"Il Tristo Buco": Sacred Parody and the Backdoor of Hell in Inferno 34

Abstract

"Il Tristo Buco":Sacred Parody and the Backdoor of Hell in Inferno 34 R. James Goldstein A century ago, Paul Lehmann wrote in his history of medieval parody that "anyone who takes offense at profanation of the Bible cannot understand the Middle Ages."1 For more than a century, modern scholarship has come to refer to the irreverent mixture of the sacred and profane as "sacred parody," which Barbara Newman defines as "the adaptation of sacred texts or topoi for profane purposes."2 Critical attention was drawn to the literary device by Mikhail Bakhtin, who suggested with characteristic hyperbole: "There was no genre, no text, no prayer, no saying that did not receive its parodic equivalent."3 In what follows we shall consider a hitherto neglected sacred parody that occurs at the end of Inferno 34. Despite being one of the most imaginative instances of sacred parody in medieval writing, it has barely registered in the scholarly literature. This omission is all the more puzzling given the familiarity of sacred parody elsewhere in the Commedia, including Dante's parody of the Eucharist in the Ugolino episode in Inferno 33 and the parody of the Trinity in the figure of Satan in Inferno 34.4 Yet we cannot take the full measure of Dante's playful yet utterly serious use of theological and philosophical symbolism unless we understand the instance that occurs near the close of Inferno 34. In the interpretation proposed here, the parody depends on the reader's identification of the precise anatomical point on Satan's body that corresponds to the center of the earth in the poet's fictive cosmology. Dante alerts the reader to the importance of locating this center by using the word punto three times to refer to the place on Satan's body where Virgil physically turns Dante around 180° (lines 77, 93, 110) before the ascent to the southern [End Page 60] hemisphere. Although few English translators reproduce this verbal repetition, word patterns—especially when they involve the number three—are not likely to be accidental in Dante's intricately designed poem.5 Indeed, the three-fold repetition of the word punto to map the center of the earth against the midpoint of Satan may be understood to parallel the Trinitarian parody in the depiction of Satan with his three faces. The precise anatomy of this dark point on Satan's body thus deserves our careful attention. That the exact location of the imaginary center of Satan's body has not been obvious to many readers, I submit, is the result of Dante's deliberate use of opaque language to create an effect reminiscent of what medieval rhetoricians classified as an enigma. In the influential definition of the trope by Isidore of Seville, "An enigma is an obscure matter that is difficult to understand unless it is clarified/brought into the open."6 He explains the distinction between allegory and enigma thus: "The difference between allegory and enigma is that in allegory the meaning is double with something figuratively signified by something else, whereas in enigma the sense is indeed obscure to some degree and is hinted at by certain likenesses."7 In his earlythirteenth-century Derivationes (a work known to Dante), Uguccione da Pisa closely follows Isidore's definition: "An enigma is a figurative speech or obscure way of speaking or a hidden and obscure matter that is difficult to understand unless it is brought into the open."8 By not directly naming the body part in question but only one in the general vicinity, Dante in effect creates an enigma that requires the reader to bring what is obscure into the light of understanding. As we shall see, the identity of the punto is not a frivolous joke or an amusement of limited or local interest. Rather, it holds an indispensable place in Dante's imaginative cosmology. Medieval writers often conveyed serious truths through enigmas.9 Not for the first time, the poet deliberately creates an interpretive crux for the reader, whose temporary confusion echoes that of the wayfarer. Both the pilgrim and the reader must be jolted into a clearer understanding.10 The word punto appears for the first...