DANTE’S INFERNO

The Divine Comedy

• Comedy
• Not humorous/slapstick/laugh-out-loud
• A form of writing that begins in fear and
ends happily.
• Main character attains a happy ending – a
healing vision of God – and receives a
divine message to deliver.
 The Divine Comedy
• Translations
• Robert Pinsky (1994)
• Dorothy Sayers (1949-62)
• Terza rima
• John Ciardi (1954-70)
• Rhymed 1st and 3rd lines only
• H.R. Huse
• Literal prose translation
• Allen Mandlebaum
• Poetic prose
• John D. Sinclair
• Paragraph form
 The Divine Comedy
• Parable
• Political realities
• Corruption vs. honesty
• Moral realities
• The freedom that comes from accepting just laws vs.
the self-slavery of lawlessness
• Mystical realities
• The individual’s self-absorption vs. his trusting
surrender to the divine
 The Divine Comedy
• Dante said he wanted the poem to:
• Liberate people still living in the
world from a state of misery and lead
them to a state of happiness.
• Praise Beatrice and the saving graces
he received through her.
 The Divine Comedy
• Dante:
• “The subject of the work, then, in its literal sense is the
state of souls after death – and this is without
qualification, since the whole progress of the work
hinges on and about this subject. Whereas if the work is
taken allegorically, the subject is this: man becoming
liable to the justice which rewards and punishes,
inasmuch as by the exercise of his freedom of choice he
merits good or ill.”
• letter to Can Grande
 On Dante:
• Ruskin
• “He is the central man of all the world, as representing in
perfect balance the imaginative, moral and intellectual
qualities all at their highest.”
• Carlyle
• Called it Dante’s “unfathomable love song.”
• Emerson
• The textbook for teaching the young the art of writing well.
• Trotsky
• Urged Marxist companions to study their Dante.
 Background
• Guelphs
• Anti-imperial/democratic attitude
• Desired constitutional government
• Represented indigenous peoples
• Pro-pope (looked to him for support)
• White
• Wanted to minimize all outside interference
• Black
• Wanted to enhance their papal connections
• Ghibellines
• Pro-imperial
• Represented aristocracy
• Opposed papal territorial power
• Expelled from Florence in 1289
 The Divine Comedy
• Significance of the number Three
• Reflects the mysterious reality of the Godhead
• Each of the three parts contains 33 cantos
• Basic unit of verse is the terzine
• 33 syllables
• 3 lines
• Beatrice – associated with the number 9
•Each section contains 33 cantos, except for the first
section, which has, in addition, a canto serving as a
general introduction.
•The poem is written in terza rima (third rhyme), a three-
line stanza rhyming aba, bcb, cdc, etc. (
•Dante intended the poem for his contemporaries and thus
wrote it in Italian rather than Latin.
•He named the poem La commedia (The Comedy)
because it ends happily, in heaven, his journey climaxed
by a vision of God and by a complete blending of his own
will with that of the deity.
•The adjective divina (divine) was first added to the title
in a 1555 edition.
 The Inferno: Canto I
• Introduction to the entire Divine Comedy
• Dark Woods
• Good Friday, 1300
• April 8, 1300
• Catholic church’s first “Holy Year”
• Jubilee period stressing spiritual repentance
and renewal.
• Dante is 35 years old
 The Inferno: Canto I

• Dante
• The poet who is also the Christian
sinner
• Virgil
• The poet who is also human
wisdom (the best a man can
become without divine grace)
 The Inferno: Canto I
• Poet feels alienated from the world
• Poet feels fear (paura)
• First 60 lines:
• reflect the theme of man’s estrangement from
God
• Emphasize man’s dependence on the Divine
• Last 76 lines:
• Emphasize the human power to discover his true
self
 The Inferno: Canto I
• 3 beasts
• 3 types of sin that will cast a soul into
one of the three divisions of Hell
• Leopard (lonza): lust (bodily
pleasure)
• Lion (leone): violence
• Wolf (lupa): cupidity (desire for
power/wealth)
 The Inferno: Canto I
• 3-part Journey
• I.105-119
• Hell – eternal place of despair
• Purgatory – place where souls are in a
temporary, purifying fire
• Paradise (Heaven) – dwelling place of
the everlastingly blessed
 The Inferno: Canto II
• Dante invokes the Muses (II.7)
• Allied with the arts as well as with religion.
• Questions his worthiness to go on this quest.
• Two others who had visited the other worlds while in the
flesh.
• Aeneas & Paul
• Dante believed the Catholic church and the
Roman Empire were divinely willed partners in
the world’s salvation.
 Inferno: Canto II
• Three ladies
• Virgin (Mary)
• Mercy
• Prevenient grace (first impulse in a sinner to repent)
• Lucia
• Grace
• Operant grace (allows sinner to desire good and do it)
• Beatrice
• Wisdom
• Perficient grace (causes the penitent sinner to persist in the
doing of good)
 Inferno: Canto III
• Hell’s Gate: Entrance to Hell Proper
• ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.
• Two sets of people at the entrance
• Morally neutral
• Continuously running around a plain just inside the gate.
• Lived without praise or blame (thus, never truly lived)
• Fallen angels who were neither for good or evil, only for
themselves.
• Hated by both God and His enemies
• They would defile heaven
• They don’t fit into Hell’s scheme (would give the wicked
some element of glory)
• Souls just arrived who gather to wait to be ferried across a river to
their proper placements in Hell.
 The Structure of Dante’s Hell
• Vestibule of Hell: The Uncommitted
• Circle 1: Limbo
• Circle 2: The Lustful
• Circle 3: The Gluttons
• Circle 4: The Avaricious and the Prodigal
• Circle 5: The Wrathful and the Sullen
• Circle 6: Heretics
• Circle 7: The Violent
• Circle 8: The Fraudulent
• Circle 9: The Treacherous
VESTIBULE: PUNISHMENT
indecisive, no they must chase
constantly after a
real beliefs, blank banner. Flies
those who don’t and wasps continually
choose sides bite them, and
writhing worms
Neutrals and consume the blood
and tears that flow
Opportunists, from them.
CROSSING THE ACHERON WITH CHARON
ABANDON ALL HOPE ALL YE WHO
ENTER HERE
 Outer Circle
• VESTIBULE
• Outer Rim of Hell
• GROUP I
• Passionless people who lived
without place or blame
• Neither for good or evil
• Hateful to both God and his
enemies (won’t fit into either
Heaven or Hell)
• GROUP II
• Newly deceased who lived
without reverence to God
and who died unrepentant.
• Punishment (Group I)
• Endless running around a
plain just inside the gate
• Tormented by hornets,
wasps, worms
• Significant people:
• Fallen angels
• Celestine V
• Pontus Pilate
 Circle 1
• LIMBO • Punishment:None
• Outskirts of Hell Proper • Suspended (sospesi)
• Neutral, lifeless place between the states of
• Souls of unbaptized condemnation and salvation.
infants
• Virtuous pagans or • Significant people:
honorable men who lived • Virgil, the guide
before Christ
• Homer
• Aristotle
• Saladin
• Euclid
 Circle 2
• Minos: Judge of Hell
• Each sinner confesses to him
• Uses his tail to indicate the position of Hell the
sinner is to occupy
• Warns Dante not to go any further
 Circle 2
• The Carnal Sinners • Punishment:
• LUSTFUL, SENSUAL • Exist in an eternal storm, blown
about by the winds of a
hurricane
• Reflects sexual sin and punishes
it
• Significant people:
• Helen of Troy
• Achilles
• Cleopatra
• Paris
• Tristan
• Francesca and Paolo
• Murdered lovers
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

9
LIMBO
-Unbaptized and
virtuous pagans who
did not accept Christ.
-Limbo is a somewhat
pleasant place, with
fields and a castle.
-Denied God's presence
for eternity
The Seven Deadly Sins
(Saint Thomas Aquinas)

• Lust
• Gluttony
• Avarice
• Sloth
• Anger
• Envy
• Pride
 Three Types of Sin (Dante
Alighieri)

• Incontinence (Level 1)
– Lack of self control
• Violence (Level 2)
– Conscious violation of God’s will
• Fraudulent and Traitorous (Level 3)
– Using reason and intellect as a weapon
SECOND CIRCLE
THE LUSTFUL
- The Lustful…indulged
their passions beyond
reason.
- trapped forever in a
violent storm, never to
touch anything again.
Minos sits as judge
 The Divine Comedy
• The Inferno
• Hell
• The Purgatorio
• Purgatory
• The Paradisio
• Paradise
 Circle 3
• The Carnal Sinners:
• The GLUTTONOUS
• Sensual gratification
• Ate and drank
unrepentantly to excess
• Punishment:
• Plagued with filthy rain,
sleet, snow
• Wallow in mud and filth
• Cerberus, 3-headed dog,
guard and punishment
• Claws the sinners
• Howls, making the souls
howl
• Significant people:
• Ciacco
 Circle 4
• The Carnal Sinners: • Punishment:
• The AVARICIOUS • Deadlocked in a battle of
(HOARDERS) opposites
• The PRODIGAL • Push heavy stones in opposite
(SPENDERS) direction
• “why do you hold?”
• “why do you spend?”

• Plutus (Greek god of wealth)

demon-guard

• Significant people:
 Circle 5
• The River STYX • Punishment:
• WRATHFUL • Wrathful
• Float in Styx
• Snarl and rend themselves
• SULLEN • Sullen
• Submerged in Styx

• Plutus (Greek god of wealth)

demon-guard

• Significant people:
• Filippo
• Dante and Virgil
• Leave the circles of outer Hell
• cross the Styx
• Ferried by Phlegyas
• Reach gate of inner Hell
• City of Dis
• Fallen angels hover above gates
• Within gates are punished sins
• VIOLENCE
• FRAUD
• Dante and Virgil
• Met by furies
• Messenger of grace opens gates for them
• Enter gates of lower Hell
 Circle 6
• HERETICS • Punishment:
• Deniers of immortality • Flaming tombs
• Significant people:
• Cavalcanti
• Father of Dante’s friend
• Epicurus
• Emperor Frederick II
• “The Cardinal”
• Farinata degli Uberti
• Ghibilline leader
• Dante and Virgil pause
• Virgil explains the classification of the upcoming sins
• 3 remaining circles to visit
• 7th (Violence)
• Injury to one’s neighbor or property
• murder
• Injury to one’s self or property
• suicide
• Injury done to God’s sovereignty
• blasphemy
• Injury to God’s child, nature
• homosexual behavior
• Injury to God’s grandchild, human industry
• usury
 Circle 7 (outer round)
• VIOLENT • Punishment:
• Those who harmed others • Submerged in boiling river
(MURDER) of blood
• Centaurs shoot arrows at
any who come up for relief
• Chiron is leader

• Significant people:
• Alexander the Great
• Attila the Hun
• Ezzelino
 Circle 7 (middle round)
• VIOLENT • Punishment:
• Those who harmed self • Gloomy wood
(SUICIDE) • Damned are trees
• Self-destructive • Harpies nest in trees
• Those self-destructive:
• Chased by devil dogs and
torn to pieces

• Significant people:
• Pier della Vigne
 Circle 7 (outer round)
• VIOLENT • Punishment:
• Those who were guilty of • Scorching desert
BLASPHEMY • Flakes of flame falling
• Lie down

• Significant people:
• Capaneus
 Description of Giant
• “Old Man of Crete”
• Head: gold
• Split by fissure
• Endless tears flow down to frozen lake of Hell
• Breast & Arms: silver
• Torso: brass
• Waist down: iron
• Right foot: terra cotta
• Rests most weight upon
 Circle 7 (outer round)
• VIOLENT • Punishment:
• Those who were guilty of • Scorching desert
SODOMY • Flakes of flame falling
• Continuously running

• Significant people:
• Brunetto Latini
 Circle 7 (outer round)
• VIOLENT • Punishment:
• Those who were guilty of • Scorching desert
USURERY • Flakes of flame falling
• Lending money at any • Sit, bent over
price • Eyes fixed on money
pouches around their
necks

• Significant people:
• Jacopo Rusticucci
• Guido Guerra
• Teggahiaio Aldobrandi
• Geryon lowers Dante and Virgil to the next
circle
 Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 1
• FRAUD • Punishment:
• PANDERERS • Whipped by horned
• Sell people for sexual demons
favors
• pimps
• Significant people:
• SEDUCERS
• Gain sexual favors for
• Venedico
self • Jason
 Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 2
• FRAUD • Punishment:
• FLATTERERS • Immersed in excrement

• Significant people:
• Thais
 Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 3
• FRAUD • Punishment:
• SIMONIACS • Immersed headfirst in
• Those who corrupt the holes
things of God • Feet are burning

• Significant people:
• Pope Nicholas III
• Other popes
 Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 4
• FRAUD • Punishment:
• SOOTHSAYERS • Heads on backwards
• MAGICIANS
• AUGERS
• Those who tried to make
the mind of God subject • Significant people:
to their will. • Manto
 Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 5
• FRAUD • Punishment:
• GRAFTERS • Boiling pitch
• Political corruption • Deceiving demons
(Malebranche) poke
anyone who tries to rise
with pitchforks

• Significant people:
• Senator of Lucca
• Ciampolo of Navarre
 Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 6
• FRAUD • Punishment:
• HYPOCRITES • Leaden cloaks
• Walk around narrow track

• Significant people:
• Caiaphas
• Annas
• monks
 Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 7
• FRAUD • Punishment:
• THIEVES • Fiery serpents
• Wrapped around souls
• Hands bound behind them
• Bite souls who then burst into
flames

• Significant people:
• Vanni Fucci
• Agnello
• Buoso
• Puccio
• Francesco de Cavalcanti
 Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 8
• FRAUD • Punishment:
• EVIL ADVISERS • Enflamed souls
• Steal counsel of God for
low purposes

• Significant people:
• Ulysses
• Diomedes
• Guido da Montefeltro
 Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 9
• FRAUD • Punishment:
• DIVIDERS • Mutilated
• Tear apart what God has • Wounds are healed after
meant to be united making the full circult
• SOWERS OF DISCORD • Wounds reopened by devil
• Religious discord with sword
• Political discord
• Family Discord

• Significant people:
• Muhammad
• Mosca
• Bertran de Born
 Circle 8 (Malebolge): Pouch 10
• FRAUD • Punishment:
• FALSIFIERS • Madness
• ALCHEMISTS • Ills of mind and body
• IMPERSONATORS
• COUNTERFEITERS
• LIARS
• Significant people:
• Gainni Schicchi
• Capocchio
• Master Adam
• Potipher’s wife
• Sinon
• Giant, Antaeus, lowers Dante and Virgil into
the pit
• Cocytus
• frozen
 Circle 9: Caina
• TRAITORS • Punishment:
• To KIN • Encased in ice up to neck
• Heads bent down

• Significant people:
• Camicion de Pazzi
• Two brothers
 Circle 9: Antenora
• TRAITORS • Punishment:
• To CITY • Encased in ice up to neck
• Heads turned upward

• Significant people:
• Bocca
• Sassol
• Ugolino
• Archbishop Ruggieri
 Circle 9: Tolomea
• TRAITORS • Punishment:
• To GUESTS • Frozen in ice
• On backs, heads up
• Tears freeze in eye sockets

• Significant people:
• Friar Alberigo
• Branca D’Oria
 Circle 9: Judecca
• TRAITORS • Punishment:
• To BENEFACTORS • Completely sealed under ice
• Satan fixed in the middle,
waist deep in ice,
continuously chews up three
with his mouths

• Significant people:
• Judas
• Brutus
• Cassius