Ever since I started teaching the Divine Comedy years ago, I’ve been on the lookout for lacunae. Just when I think I’ve found one, it turns out Dante has covered it with incomparable sagesse.
Take gamblers. Why don’t we find them in Hell? Well, it depends on where we look.
There’s no specific infernal circle set aside for gamblers. That’s because they’re scattered throughout. And that, in turn, is because their true sin doesn’t lie in the wager, but in what prompts it, what feeds it, and what stems from it.
Descending into the fourth circle, Dante and Virgil catch sight of the greedy and the prodigal pushing huge boulders in opposite directions around a circle of icy sleet. Each time they run into each other, the greedy shout to the prodigal, “Perché tieni? (Why do you hoard?),” and the prodigal to the greedy, Perché burli? (“Why do you squander?)” (Canto 7) Gamblers are found in both groups, for they can’t imagine anyone not betting big when there’s so much in the jackpot, just as they can’t imagine anyone placing money anywhere but on the table. They hoard money from their families and squander it on slot machines.
More importantly,
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