CIRCLE 1 – LIMBO
Gustave Doré's engravings illustrated the Divine Comedy (1861–1868); here Dante is lost in Canto 1 of the Inferno
Inferno (Italian for "Hell") is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio
and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is
depicted as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth. Allegorically, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul
towards God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin. [1]
I had no regard/ for my eternal future
this is a journey/ for my soul’s sake, it must endure
an effort of redemption/His intentions, sincere,
a pilgrimage, through this/hellish nightmare
Here Light and Love/ eludes
Here darkness invades/ these souls to their roots
trapped here in Limbo/ in Dante’s inferno
the devil’s nine layers / of hell.
(regard = concern)
(endure = deal with, suffer through)
(limbo = undecided/waiting)
CIRCLE 2
After coming down a ledge, the Poets (Dante and Virgil) enter the second circle where first they meet the beast
Minos. He assigns each soul its final place and torment. Beyond Minos are the first souls truly punished in
Hell, the Lustful, or Carnal. These souls are caught in a constant whirlwind. Just as they gave up reason to be
caught up in their passions, forever are they caught up in the wind of Hell.
DANTE: And this, I learned, was the never ending flight of those who sinned in the flesh, the carnal and lusty
who betrayed reason to their appetite.
As the wings of wintering starlings bear them on in their great wheeling flights, just so the blast wherries these
evil souls through time foregone.
Here, there, up, down, they whirl and, whirling, strain with never a hope of hope to comfort them, not of
release, but even of less pain.
The lusty and carnal who betrayed reason for pleasure
Are caught up in a tempest of sensual displeasure
Here, there, up, down, whirling, they whirl, they strain
With never a hope of release, but even of less pain
CIRCLE 3
CIRCLE 3: The circle of the Gluttons is a dump of garbage and filth. The souls here, guilty of gluttony, did
nothing more with the gifts of God than to consume food and drink--they themselves produced nothing but
garbage, and therefore, that's what they receive and live in for all time. They are further tortured by freezing rain
and are ripped apart by the jaws of the beast, Cerberus.
I am in the Third Circle of the torments. Here to all time with neither pause nor change the frozen rain of Hell
decends in torrents.
CIRCLE 3: A storm of freezing rain, dirty snow, and huge hailstones fall on the Gluttons. It creates a horrible
slush which covers the ground in Circle 3. The sinners, naked, with nowhere to hide, must suffer the cold
torrent from above, and the icy paste from below. As for these souls, though they can never soar to true
perfection, still in the New Time they will be nearer it than they were before.'
DANTE: I see new torments and new souls in pain about me everywhere. Wherever I turn away from grief I
turn to grief again. And they, too, howl like dogs in the freezing storm, turning and turning from it as if they
thought one naked side could keep the other warm.
• Explain the three separate kinds of moral failure (three major themes of Dante’s Inferno): incontinence,
violence, and fraud.
Incontinence
Incontinence is not being able to control yourself. For example, you may not be able to control
your sexual desire (lust) or your desire for food and drink (gluttony).
Those here__ in circle three / did nothing with their lives
Gluttonous incontinence consumed their appetites
They howl like dogs in pain in hell’s freezing rain
As ice, slush, and hailstones / descend[plummet] upon their frames.
CIRCLE 4
CIRCLE 4: The sinners in this circle are divided into two kinds, Hoaders and Wasters.Like misers, the Hoarders
amassed their wealth all for themselves. While the Wasters, used up all they had on fruitless ventures and
materials.
Their punishment is the same: great weights, boulders, they push upon and strain at, clashing them against each
other again and again for all time.nd Virgil don't stay long, only to speak with one soul, Ciacco.
DANTE: Here, too, I saw a nation of lost souls, far more than were above: they strained their chests against
enormous weights, and with mad howls rolled them at one another. Then in haste, they rolled them back, one
party shouting out: 'Why do you hoard?' and the other: 'Why do you waste?'
VIRGIL: In the first life beneath the sun they were so skewed and squinteyed in their minds their misering or
extravagance mocked all reason.The voice of each clamors its own excess when lust meets lust at the two points
of the circle where opposite guilts meet in their wretchedness. These tonsured wraiths of greed were priests
indeed, and popes and cardinals, for it is in these the weed of avarice sows its rankest seed.'
The fourth sphere contains those who in their lives
were squint-eyed, miserly, skewed in their minds.
Their love of money superseded all reason.
They lost their identity, this was their treason.
Forced to roll stones in opposite bands of a circle
till they meet and crash, do it again, unending cycle
One screams, “Why do you hoard? The other, why do you waste?
No hope of liberty, their eternal fate.
Forced to push stones against each other, each saying the other is wrong in the way they manage
money. Fitting because they are both bad but on opposite ends of the spectrum. For their imbalanced
lifestyle they must forever work against each other to even each other out.
Chief Sinners: Unknown, an aspect of the sin that they commited: money takes over identity.
CIRCLE 5
CIRCLE 5
The souls of the Wrathful are trapped in the filthy slime of Styx, violently attacking each other. Deep below the surface, unseen by anyone, is also
the souls of the Sullen--those that shut out the light of sun from their lives, they forever suffer in the darkest place in Hell.
VIRGIL: Behold the souls of those who lived in wrath. And do you see the broken surfaces of those water-holes on every hand, boiling as if in
pain? There are souls beneath that water. Fixed in slime they speak their piece, end it, and start again:
''Sullen were we in the air made sweet by the Sun; in the glory of his shining our hearts poured a bitter smoke. Sullen were we begun; sullen
we lie forever in this ditch.''
In Canto VII, Dante makes Styx “a slough of despond” – a swamp rather than a river, at least in this circle of the Inferno. In the mud
(muck, slime) of this swamp he places both the Wrathful and the Sullen. This pairing suggests that Dante regarded anger and
depression as two sides of the same coin. The common modern view is that depression is anger turned inward.
Trapped in circle five, the sludge of the Styx
Lie souls of the wrathful, violent, and wretched
Climbing, then sinking, they scramble and smother
Doomed to spend eternity pulverizing one another
And here, too, you’ll find the depressed and sad-choked
In the glory of His shining their hearts poured a bitter smoke
They said, “Once in the air made sweet by the sun”
Sullen are we here, but “sullen were we begun.”
CIRCLE 6
CIRCLE 6: The City of Dis is the capital of Hell. Like many things in the underworld, it is a distorted version
of its heavenly counterpart, the New Jerusalem, in Heaven--Dis mocks its goodness and stands opposite in
purpose. The walls of the city, and its towers of flames, mark a division in Hell; up to now Dante has been in
Upper Hell. Beyond the gates is Lower Hell. Guarding the gates of Dis are the Rebellious Angels, now turned
from beautiful to hideous. They refuse the Poets passage, and even Virgil cannot convince them to allow it, as
he did many times before. Allegorically, Human Reason cannot can't deal with evil by itself. Therefore, divine
assistance must help them; for that reason, Virgil prays.
Beyond the gates of Dis beginning with Circle 6,
are God’s fallen stars, once beautiful, now hideous.
This capital of hell is a distorted version of
its heavenly counterpart, that city where God art.
In the sixth circle’s sphere, suffering, torment, pain is multiplied
For heretics who renounced, denied the truth of eternal life
fixed in open tombs of flames, the final blow on Judgment Day
When lids are closed, what they professed became the price they sadly paid.
HERETICS: The Heretics lie in tombs, made of iron and blazing hot from great flames in and around them.
The lids of the tombs are scattered on the ground instead of coverin the graves. Virgil explains that at the Day
of Judgement, the lids will cover and seal the tombs forever. Heretics are those that deny God's existence, and
they don't believe in eternal life. Therefore they are put to eternal death in this vast firey cemetery.
BROKEN CLIFF: The terrible air of Circle 7 rises to them and it is so foul, they must pause for shelter behind
one of the great stones that lay about.
HOLY MESSENGER: After waiting anxiously, and while warding off the threats of the Furies and Medusa, an
Angel, a Holy Messenger from Heaven arrives. He was sent by God in answer to Virgil's prayer for help. The
Angel arrives with the sounds of thunder and the power of a great storm which shakes the ground and terrifies
all the damned. But to Dante, it is a relief, and a beautiful site. The Angel flies through without looking left or
right; Hell has no effect on him, except he fans the stench of Hell from his face. He scorns the devils for their
rebellion, touches the gate, and it opens without hesitation. Then, he leaves as he came, not speaking to the
Poets, 'like one preoccupied,' describes Dante.
CIRCLE 7
CIRCLE 7: Circle 7 is divided into three kinds of Violence:
1) Violent against Neighbors on the bloody River Phlegethon;
In the seventh Circle, I saw three distinct divisions
the plight of the unrepentant violent emerges.
In the seventh Circle, I saw three distinct subdivisions
The violent against God, nature, and self emerges
VIRGIL (Dante’s guide):
It was then, that here and elsewhere in the pits of Hell’s [den],
the ancient rock was stricken and then broke open.
But turn your eyes to the valley; where we shall find
the river of boiling blood and those who struck down others’ lives
Violence against self in the Wood of Suicides
Violence against God and nature; fiery rain and sands of fire
in which are steeped all who struck down their fellow men.'
Violence against self in the Wood of Suicides
Are given new bodies, as trees they stand and try to hide
Violence against God, art, and nature lend their hand
to a slow rain of fire from above as they run upon the burning sand.
Violence against nature
Those who committed violence against their bodies
are given and bodies of wood and .
Violence against themselves, nature, and God
The ones who made war and shed the blood of their neighbors-wallow in the River of Blood themselves forever
The Violent against their Neighbors is the first level in Circle 7. Here are punished the ones who made battle
and war on countries and people around them. Evil tyrants are included here as well.
These sinners are punished in two ways:
1) They are smothered underneath the boiling-hot River of Blood, the Phlegethon. All their violence caused
bloodshed of their neighbors, therefore, they will wallow in blood themselves forever.
2) The centaurs stab them with spears and shoot them with arrows when they try to rise from the river. Because
of their own violence to others, now the violence is forever upon them.
2) Violent against Self in the Wood of Suicides; and
The second level of the Violent is the suicides, or the Violent against themselves.
The souls of those who destroyed their bodies or their substance are here made into thorny trees. This mutation
is not their only torment, there are several:
1) Since they destroyed their own bodies, they are denied any resemblance to a body in Hell. Instead, their
substance is the wood of trees.
2) Their leaves are painfully eaten by the Harpies, mythological birds which destroy all they touch.
3) When their leaves or braches are plucked, they bleed--and it is the only moments in which they can speak.
4) Their wounds from the birds heal, enabling the wounds to reoccur and the Harpies to eat at them eternally.
3) Violent against God, Art, and Nature on the Burning Sand.
After the Wood of Suicides, Dante and Virgil come to a Plain of Burning Sand where laid out are more sinners
of violence. On the Burning Sand are 3 more kinds of violence and punishment as follows:
1) The Violent against God are Blasphemers. They are stretched out upon the Sand. Because these sinners
were violent to God, they feel God's wrath: a slow rain of fire from above.
2) The Violent against Nature are the Sodomites. They continually run in circles upon the fire of the sand, the
wrath of nature.
3) The Violent against Art are the Usurers. They are huddled, or crouched, on the firey ground.
VIRGIL: If I am not mistaken, it was just before the coming of Him who took the souls of Limbo, that all Hell
was shaken so that I thought the universe felt love and all its elements moved toward harmony, whereby the
world of matter, as some believe, has often plunged to chaos. It was then, that here and elsewhere in the pits of
Hell, the ancient rock was stricken and broke open. But turn your eyes to the valley; where we shall find the
river of boiling blood in which are steeped all who struck down their fellow men.'
CIRCLE 8
CIRCLE 8
The first two groups of the Fraudulent are the Panderers and Seducers--set in the same Bolgia (ditch) together.
They are endlessly driven like cattle by the demons and their whips. Their sin is that they drove others to serve
their own evil wills and now they are themselves driven by evil.
In Bolgia 2 The Sowers of Discord are those that separated what God had joined. Just so, they are cut and
hacked up by a demon with a sharp sword. After they are cut to pieces, they are compelled to walk around
dragging whatever they have left of themselves. As they walk, they heal so that the torture may happen again,
and again, forever.
In Bolgia 3 The souls of the Deceivers, or Evil Counselors, cannot be seen because they are covered in raging
fire--before entering, the Poets look down upon Bolgia 8 from a ledge. The Evil Counselors misused or abused
the Gifts given to them by God for their own evil doings. Their acts were hidden from the world, and so they
are hidden from all sight in Hell as they are forever consumed by flames.
In Bolgia 4 are the Fortune Tellers and Diviners. They attempted to see into the future by forbidden means.
Therefore, they must forever walk backwards while their heads are turned around on their bodies--they forever
look behind them as they try to walk in a forward manner. But, added to their torment, their eyes are so full of
tears they cannot even see.
In Bolgia 5 In the allegory of the Inferno, nothing happens by accident. Although the Poets found their only
escape from the demons by sliding down into this Bolgia, it is for a purpose. Dante is using this as a means to
say that we must all face our own hypocrisy. Hypocrites are, of course, those people that appear good on the
outside, but are evil on the inside--they are fraudulent like all the others in Circle 8. They are forced to wear
heavy robes and walk in circles--they can never again show their true appearance since they hid it from the
world.
DANTE: There is in Hell a vast and sloping ground called Malebolge, a lost place of stone as black as the great
cliff that seals it round. Precisely in the center of that space there yawns a well extremely wide and deep ... The
border that remains between the well-pit and the great cliff forms an enormous circle, and ten decending troughs
are cut in it, offering a general prospect like the ground that lies around one of those ancient castles whose wass
are girded many times around by concentric moats.
CIRCLE 9
CIRCLE 9
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The final circle, called Cocytus, is the coldest place Hell. Everything from the rivers, to the blood, to the guilt,
all drain here and solidify into a terrible sheet of ice that encases the worst sinners of all, including Satan
himself. Treachery lacks all love, and therefore, these sinners are denied any warmth. Since they denied God's
love, they are the furthest down in the pit of Hell. Cocytus marks the furthest point in the Universe away from
God. In geographic terms, it is the center of the Earth--whereas Satan is the center of evil.
Caina is named for Cain--the brother and murderer of Abel in the Genesis account. The sinners here are stuck in
the ice up to their necks--they can move their necks and bow their heads. They, like Cain, were treacherous
against members of their own blood.
DANTE: Do not ask, Reader, how my blood ran cold and my voice choked up with fear. I cannot write it: this
is a terror that cannot be told. I did not die, and yet I lost life's breath: imagine for yourself what I became,
deprived at once of both my life and death. The Emperor of the Universe of Pain jutted his upper chest above
the ice ... If he was once as beautiful as now he is hideous, and still turned on his Maker, well may he be the
source of every woe!
The poem begins on the day before Good Friday in the year 1300. The narrator, Dante himself, is thirty-five
years old, and thus "halfway along our life's path" (Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita)—half of the Biblical
life expectancy of seventy (Psalms 89:10, Vulgate). The poet finds himself lost in a dark wood in front of a
mountain, assailed by three beasts (a lion, a lonza [ usually rendered as "leopard" or "leopon"],[2] and a shewolf) he cannot evade. Unable to find the "straight way" (diritta via, also translatable as "right way") to
salvation, he is conscious that he is ruining himself and falling into a "deep place" (basso loco) where the sun is
silent (l sol tace). Dante is at last rescued by the Roman poet Virgil, who claims to have been sent by Beatrice,
and the two of them begin their journey to the underworld. Each sin's punishment in Inferno is a contrapasso, a
symbolic instance of poetic justice; for example, fortune-tellers have to walk forward with their heads on
backward, unable to see what is ahead, because they tried, through forbidden means, to look ahead to the future
in life. Such a contrapasso "functions not merely as a form of divine revenge, but rather as the fulfilment of a
destiny freely chosen by each soul during his or her life."[3]
Dante passes through the gate of Hell, which bears an inscription, the ninth (and final) line of which is the
famous phrase "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", or "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."[4]
Before entering Hell completely, Dante and his guide see the Uncommitted, souls of people who in life did
nothing, neither for good nor evil; among these Dante recognizes either Pope Celestine V or Pontius Pilate (the
text is ambiguous). Mixed with them are outcasts who took no side in the Rebellion of Angels. These souls are
neither in Hell nor out of it, but reside on the shores of the Acheron, their punishment to eternally pursue a
banner (i.e. self interest) while pursued by wasps and hornets that continually sting them as maggots and other
such insects drink their blood and tears. This symbolizes the sting of their conscience and the repugnance of sin.
This can also be seen as a reflection of the spiritual stagnation they lived in. As with the Purgatorio and
Paradiso, the Inferno has a structure of 9+1=10, with this "vestibule" different in nature from the nine circles of
Hell, and separated from them by the Acheron.
The Barque of Dante by Eugène Delacroix
After passing through the "vestibule," Dante and Virgil reach the ferry that will take them across the river
Acheron and to Hell proper. The ferry is piloted by Charon, who does not want to let Dante enter, for he is a
living being. Virgil forces Charon to take him by means of another famous line: Vuolsi così colà dove si puote,
which translates to "So it is wanted there where the power lies," referring to the fact that Dante is on his journey
on divine grounds. The wailing and blasphemy of the damned souls entering Charon's boat contrast with the
joyful singing of the blessed souls arriving by ferry in the Purgatorio. However, the actual passage across the
Acheron is undescribed since Dante faints and does not wake up until he is on the other side.
Virgil then guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell. The circles are concentric, representing a gradual
increase in wickedness, and culminating at the centre of the earth, where Satan is held in bondage. Each circle's
sinners are punished in a fashion fitting their crimes: each sinner is afflicted for all of eternity by the chief sin he
committed. People who sinned but prayed for forgiveness before their deaths are found not in Hell but in
Purgatory, where they labour to be free of their sins. Those in Hell are people who tried to justify their sins and
are unrepentant.
Allegorically, the Inferno represents the Christian soul seeing sin for what it really is. What the three beasts may
represent has been the subject of much controversy over the centuries, but one suggestion is that they represent
three types of sin: the self-indulgent, the violent, and the malicious.[5] These three types of sin also provide the
three main divisions of Dante's Hell: Upper Hell (the first 5 Circles) for the self-indulgent sins, Circles 6 and 7
for the violent sins, and Circles 8 and 9 for the malicious sins.
[edit] The nine circles of Hell
The Harrowing of Hell, in a 14th-century illuminated manuscript, the Petites Heures de Jean de Berry
[edit] First Circle (Limbo)
In Limbo reside the unbaptized and the virtuous pagans, who, though not sinful, did not accept Christ. Limbo
shares many characteristics with the Asphodel Meadows; thus the guiltless damned are punished by living in a
deficient form of Heaven. Without baptism ("the portal of the faith that you embrace"[6]) they lacked the hope
for something greater than rational minds can conceive. Limbo includes green fields and a castle with seven
gates to represent the seven virtues. The castle is the dwelling place of the wisest men of antiquity, including
Virgil himself, as well as the Persian polymath Avicenna. In the castle Dante meets the poets Homer, Horace,
Ovid, and Lucan; the Amazon queen Penthesilea; the mathematician Euclid; the scientist Pedanius Dioscorides;
the statesman Cicero; the first doctor Hippocrates; the philosophers Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Averroes; the
historical figures Lucretia, Lucius Junius Brutus, and Julius Caesar in his role as Roman general ("in his armor,
falcon-eyed"[7]); mythological characters Hector, Electra, Camilla, Latinus, and Orpheus; and many others.
Interestingly, he also sees Saladin in Limbo (Canto IV). Dante implies that all virtuous non-Christians find
themselves here, although he later encounters two (Cato of Utica and Statius) in Purgatory and two (Trajan and
Ripheus) in Heaven.
Beyond the first circle, all of those condemned for active, deliberately willed sin are judged to one of the lower
eight circles by the serpentine Minos. Minos initially hinders the poets' passage, until rebuked by Virgil. Minos
sentences each soul by wrapping his tail around himself a corresponding number of times. The lower circles are
structured according to the classical (Aristotelian) conception of virtue and vice, so that they are grouped into
the sins of wantonness, violence, and fraud (which for many commentators are represented by the leopard, lion,
and she-wolf[8]). The sins of wantonness – weakness in controlling one's desires and natural urges – are the
mildest among them, and, correspondingly, appear first, while the sins of violence and fraud appear lower
down.
[edit] Second Circle (Lust)
Gianciotto Discovers Paolo and Francesca by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
In the second circle of Hell are those overcome by lust. Dante condemns these "carnal malefactors"[9] for letting
their appetites sway their reason. They are the first ones to be truly punished in Hell. These souls are blown
back and forth by the terrible winds of a violent storm, without rest. This symbolizes the power of lust to blow
one about needlessly and aimlessly.
In this circle, Dante sees Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Achilles, Paris, Tristan, and many others
who were overcome by sensual love during their life. Dante is told by Francesca da Rimini how she and her
husband's brother Paolo Malatesta committed adultery, but then died a violent death, in the name of Love, at the
hands of her husband, Giovanni (Gianciotto). Francesca reports that their act of adultery was triggered by
reading the adulterous story of Lancelot and Guinevere (an episode sculpted by Auguste Rodin in The Kiss).
Nevertheless, she predicts that her husband will be punished for his fratricide in Caina, within the ninth circle
(Canto V).
The English poet John Keats, in his sonnet "On a Dream," imagines what Dante does not give us, the point of
view of Paolo:
"... But to that second circle of sad hell,
Where ‘mid the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw
Of rain and hail-stones, lovers need not tell
Their sorrows. Pale were the sweet lips I saw,
Pale were the lips I kiss’d, and fair the form
I floated with, about that melancholy storm."[10]
[edit] Third Circle (Gluttony)
The third circle, illustrated by Stradanus
Cerberus as illustrated by Gustave Doré
The "great worm" Cerberus guards the gluttons, forced to lie in a vile slush produced by ceaseless foul, icy rain
(Virgil obtains safe passage past the monster by filling its three mouths with mud). In her notes on this circle,
Dorothy L. Sayers writes that "the surrender to sin which began with mutual indulgence leads by an
imperceptible degradation to solitary self-indulgence."[11] The gluttons lie here sightless and heedless of their
neighbors, symbolizing the cold, selfish, and empty sensuality of their lives.[11] Just as lust has revealed its true
nature in the winds of the previous circle, here the slush reveals the true nature of sensuality – which includes
not only overindulgence in food and drink, but also other kinds of addiction.[12]
In this circle, Dante converses with a Florentine contemporary identified as Ciacco, which means "hog."[13] A
character with the same nickname later appears in The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio.[14] Ciacco speaks to
Dante regarding strife in Florence between the "White" and "Black" Guelphs. In one of a number of prophecies
in the poem, Ciacco "predicts" the expulsion of the White party, to which Dante belonged, and which led to
Dante's own exile. This event occurred in 1302, after the date in which the poem is set, but before the poem was
written[13] (Canto VI).
[edit] Fourth Circle (Greed)
In Gustave Doré's illustrations for the fourth circle, the weights are huge money bags.
Those whose attitude toward material goods deviated from the appropriate mean are punished in the fourth
circle. They include the avaricious or miserly (including many "clergymen, and popes and cardinals"[15]), who
hoarded possessions, and the prodigal, who squandered them. The two groups are guarded by a figure Dante
names as Pluto, either Pluto the classical ruler of the underworld or Plutus the Greek god of wealth[16] (who uses
the cryptic phrase Papé Satàn, papé Satàn aleppe), but Virgil protects Dante from him. The two groups joust,
using as weapons great weights which they push with their chests:
"… I saw multitudes
to every side of me; their howls were loud
while, wheeling weights, they used their chests to push.
They struck against each other; at that point,
each turned around and, wheeling back those weights,
cried out: Why do you hoard? Why do you squander?' "[17]
The contrast between these two groups leads Virgil to discourse on the nature of Fortune, who raises nations to
greatness, and later plunges them into poverty, as she shifts "those empty goods from nation unto nation, clan to
clan."[18] This speech fills what would otherwise be a gap in the poem, since both groups are so absorbed in
their activity that Virgil tells Dante that it would be pointless to try to speak to them – indeed, they have lost
their individuality, and been rendered "unrecognizable"[19] (Canto VII).
[edit] Fifth Circle (Anger)
The fifth circle, illustrated by Stradanus
Lower Hell, inside the walls of Dis, in an illustration by Stradanus. There is a drop from the sixth circle to the
three rings of the seventh circle, then again to the ten rings of the eighth circle, and, at the bottom, to the icy
ninth circle.
In the swamp-like water of the river Styx, the wrathful fight each other on the surface, and the sullen lie
gurgling beneath the water, withdrawn "into a black sulkiness which can find no joy in God or man or the
universe."[20] Phlegyas reluctantly transports Dante and Virgil across the Styx in his skiff. On the way they are
accosted by Filippo Argenti, a Black Guelph from a prominent family. When Dante was forced to leave
Florence, Argenti took all his property. When Dante responds "In weeping and in grieving, accursed spirit, may
you long remain,"[21] Virgil blesses him. Literally, this reflects the fact that souls in Hell are eternally fixed in
the state they have chosen, but allegorically, it reflects Dante's beginning awareness of his own sin[22] (Cantos
VII and VIII).
The lower parts of Hell are contained within the walls of the city of Dis, which is itself surrounded by the
Stygian marsh. Punished within Dis are active (rather than passive) sins. The walls of Dis are guarded by fallen
angels. Virgil is unable to convince them to let Dante and him enter, and Dante is threatened by the Furies
(consisting of Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone) and Medusa. An angel sent from Heaven secures entry for the
poets, opening the gate by touching it with a wand, and rebukes those who opposed Dante. Allegorically, this
reveals the fact that the poem is beginning to deal with sins that philosophy and humanism cannot fully
understand. Virgil also mentions to Dante how Erichtho sent him down to the lowest circle of Hell to bring back
a spirit from there.[22] (Cantos VIII and IX).
[edit] Sixth Circle (Heresy)
In the sixth circle, Heretics, such as Epicureans (who say "the soul dies with the body"[23]) are trapped in
flaming tombs. Dante holds discourse with a pair of Epicurian Florentines in one of the tombs: Farinata degli
Uberti, a Ghibelline (posthumously condemned for heresy in 1283); and Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, a Guelph,
who was the father of Dante's friend and fellow poet Guido Cavalcanti. The political affiliation of these two
men allows for a further discussion of Florentine politics (Canto X). Also seen here are Epicurus, Emperor
Frederick II, and Pope Anastasius II.
In response to a question from Dante about the "prophecy" he has received, Farinata explains that what the souls
in Hell know of life on earth comes from seeing the future, not from any observation of the present.
Consequently, when "the portal of the future has been shut,"[24] it will no longer be possible for them to know
anything.
Pausing for a moment before the steep descent to the foul-smelling seventh circle, Virgil explains the geography
and rationale of Lower Hell, in which violent and malicious sins are punished. In this explanation, he refers to
the Nicomachean Ethics and the Physics of Aristotle (Canto XI). In particular, he asserts that there are only two
legitimate sources of wealth: natural resources ("nature") and human activity ("art"). Usury, to be punished in
the next circle, is therefore an offence against both:[25]
"From these two, art and nature, it is fitting,
if you recall how Genesis begins,
for men to make their way, to gain their living;
and since the usurer prefers another
pathway, he scorns both nature in herself
and art her follower; his hope is elsewhere."[26]
[edit] Seventh Circle (Violence)
The seventh circle houses the violent. Its entry is guarded by the Minotaur, and it is divided into three rings:

Outer ring: This ring houses the violent against people and property. Sinners are immersed in
Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood and fire, to a level commensurate with their sins: Alexander the
Great is immersed up to his eyebrows, although Dante praises Alexander at other points in the poem,
meaning he might be referring to a different Alexander. Dionysius I of Syracuse, Azzolino da Romano,
Guy de Montfort, Obizzo d'Este, Ezzelino III da Romano, Rinier da Corneto, and Rinier Pazzo are also
seen in the Phlegethon as well as references to Atilla the Hun. The Centaurs, commanded by Chiron and
Pholus, patrol the ring, shooting arrows into any sinners who emerge higher out of the river than each is
allowed. The centaur Nessus guides the poets along Phlegethon and across a ford in the widest,
shallowest stretch of the river (Canto XII). This passage may have been influenced by the early
medieval Visio Karoli Grossi.[27]
The Gianfigliazzi family was identified by a heraldic device of a lion (blue on yellow background).

Middle ring: In this ring are suicides and profligates. The suicides – the violent against self – are
transformed into gnarled thorny bushes and trees and then fed upon by Harpies. Dante breaks a twig off
one of the bushes and from the broken, bleeding branch hears the tale of Pietro della Vigne, who
committed suicide after falling out of favour with Emperor Frederick II (his presence here, rather than in
the ninth circle, indicates that Dante believes that the accusations made against him were false[28]). Also
here are Lano da Siena and Jacopo da Sant' Andrea. The trees are a metaphor for the state of mind in
which suicide is committed.[29] Dante learns that these suicides, unique among the dead, will not be
corporally resurrected after the final judgement since they gave away their bodies through suicide;
instead they will maintain their bushy form, with their own corpses hanging from the thorny limbs. The
other residents of this ring are the profligates, who destroyed their lives by destroying the means by
which life is sustained – i.e., money and property. They are perpetually chased and mauled by ferocious
dogs. The destruction wrought upon the wood by the profligates' flight and punishment as they crash
through the undergrowth causes further suffering to the suicides, who cannot move out of the way
(Canto XIII).

Inner ring: Here are the violent against God (blasphemers) and the violent against nature (sodomites
and, as explained in the sixth circle, usurers). All reside in a desert of flaming sand with fiery flakes
raining from the sky, a fate similar to Sodom and Gomorrah. The blasphemers lie on the sand, the
usurers sit, and the sodomites wander about in groups. Dante sees the classical warrior Capaneus there,
who for blasphemy against Zeus was struck down with a thunderbolt during the Siege of Thebes. Dante
converses with two Florentine sodomites from different groups. One of them is Dante's mentor, Brunetto
Latini; Dante is very surprised and touched by this encounter and shows Brunetto great respect for what
he has taught him ("you taught me how man makes himself eternal; / and while I live, my gratitude for
that / must always be apparent in my words"[30]), thus refuting suggestions that Dante only placed his
enemies in Hell.[31] The other sodomite is Iacopo Rusticucci, a politician, who blames his wife for his
fate. Those punished here for usury include the Florentines Catello di Rosso Gianfigliazzi, Guido
Guerra, Iacopo Rusticucci, Ciappo Ubriachi, and Giovanni di Buiamonte; and the Paduans Reginaldo
degli Scrovegni and Vitaliano di Iacopo Vitaliani. They are identified not primarily by name but by
heraldic devices emblazoned on the purses around their necks, purses which "their eyes seemed to feast
upon"[32] (Cantos XIV through XVII).
[edit] Eighth Circle (Fraud)
A Gustave Doré wood engraving of Geryon
Jason and Medea, by John William Waterhouse (1907)
Dante's guide rebuffs Malacoda and his fiends between Bolgie 5 and 6, Canto 21
Dante climbs the flinty steps in Bolgia 7, Canto 26.
The last two circles of Hell punish sins that involve conscious fraud or treachery. These circles can be reached
only by descending a vast cliff, which Dante and Virgil do on the back of Geryon, a winged monster
traditionally represented as having three heads or three conjoined bodies.[33] However, Dante describes Geryon
as having three mixed natures: human, bestial, and reptilian.[33] Dante's Geryon is an image of fraud, having the
face of an honest man on the body of a beautifully colored wyvern, with the furry paws of a lion and a
poisonous sting in the pointy scorpion-like tail[34] (Canto XVII).
The fraudulent – those guilty of deliberate, knowing evil – are located in a circle named Malebolge ("Evil
Pockets"). This circle is divided into ten Bolgie, or ditches of stone, with bridges spanning the ditches:

Bolgia 1: Panderers and seducers march in separate lines in opposite directions, whipped by demons
(here Dante makes reference to a recent traffic rule developed for the Jubilee year of 1300 in Rome:
keep to the right[35]). Just as the panderers and seducers used the passions of others to drive them to do
their bidding, they are themselves driven by demons to march for all eternity.[35] In the group of
panderers, the poets notice Venedico Caccianemico, who sold his own sister to the Marchese d'Este. In
the group of seducers, Virgil points out Jason, who gained the help of Medea by seducing and marrying
her only to later desert her for Creusa.[35] Jason also seduced Hypsipyle, but "abandoned her, alone and
pregnant"[36] (Canto XVIII).

Bolgia 2: Flatterers also exploited other people, this time using language. They are steeped in human
excrement, which represents the words they produced. Alessio Interminei of Lucca and Thaïs are seen
here.[35] (Canto XVIII).

Bolgia 3: Dante now forcefully expresses[37] his condemnation of those who committed simony. Those
who committed simony are placed head-first in holes in the rock (resembling baptismal fonts), with
flames burning on the soles of their feet. One of the simoniacs, Pope Nicholas III, denounces two of his
successors, Pope Boniface VIII and Pope Clement V, for the same offence. Simon Magus, who offered
gold in exchange for holy power to Saint Peter, is also seen here. The simile of baptismal fonts gives
Dante an incidental opportunity to clear his name of an accusation of malicious damage to the font in the
church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini[38] (Canto XIX).

Bolgia 4: Sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets here have their heads twisted around on their bodies
backward, so that they "found it necessary to walk backward, / because they could not see ahead of
them."[39] While referring primarily to attempts to see into the future by forbidden means, this also
symbolises the twisted nature of magic in general.[40] In this Bolgia, Dante sees Amphiaraus, Tiresias
(whose double transformation is also referenced), Tiresias' daughter Manto, Aruns, Michael Scot,
Alberto de Casalodi, and Guido Bonatti, among others (Canto XX).

Bolgia 5: Corrupt politicians (barrators) are immersed in a lake of boiling pitch, which represents the
sticky fingers and dark secrets of their corrupt deals.[41] The barrators are the political analogue of the
simoniacs, and Dante devotes several cantos to them. They are guarded by devils called the
Malebranche ("Evil Claws"), who provide some savage and satirical black comedy – in the last line of
Canto XXI, the sign for their march is provided by a fart: "and he had made a trumpet of his ass."[42] The
leader of the Malebranche, Malacoda ("Evil Tail"), assigns a troop to escort Virgil and Dante safely to
the next bridge. The troop hook and torment one of the sinners (identified by early commentators as
Ciampolo), who names some Italian grafters and then tricks the Malebranche in order to escape back
into the pitch. The promise of safe conduct the poets received from the demons turns out to have limited
value (and there is no "next bridge"[43]), so the poets are forced to scramble down into the sixth Bolgia
(Cantos XXI through XXIII).

Bolgia 6: In the sixth Bolgia, the poets find the hypocrites listlessly walking along wearing gilded lead
cloaks, which represent the falsity behind the surface appearance of their actions – falsity that weighs
them down and makes spiritual progress impossible for them.[43] Dante speaks with Catalano and
Loderingo, two members of the Jovial Friars, an order that had acquired a reputation for not living up to
its vows[43] and was eventually suppressed by Pope Sixtus V. Caiaphas, the high priest responsible for
ordering Jesus crucified, is also seen here, crucified to the ground and trampled (Canto XXIII).

Bolgia 7: Two cantos are devoted to the thieves. They are guarded by the centaur Cacus, who has a firebreathing dragon on his shoulders and snakes covering his equine back (in Roman mythology, Cacus
was not a centaur but a monstrous fire-breathing giant slain by Heracles). The thieves are pursued and
bitten by snakes and lizards. The full horror of the thieves' punishment is revealed gradually: just as they
stole other people's substance in life, their very identity becomes subject to theft here,[44] and the snake
bites make them undergo various transformations. Vanni Fucci is turned to ashes and resurrected.
Agnello is blended with the six-legged reptile that is Cianfa. Buoso exchanges shapes with the fourlegged Francesco: "The soul that had become an animal, / now hissing, hurried off along the valley; / the
other one, behind him, speaks and spits"[45] (Cantos XXIV and XXV).

Bolgia 8: Two further cantos are devoted to fraudulent advisers or evil counsellors, who are concealed
within individual flames. These are not people who gave false advice, but people who used their position
to advise others to engage in fraud.[46] Ulysses and Diomedes are condemned here for the deception of
the Trojan Horse. Ulysses tells the tale of his fatal final voyage (Dante's invention) where he left his
home and family to sail to the end of the Earth only to have his ship founder near Mount Purgatory;
Ulysses also mentions of his encounter with Circe, stating that she "beguiled him." Guido da
Montefeltro recounts how he advised Pope Boniface VIII to capture the fortress of Palestrina, by
offering the Colonna family inside it a false amnesty and then razing it to the ground after they
surrendered. Guido describes how St. Francis came to take his soul to Heaven because of Guido's
subsequent joining of the Franciscan order, only to have a demon assert prior claim. Although Boniface
had absolved Guido in advance for his evil advice, Dante points out the invalidity of that, since
absolution requires contrition, and a man cannot be contrite for a sin at the same time that he is intending
to commit it[47] (Cantos XXVI and XXVII).

Bolgia 9: In the ninth Bolgia, a sword-wielding demon hacks at the Sowers of Discord, dividing parts of
their bodies as in life they divided others.[48] As they make their rounds the wounds heal, only to have
the demon tear apart their bodies again. Dante encounters Muhammad, who tells him to warn the
schismatic and heretic Fra Dolcino. Dante describes Muhammad as a schismatic,[48][49] apparently
viewing Islam as an off-shoot from Christianity, and similarly Dante seems to condemn Ali for schism
between Sunni and Shiite . In this Bolgia, Dante also encounters Bertran de Born, who carries around his
severed head like a lantern (a literal representation of allowing himself to detach his intelligence from
himself), as a punishment for (Dante believes) fomenting the rebellion of Henry the Young King against
his father Henry II (Cantos XXVIII and XXIX).

Bolgia 10: In the final Bolgia, various sorts of falsifiers (alchemists, counterfeiters, perjurers, and
impostors) – who are a "disease" on society – are themselves afflicted with different types of diseases.[50]
Potiphar's wife is briefly mentioned for her false accusation of Joseph. The Achaean spy Sinon suffers
from a burning fever for tricking the Trojans into taking the Trojan Horse into their city; Sinon is here
rather than in Bolgia 8 because his advice was false as well as evil. Gianni Schicchi is a 'rabid goblin' for
forging the will of Dante's relative Buoso Donati. Myrrha suffers from madness for disguising herself to
commit incest with her father King Theias.
In Sayers's notes on her translation, she remarks that the descent through Malebolge "began with the sale of the
sexual relationship, and went on to the sale of Church and State; now, the very money is itself corrupted, every
affirmation has become perjury, and every identity a lie"[50] so that every aspect of social interaction has been
progressively destroyed (Cantos XXIX and XXX).
[edit] Ninth Circle (Treachery)
The ninth and last circle is ringed by classical and Biblical giants, who perhaps symbolize pride and other
spiritual flaws lying behind acts of treachery.[51] The giants are standing on a ledge above the ninth circle of
Hell,[52] so that from the Malebolge they are visible from the waist up. They include Nimrod, Ephialtes (who
with his brother Otus tried to storm Olympus during the Gigantomachy), Briareus, Tityos, and Typhon. The
giant Antaeus (being the only giant unbound with chains) lowers Dante and Virgil into the pit that forms the
ninth circle of Hell (Canto XXXI).
The traitors are distinguished from the "merely" fraudulent in that their acts involve betraying a special
relationship of some kind. There are four concentric zones (or "rounds") of traitors. These rounds correspond, in
order of seriousness, to betrayal of family ties, betrayal of community ties, betrayal of guests, and betrayal of
liege lords. In contrast to the popular image of Hell as fiery, the traitors are frozen in a lake of ice known as
Cocytus, with each group encased in ice to progressively greater depths.

Round 1 is named Caïna, after Cain, who killed his brother. Traitors to kindred are here immersed in the
ice up to their faces – "the place / where shame can show itself"[53] Mordred, who attacked his
uncle/father King Arthur, is one of the traitors here: "him who, at one blow, had chest and shadow /
shattered by Arthur's hand"[54] (Canto XXXII).

Round 2 is named Antenora, after Antenor of Troy, who according to medieval tradition, betrayed his
city to the Greeks. Traitors to political entities, such as parties, cities, or countries, are located here.
Count Ugolino pauses from gnawing on the head of his former partner-in-crime Archbishop Ruggieri
degli Ubaldini to describe how Ruggieri turned against him after an accidental death of Ruggieri's
illegitimate son during a riot and had him imprisoned along with his sons and grandsons, condemning
them to death by starvation. A number of correspondences, such as allusions to the same passage of the
Aeneid, link this passage to the story of Paolo and Francesca in the second circle,[55] indicating that this
icy hell of betrayal is the final result of consent to sin[55] (Cantos XXXII and XXXIII).

Round 3 is named Ptolomaea, probably after Ptolemy, son of Abubus, who invited Simon Maccabaeus
and his sons to a banquet and then killed them.[55] Traitors to their guests are punished here, lying supine
in the ice, which covers them, except for their faces. They are punished more severely than the previous
traitors, since the relationship to guests is an entirely voluntary one.[56] Fra Alberigo, who had armed
soldiers kill his brother at a banquet, explains that sometimes a soul falls here before Atropos cuts the
thread of life. Their bodies on Earth are immediately possessed by a demon, so what seems to be a
walking man has reached the stage of being incapable of repentance (Canto XXXIII).

Round 4 is named Judecca, after Judas Iscariot, Biblical betrayer of Christ. Here are the traitors to their
lords and benefactors. All of the sinners punished within are completely encapsulated in ice, distorted in
all conceivable positions. With no one to talk to here, Dante and Virgil quickly move on to the centre of
Hell (Canto XXXIV).
In the very centre of Hell, condemned for committing the ultimate sin (personal treachery against God), is
Satan. Satan is described as a giant, terrifying beast with three faces, one red, one black, and one a pale yellow:
he had three faces: one in front bloodred;
and then another two that, just above
the midpoint of each shoulder, joined the first;
and at the crown, all three were reattached;
the right looked somewhat yellow, somewhat white;
the left in its appearance was like those
who come from where the Nile, descending, flows.[57]
Satan is waist deep in ice, weeping tears from his six eyes, and beating his six wings as if trying to escape,
although the icy wind that emanates only further ensures his imprisonment (as well as that of the others in the
ring). Each face has a mouth that chews on a prominent traitor. Brutus and Cassius are feet-first in the left and
right mouths respectively, for their involvement in the assassination of Julius Caesar – an act which, to Dante,
represented the destruction of a unified Italy and the killing of the man who was divinely appointed to govern
the world.[58] In the central, most vicious mouth is Judas Iscariot, the namesake of Round 4 and the betrayer of
Jesus. Judas is receiving the most horrifying torture of the three traitors: his head gnawed by Satan's mouth, and
his back being forever skinned by Satan's claws. What is seen here is an inverted trinity: Satan is impotent,
ignorant, and full of hate, in contrast to the all-powerful, all-knowing, and loving nature of God.[58]
The two poets escape Hell by climbing down Satan's ragged fur. They pass through the centre of the earth (with
a consequent change in the direction of gravity, causing Dante to at first think they are returning to Hell). The
pair emerge in the other hemisphere (described in the Purgatorio) just before dawn on Easter Sunday, beneath a
sky studded with stars (Canto XXXIV).

Titans and giants, including Ephialtes on the left, in Doré's illustrations

Dante speaks to the traitors in the ice, Canto 32

Satan is trapped in the frozen central zone in the Ninth Circle of Hell, Canto 34
[edit] See also







Allegory in the Middle Ages
Dante and his Divine Comedy in popular culture
Dante's Satan
Divine Comedy
List of cultural references in The Divine Comedy
Paradiso
Purgatorio
[edit] Footnotes
1.
2.
3.
4.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on page 19.
^ Allaire, Gloria (7 August 1997), New evidence towards identifying Dante's enigmatic lonza, Electronic Bulletin of the
Dante Society of America (http://www.princeton.edu/~dante/ebdsa/), http://www.princeton.edu/~dante/ebdsa/ga97.htm –
defines lonza as the result of an unnatural pairing between a leopard and a lioness in Andrea da Barberino Guerrino
meschino.
^ Brand, Peter; Pertile, Lino (1999). The Cambridge History of Italian Literature (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp.
63-64. ISBN 0-521-66622-8. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=3uq0bObScHMC&pg=PA63.
^ There are many English translations of this famous line. Some examples include
 All hope abandon, ye who enter here - Henry Francis Cary (1805–1814)
 All hope abandon, ye who enter in! - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1882)
 Leave every hope, ye who enter! - Charles Eliot Norton (1891)
 Leave all hope, ye that enter - Carlyle-Wicksteed (1932)
 Lay down all hope, you that go in by me. - Dorothy L. Sayers (1949)
 Abandon all hope, ye who enter here - John Ciardi (1954)
 Abandon every hope, you who enter. - Charles S. Singleton (1970)
 No room for hope, when you enter this place - C. H. Sisson (1980)
 Abandon every hope, who enter here. - Allen Mandelbaum (1982)
 Abandon all hope, you who enter here. - Robert Pinsky (1993)
 Abandon every hope, all you who enter - Mark Musa (1995)
 Abandon every hope, you who enter. - Robert M. Durling (1996)
Verbatim, the line translates as "Leave (lasciate) every (ogne) hope (speranza), ye (voi) that (ch') enter (intrate)."
5.
6.
7.
8.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on page 75.
^ Inferno, Canto IV, line 36, Mandelbaum translation.
^ Inferno, Canto IV, line 123, Mandelbaum translation.
^ There is no general agreement on which animals represent the sins incontinence, violence, and fraud. Some see it as the
she-wolf, lion, and leopard respectively, while others see it as the leopard, lion, and she-wolf respectively.
9. ^ Inferno, Canto V, lines 38–39, Longfellow translation.
10. ^ John Keats, On a Dream.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
^ a b Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto VI.
^ John Ciardi, Inferno, introduction, p. xi.
^ a b Wallace Fowlie, A Reading of Dante's Inferno, University Of Chicago Press, 1981, pp. 51–52.
^ Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, Ninth Day, Novel VIII.
^ Inferno, Canto VII, line 47, Mandelbaum translation.
^ Mandelbaum, note to his translation, p. 357 of the Bantam Dell edition, 2004, says that Dante may simply be preserving an
ancient conflation of the two deities; Peter Bondanella in his note to the translation of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The
Inferno: Dante Alighieri (Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003), pp. 202–203, thinks Plutus is meant, since Pluto is usually
identified with Dis, and Dis is a distinct figure in the fifth circle.
^ Inferno, Canto VII, lines 25–30, Mandelbaum translation.
^ Inferno, Canto VII, lines 79–80, Mandelbaum translation.
^ Inferno, Canto VII, lines 54, Mandelbaum translation.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto VII.
^ Inferno, Canto VIII, lines 37–38, Mandelbaum translation.
^ a b Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto VIII.
^ Inferno, Canto X, line 15, Mandelbaum translation.
^ Inferno, Canto X, lines 103–108, Mandelbaum translation.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XI.
^ Inferno, Canto XI, lines 106–111, Mandelbaum translation.
^ The punishment of immersion was not typically ascribed in Dante's age to the violent, but the Visio attaches it to those who
facere praelia et homicidia et rapinas pro cupiditate terrena ("make battle and murder and rapine because of worldly
cupidity"). Theodore Silverstein (1936), "Inferno, XII, 100–126, and the Visio Karoli Crassi," Modern Language Notes, 51:7,
449–452, and Theodore Silverstein (1939), "The Throne of the Emperor Henry in Dante's Paradise and the Mediaeval
Conception of Christian Kingship," Harvard Theological Review, 32:2, 115–129, suggests that Dante's interest in
contemporary politics would have attracted him to a piece like the Visio. Its popularity assures that Dante would have had
access to it. Jacques Le Goff, Goldhammer, Arthur, tr. (1986), The Birth of Purgatory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
ISBN 0-226-47083-0), states definitively that ("we know [that]") Dante read it.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XIII.
^ Wallace Fowlie, A Reading of Dante's Inferno, University Of Chicago Press, 1981, p. 224.
^ Inferno, Canto XV, lines 85–87, Mandelbaum translation.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XV.
^ Inferno, Canto XVII, line 57, Mandelbaum translation.
^ a b Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XVII.
^ Wallace Fowlie, A Reading of Dante's Inferno, University Of Chicago Press, 1981, p. 117.
^ a b c d Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XVIII.
^ Inferno, Canto XVIII, line 94, Mandelbaum translation.
^ Inferno, Canto XIX, lines 2–6, Mandelbaum translation: "Rapacious ones, who take the things of God, / that ought to be the
brides of Righteousness, / and make them fornicate for gold and silver! / The time has come to let the trumpet sound / for
you; ..."
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XIX.
^ Inferno, Canto XX, lines 14–15, Mandelbaum translation.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XX.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXI.
^ Patterson, Victoria. "Great Farts in Literature". The Nervous Breakdown.
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/vpatterson/2011/11/great-farts-in-literature/. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
^ a b c Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXIII.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXIV.
^ Inferno, Canto XXV, lines 136–138, Mandelbaum translation.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXVI.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXVII.
^ a b Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXVIII.
^ Wallace Fowlie, A Reading of Dante's Inferno, University Of Chicago Press, 1981, p. 178.
^ a b Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXIX.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXXI.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXXII.
^ Inferno, Canto XXXII, lines 34–35, Mandelbaum translation.
^ Inferno, Canto XXXII, lines 61–62, Mandelbaum translation.
^ a b c Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXXIII.
^ Wallace Fowlie, A Reading of Dante's Inferno, University Of Chicago Press, 1981, p. 209.
^ Inferno, Canto XXXIV, lines 39–45, Mandelbaum translation.
^ a b Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXXIV.
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dante's Inferno
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
The Divine Comedy/Inferno
[edit] Texts
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Dante's Divine Comedy presented by the Electronic Literature Foundation. Multiple editions, with
Italian and English facing page and interpolated versions.
Dante Dartmouth Project: Full text of more than 70 Italian, Latin, and English commentaries on the
Commedia, ranging in date from 1322 (Iacopo Alighieri) to the 2000s (Robert Hollander)
World of Dante Multimedia website that offers Italian text of Divine Comedy, Allen Mandelbaum's
translation, gallery, interactive maps, timeline, musical recordings, and searchable database for students
and teachers by Deborah Parker and IATH (Institute for Advanced Technologies in the Humanities) of
the University of Virginia
Audiobooks: Public domain recordings from LibriVox (in Italian, Longfellow translation); some
additional recordings
[edit] Secondary materials
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On-line Concordance to the Divine Comedy
Wikisummaries summary and analysis of "Inferno"
Danteworlds, multimedia presentation of the Divine Comedy for students by Guy Raffa of the University
of Texas
Dante's Places: a map (still a prototype) of the places named by Dante in the Commedia, created with
GoogleMaps. Explanatory PDF is available for download
Dante's Inferno on In Our Time at the BBC. (listen now)