Inferno
1
Location: Dark Wood
Dante is barred from reaching the top of a hill by three
beasts. He runs into the ghost of Virgil, who offers to show him a way forward,
but only through Hell. Dante agrees to follow him.
2
Location: Dark Wood
Dante claims that he is not as worthy as Aeneas or Paul and
is afraid. Virgil tells him that the Blessed Virgin and St Lucy urged Beatrice
to visit Virgil in Hell to ask him to lead Dante forward.
3
Vestibule (Opportunists)
Acheron (River of Hell)
Charon
The poets reach a gateway ("Abandon hope all ye who enter").
Past the gate, he sees poor souls chasing banners and in turn chased and
bleeding from hornets, who Virgil identifies as Opportunists who chose neither
good nor evil (these include angels who did not fight in the Rebellion of
Heaven). Dante sees the river Acheron, where new arrivals are on its riverbank
waiting to be ferried over. The ferryman, Charon, refuses to take Dante over
since he is not dead, but Virgil insists. After a small earthquake, Dante
faints.
4
Circle I (Limbo): Virtuous Pagans
Dante wakes up on the other side of the Acheron. Virgil
tells him that they have reached the First Circle, Limbo, where Virtuous Pagans
(those that led good lives but died before Jesus could save them) stay,
including Virgil himself. They are greeted by several famous writers of
antiquity, and Dante sees many other famous historical figures. They are not
punished, but are nonetheless in "limbo", without hope.
5
Minos the Judge
Circle II: Lustful (Carnal)
Francesca
At the entrance to the Second Circle, Minos judges new
arrivals and assigns the appropriate level with his tail. Minos
grudgingly lets them pass into the Second Circle. On this level those who were
lustful or died for love are battered and whirled about by winds. Dante feels
pity and speaks with Francesca, who committed adultery because of her partner's
beauty. Dante faints again.
6
Circle III: Gluttonous
Cerberus
Ciacco
Plutus
In the Circle of Gluttony, Dante wakes to see the 3-headed
dog Cerberus threatening souls in the dirty rain and slush. Virgil quiets it by
throwing mud into its mouths. Dante meets a countryman, Ciacco, with whom he
gives news of Florence, and hears a prophecy. They next run into Plutus at the
entrance to the Fourth Circle.
7
Plutus
Circle IV: Hoarders & Spendthrifts (Wasters)
Marsh of Styx
Virgil uses the word of God to force the wolf like god of
the underworld Plutus (Pluto) to back down. They see the hoarders and wasters
pushing rocks against each other. On the shore of the Styx (Marsh of Styx),
they see in the river Styx souls punished for Wrath, tearing at each other in
the filth. From below come bubbles to the surface, produced from souls of the
sullen while singing a garbled hymn. The poets see a tower in the distance.
8
The Great Tower
River Styx
Phlegyas
Circle V: Wrathful and Sullen
Gate of Dis (Capitol of Hell, beginning of Nether (Lower)
Hell I)
Fallen Angels
The poets see signal lights exchanged between the Great
Tower and the far off Wall of the city of Dis. The ferryman Phlegyas soon
arrives and is forced to let Dante board. While sailing, one of the Wrathful in
the water (another Florentine) tries to grab Dante but is pushed away by
Virgil. At the Gate of Dis, the guards (evil Fallen Angels) try to order Dante
to return to the surface by himself. Virgil is annoyed when they close the
gates on him.
9
Wall of Dis (Fiends and Furies)
Circle VI: Heretics
Furies (women girdled with snakes) threaten the poets and
predict that Medusa will destroy them. Virgil covers both their eyes. A
messenger from Heaven appears and opens the gates for the poets (symbolizing
passage from the sins of Incontinence to the sins of Violence). The messenger
returns to Heaven. Entering the 6th Circle, the poets come across open graves
with flames marking arch-heretics and their followers (those who did not
believe in immortality in God).
10
Circle VI: Heretics (cont'd)
Dante is confronted by two heretics, one of which is a
stubborn political adversary. The other worries about his son.
11
The slope of rubble
The poets reach a slope of rubble, created from an
earthquake when Christ died. Virgil explains some of the reasons why the
sinners are categorized in the way they are.
12
The Minotaur
Centaurs
Circle VII: Violent against Neighbors
Round 1: Phlegethon (river of blood)
The poets pass by the raging Minotaur (half man, half bull)
while descending to a river of blood, Phlegethon, the 7th Circle for the
Violent. The 1st Round is for the Violent Against Their Neighbors. These souls
are boiled in the Phlegethon as Centaurs watch over them to make sure none
escape. The Centaurs question Dante's presence but Virgil vouches for him. They
are led to a crossing place by Nessus.
13
Round 2: Wood of Suicides: Violent against Themselves
Harpies
In the 2nd Round of the 7th Circle is the Violent Against
Themselves (The Wood of the Suicides). The sinners are encased in trees which
are fed upon by Harpies (bird women). The sinners are only allowed to speak
when they bleed from a Harpy wound. Two criminals (squanderers) appear and are
torn apart by pursuing hounds. Dante speaks with one of the plant-encased
sinners and feels pity.
14
Round 3: Border of Wood of Suicides and the Burning
Plain (Sands):
Violent against God, Nature, and Art
The Poets reach the Burning Sands, where the Violent against
God (Blasphemers), Nature (Sodomites), and Art (Usurers) lay down, run around,
and huddle under a rain of fire. Walking in the Woods at the edge of the Sands,
the poets again come across the boiling, blood red river Phlegethon, which
flows from the Wood of Suicides into the Burning Plain. Virgil tells a story
about the Old Man of Crete.
15
Bank of Phlegethon and the Burning Plain
The poets cross the Burning Sands by following the banks of
the boiling Phlegethon towards the Great Cliff. While crossing the Sands, Dante
encounters Ser Brunetto Latino, a Sodomite and writer who Dante still has great
respect for. Divine Compulsion eventually forces Latino to run off.
16
Top of Waterfall and the Great Cliff
The poets approach a waterfall where Phlegethon goes over
the Great Cliff into the 8th Circle. Dante is greeted by three more Florentine
Sodomites (running in a circle) who Dante still has respect for and they exchange
news of the upper world. At the top of he waterfall Virgil throws Dante's belt
over the waterfall and a great distorted shape rises up to greet
them.
17
Geryon
Transport down to Circle VIII
Virgil negotiates a ride over the Great Cliff with Geryon,
the Monster of Fraud (the face of a benign man, the claws of a beast, and the
tail of a reptile). Dante examines the Usurers who flap their arms and are
forced to stare at purses around their necks. Geryon flies the two poets down
to the 8th Circle (leaving the Hell of the Violent and the Bestial).
18
Circle VIII: Malbowges (Sins of Fraud)
bowge i: Panderers and Seducers
bowge ii: Flatterers
The 8th Circle is called Malabolge (Malbowges, The Evil
Ditches) and the beginning of the Hell of the Fraudulent and Malicious. It is
comprised of 10 rings of ditches. Dikes (bridge spokes) provide passage to the
center of the 8th Circle over the 10 ditches. In the first Bolgia (bowge,
ditch) horned demons lash and drive Panderers and Seducers (including Jason or
his seductions of Hysiphle and Medea). In the 2nd Bolgia they see Flatterers
sunk in excrement (symbolizing their false words).
19
bowge iii: Simoniacs
In the 3rd Bowge, Simoniacs (sellers of religious favors and
offices) are stuffed upside down into holes in the earth, while their feet are
subjected to flames. Dante criticizes one of the sinners, Pope Nicholas III. As
new Popes arrive, they are continually stuffed into the same hole, pushing the
previous Pope deeper into the ground.
20
bowge iv: Sorcerers (Fortune tellers &
Diviners)
Fortune Tellers and Diviners are found in the 4th Bolge.
Their punishment is to have their heads turned backwards on their bodies and to
be compelled to walk backwards through all eternity, their eyes blinded with
tears. Dante feels pity, but Virgil chastises him or questioning God's
judgement. Virgil reminisces about Mantua, his native city.
21
bowge v: Barrators (Grafters)
Malacoda & Blacktalons
In this particularly bawdy Canto, grafters sunk in sticky,
boiling pitch are attacked by guardian demons (Blacktalons) in the 5th Bolgia.
Virgil negotiates a passage with the stubborn leader of the demons, Malacoda.
They hear that the bridge over the 6th Bolgia is shattered from the Crucifixion
earthquake so Malacoda provides the poets with guides to an alternate path.
Malacode sends them off with a fart.
22
Path to bowge vi
While the poets are escorted by the demon-squad, one of the
punished Grafters is drawn out of the pitch (held by Curlybeard) and about to
be tortured. He tries to bargain with the demons, promising to betray his
fellow grafters and draw them out of the pitch, but he ultimately escapes,
betraying the demons. Two of the demons (Hellken and Grizzly) argue and fall
into the pitch, and the poets try to slip away.
23
bowge vi: Hypocrites
The demons pursue and the poets flee down a slope into the
6th Bolgia where painted Hypocrites are weighed down by dreadfully heavy,
gilded cloaks. The priest who crucified Christ, Caiaphas, is himself crucified
to the floor so that the Hypocrites are forced to walk upon him. Virgil is
annoyed to learn that Malacoda lied to him about the bridges over the Sixth Bolgia.
24
bowge vii: Thieves
Climbing back up to the bridge, the poets then descend into
the 7th Bolgia, where reptilian creatures bind and incinerate bound Thieves
(after which they are reintegrated for further punishment). One sinner, Vanni
Fucci is forced to describe his sins and curses Dante.
25
bowge vii: Thieves (cont’d)
Cacus
Vanni curses God and is driven off by serpents as well as
Cacus (a centaur with serpents and a fire-eating dragon on his back). Dante
notices that the Thieves in this Bolgia also undergo transfomations back and
forth between being men and serpents, sometimes in melded forms (6-legged,
etc).
26
bowge viii: Counselors of Fraud (Evil
Counselors)
Dante makes a speech describing the dangers of Thievery and
Evil Counselors. Evil Counselors (Counselors of Fraud) are hidden in giant
flames in the 8th Bolgia. In one doubleheaded flame they meet Ulysses
(Odysseus) and Diomede. Ulysses admits that he deceived men into following him
on his great adventures.
27
Count Guido
Dante also meets Count Guido da Montefeltro of Romagna, who
asks for news about his home state of Romagna. Afterwards Guido describes how
Boniface VIII persuaded him to sin.
28
bowge ix: Sowers of Discord (Religious,
Political, Kinsmen)
The Sowers of Discord in the 9th Bowge are repeatedly hacked
apart by a demon with giant sword (their wounds heal and they return for more
hacking). The Sowers of Religious Discord include some Muslim leaders as well
as Fra Dolcino. Sowers of Political Discord and Sowers of Discord Between
Kinsmen are also here. Bertrand de Born, who separated fathers and sons, is
forced to carry his severed head around as a lantern, and is forced to raise
his lantern head to speak to the poets.
29
bowge x: Falsifiers (Alchemists)
In the 10th Bolgia are the 1st of 4 kinds of Falsifiers, the
Alchemists (Falsifiers of Things and Goods). They are punished by afflictions
of every sense: by darkness, stench, thirst, filth, loathsome skin diseases,
and a shrieking din, with some running around and attacking each other.
30
bowge x: Falsifiers (Impersonators,
Counterfeiters, Falsifiers of Words)
The 2nd kind of Falsifier, Evil Impersonators, are seen
continuously running around, attacking souls with their tusks and dragging them
off. The 3rd kind are Falsifiers of Money (counterfeiters) and these are
afflicted with disease and thirst. One of these, Master Adam points out Sinon
(the Greek spy who persuaded the Trojans to open the gates to the Trojan
Horse). Sinon is a member of the 4th class, Falsifiers of Words ands these are
immobile and rolled together. Sinon and Adam fight and Dante appears to delight
in seeing this exchange. Virgil berates him for such base enjoyment of vulgar
punishments.
31
Wall of Giants (Central Well & Titans)
Antaeus
At the center of the Malabolges is the well of the Central
Pit. Giants and Titans stand perpetual guard inside the well-pit with the upper
halves of their bodies rising above the rim. These giants represent unchecked
passion, and had once fought the gods, but are now frozen to their navels in
the ice. One giant, Nimrod, was the builder of the Tower of Babel, and can only
howl in an unknown tongue. Another of the giants, Antaeus, is flattered by
Dante and lowers the poets down to the frozen lake Cocytus, the 9th Circle.
32
Circle IX: Lake of Cocytus (Traitors)
1st Round (Caina): Traitors to Kin
2nd Round (Antenora): Traitors to Country
Cocytus is the fourth and last great water of Hell, and
contains sinners guilty of Treachery Against Those to Whom They Were Bound By
Special Ties (traitors), divided into four subgroups. These sinners who denied
God's love and the companionship of others are furthest from God and are immobilized
in the ice. The 1st round is Caina, containing those treacherous with their
blood ties (ala Cain and Abel). These have their necks and heads out of the ice
and are permitted to move (bow) their heads. The 2nd round, Antenora, holds
those treacherous to country, and these are not able to bow their heads. Dante
accidentally kicks the head of the traitor Bocca Degli Abbati, and then further
abuses him. The poets next come across two heads in one hole, with one head
gnawing at the other.
33
3rd Round (Ptolomea): Traitors to Guests
The gnawing head identifies itself as Count Ugolino, and is
gnawing at the brains of Archbishop Ruggieri. They are both traitors to
country, but Ruggiero killed Ugolino's sons by starving them in front of him.
The 3rd Round is Ptolomea, named after Ptolomaeus of Maccabees who murdered his
father-in-law at a banquet. This round is for those Treacherous Against Ties of
Hospitality. Half their faces are frozen in the ice and their tears freeze over
their eyes. So great is this sin that the souls of the guilty fall to its
torments even before they die, leaving their bodies still on earth, inhabited
by Demons. Dante offers to help one of them but ultimately chooses not to.
34
Satan
4th Round (Judecca): Traitors to Masters
In the distance Satan beats his wings, creating an icy wind.
Strewn about him in the 4th and final round, Judecca (named after Judas
Iscariot), are the Treacherous to Their Masters (Traitors against God and
Leader). These souls are frozen below the ice in twisted positions. At the center,
frozen to his waist in the lake, Satan beats his 3 sets of wings trying to
escape, but only manages to freeze himself in the ice. In a grotesque parody of
the Trinity, he has three faces, each a different color, and in each mouth he
clamps a sinner whom he rips eternally with his teeth. Judas Iscariot is in the
central mouth, Brutus and Cassius in the mouths on either side (Julius Caesar's
assassins). Dodging Satan's flapping wings, the poets climb down Satan's
backside and down his legs to emerge at the exit of Hell, with the stars in the
distance. Following this exit, they climb back to the surface, ascending along
the sides of the river Lethe, to reach an exit along the base of the Mount of
Purgatory. It is just before dawn on Easter Sunday.
Images from John Ciardi 1954 translation notes.
