Dantes Inferno

Author-Dante Alighieri

-       Born in Florence, Italy

-       He was from the political party, The Guelphs, who were supporters of the Pope’s power. (the color of that political party was white)

-       Since all public officials had to belong to a guild, Dante joined the union of physicians and apothecaries.

-       He was falsely charged of hostility toward the church, fraud, and corrupt practices.

-       He refused to pay the fine, so he was sentenced to death by burning. He fled the city to avoid both things.

-       While he is in exile, he writes his first book: “La vita Nuova” (“the new life”).

-       He settled in Ravenna, where he completes “La Divina Commedia”.

-       The love of his life, his muse and inspiration for “Divine Comedy” is Beatrice Partinari.

-       He had an arranged marriage with Gemma Donati.

-      Dantes’ worlds include:

~ the world of politics

~ the world of theology (religion, the church)

~ the world of learning

divine comedy

-       Epic poem

-       Divided in three sections: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.

-       Original name: “La Divina Commedia”.

-       The meaning of the name: Divine, to celebrate the greatness and beauty of the work, as well as the religious content, and Comedy, a tale with a happy ending.

-       The purpose for writing “Divine Comedy” was to convert a corrupt society to righteousness.

-       The three women who watched over Dante were: Beatrice, The Virgin Mary, and St. Lucy. (Beatrice was from Heaven)

-       Dante begins his journey through Hell on Good Friday and ends on Easter Sunday, it lasts three days. (one day each)

-       This is a religious piece that ends happily, since the protagonist, Dante, meets God at the end. When he reaches the top of heaven he sees the stars.

-       According to Dante, it is a book about choice.

before limbo

-       This symbolizes the sin and corruption in Dante’s soul.

-       Virgil guides him out of the Dark Woods and towards the path of salvation.

sign above the gates of hell

           “Abandon all hope ye who enter here”:    This is the end of the fateful inscription each of the domed would read as they entered the gates of Hell.

Contrapasso

-       Poetic justice

The given punishment fits the sin

circle 1

• Limbo

• Divided into two categories: not baptized and good and honorable people.

• The sinners were not really punished in this circle, just that the knowledge that they have will stay the same until they decide to convert, which most don’t.

circle 2

• Sin: when one lets their emotions or sexual desires/impulses have control over them. (ex. power, money, fame)

• Punishment: intense storm with strong winds, swept around for all eternity, which is symbolic because lust takes control over you

• Minos: guardian of hell, decides what circle you go to by wrapping you around his tail, for example: if he wrapped you 4 times, you’d go to circle 4.

circle 3

• gluttony

• Sin: it was solitary, excess of eating or drinking.

•   Punishment: constant rains, stuck in the mud, they live in a cold and unclean environment.

• Cerberus: 3 headed dog, gluttonous monster and guardian of this circle. Virgil throws mud into their mouth.

circle 4

• greed

According to Dante, greed is the root of all evil.

   Sins:

• Avarice: people who hold wealth to tightly (hoarders)

• Prodigality: people who spend too freely (squanderers)

• Punishment: roll enormous boulders and slam into each other, avarice is most likely to prevail between the two types of greed.

• Symbolism: sinners misuse wealth throughout life and lack morals.

•   Guardian: Plutus – God of wealth.

circle 5

• wrathful and sullen

• In the City of Dis, which is the boundary between upper and lower Hell. (three hellish furies)

• Sin: denying the immortality of the soul and not believing in the afterlife and God.

• Punishment: trapped in stone tombs with open flames

circle 6

• Heresy

• In the City of Dis, which is the boundary between upper and lower Hell. (three hellish furies)

• Sin: denying the immortality of the soul and not believing in the afterlife and God.

• Punishment: trapped in stone tombs with open flames

circle 7

• violence

circle 7.1

-       Violence against neighbors punishes those who were violent (murder or bloodshed) to others during their lifetime.

-       Punishment: immersed in a river of boiling blood called the Phlegethon. (the depth of the blood depends on the severity of their violence)

-       Symbolism: those who spilled blood will now drown in it.

circle 7.2

-       Violence against self: punishes those who were violent towards themselves and destroy their lives.

-       Punishment: souls of suicide are placed in thorny trees, in the wood of the suicides, and their leaves are eaten by the Harpies, this causes the branches to stream and bleed. (the people turn into the trees)

circle 7.3

-       Violence against God, nature, and art:

~ Sinners are sentenced to live in a desert with fire raining down on them, since they defined the heavens while they were alive, now it strikes down on them.

~ Against God: blasphemers who insulted, berate, or offend God or his name. Punishment: forced to lay flat on their backs across the sand so they can be continuously hit by God’s wrath.

~ Against nature: those who damage the natural world, sodomites who participate in non-procreative sexual activities and go against nature (homosexuality). Punishment: forced to run around endlessly in the desert as if they were looking for the living thing they harmed.

~ Against art: usurers who make money by lending it at extremely high interest rates and taking advantage of others, they don’t use skills or hard work to get rich. Punishment: forced to huddle down on the ground with their families’ coat of arms hanging from their necks, so others can see where they belong and what they did, the punishment forces them to carry the weight of their sins.

-       Guardians: centaurs – Chiron and Nesseus: they shoot at sinners who try to rise out of the boiling blood, forcing them back down.

circle 8

• fraud

circle 8.1

-       Panderers and Seducers: Panderers are those who exploit others for personal gain and seducers are those who entice, allure, or seduce others.

Punishment: moved opposite ways, naked, in a circle, while demons constantly whip them, like how they drove others with their seductive ways in their past life.

circle 8.2

-flaterrers

• people who praise others excessively, insincerely, or for self-serving reasons.

• Punishment: thrown into a pit submerged in fences thus creating a repugnant smell, that causes diseases and rashes.

circle 8.3

-simoniacs

-       clergy members or popes who committed simony, meaning they sold church offices or used their church positions for personal monetary gain.

Punishment: stuck head-first in holes with their feet on fire, symbolizing inverted baptismal fonts and burning the feet that once walked in corruption.

circle 8.4

sorcery

those who claim they can see the future.

Punishment: their heads are twisted backward, and they cry until their blind, so their faces look behind them while their bodies walk forward

circle 8.5

• barrators

• corrupt politicians.

• Punishment: thrown in a boiling tar pitch, which is thick, dark, and murky, representing how politicians hide their schemes behind secrecy and bureaucracy.

circle 8.6

• hypocrites

• those who presented a façade of holiness, virtue or high moral standards to the world while hiding deceitful, evil, and heavy motivations within.

• Punishment: wear and walk forever with heavy cloaks made of lead, those cloaks make it very painful to walk with.

circle 8.7

• thieves

• those who not only steal material possessions but also identity and trust.

• Punishment: thrown into a pit filled with snakes where sinners must move naked among them, living in constant fear with no chance of escaping. These monstrous serpents bind their hands, cause horrific metamorphoses, and, in some cases, incinerate and regenerate the sinners.

circle 8.8

• false counselors

• -       those who give false advice for personal gain or use their intelligence to trick others into sinning.

• Punishment: wrapped in individual columns of flames.

circle 8.9

• sowers of discord

• those who intentionally cause division between others, such as political groups, religious communities, families, or entire nations. 

• Punishment: repeatedly cut or split open by a demon with a sword as they walk through the ditch. After their wounds heal, they are cut again, and this process repeats forever.

circle 8.10

• falsifiers

• people who made or did something in the exact imitation of something with the intention to defraud or deceive (counterfeit / falsify).

• Punishment: their compelled to scratch their itching skin and afflicted with various diseases, since they were a disease to society, now they are a disease to themselves.

circle 9

• traitors

• Lowest level of Hell, at the center is Satan.

• This circle is the worst of the sinners, according to Dante.

•   Sin: betrayal – act of being disloyal to someone who trusts you or turning against a person, group, or country.

•   Punishment: in the frozen lake Cocytus, souls are trapped in ice and placed on one of the four sections, depending on who they betrayed whether its family, country, guests or benefactors.

circle 9.1

• -       punishes those who betrayed family members. Punishment: their bodies are frozen in ice up to their necks; they can still move their heads and talk.

circle 9.2

-       those who are traitors to their country or political group. Punishment: they are frozen up to their heads, have less movement than those in Caina.

circle 9.3

-       punishes people who betrayed their guests.

Punishment: they lay on their backs on the ice, and their tears freeze in their eyes.

circle 9.4

-       punishes those who betrayed their lords or benefactors (people who trusted and helped them).

Punishment: their completely trapped inside the ice, unable to move or speak.