Inferno canto 28

CANTO 28

Ninth bolgia: sowers of discord—Mohammed—Curio—Mosca de’ Lamberti—Betran de Born

Ø       Summary:

n        Character: Dante and Virgil

n        Place: arrived at NINTH bolgia

n        Mood: Dante was totally scared by the punishment at this bolgia.

n        Quotes: “who could ever, even with unbound words, tell in full of the blood and wounds that I now saw, though he should narrate them many times.”

Dante used events of Apulian in Cepernano, Torjans, Tagliacozzo to compare the scene that demonstrated in the NINTH bolgia.                                                  “It would be nothing to equal the wretched mode of the ninth pocket.”

At first, Dante and Virgil met Ali and Mohammed. The people at this bolgia were split to two pieces. The reason they got this punishment is they used to be the scandal and schism when they were still alive. There is also a devil in this bolgia; he always split people when people got recover. One of the sinner named Mohammed, he told Dante to send the message to Brother Dolcino. Then they met another sinner named Pier of Medicina. He also want Dante to send message back to two people. Thirdly, he met a sinner without hands, his name is Mosca, “the seed of evil for the Tuscans.” Fourth which is the creepiest one, no head sinners!! His name is Bertan de Born, the one who made father and son revolt each other.

Ø       Sins/ Contrapasso:

Sowers of discord: such as scandal and schism. People who intentionally mess up someone‘s relationship. When the sinners is still alive, they used to use their words or action to split the others relationship and make it worse. When they got to hell, their punishment is to be torn open by the devil again and again. They need to keep going a circle (because the greedy) and the bodies were torn open, recover and torn open again. Their sin let everyone got known them; however, they still asked Dante to take news back to the normal world. Different body part was torn open depend on the sin how they make.

Ø       Character list:

n         Name: Mohammed 

n        Sin: Sowers of discord.

In the Christian, he was thought both a heretic and a schismatic because he believed that Christ’s divine and human natures were united.

n        Punishment: “torn open from the chin to the farting-place. Between his legs dangled his intestines; the pluck was visible, and the wretched bag that makes shit of what is swallowed.”

n        Message: to Brother Dolcino—provide himself with enough food in order to prevent the victory of Novarese.

n        Name: Pier of Medicina (Curio)

n        Sin: Sowers of discord

Pier of medicina is the leading candidate member. Benvenuto states that he sowed discord between the Malatesta and Polenta families.

n        Punishment: “another, whose throat was bored through, his nose cut up to his eyebrows, and with only one ear, stopping to gaze up at me in amazement with the others, first of the others opened his windpipe, which was all covered with crimson.”

n        Message: tell Fano, messer Guido and Angiolello that they are in danger.

n        Name: Mosca

n        Sin: Sowers of discord. Mosca caused the death of his clan.

Dante has a negative attitude toward Mosca.

n        Name: Bertran de Born

n        Sin: gave the young king the bad encouragements and made father and son revolt against each other.

n        Punishment: “I carried my brain divided, alas, from its origin which is in this trunck.”

“his served head he was holding up by the hair, dangling it from his hand like a lantern; and the head was gazing at us.”

Ø       High order question:

Why all the sinners who talked to Dante in Canto 28 want Dante to bring back the message?

What does the torn open symbolize?

Ø       10 multiply questions:

1. Which bolgia are they in now?

a. 5 b.6 c.8 d.9

2. How many sinners mentioned in this bolgia?

a. 4 b. 5 c. 6 d. 7

3. How many sinners want to send the message?

a. 2 b. 3 c. 4 d. 5

4. What’s the punishment in this bolgia?

a. laying on the hot sand. b. drown in the dung c. the unstoppable wind torture them d. torn open

5. In which bolgia, devil also appears?

a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4

6. What’s the sin in this bolgia?

a. fraud b. luster c. violence d. sowers of discord

7. What’s Dante’s mood when he arrived at this bolgia?

a. happy b. weep c. scared d. exciting

8. Which one did Dante feel most scared?

a. Mohammed b. curio c. Mosca d. Bertran de born

9. What’s the attitude of Dante to Mosca?

a. sad b. negative c. scared d. horrible

10. Why first mentioned many different place and war?

a. compare b. conflict c. exaggerate d. ironic