When one first enters the gates of Hell, cowardice is abandoned as well as hope.... why?
[[Cowardice: lack of courage or resolution.]]
So when you abandon hope, you abandon all effects of the word. If evil cannot exist without good, than without hope, you cannot even have cowardice. Without hope, you cannot have cowardice.
Like in Philosophy...
If P, then Q.
If P(you can choose hope), then Q (you can also choose cowardice).
What if P disappears?
Not P, then Not Q.
Q cannot follow a non-existant P, therefore... without P, there is no Q.
So the word "hope" is now non-existent.
If P(no hope), then Q(no lack of hope, or cowardice).
What is left is just a lack, a void, an unnamed yuckiness that plagues what used to be a soul that knew right and wrong and has since diminished into spiraling chaos.
Therefore, when Virgil says to Dante that "Here all suspicion needs must be abandoned, all cowardice must needs be here extinct,"even the shadows side of what was once good is dead and gone in the realms of Hell. The loss of intellect that Virgil refers to is the lack of even a moral compass of right and wrong. What a horrible fate, and that is one of the main reasons why God hates calloused hearts. Because when you cannot feel at all, you are no longer driven by the God-given conscience of right and wrong that keeps a person sharp with discernment of what is good and what is bad.
So what emanates from a dulled heart after it's own self is not bent on either heaven nor hell, thus Un-Naming what was once good or evil.
Wrinkle in Time: Un-Name Parallel
This reminds me of The Wrinkle in Time series, A Wind in the Door, where the Echthroi, literally meaning "Enemies," try to destroy the universe by un-naming it. Meg and Charles Wallace together must name what is and save the world from turning into literal chaos!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is why Meg's gift of discernment was so necessary and placed in high importance, because she kept the balance of the world.
One Body of Christ: Spiritual Gifts Encouragement
I spoke with my friend Daniel after reading this about the gift of discernment. He is studying to be a pastor, and his mind works in a way that hammers out discernment when an issue arises. Its cool to meet someone who tells you that he enjoys finding the truth out of everything situation. It encourages me to know that we are have our gifts to bring to the kingdom of God.
Wheels of Fire
When Charon the demon is described as containing "wheels of fire" in his eyes, I took this as a symbol that exemplifies the spinning hamster wheel of evilness that is exactly what Jesus talks about in Matthew 6:23, where "if your eyes are bad, then your whole body will be filled with darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" The choice wording of "wheels"could also describe his profession in Hell, as a taxi driver for the decrepit souls that he carts into oblivion. I commend Dante's word choice, even if he did not intend for this exact parallel.
Love Through Respect
I also liked that Virgil was still respectful of the souls in Hell by not immediately answering Dante's questions about them while still in their presence. Silence was best at that time, and to pass in peace gives those wailing in the eternal furnaces a smidgeon of respect to not utter their contemptible state to their faces. Dante also could have just been annoying him with questions, but Virgil eventually explained it gracefully to him in due time.
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