Inferno:

The Eighth Circle

( The First Four Bolgias)

The Eighth Circle

Dante and Virgil are carried to the 8th Circle by a beast named Geryon The 8th Circle consists of 10 bolgias (or evil pouches) Those who are punished here are guilty of the sin of ordinary fraud

Who is Geryon? Geryon?

A monster of three natures: human, with the face of just a man; reptilian, with the body of a serpent and bestial, with two paws and a pointed tail. He dwells at the cliff between the 7th and 8th circles of Hell (the circles of violence and fraud, respectively). At Virgil's bidding, he helps him and Dante enter the eighth circle by carrying them on his back and gliding down the cliff.

 Bolgia 1: Seducers & Panderers Bolgia 2: Flatterers Bolgia 3: Simoniacs Bolgia 4: Diviners Bolgia 5: Barrators Bolgia 6: Hypocrites Bolgia 7: Thieves Bolgia 8: False Counselors Bolgia 9: Schismatics Bolgia 10: Falsifiers

The First Bolgia

Punished here: Panderers (pimps) and Seducers Pander - arrange for sexual partners for others Seduction - enticing someone astray from right behavior or an act of winning the love or sexual favor of someone Punishment: The souls of the damned march in separate lines in opposite directions, whipped by demons Symbolism:
just as the panderers and seducers used the passions of others to drive them to do their bidding, they are themselves driven by demons to march for all eternity.

 Famous Entities found here:

Venedico Caccianemico A poet who sold his sister to Marquis of Este Jason leader of the Argonauts who seduced and abandoned Hypsipyle. Jason also seduce, married and then abandoned Medea

The Second Bolgia

Punished here: Flatterers Flattery - excessive or insincere praise Punishment: The souls found here are steeped in human excrement Symbolism: The excrement represents the words that they produced Notable people found here:
Alessio Interminei of Lucca, who belonged to a prominent Guelph family of Lucca Thais, a woman who told her lover that she was enormously grateful of him, when really she wasnt

The Third Bolgia

In this bolgia, Dante expresses his condemnation of those who committed simony Simony - The buying or selling of spiritual things, particularly Church offices and benefices or the medieval practice of buying and selling church positions and title Punished: Simonists or people who are guilty of trading religious offices and trafficking in church promotion

 Punishment: The souls are placed head-first in holes in the rock with flames burning on the soles of their feet Symbolism: The punishment resemble baptismal fonts Notable people found here:
Pope Nicholas III, a corrupt pope Simon Magus, a man who tried to buy the power of conferring the Holy Spirit

The Fourth Bolgia

The souls punished here are viewed by Dante as practicioners of impious and unlawful arts who attempt to avert Gods designs by their predictions Punished: Diviners, Astrologers and Sorcerers Punishment: The souls here have their heads twisted around on their bodies backward, so that they "found it necessary to walk backward, because they could not see ahead of them

 Symbolism: Refers primarily to attempts to see into the future by forbidden means. This also symbolizes the twisted nature of magic in general Famous people found here:
Amphiaraus Tiresias, a blind prophet Michael Scot, a mathematician, scholar and magician Guido Bonatti, Italian astronomer and astrologer

The Fifth Bolgia

Punished: Barrators and grafters Barratry -the crime of a judge whose judgment is
influenced by bribery -(maritime law) a fraudulent breach of duty by the master of a ship that injures the owner of the ship or its cargo; includes every breach of trust such as stealing or sinking or deserting the ship or embezzling the cargo -the offense of vexatiously persisting in inciting lawsuits and quarrels

 Graft - the practice of offering something (usually money) in order to gain an illicit advantage Punishment: Corrupt politicians (barrators) are immersed in a lake of boiling pitch. Demons called the Malebranche guard this circle. They punish the grafters by poking and stabbing them with pitchforks and hooks Symbolism: The boiling pitch represents the sticky fingers and dark secrets of their corrupt deals Moreover, the demons spears and hooks constant grabbing and stabbing of the grafters represent the greed of the grafters

 The Malebranches guide Virgil and Dante over the bridges to the next bolgia. As the demons punish more grafters along the way, a scuffle causes two demons to fall into the pitch. Dante and Virgil take this opportunity, for fearing the demons deceitfulness, to run as the demons pursue them Additional Info: The Malebranches possess names such as Malacoda (their leader), Curlytusk, Grizzly, Hellken, Cramper, Crazyred, Pigtusk and others Notable Person found:
Ciampolo a grafter. He is hooked by the demons and identifies some of the grafters found in the bolgia. He eventually tricks the demons and makes his escape into the pitch.

The Broken Bridges

The fears of the poets proved right when they discover that all bridges over the sixth bolgia were broken (as a result of the Harrowing of hell). They escape the Malebranche by going down into the ditch of hypocrites Symbolism: The decent to the sixth bolgia relates to us that in trying to be good, we must all face hypocrisy in our own lives

The Sixth Circle

Punished: Hypocrites Hypocrisy - the act of persistently pretending to hold beliefs, opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, or standards that one does not actually hold Punishment: - Hypocrites are force to wear heavy robes and walk in circles Symbolism: Since they hid their true nature from the world, they cannot show their true appearances. The robes show that theyre good on the outside but evil on the inside

 Notable People: Catalano and Loderingo, members of the Jovial Friars, an order which had acquired a reputation for not living up to its vows Loderingo nobleman from the Bolognese Ghibelline family Caiaphas, the high priest responsible for ordering Jesus crucified, is also seen here, crucified to the ground and trampled

The Seventh Circle

The sinners here are guarded by the centuar, Cacus, who has a fire-breathing dragon on his shoulders Punished: Thieves Punishment: The thieves are pursued and bitten by snakes and lizards. When the sinner is bitten, he undergoes transformations of bursts into flames, only to be revived and punished again Symbolism: Just as they stole other people's substance in life, their very identity becomes subject to theft here and the snake bites make them undergo various transformations

 Notable People here:

Vanni Fucci - turned to ashes and resurrected Agnello - blended with the six-legged reptile that is Cianfa Buoso - exchanges shapes with the four-legged Francesco

The Eight Bolgia

Punished: Deceivers and Fraudulent Counselors
These are not people who gave false advice, but people who used their position to advise others to engage in fraud.

Punishment: Souls here are concealed in raging flames Symbolism: The evil counselors misused the gifts given to them by God for their own evil doings. Their acts were hidden from the world and so they are hidden from all sight in Hell as they are forever consumed by flames

 Notable People found:

Ulysses & Diomedes - condemned here for the deception of the Trojan Horse Guido da Montefeltro - he advised Pope Boniface VIII to capture the fortress of Palestrina, by offering the Colonna family inside it a false amnesty, and then razing it to the ground after they surrendered.
NOTE: Although Boniface had absolved Guido in advance for his evil advice, Dante points out the invalidity of that, since absolution requires contrition, and a man cannot be contrite for a sin at the same time that he is intending to commit it

The Ninth Bolgia

Punished: Sowers of Discord Punishment: A sword-wielding demon hacks the souls to pieces. After they are cut to pieces, they are compelled to walk around dragging whatever they have left of themselves. As they walk, they heal so that they can be tortured again. Symbolism: They separated what God had joined. Just so, they are cut and hacked by a demon

 Notable People here:

Muhammad, the founder of the religion of Islam, and is regarded by Muslims as messenger and prophet of Allah Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad. He is condemed by Dante for schism between Sunni and Shiite (branches of Islam) Bertran de Born - carries around his severed head like a lantern, as a punishment for (Dante believes) fomenting the rebellion of Henry the Young King against his father Henry II

The Tenth Bolgia

Punished: Falsifiers (alchemists, impersonators, counterfeiters and perjurers) Alchemy - The ancient search for a universal panacea, and of the philosopher's stone, that eventually developed into chemistry; The causing of any sort of mysterious sudden transmutation; Any elaborate transformation process or algorithm (falsifiers of things) Counterfeiting to forge, make a copy of with the intent to deceive (falsifiers of money) Perjury - criminal offense of making false statements under oath (falsifiers of words) Impersonation the act of imitating or copying the behavior or actions of another. (falsifier of persons)

 Punishment: The falsifiers are subject to the filth of the ground, the darkness of the sky, the stench of the air, the disease of their bodies and other torments. Some are compelled to run crazy around the bolgia and viciously attack others. They dash up, land on their victim and rip them apart. Symbolism: They are tormented by disease and other punishments as they are the disease of society

 Notable People here:

Potiphar's wife who is briefly mentioned here for her false accusation of Joseph, as is Sinon, the Greek spy who tricked the Trojans into taking the Trojan Horse into their city (Sinon is here, rather than in Bolgia 8, because his advice was false as well as evil)