The Inferno: Layers of Hell + Five Different Genres of Poetry

Vestibule

Pre first layer of Hell; where the non-committed reside. They would not choose between good and evil, and instead tried to remain neutral. Neither Hell nor Heaven wants these souls. These culprits are to constantly follow a banner/cause aimlessly

Limbo

The unbaptized and virtuous pagans are here (those who did not accept Christ but still did good deeds). Not actively punished, but without God

Many of the souls here are great thinkers, and part of their punishment for not worshipping God correctly is to be denied knowledge and knowledge of God.

Lust

Culprits are buffeted back and forth by a terrible wind.

Gluttony

Culprits are stuck in putrid slush created by an icy rain.

Greed

Culprits who longed for things others had are jousting with weights around their chests.

Wrath

Culprits are stuck in the vile, sticky Styx river either fighting (actively wrathful) or lying stuck with no joy (passively wrathful)

Heresey

Culprits who preached lies about God are stuck in burning coffins.

Violence

Culprits are:

• Stuck in a river of boiling blood (violence against neighbors)

• Transformed into gnarled trees and eaten by Harpies (violence against self)

• Stuck under a sky that rains fire (violence against God/nature)

Fraud

Culprits are punished with punishments ranging from being whipped, to disease, to being bitten by snakes.

(This section is split into ten different categories)

Treachery (Mutiny and Betrayal)

Culprits are stuck in ice in the deepest level of Hell. The center of Hell holds Satan and others who have committed treachery against God—including Judas Iscariot and Brutus (whom you will read about in Julius Caesar). Medieval thought proposed that the center of Hell was also the center of gravity.

Virgil

Tragedy

Homer

Epic

Horace

Satire

Ovid

Elegy

Lucan

History

Dante

Comedy