In the third canto when Dante has just begun his journey into hell, the first group of sinners he encounters is the neutrals. They are located at the Ante-Inferno and the sinners found here are “sad souls who lived a life but lived it with no blame and with no praise,” as Virgil describes to Dante. Also found in this section, are the angels who did not pick sides when Satan rebelled against God—stated on page 400, footnote number 9.
The punishment for this group of damned souls is to “follow a banner at a furious pace forever, and to be tormented by flies and hornets.” The first part of the punishment, to continuously follow a banner without ever stopping, represents the life these neutrals were living when they were still part of society. They just went with the flow, never standing up for neither good nor bad. They took their life for granted and rather than taking a risk and making choices in life they chose to let their cowardice guide the way. As virgin states, “This blind life they lead is so abject/ it makes them envy every other fate/ The world will not record their having been there.” Its interesting how he claims the world will not remember their existence since they lived pointless, plain, cowardly lives. Virgil also states their situation is so hopeless that they would rather have any other fate and in fact it is, especially because of the second part of the punishment.
It is written that, “These wretches, who had never truly lived/ went naked, and were stung and stung again/ by the hornets and the wasps that circled them/ and made their faces run with blood in streaks/ their blood, mixed with their tears, dripped to their feet/ and disgusting maggots collected in the pus.” The gruesome imagery present in the previous quote emphasizes the atrocious punishment they have to endure. Not only are they doing something as pointless as chasing a banner for the rest of eternity but they are also naked—a degrading, shameful aspect—and being painfully stung by these bugs to the point where pus has developed.
As mentioned previously, the endless chasing of the banner symbolizes the meaningless lives they had while on earth. Meanwhile, the hornets and flies sting them into actually showing some emotions/actions—crying, bleeding—which is something they did not do while alive. Now their punishment in the afterlife is to both do what they did their entire lives (nothing) but also be forced into doing what they didn’t do (something) in a very abject manner.
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I think the insight about the banner was really good. I didn’t understand that part myself, but it would makes sense that they who just went with the flow and didn’t make a moral decision in life would be forced to chase after a flowing banner as punishment. The banner makes the decision where they go, and they can’t not obey; they can’t make a decision about where to go now. I think Maya was talking about how all the punishments are retributive in hell, and you can definitely see how they are reflective of the crime.