Reading Danté's Inferno 2015: Cantos XXV to XXVII
Canto XXV - Circle Eight, Bolgia Seven - Thieves After the ornament-stealing, Vanni, tells Danté his fate, he blasphemes by making some kind of finger gesture towards god. Let's just say he gave god the finger. Danté now believes that the "serpents were my friends" as they coiled around Vanni's neck. Soon a centaur approaches and "on his shoulders crouched a dragon with its wings spread wide that sets on fire whatever it encounters."The dragon sits atop Cacus, the son of Vulcan who was killed by Hercules for stealing cattle as told in Virgil'sAeneid. But in the AeneidCacus is not a centaur, he is a man who exhales smoke and fire. It seems Danté took some liberties here and what this displays is that Danté is willing to revise the Aeneid to make it work for him in The Inferno . Three souls then shout at Danté and Virgil, "You, who are you?" Danté is amazed when a "reptile with six legs propels itself at one of them, and fastene...