Episode Details

Our pilgrim, Dante, dares to ask Virgil a second question. This one's harder. So much so that even Virgil seems hesitant.

Why is usury punished so far down in hell? And why is usury punished among the violent?

To our surprise, the answer involves a conflation of Artistotle's logic and the Biblical book of Genesis . . . and it leads to a place no one could have a predicted: a theory of art.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the back of Canto XI of INFERNO.

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Here are the sections for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:26] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XI, lines 91 - 114. If you'd like to read along, continue the conversation with a comment, or find a deeper study guide, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:26] The pilgrim's second question: Why is usury placed so far down in hell, at the bottom of the circle of the violent?

[05:56] Virgil's reply . . . which becomes a theory of art . . . that anticipates the Renaissance.

[15:58] More on the scholastic reasoning that is behind this passage and that will structure the deepest parts of the sins of violence.

[19:11] A final temporal marker after a map of hell.