The Circles of Hell (and Cities)

            As I kept reading, I found more ways to connect the book to other aspects different from society. One of these relationships I found was the city of Hypatia and the book Dante´s Inferno. Before, even though the descriptions of the different cities were percise, deep, and unique, I thought the way Hypatia was described or the way Hypathia was imagined by Marco Polo was different. It is even said that the city is different "because the change regards not words, but things" (pg. 47).

            I believe this because in this city it seems as if everything and everyone were divided by sections or being assigned to certain places. This differs from the other cities because first of all, the people of the cities were barely mentioned, and second of all, only the aspects the city had were told to the audience (skyscrapers, ports, buildings, and of course, the opinion of the narrator). In Hypatia, not only the physical aspects of the city are described but also the people, as well as what place of the city the people belong to. That is why I related it to Dante´s Inferno.

            In Dante´s Inferno, different souls belong in certain circles of hell depending on what they did. For example, the ones that committed suicide were in a different circle than the ones who were murdered or created suffering. In Hypatia, this is similar. "I walked among the hedges, sure I would discover young and beautiful ladies bathing; but at the bottom of the water, crabs were biting the eyes of the suicides, stones tied around their necks, their hair with seaweed" (pg.47). This is related to Dante´s Inferno because all the suicides are at one place, the hedges, being bitten by crabs, as if they were enduring the same punnishment in a certain way.

            "The central hall was barred by iron gratings: convicts with black chains on their feet were hauling up basalt blocks from a quarry that opened underground" (pg. 47). Again, the convicts, found guilty for crime, were all being punnished this way and were all at the same place, suffering equally just like the miserable souls of Dante´s Inferno. This can also be seen with the musicians of Hypatia, "...to be sought in the cementeries: the musicians hide in the tombs; from grave to grave flute trills, harp chords answer one another" (pg. 48).

            Not only are the city as well as the book similar to each other in the sense that "types" of people belong in the same place but also because these people are suffering or find themselves in tragic, nostalgic, and dark places.