The Divine Comedy: Inferno
'Abandon all hope, all ye enter here'
'The Divine Comedy', or by its originial Italian name 'La Divina Commedia' is written by the poet Dante Alighieri in the early 14th century. It is a foundational work of both Italian literature and Western literature. It is a narrative poem that tells the journey of one's soul after death, or simply the afterlife. The book is divided into three different parts, each being the different places that souls travel to after leaving the mortal plane.
The first part of the poem begins in Inferno, which is the correspondent of Hell. Here, Dante finds himself lost in a dark wood with three animals in front of him. One of them is a lion, the other is a leopard, and the last of them is a she-wolf. All of them are used as metaphors for different sins. Different people have equated these animal symbolism with different sins such as lust, pride, greed, violence, fraud and so on. To get away from these three beasts, Dante starts wandering around Inferno but he can't seem to find a 'right' or 'straight' way. As he goes further into the dark woods he comes upon Virgil, the Roman poet who penned the famous epic Aeneid. Upon their meeting, by the will of Heaven, Virgil becomes Dante's guide throughout Inferno. They come across the gates of Hell in which is inscribed 'abandon all hope, all ye enter here'. Hell, or Inferno, is made up of nine circles that go downwards. With each different circle, there are different sins and different levels of punishment as each circle is even more wicked from the previous ones. Within these circles, different sins have been given their punishments that is in accordance with poetic justice. In each circle, there are many familiar figures both from real life and mythology.
The first circle is Limbo. In here, unbaptized and virtous pagans can be found. Although they were not sinful and acted righteously in their lifetimes, they did not accept Christ and was sent to Hell. There are many well known names here such as Homer, Horace, Ovid, Julius Caesar, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and many others. They then move onto the second circle, which is Lust. Here they encounter Minos, a serpentine whose duty is to send sinners to the circle they belong to. As the name suggests, the second circle is the place for those who were overcome by sexual love. To represent their sin, they were forced to sway with the violent winds that blew from all sides, symbolizing the nature of lust. In here, Dante sees Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Achilles, Paris, and others. The next and third circle of Hell is Gluttony. Here, the sinners are tortured by ice and rain for their overindulgence and appetite. Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the underworld is also here, punishing them as well.
The fourth circle of Hell is Greed, guarded by Pluto. However, not to be confused with Pluto and Hades, this figure is Plutus, the deity of wealth. Here, people who hoarded money and those who spent lavishly and excessively reside. As punishment, they are forced to joust with each other using heavy weights that they pushed with their chests. The next and fifth circle of Hell is Wrath. Here, the wrathful and the angry fight each other for eternity on the river Styx, while some others lie beneath the river. As they approach the sixth circle, they start seeing the monuments of the City of Dis which encompasses the remaining three circles. In addition to the fallen angels that protect the city, the Furies and Medusa from Greek mythology try to prevent Virgil and Dante from proceeding onward. Only with the help of an angel from heaven are they able to continue their journey. The sixth circle of Hell is Heresy. Here, heretics are punished in flaming tombs. There are figures such as Epicurus and his followers here.
They proceed into the sevent circle, Violence. They go past the Minotaur that guards this circle. This circle has three rings within itself. In the first ring, those who were violent against their neighbors can be found in a river of boiling blood and fire, being shot arrows by Centaurs. Here, Atilla the Hun, Alexander the Great and other tyrants are punished. The second ring is reserved for those who commit violence against themselves. Here is the Wood of Suicides, a forest that is made up of those who killed themselves and in return have became dried up thorny trees that are fed upon by Harpies. These souls are only able to speak when they are broken and bleeding. Since these people have killed themselves, Dante emphasizes that even if other souls can be saved and ressurected, these souls don't have such an option since they have decided to kill themselves and violate their bodies. The next ring is reserved for those who commited violence against God, nature and art. This ring is a great desert in which only fire rains down from the sky.
With the help of Geryon, the monster of Fraud, they descend onto the eighth circle of Fraud. This circle is in the shape of an amphitheater, with different ditches or rows named as Bolgias. Each Bolgia is reserved for a different kind of fraudulent. Each fraudulent, depending on their Bolgia faces a different type of punishment. The ninth and final circle of hell is Treachery. This circle is also divided into four different rounds. Unlike the fiery image of Hell, the deepest part is actually the opposite of this perception. In here, betrayers spend eternity in a frozen lake, away from the warmth of both humane and divine love and compassion. In the very center is the first and biggest traitor of all times, the Devil, whose sin was to betray God and rebel. With the three mouths on his three different faces he chews on different betrayers who are also seen as treachorus as the Devil himself. These are Brutus, Longinus and Judas. At long last, witnessing all the circles of Hell, Dante and Virgil make their way out of Inferno and onto Purgatory.
Bibliography
https://historylists.org/art/9-circles-of-hell
Wikipedia
Encylopedia Britannica
Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy.
Images
https://images.genius.com/6142f99188c2e8bc46f6afa53fcf5bda.929x1000x1.jpg
https://www.worldhistory.org/img/c/p/1200x900/10259.jpg
By Stradanus - Own work, 2007-10-25, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2981861
By Eugène Delacroix - GalleriX via Flickr (gandalfsgallery), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42132680
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Dore_Lucifer.jpg/1200px-Dore_Lucifer.jpg
By Domenico di Michelino/ After Alesso Baldovinetti - https://twitter.com/museofirenze/status/1075345296048181248This is a retouched picture, which means that it has been digitally altered from its original version. Modifications: brightened image., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133465311