🦋 O voi ch'avete li 'ntelletti sani
"Pape Satàn, pape Satàn, aleppe!"
Plutus began in a gutteral, clicking voice.
The courteous sage who knew all reassured me: "Don't let fear harm you; whatever power he has
Cannot prevent us climbing down this rock.
It seems to me like that "Pape Satàn, aleppe!" line was the first thing I ever knew from the Inferno. I think Eliot quotes it somewhere, probably in The Waste Land, and that my researching his quote in high school was the first thing that ever brought Dante to my attention. Could be misremembering though. It baffles and delights me how Dante, a pious Christian, can sprinkle pagan deities and ideologies throughout his afterlife. He basically has to do it, because all his literary reference points are pre-Christian; I like that he does not seem embarrassed about it.
posted evening of Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
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