1. Dante’s Hell The Inferno The Descent begins on Good Friday

2. The Gate of Hell; Canto III “ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.”

3. Cowards: fence-sitters, wafflers, opportunists, and neutrals Revelation 3:16: "But because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth."

4. Circle One, Canto IV

5. Limbo Those who are not saved even though they did not sin--exists in Christian theology by Dante's time, but the poet's version of this region is more generous than most. Those who are not saved even though they did not sin--exists in Christian theology by Dante's time, but the poet's version of this region is more generous than most. Dante's Limbo--technically the first circle of hell--includes virtuous non-Christian adults in addition to unbaptized infants. Dante's Limbo--technically the first circle of hell--includes virtuous non-Christian adults in addition to unbaptized infants. great heroes, thinkers, and creative minds of ancient Greece and Rome, and medieval non-Christians

6. The Harrowing of Hell The Harrowing of Hell For Dante, Limbo was also the home of major figures from the Hebrew Bible, who--according to Christian theology--were "liberated" by Jesus following his crucifixion.

7. Circle Two, Canto V

8. Lust Carnal Within a great whirlwind spins the souls who betrayed reason to their appetites. Their sin was to abandon themselves to the tempest of their passions; so they are swept forever in the tempest of Hell.

9. Circle Three, Canto VI

10. Gluttony A continuous storm of rot falls, a mixture of stinking snow and freezing rain, which forms a vile slush resembling a giant garbage dump. The damned lie frozen in this icy paste swollen from their GLUTTONY. In life they made no higher use of the gifts of God than to wallow in food and drink, producers of nothing but garbage. Here they lie for eternity, themselves like garbage, half buried in fetid slush, while Cerberus (three-headed dog of hell) rips and tears at them with his claws and teeth just as they grossly devoured their own food.

11. Circle Four, Canto VII

12. The Hoarders and The Wasters A war in progress Sinners are divided into two raging mobs, each soul straining madly at a great boulder-like weight. The two mobs meet, clashing their weights against one another, after which they separate, pushing the great weights apart, and begin again. One mob is the hoarders (moneygrubbers), the other the wasters. In life they lacked moderation in regulating expenses; they destroyed the light of God by thinking of nothing but money. Thus, in death they are encumbered by dead weight and one excess (hoarders) punishes the other (wasters). Their souls are so dimmed and lost that the tortured are unrecognizable.

13. Circle Five, Cantos VII-IX The last station of Upper Hell

14. The Wrathful and the Sullen Angry and depressed Countless souls attacking each other in foul slime. Countless souls attacking each other in foul slime. Bubbles rising from the slime are the gargled hymns of the Sullen. In life they shunned the sweet light of the Sun, so in death they are forever buried and lamenting in the foul mud. Bubbles rising from the slime are the gargled hymns of the Sullen. In life they shunned the sweet light of the Sun, so in death they are forever buried and lamenting in the foul mud.

15. Dis: The Gate of Lower Hell The City of Dis: The Capital of Hell Flaming red towers and great walls of iron block the entrance to the Lower Hell. The rest of Hell lies within these walls.

16. The Guards Rebellious Angels Creatures of ultimate Evil, rebels against God. When faced with Ultimate Evil only Divine Aid can bring hope. Virgil sends prayer for assistance.

17. While waiting for Divine Aid the terrors multiply The Three Infernal Furies (remorse) Medusa With the appearance of Medusa Virgil orders Dante to cover his eyes, for she represents an Evil from which no man can be saved!

18. The Heavenly Messenger Upon the threat of Medusa the Heavenly Messenger appears opening the gate with a single, soft touch.

19. Circle Six, Cantos X-XI

20. The Heretics Those who did violence to God by denying immortality; denying God’s existence. Since they taught that the soul dies with the body, so their punishment is an eternal grave in the fiery morgue of God’s wrath.

21. Circle Seven, Cantos XII-XVII

22. The Violent Round One (XII) Violence against neighbors Great war-makers, cruel tyrants, highwaymen- all who shed the blood of their countrymen. Great war-makers, cruel tyrants, highwaymen- all who shed the blood of their countrymen. As they wallowed in blood during their lives, so they are immersed in the boiling blood during their death, while Centaurs patrol the banks ready to shoot any who raises himself out. As they wallowed in blood during their lives, so they are immersed in the boiling blood during their death, while Centaurs patrol the banks ready to shoot any who raises himself out. In the deepest part of the river suffers Alexander the Great and Attila the Hun In the deepest part of the river suffers Alexander the Great and Attila the Hun

23. The Violent Round Two (XIII) Violence against themselves The Wood of The Suicides These souls are punished for destroying their own lives and potential. They are encased in thorny trees whose leaves are eaten by Harpies (defilers of all they touch). Just as the supreme expression of their lives was self destruction, so they are only allowed to speak through that which tears and destroys them; only through their own blood can they find their voice.

24. The Violent Round Three (XIV-XVII) Violence against God, Nature, and Art A great plain of burning sand upon which there descents a slow rain of fire. The Blasphemers (the Violent against God)- stretched upon the sand The Sodomites (the Violent against Nature)- run in endless circles The Usurers (the Violent against Art, which is the Grandchild of God)- huddle on the sands

25. Flight into the Abyss The Geryon (monster of fraud) carries the travelers off the cliff into the Eighth Circle

26. Circle Eight (Malebolge), CantosXVIII-XXXI The Fraudulent and Malicious

27. Circle Eight, Bolgia (XVIII) The Panderers and Seducers Driven at a fast endless walk by horned demons who hurry them along with great lashes. In life they goaded others on to serve their own foul purposes; so in Hell they are driven.

28. Circle Eight, Bolgia Two (XVIII) The Flatters Flatters are sunk in excrement; the true equivalent of their false flatteries on Earth: A bunch of CRAP!

29. Circle Eight, Bolgia Three (XIX) The Simoniacs Sellers of ecclesiastic favors and offices: those who corrupt the things of God The bolgia is lined with tube-like holes (baptismal fonts) and the sinners are placed in them upside down with the soles of their feet ablaze…

30. …Simoniacs The sinners confinement is only temporary: as new sinners arrive, the souls drop through the bottom and disappear eternally. As they made a mockery of the church so they are turned upside down in a mock of baptism, and eventually baptized eternally in the fires of hell.

31. Circle Eight, Bolgia Four (XX) The Fortune Tellers and Diviners Utilized forbidden arts to look into the future Heads turned backwards on their bodies, they are compelled to walk backwards through eternity, their eyes blinded with tears. Those who attempted to penetrate the future cannot even see in front of themselves and must go backward for all eternity.

32. Circle Eight, Bolgia Five (XXI-XXII) The Grafters (Political Corruption) Sunk in boiling, sticky pitch and guarded by demons who tear them to pieces with claws and grappling hooks if they are caught above the surface. They are stuck in their sin and hidden from sight, just as their corruption was hidden on Earth.

33. Circle Eight, Bolgia Six (XXIII) The Hypocrites Weighted down with great leaden robes, the Hypocrites walk eternally round and round a narrow track. The robes are brilliantly gilded on the outside and shaped likes a monk’s habit but under that lies the terrible weight of his deceit which the soul must bear for all eternity.

34. Caiaphas The Chief Hypocrite The High Priest of the Jews who counseled the Pharisees to crucify Jesus to appease the public. He is punished by being crucified to the floor of hell where every sinner must walk upon him– he bears the weight of all hypocrisy.

35. Circle Eight, Bolgia Seven (XXIV-XXV) The Thieves A pit full of monstrous reptiles. Thievery is reptilian in its secrecy; therefore it is punished by reptiles Thievery is reptilian in its secrecy; therefore it is punished by reptiles The hands are the agents of their crimes; therefore they are bond forever The hands are the agents of their crimes; therefore they are bond forever As they destroy their fellowman by making their substance disappear, so is he painfully destroyed and made to disappear over and over again. As they destroy their fellowman by making their substance disappear, so is he painfully destroyed and made to disappear over and over again.

36. The Thieves Punishments Reptiles fly through the air and pierce the jugular vein; the sinner burst into flames and burns until only ash remains Sinners rise out of their own ashes and the cycle repeats. Finally, their bodies are transformed into reptiles, and they must steal a human form from another sinner. Thus they waiver constantly between man and reptile, and no sinner knows what to call his own. In life they took the substance of others, transforming it into their own; so in Hell their bodies are constantly taken from them, and they are left to steal it back.

37. Circle Eight, Bolgia Eight (XXVI-XXVII) The Evil Counselors Sinners move about endlessly, hidden from view inside great flames. As they stole from God in their lives and worked through hidden agendas, so they are stolen from sight and hidden in the flames of their consciences. They spoke false, so the flames are made to appears as tongues.

38. Circle Eight, Bolgia Nine (XXVIII) The Sowers of Discord A Parade of hideously mutilated souls Just as their sin was to rend asunder what God had meant to be united, so are they hacked and torn through all eternity by a great demon with a bloody sword. The mutilated are compelled to drag their bodies around the pit and return whole to the demon to be inflicted anew.

39. Circle Eight, Bolgia Ten (XXIX-XXX) The Falsifiers Punished by afflictions of every sense: darkness, stench, thirst, filth, loathsome disease, and a shrieking din. Some run ravening through the pit, tearing others to pieces. Just as in life they corrupted society by their lies, so in death sinners are subjected to a sum of corruptions. Three Classes: I:Alchemists (falsifiers of things): loathsome disease II: Evil Impersonators: run for ever attempting to retrieve their souls and tearing others. III: Counterfeiters: disease and intolerable thirst IV: False Witness: Continually battered by fellow sinners for offending with lies

40. The Central Pit of Malebolge (XXXI) The Giants A great well, at the bottom lies Cocytus, the Ninth Circle of Hell. The Giants and Titans of myth and legend stand guard, the upper halves of their bodies rising above the rim.

41. Lowered into the Final Floor of Hell One giant, Antaeus, take the poets in his huge hand and lowers them onto the Floor of Hell.

42. Circle Nine, Cantos XXXII-XXXIV Treachery

43. The Last Great Water of Hell Traitors are fixed in the ice, each according to his guilt. The ice is divided into four concentric rings marked by the different positions of the damned. The treacheries of these souls were denials of love and all human warmth. Only the remorseless dead center of the ice will serve to express their natures. As they denied God’s love, so are they furthest from the light and warmth of His Sun. As they denied all human ties, so are they bound only by the unyielding ice.

44. Treachery Round One: Caina Treacherous to Kin The 1 st sinners to appear in this large frozen lake are those who were treacherous against blood ties (named Caina for Cain). They have their heads and necks out of the ice and are allowed to bow their heads.

45. Treachery Round Two: Antenora Treacherous to Country Named Antenora for Antenora, the Trojan who was believed to have betrayed his city to the Greeks. They, too, have their heads above the ice but they cannot bend their necks for relieve against the bitter cold, two are even gnawing on each other’s neck. Here Dante kicks a traitor, showing a savagery he has shown to no other soul in Hell.

46. Treachery Round Three: Ptolomea Treacherous to Host and Guest Named Ptolomea for the Ptolomaeus of Maccabees, who murdered his father-in-law at a banquet. These sinners lie with only half of their faces above the ice and their tears freeze in their eye sockets, sealing them with crystal visors. Thus even tears are denied them. Even worse, so great is their sin that the guilty fall to the torments of Ptolomea before they die, leaving their bodies still on earth, inhabited by demons

47. Treachery Round Four: Judecca The Treacherous to Their Masters As they face the last depths of hell they see Satan in the distance. His beating wings are the source of the icy wind of Cocytus, the exhalation of all evil. Named Judecca for Judas Iscariot, sinners in this round lie completely sealed in the ice, twisted and distorted into every conceivable posture.

48. The Center Satan/Lucifer Fixed into the ice at the center to which flow all the rivers of guilt is Lucifer. As he beats his great wings to escape, their icy wind freezes him more surely into the polluted ice. In a grotesque parody of the Trinty, he has three faces and in each mouth he eternally rips a sinner: Judia Iscariot is in the central mouth; Brutus and Cassius (Traitors of Julius Caesar) are in the outer mouths.

49. Exodus Hell Having seen all, Dante and Virgil climb through the center, grapppling hand over hand down the hairy flank of Satan himself and at last, when they have passed the center of all gravity, they emerge from Hell. They emerge to see the stars of Heaven just before dawn on Easter Sunday.