# Did Dante write that Hell's central pillar is... The devil's dick? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2014, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dante-write-that-hells-central-pillar-is-the-devils-dick/684707 "2014-03-27T18:31:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dante-write-that-hells-central-pillar-is-the-devils-dick/684707/1 "2014-03-27T18:31:04Z")
Otto Weininger, that kooky old loveable madman, wrote that: > [@](#): > > The acceptance of the Phallus is immoral. It has always been thought of as hateful; it has been the image of Satan, and Dante made it the central pillar of hell. The original German is more precise: > [@](#): > > Der bejahte Phallus ist das Antimoralische. Darum wird er als das Häßlichste empfunden; darum wurde er stets in einer Beziehung zum Satan gedacht: den Mittelpunkt der Danteschen Hölle (das Zentrum des Erdinneren) bildet der Geschlechtsteil Lucifers. What, _wait_? Did Dante really write that? That hell’s central pillar, or mid-point, is a dick at the center of the earth? The devil’s dick, specifically? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dante-write-that-hells-central-pillar-is-the-devils-dick/684707/2 "2014-03-27T18:49:00Z")
Even better than that he exits out of Lucifer’s…er…exit. > [@Dante](#): > > When we had reached the point at which the thigh revolves, just at the swelling of the hip, my guide, with heavy strain and rugged work, reversed his head to where his legs had been and grappled on the hair, as one who climbs- I thought that we were going back to Hell. “Hold tight,” my master said he panted like a man exhausted-“it is by such stairs that we must take our leave of so much evil.” > …I raised my eyes, believing I should see the half of Lucifer that I had left; instead I saw him with his legs turned up; and if I then became perplexed, do let the ignorant be judges-those who can not understand what point I had just crossed. [http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/medieval/inferno31.html](http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/medieval/inferno31.html) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dante-write-that-hells-central-pillar-is-the-devils-dick/684707/3 "2014-03-27T19:30:53Z")
Moved to Cafe Society. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dante-write-that-hells-central-pillar-is-the-devils-dick/684707/4 "2014-03-27T20:09:14Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Even better than that he exits out of Lucifer’s…er…exit. > [Dante](http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/medieval/inferno31.html) Well, he passes _by_ Lucifer’s anus, not _through_ it. That section is about gravity reversing itself after he crosses Lucifer’s midpoint, so that he is now facing up as he climbs up and out along the devil’s legs. Ironically, Dante was right about gravity reversing itself as one crawls through the center of a sphere, but wrong about its effects. He had gravity getting heavier as one gets closer to the center; in our world, the opposite happens. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dante-write-that-hells-central-pillar-is-the-devils-dick/684707/5 "2014-03-27T20:47:30Z")
I’m almost certain that Dante doesn’t describe Satan’s penis or anus. Almost. Dante and Virgil are depicted climbing by grabbing handfuls of Satan’s body hair, moving like fleas. However, there is that bit where a lesser devil blows a trumpet with his butt, so Dante clearly was up to a scatological joke now and then. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dante-write-that-hells-central-pillar-is-the-devils-dick/684707/6 "2014-03-27T20:51:12Z")
Wait. Hold on. 1. Is the bit quoted by **Mr. Kobayashi** the _only_ passus in Dante’s surviving writings - not just The Divine Comedy, mind you - that, eh, touches on the Devil’s private parts? 2. Is Weininger’s interpretation the only one of its kind, and unique to him, or did he base his claim on an earlier (mis)reading or (mis)interpretation? 3. What have others made of the possibility that Dante seems to put the Devil’s taint at the very center of the Earth, as the heart and core of all gravitation? (Or does he? Does “midpoint” mean stomach, rather than cock’n’ass?) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dante-write-that-hells-central-pillar-is-the-devils-dick/684707/7 "2014-03-27T21:00:06Z")
For what it’s worth, in Niven’s _Inferno_, (which seemed to follow Dante’s fairly well) there was no Devil Dick. Just hair. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dante-write-that-hells-central-pillar-is-the-devils-dick/684707/8 "2014-03-27T21:03:19Z")
My Medieval Culture professor back in the day did think it amusing that the Devil’s ass, in her formulation, was the center of the universe per Dante. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dante-write-that-hells-central-pillar-is-the-devils-dick/684707/9 "2014-03-27T21:12:10Z")
Goddamnit. Had to look it up. Dante mentions “là dove la cosciasi volge, a punto in sul grosso de l’anche.” In **Mr. Kobayashi** ’s quote, the line is translated as “the point at which the thigh revolves, just at the swelling of the hip.” In the page he linked to, it is translated as “the point exactly where the thigh begins, right at the haunch’s curve.” In Longfellow’s translation, it’s “where the thigh revolves, exactly on the thickness of the haunch.” The use of the word “haunch” (“a buttock and thigh considered together, in a human or animal”) certainly seems to point in the direction of the Devil’s ass, rather than, say, his stomach. So it seems exceedingly likely that Dante is, at this point, standing on (not in) the Devil’s ass, rather than, say, hanging out in his navel. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-dante-write-that-hells-central-pillar-is-the-devils-dick/684707/10 "2014-03-27T21:25:07Z")
I have nothing to add except that this thread right here is why I read the SDMB.