People from Inferno

The Muses

• Mentioned in Pre-Inferno

• Nine ancient Greek goddesses of inspiration for poetry, science, and the arts

• Called by Dante to help Virgil recount why he’s there

Apostle Paul and Aeneas

• Mentioned in Pre-Inferno

• The only two to have gone through Hell and survived

Charon

• Mentioned in The Lukewarm/Ante purgatory

• The ferryman that takes souls across the river

• Denies Dante’s entry until Virgil declares the journey is guided by God

• Lets them ride

Moses, Noah, Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan, Plato, Euclid, etc.

• All seen/mentioned in Limbo

Minos

• Beast seen in the beginning of Lust

• Assigns sinners their fate by wrapping its tail around the soul, depending on the number of wraps indicates the circle of hell they end up

Cleopatra, Helen of Troy

• Seen in Lust

Francesca

• Seen in Lust

• Married by force to an old man, falls in love with Paolo da Rimini, the younger brother of her husband

• They read Lancelot, and at a particularly romantic scene, kiss, but were eventually discovered and both were killed

Cerberus

• Seen in Gluttony

• Three-headed dog, runs around biting at the gluttonous, stopped by Virgil by throwing mud at it

Ciacco

• Seen in gluttony

• Early Florentine man, says Florence will be full of debate, strife, etc.

Plutus

• Seen in avarice and prodigality

• A demon of wealth who guards the fourth circle of Hell

Phlegyas

• Seen in anger and accidia

• The boatman that takes Dante and Virgil across the river Styx

Filippo Argenti

• Seen on the river Styx

• Politician and citizen of Florence

• Grabs onto the boat, attempting to cause trouble, but is later pulled apart by other sinners

Furies

• Seen at the Gates of Dis 

• Half-woman, half-serpent creatures

Farinata

• Seen in heresy

• Calls from the tomb

• Opposite political party as Dante

• Predicts Dante’s exile from Florence

Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti

• Seen in heresy

• Father of Dante’s intimate friend, Guido

• Interrupts Farinata to ask about his son

• Dante says that perhaps Guido held Virgil in disdain, and mishearing that statement, assumes his son is dead and descends back down

Minotaur

• Seen in first sub circle of violence (against others) 

• Dante and Virgil run away

Chiron

• Seen in first sub circle of violence (against others)

• Head centaur

• Sees Dante step on a rock 

Nessus

• Seen in first sub circle of violence (against others)

• Another centaur that Dante rides on to get across the river

Pier della Vigna

• Seen in second sub circle of violence (against self) 

• An advisor to Emperor Frederick, and that he was a moral and admirable man

• Courtiers blackened his name with lies, leading him to kill himself

Capaneus

• Seen in the blasphemer zone of the third sub circle (against god)

• One of the kings who besieged Thebes

• Rages relentlessly, insisting that the tortures of Hell shall never break his defiance

Brunetto Latini

• Seen in the sodomite zone of the third sub circle (against god)

• A philosopher, politician, and friend of Dante

• Says Dante will be rewarded with for his heroic political actions

Geryon

• Seen in the usurer zone of the third sub circle (against god)

• The beast has the head of a man, body of serpent, and two animal paws

• Rises after Dante’s cord is thrown into the water

• Transports them to the eight circle

Jason of mythology

• Seen in pimps and seducers of the eight circle

• Abandoned Medea after she helped him find the Golden Fleece

Pope Nicholas III

• Seen in simony of the eight circle

• Mistakes Dante for Boniface

• States that he is a pope that committed simony and there are people still alive with worse fates than him

• Writhes in pain more than any other

Malacoda 

• Leader of the demons in the barrators/bribery

Vanni Fucci

• Seen in the thieves section of the eight circle 

• A man Dante knew on Earth, is here because he robbed a sacristy (place in a church where the garments, holy things, etc. are kept)

• Angered that Dante is witnessing his miserable condition, he foretells the defeat of Dante’s political party, the White Guelphs, at Pistoia

• Fucci curses God with the making of a fig; rude gesture

Ulysses and Diomedes

• Seen in counselors of fraud in war

• Share one flame for sins in the trojan war

Guido da Montefeltro

• in counselors of fraud and war

• originally a member of the Ghibellines, underwent a religious conversion and joined a Franciscan monastery

• Reentered politics due to Pope Boniface VIII on the opposing side

• Asked how to conquer the Ghibelline colona family fortress

• Said absolution would be received in advance even if he failed

• Died, St. Francis came for him but a demon took him as absolution cannot be given prior to committing a sin

• For absolution cannot precede repentance and repentance cannot precede the sin

Bocca degli Abati

• Seen in Caina (against kin)

• Italian traitor

• Dante rips out some of his hair

• Very angry

Count Ugolino & Archbishop Ruggieri

• Seen in antenora (against party or city)

• Count bites the neck of archbisop

• Ugolino was imprisoned by Archbishop

Fra Alberigo and Branca d’Oria

• Seen in ptolomea (against guests)

• Sins were so great they went to hell early and have demons occupying their bodies

Brutus and Cassius

• Seen in judecca

• In satan’s left and right mouth

• Murdered Julius Cesar