Dante’s Inferno
Canto 28
By: Tori Dupuy
Canto 28
• In this canto Dante and Virgil enter the 9th
bolgia in the 8th circle.
• Here is where the guilty are punished.
• They are punished by continually getting
ripped apart by a demon with a bloody sword.
• There are 3 classes that vary in the degree of
guilt.
The three Classes of Guilt
• Class 1
• Sowers of
Religious
Discord
• These sinners
are ripped
apart.
• Class 2
• Sowers of
Political
Discord
• These sinners
are mutilated
according to
the nature of
their sin.
•Class 3
•Sowers of
Discord
Between
Kinsmen
•The only sinner
here is punished
by forever
having his head
separated from
the rest of his
body.
Characters
First class:
•Mahomet-The chief among the sowers of religious discord. He
asks Dante to send a warning to Fra Dolcino.
•Ali-Mahomet’s son-in-law.
Second Class:
•Pier De Medicina-Tells Dante to remember him and to give a
warning to Messers Guido and Angiolello.
•Curio-The man who told Caesar “a man prepared is a man hurt by
delay.”
•Mosca Dei Lamberti-A soul that argued with Dante then ran off.
Third Class:
•Bertrand De Born- The man that set the young king on to mutiny
by separating him from his father. He is forever to be separated
from his head.
The Demon
The demon (unnamed) in this canto rips open
the souls with a sword, then sends them away.
By the time they walk around the circle their
wounds have healed and the demon rips them
open again.
The souls
• Most of the souls in this canto are ripped
open by the demon, and their insides are
hanging out of their bodies.
• Their sin was to render what God had meant
to be united, so their punishment it to be
hacked and torn through all eternity.