Chapter 2 · The Gate and the AntehellriverPlayable
The Acheron
The river you do not cross but go down, by boat, from the shore to the far bank.
I fuochi a prua e a poppa. Il poema non li nomina, sono del gioco: i morti non ne hanno bisogno e Caronte ha «occhi di bragia» (III, 109). Sono per il vivo a bordo, che ha occhi mortali, e sono il cerchio dentro cui si vede chi sale dall’acqua.
La terra lagrimosa diede vento,che balenò una luce vermigliala qual mi vinse ciascun sentimento;
Revealshow chapter II ends.
In the poem it is «la trista riviera d’Acheronte» (Inf. III 78), and of the crossing nothing is said: the third canto ends on the bank, «e caddi come l’uom cui sonno piglia» (Inf. III 136), and the fourth opens on the other side, «in su la proda» (Inf. IV 7). Charon does not ferry the living, and the poet gets himself out of it by fainting.
The game shows that crossing, and declares that it is filling a hole in the poem. It fills it with the canto’s own materials: the souls who «gittansi di quel lito ad una ad una» (Inf. III 116) and swim after a hull carrying a living man, and Charon’s oar, which «batte ... qualunque s’adagia» (Inf. III 111).
The river does not cross, it descends: Dante says the other bank and nothing more, and a river crossed in a straight line is a lake. So the chapter does not end when you get aboard. It ends on the far side. Framed on board, the fires at bow and stern say the poem does not name them and the dead have no use for them: they are for the living man aboard, and they are the circle inside which you see who is climbing out of the water.
The numbers
| What | How much |
|---|---|
| Width of the river, bank to bank | 26 metres |
| Speed of the boat | 1.52 metres per second |
| Swimmers in the water at once | 16 at most |
Links
- Found in
- The Antehell
- Opens
- Limbo