The Divine Comedy
Feb 1
Journey through the Nine Circles of Hell
The Divine Comedy: a masterpiece by Dante Alighieri
Durante, more commonly referred to as Dante was an Italian poet whose brilliant depiction of the loops of hell still sends chills down the spine.
Born in Florence in May 1265, Dante belonged to a noble family that was not very wealthy. Although he got married at a very young age to a girl of his family’s choice, he still fell in love with a girl named Beatrice.
Nothing happened between the two and Beatrice was unaware of Dante’s devotion to her and how she influenced most of his work. She plays an important role in the literary marvel of Dante, “The Divine Comedy.”
The Divine Comedy is the masterpiece of Dante’s work that has two parts, “Purgatory” and “Paradiso.” The main purpose of the literature marvel was for people to understand the journey to salvation and what grave dangers and terrors await for those who defy God and His message. Dante portrayed such a vivid image of hell that it still sends chills down people’s spines.
The Beginning of the Journey
Dante’s journey starts from a dark forest, full of monstrous animals where he finds Virgil, the most virtuous of Roman poets, to guide him through the way.
They entered hell through a wide abyss with no doors in sight, just a deep pit shaped like a funnel, believed to have been created by Lucifer’s fall from heaven, making him the fallen angel. The inscription on the entrance said:
“Abandon all hopes ye who enter here.”
As they proceeded further, they found a place for the doomed souls, reserved for the people who were coward and too afraid to speak and stand by the truth. These souls were neither sent to heaven nor to hell, tormented by snakes and wasps with no way out. The geography of hell was unusual. Nine circles till the end like a funnel, narrowing down to the end. The deeper the pit, the worse would be the punishment.
A crowd of people waited by the bank of River Acheron, waiting for the boatman Karen to take them to the judge of their fate, Minos, who would tell the souls which circle they belonged to. Minos, the judge of the fate of the lost souls, circled his serpent tail around the necks of the people, clenching hard, and the number of turns of the tail identified the circle of hell they belonged to, dooming the souls for eternity varying depending on their actions and sins in the world.
The Unending Doom for the Unbaptized Souls
The damned souls from Dante’s Inferno | Photo Credits: Royal Academy
On descending towards the first circle of hell, Dante saw that the first circle was for the unbaptized souls called “Limbo,” and the virtuous pagans like Julius Caesar and Plato, who were not tormented in any way but regretted what they had done and how they had been unaware of the God.
The second pit was for the lustful, the most prominent of whom was Cleopatra VII, whose lust had no bounds in this world. As they led their passion to take over their lives in the world, in a similar way their bodies were dragged in hell by tortuous wind blowing rapidly beating and throwing the lost souls all around.
The Freezing Pit of Hell
As we hear the word hell, we immediately assume it would be all fire, but the third circle of hell was the complete opposite. It was a circle, cold with the doomed souls crying out in agony and despair regretting every moment of sins they had committed on the earth.
In the circle there stood a beast, a three-headed giant dog called Cerberus (a monster from Greek mythology), barking with his three throats sending pain through the souls. This part of hell was reserved for those who were involved in gluttony in the world. As it is said, greed can bring a person unending doom, Dante made sure to portray that unending doom in the best of ways.
The greedy souls were all stuck in the mud- a mud made of their vomit. Not only that, they were being tethered and scratched by the beasts but there was nothing much they could do instead of crying out loud.
The Pit Reserved for the Wasteful and the Greedy
On descending further down, the pit became narrow but the screams and cries became louder and painful.
Each dissension showed that the souls are there for many reasons which were beyond comprehension. The fourth circle of hell was for the Prodigal and Avaricious: those who spent too much and those who had too much but did not spend at all and saved everything.
This circle of hell was different than the others as in this the people were not tormented but instead, they spent eternity blaming and cursing each other. Those who spent too much in this world cursed those who did not spend at all and those who did not spend cursed those who spent everything on useful material.
Their punishment was for the reason that either they were too into the world or they just were too greedy. It just echoed with either “Why do you waste it?” or “Why do you keep it?”
The Waterfall of Boiling Blood
The fifth circle of Hell | Photo Credits: Devian Tart
The fifth circle of Dante’s inferno is called “The Styx,” is reserved for those who are wrathful and had problems controlling their anger in the world. It is like a great waterfall of boiling blood flowing down into the river to those who spent eternity in hell feeding their anger and trying to fulfill their endless rage somehow by attacking each other brutally at the bank of the River Styx.
At the bottom of the river were spiteful or the sullen. Their sin was like the wrathful but a bit different. They had the same amount of hatred in their hearts in the world but chose to suppress it. In their whole lives of anger and complaining, they did not appreciate the blessings of God which bought them among the best kind of sinners.
The Great Gate of Hell
This is where the events took a turn. Hell was now divided into two parts by a great gate which was guarded by fallen angels.
The next three pars of hell were reserved for the worst of sinners with hideous punishments which now became their fate. This side of hell was those who committed all the sins in the world knowing what might be the cost of it and still chose to ignore the Holy message of God. On descending, with the guidance of Virgil, it became clear to Dante that the sins were so extreme that hell was becoming darker than it was before.
Devoured by Flames
The sixth circle of hell had no souls but open tombs being devoured by fire and flames.
Such a horrible punishment was for those who ignored the doctrine of Christianity pursued their life with pleasure and made others go astray along with them. Vigil explained to Dante among the fiery tombs, one of the group was the Epicureans, who thought that the soul ends with the body and there is no such thing as hell or the judgment of eternal fate.
As Dante is proceeding further with Virgil, he hears a voice of a soul from one of the tombs and Virgil identifies the voice to be of Farinata- a political leader of Dante’s time. They talk about the ongoing politics when Dante realizes that he does not know about anything of the present but can see the future from hell.
Farinata even prophesized Dante’s future exile from Florence but then Virgil called upon him so they can go through the remaining two circles to finally reach Paradiso: Heaven.
The Fledgiton Valley
The Centaurs punishing the violent souls | Photo Credits: History Links
The journey through the seventh circle of hell starts at the Fledgiton valley which is further divided into three parts for three types of sinners who are held equally accountable. The first part is for the murderers who killed innocent people and those who took other’s properties where Dante sees Alexander the Great and many other figures, all souls sunk deep into the river of boiling blood and fire while mythical creatures like Centaurs (half-human, half horses) patrolled them for their violence against each other.
The second ring was for those who committed suicide and killed themselves against the will of God who now was in the shape of trees constantly being eaten by harpies and other creatures causing unbearable pain. The trees were in a dark forest with no fruits being grown on them just poisonous thorns to give them a taste of their ungratefulness for the life and blessings that God had bestowed upon them.
While the third ring had those who were blasphemous. This closing ring was the valley of abominable: those who acted in violence against God, all buried in the hot burning sand with boiling rain falling over them while the sodomites were forced to run on the burning sand without stopping.
The Hell for Fraudsters
The eight hell had no parts but it was not for one or two types of the sinner, but many. It is called “Malebolge” by Dante which means “Evil pit.”
A person involved in any kind of fraud in the world was in the eighth pit of hell all of them being punished differently. The façade they had created in the world and the way they deceived people was now a living nightmare for them. It involved:
· Seducers and Deviants were being hit and tortured by horned demons.
· Flatterers were being dumped into their excrement.
· Practitioner of Simony who abused his power in the church was being baked into a candle.
· Seers who pretended to see the future were hung upside down.
· People involved in corruption were drowned in boiling tar and when they tried to reach the surface, they were attacked by demons which made them fall deep into the tar again causing an unending misery.
· The Hypocrites were adorned in beautiful clothes and accessories which were so heavy in reality that they had to crawl on the floor. One of these people was the priest Cyprus who had made people crucify Jesus and now he was nailed to the ground himself crying for mercy.
· Thieves who were being tortured by Serpent-like creatures bit them and stole their human features which were then restored and the same would happen again.
· The Counsellors who made people fall into corruption and fraud were being tortured y demons.
· Those who caused conflict and chaos among families and other people were being stabbed by demons.
· And finally, those who forged things and lied were covered in various diseases according to their crimes.
Dante saw many familiar faces in the eighth circle and then continued his journey to the last part of hell where Satin himself resided.
The Last Part of Hell: The Pit of Satan
Lucifer in the deepest center of earth frozen up to his torso | Photo Credits: The Paris Review
The final circle of Dante’s inferno was portrayed as a frozen valley that went cold because of Lucifer flapping his wings rapidly. All the souls were stuck in the frozen river, only their torsos out.
It was so cold that when they cried their tears froze mid-way. In the very center resided Lucifer: the prince of hell, stuck in the frozen river himself, flapping his wings rapidly which made the souls get tortured further. This part of the inferno was reserved for treacherous as treachery is the worst of sins that cannot be forgiven.
Lucifer devouring the damned souls of three greatest traitors from his three heads | Photo Credits: Dante Today
The greatest of all traitors was Lucifer himself as he willingly betrayed God. Lucifer had three heads, each head devouring the greatest three traitors of all times: Judas Iscariot- an apostle of Jesus Christ, Marcus Junius Brutus- the assassin of Julius Caesar and traitor to the loyalty towards his country, and Gaius Cassius- who led the assassination of Julius.
And from there, Dante and Virgil found their entrance to paradise and began their journey.
Sources
posted by Aloyzio Achutti at 11:03 AM
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