If you're reading my blog, chances are that you've had an education that includes at least passing mention of Dante's Divine Comedy ... in particular, his visit to the pits of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil, described in Inferno. Dante described Hell as a descending series of nine circles, each one dedicated to the eternal punishment of a particular sort of sinner and each set of sinners more loathsome than the last. At the very bottom of the pit of Hell was, of course, Satan, frozen waist-deep in ice for all eternity in the company of those guilty of the general sin of treachery. Dante's Hell is depicted in this diagram (click to embiggen it for easier reading):
For purposes of this post, I'd like to call your attention to the eighth circle, almost all the way to the bottom of Hell. It is dedicated to the general sin of Fraud, and is divided into ten bolge, or "ditches," into which those guilty of various types of fraud are divided for punishment, depending on the perceived heinousness of their behavior. The ten bolge and the applicable punishments are:
- Panderers and Seducers, who are whipped by demons as they march in circles;
- Flatterers, who swim in human excrement;
- Simoniacs (sellers of religious favors or offices), who are buried head-first in holes while their exposed feet are burned);
- Sorcerers and False Prophets, whose heads are twisted around so that they must walk backwards, blinded by their tears;
- Barrators (corrupt politicians), who swim in pools of boiling pitch;
- Hypocrites, who stagger along wearing robes of gold lined with lead;
- Thieves, who are chased and bitten by snakes and lizards;
- Evil Counsellors (not those who gave false advice, but those who used their position to advise others to engage in various types of fraud), who are wrapped in individual pillars of fire;
- Sowers of Discord, who are split from chin to groin by sword-wielding demons; and,
- Falsifiers, who suffer various torments based on the nature of their falsification.
I think that Dante's Eighth Circle is of particular salience today, given our current political and social conditions. The only change I would make is to replace the sin of simony (probably less an issue today than it was in Dante's time) with sanctimony, the act of being hypocritically pious or devout. Hypocrisy in the realm of religion is, I think, worse than ordinary hypocrisy, being more morally reprehensible. I could argue that it rates a lower bolgia than hypocrisy.
- Panderers and Seducers: Jeffrey Epstein is already there, keeping the lights on for the folks in his still-secret client book;
- Flatterers: Mike Pence, whose obsequious worship of Der Furor was sickeningly embarrassing and shameful;
- The Sanctimonious: Joel Osteen and other megachurch leaders. Oh, and Ron DeSantis, too;
- Sorcerers and False Prophets: economists who still parrot the concept of "trickle-down" economics, and those who run for-profit churches;
- Barrator: Der Furor for sure, although he's also got a strong claim on a lot of other bolges;
- Hypocrites: how much time do you have? Jim Jordan, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, etm, etm;
- Thieves: most of the Republicans in the House could end up here, as they've certainly stolen their salaries by virtue of not doing anything to earn them. In the larger sense, pretty much every elected official who owes their election to vast tsunamis of untraceable money probably belong here as well, regardless of party;
- Evil Counsellors: Stephen Miller, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, etm;
- Sowers of Discord: pretty much the entire staff of Fox News, OANN, and the like, as well as those politicians for whom the concept of loyal opposition is totally unknown;
- Falsifiers: make yourself comfortable, it'll take a while to run down this list. We'll just start with George Santos, Empty G, Lauren Boebert, Louie Gohmert.
Have a good day. More thoughts coming.
Bilbo
* If you don't want to actually read Dante's Inferno, you can read a thorough overview here.
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