Noteworthy up to this point is the increasing callousness towards sin. We should have no pity on sin, and (at least when touring through hell) should have no regret for the sinner–everyone has what they want.
Canto IX feels like the culmination of all the lessons we have learned up to this point. We arrive at the gate of Dis and are turned back by the rebellious angels.
“I saw too well how the words with which he ended covered his start”–how often does our prayer go this way. Talking ourselves into piety we struggled to find at the outset and the absence of which, perhaps, is what drove us to prayer in the first place.
“Men of sound intellect and probity, / weigh with good understanding what lies hidden / behind the veil of my strange allegory!” –the introduction to this Canto explains that there are some evils upon which man must not look if he is to be saved. An endnote suggests Medusa is Despair, but that seems to undersell the danger posed by Medusa in this scene. Who, in life, does not experience moments of despair? But TRUE despair, the depths, the belief that God has truly abandoned his beloved creature–there lies the root of Heresy, which are beyond the gate our Poets are stalled at. And Heresy is far worse than despair, in my mind. Medusa could be a particularly alluring heresy, an “infohazard” that permanently alters the soul. Scandal even–that poisons the souls who bear witness to it, which certainly has led to plenty of heresy. The furies being totems of regret works equally well for despair as with scandal.
“Ah, what scorn breathed from that Angel-presence! (…) ‘Outcasts of Heaven, you twice-loathsome crew, (…) how does this insolence still live in you?’ “ –The nonchalance of the Angel, the effortless power over Hell. This is the power given to us by God. Hell has no power except that we give it. If we say– “In the name of Jesus, be gone!” hell will go.
The lesson I am taking away so far is that Paschal’s Wager is true: Hell is so terrible an evil, and so easily avoided given the overwhelming love of God–that we should SCORN sin with vigor, and (except insofar as charity obliges us) scorn the sinner who chooses it over the love of God.
Interesting, good, and beautiful thoughts. The appearance of Our Lady, Rachel, and St. Lucy at the start are in the back of my mind. What a consolation.
Sidebar: I don’t know much about Rachel, so I googled her this morning. Apparently Jacob met her at a well, and so began a 14 year quest to marry her. Christ met a Samaritan at the well, and so began his ministry and eternity in pursuit of communion with the Gentiles.
AMDG
Times-Dispatch of Vichy Earth 
The Divine Comedy is definitely worth reading. I had read the Inferno in a class in school, and about 5 years ago, I listened to the whole thing as an audiobook, which was helpful. At least I find that if I try to read the poetry as prose that can slow down the reading, but if I just read it and take in the sense of the words, not worrying about understanding everything and maybe rereading if necessary, then if flows more smoothly.
LikeLiked by 1 person