relaxing this morning after breakfast reading a bit before heading to the Dolores Park to Civic Center “No Kings" march later today and I get to Inferno III ( https://archive.org/details/dante-dantes-the-divine-comedy-the-inferno-2012-dante-alighieri-robert-hollander-jean-hollander/page/n61/mode/2up), beginning with the famous “abandon all hope, you who enter here” gate of hell, and where Dante and Virgil encounter the damned for the first time, in the vestibule, who in life were neutral and never took a side.

😬. Well, ok then.

Annotation in Hollander’s Inferno translation (https://archive.org/details/dante-dantes-the-divine-comedy-the-inferno-2012-dante-alighieri-robert-hollander-jean-hollander/page/n603/mode/2up) cropped to the note for lines 34-36, which says:34-36. For the history of the interpretation of this tercet, nowgenerally understood to indicate the presence in the "ante-inferno," orvestibule of hell, of the neutrals, those who never took a side, seeMazzoni (Mazz. 1967.1), pp. 355-67. And, for the existence of exactlysuch a "vestibule" in hell in the apocryphal Visio Pauli, describing St.Paul's descent to the netherworld, see Silverstein (Silv.1937.1). InPaul's vision (for the most recent text see Silv. 1997.1) there is a riverof flame separating "those who were neither hot nor cold" (Revelation3:15-16) from the other sinners. [return to English / Italian]

Annotation in Hollander’s Inferno translation (https://archive.org/details/dante-dantes-the-divine-comedy-the-inferno-2012-dante-alighieri-robert-hollander-jean-hollander/page/n605/mode/2up) cropped to the note for lines 52-57, which says:52-57. Dante's essential technique for indicating the crucial moralfailures of his various groups of sinners is here before us for the firsttime. The neutrals, who never took a side, are portrayed as anorganized crowd following a banner: exactly what they were not inlife (e.g., the neutral angels who neither rebelled directly against Godnor stood with Him, but who kept to one side). And in this respect theneutrals are punished by being forced to assume a pose antithetic tothat which they struck in life. At the same time, the banner that theyfollow is the very essence of indeterminacy. Not only is there noidentifying sign on it, it is not held in the anchoring hand of anystandard-bearer; it is a parody of the standard raised before a body ofmen who follow a leader. Elsewhere we will encounter other suchsymbolic artifacts. In Dante's hell the punishment of sin involves theapplication of opposites and similarities. This form of just retributionis what Dante will later refer to as the contrapasso (Inf. XXVIII.142).[return to English / Italian]