8.8 Symbol

8.8 Symbolic Retribution Great flames – guilty conscious that hides the evil counselors. Tongue shaped flames – since they deceived people with their tongues, the flames are in the shape of tongues blocking them from sight. Dante – represents every man. In this bolgia, he represents how humans are curious as to what happens when he dies. He notices that the people who were like him were not punished in this bolgia. Therefore, he wouldn’t be punished by abusing his genius either, but rather by some other means of punishment. Symbolic retribution is the punishment you receive in hell for the actions you do in life. Dante explains how the great flames show their guilty conscious hiding them from life. They stole gifts from the Almighty, and used their gifts for lowly purposes. Since they stole from god and used hidden ways, so they were stolen of sight and hidden in great flames. Dante continues to explain how the great flames were in the shape of tongues, like in the explanation above, since they tricked people with their genius using their tongues, so are they hidden from sight by their tongues. See 8.7 Symbolic Retribution to see my opinion on the matter of symbolic retribution.