CANTO XX

Arriving at bowge iv, Dante sees sinners so twisted that they
face the back of their bodies. Their eyes are filled with tears.
These are the Sorcerers, the Fortune Tellers. Among them are
Tiresias, the famous Greek prophet; Amphiaraus, one of the
Seven against Thebes who foresaw his own death; and Manto,
daughter of Tiresias. Seeing them, Dante weeps. Virgil
chastises Dante severely for this sympathetic reaction, telling
him that, "Here pity, or here piety, must die..." In other words,
Dante, by showing pity at the results of God's judgment, is
showing both an unreadiness to understand the true nature of
sin and an arrogance at judging God's judgment. Dante pulls
himself together as Virgil catalogs the sinners in this trench.

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