Subject: (urth) Inferno

From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 00:07:00 +0000

Or vo' che sappi che l'altra fiata
chi'i' discesi qua giu nel basso inferno,
questa roccia non era ancor cascata.
Ma certo poco pria, se ben discerno,
che venisse colui che la gran preda
levo a Dite del cerchio superno,
da tutte parti l'alta valle feda
tremo si, ch'i' pensai che l'universo
sentisse amor, per lo qual e chi creda
piu volte il mondo in caosso converso;
e in quel punto questa vecchia roccia,
qui e altrove, tal fece riverso.
(Canto XII, lines 34-45)

alga,

Oh, right! "The one who took/from Dis the highest circle's splendid
spoils" must be Herakles bringing Kerberus up for Labor Twelve. <g>

And on =that= topic, since we've figured out that the quote David
uses in 5HC regarding the iron doggie in the yard comes from the
beginning of the Euripedes play "[something] Heracles" (either "The
Madness of Heracles" or "The Distraction of Heracles" or maybe sometimes
just "Heracles"), what do we make of that?

The iron doggie stands in the yard at 666.  This, then, is the exit
point of the demigod hero on his last labor--next stop, godhood.
(Who would that be in 5HC--M.Million?)  But in the Heracles story,
there was a big rush to get the dog back, wasn't there?  Here the dog
stands.  Sure, it is an obvious "welcome to hell" gag ("where I am,
hell is" quoth the dog paraphrasing Herr Doktor Faustus).  But it also
seems to be a signal that "if I'm not guarding hell, then the dead
are free to mingle with the living," or perhaps even "death has
stopped because I have been chained here"--a sentiment borne out in
sinister shades by the self-cloning tradition (which forcefully
denies the death of an individual) and the dream where the ship's
mast has become a tree that roots the ship to the ground.

=mantis=

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

---

From: Peter Stephenson <pws at ifh.de>
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 09:15:08 +0000

> qui e altrove, tal fece riverso.

Oh, goody, can I have a go?

Last time I took a trip, I'd better say,
To this great depth to fry my bacon,
The stone had not yet come away.
But just before (if I'm not much mistaken)
The One took that great booty up from Dis,
The prize from Gods (or upper circle?) shaken,  [*]
On every side this wretched wilderness
Fell trembling, and it seemed a universal
Feeling of His love; some say that bliss
Has often brought the world's dispersal;
And here and there the ancient rock
Was knocked off, lying in reversal.

[*] Attempted theatrical joke. Gods = gallery.  (Well, it's a *comedy*,
damn you!)

[Yeah, I know, it needs some work anyway.  `The Divine Comedy before
Dante took the jokes out.'  Don't hold your breath.]

> spoils" must be Herakles bringing Kerberus up for Labor Twelve. <g>

this is also a joke, right?  I'm out of my depth again (which is somewhere
in Malbolges), but I think it's clear it refers to the earthquake which
accompanied the rending of the curtain in the temple, followed by the
`harrowing of hell', i.e. the visitor is Christ.  Yes, I realise everyone
knew that anyway.

We now return you to the Mines of Saltus, where our correspondent is
watching operations from the safety of the cave mouth.

-- 
Peter Stephenson <pws at ifh.de>       Tel: +39 50 844536
WWW:  http://www.ifh.de/~pws/
Gruppo Teorico, Dipartimento di Fisica
Piazza Torricelli 2, 56100 Pisa, Italy