To the degree that there is still a spark of cognition in the giants, they are not reduced to only matter. Most of all, the giants differ from Lucifer in that they are not yet devoid of all cognition. Now the giants are invoked, in Inferno 34.30-1, in order to make the point that for all their bulk they are insignificant in size - in their matter - when compared to the “emperor of the despondent kingdom”: “ Lo ’mperador del doloroso regno” ( Inf. The giants in Inferno 31 are approximations of Lucifer in their vast and hulking brute matter. The previous canti have prepared us for arrival at the pit of Hell and the sighting of Lucifer. (See the essay by Tomasch cited in Coordinated Reading.) While Chiavacci Leonardi draws out no further implications of the name “Giudecca”, besides connecting it to the presence of Judas in one of Satan’s mouths, Sylvia Tomasch views the name as a negative characterization of Jews, an assessment that I find persuasive. Chiavacci Leonardi comments on the word “Giudecca” thus: “‘Giudecca’ is not a word coined by Dante, like the names of the other zones of the ninth circle, but was an existing word that refers to the quarters of cities inhabited by Jews” (nome questo non coniato da Dante come gli altri tre, ma già esistente ad indicare i quartieri delle città abitati dagli ebrei, o giudei ). This name is offered only in verse 117, after the travelers have already left Cocytus in their wake. The travelers reach the fourth zone of Cocytus, whose name is Giudecca, dwelling-place of the traitors of masters and benefactors. the emptying out of earth to create Hell reminds us that sin is precisely that which empties us: “colpa vòta” (sin empties ).Dante-poet invents a story about the creation of Purgatory.Satanic physics: “tu passasti ’l punto / al qual si traggon d’ogne parte i pesi” (you passed the point to which, from every part, all weights are drawn ).Dante is focused on the transition from highest of created beings to lowest: Lucifer is the embodiment of transition in malo.as Dante knows, Lucifer once held the place in the hierarchy of being that is now held by “the Seraph closest unto God” ( Par. Lucifer, once the most beautiful of created beings, betrays his Creator.Lucifer as sensate matter/animate death.the anti-spiration of un-love freezes the icy core of the universe.
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