exchange between them: 39:15.996 --> 39:19.996 who defeated whom, the continuous battles between 39:20.003 --> 39:25.023 Guelfs and Ghibellines and Dante claims that his own family 39:25.018 --> 39:29.428 managed to take good revenge when the time came. 39:29.429 --> 39:32.779 And clearly the implication is that more revenge, 39:32.784 --> 39:35.724 since Dante has been, will be necessary. 39:35.719 --> 39:43.849 They're interrupted by the sight of--by the old man 39:43.846 --> 39:45.956 Cavalcanti. 39:45.960 --> 39:51.920 Look at what the story of the canto is: Farinata worries about 39:51.916 --> 39:57.466 his ancestors; Cavalcanti worries about his 39:57.467 --> 39:58.177 son. 39:58.179 --> 40:02.009 So these are the Epicureans who have a sense of continuity 40:02.010 --> 40:04.940 somehow, a sense of dynastic continuity: 40:04.943 --> 40:09.053 all within the immanence of personal concerns and family. 40:09.050 --> 40:14.530 So they go--they move beyond the fragmentations of self from 40:14.532 --> 40:15.742 the others. 40:15.739 --> 40:18.629 They seem to have a kind of extended idea of themselves, 40:18.628 --> 40:21.358 in spite of themselves, in spite of their beliefs. 40:21.360 --> 40:24.500 This is what happens, an extraordinary scene: 40:24.500 --> 40:28.570 "Then rose to sight," line 55 and following, 40:28.570 --> 40:32.530 "beside him a shade showing as far as the chin; 40:32.530 --> 40:35.180 I think he had lifted himself on his knees. 40:35.179 --> 40:39.109 He looked round about me as if he had a desire to see whether 40:39.105 --> 40:43.045 someone was with me, but when his expectation was 40:43.052 --> 40:48.372 all quenched he said, weeping: 'If thou goest through 40:48.369 --> 40:52.639 this blind prison by height of genius, 40:52.639 --> 40:54.629 where is my son? 40:54.630 --> 40:57.890 Why is he not with thee?" 40:57.889 --> 41:00.949 The reference clearly is to Dante's best friend, 41:00.947 --> 41:05.107 to Guido, whose name also means that he should be guiding him. 41:05.110 --> 41:08.750 Maybe the old man--the old father was hoping that the son, 41:08.750 --> 41:12.570 according to his name, could really be leading the 41:12.572 --> 41:16.622 younger poet, as he had led him in his early 41:16.615 --> 41:19.595 poetic experiments in Florence. 41:19.599 --> 41:21.749 And then he answers, he's disappointed, 41:21.750 --> 41:24.180 and Dante answers, I answered him, 41:24.179 --> 41:28.439 "I come not of myself, he," doesn't even mention 41:28.440 --> 41:30.190 him, meaning Virgil, 41:30.188 --> 41:34.298 "he that waits yonder is leading me," 41:34.295 --> 41:38.845 so this is the pun on "guido"-- 41:38.849 --> 41:42.739 "through here perhaps to..." 41:42.739 --> 41:44.329 That's very unclear. 41:44.329 --> 41:46.239 The text here, my translation is "to 41:46.242 --> 41:48.872 her" and so does yours, but many other translations 41:48.871 --> 41:50.641 probably say something different. 41:50.639 --> 41:55.939 I would say "to one, your Guido held in 41:55.938 --> 41:57.908 disdain." 41:57.909 --> 42:00.459 It's unclear because the "her" 42:00.458 --> 42:04.048 would mean he's leading me, Virgil leads me to Beatrice, 42:04.052 --> 42:06.082 whom Guido held in disdain. 42:06.079 --> 42:09.059 Why would Guido hold Beatrice in disdain? 42:09.059 --> 42:11.339 Is this really the story of the Vita nuova? 42:11.340 --> 42:15.200 The antagonism between Guido and Beatrice? 42:15.199 --> 42:18.429 There's nothing that really suggests all of that. 42:18.429 --> 42:22.779 "To one" would be to God or to some aim 42:22.777 --> 42:27.847 that Guido held in disdain, we'll see what that means. 42:27.849 --> 42:29.979 "His words, and the nature of his 42:29.978 --> 42:33.538 punishment had already told me his name, so that I replied thus 42:33.543 --> 42:34.123 fully. 42:34.119 --> 42:38.679 Suddenly erect, he cried, 'How saidst thou 'he 42:38.681 --> 42:40.101 held'?" 42:40.099 --> 42:46.949 That's--Dante uses the past preterite, "he held." 42:46.949 --> 42:50.269 The old man, infers because of the use of 42:50.266 --> 42:54.246 the past preterite, that his son is already dead: 42:54.248 --> 42:56.818 a mistake, an equivocation. 42:56.820 --> 42:58.570 "He held? 42:58.570 --> 43:00.090 Lives he not still? 43:00.090 --> 43:03.160 Strikes not the sweet light on his eyes?' 43:03.159 --> 43:07.479 When he perceived that I made some delay before replying he 43:07.483 --> 43:10.843 fell back again and was seen no more." 43:10.840 --> 43:13.820 Farinata is unconcerned. 43:13.820 --> 43:16.600 He goes on saying, well yeah you drove us back but 43:16.599 --> 43:19.899 we drove you back, brings the subject to the 43:19.898 --> 43:22.388 political-- strictly to the war between 43:22.385 --> 43:25.385 Guelfs and Ghibellines so that we really have to ask-- 43:25.389 --> 43:27.309 Dante goes on saying, please before leaving, 43:27.309 --> 43:30.299 reassure the old man that his son is still alive, 43:30.300 --> 43:35.260 because by the year of the journey Dante-- 43:35.260 --> 43:36.810 Guido was supposed to be alive. 43:36.809 --> 43:39.269 Though he will die very quickly afterwards. 43:39.268 --> 43:42.948 What is this story of political disarray of Florence? 43:42.949 --> 43:49.019 And the story of the memory of Dante's friend with whom he had 43:49.021 --> 43:53.601 just--the friendship was just--had finished. 43:53.599 --> 43:54.689 The friendship was over. 43:54.690 --> 43:58.360 Dante, for those of you who are interested in the biography of 43:58.358 --> 44:01.508 the poet-- one of the early and toughest 44:01.505 --> 44:06.775 decisions he had to make was to banish Guido Cavalcanti from the 44:06.775 --> 44:11.375 city because he thought that Guido was the cause of some 44:11.376 --> 44:13.716 unrest within the city. 44:13.719 --> 44:17.079 Guido went into exile and never made it back. 44:17.079 --> 44:23.349 He died three months later in the swamps of near--of Liguria, 44:23.353 --> 44:26.703 a little bit north of Tuscany. 44:26.699 --> 44:30.099 Dante lives in many ways with a kind of guilt, 44:30.101 --> 44:32.221 personal guilt, I suppose. 44:32.219 --> 44:35.959 He won't talk about it openly about the--what had been 44:35.963 --> 44:37.733 happening between them. 44:37.730 --> 44:40.930 What is--how are we trying to understand this scene? 44:40.929 --> 44:44.969 Let me just give you some details about-- some other 44:44.969 --> 44:47.109 details about this canto. 44:47.110 --> 44:49.410 "If you go through this blind prison by height of 44:49.411 --> 44:50.151 genius..." 44:50.150 --> 44:51.570 There's a little bit of irony there. 44:51.570 --> 44:54.090 Cavalcanti clearly does not understand, 44:54.090 --> 44:57.000 nor can he understand, that Dante's journey in the 44:56.996 --> 44:59.426 beyond is not due to height of genius, 44:59.429 --> 45:02.469 but these are the philosophers and he has a kind of 45:02.465 --> 45:06.105 philosophical idea about how certain experiences are going to 45:06.108 --> 45:07.078 be possible. 45:07.079 --> 45:10.149 "Why is not my son with you?" Etc. 45:10.150 --> 45:12.700 "I come not of myself; he that ... 45:12.699 --> 45:16.779 to one whom your Guido held in disdain." 45:16.780 --> 45:20.730 Well, what has happened here? 45:20.730 --> 45:21.970 Who is Guido really? 45:21.969 --> 45:25.709 Guido is what we call an Averroist. 45:25.710 --> 45:28.050 Did you ever hear the term, Averroist? 45:28.050 --> 45:29.170 Probably not. 45:29.170 --> 45:33.080 Averroes, Dante actually mentions him in Limbo. 45:33.079 --> 45:36.359 He was an Arab philosopher and a famous commentator of 45:36.356 --> 45:37.096 Aristotle. 45:37.099 --> 45:41.349 And of all the texts, he commented just as now, 45:41.349 --> 45:44.889 in the Middle Ages they would be reading the great classics of 45:44.887 --> 45:47.177 philosophy, especially very difficult text 45:47.179 --> 45:49.469 such as the-- On the Soul of Aristotle 45:49.467 --> 45:52.417 with-- following the commentators. 45:52.420 --> 45:54.270 Averroes was known as the "Great Commentator." 45:54.268 --> 45:59.528 He was the great commentator of Aristotle's On the Soul. 45:59.530 --> 46:04.090 And he argues that Aristotle does not believe in the 46:04.085 --> 46:06.405 immortality of the soul. 46:06.409 --> 46:09.639 That's the argument that he's going to be challenged by 46:09.643 --> 46:13.893 Aquinas and by many others, but that's the primary--Guido 46:13.885 --> 46:18.855 Cavalcanti follows Averroes' understanding about the soul. 46:18.860 --> 46:22.350 The one who is here, a heretic so to speak, 46:22.346 --> 46:26.406 is not just the old man, but also Guido Cavalcanti 46:26.413 --> 46:27.413 himself. 46:27.409 --> 46:31.809 At this point, before I go any further telling 46:31.806 --> 46:35.906 you more about the who is an Averroist, 46:35.909 --> 46:37.229 what does it mean to be an Averroist, 46:37.230 --> 46:39.110 I really have to raise a point with you. 46:39.110 --> 46:41.070 What does heresy mean? 46:41.070 --> 46:46.060 Because I did indicate that in antiquity it was never really 46:46.061 --> 46:50.631 thought of as a sin because it's a question of mind. 46:50.630 --> 46:53.360 The word comes from the Greek haeresis, 46:53.358 --> 46:55.298 meaning "to choose." 46:55.300 --> 47:00.270 One who is a heretic is someone who makes a particular 47:00.273 --> 47:02.343 intellectual choice. 47:02.340 --> 47:08.360 To be viewed as a sinner, you have to also indicate some 47:08.362 --> 47:11.992 kind, an element of pride behind a 47:11.994 --> 47:17.214 particular belief and so Guido is held responsible for 47:17.211 --> 47:20.281 spreading, disseminating this idea of 47:20.275 --> 47:20.985 Averroism. 47:20.989 --> 47:22.279 What is then Averroism? 47:22.280 --> 47:26.960 Well one of the ideas that Averroes says is that we-- 47:26.960 --> 47:28.830 in the commentary On the Soul-- 47:28.829 --> 47:36.549 that we human beings are not even capable, 47:36.550 --> 47:39.660 intrinsically capable of thinking. 47:39.659 --> 47:45.039 That we are made--remember the famous structure? 47:45.039 --> 47:46.539 The diagram about the soul? 47:46.539 --> 47:51.879 That we are a concupiscent entities and sensitive entities. 47:51.880 --> 47:56.310 We're also rational entities, but rationality occurs to us 47:56.309 --> 47:57.629 intermittently. 47:57.630 --> 48:01.960 Thoughts, we even say that in English, 'a thought came to me.' 48:01.960 --> 48:05.730 That reminds me the best way of understanding Averroism: 48:05.726 --> 48:09.636 we don't think all the time, occasionally thought comes to 48:09.639 --> 48:11.859 us, and there's no way that really. 48:11.860 --> 48:15.900 And when we think we are really existing in a sort of break, 48:15.898 --> 48:18.908 a discontinuity from the world of feeling. 48:18.909 --> 48:22.159 So there's a fairly tragic understanding, 48:22.161 --> 48:26.791 making human beings the object of thought, not subjects of 48:26.793 --> 48:27.773 thought. 48:27.768 --> 48:30.838 We are not agents capable of producing thoughts, 48:30.840 --> 48:35.750 thoughts come to us and also tragic because it sort of 48:35.753 --> 48:40.303 presents a break between the sensitive part of our 48:40.295 --> 48:45.205 experiences and the rational part of experiences. 48:45.210 --> 48:48.770 We live like animals more often than not: we eat, 48:48.769 --> 48:51.069 we drink, we sleep and so on. 48:51.070 --> 48:54.350 Then occasionally we manage to disengage ourselves from all of 48:54.349 --> 48:56.769 this and capable of contemplative thoughts. 48:56.768 --> 49:00.018 At that point we no longer really live we are just--we are 49:00.021 --> 49:03.391 abstracted from ourselves, we are removed from ourselves. 49:03.389 --> 49:05.589 Not only Guido believed in these ideas, 49:05.590 --> 49:09.450 these ideas shape one of the most beautiful poems written at 49:09.445 --> 49:12.645 the time of Dante by Guido Cavalcanti himself, 49:12.650 --> 49:15.920 and the poem is called, A Lady Asks Me. 49:15.920 --> 49:17.410 I want to tell you what the poem is about. 49:17.409 --> 49:21.029 It's a poem where there's a fiction: the poet Guido 49:21.034 --> 49:25.094 Cavalcanti imagines that a woman, which may have been the 49:25.094 --> 49:27.564 case, asks him to define love. 49:27.559 --> 49:31.049 You poets are always talking about love, and I don't 49:31.047 --> 49:34.877 understand what you mean by love, and nor do I understand 49:34.876 --> 49:36.856 what the effects of love. 49:36.860 --> 49:38.560 And he writes a song, this long song, 49:38.559 --> 49:42.199 saying that love--a lady asks me to talk about the nature of 49:42.195 --> 49:43.985 love, the function of love, 49:43.985 --> 49:45.525 and the effects of love. 49:45.530 --> 49:47.390 And he goes on almost scholastically, 49:47.391 --> 49:49.151 taking one case after the other. 49:49.150 --> 49:52.600 He begins by saying, in the exposition, 49:52.603 --> 49:56.513 that love is a passion that comes from Mars, 49:56.512 --> 49:58.242 not from Venus. 49:58.239 --> 50:02.119 That is to say, the nature of love is always to 50:02.117 --> 50:05.737 be one of conflict and one of war and chaos, 50:05.742 --> 50:09.622 not one of an order, the benevolent Venus. 50:09.619 --> 50:14.369 He goes on too saying that it's--it induces death and it's 50:14.365 --> 50:17.775 characterized by deliriums of the mind. 50:17.780 --> 50:22.070 It's a very clearly, grim idea of love. 50:22.070 --> 50:27.610 What Dante's doing in this Canto X is connecting Guido's 50:27.608 --> 50:32.238 ideas of love and the politics of civil war. 50:32.239 --> 50:36.429 He finds that there is a strict necessary connection, 50:36.431 --> 50:41.511 a necessary correlation between the thinking about love of Guido 50:41.509 --> 50:44.329 Cavalcanti, whom Dante opposes. 50:44.329 --> 50:46.309 As you know from the Vita nuova, 50:46.309 --> 50:49.349 he believes that Beatrice can indeed be someone who can lead 50:49.353 --> 50:51.523 him to God and to the knowledge of God, 50:51.518 --> 50:55.258 in the persuasion that it is not by truth that you come to 50:55.260 --> 50:56.770 the knowledge of God. 50:56.768 --> 50:59.008 If you cannot come to the knowledge of God by truth, 50:59.012 --> 51:01.082 then how do you come to the knowledge of God? 51:01.079 --> 51:06.069 By love, by thinking about love: that's the way of the 51:06.072 --> 51:06.922 ascent. 51:06.920 --> 51:10.980 On the other hand, Dante will have this idea that 51:10.981 --> 51:14.781 the political-- that the order of civil--that 51:14.777 --> 51:17.587 this disorder, the civil disorder, 51:17.585 --> 51:22.335 the civil war is nothing else than the phenomenon of a theory 51:22.342 --> 51:26.732 put forth by the Averroist, by Guido Cavalcanti. 51:26.730 --> 51:31.160 This is really what I think the double focus of this canto: 51:31.164 --> 51:35.144 love and politics and the connection between them. 51:35.139 --> 51:39.519 A connection which, by the way, the Averroists whom 51:39.523 --> 51:43.033 Dante links with the Epicureans, deny. 51:43.030 --> 51:45.630 But he's making this connection, imaginatively, 51:45.632 --> 51:48.632 a connection denied by the philosophers themselves. 51:48.630 --> 51:53.080 With Canto XI and--Dante will go on. 51:53.079 --> 51:55.649 We have a few minutes and I can talk about this. 51:55.650 --> 52:00.900 Dante, as I said, explains the order of--on the 52:00.900 --> 52:05.580 face of it, the juxtaposition is clear. 52:05.579 --> 52:10.339 To the disorder of the city, we are now going to have a 52:10.342 --> 52:14.752 reflection, a rational reflection on the order that 52:14.753 --> 52:17.403 sustains the City of Hell. 52:17.400 --> 52:21.850 If there is any disordered place, it is as if there's a 52:21.849 --> 52:24.899 logic even to the disorder of evil. 52:24.900 --> 52:31.310 And the idea is that there is a tripartite division to Hell, 52:31.306 --> 52:33.366 the plan of Hell. 52:33.369 --> 52:37.629 All of the sins are divided into three parts, 52:37.634 --> 52:42.194 sins of incontinence that we saw from Canto III, 52:42.188 --> 52:45.288 IV, V, actually to Canto IX. 52:45.289 --> 52:49.909 The middle area which is called the area of violence and then 52:49.914 --> 52:52.694 the third area, the sins of fraud. 52:52.690 --> 52:57.600 And Dante calls fraud the sin peculiar to human beings because 52:57.601 --> 53:01.861 it's not just a sin of the will, but there is also the 53:01.860 --> 53:05.260 premeditation of the mind, the complicity of the mind, 53:05.257 --> 53:08.267 the sense of fraud which is also a sense of treachery. 53:08.268 --> 53:14.538 Dante sees the conjunction of will and, at the same time, 53:14.536 --> 53:20.576 the order of reason in the performance of that evil. 53:20.579 --> 53:27.549 The canto comes to--ends with a question. 53:27.550 --> 53:30.400 Dante says that this is all from the Ethics of 53:30.398 --> 53:32.368 Aristotle and then Dante wonders, 53:32.369 --> 53:36.829 look, he'll say, lines 90: "Oh Sun that 53:36.833 --> 53:41.723 healest all troubled sight, so dost thou satisfy me with a 53:41.715 --> 53:45.125 resolving of my doubts that it is no less grateful to me to 53:45.128 --> 53:46.598 question than to know. 53:46.599 --> 53:50.579 Turn back again a little', I said,' to the point." 53:50.579 --> 53:52.679 You know he's been explaining everything; 53:52.679 --> 53:54.829 actually he didn't explain everything. 53:54.829 --> 53:58.829 He never explained heresy, which we took some time to talk 53:58.831 --> 54:01.501 about and he never really explains-- 54:01.500 --> 54:03.630 Dante tells him, you never really say anything 54:03.626 --> 54:04.286 about usury. 54:04.289 --> 54:07.499 The point that's, "the usury offends Divine 54:07.496 --> 54:10.086 Goodness, and loose that knot." 54:10.090 --> 54:12.890 Why is usury--what is usury exactly? 54:12.889 --> 54:17.429 The question is why does Dante ask this question of usury? 54:17.429 --> 54:19.249 How does he answer it? 54:19.250 --> 54:21.300 We can understand why he asks about it. 54:21.300 --> 54:24.050 How does he answer what usury is? 54:24.050 --> 54:28.210 Let me just read this passage lines 98 and following: 54:28.210 --> 54:31.860 "'Philosophy, for one who understands,' he 54:31.862 --> 54:35.032 said to me, 'notes, not in one place only, 54:35.027 --> 54:39.147 how nature takes her course from the divine mind and its 54:39.150 --> 54:41.570 art, and if thou note well thy 54:41.572 --> 54:45.222 Physics," another text of Aristotle, 54:45.219 --> 54:49.139 the Ethics is mentioned for us, 54:49.139 --> 54:51.549 now the Physics, "thou wilt find not many 54:51.552 --> 54:53.412 pages on, that your art, 54:53.405 --> 54:57.845 as far as it can, follows nature as the pupil the 54:57.851 --> 55:00.751 master, so that your art is to God, 55:00.753 --> 55:02.573 as it were, a grandchild. 55:02.570 --> 55:05.280 By these two, if you recall to mind 55:05.275 --> 55:08.815 Genesis, near the beginning," 55:08.817 --> 55:12.817 the biblical book of Genesis, "it behoves mankind to 55:12.815 --> 55:15.175 gain their livelihood and their advancement, 55:15.179 --> 55:19.089 and because the usurer takes another way he despises nature, 55:19.090 --> 55:21.650 both in herself and in her follower, 55:21.650 --> 55:25.100 setting his hope elsewhere. 55:25.099 --> 55:27.619 But now follow me, for I would go; 55:27.619 --> 55:30.969 the Fishes are quivering on the horizon and all the Wain lies 55:30.972 --> 55:33.932 over Caurus and farther on there is the descent of the 55:33.934 --> 55:37.704 cliff.'" To explain the sin of usury, 55:37.702 --> 55:41.062 Dante puts forth a theory of art. 55:41.059 --> 55:46.719 That's what's happening, as if usury were a violation of 55:46.722 --> 55:47.342 art. 55:47.340 --> 55:48.690 How does he understand art? 55:48.690 --> 55:51.450 Art, what is art? 55:51.449 --> 55:55.519 He understands art as work, that's the best way to explain 55:55.521 --> 55:55.881 it. 55:55.880 --> 56:00.060 Talking about the beginning of Genesis when a human being-- 56:00.059 --> 56:03.679 when Adam was thrown out of the Garden of Eden and was told that 56:03.677 --> 56:06.627 in order to recover, retrieve the garden, 56:06.625 --> 56:10.475 he had to go back to work, that work becomes an 56:10.481 --> 56:12.621 ascetic--not a punishment. 56:12.619 --> 56:16.299 Here Dante doesn't see work as a punishment, 56:16.300 --> 56:21.610 but an ascetic exercise whereby one can regain or transform the 56:21.606 --> 56:24.086 wilderness into paradise. 56:24.090 --> 56:27.660 That's really the idea, but I think there is more that 56:27.661 --> 56:30.291 is happening here in this connection. 56:30.289 --> 56:33.639 This is the general thrust of the canto. 56:33.639 --> 56:35.059 What is art in the Middle Ages? 56:35.059 --> 56:37.419 You may want to know because first of all, 56:37.416 --> 56:40.056 I did say that there is a general coherence. 56:40.059 --> 56:43.869 You remember those were my initial words when I started 56:43.873 --> 56:46.843 today's class from Canto IX to Canto XI? 56:46.840 --> 56:51.960 Art is understood by the Scholastics as a virtue of the 56:51.960 --> 56:56.040 practical intellect, in the order of making, 56:56.036 --> 56:59.826 a virtue of the practical intellect. 56:59.829 --> 57:02.039 You may go, what is this practical intellect? 57:02.039 --> 57:03.339 How many intellects do we have? 57:03.340 --> 57:05.790 Well there's a speculative intellect. 57:05.789 --> 57:08.579 When Dante talks about the immortality of the soul and 57:08.577 --> 57:11.677 those who do not believe in the immortality of the soul, 57:11.679 --> 57:13.939 that's a question of the speculative intellect. 57:13.940 --> 57:18.890 If I went on thinking about God, suppose that I had this 57:18.894 --> 57:22.774 weakness of mine to think about justice, 57:22.768 --> 57:25.028 for instance, an abstract of idea, 57:25.027 --> 57:27.057 justice, not particular cases of 57:27.063 --> 57:30.353 justice, then I'm involved in an exercise of the speculative 57:30.353 --> 57:31.083 intellect. 57:31.079 --> 57:36.139 He ends the canto with the practical intellect, 57:36.139 --> 57:40.629 an emphasis on the practical intellect is the mind that 57:40.632 --> 57:45.562 worries about doing or making, and they are not the same thing. 57:45.559 --> 57:46.579 What is the difference? 57:46.579 --> 57:49.969 To say that there is a practice intellect in the order of doing 57:49.974 --> 57:52.824 would be to worry about when you talk about prudence: 57:52.820 --> 57:57.190 a virtue of doing, because it's not the artisan's 57:57.188 --> 57:57.808 work. 57:57.809 --> 58:01.109 To say that it's a virtue of practical intellect in the order 58:01.110 --> 58:04.360 of making, it means that the work of art is a thing that one 58:04.355 --> 58:05.175 elaborates. 58:05.179 --> 58:09.119 From this point of view, the issue is never really one 58:09.119 --> 58:12.389 of--does it tell the truth about whatever. 58:12.389 --> 58:16.099 It has its own thingness; it's a thing, 58:16.096 --> 58:19.676 the work of art is something made and therefore as made, 58:19.677 --> 58:22.477 it has its own reality; it has its own laws; 58:22.476 --> 58:24.166 it has its own rigor. 58:24.170 --> 58:25.820 That's one thing. 58:25.820 --> 58:30.300 It's work, but look at all the images that Dante is using to 58:30.304 --> 58:32.284 reflect on this problem. 58:32.280 --> 58:34.460 "Philosophy, for one who understands,' he 58:34.460 --> 58:36.910 said to me, 'notes, not in one place only, 58:36.913 --> 58:40.463 how nature takes a course from the divine mind and its art. 58:40.460 --> 58:44.760 And if thou know well thy Physics," 58:44.760 --> 58:48.780 which is it's a theory of nature really, 58:48.780 --> 58:52.130 it's a theory of motion, it's a theory of how things 58:52.125 --> 58:54.705 grow, how things are born, 58:54.706 --> 59:00.226 grow, and perish, "thou will find not many 59:00.226 --> 59:03.396 pages on, that your art as far it can, 59:03.402 --> 59:06.072 follows nature as the pupil the master, 59:06.070 --> 59:08.590 so your art is to God as it were a grandchild." 59:08.590 --> 59:12.140 I just want to talk about these metaphors here to make you 59:12.141 --> 59:15.321 understand what Dante--how Dante understands art. 59:15.320 --> 59:18.430 On the face of it, he's saying that art must be an 59:18.425 --> 59:19.815 imitation of nature. 59:19.820 --> 59:21.970 You have followed nature. 59:21.969 --> 59:26.579 Does Dante then have a mimetic idea of art? 59:26.579 --> 59:32.079 Not at all, not at all, because look at the metaphors 59:32.079 --> 59:35.039 he's using: two metaphors. 59:35.039 --> 59:38.569 "Your art, as far as it can, 59:38.570 --> 59:42.800 follows nature as the pupil the master, 59:42.800 --> 59:47.210 so that your art is to God as it were a grandchild" 59:47.211 --> 59:51.921 because art follows nature, nature is the child of God, 59:51.920 --> 59:57.300 so art is a grandchild, but it's an image of fecundity 59:57.302 --> 59:58.932 and fertility. 59:58.929 --> 1:00:02.729 You can understand why Dante opposes art, finally, 1:00:02.726 --> 1:00:03.576 to usury. 1:00:03.579 --> 1:00:07.499 Usury is viewed as the activity that is sterile, 1:00:07.496 --> 1:00:10.906 an activity that produces what's symbolic, 1:00:10.913 --> 1:00:12.833 money out of money. 1:00:12.829 --> 1:00:15.859 So it's a symbolic kind of operation; 1:00:15.860 --> 1:00:19.060 as opposed to it, Dante--opposes to it, 1:00:19.059 --> 1:00:22.369 Dante casts the virtue of art as work, 1:00:22.369 --> 1:00:25.299 but one of production, one of generation: 1:00:25.300 --> 1:00:27.940 the "grandchild" of God. 1:00:27.940 --> 1:00:29.650 Art is the grandchild of God. 1:00:29.650 --> 1:00:31.220 Then there is this other metaphor, 1:00:31.219 --> 1:00:34.459 "as the pupil follows the master," 1:00:34.463 --> 1:00:37.333 which is not a gratuitous metaphor, 1:00:37.329 --> 1:00:39.079 because after all within the context, 1:00:39.079 --> 1:00:41.739 here Dante has Virgil who is teaching him, 1:00:41.739 --> 1:00:45.069 so there is almost a kind of flattery, if you wish. 1:00:45.070 --> 1:00:48.250 One little detail, he's flattering the 1:00:48.250 --> 1:00:49.540 relationship. 1:00:49.539 --> 1:00:52.569 He acknowledges his discipleship to Virgil, 1:00:52.570 --> 1:00:56.610 which he does all the time, but it implies the educational 1:00:56.612 --> 1:00:59.722 aspect of art, in the most etymological sense 1:00:59.717 --> 1:01:00.537 of the term. 1:01:00.539 --> 1:01:04.799 Art educates, in the sense that it leads us 1:01:04.800 --> 1:01:09.770 out of a particular state of barbarity, ignorance, 1:01:09.773 --> 1:01:11.603 darkness, etc. 1:01:11.599 --> 1:01:16.599 So it has an educational and a non-mimetic role, 1:01:16.596 --> 1:01:21.806 because art imitates the productive rhythms of the 1:01:21.806 --> 1:01:23.716 natural world. 1:01:23.719 --> 1:01:28.909 Dante views an art that is open to beginnings, 1:01:28.914 --> 1:01:30.074 to life. 1:01:30.070 --> 1:01:33.370 This is the meaning of Genesis, the idea of Genesis, 1:01:33.369 --> 1:01:36.369 an art that always--that is original, 1:01:36.369 --> 1:01:39.889 but not in a romantic sense of originality, 1:01:39.889 --> 1:01:44.669 but an art that leads us back to the thought of origins. 1:01:44.670 --> 1:01:49.570 The thought of how things come into being because only then, 1:01:49.565 --> 1:01:53.045 do we understand how--what the ends are. 1:01:53.050 --> 1:01:56.370 To understand the ends, we got to know something about 1:01:56.369 --> 1:01:59.059 the beginnings, about the seeds that make us 1:01:59.063 --> 1:02:01.573 whatever it is that we think we are. 1:02:01.570 --> 1:02:06.040 We have gone then from Canto IX to Canto XI, 1:02:06.039 --> 1:02:09.269 from concerns about the pride of the mind, 1:02:09.268 --> 1:02:16.048 which we could even call the wound of the intellect and the 1:02:16.045 --> 1:02:21.165 weakness of the will, to the view that really is no 1:02:21.166 --> 1:02:26.116 distinction between an Epicurean thinking about oneself and the 1:02:26.123 --> 1:02:30.203 state and distinct from some kind of theorizing. 1:02:30.199 --> 1:02:36.089 Dante sees a connection between them, to finally an idea of art. 1:02:36.090 --> 1:02:41.830 And I think that this idea of art is also for Dante remedial 1:02:41.829 --> 1:02:46.109 for the evils that--to which we are prone. 1:02:46.110 --> 1:02:50.380 Dante thinks that should we apply to ourselves the same kind 1:02:50.380 --> 1:02:55.230 of care and rigor with which an artist produces the work of art, 1:02:55.230 --> 1:02:59.030 then what we call the cultivation of the soul may 1:02:59.025 --> 1:03:01.315 indeed begin to take place. 1:03:01.320 --> 1:03:07.460 Art--Dante's attention to art is part of this ascetic 1:03:07.460 --> 1:03:08.760 exercise. 1:03:08.760 --> 1:03:12.070 Let me finish here and we'll give another few minutes-- 1:03:12.070 --> 1:03:16.020 I touched on a number of issues and I'm anxious to hear your 1:03:16.018 --> 1:03:19.018 perplexities, questions, comments, 1:03:19.023 --> 1:03:21.253 suggestions, whatever. 1:03:21.250 --> 1:03:23.320 1:03:23.320 --> 1:03:26.790 Yes? 1:03:26.789 --> 1:03:29.199 Student: With the heretics, he makes it so clear 1:03:29.195 --> 1:03:31.165 that they sin, because it's both intellect and 1:03:31.166 --> 1:03:31.556 will. 1:03:31.559 --> 1:03:34.959 It's because--with the heretics he makes it clear that they sin 1:03:34.963 --> 1:03:37.053 both because of intellect and will, 1:03:37.050 --> 1:03:39.550 it's not just because they're thinking something false. 1:03:39.550 --> 1:03:42.490 Prof: The question is, with the heretics that we are 1:03:42.485 --> 1:03:45.315 not really dealing only with the question of thought, 1:03:45.320 --> 1:03:50.950 or it's a freedom of thought, but it deals with the fact the 1:03:50.952 --> 1:03:56.272 heretics are engaged in act of-- acts of intellect which are 1:03:56.273 --> 1:03:59.813 supported or shaped by also acts of the will; 1:03:59.809 --> 1:04:01.929 that was exactly what I maintained. 1:04:01.929 --> 1:04:04.049 Student: Then that makes sense, but then does he 1:04:04.052 --> 1:04:05.562 ever really try and explain to them-- 1:04:05.559 --> 1:04:08.449 I mean everyone wonders about the virtuous paintings and why 1:04:08.454 --> 1:04:10.734 they're there, and it seems that theirs is 1:04:10.733 --> 1:04:13.893 just a failure of intellect and there's really no failure of 1:04:13.891 --> 1:04:14.321 will. 1:04:14.320 --> 1:04:17.880 Prof: For the--for Dante you mean? 1:04:17.880 --> 1:04:18.430 Student: Yes. 1:04:18.429 --> 1:04:20.489 Prof: The question is about the pagans, 1:04:20.489 --> 1:04:24.589 does Dante think that theirs is not just the failure-- 1:04:24.590 --> 1:04:26.940 if I understood the question, the failure of the intellect 1:04:26.938 --> 1:04:28.378 but also the failure of the will. 1:04:28.380 --> 1:04:31.270 Yes, I think that this is the case. 1:04:31.268 --> 1:04:35.538 We shall see a number of pagans where probably we can 1:04:35.539 --> 1:04:39.319 highlight--we can see highlighted some of these 1:04:39.317 --> 1:04:41.367 concerns that he has. 1:04:41.369 --> 1:04:47.899 Concerns--you will read Ulysses who is represented as engaged in 1:04:47.902 --> 1:04:53.192 a flight of the mind, the wings of the intellect. 1:04:53.190 --> 1:04:56.780 You know they are wings of desire, Platonic wings of 1:04:56.777 --> 1:04:57.407 desire. 1:04:57.409 --> 1:05:02.049 And then Francesca, Canto V, remember she is like a 1:05:02.052 --> 1:05:06.142 dove, etc., called by desire, the open wings, 1:05:06.137 --> 1:05:09.107 clearly the wings of desire. 1:05:09.110 --> 1:05:13.590 And then in the case of Ulysses, you're going to have 1:05:13.588 --> 1:05:18.408 the wings of the intellect, the mind that tries to reach, 1:05:18.414 --> 1:05:20.744 the flight of the mind. 1:05:20.739 --> 1:05:27.089 He too, appears as a rhetorician. 1:05:27.090 --> 1:05:29.840 That is to say, it would seem that we like to 1:05:29.842 --> 1:05:33.412 believe that there is a distinction between let's say, 1:05:33.409 --> 1:05:36.979 a metaphysical, it's a little bit physics, 1:05:36.980 --> 1:05:40.870 as a kind of metaphysical intellectual flight and Dante's 1:05:40.869 --> 1:05:44.589 always saying, look, is always trying to probe 1:05:44.588 --> 1:05:50.028 the presence of passions, the rhetorical aspect of the 1:05:50.034 --> 1:05:56.914 claims to reach the truth, or the plain of truth. 1:05:56.909 --> 1:05:59.889 Yes, am I answering your question? 1:05:59.889 --> 1:06:02.409 Student: Yes, I mean it's also just they were 1:06:02.413 --> 1:06:04.943 put there because they did-- Christ hadn't come yet, 1:06:04.942 --> 1:06:06.762 which is why they were still in Hell, 1:06:06.760 --> 1:06:08.860 why Virgil came to Hell? 1:06:08.860 --> 1:06:10.510 I'm just wondering is that like-- 1:06:10.510 --> 1:06:13.640 Prof: Okay, good. 1:06:13.639 --> 1:06:18.639 I have been missing the mark in answering and the question 1:06:18.639 --> 1:06:21.779 really is how-- are the pagans in Hell because 1:06:21.784 --> 1:06:25.044 Christ had not yet come and in what way did they violate-- 1:06:25.039 --> 1:06:27.509 Student: That just seems the failure of intellect 1:06:27.512 --> 1:06:28.992 rather than-- Prof: The failure of 1:06:28.987 --> 1:06:29.297 intellect? 1:06:29.300 --> 1:06:31.650 No, the answer is no. 1:06:31.650 --> 1:06:35.850 Let me give you a general idea of why it's no, 1:06:35.851 --> 1:06:38.561 and then a particular idea. 1:06:38.559 --> 1:06:42.039 First of all, generally, if Dante were to 1:06:42.036 --> 1:06:44.986 judge and he does, judge the world, 1:06:44.992 --> 1:06:49.862 the culture of let's say Greek--the classical world. 1:06:49.860 --> 1:06:52.210 He puts most of it in Limbo. 1:06:52.210 --> 1:06:55.300 That's a judgment, saying you're really marginal, 1:06:55.300 --> 1:06:57.620 you're really liminal to my story. 1:06:57.619 --> 1:07:01.459 That's what he's saying, though in Paradise he will go 1:07:01.456 --> 1:07:06.016 out of the way to reclaim Plato, Aristotle, and all the possible 1:07:06.016 --> 1:07:07.316 Aristotelians. 1:07:07.320 --> 1:07:12.130 If he were to do that from a perspective which is outside, 1:07:12.126 --> 1:07:16.086 he really would be a boring poet, in my view. 1:07:16.090 --> 1:07:19.600 You don't believe in the immortality of the soul, 1:07:19.599 --> 1:07:22.159 as if he were saying to Epicurus. 1:07:22.159 --> 1:07:26.459 I do, you are a fool and therefore I am saved and you--I 1:07:26.461 --> 1:07:27.871 put you in Hell. 1:07:27.869 --> 1:07:32.539 That's really not worthy of a great mind, 1:07:32.539 --> 1:07:34.799 because one can imagine Epicurus saying, 1:07:34.800 --> 1:07:36.430 well you are the fool and you think you are saved, 1:07:36.429 --> 1:07:38.599 I know what I have been doing. 1:07:38.601 --> 1:07:40.051 You can take sides. 1:07:40.050 --> 1:07:42.990 Dante never does that, what he does do is take the 1:07:42.994 --> 1:07:45.404 perspective of the sinners themselves. 1:07:45.400 --> 1:07:49.320 Let them talk and gives them a rope with which they hang 1:07:49.322 --> 1:07:50.252 themselves. 1:07:50.250 --> 1:07:53.930 That's really what's happening, that's the best way to present 1:07:53.932 --> 1:07:54.902 this argument. 1:07:54.900 --> 1:07:58.160 He's not judging the pagans, now I'm coming straight to your 1:07:58.164 --> 1:08:00.544 question, he's not judging the pagans 1:08:00.543 --> 1:08:04.163 from a Christian standpoint alone that is outside of it. 1:08:04.159 --> 1:08:08.689 For a number of reasons, because he believes actually 1:08:08.686 --> 1:08:13.296 that whatever--that the pagans are adumbrations of the 1:08:13.300 --> 1:08:16.870 Christian view, the Christian vision. 1:08:16.868 --> 1:08:18.948 They are not just "other" 1:08:18.953 --> 1:08:21.043 to be rejected, on the contrary. 1:08:21.038 --> 1:08:24.938 And then in particular I can say, that Dante will go on 1:08:24.935 --> 1:08:27.745 praising some pagans among the saved. 1:08:27.750 --> 1:08:32.870 He even praises one figure the so-called Ripheus, 1:08:32.868 --> 1:08:36.798 who was only mentioned once, and we know nothing about him, 1:08:36.800 --> 1:08:41.130 a Roman who was a sailor in--with Aeneas, 1:08:41.130 --> 1:08:47.030 and only because Virgil refers to him as justus Ripheus, 1:08:47.029 --> 1:08:49.619 the just Ripheus, which is, to me, 1:08:49.618 --> 1:08:53.858 a way which Dante says, not just the kings but every 1:08:53.862 --> 1:08:58.562 simple, humble worker can also be 1:08:58.563 --> 1:09:02.463 saved, Trajan, the emperor Trajan and so on 1:09:02.456 --> 1:09:03.836 and a number of other cases. 1:09:03.840 --> 1:09:07.350 In the case of Virgil, I'm not going to go there 1:09:07.345 --> 1:09:11.815 because I'm going to be on TV for the next six months I don't 1:09:11.823 --> 1:09:14.423 know, because reams of books have 1:09:14.417 --> 1:09:17.837 been written by people who wish to see him saved. 1:09:17.840 --> 1:09:21.660 I mean that's such a good guy throughout Inferno and 1:09:21.662 --> 1:09:25.422 Purgatorio and the people who go on arguing that he 1:09:25.420 --> 1:09:27.200 might--he may be saved. 1:09:27.198 --> 1:09:31.048 One thing we know is that he comes as far as the Garden of 1:09:31.054 --> 1:09:34.574 Eden and just as Beatrice is going to arrive then the 1:09:34.569 --> 1:09:36.249 pilgrim, the lover now, 1:09:36.250 --> 1:09:38.880 Dante trembles at the idea that here she is, 1:09:38.880 --> 1:09:44.350 the destination of his journey, and he needs the help of 1:09:44.345 --> 1:09:45.235 Virgil. 1:09:45.238 --> 1:09:48.088 He turns around and his eyes will never see him again. 1:09:48.090 --> 1:09:50.130 He had vanished, so we know that, 1:09:50.132 --> 1:09:54.032 there is a kind--that seems to be the limitation of how far he 1:09:54.027 --> 1:09:54.727 can go. 1:09:54.729 --> 1:09:59.819 To say this is really to say very little, because within 1:09:59.824 --> 1:10:03.444 Dante's cosmos, Dante has an idea of the 1:10:03.439 --> 1:10:05.569 curvature of space. 1:10:05.569 --> 1:10:07.359 This is the sphere. 1:10:07.359 --> 1:10:13.419 A redemption means that all things will go back to the 1:10:13.421 --> 1:10:16.631 beginning, that's what happens, 1:10:16.627 --> 1:10:19.547 so only from that point of view, 1:10:19.550 --> 1:10:24.130 we don't have a lot of thematic reflections about this aspect, 1:10:24.130 --> 1:10:26.680 who is going to be saved at the end of that, who knows. 1:10:26.680 --> 1:10:30.370 The whole question is the unfathomable quality of God's 1:10:30.367 --> 1:10:31.047 justice. 1:10:31.050 --> 1:10:34.890 Dante wonders though, we're talking about Christ and 1:10:34.890 --> 1:10:39.030 Christ, and what about the in--those living in--near the 1:10:39.032 --> 1:10:40.842 banks of the Hindus? 1:10:40.840 --> 1:10:42.340 They never heard the name of Christ? 1:10:42.340 --> 1:10:43.660 Are they going to be saved? 1:10:43.658 --> 1:10:46.338 They are just, can they be condemned? 1:10:46.340 --> 1:10:48.590 These are questions that he will not answer. 1:10:48.590 --> 1:10:50.720 He raises these questions in Paradise. 1:10:50.720 --> 1:10:53.810 You're a little bit impatient I say but that's-- 1:10:53.810 --> 1:10:56.850 I think that from the point of view of eschatology, 1:10:56.850 --> 1:11:00.620 he must have an idea of--otherwise Redemption has 1:11:00.622 --> 1:11:01.332 failed. 1:11:01.328 --> 1:11:04.748 If some people are damned then there is no Redemption, 1:11:04.751 --> 1:11:06.431 you see what I'm saying? 1:11:06.430 --> 1:11:12.070 The measure in which evil--if you get into this metaphysical 1:11:12.067 --> 1:11:17.127 framework, if there is going to be 1:11:17.130 --> 1:11:23.150 residues of sin, then there is also residue of 1:11:23.149 --> 1:11:24.299 injustice. 1:11:24.300 --> 1:11:27.710 I don't know that I answered your question. 1:11:27.710 --> 1:11:33.210 I think I did but--Yes? 1:11:33.210 --> 1:11:34.580 Student: Thinking about the Medusa, 1:11:34.578 --> 1:11:37.628 I understand the idea of Medusa as an allegory for the mediation 1:11:37.630 --> 1:11:40.240 of poetry, but is it also a connection 1:11:40.240 --> 1:11:44.790 between the figure of the woman and the act of petrification? 1:11:44.788 --> 1:11:48.398 Thinking about the Donna Petra, I'm wondering if Dante's also 1:11:48.403 --> 1:11:51.773 saying something about the dangers of love or the dangers 1:11:51.774 --> 1:11:53.104 of misplaced love. 1:11:53.100 --> 1:11:54.920 Prof: Thank you. 1:11:54.920 --> 1:11:59.910 The question is about the story of the Medusa and the part about 1:11:59.905 --> 1:12:04.255 the mediation of poetry to conquer Medusa is clear, 1:12:04.260 --> 1:12:10.790 but the question also wonders whether this has to do with, 1:12:10.788 --> 1:12:12.648 first of all, the fact that the Medusa is a 1:12:12.650 --> 1:12:16.550 woman, and also that petrification is 1:12:16.551 --> 1:12:20.871 the petrification of misplaced love. 1:12:20.869 --> 1:12:22.529 Is that an accurate paraphrase? 1:12:22.529 --> 1:12:23.079 Student: > 1:12:23.078 --> 1:12:25.408 Prof: Okay, the answer is that's a great 1:12:25.412 --> 1:12:25.972 question. 1:12:25.970 --> 1:12:32.180 I sense there your awareness of the Freudian reading of the myth 1:12:32.176 --> 1:12:37.436 of the Medusa as castration, as indeed a kind of 1:12:37.444 --> 1:12:42.804 literalization of the threat, at least, not castration but 1:12:42.796 --> 1:12:46.576 the threat of castration on the male from the point of view of 1:12:46.578 --> 1:12:47.198 Medusa. 1:12:47.198 --> 1:12:53.058 I will take the second part of your remark to explain also the 1:12:53.060 --> 1:12:54.310 first part. 1:12:54.310 --> 1:12:57.230 I think that this is a question of misdirected love, 1:12:57.229 --> 1:13:02.049 but what Dante has seen--I would urge you to go and read 1:13:02.045 --> 1:13:08.425 the poems about this lady Petra, the lady of stone--because they 1:13:08.430 --> 1:13:15.180 are poems where Dante literally engages in fantasies of violence 1:13:15.181 --> 1:13:16.791 against her. 1:13:16.788 --> 1:13:21.308 If I could get my hands on her with a passion, 1:13:21.307 --> 1:13:26.927 unrequited makes him--it's almost like a sort of sadistic 1:13:26.930 --> 1:13:29.140 coloring about it. 1:13:29.140 --> 1:13:31.400 I think it's clearly misdirected love. 1:13:31.399 --> 1:13:37.359 What he understands though is the kind of death that that sort 1:13:37.364 --> 1:13:41.184 of desperate love has brought to him. 1:13:41.180 --> 1:13:44.380 You call that--you can view that death as the fear of 1:13:44.380 --> 1:13:45.180 castration. 1:13:45.180 --> 1:13:49.730 I think it's an extreme version of that, so I would agree with 1:13:49.726 --> 1:13:52.556 what I hear is behind your question. 1:13:52.560 --> 1:13:55.990 1:13:55.989 --> 1:13:56.439 Yes? 1:13:56.439 --> 1:14:00.599 Student: So why does he draw us into that allegory of 1:14:00.599 --> 1:14:02.539 Medusa and petrified love? 1:14:02.538 --> 1:14:05.588 Prof: Well he-- I--you mean if it's--the question is 1:14:05.594 --> 1:14:08.814 why does he draw us into that allegory if it's about petrified 1:14:08.805 --> 1:14:09.275 love? 1:14:09.279 --> 1:14:12.679 Right, this is the question and I presume-- 1:14:12.680 --> 1:14:14.130 I don't want to explain your question, 1:14:14.130 --> 1:14:17.620 I have to answer your question, but I presume that your 1:14:17.619 --> 1:14:22.759 question stems from your-- this kind of concern you have. 1:14:22.760 --> 1:14:25.580 If it's such a private story, why us? 1:14:25.578 --> 1:14:27.878 In what way are we involved in that? 1:14:27.880 --> 1:14:29.470 This is his story, right? 1:14:29.470 --> 1:14:32.570 The answer that I could give is yes, 1:14:32.569 --> 1:14:36.349 this is--can be seen as Dante's own confession and the 1:14:36.353 --> 1:14:40.853 confession and that's why I read the passage from Augustine, 1:14:40.850 --> 1:14:43.010 from Augustine's own Confessions: 1:14:43.006 --> 1:14:45.656 a confession that can also be exemplary to us. 1:14:45.658 --> 1:14:49.638 And because he thinks, I think, that there are no 1:14:49.639 --> 1:14:54.029 experiences that are irreducibly private and therefore 1:14:54.033 --> 1:14:55.363 unshareable. 1:14:55.359 --> 1:14:59.419 It's part of the concern of this writing--of this writer, 1:14:59.421 --> 1:15:03.631 that anything that will happen to him we are--I have to say 1:15:03.627 --> 1:15:04.277 this. 1:15:04.279 --> 1:15:08.869 We are going to find moments when he tells us its night 1:15:08.872 --> 1:15:13.382 dreams, pretty heavy night dreams, but treated with an 1:15:13.381 --> 1:15:16.191 extraordinary, I think, care. 1:15:16.189 --> 1:15:19.679 We are going to have his--we are going to enter into his 1:15:19.680 --> 1:15:23.170 psyche, why part of--way of entering into his psyche? 1:15:23.170 --> 1:15:28.580 Because he has to understand not only how shareable his 1:15:28.578 --> 1:15:32.888 experience is, but also, what is the root of 1:15:32.885 --> 1:15:35.885 the way we make decisions? 1:15:35.890 --> 1:15:40.900 Do--can we really be ever all the time vigilant? 1:15:40.899 --> 1:15:42.059 This is in the case of the dream. 1:15:42.060 --> 1:15:46.440 Am I responsible if I perceive the world in a certain way? 1:15:46.439 --> 1:15:49.929 Am I responsible if dreams come to me in a certain way? 1:15:49.930 --> 1:15:52.370 Then, am I accountable for this kind of dreams? 1:15:52.368 --> 1:15:57.158 The concern is always that of trying to delimit an area where 1:15:57.159 --> 1:16:01.469 there is some common ground between his experiences and 1:16:01.470 --> 1:16:05.270 ours, and that's the transaction of 1:16:05.274 --> 1:16:06.314 allegory. 1:16:06.310 --> 1:16:11.100 1:16:11.100 --> 1:16:12.530 Yes? 1:16:12.529 --> 1:16:14.039 Student: At the end of Canto IX, 1:16:14.038 --> 1:16:17.358 I don't know if it's significant, but Dante turns to 1:16:17.363 --> 1:16:20.103 the right as he enters the City of Dis, 1:16:20.100 --> 1:16:22.900 did you find that significant just going back to what we 1:16:22.898 --> 1:16:24.168 talked about last time? 1:16:24.170 --> 1:16:27.560 Prof: Of course, this is fantastic. 1:16:27.560 --> 1:16:34.050 The question is I have been talking about the fact that in 1:16:34.051 --> 1:16:38.721 Inferno Dante goes to the left, 1:16:38.720 --> 1:16:42.740 seems to--which I also said though that that is really very 1:16:42.738 --> 1:16:47.398 difficult to visualize, so we say counter-clockwise or 1:16:47.404 --> 1:16:50.834 clockwise, that his descent is clockwise 1:16:50.832 --> 1:16:52.332 in Inferno. 1:16:52.328 --> 1:16:57.148 And yet, I'm so grateful to you for noticing this. 1:16:57.149 --> 1:17:00.969 Here in Inferno IX, Dante actually goes out of the 1:17:00.969 --> 1:17:04.379 way to say that he turned to the right and the-- 1:17:04.380 --> 1:17:08.020 I don't have a position of my own on this but there will also 1:17:08.024 --> 1:17:11.264 be-- well this is to emphasize that 1:17:11.257 --> 1:17:16.037 heresy is primarily the disease of the intellect. 1:17:16.038 --> 1:17:19.188 You remember that I specified that there is the will and the 1:17:19.190 --> 1:17:21.810 intellect, and the will is always the left and the 1:17:21.806 --> 1:17:23.246 intellect is the right. 1:17:23.250 --> 1:17:30.040 I think that Dante is--this is the point where Dante is 1:17:30.037 --> 1:17:31.417 sleeping. 1:17:31.420 --> 1:17:35.140 It happened to Homer occasionally to fall asleep and 1:17:35.136 --> 1:17:39.506 this is the only time that you have caught him dozing off. 1:17:39.510 --> 1:17:42.000 Thank you so much we'll see you next time. 1:17:42.000 --> 1:17:48.000