Inferno: Canto III

The Indecisive; Neutral, moderate, whatever.

Inferno's third Canto finds Dante and Virgil crossing through the Gate of Hell, upon which is inscribed the iconic "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!" Actually, Henry Longfellow didn't exactly use those words in his translation, preferring instead "All hope abandon, ye who enter in!" Doesn't quite have that same ring that us American English speakers are used to, does it? H.F. Cary's version reads "All hope abandon ye who enter here" and his translations were renowned for their readability while preserving the weight and power of the original Italian verses. Though I'm currently using Longfellow's version, I may soon switch over to Cary; either way it's just a translation and, since I don't read Middle-Age Italian, I might as well read something I can understand.

All of this has NOTHING to do with today's illustration because I chose a totally different subject to portray:

The Indecisive.

Charon, by Doré

This Canto was my first real challenge - the plethora of subject matter, from the aforementioned Gate of Hell, to crimson-eyed Charon and his boat upon which he ferries the dead across the river Acheron, were all well-deserving targets. In spite of that I ended up choosing the Indecisive: the multitude of souls which, for their sins of refusing to pursue greatness in either virtue or infamy, are stuck just outside of Hell proper, forever chasing after a banner with no emblem - symbolic of their lifelong allegiances to nobody but themselves. Also among them (not pictured) are those Angels who did not take sides in the Heavenly war in which Lucifer rebelled against God.

I think this says a lot about how polarized society is even today - You're either "with us", or "against us"; those in the middle or those who recognize the gray areas in morality are seen as weak and indecisive. In Canto III, Dante makes it clear that these people disgust him and are not even worth his time. To him, it would have been better if they had sinned horribly enough to actually get into Hell, that even false conviction is better than no conviction at all.