Day 5: MInos and the lover's swoon

Well now we are getting somewhere!  Canto 5 is where the action begins.  It is the beginning of what most people think of when you say Inferno, and the Divine Comedy.  It is technically the second tier, but as we discussed last time, the 1st tier is a state of Limbo, neither here nor there.  Now Dante and Virgil come face to face Minos who presides over the gates of of Hell, assigning souls to their respective stations of eternal damnation.  For those unaware, in Greek mythology Minos is King Minos of Crete.  He was quite a nasty fellow, responsible for the Cretan tradition of every nine years selecting seven young boys and girls to be eaten by the Minotaur in Daedalus' labyrinth.  Because of this, when he died he became judge of the underworld.  In Dante's Inferno when a soul is judged, Minos' tail (he is in, presumably demon form) wraps around himself.  The number of times it wraps indicates the tier of Inferno.  The souls in this tier, having seen Minos' tail wrap twice, are those who committed the sin of lust.
This canto, save the famous Canto 32 and Ugolino, has more commentary than any other.  Most of this is concerned with the star cross lovers Paolo and Francesca.  I won't say much about this couple, but I do love the imagery of two youngsters succumbing to passions after reading the stories of Lancelot.  It is a very human moment, one most of us can relate to.  One can easily imagine being swept away by a romantic story, only to come face to face with the tragic consequences later.  Francesca comes to Dante with gentle sighs, tugging the heart strings, knowing that she is interlocked forever in a forced embraced.  Pure shakespeare.  What impresses me most about this tier is that great imagery that Dante creates.  The souls of the lustful swirl like tempests, creating a hurricane of emotion.  There goes Tristan, Paris, Aeneas' Dido, all lost in the lover's twirl.  I have to leave this one with Dante's own magnificent words.
"Even as doves when summoned by desire, borne forward by their will, move through the air with wings uplifted, still, to their sweet nest, those spirits left the ranks where Dido suffers, approaching us through the malignant air, so powerful had been my loving cry."