Moving Through the Circles
of
Dante’s Inferno
“In the midway of this our
mortal life,
I found me in a gloomy
wood, astray.”
-Canto I, lines 1,2
“A lion came, ‘gainst me as it
appear’d
With his head held aloft, and
hunger-mad”
-Canto I, lines 43, 44
“He, soon as he saw
That I was weeping,
answer’d.”
-Canto I lines 87, 88
“All hope abandon, ye who enter here.”
-Canto III, line 9
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The UNCOMMITTED race endlessly after a
blank banner; they followed no cause in life,
and so now do so in death. Wasps and flies
continuously sting them, causing them to react
and feel pain. The world has lost all memory of
them.
CHARON & RIVER ACHERON
“And lo, toward us in a boat
Come on an old man, hoardy white…
Crying, “Wo to you, wicked spirits!”
-Canto III lines 76-78
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INNOCENT SOULS
Blameless but un-baptized; great pagan poets
and philosophers. Atmosphere is comfortable
but separate from God.
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The second circle is the real beginning of hell.
Here we see the principle of retribution: sinners
tossed and whirled by winds as in life they
were helpless in tempests of passion. Paolo and
Francesca go swirling by in Canto 5. They were
murdered before they could repent carnal
courtly love as sin.
“So I descended from first to second circle—
Which girdles a smaller space and greater pain,
Which spurs more lamentation. Minos the dreadful
Snarls at the gate. He examines each one’s sin,
Judging and disposing as he curls his tail…”
It comes before him, and confesses all;
Minos, great connoisseur of sin, discerns
For every spirit its proper place in Hell,
And wraps himself in his tail with as many turns
As levels down that shade will have to dwell.
“The
stormy blast of hell
With restless fury drives the
spirits on.”
-Canto V lines 32, 33
Teacher! Willingly
I would address those
two coming,
Which seem so light
before the wind.”
-Canto V, lines 72-74
The gluttons who feasted away their lives now
lie like pigs in the mire. The mud is created by
a ceaseless, icy rain. The gluttons are is
isolation from their neighbors and torn apart
by Cerberus, the three-headed “hell-hound”
who feeds on their flesh.
Misers and Spendthrifts, Wasters and Hoarders
- roll stones to crash against one another; they
abused material goods so now are forced to roll
and be crushed by the weight of a material
object.
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Styx forms a marsh holding the openly
wrathful who strike and bite one another
Sullen (gloomy) lie under the surface of the
marsh, just as their silent anger lay hidden
during their lives.
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Heretics chose their own opinions instead of
following the teachings of the Church.
They believed there was no soul, that pleasure
was the primary goal of life, and that
everything dies with the body, so they spend
eternity with their bodies in burning graves,
symbolizing death of the body but not of the
soul or of pain.
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1. Violent against Neighbors
First Ring: Violent against others; includes
murderers and robbers
Submerged in Phlegethon - river of blood.
Warrior-centaurs patrol this circle (man/beast
combination); easily angered, they patrol &
torture those who killed others violently.
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2. Violent against Self
Suicidal- Harpies steal things, so here they
symbolize the sinners stealing away their
bodies and souls through suicide. Those who
have committed suicide have become trees in
the forest, and the harpies nest in them.

Flatterers—disgustingly dipped in excrement
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Fortunetellers - they tried to foretell the future,
so now their heads are on backwards.
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Hypocrites - they wear gorgeous cloaks lined
with lead; pretty outside, awful inside; cloak
true character in false appearance.
Thieves turning into snakes and snakes turning
into thieves. Thieves steal other people's
possessions; they cannot keep their own
bodies.
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Cocytus is a frozen lake of ice; Satan is
immobilized at the center. Cocytus includes
four kinds of traitors.
Traitors to Kindred—stuck in ice (heads above
ice)
Traitors to Country—stuck in ice (heads above
ice)
Traitors to Guests—fully encased in ice (only
part of head sticks out)
Traitors to Masters—encased in ice
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Satan (“Dis”) is munching on Judas, Cassius and
Brutus
Three-headed Dis is a reverse of the Holy Trinity.