kill

//Wednesday, September 29, 2010 11:37 AM

The Seventh Circle

The Middle Ring:

In this ring are the suicides (the violent against self), who are transformed into gnarled thorny bushes and trees, which are fed on by the Harpies. Unique among the dead, the suicides will not be bodily resurrected after the final judgement, having given their bodies away through suicide. Instead they will maintain their bushy form, with their own corpses hanging from the limbs. Dante breaks a twig off one of the bushes and from the broken, bleeding, branch hears the tale of Pier delle Vigne, who committed suicide after falling out of favour with Emperor Frederick II (his presence here, rather than in the ninth circle, indicates that Dante believes that the accusations made against him were false). The trees are a metaphor for the state of mind in which suicide is committed.