Cantros 13-14-15

Cantro13 pg129 Line9 "Here the repellent Harpies make their nests,.."
The harpies are placed in Dante's Hell at a fitting point. Harpies are thought to be creatures of torture and used to punish people on their way to Tartarus in other books. Dante mentions the harpies steeling the food from the Trojans because it gives them a greater sense of power, being able to make a strong army suffer as well as the idea of taking their comfort away. Something the trees that are people are definatly lacking.

Cantro14 pg147 Line108 "..Toward the pit by left turns always down"
I wonder if always turning left is ment to signify Hell more. The right hand or right side "of the father" is more Holy, giving the verse "and sits and the right hand of the father" Dante might have made the voyage into Hell a left turning passage to reinforce this idea.

Cantro15 pg157 Line114 "...I see new smoke rise, where appear new souls...and he went off, seeming to me like one of those who run competing for the green cloth.."
This is possibly one of the worst images in the book so far. When new souls hit the sand they smoke. Likely because all of their flesh is burnt off in a sizzling puff of smoke. Then after this the guy Dante is talking to Runs off at race pace to dodge the flames. The man is destined to run about for eternity suffering because he is being hit by flames and likely to be extremely tired. Or he can sit down and burn to death without being able to move. Either way he can't really win, even though it seems like not sitting around would be better.