Who built this great dyke? Dante says it was built by the builder—a tautological answer—although he also says, of the identity of this architect, this “engineer:” “qual che si fosse,” “whoever he was.” Who was he? Sayers, in her note to this passage, glosses the ‘maestro’ as God, which seems wrong:—why would Dante add qual che si fosse to God’s name? Which is to say, in the sense that God is behind all creation, in one sense He is of course the maestro, the builder. But the question is: who constructed this specific structure, this dyke? Why would God, having created the hellspace, come back to add to it, improve it? To what end? For the benefit of the devils and the damned? They’re not there to have their lot improved, after all. Do we imagine God creating this structure of eternal punishment, but also adding-in various items of beneficial civic architecture? Dykes and damns, sewage systems and recycling centres, amenities and social housing?
Posted 11 days ago.
