Stephen Wentworth Arndt

In Relation to Boyd

• Harpies
• “Feathered maws” —language has been changed in order to fit rhyming structure
• Virgil suggests Dante “maim” a branch from one of the trees
• Soul insinuates that Dante would be even more sympathetic if the souls residing in the trees were those of serpents
• As the soul speaks, Dante grows fearful and lets go off the twig he has plucked
• Virgil profusely apologizes to the soul for encouraging Dante’s pluckage
• “When from its flesh there parts a savage soul That tears its roots from where they first had lain, Then Minos sends it to the seventh hole” —using imagery of trees and roots to describe the souls of suicides while they are still living
• The soul speaks of how the harpies’ bites cause pain in the physical sense as well as the holes in their “flesh” allowing them to witness the horrors surrounding them
• Forest becomes filled with black dogs, “like hounds that had escaped from chains too slack”

In Relation to Wilstach

• Harpies referred to as “ugly”
• Harpies are also said to “make their nest”, leaning into the feathers and talons as animalistic traits
• Virgil does not mention his past writings to Dante before they make their way into the forest
• The soul of the suicide specifically inquires about pity in Dante’s “soul”
• The holes caused by the harpies are referred to as “windows unto woe”; in other translations the windows are portrayed in a slightly more positive light, and could be interpreted as allowing the souls an outlet through which to express their agony
• Dogs are merely compared to “hounds”, not “greyhounds”

In Relation to Langdon

• “Through broken brambles of the wood’s great host” —It appears as though (at least some of) the branches of the trees have been broken prior to the souls running through them