Put that Twinkie down, you slob, and let's talk about GLUTTONY. The fourth circle of hell is where Dante encounters the people who lived their lives scarfing down cannoli and now spend their afterlife getting pelted with slime and chewed up by the three-headed beast Cerberus. It's also where the poet subtly introduces some key concepts that help make sense of the whole poem--the relation between body and soul, the nature of civil war, and ordo amoris--the principle of love that structures the entire divine comedy. Let's, erm...tuck in! PLUS: I am extremely excited to tell you about my new book, A Way With Words, out in February.
Pre-order A Way With Words now: https://a.co/d/0femohqf
Dante Translations, reviewed by Boze: https://bibliollcollege.substack.com/p/the-eleven-best-translations-of-the
Get the Hollander translation: https://a.co/d/0iCgdYaQ
Get the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translation: https://amzn.to/4wPbiK7
Get the Anthony Esolen translation: https://amzn.to/4sgKLTj
Get the Dorothy L. Sayers translation: https://amzn.to/4djdh2s
Get the Allen Mandelbaum translation: https://amzn.to/4dG6izR
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:46 Gluttony: Material versus Spiritual Reality
10:23 Reading Canto VI
19:31 Cerberus, the Embodiment of Ravenous Hunger
25:44 Dante's Hell and the Classical Underworld
41:49 On Pride, Envy, and Avarice
50:11 The Seven Deadly Sins Explained
1:00:53 Book Announcement: A Way with Words