Chapter 5 · Malebolgeone of the damnedCircle VIIIBeing built
The Diviners
The damned whose faces are turned round to their backs, and who therefore walk backwards.
Uno degli indovini è salito sulla campata, e la percorre nel verso opposto al tuo. Ha il viso sulle reni: mentre ti viene addosso ti sta già guardando, ed è l’unico quaggiù che possa farlo.
ché da le reni era tornato ’l volto,e in dietro venir li convenia,perché ’l veder dinanzi era lor tolto
Revealswhat a figure who can only look backwards does on the fourth bridge.
The diviners have been denied the sight of what lies ahead, and must come towards you in reverse. In the game the file in the fourth ditch holds twenty bodies over an arc of twenty-six degrees, every head turned half a circle round, and the method that turns them is named in the code the contrappasso of the diviners.
They are the only figures down here who look at where they have come from, which is why one of them knows what lies further on and says so to whoever passes. The game gives him a single voice, a whisper you catch from the bank, and never comes back to it: what he said is left for you to check on foot.
The numbers
| What | How much |
|---|---|
| Bodies in the file | 20 |
| Arc of the file | 26 degrees |
Links
- Found in
- The Fourth Ditch, the Diviners
- Named by
- The Fourth Ditch, the Diviners