Caitlin Keiper

AP Literature/Composition

Period 5

27 March 2004

Canto XXXI.V

Circle 8.5: Caverna The Incredulous

As Caity and Virgil are being guided down the well by the hand of ANTAEUS, they see the frozen waters of COCYTUS below them. Before they can reach the last circle however, he places them upon a ledge sticking out from the musty stone walls of the well. Once they are safely on the solid ground of the shelf, Virgil points out a great cave that lies before them. This is circle eight and a half, or CAVERNA, the Italian word for cave.

As the pair enter the cave they are coming upon the circle of THE INCREDULOUS, those who put God to the test. The sinners here constantly peel off their skin layer by layer, to prove to themselves that they are real. Entwined around them are snakes that are also shedding their skin. This symbolizes the first infidelity to God, caused by the snake in the Garden of Eden. The sinners sit deep inside the cave surrounded by the skins of humans and snakes. Once their skin is entirely gone, it grows back to be peeled once again.

Among the sinners punished here are ADAM and EVE, who are peeling off each other’s skin. They recall their story to the travelers. All of THE FOLLOWERS OF MOSES who tested God and were killed by snakes are also found here. Caity and Virgil pass LYCAON, who tested Zeus. He tells his story to the travelers and points out SEMELE and PROMETHEUS, who are next to him in Hell and also put Zeus to the test. Like THE BLASPHEMERS, those who tested any god are punished in this circle, not just those who tested the Christian God. The last sinner Caity and Virgil encounter before entering the long, winding staircase to the frozen lake below them is HEROD, who tried to test Jesus before he was crucified. He is placed at the center of a circle of PHARISEES and SADDUCEES, those who were known for questioning Jesus. Instead of his skin, he is forced to rip out his own heart and pass it around for all of the sinners who tested Jesus to see. It is then returned to his body, only to be ripped out once again. The travelers are so disturbed by this scene that they turn away, and head towards the staircase at the end of the cave.

As we traveled through the dank and acrid air,

I saw below us what appeared to be a frozen lake

But it seemed that Antaeus was not taking us there.

In his enormous hand I steadied myself,

By linking my arms around one of his bulky fingers,

Until my Guide and I were set down upon a solid shelf.

“Before us lies Caverna, the eighth and a half circle of Hell,”

My Guide said, “Within lies the incredulous.

The horrible stench caused by their decaying bodies is what we smell.”

We entered the enormous mouth which soon began to shrink into

A narrow tunnel as dark as a night when the moon cannot be seen.

After traveling a while, the pathway widened and a large gap came into view.

As the world reeked of destruction on September Eleventh of the 2001 year,

When the two strong towers fell in New York City,

I had never until then felt such horrid fear. (15)

The lives of many honorable men were lost,

The strength of my country was in shambles,

Benefit concerts and donations could not cover the cost.

Scared and alone as I felt then, I began to feel now.

My fellow countrymen were with me as here I have my Guide,

But in times of great ruin, that comfort does not help somehow.

So was the degree of destruction we looked upon in that cave

Where the incredulous peeled away at themselves just to see if they were real.

In order to not turn my sight from them, I forced myself to be brave.

Around the sinners, snakes were entwined,

Also shedding themselves layer by layer,

Mixing human skin with that of the reptile kind.

“Pay attention to me!” yelled one,

“For I was the first to dishonor God

And cause others to follow what I had done.” (30)

I turned to see a naked woman,

Unclothed even of her own skin,

Peeling away at a fleshier man.

My head swarmed with thoughts of who these sinners could be

But I was not sure if I should question them,

Or allow them to tell me of their own decree.

I looked to my Guide, “Go ahead,”

He said, “Ask what you are thinking.”

“Are you Adam and Eve?” I guessed from what she had said.

“Yes, that we are.” This time Adam replied,

“She was led by the snake to question the power of God

And when she offered the chance to me, I followed at her side.

I am now forced to rip apart the woman that was made of

My own rib. By doing this I am aware that she is real and thus am I,

A constant reminder of God’s power above.” (45)

My mind brimmed with still more curiosity.

There were a great number of sinners here,

More than there had first appeared to be.

Some were crawling from beneath tangled skins,

Others were covered with writhing snakes.

There were at least 3,000 being punished for their sins.

“Why are there so many in this circle?” I asked.

“There seem to be a great deal more sinners here

Than in the other circles through which we passed.”

“Many of the followers of Moses can be found here,

Those who put God to the test and were killed by snakes,” Said Eve.

“It is with that eternal punishment they now appear.”

The rest are those who still did not listen to God’s prerequisite,

And that one with his skin growing back tested Zeus.

There are many who question faith, and many of them who also try and prove it.” (60)

My Guide and I turned to see the shade that Eve was pointing to.

We watched as a giant Anaconda wove itself around him.

On his body, layers of wrinkling skin grew anew.

Thinking that he would begin to tear if I paused,

I took this opportunity to ask him his name:

“Who are you and what wrong have you caused?”

He began to peel, starting at his finger tips,

Ripping his own skin like that of an orange.

He tore it off in long strips.

“My name is Lycaon, the Arcadian King who

Tested Zeus not once but twice.

It was too late when I finally knew.

First I tried to kill him when he was in his deepest of dreams.

When that did not work I tried to feed him a feast of human flesh.

He understood all along what I was trying to do it seems. (75)

He did not eat the meal and I was not only punished here,

But in my mortal life as well,

For he used his thunderbolt to overturn my palace and left me trembling with fear.

I fled into the hills where I became a wolf and was covered with hair.

I acquired a taste and lust for blood.

I ate the flocks and spent the rest of my days there.”

On either side of Lycaon, there were two other souls.

Disgusted by his story I wanted to turn away,

But in my understanding, I did not want to leave holes.

“Who are these others, who accompany you?”

“Semele is on my left and Prometheus is on my right,” the sinner answered

“They are also punished for the same sin from which I flew.”

Having heard enough, I turned to my Guide.

With a nod of the head he led me on to the end of the cave.

Thinking I would now have the opportunity to hide (90)

From this horrible scene that lay before me,

I realized that as always in this eternal Hell

The worst is saved as the last for me to see.

In a circle, was a group of men sitting around

A single man who was placed at the very center.

They were passing a human heart among them without making a sound.

Their eyes were enthralled as they stared at

The pounding muscle. The one body part which

Pumps the breath of life into all that

It inhabits. Afraid of what would happen if I

Disrupted their concentration I turned to my Guide.

“Who are these souls?” I asked and he gave a heavy sigh.

“The men in the circle, completely enraptured by the heart

Are the Pharisees and Sadducees who constantly tested

And questioned Jesus’ art. (105)

In the very center is the greatest tester of them all,

Herod, who had the power to spare the life of our great Savior

But instead laughed in his face and allowed him to fall.”

I watched the souls carefully as he explained to me

Who they were in life

Until each shade had the chance to see

The human heart. Eventually it was handed back

to Herod, who had a gaping hole in the left side

Of his body which was oozing blood and turning black.

It captivated his enormous eyes

As he took his own bloody heart in his dirty hands,

But soon his enthrallment vanished like the stars in cloudy skies.

He forced it back into his wound with a twist.

His skin covered the opening at a rapid pace

And once all the way healed, he made a fist (120)

Which dove back through his skin without his control,

Tearing out his heart and leaving

In its place, once again, a rotting hole.

So taken aback was I by this sight

That I grabbed hold of my Guide

And covered my eyes with fright.

“Once is enough to see something like this,

No need to watch them do it over and over again.”

Said my Guide as he took my hand in his.

He led me to another narrow hallway with a staircase,

Avoiding the piles of skin that lay all around us.

It was then my Guide turned to look into my face.

“Gather yourself and begin to prepare

Because it is now that we enter the final circle of Hell,”

We then began to descend the winding stair. (135)

The stagnant air clung to my skin,

As I slowly moved downward step by step.

The darkness caused me to begin

To fill my mind with dread,

But not as much as the thought of what lay ahead.

13-24 As the world. . . . .be brave. The scariest occurrence and greatest destruction that Caity Keiper has lived through so far was when the Twin Towers fell down on September 11, 2001. Airplanes hijacked by members of the Islamic Fundamentalist group Al-Qaeda, crashed into each one of the towers. Many Americans who worked in the towers were killed as well as many police men and firemen who risked their lives trying to save the people lost within the wreckage. When the towers fell, fear spread in the United States because it was the first time the country, which thought of itself as a strong world power, had been attacked on its own soil since Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Here she compares the degree of that destruction with the damage the sinners in this circle put on themselves. She also compares the depth of her fear in this circle to that she felt when the Twin Towers were destroyed.

37 I looked to my Guide. . . As in previous cantos, Virgil is able to tell what Caity is thinking.

Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, the first sinners and the introducers of human disobedience in the Bible are located in this circle. Found in the first chapters of Genesis, God created Adam, the first man on Earth, and then from his rib formed Eve, the first woman. God placed them in the Garden of Eden and told them they were allowed to eat any fruit except for the fruit from the tree that gave knowledge of what is good and what is bad. A conniving snake lures Eve to the tree and convinces her to try the fruit. Eve then gave some to Adam who also ate it. The couple then realizes they are naked and cover themselves with fig leaves and hide from God in the trees. He finds them and exiles them from the garden of Eden. He also punishes the snake, making him crawl on his stomach for the rest of his days, causing humans to be scared of him and stomp on him with their feet. The couple is placed here because they tested the power of God. Instead of listening to him, Eve succumbed to the sinful ways of the snake and caused Adam to do the same. Thus they are punished together and serve as a symbol of the first infidelity against God. The snake in the Garden of Eden symbolizes the snakes used in this punishment who wind around the sinners and mix their skin with that of the humans.

51 There were at least 3,000. . . Although it does not say the exact number in the Bible, Caity supposes that it was quite a lot.

Followers of Moses 1 Corinthians 10:9 : “We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did – and they were killed by snakes.” These were the followers of Moses who did not believe and tried to test God. He then ordered them to be put to death by snakes. This passage serves as a model in the Bible, so that no one from that point on would try to put God to the test. The mention of their punishment here correlates with the punishment in this circle.

60 There are many who question. . . Adam and Eve sound wise throughout the retelling of their story especially in this line. That is because they know that God is real. He placed them in the Garden of Eden and they had direct conversation with him. Although they are being punished in Hell, they are some of the few who realize the greatness of their sin, allowing them to understand the sins of others.

66 what wrong have you caused?. . . Caity asks a good question here because Lycaon was thought to have been one of the people who caused Zeus to flood the world and destroy all humans.

Lycaon Zeus was invited to dine with the father of Lycaon’s paramour but Lycaon did not believe that his guest was actually the mighty god Zeus. He first tried to kill him in the middle of the night. When that did not work he cut up human bodies and attempted to serve them to Zeus. Being a god, Zeus immediately recognized what was happening to him and hurled thunderbolts upon Lycaon’s palace, killing his sons and turning him into a wolf. Lycaon developed a thirst for blood, like that of an animal.

72 It was too late when. . . Once Lycaon realized that Zeus was really a god he had already been punished and turned into a wolf.

82 I did not want to leave holes. . . Caity wants to understand everything she possibly can on her journey throughout Hell.

Semele When Zeus became Semele’s lover, Hera, Zeus’s wife, appeared to Semele and told her that she should ask Zeus to prove that he was a god by appearing in his full glory before her. Semele got Zeus to promise that he would grant whatever she asked for and then asked him to appear in his full magnificence. She was then incinerated by Zeus’ glory.

Prometheus Prometheus prepared two sacrifices for Zeus: one was the fine meat and organs of an ox wrapped in the paunch and the other was only bones covered with rich fat. When Zeus chose the less desirable one, Prometheus did not believe he was as great as was thought throughout the land. Prometheus then attempted to smuggle fire out of Heaven and then was chained to a cliff in the Caucasus Mountains by Zeus. Each day and eagle would come and peck at his liver and each night the wounds would heal and the liver would grow back, just as the skin grows back on the sinners in the Caverna.

92-93 I soon realized. . . .for me to see. Like this canto is set up from the least sinful to

the worst, so is Dante’s map of Hell.

100-101 Afraid of what. . . .turned to my Guide. Because the sinners are so deep in concentration, Virgil must explain the scene having traveled to hell before.

Pharisees and Sadducees These were the Jewish priests who followed Jesus around, questioning him about religion and constantly trying to prove that he was not the son of God.

Herod After Pontius Pilot says he will not crucify Jesus, the Jewish Priests send Jesus to Herod Antipas. He asks Jesus to perform a miracle to prove that he is truly the son of God. When Jesus refuses to do this, Herod laughs at him and sends him back to Pilot to be executed. Herod Antipas is given the worst punishment of all the sinners in Caverna. Instead of ripping of his skin, he must rip out his heart and pass it among the Pharisees and Sadducees surrounding him. By doing this he proves to himself he is real, as well as the unbelievers that encircle him.

127 “Once is enough. . . Even Virgil is disgusted by this scene.

133 “Gather yourself. . . Virgil is trying to renew Caity’s strength so that she is capable of continuing her journey.