Changes: Count Ugolino

Revision as of 21:15, 29 December 2017

Count Ugolino is one of the damned which Dante must punish or absolve for "The Damned" achievement/trophy. He is encountered in the circle of Treachery.

Description

Ugolino della Gherardesca, Count of Donoratico, was a great but treacherous Italian nobleman and politician. He was a member of the Ghibellines, the rival political faction to the Guelphs (Dante's own faction). Always pitting one man against another as blood spilled, he thought of no one other than himself, hoping to protect his own power. Ugolino had betrayed the Ghibellines and his own birthplace of Pisa multiple times to the Guelphs, yet always managed to wriggle out of penalties, and regain his influence over the city. He had negotiated with Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini in order to establish himself as overlord of Pisa instead of his nephew, Nino Visconti. However, Ruggieri not only attempted to turn Ugolino against Visconti, the archbishop himself betrayed Ugolino after Ruggeri's own nephew was murdered by the count during a riot, rallying the embittered villagers against their overlord. Ugolino was captured and he, alongside his two sons and grandsons, was locked up in the Tower of Muda, in Pisa. Ruggieri locked the door, had the keys thrown into the nearest river, and left the family to die from starvation, while the archbishop declared himself head of the city. In some versions of the story, and recorded in the Inferno, when his sons and grandsons all die before him, Ugolino remains alive for a time by eating their bodies (though scientific analysis of the remains had disproven this idea).

Trivia

In The Inferno, Dante and Virgil witness the soul of Count Ungolino, frozen within the ice of Cocytus' second round, Antenora, for betraying his country. He is gnawing on the head of his lifelong foe, Archbishop Ruggieri, and he tells Dante and Virgil his sad story of how Archbishop Ruggieri turned on him, resulting in Count Ugolino's ultimate imprisonment and death from starvation. He is the only shade in this region allowed some revenge for his death, being allowed to feed on the man who caused his death (in a twist on how Ruggeri chose to kill him).

Condemned Souls

Pontius Pilate · Orpheus · Electra · Francesca da Polenta · Paolo Malatesta · Semiramis · Ciacco · Clodia
Tarpeia · Gessius Florus · Fulvia · Boudica · Hecuba · Filippo Argenti · Emperor Frederick II
Cavalcante de Cavalcanti · Farinata degli Uberti · Attila the Hun · Pietro della Vigna · Brunetto Latini
Guido Guerra · Thaïs · Tiresias · Myrrha · Fra Alberigo · Mordred · Count Ugolino

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 ==Description==
-Ugolino della Gherardesca, Count of Donoratico, was a great but treacherous Italian nobleman and politician. He was a member of the Ghibellines, the rival political faction to the Guelphs (Dante's own faction). Always pitting one man against another as blood spilled, he thought of no one other than himself, hoping to protect his own power. Ugolino had betrayed the Ghibellines and his own birthplace of Pisa multiple times to the Guelphs, yet always managed to wriggle out of penalties, and regain his influence over the city. He had negotiated with Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini in order to establish himself as overlord of Pisa instead of his nephew, Nino Visconti. However, Ruggieri not only attempted to turn Ugolino against Visconti, the archbishop himself betrayed Ugolino after Ruggeri's own nephew was murdered by the count during a riot, rallying the embittered villagers against their overlord. Ugolino was captured and he, alongside his two sons and grandsons, was locked up in the Tower of Muda, in Pisa. Ruggieri locked the door, had the keys thrown into the nearest river, and left the family to die from starvation, while the archbishop declared himself head of the city. In some versions of the story, and recorded in the ''Inferno'', when his sons and grandsons all die before him, Ugolino remains alive for a time by eating their bodies (though scientific analysis of the remains had disproven this idea)
+Ugolino della Gherardesca, Count of Donoratico, was a great but treacherous Italian nobleman and politician. He was a member of the Ghibellines, the rival political faction to the Guelphs (Dante's own faction). Always pitting one man against another as blood spilled, he thought of no one other than himself, hoping to protect his own power. Ugolino had betrayed the Ghibellines and his own birthplace of Pisa multiple times to the Guelphs, yet always managed to wriggle out of penalties, and regain his influence over the city. He had negotiated with Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini in order to establish himself as overlord of Pisa instead of his nephew, Nino Visconti. However, Ruggieri not only attempted to turn Ugolino against Visconti, the archbishop himself betrayed Ugolino after Ruggeri's own nephew was murdered by the count during a riot, rallying the embittered villagers against their overlord. Ugolino was captured and he, alongside his two sons and grandsons, was locked up in the Tower of Muda, in Pisa. Ruggieri locked the door, had the keys thrown into the nearest river, and left the family to die from starvation, while the archbishop declared himself head of the city. In some versions of the story, and recorded in the ''Inferno'', when his sons and grandsons all die before him, Ugolino remains alive for a time by eating their bodies (though scientific analysis of the remains had disproven this idea).
 ==Trivia==