Inferno: Canto 28 Summary & Analysis

As Dante looks down from the bridge into the ninth trench, he claims that no one could hope to relate in words all the suffering he saw there. He compares the number of bleeding limbs and wounded bodies to the sum of all casualties from some of the world's greatest wars. Dante describes one body split down the middle so that its insides are completely visible. This tortured soul pulls open his own chest and cries out to Dante, identifying himself as Mohammed. He points out another soul, Ali (who instigated a great schism in Islam), whose face is split down the middle.

Mohammed tells Dante that the souls here were all sowers of scandal and discord. Since they "split" people by causing schisms and discord, they are now literally split here: a devil with a sword cuts the souls open. Their wounds heal, but then the devil splits them open again. Mohammed then asks who Dante is.

Virgil explains that Dante is not dead and is not being punished here, but is journeying through hell, guided by him. The suffering souls all stand amazed for a moment, so stunned that they forget their pain momentarily. Mohammed asks Dante to relay some advice to someone named Fra Dolcino on earth.

Mohammed then walks off, and another spirit comes up to Dante with his ear and nose cut off and a wound in his throat. He asks Dante to remember him, Pier da Medicina, on earth and asks him to relay a warning to two other Italians about their impending deaths at sea.

Dante asks Pier da Medicina to identify another suffering soul, and he points out one whose mouth has been cut open so that he cannot speak. This now voiceless soul is Curio, who spurred on civil strife in ancient Rome. Pier then shows Dante Mosca, who sowed civil discord in Tuscany. Dante tells the man that his deeds brought death upon his family, which makes Mosca flee in misery.

Then, Dante sees—and he cautions his reader that he would hesitate to tell this without proof, but his conscience compels him to relate the story—a headless man walking around, holding his own head in his hands. The soul walks over toward Dante and lifts his own head up to talk to Dante. He tells Dante that he is Bertrand de Born, who persuaded a young king to kill his father. Because in turning a son against his father he "sundered those that should be one," (28.139) his body is now severed in two instead of together as one.