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| | ''Main article: [[Dante's Inferno]]'' | | ''Main article: [[Dante's Inferno]]'' |
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| − | As Virgil and Dante make their journey, they begin with the five lesser circles of Hell:
| + | Virgil and Dante begin their journey through the gate of Hell, across the river Acheron and down into [[Limbo]] and the lower circles. In each place, Dante questions the souls dwelling there, called ‘shades’ due to their lack of a body. All the shades will be resurrected and given new bodies, and continue in their deserved location. The people he meets are mostly taken from classical history and mythology, the Bible, and more recent Florentine and Italian history. |
| − | * [[Limbo]]
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| − | * [[Lust]]
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| − | * [[Gluttony]]
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| − | * [[Greed]]
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| − | * [[Anger]]
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| − | In each place, Dante questions the souls dwelling there, called ‘shades’ due to their lack of a body. All the shades will be resurrected and given new bodies, and continue in their deserved location. He identifies many people from history as well as his political contemporaries. He describes each location by poetic symbols referring alternately to Greek and Roman mythology, as well as Biblical and historical events.
| + | As well as the sinners who are punished there, Hell is inhabited by various monsters and demons. Some punishments are carried out by demons, especially in the eighth circle, and each circle is also home to a monster from classical mythology who guards it, while also being punished there for its own sins. For example, the circle of [[gluttony]] is guarded by the ravenous three-headed dog [[Cerberus]]. |
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| − | The four lower circles of Hell are inside a walled city called Dis. The first of these (the sixth circle overall) punishes [[Heresy]]. The seventh circle is split into three regions, where different forms of violence are punished:
| + | At the bottom of the ninth circle of Hell, at the center of the frozen lake Cocytus, Dante and Virgil behold [[Satan]]. They then make their way out by climbing down Satan's body to a tunnel that leads from the Earth's center to the southern hemisphere, where Purgatory is located.<ref> [[The Divine Comedy]], By Dante Alighieri, Translated by Charles Singleton, Bollingen Series 80, Vol 1: Inferno. Copyright 1970 by Princeton University Press. </ref> |
| − | * Violence against others, including tyranny
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| − | * Violence against oneself, ie suicides and wanton spendthrifts
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| − | * Violence against [[God]] or nature, including blasphemers, usurers and homosexuals.
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| − | Then they descend to the eighth circle, which is home to those guilty of different forms of minor fraud:
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| − | * Seducers
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| − | * Flatterers
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| − | * Simonists
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| − | * Soothsayers
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| − | * Stirring up Lawsuits
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| − | * Hypocrites
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| − | * Thieves
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| − | * Evil Counselors
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| − | * Sunderers
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| − | * Liars
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| − | The ninth and lowest circle, situated at the center of the earth, is set aside for traitors. In the ultimate depths of this circle, the travelers come upon [[Satan]] and the three worst human offenders:
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| − | * [[Judas Iscariot]]
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| − | * [[Brutus]]
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| − | * [[Cassius]]
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| − | In Dante’s time, [[Julius Caesar]] was honored as the first emperor of Rome, and Rome brought the ‘[[Pax Romana]]’. <ref> [[The Divine Comedy]], By Dante Alighieri, Translated by Charles Singleton, Bollingen Series 80, Vol 1: Inferno. Copyright 1970 by Princeton University Press. </ref>
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| | ===Purgatory=== | | ===Purgatory=== |