In Canto thirty one, the focus is centered around large ideas. The main focal point are the giants who Dante describe as “lofty towers” (265). These giants are depicted by Dante as those “whom Jove still rumbles at / With menace when he thunders” (267). First, they were defeated by Jove in the battle of Phlegra which consisted of Jove invading a plain in which a group of one hundred giants, the Gigantes, lived. The Giants were outnumbered by Jove and his allied gods which resulted in the gods killing many of the Giants and winning the battle. Second, Dante uses vivid imagery to describe the physical appearance of the Giants. For example, “the set of his great chest and shoulders, and a wide / Stretch of his belly above the abyss’s walls” (267).
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Dante stated that Nature was right in stopping in the creation of the Giants. If they were still on earth, people would be unable to defend themselves from the Giants. Dante is thanking the goddess of Nature and Earth, Gaia, for not giving birth to anymore giants. Third, Dante vividly describes the first giant by using this simile, “his face appeared as long and full / As the bronze pinecone of St. Peter’s at Rome” (267). This colossal pinecone was made of bronze and resided in St. Peter’s Basilica, but was later moved. Fourth, Dante, the writer, uses a reference to show the size of the giants. “The bank, which was an apron for him / Down from his middle, showed above it such height / Three men of Friesland could not boast to come / Up to his hair” (267). Even though the giants are submerged waist down into a pit, the length of their torso to their hair is so tall, three tall Friesland men could not reach his hair. The men of Friesland are from the northwest of the Netherlands, and the men there are generally
Dante stated that Nature was right in stopping in the creation of the Giants. If they were still on earth, people would be unable to defend themselves from the Giants. Dante is thanking the goddess of Nature and Earth, Gaia, for not giving birth to anymore giants. Third, Dante vividly describes the first giant by using this simile, “his face appeared as long and full / As the bronze pinecone of St. Peter’s at Rome” (267). This colossal pinecone was made of bronze and resided in St. Peter’s Basilica, but was later moved. Fourth, Dante, the writer, uses a reference to show the size of the giants. “The bank, which was an apron for him / Down from his middle, showed above it such height / Three men of Friesland could not boast to come / Up to his hair” (267). Even though the giants are submerged waist down into a pit, the length of their torso to their hair is so tall, three tall Friesland men could not reach his hair. The men of Friesland are from the northwest of the Netherlands, and the men there are generally