Headed in the Wrong Direction: The Perils of Predicting the Future in Dante’s Hell
A seer (prophet) sees the future in the present while the foreseer (diviner) sees the future in the past.
In the Fourth Bolgia of the Eighth Circle of Dante’s Inferno, there are people with their heads turned backwards. These are sorcerers, soothsayers, diviners, and false prophets. Their heads are turned backwards because they are trying to predict the future through forbidden or deceptive arts.
In Dante’s imagery, when you attempt to “look a…
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