Circle 4: Canto 7

Question 1

Circle 4:

Answer 1

Avarice and Prodigality

Question 2

‘[They were] crying out…

Answer 2

‘[They were] crying out: “Why hoard?” and “Why waste”’

Question 3

‘she turns her sphere…

Answer 3

‘she turns her sphere and rejoices in her blessedness’

Question 4

Circle 4: Avarice and Prodigality

Answer 4

Dante now sees a multitude of shades damed for the sin of avarice (holding wealth too tightly) or its opposite (spending too freely). The two groups push heavy boulders with their chests around a circle in opposite directions: when the avaricious and the prodigal collide they turn and, after casting insults at one another, repeat the journey in the other direction. So filthy have the souls become as a result of their sordid lives that Dante cannot recognize them individually, though Virgil reports the presence of many clerics, including cardinals and popes, among the avaricious.

Question 5

Plutus

Answer 5

Dante’s Plutus, guardian-symbol of the fourth circle, is, like other infernal creatures, a unique hybrid of sources and natures. His Plutus similarly combines human and bestial natures in his depiction: he possesses the power of speech (though the precise meaning of his words - some sort of invocation to Satan - is unclear) and the ability to understand (or at least react to) Virgil’s dismissive words while at the same time displaying animal features and a feral rage.