The Scam Artists

Level 4

As I passed through the wretched circle of avarice I came to a halt. a
Taken aback by those horrid screams, I drew more near. b
Men and women both alike stricken with the worst of that plague, that greed c

I saw them there, on that wicked road, their bodies laid out reeking of fear b
It was when I adjusted my view that I saw it was no road c
Nay, it was a pile of bodies laid out in such a fashion, it appeared as a pier b

On the bodies lay many leeches fighting their way through the skin, all trying to feed c
Leopards with their sharp claws and serrated teeth mauled with much gore d
Through the skin of the horrid disfigured bodies, the open wounds let filth breed c

I turned to The Guide and asked “What have these souls have done to erode their core?” d
“They’re the embodiment of avarice; they trampled over their fellow man stopping at nothing in the pursuit of the material. How unsound” e
“These here preyed on those who are unsuspecting, the weak, and the vulnerable. These were the con artists, and nothing more.” d

What sounds of horror! The groaning and moaning of bodies bound e
The mauling and roars of leopards echoing in dark empty halls f
A wave of pleas, begging of mercy filled said halls. Echoed the walls: “There is none to be found” e

I then saw blood empty to into a river which then fed the River Styx through a water fall f
The blood boiled and darkened as it reached the mouth of the fall thickening as it went g
The guide told me that it was this source of the fall that fed Satan most of all f

The guide called out to me to approach this road so bent g
As we approached we noticed a demon so dismembered named Madoff h
It was from this demon that the road of deceit began and went on and on, without repents g

We approached the monster, so fat and bloated; we asked of it if he knew whom he prayed off h
He struggled to utter a word, for his tongue became so twisted for all the deceit he’s committed i
We stood over and wondered if he now felt it was worth it, all those lives he went took and made off h

The guide then turned once again, told me that is all the time we’ve been permitted i
Carry on we must to the next circle of hell j
Indeed, I pondered, no act against our fellow man will be omitted i

The leopard, she gazed upon me as if to say farewell j
It was unsettling feeling, her gaze k
Almost as if it had locked me into a jail cell j

Explanation
In my canto, I had laid all the con artists out on a road as punishment for them “walking” on people their entire lives. In this sense the punishment fits the crime (contrapasso) because just as they have walked all over their fellow man all their lives, demons of hell shall literally walk on theirs while leopards, the animal depicted greed in the Inferno, maul and claw at them just as they have clawed through the lives and fortunes of so many. Furthermore, they spend eternity with leeches biting through their skin sucking out their blood just that they leeched off of the vulnerable and the unsuspecting. The blood expelled by these leeches actually almost fuels Satan through the river (since all the rivers eventually empty out to Satan’s circle) because they are the embodiment of what it is to be evil and greedy (just as Satan went against God for more power).
I placed my canto within the fourth circle of hell (greed) for obvious reasons; however I structured it so that if mapped out it is a lower section of the fourth circle. I did this because these con artists take it one step further than all the other souls that have lived greed. Con artists trick and trample over (again referring or alluding to animals on a road) innocent people to satiate their hunger for material goods and hence there is essence of betrayal and almost violence to their acts. Just as Dante used allusions to modern day figures that the reader could place a face to the crime, I used Bernie Madoff since he is arguably the most famous scammer or con artist (if not the most proliferous).

Bart Michalak, Period 6