Friday, January 30, 2026
Monday, January 26, 2026
INFERNO, Canto XXVI, illustration 3
Title: "Master," I said, "your words make me more sure,
but I had seen already that it was so
and meant to ask what spirit must endure
the pains of that great flame which splits away
in two great horns, as if it rose from the pyre
where Eteocles and Polynices lay?"
He answered me: "Forever round this path
Ulysses and Diomede move in such dress
Sunday, January 25, 2026
INFERNO, Canto XXVI, illustration 2
Title: I stood on the bridge, and leaned out from the edge;
so far, that but for a jut of rock I held to
I should have been sent hurtling from the ledge
Saturday, January 24, 2026
INFERNO, Canto XXV, illustration 4
Title: Responding sympathetically to each other,
the reptile cleft his tail into a fork,
and the wounded sinner drew his feet together.
The sinner's legs and thighs began to join:
they grew together so, that soon no trace
of juncture could be seen from toe to loin.
Point by point the reptile's cloven tail
grew to the form of what the sinner lost;
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
INFERNO, Canto XXV, illustration 3
Title: For suddenly, as I watched, I saw a lizard
come darting forward on six great taloned feet
and fasten itself to a sinner from crotch to gizzard.
Its middle feet sank in the sweat and grime
of the wretch's paunch, its forefeet clamped his arms,
its teeth bit through both cheeks. At the same time
its hind feet fastened on the sinner's thighs:
its tail thrust through his legs and closed its coil
Saturday, January 17, 2026
INFERNO, Canto XXV, illustration 2
Title: …and there
I saw a furious Centaur race up, roaring:
"Where is the insolent blasphemer? Where?"
I do not think as many serpents swarm
in all the Maremma as he bore on his back
from the haunch to the first sign of our human form.
Upon his shoulders, just behind his head
a snorting dragon whose hot breath set fire
to all it touched, lay with its wings outspread.
My Guide said: "That is Cacus."
INFERNO, Canto XXV, illustration 1
Title: When he had finished, the thief -- to his disgrace--
raised his hands with both fists making figs,
Friday, January 9, 2026
INFERNO, Canto IX, illustration 1 (alternate versions)
Title: "Once before, it is true, I crossed through Hell
conjured by cruel Erichtho who recalled
the spirits to their bodies. Her dark spell
forced me, newly stripped of my mortal part,
Monday, January 5, 2026
INFERNO, Canto VIII, illustration 2 (alternate version)
Title: And shortly after, I saw the loathesome spirit
so mangled by a swarm of muddy wraiths
that to this day I praise and thank God for it.
"After Filippo Argenti!" all cried together.
The maddog Florentine wheeled at their cry
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
INFERNO, Canto XXIV, illustration 4
Title: "I am Vanni Fucci, the beast. A mule among men,
I chose the bestial life above the human.
Savage Pistoia was my fitting den."
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