# Inferno Canto 12

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

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> 
> Canto XII
> 
> Argument
> 
>      Descending by a very rugged way into the seventh circle, where the
> violent are punished, Dante and his leader find it guarded by the Minotaur;
> whose fury being pacified by Virgil, they step downward from crag to crag;
> till, drawing near the bottom, they descry a river of blood, wherein are
> tormented such as have committed violence against their neighbor. At these,
> when they strive to emerge from the blood, a troop of Centaurs, running along
> the side of the river, aim their arrows; and three of their band opposing our
> travellers at the foot of the steep, Virgil prevails so far that one consents
> to carry them both across the stream; and on their passage, Dante is informed
> by him of the course of the river, and of those that are punished therein.
> 
> The place, where to descend the precipice
> We came, was rough as Alp; and on its verge
> Such object lay, as every eye would shun.
> As is that ruin, which Adice's stream[1]
> 
> [1: "Adice's stream." After a great deal having been said on the
> subject, it still appears very uncertain at what part of the river this fall
> of the mountain happened.]
> 
> On this side Trento struck, shouldering the wave,
> Or loosed by earthquake or for lack of prop;
> For from the mountain's summit, whence it moved
> To the low level, so the headlong rock
> Is shiver'd, that some passage it might give
> To him who from above would pass; e'en such
> Into the chasm was that descent: and there
> At point of the disparted ridge lay stretch'd
> The infamy of Crete,[2] detested brood
> Of the feign'd heifer:[3] and at sight of us
> It gnaw'd itself, as one with rage distract.
> To him my guide exclaim'd: "Perchance thou deem'st
> The King of Athens[4] here, who, in the world
> Above, thy death contrived. Monster! avaunt!
> He comes not tutor'd by thy sister's art,[5]
> But to behold your torments is he come."
> 
> [2: "The infamy of Crete." The Minotaur.]
> 
> [3: "The feign'd heifer." Pasiphae.]
> 
> [4: "The King of Athens." Theseus, who was enabled by the instruction
> of Ariadne, the sister of the Minotaur, to destroy that monster.]
> 
> [5: "Thy sister's art." Ariadne.]
> 
> Like to a bull, that with impetuous spring
> Darts, at the moment when the fatal blow
> Hath struck him, but unable to proceed
> Plunges on either side; so saw I plunge
> The Minotaur; whereat the sage exclaim'd:
> "Run to the passage! while he storms, 'tis well
> That thou descend." Thus down our road we took
> Through those dilapidated crags, that oft
> Moved underneath my feet, to weight like theirs
> Unused. I pondering went, and thus he spake:
> "Perhaps thy thoughts are of this ruin'd steep,
> Guarded by the brute violence, which I
> Have vanguish'd now. Know then, that when I erst
> Hither descended to the nether Hell,
> This rock was not yet fallen. But past doubt,
> (If well I mark) not long ere He arrived,[6]
> Who carried off from Dis the mighty spoil
> Of the highest circle, then through all its bounds
> 
> [6: Our Saviour, who, according to Dante, when he ascended from Hell,
> carried with him the souls of the Patriarchs, and of other just men, out of
> the first circle. See Canto iv.]
> 
> Such trembling seized the deep concave and foul,
> I thought the universe was thrill'd with love,
> Whereby, there are who deem, the world hath oft
> Been into chaos turn'd: and in that point,
> Here, and elsewhere, that old rock toppled down.
> But fix thine eyes beneath: the river of blood
> Approaches, in the which all those are steep'd,
> Who have by violence injured." O blind lust!
> O foolish wrath! who so dost goad us on
> In the brief like, and in the eternal then
> Thus miserably o'erwhelm us. I beheld
> An ample foss, that in a bow was bent,
> As circling all the plain; for so my guide
> Had told. Between it and the rampart's base,
> On trail ran Centaurs, with keen arrows arm'd,
> As to the chase they on the earth were wont.
> 
> At seeing us descend they each one stood;
> And issuing from the troop, three sped with bows
> And missile weapons chosen first; of whom
> One cried from far: "Say, to what pain ye come
> Condemn'd, who down this steep have journey'd. Speak
> From whence ye stand, or else the bow I draw."
> 
> To whom my guide: "Our answer shall be made
> To Chiron, there, when nearer him we come.
> Ill was thy mind, thus ever quick and rash."
> Then me he touch'd and spake: "Nessus is this,
> Who for the fair Deianira died,
> And wrought himself revenge[7] for his own fate.
> He in the midst, that on his breast looks down,
> Is the great Chiron who Achilles nursed;
> That other, Pholus, prone to wrath." Around
> The foss these go by thousands, aiming shafts
> At whatsoever spirit dares emerge
> From out the blood, more than his guilt allows.
> 
> [7: Nessus, when dying by the hand of Hercules, charged Deianira to
> preserve the gore from his wound; for that if the affections of Hercules
> should at any time be estranged from her, it would recall them. Deianira had
> occasion to try the experiment; and the venom, as Nessus had intended, caused
> Hercules to expire in torments.]
> 
> We to those beasts, that rapid strode along,
> Drew near; when Chiron took an arrow forth,
> 
> And with the notch push'd back his shaggy beard
> To the cheek - bone, then, his great mouth to view
> Exposing, to his fellows thus exclaim'd:
> "Are ye aware, that he who comes behind
> Moves what he touches? The feet of the dead
> Are not so wont." My trusty guide, who now
> Stood near his breast, where the two natures join,
> Thus made reply: "He is indeed alive,
> And solitary so must needs by me
> Be shown the gloomy vale, thereto induced
> By strict necessity, not by delight.
> She left her joyful harpings in the sky,
> Who this new office to my care consign'd.
> He is no robber, no dark spirit I.
> But by that virtue, which empowers my step
> To tread so wild a path, grant us, I pray,
> One of thy band, whom we may trust secure,
> Who to the ford may lead us, and convey
> Across, him mounted on his back; for he
> Is not a spirit that may walk the air."
> 
> Then on his right breast turning, Chiron thus
> To Nessus spake: "Return, and be their guide.
> And if ye chance to cross another troop,
> Command them keep aloof." Onward we moved,
> The faithful escort by our side, along
> The border of the crimson - seething flood,
> Whence, from those steep'd within, loud shrieks arose.
> 
> Some there I mark'd, as high as to their brow
> Immersed, of whom the mighty Centaur thus:
> "These are the souls of tyrants, who were given
> To blood and rapine. Here they wail aloud
> Their merciless wrongs. Here Alexander dwells,
> And Dionysius fell, who many a year
> Of woe wrought for fair Sicily. That brow,
> Whereon the hair so jetty clustering hangs,
> Is Azzolino;[8] that with flaxen locks
> Obizzo[9] of Este, in the world destroy'd
> By his foul step - son." To the bard revered
> I turn'd me round, and thus he spake: "Let him
> Be to thee now first leader, me but next
> To him in rank." Then further on a space
> The Centaur paused, near some, who at the throat
> Were extant from the wave; and, showing us
> A spirit by itself apart retired,
> Exclaim'd: "He[10] in God's bosom smote the heart,
> Which yet is honored on the bank of Thames."
> 
> [8: Azzolino, or Ezzolino di Romano, Lord of Padua, Vicenza, Verona,
> and Brescia, who died in 1260. His atrocities form the subject of a Latin
> tragedy, Eccerinis, by Albertino Mussato, of Padua, contemporary of Dante, and
> the most elegant writer of Latin verse of that age.]
> 
> [9: "Obizzo of Este." Marquis of Ferrara and of the Marca d' Ancona,
> was murdered by his own son (whom, for that most unnatural act, Dante calls
> his stepson) for the sake of the treasures which his rapacity had amassed.]
> 
> [10: "He." "Henrie, the brother of this Edmund, and son to the
> foresaid King of Almaine (Richard, brother of Henry III of England), as he
> returned from Affrike, where he had been with Prince Edward, was slain at
> Viterbo in Italy by the hand of Guy de Montfort, the son of Simon de Montfort,
> Earl of Leicester, in revenge of the same Simon's death. The murther was
> committed afore the high altar, as the same Henrie kneeled there to hear
> divine service." A. D. 1272. - Holinshed's Chron., p. 275. See also Giov.
> Villani, "Hist." lib. vii. c. xl., where it is said "that the heart of Henry
> was put into a golden cup, and placed on a pillar at London Bridge for a
> memorial to the English of the said outrage."]
> 
> A race I next espied who held the head,
> And even all the bust, above the stream.
> 'Midst these I many a face remember'd well.
> Thus shallow more and more the blood became,
> So that at last it but imbrued the feet;
> And there our passage lay athwart the foss.
> 
> "As ever on this side the boiling wave
> Thou seest diminishing," the Centaur said,
> "So on the other, be thou well assured,
> It lower still and lower sinks its bed,
> Till in that part it reuniting join,
> Where 'tis the lot of tyranny to mourn.
> There Heaven's stern justice lays chastising hand
> On Attila, who was the scourge of earth,
> On Sextus and on Pyrrhus,[11] and extracts
> Tears ever by the seething flood unlock'd
> From the Rinieri, of Corneto this,
> Pazzo the other named,[12] who fill'd the ways
> With violence and war." This said, he turn'd,
> And quitting us, alone repass'd the ford.
> 
> [11: Sextus, either the son of Tarquin the Proud or of Pompey the
> Great; and Pyrrhus, King of Epirus.]
> 
> [12: Two noted marauders, by whose depredations the public ways were
> infested. The latter was of the noble family of Pazzi in Florence.]
>
> — *Inferno Canto 12*