Moving Through the Circles of Dante’s Inferno

“In the midway of this our mortal life, I found me in a gloomy wood, astray.” -Canto I, lines 1,2

“A lion came, ‘gainst me as it appear’d With his head held aloft, and hunger-mad” -Canto I, lines 43, 44

“He, soon as he saw That I was weeping, answer’d.” -Canto I lines 87, 88

“All hope abandon, ye who enter here.” -Canto III, line 9

 The UNCOMMITTED race endlessly after a blank banner; they followed no cause in life, and so now do so in death. Wasps and flies continuously sting them, causing them to react and feel pain. The world has lost all memory of them.

“And lo, toward us in a boat Come on an old man, hoardy white… Crying, “Wo to you, wicked spirits!” -Canto III lines CHARON & RIVER ACHERON

 INNOCENT SOULS  Blameless but un-baptized; great pagan poets and philosophers. Atmosphere is comfortable but separate from God.

 The second circle is the real beginning of hell. Here we see the principle of retribution: sinners tossed and whirled by winds as in life they were helpless in tempests of passion. Paolo and Francesca go swirling by in Canto 5. They were murdered before they could repent carnal courtly love as sin.

“So I descended from first to second circle— Which girdles a smaller space and greater pain, Which spurs more lamentation. Minos the dreadful Snarls at the gate. He examines each one’s sin, Judging and disposing as he curls his tail…”

It comes before him, and confesses all; Minos, great connoisseur of sin, discerns For every spirit its proper place in Hell, And wraps himself in his tail with as many turns As levels down that shade will have to dwell.

“ The stormy blast of hell With restless fury drives the spirits on.” -Canto V lines 32, 33

Teacher! Willingly I would address those two coming, Which seem so light before the wind.” -Canto V, lines 72-74

The gluttons who feasted away their lives now lie like pigs in the mire. The mud is created by a ceaseless, icy rain. The gluttons are is isolation from their neighbors and torn apart by Cerberus, the three-headed “hell-hound” who feeds on their flesh.

Misers and Spendthrifts, Wasters and Hoarders - roll stones to crash against one another; they abused material goods so now are forced to roll and be crushed by the weight of a material object.

 Styx forms a marsh holding the openly wrathful who strike and bite one another  Sullen (gloomy) lie under the surface of the marsh, just as their silent anger lay hidden during their lives.

 Heretics chose their own opinions instead of following the teachings of the Church.  They believed there was no soul, that pleasure was the primary goal of life, and that everything dies with the body, so they spend eternity with their bodies in burning graves, symbolizing death of the body but not of the soul or of pain.

 1. Violent against Neighbors  First Ring: Violent against others; includes murderers and robbers  Submerged in Phlegethon - river of blood.  Warrior-centaurs patrol this circle (man/beast combination); easily angered, they patrol & torture those who killed others violently.

 2. Violent against Self  Suicidal- Harpies steal things, so here they symbolize the sinners stealing away their bodies and souls through suicide. Those who have committed suicide have become trees in the forest, and the harpies nest in them.

 Flatterers—disgustingly dipped in excrement  Fortunetellers - they tried to foretell the future, so now their heads are on backwards.  Hypocrites - they wear gorgeous cloaks lined with lead; pretty outside, awful inside; cloak true character in false appearance.  Thieves turning into snakes and snakes turning into thieves. Thieves steal other people's possessions; they cannot keep their own bodies.

 Cocytus is a frozen lake of ice; Satan is immobilized at the center. Cocytus includes four kinds of traitors.  Traitors to Kindred—stuck in ice (heads above ice)  Traitors to Country—stuck in ice (heads above ice)  Traitors to Guests—fully encased in ice (only part of head sticks out)  Traitors to Masters—encased in ice  Satan (“Dis”) is munching on Judas, Cassius and Brutus  Three-headed Dis is a reverse of the Holy Trinity.