Book Review - Dante Inferno Canto 4

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Spoiler alerts Having dared to cross the River Styx with his spirit guide, the poet Virgil, Dante collapses in fear and unconsciousness for most of the short voyage across to Hell. He awakens on the far shore in a darkened vale in perpetual thunder composed of the distant moans of the truly dammed. Dante is afraid to proceed as his so far fearless guide look pale and white as if also succumbing to terror, but Virgil points out that it is a sense of pity rather than fear that discolours his shade. The reason for such pity soon becomes apparent as this first circle of Hell is the realm of all pagan pre-Christians and the unbaptized – anyone who was never given a Christian upbringing or conversion. This means everyone virtuous from before the birth of Christ resides eternally in this Limbo realm. Abel, Moses and Noah are among the damned here. Old Testament virtues are not enough to save them. While most of these reside in a gloomy miserable darkness, Dante is given the view of a valley of light, an oasis created by the wisdom of the Greek scholars including Homer, Socrates and Plato. These are Virgil’s contemporaries so the travellers engage in some friendly discourse with them, and Dante rather arrogantly his them declare him an honourable fellow of their tribe for his own wisdom. No humility here, just shameless egotism, but history and literature’s critics see his status alongside such giants as warranted and justifiable. He is ranked by himself as the sixth highest in their pecking order. Dante is led through a mighty castle, seeing Julius Caesar before coming from the light to a new region of intense darkness as his migration to the second circle of the Inferno Hell is about to start. The horror of the first Hell is that its victims are innocent of just living too soon to be Christianized, and yet many create their own beauty, education and culture. It seems a heavenly oasis beside what will follow. Of all the circles including those to follow in Paradise this is perhaps the one I would most likely be happiest belonging to. Arthur Chappell