Dante and Virgil now enter into the circle of the prodigal (wasters) and miserly (hoarders). They are greeted at the entrance by the mythological character, Plutus, God of wealth. Virgil disarms Plutus, telling him that it’s God’s will that they pass. As they enter into this circle they see two large groups of people, each straining to push an enormous rolling weight. These souls are condemned to eternally roll these huge boulders into one another, collide, roll them back, and begin again. As they are rolling, one group shouts “Why do you hoard?”, while the other shouts “Why do you waste?”.
In the group of hoarders, Dante spots greedy Priests, and Bishops who hoarded church money for themselves.
Next – The Wrathful
This seems ( I have dipped into a few excerpts) a great service both to Dante and to the modern world! Lovely images all the way through.
It gives me great ideas for my book on the verge of publication…a Divine Comedy of Science… in similar Cantos ( with footnotes) on the ‘levels’ of alienation from the divine through rationalism and enlightenment to the ‘ hell’ of post modernism. Willing to have your brain picked on how to offer in short extracts?