Chapter 5 · Malebolgeone of the damnedCircle VIIIBeing built
Nicholas III
The pope planted head down in the third ditch, with the soles of his feet on fire.
Un papa, piantato a testa in giù nel suo foro, con le piante dei piedi accese. Aspetta quello che verrà dopo di lui: quando arriverà, questo scenderà nella pietra e l’altro resterà ritto al suo posto.
Fuor de la bocca a ciascun soperchiavad’un peccator li piedi e de le gambeinfino al grosso, e l’altro dentro stava
Revealswho the damned soul of the third ditch is, and why he speaks to you.
The simonists stand upside down in identical holes bored in the livid stone, only their legs showing and both soles alight. The game sets twenty-two stations along the floor of the third ditch and puts the pope at the seventh: among the others and exactly like them, because you have to come up in front of him without knowing it is him.
In the poem Nicholas mistakes Dante for Boniface VIII, whom he has been waiting for, and starts talking before he looks; here he does the same, and he is the only damned soul in the chapter who answers a passer-by. The game lets you choose what to say back, and each answer draws something different out of him: the man who tells the truth, the man who plays along and the man who walks on do not leave that hole with the same hands.
The numbers
| What | How much |
|---|---|
| Stations on the floor of the third | 22 |
| The pope’s station | the seventh |
Links
- Found in
- The Third Ditch, the Simonists
- See also
- The Book of Names