Canto III

Where do I start?! The whole thing is chalk full of stuff I want to talk about. While it's still fresh in my mind let's start with lines 125 and 126, "Justice Divine so goads and spurs them on,that what they fear turns into their desire." First of all, who is Justice Divine? Thought Dante was anti-pagan? Also, wow, just wow. I adore the idea that what we fear turns into our desire. It makes me think of Revenge of the Sith and how Anakin was so determined to save Padme that his ultimate fear of turning to the Dark Side and losing Padme comes true in his attempt to "save" her from what he penultimately causes (Oedipus anyone?).
Next, who is the "Craven One"? I looked in the notes and it says that it could possible by Pontius Pilate (super cool, personally would like this), but it's most likely Pope Celestine V. Who is that and why is he craven for abdicating the papacy? Help!!!
Next, line 24 reminds me of the Jesus wept verse. I don't know if that's what Dante was going for but that's what I heard. "I heard them for the first time, and I wept."
Finally, I wasn't going to talk about this because Olivia already did but hey, why not? Lines 34-42 are very intriguing to me. Apparently Dante is concerned with deeds rather than intentions. Which is weird in and of itself but then he goes on to explain that they are stuck on this bottom ring/level of purgatory because they would bring glory to neither God nor the fallen angels of Hell. So basically what I'm getting here is these are the kids who nobody picked for dodge ball and here they are. The moral of that story is, everyone in Switzerland is probably going to end up here.

I commented on Olivia and Daniel's.