“Pape Satàn Aleppe”: The One Line in Dante’s Inferno That Has Never Been Understood

Uttered by a rambling damned of Hell, the words have been interpreted as invocation, plead, complaint, praise, dirge, prayer, or a combination of those. The mystery remains.

Richard Bruschi
The Mystery Box
Published in
4 min readSep 28, 2020

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A repulsive Plutus in Hell is passed by Dante and Virgilio. Art by master Gustave Dorè.

Overview

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Richard Bruschi
The Mystery Box

Renaissance man. Writer, photographer, architect, and editor. Topics about history, architecture, travel, mystery, fitness & health, Italy, the UK, and the PNW.