«This ours is perhaps the time in which betraying leaves no trace in the soul of the traitor who in all likelihood does not even feel like one. Sometimes he can even tend to feel like a hero, but only some of him show up Iago, never in the soul of someone who has made loyalty and frankness his banner and his reason for living ». You can read it in Beppe Grillo’s blog, at the end of a literary excursus on the most famous traitors narrated by Dante, Shakespeare and Dickens entitled «Phenomenology of betrayal and the traitor».
“Dante places the traitors in the IX circle of Hell, after the Well of the giants, considering them the most serious sinners, so much so that they are located right next to the perfidious one par excellence, Lucifer” recalls the post. Which then lists: «The traitors of benefactors. Specifically, inside the Caina there are the traitors of the relatives, in the Antenora those of the homeland, in the Ptolomea the traitors of the guests and in the Giudecca the traitors of the benefactors, the most feral among the traitors, similar to Judas who sold himself for thirty denarii. , betraying trust ». Then «The passion for betrayal. To betray, however, it takes a lot of passion, a particular charisma, a peculiar love affair that only a few can have and that perhaps they cultivate in their underworld garden made of envy, loneliness, malice ». We move on to «Iago. But for all traitors par excellence, Iago is valid for all, in Shakespeare’s Othello: evil for evil, betrayal for the sake of betraying, with no purpose other than to bring destruction and ruin in the case of the noble and loyal Moor. from Venice. In any case, the literature has indulged in this shady figure, indispensable among other things to jam the normal mechanism of the story, making it wheel towards where the narrator intends to lead his reader. Surely every traitor has a characterization of him, as Dante tries to describe who, according to the type of infidelity, distributes the souls in the appropriate areas ».
“In any case – continues Grillo’s blog – the most treacherous traitors are those deposited in the infernal Giudecca, those who have violated the sacred principle of good due to benefactors and who are closest to Lucifer who is then the prototype of the one who has deceived the person to whom the utmost trust was entrusted. As did Brutus or Ephialtes of Trachis who betrayed the Spartans in war. And how the good Dantes betrayed, in the Count of Monte Cristo, Fernando, Danglars and Cauderousse ». Then there are the «Serial Traitors»: «the most ambiguous image among traitors is that of Uriah Heep in Dickens’ David Copperfield. Hands always damp and sticky, which never looks at his interlocutor in the eye, who writhes and who in the end, after having stolen all the secrets of his benefactor, becomes his partner through always betrayal and the shuffling of the cards “.
Di Maio, am I a traitor to Grillo? We think about priorities
«According to Grillo, would I be a traitor? I think that at this moment we cannot pursue the debate within the political forces. Let’s think about the country’s priorities. I have already answered Grillo ». Thus the Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio speaking to journalists in front of the Farnesina in Rome.