Day 14: The defiant ones

Well, as is evident, my frequency in updating this blog has lessened as of late.  This is an all too common occurance for me.  I begin with great gusto, only to peter out into obsolescence (i usually give up when I forget my password to access it). But I am trying to right the ship.  I choose to be defiant over my own waning creative impulses. 
This canto is another demonstration of Dante's masterful command of creating a terrifying visual enactment of sin.  We are still among the violent sinners.  We are, technically at the boundary between the second and third rings in the violent sphere.  The scenery is typically frightening.  Dante the poet surveys a land on the edge of the suicide forest, divided by the fiery river of blood.  Dante and Virgil descend into an open field.  The ground is composed of sand, populated by countless souls in a variety of poses of dispair.  They are a mishmash, some wallowing flat on the ground, others hunched in fetal positions.  Some were static, while others seemed to possessed to be in constant motion.  Interestingly, the largest group, the walkers, were silent, while those who stand or sit stationary chatter incessantly.  Oh, and by the way, is raining scorching embers, and these souls are unable to quench the burning.  This has to be one of the more striking visual representations of what modern day fundamentalist christians imagine when speaking of the hellfire of the eternally damned.  Dante, noticeably shaken by the wretched scene, sees one soul, a giant among men, defiant against the constant torment of the burning embers.  It is Capaneus, the giant wrrior king who was one of the Seven Against Thebes.  According to legend, Capaneus stood before the wall of Thebes and proclaimed that not even Zeus could stop him from ascending the wall.  Of course, as he is climbing the wall, Zeus strikes him dead with a thunderbolt. (on a side note, defiance was a trait in his household, as his wife Evadne threw herself on his funeral pyre, to demonstrate her love, rather than to live on without him)
Capaneus noticed that Dante had inquired about him to Virgil and spoke up, delviering a pretty badass little speech.  He haughtily proclaimed "That which I was in life, I am in death. Though Jove wear out the smith form whom he took, in wrath...and casts his shafts at me with all his force, not even then would he have happy vengeance."  This is one tough hombre.  He stands here, for all eternity, egging Lucifer and God on.  'Give me your best shot.  I can take it.'  While Virgil tries half heartedly to chastise Capaneus that because of this defiance he is punished all the more, there is almost a tone of respect about him.  Virgil says to Dante that Capaneus wears his defiance over God like a ornaments on his chest.
From here our guides carry on, seeing other characters throughout history that have committed violence against God.  But this image of Capanaeus strikes me as a poignant moment, much like one we will witness with Cato in Purgatory.  For Dante the former warrior, there is a hint of sympathy for people like Capaneus.  Even though he is in Inferno, he deals with his torment on his own terms.  Capaneus, like Dante, is defiant.