Commentary Inf VII 1

Plutus, the god of wealth in classical myth, wishes to prevent the passage of this living soul through Satan's kingdom. That, at least, is what we must surmise from Virgil's reaction, vv. 4-6, which assuages Dante's fear. There is a program of demonic resistance that makes Dante fearful throughout Inferno: Charon ([Inf III 91-93]), Minos ([Inf V 19-20]), Cerberus ([Inf VI 22-24]), Phlegyas ([Inf VIII 18]), the Furies ([Inf IX 52-54]), the Minotaur ([Inf XII 14-15]), Geryon ([Inf XVII 25-27]), Malacoda and the Malebranche (Inf. XXI.23-XXIII.57), Nimrod ([Inf XXXI 67]), Satan ([Inf XXXIV 22-27]). In almost all of these scenes it is Virgil's task to quell the resistance of the infernal guardians and to reassure his charge.

Pape Satàn, Pape Satàn, aleppe. The third verse suggests that Virgil understands these words spoken by Plutus. If that is correct, he is perhaps the only one to have done so. Over the centuries a continuing debate addresses, rather confusedly, the precise nature of these five words: whether they are part of a recognizable language or not; whether they are totally meaningless or have some meaning; whether they are an invocation of the power of Satan against invading Dante or an oath giving expression to the monster's surprise at the presence of a living soul in hell. For a review of the question see Hollander (Holl.1992.1), who sees this and Nimrod's similarly nonsensical five words ([Inf XXXI 67]) as parodic inversions of the five words of clear speech called for by St. Paul, concerned about the over-reliance of the faithful on speaking in tongues (I Cor. 14:19): 'But in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may instruct others also, than ten thousand in tongues.' Plutus's oath may be garbled speech, but it does contain 'pseudo-words' that have meaning: Pape represents either a Latin interjection (papae) of admiration, as many ancient commentators think, or/and a debased form of the Italian and Latin for 'pope' (papa -- see [Inf VII 47]: papi); Satàn would fairly clearly seem to be a form of the Italian 'Satana' or of the Latin 'Sathanas' and thus 'Satan'; aleppe, as some of the first commentators noticed, is the Italian form of the Hebrew word for the first letter of the alphabet, 'aleph,' as in the Latin expression 'alpha ed omega' (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, signifying 'the beginning and the end'), as God defines Himself in the Bible (Apoc. 1:8, repeated at 21:6 and 22:13). If one had to render these nonsense words in English one might say something like 'O Pope Satan, my god.' Fortunately, one does not have to. For the connection of these words in mixed language to those in the first verses of the seventh canto of Paradiso (there, naturally, totally positive in tone and meaning) -- the parallelism is certainly striking -- see Sarolli (Saro.1971.1), pp. 289-290.

Lorenzo Renzi (Renz.1993.1) presents evidence for a possible connection between instances of glossalalia in French medieval plays, some of which come from the mouths of pagan deities, and Dante's polyglot phrases here and in [Inf XXXI 67].