The Divine Comedy: Week 13, Casting Off Pride

As Virgil and the Pilgrim travel through the lower levels of hell they eventually reach a great waterfall that falls into an abyss. There, Virgil asks the Pilgrim to take off the cord tied around his waist. The Pilgrim does so and hands the cord to Virgil, who then throws the cord over the waterfall into the abyss. From Canto XVI:

I wore a cord that fastened round my waist,
with which  I once had thought I might be able
to catch the leopard with the gaudy skin.

As soon as I removed it from my body
just as my guide [Virgil] commanded me to do,
I gave it to him looped in a coil.

Then taking it and turning to the right,
he flung it quite a distance past the bank
and down into the deepness of the pit.

What is the point of doing this? Well, the cord attracts a monster, representing Fraud, who rises from the abyss. In the next Canto Virgil and the Pilgrim will catch a ride on the monster who will carry them down into the abyss to the lowest parts of hell.

Readers of the Comedy have speculated about the symbolism of the cord. What does it represent? And why does it attract Fraud?

Mark Musa in his commentary on the Comedy argues that the cord represents self-confidence, perhaps even pride. Recall how at the very beginning of the Comedy the Pilgrim encounters three animals, a leopard, lion and wolf. These animals represent sin and they prevent the Pilgrim from ascending the mountain toward heaven directly. That is to say, the Pilgrim is too sinful to approach heaven. The Pilgrim can only get to heaven by journeying through hell and up Mt. Purgatory. The Pilgrim can only reach heaven by being purged and purified of his sins. That's what this journey in the Comedy is all about.

Given that, notice how the Pilgrim describes the cord:

I wore a cord that fastened round my waist,
with which  I once had thought I might be able
to catch the leopard...

Musa argues that the cord represents self-confidence and pride because the Pilgrim felt he could deal with sin (the leopard) all on his own. Consequently, as a part of the Pilgrim's purification this pride has to be cast off. The Pilgrim cannot face sin all on his own. And neither can you or I. This is a powerful moment in the Comedy, one known to every Twelve Step group: "We admitted we were powerless...that our lives had become unmanageable."

And as additional evidence for the cord symbolizing pride is how the cord attracts Fraud. Fraud involves deception, and the overly-confident and prideful are very easy to deceive. Thus the cord is the perfect bait for the monster.