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Abandon all hope ye who enter here . . .

• Join Dante and Virgil on a descent into hell
• in the Inferno from Dante Alighieris
• The Divine Comedy (1315)

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In his Divine Comedy, Dante explores the seven
deadly sins
P Pride E Envy W Wrath S Sloth A Avarice
G Gluttony L Lust
Michelino
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In the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso
Dante Alighieri, translated by John Ciardi,
guides us from
to
Heres how . . .
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico
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The Dark Wood Good Friday
Midway in his life, Dante realizes he has
strayed from the True Way into the Dark Wood of
Error (Worldliness). He sees the sunrise, a
symbol of Divine Illumination, over a little
hill, the Mount of Joy, and he is filled with
relief. He starts towards the light and hill but
finds his way blocked.
Dore
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Dante assaulted by three beasts
Three fierce beasts block his path The Leopard
of Malice and Fraud, The Lion of Violence and
Ambition, and The She Wolf of
Incontinence. Of these three, Dante is most
intimidated by the She Wolf. He begins to
despair and move deeper into the Dark Wood of
Error. But suddenly . . .
Dore
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Virgil saves Dante from the three Beasts
Virgil, the greatest Latin poet and author of
the Aeneid, appears to rescue Dante. Virgil,
symbolizing Human Reason, explains that he has
been sent to guide Dante away from
error. However, there is no easy way out. Any
man who would escape the three beasts must
travel a longer and harder path.
Blake
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Virgil explains the only way out is through hell
First, Virgil will guide Dante through a
recognition of his sin in a descent through hell
(The Inferno). Then, Virgil will guide Dante
to renounce his sins in an ascent through
Purgatory (The Purgatorio). Finally, Virgil, who
is pagan and also limited by the boundaries of
human reason and therefore cannot cross into
heaven, will turn Dante over to Beatrice who
will guide Dantes path to the Light of God in
heaven (The Paradiso).
Dore
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The Gate of Hell
Virgil leads Dante away from the Dark Wood and
up to the Gate of Hell. There they read
I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE I AM THE WAY
TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL
SORROW. . . . ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.
Blake
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Vestibule The Opportunists
The first souls in torment Dante and
Virgil encounter are the Opportunists, those
souls who in life were neither for good nor evil
but only for themselves. They race round and
round on the beach of the River Acheron while
pursuing a wavering banner. As they run they are
pursued by swarms of wasps and hornets, which
sting them and produce a constant flow of blood
and putrid matter fed on by maggots on the ground.
Dore
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River Acheron
The poets reach Acheron, the first of the rivers
of Hell. Here newly arrived souls of the
damned gather and wait for the monster Charon to
ferry them over to their punishments. Charon
does not want the living Dante to board, but
Virgil demands passage for their divine
mission. Charon gives in, and Dante faints.
Dore
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The Funnel of Hell
Botticelli
Dante wakes up on the brink of Hell, which Dante
conceives as a great funnel shaped cave lying
below the northern hemisphere with its bottom at
the earths center. Each ledge is called a
Circle, and each Circle holds one category of
sin.
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Circle 1 Limbo
Blake
Here Dante and Virgil find the Virtuous
Pagans. Since they were born without the light
of Christs revelation, they cannot come into the
light of God, but they are not tormented. Their
only pain is that they have no hope.
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Poets in Limbo
Virgil is welcomed back to his Circle by the
greatest Classical poets, including Homer and
Ovid. The great men welcome Dante as one of
their own. Limbo is the highest state man can
attain without God.
Dore
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Minos, Judge of Hell
Blocking the way to Hell proper, beginning in
Circle 2, Sits king Minos, a half man / half
bull Minotaur like Minos illegitimate stepson
in Ovids Metamorphoses. He judges the souls of
the damned, wrapping his long tail one time
around his huge body for each circle the
damned soul must descend.
Dore
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Circle 2 The Lustful
Blake
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Paolo and Francesca
On a dark ledge, swept by a great whirlwind,
Dante encounters famous lovers including Helen,
Paris, and Dido. Virgil explains that their sin
was to abandon themselves to passion, so they
are swept in forever in a tempest. Paolo and
Francesca explain their sad tale of an illicit
kiss, inspired by reading about Sir
Lancelot, and, in pity, Dante faints again.
Dore
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Circle 3 The Gluttonous
When Dante wakes in Circle 3, he is in a great
storm of putrefaction, stinking snow, freezing
rain, and vile slush.
Dore
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Cerberus
In the muck, the souls of the Gluttonous are
eternally ripped apart by the three
headed dog, Cerberus. Since in life they made
no greater use of their lives than to produce
offal and garbage, in death they themselves are
steeped in offal and treated like garbage.
Blake
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Plutus
Between Circles Three and Four, Virgil and Dante
come upon the great, menacing figure of
Plutus. However, Virgil once again shows himself
more powerful than the rages of hell, and the
poets enter the Fourth Circle.
Blake
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Circle 4 The Avaricious
In the Fourth Circle, Dante and Virgil find a war
in progress. On one side are the Hoarders, on
the other the Wasters. Each soul strains madly
at a great boulder weight. When the two sides
meet, they clash their weights against each
other, separate, and begin all over again. In
life, these sinners were encumbered by money in
death, they are encumbered by weight.
Nattini
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Circle 5 The Wrathful
Dante and Virgil enter the Marsh of Styx. Here
the Wrathful attack each other with teeth and
nail in the foul slime, each ripped apart by his
own anger.
Dore
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The Slothful
Beneath them, under the mud, the Slothful lie
gargling in the stinking waters, tormented by
their own laziness.
Dore
Dore
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Circle 6 The Heretics
Circle Six contains the City of Dis and the
Heretics. Here are the Furies, Medusa, and
any people who thought the soul died with the
body.
Botticelli
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Circle 7 The Violent
In Circle 7 Dante encounters The Violent against
Neighbors, The Violent against Themselves, and
The Violent against God, Art, and Nature.
Dore
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Forest of Suicides
In Round Two, the Souls of the Suicides are
encased in thorny trees whose leaves are eaten by
the odious Harpies. Thus, those who
destroyed their own bodies are denied a human
form.
Blake
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Flight of Geryon
Dante and Virgil leave Upper Hell and travel to
Lower Hell by riding on the back of
Geryon. Dante depicts Geryon, a mythical king
of Spain killed by Hercules, as a monster with
the shape of a dragon, the tail of a scorpion,
hairy arms, a reptilian body, and the face of a
just and honest man.
?
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Circle 8 False Counselors
The Eighth Circle, or Maleboge, is made up of
evil ditches. In the Eighth Bolgia (ditch) of
the Eighth Circle, Dante and Virgil
encounter the Evil Counselors, endlessly hidden
in flames. Since they sinned by the glibness of
their tongues, they are encased in flames shaped
like tongues. Here Dante speaks with Ulysses,
who tricked the Trojans with the wooden horse.
Botticelli
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Circle 9 Frozen Lake Cocytus
At the bottom of Hells funnel, Dante finds the
huge, frozen lake of Cocytus and the Ninth
Circle. Here, fixed in ice, each according to
his guilt, are punished sinners guilty of
treachery against those to whom they were bound
by special ties. Since these sinners denied
all divine love and human warmth, they are
forever encased in ice. They are furthest
removed from Gods love and the light and
warmth of the sun.
Blake
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Canto 34 Lucifer
In the center of Lake Cocytus is Satan. He is
fixed into the ice at the center. As he beats
his wings as if to escape, their icy wind only
freezes him more surely into the polluted
ice. In a grotesque parody of the Trinity, he
has three faces, each a different color, and in
each mouth he clamps a sinner whom he rips
eternally with his teeth Judas Iscariot,
Brutus, and Cassius.
Dore
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Leaving Hell
To leave hell, Dante and Virgil climb down
Satans hairy legs and, when they have
passed through the center of all gravity, emerge
from Hell.
Blake
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Entrance to Purgatory
Dante and Virgil enter Purgatory, a mountain
organized as a mirror image of the pit of
hell. Shades in purgatory repented of their
sins before they died but must still spend some
time atoning for those sins before they can move
on to Paradise.
Blake
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Mount Purgatory
Those whose sins are the most grave begin at the
bottom of the mountain and have the farthest to
go. Those whose sins are the least grave begin
at the top of the mountain and have the least
distance to cover before entering Paradise.
Blake
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Punishments in Purgatory
Lustful (on top) encased in wall of
fire Gluttonous stand emaciated around a tree of
fruit Avaricious lie motionless, bound hand and
foot, with faces in dust Slothful hurriedly run
in a line Wrathful plunged in darkness by acrid,
stinging smoke
Blake
Envious blinded and dressed in haircloth, support
each other against cliff Proud (on bottom) crawl
round and round under the crushing weight
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Leaving Purgatory
Dante crosses the river Lethe (River of
Forgetfulness) at the end of Purgatory. Virgil
parts with Dante as Dante, purified by fire,
leaves Purgatory.
Blake
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Paradise Beatrice
At the end of the Purgatorio, Virgil and Dante
encounter Beatrice in a heavenly
pageant. Beatrice takes over from Virgil as
Dantes guide In Paradise. Dante follows her
instructions and emerges out of
Purgatory perfect, pure, and ready for the
stars.
Blake
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Ascensionthrough the Spheres
Dante and Beatrice journey up through the
planetary spheres and view the heavenly host
Dore
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Heavenly Host
Dante beholds a vision of God as a non
dimensional point of light ringed by nine glowing
spheres representing the angel hierarchy.
Chartres Cathedral
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Final Canto 100, Paradiso
Heaven is depicted as a Mythical Rose containing
inexpressible beauty I saw within Its depth
how It conceives All things in a single volume
bound by Love, Of which the universe is the
scattered leaves.
Dore
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Dantes Return
Dante returns to his earthly life, renewed in his
quest for ultimate redemption.
Giotto
Raphael
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Beatrice Dantes Muse
Another of Dantes poems, La Vita Nuova The New
Life, records the inspiration for his character
Beatrice. In the poem Dante records the story
of a boy of nine who falls in love at first sight
with a girl of the same age. At 18, in a second
encounter, they exchange a greeting. At 25, she
suddenly dies and he is filled with grief. When
the boy is 27, the girl suddenly appears to him
in a vision.
Rossetti
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Literary Terms
seven deadly sins Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth,
Avarice, Gluttony, Lust
allegory the discussion of one subject by
disguising it as another
Dantes literal descent into hell is a
figurative spiritual and psychological
journey terza rima Dantes three line stanzas
rhyming aba, bab, cdc, ded, etc.
vernacular the local dialect Dante wrote in
Italian, not Latin archetype an image, symbol,
or pattern that appears in literature of many
cultures In the Divine Comedy Dante separates
from society in the Dark Wood, is initiated
through his journeys in the Inferno, Purgatorio,
and Paradiso, and returns to earth to share his
tale through his writing epic simile a long,
extended comparison using the word like or as
allusion a reference to a mythological,
literary, or historical person, place, thing, or
idea catalog a long list epithet
descriptive words and phrases composed of an
adjective and a proper noun imagery
descriptive language that appeals to one of the
five senses
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The Numbers 3 and 10
The Divine Comedy has three parts Inferno,
Purgatorio, Paradiso Inferno has 1 canto on
earth and 33 in hell Purgatorio has 33
cantos Paradiso has 33 cantos 100 (10 x 10) total
cantos perfection Dante wrote in three line
stanzas called terza rima Dantes journey lasts
three days, beginning on Good Friday and Ending
on Easter Sunday Dantes Trinity includes
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost There are three main
characters Dante, Virgil, and
Beatrice Cerberus has three heads How many
other 3s can you find?
Dali