10. The False Counselors

This lecture continues the discussion of fraud by examining a sin that is often called by critics false counsel. In Canto 26, we meet an ancient practitioner of this sin in the figure of Ulysses. In Canto 27, we meet a figure from Dantes own time, Guido da Montefeltro, a soldier turned Franciscan friar. For Ulysses, Dante creates a sequel to his famous story by sending him on another journey after his return home from Troy. This journey reveals his sin. With Guido, Dante encounters a modern example of the same sin in a figure who repents but then takes up his old ways again at the urging of Boniface VIII in an audacious but failed attempt to defraud God. Through these two complementary figures, we learn about the perversion of the intellect that is fraud.