Great Books #10: Dante's Hierarchy of Hell

Welcome to hell. So we finish Dante's Inferno today and so what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you the overview of how Dante constructs hell, the Inferno, and I'll explain to you his reasoning for the structure. So first thing I'm going to do is explain to you Dante's cosmology, how he understands God and our relationship with God. So, God in Dante is really the Mvena and Plato, okay? For Plato, God is eternal, perfect, and imaginable. It has always been there. It will always be there. It is perfect and it is simply momentary because we are always moving. And this existence dies for the soul. Also,ación, will never ever change this creates a problem for the universe though because if something is perfect it cannot be creative it lacks an imagination it knows everything there's nothing for it to learn okay so it lacks an imagination but without imagination the problem is

the universe cannot expand it cannot renew itself we cannot rejuvenate so to solve this problem what god does is create us okay humans because the problem of humans is that we exist in three different planes okay there is the ethereal the spiritual and the material okay so we're existing on multiple dimensions and when we exist on the material we have bodies right and this bodies creates pain and pleasure we can also die and as a result we can sin sin okay what allows us to sin is free will what's important to sin though is that you can now be creative you can now take risks you can now be imaginative what's important in this process is to redeem yourself to forgive yourself the problem then is okay if we can sin we can do whatever you want how do we know what is good and what is evil and the solution to this is this

because when god created us okay he breathed into us life because that's what it says in the bible therefore there is a spark in us that is divine okay so we're humans and there's a spark in us that is divine okay i'm sorry for the bad drawing okay i'm not an artist but there's a spark in us that's divine and it is called love so god is love and when we love the spark in us awakens and it and it grows so how does this thing grow and glow the answer is we love someone else okay all right because the thing about the spark is that it wants to return to the source okay it wants to return to God and that's what drives us this eternal compulsion to return to the source of who we are even though we've forgotten who we are okay so the way to do this is we cannot return

to the source in our world but we can love someone else not money not our pet not a computer but someone else it has to be someone else because only in someone else is another spark okay so we're drawn to the spark and this is really important when you love someone else that person doesn't have to love you back okay because love is about giving it is giving and someone has to receive okay so when a mother loves a child okay so when a mother loves a child okay so when a mother loves a child it doesn't matter the child loves her back it doesn't matter the child loves her back it doesn't matter the child loves her back all that matters is that she loves all that matters is that she loves all that matters is that she loves him or her unconditionally and when that him or her unconditionally and when that him

or her unconditionally and when that happens when that happens the spark in happens when that happens the spark in us glows when it glows it reconnects us glows when it glows it reconnects back to the source all right so the back to the source all right so the back to the source all right so the moment we choose to love someone moment we choose to love someone moment we choose to love someone unconditionally this this glows and unconditionally this this glows and the source what happens now is this it's really powerful is that when this happens our understanding of the universe expands because now our view it's more cosmic it's more global than before we leave ourselves and we enter into the universe and this is what empowers the imagination okay so this is how Dante understands our purpose why we're here we came from where we're going it is so that we can so

that our compulsion our will and desire it is always to return to the source to do so we have to love someone else okay when the process of loving else love love someone else this expands our imagination and so this sounds all bit confusing right so let's go back and talk about the Odyssey the Odyssey the Odyssey is a epic poem about a family right Odysseus Penelope and Tanakas Odysseus has left Penelope and they're heartbroken they long to return to each other okay they long to return to each other in during the Trojan War Odysseus becomes traumatized by the horrors of war remember how he constructs the Trojan horse but and he constructs the Trojan horse in order to return to Penelope right it's his love for Penelope that expands his imagination that allows him to conceive of the Trojan horse the Trojan horse allows the Greeks to destroy Troy but it traumatizes Odysseus because

he sees himself how terrible war is he came to the Trojan Wars he came to Troy in order to restore a family right to restore menolos and Helen but with the Trojan Horse he sees that no this is destroying families because the Trojans are being killed and their wives are being enslaved and this traumatizes him it breaks him apart and it's and it splits him from Penelope but he longs to return to Penelope and in the process their love for each other once they combine once they bind together they are not husband or wife each other, it expands his imagination. And by expanding his imagination, it allows him to heal himself. All right? Okay? So this is the dynamic at work. What's amazing about this is the Odyssey was written by Homer, and this is written by Dante. What's amazing about what happened is that Dante never read Homer. He read Virgil, because Dante can read Latin.

He can't read Greek. So he doesn't have access to the Iliad and the Odyssey. He doesn't actually know what Homer wrote and said. But working independently, they were able to come to the same framework and understanding of how the universe works. Okay? That's pretty amazing. All right? All right. So this is the cosmology of Dante. Now, there's certain problems with this. Okay? The problem is this. The spark …, seeks to love another spark so that the spark can return to the source. Okay? Which is God, the monad. In this process, once you truly love someone, your imagination expands. Right? And when your imagination expands, the universe itself expands. And this is how and why we were created. To expand the universe. Because God cannot expand. We cannot imagine. Only we can imagine. Because we can feel pain. Because we can sin. Because we can forgive each other. But there's a problem with this framework.

Okay? The problem is this. Sometimes we cannot love someone else. Okay? Sometimes our soul cannot expand outwards. It's trapped inside of us. Why? The answer is because we've sinned so much. Okay? The sin is so much that we cannot forgive each other. Okay? We cannot forgive ourselves. We cannot forgive each other. And so we become trapped in who we are. We cannot expand outwards. Therefore, we become distant from the source. Okay? So rather than moving upwards to the source, which is heaven, we move downwards into our own hell. Okay? So in other words, heaven and hell are construction of our own imaginations. They're the consequences of our emotional state. We have free will, and we should choose to love someone else, because that's what brings us back to the source. But sometimes we don't know that, and we commit so much sin that we don't think we're worthy of the source. We're not worthy of God.

And therefore, we create hell to imprison ourselves in. And again, that sounds confusing, but let's use the example of the Iliad. Right? The Iliad. The Iliad is Achilles. He wants to be a hero, but he gets into a fight with Menelaus. Oh, sorry, not with Menelaus, with Agamemnon. Okay? And again, they say, screw you. You need me because I'm the best warrior. And if you don't beg me to turn, I'll let your soldiers kill you. Agamemnon refused to beg. Achilles is in a lot of trouble, so he sends Patroclus to die. Right? And then Achilles jumps into battle, kills Hector. And now, once this is done, Achilles is trapped in his own guilt. Right? And rather than feeling elation, joy, and being the best warrior in the world, he instead descends in his own hell. He's trapped in his own hell. And it's only when Priam forgives him that he's able to forgive himself.

And then he's able to restore himself. All right? Okay, so there's two dynamics at work. When you love someone, when you do good, you ascend to the source, your imagination expands, the universe expands. But when you commit sin, and the sin is so bad that you're not able to forgive yourself, then you trap yourself in hell, and you are there for all of eternity. Okay? And what's really important to understand is that space and time are constructs of our imagination. So in other words, even as we're speaking now, all right, our souls are also living in eternity. So the moment we commit a sin, we imagine ourselves in a certain place in hell. And we can be there for all of eternity, unless we in our lives choose to redeem ourselves. Nobody can redeem us, only we can redeem ourselves for our imagination and for our love. Okay. Does that make sense? All right.

So, for Dante, what he's going to show–he's going to tell us this much later, okay? But in Inferno he's going to construct uh the structure of hell all right so what is hell so in hell there are different layers okay different circles and obviously the lower you go the greater the punishment the greater the sin all right and at the very bottom the center of hell is this this is a loop is um donnie's word for for satan or lucifer okay now um what's happening is that the sin is greater and the reason why is we are less capable of engaging in self -forgiveness all right so it's not that others refuse to forgive us it's that we refuse to forgive ourselves okay why because um it's not that Prozent цен noticed we did video on rolling from hell is because we've become distant from um God all right and the worse the lower

you go in hell it's because not only are you moving away from God but you're forcing t others to move away from God as well all right so um here at this level it's really about trapping yourself in hell but the lower you go the more people you trap in hell and the longer you trap them in hell for so the worst crime the worst sin in donna's world is treachery okay why because think of um achilles and patroclus in many ways achilles betrays patroclus right and as a result achilles feels guilt for betraying patroclus and if if you remember the iliad he remembers patroclus is a ghost that's haunting him all right so treachery is the worst sin because you trap yourself in hell as well as others um then you have like fraud deception okay so what you're doing is you you are reducing the capacity of others to love right so if

i lie to you you want to lie to other people as well that's just human nature when you lie to other people you cannot engage in love you cannot engage in giving yourself to others you become insecure you become broken right same with fraud when you cheat others others are going to want to cheat others as well there's almost like a virus right so those who are in hell are because they're spreading a virus of deception of hatred of betrayal which spreads all around the world diminishing people's connection to god diminishing people's capacity to love in heaven we'll find the opposite where people are in heaven because they choose to love unconditionally which spreads god all around the world okay does that make sense all right so let's look at specifically at the construction of hell okay so this is a schematic of how hell is constructed okay so remember how how we said that

in the first circle of hell it's called limbo and limbo it's kind of nice okay it's like here but people live forever and these people did nothing wrong they did actually nothing wrong but they were born before the time of jesus and therefore people were not aware um of god okay and these people include julius caesar okay so julius caesar is in limbo along other great historical figures then we go into people who have committed sin including lust okay some people who commit lust are people like dido and cleopatra and their punishment is they just um they're just stuck in a whirlwind and so there they are moving around hell they're being swept by the wind if you think about it this is actually a very appropriate punishment for lust right because lust means that you are swept away by emotions you are swept away by your lust for that person you cannot control your

emotions and so what their punishment in hell is is it's being whipped around in a whirlwind okay and the purpose so the purpose of hell is to force you to engage in reflection because remember the universe is governed by free will so people are on hell not because they did something wrong but because they choose to be there because they thought they deserve to be there all right so the punish every punishment is constructed in a way that forces people to see the errors of their ways and to want to reform but you don't have to eat okay and um then you have gluttony and gluttony is basically overindulgence you want too much and so if you remember punishment for for overindulgence overindulgence suddenly it's rain right and it's like a rain that never stops and that's a that's a pretty fitting punishment for gluttony where you have you like food and you don't want

to stop right so it's almost like rain raining on you and it can never stop okay so and again the purpose is to force you to see the error of your ways to see the limitations of your sin and to want to reform all right and then then we get into the worst circle and here this is basically self sin okay meaning sin that only impacts you now we get to the sin that impacts others okay so here it's violence then you go to fraud then the very worst is treachery okay and this is how hell is constructed. All right so I want to talk about the two bottom circles of hell. Traitors to guests and friends and and traitors to god okay so treachery is a really important concept in divine comedy because treachery is abs is the worst way to condemn people away from god all right and what donnie says is that

there are um four different types of treachery and each is worse than the other the first type of treachery betrayal is when you betray your family and for dante this is actually the least problematic of all betrayals because you're born into a family you don't actually choose to uh be part of family okay it's involuntary and as such when we treat someone it's it's it's bad but it's not as bad as if you choose but to betray if you choose to go into a bond with someone and then betray that person okay all right so that's why traitors to guess and friends are the worst because these are bonds created by free will and trust and so you're destroying the person's capacity to trust other people which destroy that person's capacity to love other people all right so um the example that donnie uses is this person uh count eulogino okay count eulogino eulogino and

he's actually a real person so remember how dante was participating in these political wars in italy well from from his perspective the worst culprit was count eulogino who was the head of pisa he comes from a very prominent family and he's power crazy so what he does is he betrays everyone in order to obtain power and then finally he was betrayed by one of his friends an archbishop and this archbishop betrays um count eulogino and froze from the prison along with his children and he throws away the key so they starve to death together okay and when dante and virgil encounter count eulogino he is biting the head of the archbishop they're stuck in a frozen lake to represent all eternity to represent um immutability the incapacity to change and this is happening over and over where um count eulogino is biting the head of the archbishop now if you think about it this is

an analogy to achilles mutually in the body of hector right remember in the um iliad achilles kills hector in a battle and at this point he should return hector's body for ransom to the trojans so the trojans can bury him but instead achilles spends all his time just mutilating hector's body achilles feels guilt and sorrow for the loss of his friend patroclus he takes it out on hector okay by mutilating hector's body the same dynamic is happening here where count eulogino blames the archbishop for the death of his family okay and but he in his heart knows it's not the archbishop that killed his children it was him himself who condemned his children because he constantly engaged in the pursuit of power when you engage in the pursuit of power you move away from love you lose the capacity to love your children and so you condemn your children to hell and to death okay so it's this self -hatred that drives his hatred of the archbishop it's a very similar dynamic as the iliad and what homer says what And what Darnley says is the same thing, which is betraying others condemns you to betraying everyone, including your own children.

And that makes you hate yourself so much that you burn with self -hatred for all of eternity. You are now the most imprisoned in hell because of your self -hatred. It doesn't make sense guys. All right, so what we're going to do is we're going to read this part from Divine Comedy. And so the story is, again, Count Eulogio, you know, he's always engaged in power politics. He's always engaging in betrayal, including betrayal of his own people in Pisa. Eventually, the people of Pisa get really angry at him and they overthrow him, led by the Archbishop. He's thrown into prison. His children are also put into prison with him and the Archbishop throws away the key.

So he's just left to suffer. As they starve, as they're starving, it is implied that Count Eulogio, you know, he eats his own children. Okay. And that's a metaphor for what betrayal is. Because when you betray someone, you're canonizing that person's soul. Okay. And you are canonizing the soul of everyone around you. All right. So this is a story told by Count Eulogio to Dante, who's asking him, why are you here? Okay. Thank you. I'm going to read you out.

Okay. They were awake by now.

They were my sons. Okay. My four sons. Okay. So again, he's stuck in prison. They threw away the key and he stuck there with his four young sons.

The hour drew near it at which our food was usually brought, and each because of what he drowned dreamed was anxious below. I heard them. Sorry. I really can't see what's on the screen.

Nailing.

Nailing up the door of that appalling tower, without a word I looked into the faces of my sons. I did not weep, within I turned to stone. They wept, and my poor little Anshulm said, Father, you look so... what is wrong with you? At that I shed no tears, and all day long, and through the night that followed, did not answer until another son had touched the world. As soon as the thin ray had made its way into that sorry prison, and I saw, reflected in four faces, my own gaze, out of my grief, I bit at both my hands, and they, who thought I'd done that out of hunger, immediately rose and told me, Father, it would be far less painful for us if you ate of us, for you clothed us in this sad flesh. It is for you to strip it off.

Okay, alright, so, um, the count, he's hungry, he knows he's at fault for condemning his entire family to death. But he cannot bring himself to admit this, and he becomes very anxious and he starts biting himself, because he's so afraid of what will happen to his sons. His sons see this, and they feel pity for him, and say, are you hungry? And he can't answer, so they basically say to him, you know what, it's better for you to eat us, than for us to eat you. And he starts to see you starve. Alright, so the sons are demonstrating a last act of love for their father. And because the man, he has betrayed so many people, and he can only see the world in terms of betrayal, he doesn't recognize this act of love. He's confused by it, and he's desperate to feed himself, so he actually eats his sons. Okay?

And so that's what, that's why treachery is so devastating. Because it blinds you. It blinds you to the possibility of love. Okay? It denies you the possibility of love. And it lets you commit the most evil, because you refuse to believe that love exists. Okay? But now, okay, this is the most interesting part, where we are now at the very bottom of hell. We've entered the very center of hell. And so this is the place for the worst people. And so there are four people in the very center of hell. There's this, Satan Lucifer, okay? The man, the angel who betrayed God, and who was condemned to hell. And then he's biting three individuals who betrayed God. He's, he is biting, chewing on Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus. That makes sense. The other people don't actually make any sense. They are Cassius and Brutus. And I'll explain to you why it doesn't really make sense later, okay?

But, can you read, Ivory? You can skip this part, this is Latin.

Okay.

But basically, the king of God, sorry, the king of hell is before us.

Toward us, and therefore keep your eyes ahead, my master said, to see if you can spy him. Just as when night falls on our hemisphere, or when a heavy fog is blowing thick, a windmill seems to wheel when seen far off. So then I seemed to see that sort of structure. And next, because the wind was strong, I shrank behind my guide. There was no other shelter. And now, with fear, I set it down in meter. I was where all the shades were fully covered, but visible as whiffs of straw and glass. There some lie flat, and others stand erect. One on his head, and one upon his soles. And some bend face to feet, just like a bow. But after we had made our way ahead, my master felt he now should have me see that creature who was once a handsome presence. He stepped aside and made me stop, and said, Look, here's this, and this the place where you will have to arm yourself with fortitude.

Okay, so when they meet this, the thing that they discover is that this is mechanical. He's a machine. He doesn't have ideas, he doesn't have words. He doesn't have free will. He doesn't have will and desire. This is what happens when you fully remove yourself from God. Okay? You lose the capacity. To be organic. You become a machine. You just do what you do. So this is almost like an air conditioner. Okay? So what he's doing is, he's always flapping his wings. And then these wings take the winds of the frozen lake, and then basically make hell more cool. Okay? Cools hell down. But this lacks agency, lacks ideas, lacks everything. Okay? So it's just a machine now. And this, Satan, Lucifer, is three heads, and on each head are butting three people. Okay? The first is, of course, Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus. And again, this makes perfect sense. But you have Brutus and Cassius.

And Brutus and Cassius are the ones who betrayed Julius Caesar. Okay? So if you just accept the logic, you would think, okay. Well, if Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, and Jesus is God, and Brutus and Cassius betrayed Julius Caesar, therefore, Julius Caesar should be God as well. Right? Therefore, Julius Caesar should be in heaven. But he's not in heaven. He's in limbo. This makes no sense. Okay? This is a paradox. And again, Donnie does this a lot. Where he... He creates these paradoxes for you to think that maybe everything I'm seeing is not real. Maybe this reality, it's being created for me by a stronger power. Okay? So the question then is, who would think of putting Brutus and Cassius into hell? And that person, of course, would be Virgil. Okay? And this gives us another clue that maybe it's Virgil who's master of hell and not Lucifer Satan. Because Lucifer Satan, they don't have agency.

They have no imagination. They don't actually speak or think. They're just a machine. Whereas Virgil is the one who's navigating and negotiating hell. And maybe he wants to put Brutus and Cassius into hell. Because Virgil's master, of course, is Augustus Caesar. Right? And Augustus Caesar, his father is Julius Caesar. And in fact, Augustus Caesar made Julius Caesar god of his time. Okay? So we just feel that, logically, it doesn't make any sense if we just think that everything is as it seems. Right? Now, what's going to happen is that they're going to climb Lucifer. And escape hell. And now they're in purgatory. All right? They've left hell. Now they're in purgatory. And this is the first stanza of, sorry, not the first stanza. But when they go into purgatory, and purgatory is actually a mountain. Okay? And they're going to climb the mountain so that they can ascend ultimately to heaven. But on the shores of purgatory, they meet the guardian of purgatory.

And this guardian is named Cato. Who is Cato? Cato, along with Brutus and Cassius, opposed Julius Caesar. At this time, Julius Caesar was amassing power for himself in Rome. And there were a lot of people who opposed Julius Caesar, including Ptolemy and including Cato. Cato chose to kill himself rather than submit to Julius Caesar. But this makes no sense. Because first of all, okay, Cato was born before Jesus. Does that make sense? He was born before Jesus. And Virgil told us that if you're born before Jesus, the best place you can hope for is limbo. That's it. But Cato is in purgatory, which is better than hell. But not only that, but he's the master and guardian of purgatory. That makes no sense. That's fine. That's point one. Point two is he killed himself. This is a sin. Okay? This is a crime. You should be in hell for that.

Why is he in purgatory? The third thing is he betrayed Caesar. Okay? Or opposed Caesar. Cassius and Brutus also betrayed and opposed Caesar. And they are burning in hell. Right? So again, this is a paradox. And it forces us to think about what's really going on here. All right? So can you read? Ivory?

I saw a solitary patriarch near me, his aspect worthy of such reverence that even son to father owes no more. His beard was long and mixed with white, as were the hairs upon his head, and his hair spread down to his chest in a divine way. And he was dressed in a divided dress. The rays of the four holy stars so framed his face with light that in my sight he seemed like one who was confronted by the sun. Who are you who, against a hidden river, were able to escape the eternal prison? He said, moving those venerable plumes. Who is your guide? What serves you both as lantern when, from the deep night that will always keep the hellish valley dark, you were set free? The laws of the abyss. Have they been broken? Or has a new, a changed decree in heaven let you, though damned, approach my rocky slopes?

So again, this is Cato, okay? And again, Cato is the guardian of Purgatory. So he sees Dante and Virgil emerge. He's like, what are you guys doing here? This goes against the laws of the universe. You should not be able to break free of hell. All right. Can you read it?

My guide took hold of me decisively. By way of words and bands. And other signs. He made my knees and brows show reverence. Then he replied. I do not come through my own self. There was a lady sent from heaven. Her pleas led me to help and guide this man. But since your will would have a far more full and accurate account of our condition, my will cannot withhold what you request. This man had yet to see his final evening. But, through his folly little time was left before he did, he was so close to it. As I have told you, I was sent to him for his deliverance. The only road I could have taken was the road I took. I showed him all the people of perdition. Now I intend to show to him those spirits who, in your care, are bent on expiation. To tell you how I led him would take long.

It is a power descending from above that helped me guide him here to see and hear you.

Okay. So what's happening here is Cato's like, what are you guys doing here? And Virgil steps up and tries to explain what's going on. Now what's interesting is that Cato and Virgil know each other. They were born and they lived around the same time in Rome. Okay? And they were in limbo together. So they know each other really well. But Virgil is being very polite to him. He's being, he's almost afraid of Cato. Okay? All right. Keep on reading, Ivory.

Now may it please you to approve his coming. He goes in search of liberty, so precious and as he who gives his life for it must know. You know it, who in Utica found death for

Okay, so he killed himself in Utica, okay?

Found death for freedom was not bitter when you left a garb that will be bright on the great day.

Okay, so he killed himself because he would rather die honorably than to submit himself as a slave to Caesar. So what Virgil is saying is like, you died a noble death. Even though suicide is considered a sin in the Catholic Church. Okay, keep on going.

Eternal edicts are not broken for us. This man's alive and I'm not bound by Minos. But I am from the circle where the chastised eyes of your Marsha are. And she still prays to you, O holy breast, to keep her as your own for her love. Then incline to us. Allow our journey through your seven realms. I shall thank her for kindness you bestow. If you would let your name be. Name be named below.

Okay, all right. This is really interesting, okay? What he's saying is, and Virgil is being very subtle, right? He's saying to Cato, listen, your wife, Marcia, she's still in limbo with me. And if you treat us well here, I'll go back to limbo and treat Marcia really nice. Okay, it's almost like a bribe. Or it's almost like a small threat to Cato. Okay? All right, keep on reading.

While within the other world, Marcia so pleased my eyes. He then replied, each kindness she required, I satisfied.

Wow, this is really interesting, okay? While within the other world. So what he's saying is that before I was in limbo with you, Virgil, and my wife, Marcia. Okay? He's saying that. But remember, when we first read the Inferno, Virgil told us that, listen, if you're born before the time of Jesus, you're stuck in limbo. This is the best place you can hope for. But maybe there are certain people who are so glorious, and they're such part of the biblical tradition, that when Jesus came to hell, he took them to heaven, including people like Abraham, Isaac, his father Joseph, Mary, okay? David. These people who are in the Bible and who are part of the Christian tradition, Jesus took with him, but everyone else is stuck in limbo. But he's saying, Cato, wow, you're not a Christian. You killed yourself. You were with us in limbo. But you were able to ascend to purgatory while your wife, Marcia, was still left behind.

Okay? This is like a paradox. Okay, keep on going.

Now that she dwells beyond the evil river, she has no power to move me any longer. Such was the law decreed when I was freed. But if a lady come from heaven, speeds and helps you— Wait, stop.

Okay, all right. So what he's saying is, before I loved Marcia, but after I was freed and I escaped limbo and now I'm in purgatory, I no longer love her. In fact, I don't respect her. We can speculate as to why, okay? This is really strange because I already told you in the beginning that what love is giving to other people, right? So in purgatory, if Cato really loved Marcia, then he should be thinking about scheming as to how to bring Marcia to purgatory, right? That's what makes sense. If you make a lot of money, then you want to share this money with the people you love, right? But again, this is where Dante is different because what is the most important thing is free will. If you truly love someone, you let that person choose. You don't force that person to do anything against his or her free will, okay? So I, Cato, I chose to come to purgatory because I willed it.

I desired it. Therefore, God let me come. I was able to find the will and desire to self -reflect, to forgive myself, and to come to purgatory. Marcia did not. But I cannot make her self -reflect. She has to choose to do so on her own, okay? So as long as she's there, I have to let her be there. And my love for her won't change anything. So I choose to focus on other things, okay? Does that make sense? All right? It doesn't do good to force anyone to do anything. That's not what love is. All right? Can you keep on reading?

As you say, there is no need of flattery. It is enough, indeed, to ask me for her sake. Go then, but first wind the smooth brush around his waist and bathe his face to wash away all of hell's stains. For it would not be seemly to approach with eyes still dimmed by any mists the first custodian angel won from paradise. This solitary island, all around its very base, there where the breakers pound, bears rush on its soft and muddy ground. There is no other plant that lives below. No plant with leaves or plant that, as it grows, hardens and breaks beneath the wave's harsh blows. That done, do not return by this same pass. The sun, which rises now, will show you how this hillside can be climbed more easily. With that he vanished, and without a word, I rose and drew in closer to my guide. And it was on him I set my eyes.

So they're not in purgatory, okay? And what Cato is saying is that purgatory is a mountain. They have to climb the mountain to reach heaven. But purgatory is a mountain that is enclosed, okay? So waves, wind cannot touch this mountain. All right, and so we now are in purgatory. And I want you to finish purgatory. Or try to read as much as you can. And we'll continue this next week. Are there any questions about this? So again, this is a journey undertaken by Dante into the cosmos. And he's taking us with him. What's really interesting about Dante is he appreciates that for us to understand, we first have to misunderstand, okay? It's misunderstanding that leads to understanding. We have to correct ourselves in order to fully understand the truth. What he also believes is that for us to be virtuous, we first must have to sin, okay? It's okay to sin because it allows us to recognize our limitations.

And it makes us much more virtuous. And it's this process that drives the imagination. It doesn't make sense. If you want to understand, you first have to misunderstand. If you want to be virtuous, you must first sin, okay? Any questions? All right, okay, so we'll continue this next week, okay?