The Diviners

        Out of all of the Cantos that we have read recently, number twenty struck me the most, for some reason. Perhaps because I've always been fascinated by magic and sorcery and fortune-tellers; perhaps because I was satisfied by the fact that I felt I understood the Contrapasso almost immediately. I also was interested in/wondered about Dante's sympathy with the sinners - I had not expected this.
        Anyway, for this collage, I've pulled from the passages whose imagery was most vivid for me while reading.

• "Silent and shedding tears" (20.8)
• "For the face was turned toward the kidneys, and they were forced to walk backward" (20.13-14)
• "Think for yourself how I could keep dry eyes... surely I wept" (20.20-21,25)
• "He had to strike the two entangled serpents" (20.43-44)
• "In the mountains... he had a cave in the white marble... whence the view of the stars and the sea was not cut off" (20.47,49-51)
• Like the tears of Dante and the sinners, the sea is also salt water
• "See the wretched women who... cast spells with herbs and images" (20.121,123)
• "Who is more wicked than one who brings passion to God's judgment?" (20.28-30)
• "Cain with his thorns..." (20.124)
• The thorns reminded me of the crown of thorns worn by Jesus. I saw a connection between this and the fact that the diviners are disrespecting God by their 'prophecies.'

        Please excuse the lack of explanation- there was a lot more technical work to this collage, so I haven't written as much; partly because I haven't left myself too much time to do so (Photoshop is very time-consuming), but mostly because I want it to speak for itself, and I want people to interpret it without being too influenced by my words.