View source for Contrapasso

{{Short description|Method of infernal punishment}}
{{About|the term from Dante’s ''Inferno''|the ''Westworld'' episode|Contrapasso (Westworld){{!}}Contrapasso (''Westworld'')}}
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[[File:Stradano Inferno Canto 20.jpg|thumb|right|The ''Contrapasso'' of the [[Magician (paranormal)|sorcerers]], [[Astrology|astrologers]], and [[false prophet]]s, illustrated by [[Stradanus]]]]

In  [[Dante]]'s ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', '''contrapasso''' (or, in modern Italian,<ref name="Encyclopedia">''Encyclopedia Dantesca'', Biblioteca Treccani, 2005, vol. 7, article ''Contrapasso''.</ref> ''contrappasso'', from [[Latin]] {{lang|la|contra}} and {{lang|la|patior}}, meaning "suffer the opposite") is the punishment of souls "by a process either resembling or contrasting with the sin itself."<ref name="MM37">Mark Musa, commentary notes in The Divine Comedy. Volume 1: Inferno. Penguin Classics: 1984, pp. 37-38.</ref> A similar process occurs in the ''[[Purgatorio]]''.<ref name="MM37"/>

One of the examples of contrapasso occurs in the fourth ''Bolgia'' of the eighth circle of Hell, where the [[Magician (paranormal)|sorcerers]], [[Astrology|astrologers]], and [[false prophet]]s have their heads turned back on their bodies such that it is "necessary to walk backward because they could not see ahead of them."<ref>''Inferno'', Canto XX, lines 14–15, Mandelbaum translation.</ref> This alludes to the consequences of predicting the future by evil means and displays the twisted nature of magic in general.<ref name="DLS20">[[Dorothy L. Sayers]], ''Hell'', notes on Canto XX.</ref> This example of contrapasso "functions not merely as a form of divine revenge, but rather as the fulfillment of a destiny freely chosen by each soul during his or her life."<ref>Peter Brand and Lino Pertile, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=3uq0bObScHMC&pg=PA63 The Cambridge History of Italian Literature]'', 2nd ed, Cambridge University Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-521-66622-8}}, pp. 63-64.</ref>

The word ''contrapasso'' can be found in ''Inferno'', in which the decapitated [[Bertran de Born]] declares: {{lang|it|Così s'osserva in me lo Contrapasso}} (XXVIII.142),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/ |title=Princeton Dante Project (2.0) |publisher=Etcweb.princeton.edu |date= |accessdate=2013-08-09 |archive-date=2019-04-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190429113047/http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> which was translated by [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow|Longfellow]] as "thus is observed in me the counterpoise",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.everypoet.com/Archive/poetry/dante/dante_contents.htm |title=Dante; Poetry of Dante Alighieri; full text of Dante's Divine Comedy - Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, at |publisher=Everypoet.com |date= |accessdate=2013-08-09 |archive-date=2011-09-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110901224137/http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/dante/dante_contents.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> and by  [[Charles S. Singleton|Singleton]] as "thus is the retribution observed in me."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dante Alighieri |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2656376 |title=Inferno. |date=1971 |publisher=Routledge and K. Paul |others=Charles S. Singleton |isbn=0-7100-6996-0 |location=London |oclc=2656376}}</ref> Dante believes that De Born is in the ninth ''Bolgia'' of schismatics for causing [[Henry the Young King]]'s rebellion against his father, [[Henry II of England]].<ref name="MM380">Mark Musa, commentary notes in The Divine Comedy. Volume 1: Inferno. Indiana University Press, 1996, {{ISBN|0-253-32968-X}}, p. 380.</ref> De Born is decapitated as a contrapasso for his supposed act of political decapitation in undermining a rightful head of the state.<ref name="MM380"/>

Dante inherited the idea of "contrapasso" from various theological and literary sources. These include [[Thomas Aquinas]]' ''[[Summa Theologica]]'' as well as medieval ‘visions’ such as the ''[[Visio Pauli]]'', ''{{ill|Visio Alberici|fr|La Vision d'Albéric}}'', and ''[[Visio Tnugdali]]''.<ref name="Encyclopedia" />

== See also ==
* [[Naraka]], in Indian religions where punishments resemble sins committed in life

== Notes ==
<references/>

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[[Category:Inferno (Dante)]]
[[Category:Italian words and phrases]]