# Inferno Canto 20

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

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> 
> Canto XX
> 
> Argument
> 
>      The Poet relates the punishment of such as presumed, while living, to
> predict future events. It is to have their faces reversed and set the contrary
> way on their limbs, so that, being deprived of the power to see before them,
> they are constrained ever to walk backward. Among these Virgil points out to
> him Amphiaraus, Tiresias, Aruns, and Manto (from the mention of whom he takes
> occasion to speak of the origin of Mantua), together with several others, who
> had practised the arts of divination and astrology.
> 
> And now the verse proceeds to torments new,
> Fit argument of this the twentieth strain
> Of the first song, whose awful theme records
> The spirits whelm'd in woe. Earnest I look'd
> Into the depth, that open'd to my view,
> Moisten'd with tears of anguish, and beheld
> A tribe, that came along the hollow vale,
> In silence weeping: such their step as walk
> Quires, chanting solemn litanies, on earth.
> 
> As on them more direct mine eye descends,
> Each wonderously seem'd to be reversed
> At the neck - bone, so that the countenance
> Was from the reins averted; and because
> None might before him look, they were compell'd
> To advance with backward gait. Thus one perhaps
> Hath been by force of palsy clean transposed,
> But I ne'er saw it nor believe it so.
> 
> Now, reader! think within thyself, so God
> Fruit of thy reading give thee! how I long
> Could keep my visage dry, when I beheld
> Near me our form distorted in such guise,
> That on the hinder parts fallen from the face
> The tears down - streaming roll'd. Against a rock
> I leant and wept, so that my guide exclaim'd:
> "What, and art thou, too, witless as the rest?
> Here pity most doth show herself alive,
> When she is dead. What guilt exceedeth his,
> Who with Heaven's judgment in his passion strives?
> Raise up thy head, raise up, and see the man
> Before whose eyes[1] earth gaped in Thebes, when all
> Cried out 'Amphiaraus, whither rushest?
> Why leavest thou the war?' He not the less
> Fell ruining far as to Minos down,
> Whose grapple none eludes. Lo! how he makes
> The breast his shoulders; and who once too far
> Before him wish'd to see, now backward looks,
> And treads reverse his path. Tiresias note,
> Who semblance changed, when woman he became
> Of male, through every limb transform'd; and then
> Once more behoved him with his rod to strike
> The two entwining serpents, ere the plumes,
> That mark'd the better sex, might shoot again.
> 
> [1: Amphiaraus, one of the seven kings who besieged Thebes. He is
> said to have been swallowed up by an opening of the earth.]
> 
> "Aruns,[2] with rere his belly facing, comes.
> On Luni's mountains 'midst the marbles white,
> Where delves Carrara's hind, who wons beneath,
> A cavern was his dwelling, whence the stars
> And main - sea whide in boundless view he held.
> 
> [2: Said to have dwelt in the mountains of Luni (whence that
> territory is still called Lunigiana), above Carrara, celebrated for its
> marble.]
> 
> "The next, whose loosen'd tresses overspread
> Her bosom, which thou seest not (for each hair
> On that side grows) was Manto, she who search'd
> Through many regions, and at length her seat
> Fix'd in my native land: whence a short space
> My words detain thy audience. When her sire
> From life departed, and in servitude
> The city dedicate to Bacchus mourn'd,
> Long time she went a wanderer through the world.
> Aloft in Italy's delightful land
> A lake there lies, at foot of that proud Alp
> That o'er the Tyrol locks Germania in,
> Its name Benacus, from whose ample breast
> A thousand springs, methinks, and more, between
> Camonica and Garda, issuing forth,
> Water the Apennine. There is a spot[3]
> 
> [3: "There is a spot." Prato di Fame, where the dioceses of Trento,
> Verona, and Brescia meet.]
> 
> At midway of that lake, where he who bears
> Of Trento's flock the pastoral staff, with him
> Of Brescia, and the Veronese, might each
> Passing that way his benediction give.
> A garrison of goodly site and strong
> Peschiera[4] stands, to awe with front opposed
> The Bergamese and Brescian, whence the shore
> More slope each way descends. There, whatsoe'er
> Benacus' bosom holds not, tumbling o'er
> Down falls, and winds a river flood beneath
> Through the green pastures. Soon as in his course
> The stream makes head, Benacus then no more
> They call the name, but Mincius, till at last
> Reaching Governo, into Po he falls.
> Not far his course hath run, when a wide flat
> It finds, which overstretching as a marsh
> It covers, pestilent in summer oft.
> Hence journeying, the savage maiden saw
> Midst of the fen a territory waste
> And naked of inhabitants. To shun
> All human converse, here she with her slaves,
> Plying her arts, remain'd, and liv'd, and left
> Her body tenantless. Thenceforth the tribes,
> Who round were scatter'd, gathering to that place,
> Assembled; for its strength was great, enclosed
> On all parts by the fen. On those dead bones
> They rear'd themselves a city, for her sake
> Calling it Mantua, who first chose the spot,
> Nor ask'd another omen for the name;
> Wherein more numerous the people dwelt,
> Ere Casalodi's madness[5] by deceit
> Was wronged of Pinamonte. If thou hear
> Henceforth another origin assign'd
> Of that my country, I forewarn thee now,
> That falsehood none beguile thee of the truth."
> 
> [4: "Peschiera." A garrison situated to the south of the lake, where
> it empties and forms the Mincius.]
> 
> [5: Alberto da Casalodi, in possession of Mantua, was persuaded by
> Pinamonte Buonacossi to ingratiate himself with the people by banishing to
> their own castles the nobles, who were obnoxious to them. Pinamonte then put
> himself at the head of the populace, drove out Casalodi and his adherents, and
> obtained the sovereignty for himself.]
> 
> I answer'd, "Teacher, I conclude thy words
> So certain, that all else shall be to me
> As embers lacking life. But now of these,
> Who here proceed, instruct me, if thou see
> Any that merit more especial note.
> For thereon is my mind alone intent."
> 
> He straight replied: "That spirit, from whose cheek
> The beard sweeps o'er his shoulders brown, what time
> Graecia was emptied of her males, that scarce
> The cradles were supplied, the seer was he
> In Aulis, who with Calchas gave the sign
> When first to cut the cable. Him they named
> Eurypilus: so sings my tragic strain,
> In which majestic measure well thou know'st,
> Who know'st it all. That other, round the loins
> So slender of his shape, was Michael Scot,[6]
> Practised in every slight of magic wile.
> 
> [6: "It is not long since there was in this city (Florence) a great
> master in necromancy, called Michele Scotto, because he was from Scotland."
> Boccaccio, Decameron G. viii. N. 9.]
> 
> "Guido Bonatti[7] see: Asdente mark,[8]
> Who now were willing he had tended still
> The thread and cordwain, and too late repents.
> 
> [7: An astrologer of Forli, on whose skill Guido da Montefeltro, lord
> of that place, so relied, that he is reported never to have gone into battle,
> except in the hour recommended to him by Bonatti. Landino and Vellutello speak
> of his book on astrology. Macchiavelli mentions him in the History of
> Florence, 1. i. p. 24. ed. 1550. "He flourished about 1230 and 1260. Though a
> learned astronomer he was seduced by astrology, through which he was greatly
> in favor with many princes."]
> 
> [8: A shoemaker at Parma, who deserted his business to practice the
> arts of divination.]
> 
> "See next the wretches, who the needle left,
> The shuttle and the spindle, and became
> Diviners: baneful witcheries they wrought
> With images and herbs. But onward now:
> For now doth Cain with fork of thorns[9] confine
> On either hemisphere, touching the wave
> Beneath the towers of Scville. Yesternight
> The moon was round. Thou mayst remember well:
> For she good service did thee in the gloom
> Of the deep wood." This said, both onward moved.
> 
> [9: By Cain and the thorns ("The Man in the Moon") the Poet denotes
> that luminary. The same superstition is alluded to in the Paradise, Canto ii.
> 52.]
>
> — *Inferno Canto 20*