Bullicame

Description

The Bulicame is presented as a spring of boiling water that gushes from the ground, whose name generally designates any hot spring. Dante recalls it by comparing the rivulet of blood flowing between the two rows of centaurs in the seventh circle to it. The water, once it emerged, was distributed into conduits; the manuscripts unanimously hand down the traditional reading, according to which prostitutes (meretrici) divided the water's offshoots among themselves to use them for baths and steam rooms. The mention serves to make clear that the crossing over the sand of Phlegethon is there, because the bed, banks, and retaining walls of the river are of stone, and the hot water of the Bulicame was historically also exploited for the retting of hemp in pools outside the city.