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Malebolge: The Severity of Dante’s Eighth Circle of Hell
By Margaret Bruetsch
“I shall be your guide and lead you out through an eternal place where you will
hear tormented cries, and see tormented shades… and know what second death is, from
their screams. And later you will see those who rejoice while they are burning” (Alighieri
1468). So the poet Virgil explains to the pilgrim Dante before they begin their descent
into the labyrinth-like Hell. Dante Alighieri can easily be credited with shaping our
modern view of Hell minus Satan frozen into a lake at the center. The expected fire and
brimstone, flames, misery, and little devils punishing sinners can all be found in the
Florentine’s The Inferno, the first section of The Divine Comedy. The only thing that
could be contested is the list of sins included in his “Inferno” as well as their rankings in
terms of severity. One example is that the “sin” of flattery is found to be a more serious
offense than violence; the former is placed in the Eighth Circle of Hell while the latter is
just above it in the 7th circle. Morally one would think murdering one’s neighbor would
be more offensive to God than giving one’s neighbor insincere praise. To Dante though,
the different Bolgias that make up the Eighth Circle seem to be extremely important; the
poets spend almost a third of the poem exploring the ten sections of the Eighth Circle.
The tenth bolgia is even split into four more sections that rank its prisoners in its own
classification system with all suffering similar punishments. Malebolge, and it’s sin,
seems to be the climax of The Inferno not only because of the time Dante devotes to
describing the Circle and the severity of the punishments found within, but also because
it is one of the first areas the character of Dante changes his view on the souls he talks to
and because the tenth section is also split to punish four distinct groups of people even
more severely.
“There is a place in Hell called Malebolge, cut out of stone the color of iron
ore…and all this space is divided into ten descending valleys” (Dante 1519). The name
Malebolge in Italian actually translates to the term “bad pits” in English. The Eighth
Circle is the largest circle in Hell made up of ten distinct sins. Each pit, or bolgia, holds
sinners of a certain type of fraud; the first three bolgias hold pimps and seducers,
flatterers, and Simonists respectively. Soothsayers follow these in the fourth bolgia;
corrupt politicians in the fifth and hypocrites in the sixth. The seventh, eighth and ninth
hold thieves, deceivers and sowers of discord respectively. Finally the tenth bolgia is split
into four more sections: Alchemists, Identity Thieves, Counterfeiters and finally Liars.
These ten bolgias take the pilgrim Dante and his guide almost one third of his poem to
descend through and describe. First, the question arises: why would Dante split the area
for “simple fraud” into ten sections? In the very beginning of the poem the poet tries to
climb a mountain and is turned away by three animals: the leopard, the lion and the shewolf (Alighieri 1466). Each animal is representative of a sin that might reflect one of the
pilgrim’s: the leopard is fraudulent through its camouflage, the lion is violent and the shewolf is greedy with hunger. The appearance of these sins is reversed in Hell but all three
are there. The answer to simple fraud being considered a worse crime than violence may
be found in Dante’s life. Dante was not only a poet but also a politician; he was a
member of the White Guelf Party and he frequently brings in supporting White and
opposing Black Guelfs throughout his poem. Dante was eventually exiled from Florence
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for life after a power shift. At the time he wrote The Inferno, Dante was already in exile
so it seems that splitting simple fraud into ten sections with miserable, brutal punishments
was his prediction for the other politicians, and even Pope Boniface, who had
fraudulently kicked Dante out of the city that he loved. Fraud, to Dante who was no
longer a politician and had experienced its sting, was one of the worst sins because it was
done with knowledge. Violence committed against a neighbor was reason being
overwhelmed by emotions, lust was instinctual but fraud was a planned injury to
someone.
The Eighth Circle of Hell also marks a change in the pilgrim Dante’s character.
Throughout the journey in Hell Dante had stopped to talk with many sinners to learn of
their lives and the sin they committed. While he continues his inquisitive quest in the
Eighth Circle, Dante’s sympathy breaks at one point showing a less sympathetic Dante
who will appear again in the Ninth Circle. When Dante meets Paolo and Francesca in
Canto Three, Francesca tells him their story, how they fell in love and were eventually
killed by Francesca’s husband who was also Paolo’s brother. Dante first shares
sympathetic words, “‘Alas, all those sweet thoughts, and oh, how much desiring brought
these two down into this agony’” (Alighieri 1481). Francesca continues to tell the pilgrim
that their tempter was a book telling the story of Lancelot and Guinevere’s infamous
romance while Paolo weeps in such a way that the pilgrim claims “pity blurred my
senses; I swooned as though to die and fell to Hell’s floor” (1481). During his exploration
of the Eighth Circle Dante generally remains sympathetic to those suffering even when
his guide Virgil scolds him, except for two occasions. The first is in the third Bolgia
when he meets the former Pope, Nicholas II buried headfirst in stone with only his feet
sticking out to burn. Nicholas tells him who he is, believing Dante to be Pope Boniface
who, when he descends into hell will push Nicholas further into the stone. When Dante
responds to Nicholas, he rebukes his Simonist ways and claims “were it not for the
reverence for those highest of all keys that you [Nicholas] once held…[he] would use
even harsher words than these” (Alighieri 1525). Here Dante shows no sympathy for the
sinner and insinuates that the former Pope deserves his punishment for being an idolater.
The second time the Pilgrim loses his sympathy is in the tenth bolgia when he watches
the disagreement between Sinon and Adamo and relishes in their banter until Virgil
makes Dante feel shameful for the way he behaved. The character Dante finally loses his
sympathy again in the Ninth Circle when he tries to extract the name of one of the sinners
frozen in ice by ripping the hair from his head until another sinner calls out the man’s
name: “Bocca” (Alighieri 1568). The change in Dante’s sympathetic character is not the
only major change in the Eighth Circle; the punishments also seem more severe.
Although hell’s punishments are supposed to be severe, the punishments in
Malebolge seem almost too extreme for an overall sin categorized “simple fraud.” The
first three bolgias do not seem too extreme; pimps and seducers were whipped equivalent
to their crime of enslaving others through sex, flatters are emerged in filth because they,
in colloquial terms, “bullshitted” people with insincere comments, and simonists are
buried head first while their feet are burned, they are buried downward so they cannot
look at the holy God they turned away from. The sixth and eight bolgias both seem to
deal out reasonable punishments; hypocrites are weighed down by lead in their clothes
and deceivers are consumed by fire. The lead for the hypocrite could be their guilt in
behaving how they did, and one hypocrite, the priest Caiphus is crucified on the ground
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and walked over by all the others (Alighieri 1538). He is punished for his part in handing
Christ over to Pontius Pilate in the same way Christ was killed, making the hypocrite
experience something they had inflicted on someone else and realize he is not above
God’s law. The deceivers are consumed by eternal fire; that seems a fitting punishment
for planning to hurt someone through deception, much like their plans to deceive
consumed their minds while living, the fire now consumes them after death (Alighieri
1547). But the ninth and tenth bolgias seem extreme for their crimes; the ninth bolgia
sees sinners cut in half for being sowers of discord, healing as they continue around the
circle and then split in half again (Alighieri 1553). The tenth bolgia punishes falsifiers
with various diseases and laid out in various positions “some sprawled out on others’
bellies, some on others’ backs, and some, on hands and knees, dragged themselves along
that squalid alley” (Alighieri 1557). Metaphorically, the splitting of the sowers of discord
makes perfect sense, punishment is similar to the crime, but it still seems extreme mainly
because Dante classifies the sowing of discord as a “simple fraud.” But the last bolgia’s
punishment seems odd because the sinners are alchemists, thieves, counterfeiters and
overall liars. Most people lie at once least in their life timeand would place the sin of
lying above violence, so Dante raises the question “Could anyone end up in this bolgia
for lying? Even if it’s a small lie?” Upon entering the Ninth Circle the punishments seem
less violent; the treacherous are frozen in Lake Cocytus, some up to their chins and others
completely frozen in contorted positions. The only punishment that seems like it ranks
with those in the Eight Circle is that of Judas, Brutus and Cassius; they are eternally
gnawed on by Lucifer’s three heads and Judas is skinned by Lucifer’s claws (Alighieri
1574-1575). The punishments of the fraudulent seem more important for Dante to share
than those of the Ninth Circle, especially those of the falsifiers.
The tenth bolgia also seems to be the climax for the story because it is split into
these four other sections and is placed directly above the treacherous. The tenth bolgia is
split into four distinct types of sinners: falsifiers of metals, of other persons’ identities, of
coins and finally of words. So the tenth bolgia is filled with liars of all types. There seems
to be a connection in Dante’s ranking of severity between the liars/falsifiers and those
found in the Ninth Circle. The connection is prevalent when one looks into the cause of
Dante’s exile from Florence. In 1300, Pope Boniface excommunicated almost all six
magistrates that stood against him in Florence, and “Dante was given a pass only because
his term of service would soon end” (Belliotti 7). In 1301, Dante and two others were
sent as envoys to petition the Pope but Dante was detained and when the Black Guelfs
revolted and became the new political party of Florence. Dante was exiled for two years
and eventually for the rest of his life based on “fabricated charges” (Belliotti 7-8). Not
only was Dante a politician who probably committed some simple fraud during his tenure
but he was also greatly betrayed by the papacy he supported as well as his political
comrades. Upon reflection Dante related the sin of lying as the starting point to the sin of
treachery and therefore placed the two the farthest down and so close to one another in
Hell. Lying can lead to betrayal and other simple frauds generally involve a certain
degree of lying. Deceivers lie during their deception, hypocrites lie by saying they are
above a law others are held to, corrupt politicians lie as we still see today, soothsayers lie
about being able to see the future, and even sowers of discord lie like Mahomet in
Dante’s view. Mahomet lied by forming his new religion and creating discord in
Christian unity (Alighieri 1553). Flatterers lie by using false sincerity when giving
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praise, and simonists lie about stealing money from God’s church. Liars are found in the
tenth Borgia because it can be found at the root of almost all of the other simple frauds
found in the Eighth Circle.
Although many would view the appearance of Lucifer in Dante’s poem, The
Inferno, as the climax of the piece I believe the climax is actually in the previous circle of
Hell: the Eighth Circle, or Malebolge. The Eighth Circle is split into ten divisions, ten
different “ditches” where the fraudulent are punished for their specific fraud. The Pilgrim
Dante and his guide Virgil spend almost one third of the poem going through the Eighth
Circle’s ten subdivisions and describing the sins and respective punishments seen there.
The Eight Circle sees not only a change in Dante’s character but also more violence and
severity in the punishments considered “simple fraud.” The tenth bolgia is split into four
more sections and places liars directly above the treacherous. The Eighth Circle seems to
be the pinnacle of the piece because Alighieri wants people to realize that the fraudulent
and the treacherous are related. Alighieri’s own experience with liars and betrayal seems
to be the main reason that Malebolge is the actual climax of the poem. While Lucifer
seems terrifying the only sinners who are violently punished are Judas, Brutus and
Cassius. The Eighth circle seems to be the most violent section of the piece and is even
placed below the violent. It seems that to Dante, and his Inferno, lying is the second
worst sin anyone could commit because it was the root for other fraudulent sins and even
backstabbing and betrayal.
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Works Cited
Alighieri, Dante. "The Inferno." The Divine Comedy. Trans. Mark Musa. The Norton
Anthology of Western Literature. Ed. Sarah N. Lawall, Heather James, Lee
Patterson, Patricia Meyer Spacks, and William G. Thalmann. New York: W.W.
Norton, 2006.1465-1576. Print.
Belliotti, Raymond Angelo. “Intoduction.” Dante’s Seven Deadly Sins: Moral Philosophy
in Hell. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. 1-18. Ebrary. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.