The Divine Comedy · Chapter
Canto VII: The Fourth and Fifth Circles explained
Dante and Virgil descend into the Fourth Circle, where the avaricious and prodigal clash by rolling great weights.
What happens
Dante and Virgil descend into the Fourth Circle, where the avaricious and prodigal clash by rolling great weights. Virgil explains Fortune's divine role. They then enter the Fifth Circle, the marsh of Styx, where the wrathful fight and the sullen lie submerged.
Themes in this chapter
Divine Justice
The punishments in the Fourth and Fifth Circles illustrate God's justice, where the avaricious and prodigal clash eternally and the wrathful and sullen suffer in Styx.
Human Free Will and Moral Responsibility
Virgil explains that the souls' misuse of wealth and anger in life resulted from their own choices, leading to their eternal condition.
Characters to notice
- Dante Alighieri
Dante observes the punishment of the avaricious and prodigal, questions Virgil about Fortune, and witnesses the wrathful and sullen in Styx.
- Virgil
Virgil silences Plutus, explains the sin of avarice and prodigality, delivers a discourse on Fortune, and guides Dante through the Fourth and Fifth Circles.
- Plutus
Plutus, the demon of wealth, guards the Fourth Circle and is silenced by Virgil.
Key passages
“Papë Satàn, Papë Satàn, Aleppë!”
Plutus cries out in a garbled, demonic invocation of Satan.
Plutus's opening words are a confused, angry invocation, showing his demonic nature.
“Why keepest? and, Why squanderest thou?”
The avaricious and prodigal shout accusations at each other, blaming one for hoarding and the other for wasting.
This cry encapsulates the sin of each group, as they clash in eternal opposition.
“He whose omniscience everything transcends / The heavens created, and gave who should guide them... He in like manner to the mundane splendors / Ordained a general ministress and guide, / That she might change at times the empty treasures / From race to race, from one blood to another.”
God, who created the heavens and their movers, also appointed Fortune as a minister to distribute worldly goods among people and nations.
Virgil explains Fortune as a divine agent, not a blind force, responsible for the transience of wealth.
“Fixed in the mire they say, 'We sullen were / In the sweet air, which by the sun is gladdened, / Bearing within ourselves the sluggish reek; / Now we are sullen in this sable mire.'”
The sullen souls, submerged in the mud, confess that they were gloomy and resentful in life, refusing to rejoice in God's creation, and now they are eternally stuck in dark mire.
This reveals the sin of sullenness—a refusal to accept God's goodness—and its fitting punishment.