By: Michael Jaramillo
Introduction
• Written by Dante Alighieri in 1314.
• Dante’s Inferno is the first part of The Divine Comedy.
• There are three parts to The Divine Comedy: Inferno,
Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
• Comedy did not mean humor when The Divine Comedy
was written.
• The title Divine Comedy refers to the ancient definition of
Comedy, which describes the perfect union of man and
God in heaven.
• The Divine Comedy was written between 1308 and the
year of Dante’s death, 1321.
Inferno
• The Inferno covers
Dante’s journey through
the Nine Circles of Hell.
• Dante is guided by Virgil
through Hell so that
Dante can eventually get
to Heaven.
• Each sinner suffers
something similar to the
sin they committed.
• There are XXXIV Cantos in
Inferno.
The Beginning
• Dante is around 35 years old and
finds himself in a dark forest.
• He encounters three beasts (a
leopard, a lion, and a wolf).
• While fleeing, he meets Virgil.
• Virgil explains that Dante must
travel through Hell to get to
Heaven.
• Virgil also explains that Beatrice
(someone Dante loved) and St.
Lucy sent him to help Dante.
• Virgil tells Dante that only two
other men have ever journeyed
through Hell, Aeneas and St. Paul.
• Canto I and Canto II takes place.
First Circle: Limbo
• At the beginning of Canto III, Dante and Virgil stand
outside the gates of Hell.
• Dante sees Pope Celestine V and other historical
figures here.
• Virgil lives in Limbo because he never knew of
Christianity, but he and three other poets have God’s
special favor.
• In Canto IV, Dante asks Virgil if he witnessed the
harrowing of Hell.
• The harrowing of Hell was allegedly when Jesus went
through Hell between his death and resurrection and
saved the especially virtuous souls of Hell.
Second Circle: Lust
•
•
•
•
Canto V marks the entrance into the Second Circle.
Dante and Virgil pass by Minos, the judge of the dead.
Minos is from Greek mythology.
Dante sees Francesca da Polenta and Paolo Malatesta.
Francesca and Paolo had an affair, but were discovered by
Francesca’s husband, Giovanni Malatesta, who killed the
two lovers.
• Paolo Malatesta was Giovanni’s brother.
• Francesca tells Dante that her husband will be in a deeper
circle of Hell for murdering his wife and brother.
• Dante then faints with pity.
Third Circle: Gluttony
• Canto VI begins when Dante regains his
consciousness, he and Virgil are in Third Circle of
Hell, Gluttony.
• Dante and Virgil have to pass by Cerberus, the
legendary three-headed dog.
• Cerberus is the guard of the Damned.
• Dante asks Virgil what will happened during the
Second Coming of Christ to which Virgil replies
that they will be returned to their bodies and
their eternal torment will increase.
Fourth Circle: Avaricious and the
Prodigality
• In Canto VII, Virgil and Dante have entered the
Fourth Circle of Hell.
• They are challenged by Plutus, god of wealth.
• The Fourth Circle is inhabited by those who were
greedy.
• The avaricious were people who hoarded their
possessions (clergyman, popes, and cardinals) are
here.
• The prodigal are people who had wealth and
wasted it.
Fifth Circle: Wrath and Sullenness
• Canto VIII begins with Dante and Virgil arriving at Styx,
a marsh filled with the souls of the angry and the
sullen.
• The angry souls are on top attacking one another while
the sullen are below the water, at the bottom, gasping
for air.
• Phlegyas takes the duo across Styx to the city of Dis.
• While being taken across the marsh, a soul claims to
know Dante. The soul is that of Filippo Argenti, a
wealthy noble from Florence. Filippo was responsible
for increasing the violence in Florence.
Sixth Circle: Hersey
• After crossing Styx reach Dis, the gateway to deeper Hell.
• The devils of Dis refuse Dante and Virgil entrance and send the Gorgons
out to attack them.
• An angel from Heaven appears and commands the devils to let Dante and
Virgil pass.
• Dante and Virgil enter Dis to discover a large graveyard in flames, the circle
for heretics.
• When Canto X starts, a soul, Farinata degli Uberti, recognizes Dante and
the two address each other with respect.
• The Ghibellines were a Florentine family that fought the Guelfs, the family
Dante belonged to.
• In Canto XI, Dante and Virgil stop at the burning tomb of Pope Anastasius,
who, in the fifth century, denied the divine birth of Jesus Christ.
• Virgil then explains the layout of the rest of Hell.
Seventh Circle: Violence
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Seventh Circle is divided into three sections: the violent against others, the violent
against self (suicides), and the violent against God and his creations (blasphemers, usurers,
and sodomites).
In Canto XII, Dante and Virgil go to border between the Sixth and Seventh circles. They spot
the Minotaur and flee to Seventh Circle.
The Seventh Circle is guarded by centaurs who shot arrows at those who try to escape.
The first part of the Seventh Circle has to violent against others standing in boiling blood.
Dante sees Alexander the Great up to his eyebrows in blood.
The second part of the Seventh Circle has to suicides who are turned into trees. In canto XIII,
Virgil has Dante snap a twig off one tree and the tree bleeds. The tree tells Dante that during
the second coming, their bodies will hang from the branches of the trees their soul occupies.
The last part of the Seventh Circle and the beginning of Canto XIV has the violent against God
and his creations. A large desert that rains fire is filled with the sinners. The blasphemers
have to lie on their backs, the usurers sit, and the sodomites walk around.
Virgil and Dante walk across the desert in a stream with paved banks. Virgil explains that the
rivers in the underworld all come from a man in Crete made up of different metals that
represent the ages of man. The man is split in two and tears pour out and into the
afterworld.
Eighth Circle: Fraud
• In Canto XVII, Virgil and Dante ride the Geryon, a creature who represent
hypocrisy. The Geryon has the face of a man, a serpents body, two hairy
arms, and a scorpions tail.
• The eighth circle is called Malebogle, or Evil Pouches. It has ten canyons
for each type of fraud.
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Bolgia 1: Pimps and Seducers
Bolgia 2: Flatters
Bolgia 3: Simony (Corrupt Clergyman)
Bolgia 4: Sorcerers, Astrologers, and False Prophets
Bolgia 5: Corrupt Politicians
Bolgia 6: Hypocrites
Bolgia 7: Thieves
Bolgia 8: False Advisers
Bolgia 9: Sowers of Discord
Bolgia 10: Falsifiers
Bolgia 1-3
• Bolgia 1 has the seducers and pimps being
marched and whipped by demons.
• Bolgia 2 has flatters forced to stand in human
excrement, supposedly to symbolize the
words they used.
• Bolgia 3 has the corrupted clergyman buried
headfirst with flames engulfing their feet.
Dante talks to Pope Nicholas II in Canto XIX,
whose flame is redder than the others.
Bolgia 4-7
• Bolgia 4 has the mystics and sorcerers walking forward with
their heads facing backward so that they may only see
behind them.
• Bolgia 5 has the corrupt politicians submerged in boiling tar
with devils battering the souls who come with hooks. Two
devils allow Dante and Virgil to pass on to Bolgia 6.
• Bolgia 6 is home to the hypocrites who are forced to wear
cloaks made of lead that gilded in gold. Others are crucified
to the ground and are trembled by the walkers.
• Bolgia 7 is where to thieves are in hell. The thieves are
chased by many snakes. When bitten, the thieves burn up
and the snakes turns into the thieves.
Bolgia 8-10
• Bolgia 8 is where the false advisers are on fire for
eternity. One soul is that of Ulysses, who like
Dante, came upon the mountain of Purgatory, but
died instead gaining divine assistance.
• Bolgia 9 is where the souls who caused
disruptions are dismembered or cut open.
• Bolgia 10 is where falsifiers are cursed to have
horrible skin conditions like uncontrollable
swelling.
Ninth Circle: Betrayal
• The Ninth Circle is divided into four parts:
Caina, Antenora, Ptolomea, and Judecca.
• The entire Ninth Circle is frozen in ice.
• Caina is where the treacherous to family are
frozen so their bodies and face are in the ice.
Dante asks who one soul is, but the soul
refuses. A neighbor soul, however, calls the
first soul’s name out and all the other souls’
names out.
Antenora and Ptolomea
• Antenora is home to the treacherous of country. The souls are
frozen like in Caina, but their faces point forward. Like in Caina as
well, the souls betray another when Dante asks who one soul is.
• In Canto XXXIII, Dante and Virgil spot two souls frozen together; one
behind the other. The back soul is biting and chewing on the head
of the first. They are Archbishop Ruggieri (front) and Count Ugolino
of Pisa. Ugolino was betrayed by Ruggieri, who locked Ugolino and
his two sons and two grandchildren in jail and let them starve to
death.
• Ptolomea has the souls of the treacherous to guests frozen so their
face points upward and their tears freeze and blind them. One soul
cries out to the duo. He is Fra Alberigo who invited his younger
brother and son to a banquet and murdered them. Dante says that
Alberigo is still living, but Alberigo tells Dante that when a horrible
sin is committed, the soul goes straight to hell, while to body
becomes possessed by a devil.
Judecca
• After leaving Ptolomea, Dante and Virgil arrive at the final
part of Hell.
• Dante sees Satan for the first time. Satan has three pairs of
wings that freeze him and the souls in the Ninth Circle.
Satan has three faces (red, yellow, and black) and he cries
tears of blood. In his three mouths, he mangles the three
souls of Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius.
• Judas betrayed Christ while Brutus and Cassius betrayed
Julius Caesar.
• Virgil tells Dante to grab hold of him. Virgil carries Dante
through a gap in the rock and the are now under Satan.
Virgil tells Dante that they must now begin the journey
through Purgatory.
The End of the Inferno
• Dante and Virgil
continue on their
journey to Heaven.
• The Inferno was not
only a religious poem,
but a largely political
one as well.
• Dante died seven years
after Inferno’s
completion.