● Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy is a famous Medieval Italian epic poem depicting

the realms of the afterlife. Dante (who was born in 1265) wrote The Divine Comedy
somewhere between 1308 and his death in 1321, while he was in exile from his
hometown of Florence, Italy, which had been enduring a civil war.

● The Divine Comedy is one of literature's boldest undertakings, as it takes us through

Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and then reaches Heaven (Paradiso).

● The Divine Comedy is composed of 14,233 lines divided into three separate volumes
and is arranged in 100 cantos in 3 parts: 34 for the Inferno, 33 each for Purgatorio and
Paradiso. ​

● Dante is both the author and the central character of this trilogy. He travels through all of
Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven to make his way back to God, meeting several characters
from history and literature on his way.

DANTE ALIGHIERI​
● Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence, Italy, to a family of moderate wealth that
had a history of involvement in the complex Florentine political scene.

● Around 1285, Dante married a woman chosen for him by his family, although he
remained in love with another woman—Beatrice, whose true historical identity remains a
mystery—and continued to yearn for her after her sudden death in 1290. Three years
later, he published Vita Nuova (The New Life), which describes his tragic love for
Beatrice.

● Around the time of Beatrice’s death, Dante began a serious study of philosophy and
intensified his political involvement in Florence. He held a number of significant public
offices at a time of great political unrest in Italy, and, in 1302, he was exiled for life by the
leaders of the Black Guelphs, the political faction in power at the time.

● All of Dante’s work on The Comedy (later called The Divine Comedy, and consisting of
three books: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso) was done after his exile. He completed
Inferno, which depicts an allegorical journey through Hell, around 1314. Dante roamed
from court to court in Italy, writing and occasionally lecturing, until his death from a
sudden illness in 1321.

● Dante’s personal life and the writing of The Comedy were greatly influenced by the
politics of late-thirteenth-century Florence. The struggle for power in Florence was a
reflection of a crisis that affected all of Italy, and, in fact, most of Europe, from the twelfth
century to the fourteenth century—the struggle between church and state for temporal
authority.
 ● Inferno is also a landmark in the development of European language and literature, for it
stands as the greatest medieval poem written in vernacular language—the common
tongue of a people. Critics spanning nearly seven centuries have praised its poetic
beauty and compass, virtually unmatched by any other medieval poem.

● Before Dante, major literary works were almost always written in Latin, the language of
the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church; no one had considered the vernacular
capable of poetic expression of the caliber of Virgil’s Aeneid, for example.

Historical Background​
● Contemporary politics deeply influenced Dante's literary and emotional life, and had a
major influence on the writing of the Inferno. Renaissance Florence was a thriving, but
not a peaceful city: different opposing factions continually struggled for dominance there.

● The Guelfs and the Ghibellines were the two major factions, and in fact that division was
important in all of Italy and other countries as well. The Pope and the Holy Roman
Emperor were political rivals for much of this time period, and in general the Guelfs were
in favor of the Pope, while the Ghibellines supported Imperial power.

● By 1289 in the battle of Campaldino the Ghibellines largely disappeared from Florence.
Peace, however, did not insure. Instead, the Guelf party divided between the Whites and
the Blacks (Dante was a White Guelf). The Whites were more opposed to Papal power
than the Blacks, and tended to favor the emperor, so in fact the preoccupations of the
White Guelfs were much like those of the defeated Ghibellines.

● The Blacks exiled Dante, confiscating his goods and condemning him to be burned if he
should return to Florence. Dante never returned to Florence. He wandered from city to
city, depending on noble patrons there.

● The Inferno can therefore be read as a piece of propaganda against Dante's enemies
(the Pope, the Black Guelphs). Although this may be more applicable to the other two
parts of the Divine Comedy, the Inferno is also a mystical religious poem. However, the
political side of it is much more prominent.

● The Inferno was of course written before the invention of the printing press, and was
probably not widely read. Of course, at that time, very little could be said to be widely
read, given literacy rates and lack of printed materials.

Inferno opens on the evening of Good Friday in the year 1300. Traveling through a dark wood,
Dante Alighieri has lost his path and now wanders fearfully through the forest. The sun shines
down on a mountain above him, and he attempts to climb up to it but finds his way blocked by
three beasts—a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf.
Frightened and helpless, Dante returns to the dark wood. Here, he encounters the ghost of
Virgil, the great Roman poet, who has come to guide Dante back to his path, to the top of the
mountain. Virgil says that their path will take them through Hell and that they will eventually
reach Heaven, where Dante’s beloved Beatrice awaits.​

Virgil would not be able to take Dante all the way to Paradise, since as a Pagan he had no right
to enter there ­instead a more worthy soul would take him the final part of the way. Dante gladly
accepted his offer.

Virgil leads Dante through the gates of Hell, marked by the haunting inscription ​

“ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER HERE” (III.7). ​

They enter the outlying region of Hell, the Ante-Inferno, where the souls who in life could not
commit to either good or evil now must run in a futile chase after a blank banner, day after day,
while hornets bite them and worms lap their blood. Dante witnesses their suffering with pity. The
ferryman, Charon then takes him and his guide across the river Acheron, the real border of Hell.​

NINE CIRCLES OF HELL

1. First Circle (Limbo) Canto IV​

​Sin – Unbaptized and pagans; those who were born before the advent of
Christianity​

Punishment – No physical torment, but eternal sorrow instead.​

Dante met:​

Virgil, Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan, ​

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy​

2. Second Circle (Lust)​

Sin – Guilty of lust toward others​

Punishment – Blow around in a violent storm without hope or rest​

Minos- sinners confess their sins to him​

Dante met:​

Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Achilles, ​

 Paris, Tristan, Francesca da Ramini, ​

Paolo da Ramini

3. Third Circle (Gluttony)​

Sin – Eating more than they should. Not treating their bodies as temples​

Punishment – Forced to eat vile filth from rain drops​

Cerberus – three-headed dog​

Dante met:​

Ciacco – predicted the political future of Florence​

4. Fourth Circle (Greed)​

Sin – Avarice (Greed/Making money your idol) and Prodigal (spending money
freely without care). They were not prudent with the goods of Fortune.​

Punishment – The souls are to bang big rocks together while under the watch of
the demon, Plutus​

Dante met:​

clergymen, popes, and cardinals

5. Fifth Circle (Anger)​

Sin – Wrathful (Anger towards others) and the Sullen (Bad temper/Always in a
gloomy mood)​

Punishment – The Wrathful fight each other on the river Styx. The Sullen gurgle
beneath the waters of Styx

.​Phlegyas – the boatman who takes them across the Styx ​

LOWER HELL

6. Sixth Circle (Heresy)​

Sin – Teaching false doctrine about the Bible as truth​

​

Punishment – They are all trapped in flaming tombs​

Heretics choose their own opinions instead of following the teachings of the
Church. ​

They get to spend eternity set on fire and then buried alive. Their bodies are
forever burning in their graves.​

Atheists are also here.​

7. Seventh Circle (Violence)​

First Ring – Against their Neighbor: Tyrants and Murderers​

Sin – Murder and, for tyrants, using power unjustly​

​
Punishment – Put into a river (Phlegethon) of boiling blood and fire​

Second Ring – Against Themselves (Suicides) and Against their Possessions

(Squanderers)​

Sin – Suicide and, for squanderers, destruction of possessions which would

hinder life​

Punishment – For people who committed suicide are made into thorny bushes
or trees which they are fed on by harpies.​

Third Ring – Against God (Blasphemers, Sodomites, and Usurers)​

Sin – People who are violent against God, violent against nature, and stealing
money​
​

Punishment – fiery sand and flakes of fire rain down on all three types of sins in
this ring.​
Dante and Virgil left circle 7 for the next circle as they ride on the back of Geryon, a flying
monster with different natures, just like the fraudulent. This circle of Hell is divided into 10
Bolgias or stony ditches with bridges between them. ​

8. Eighth Circle – Fraud​

​
First Ring – Panders and Seducers​

Sin – Prostitution and, for seducers, people that entice others for sexual
purposes​

Punishment – Both groups walk in lines facing opposite directions being

battered by demons​

​Second Ring – Flatterers​

​
Sin – People who use words for their own advantage​

Punishment – Immersed in human excrement

Third Ring – Simonists​

Sin – The selling of sacred things​

Punishment – Put head-first in a rock and the sole of their feet are licked by fire​

Fourth Ring – Diviners, Astrologers, and Magicians​

Sin – Giving false prophecy using various means​

Punishment – Their heads are twisted backwards​

Fifth Ring – Barrators/​Corrupt Politicians​

​
Sin – Illegal ways to bring yourself up in politics​

Punishment – Put into a boiling lake

Sixth Ring – Hypocrites​

​

Sin – Pretending to have something when, in reality, they do not have​

Punishment – They must wear lead cloaks​

Seventh Ring – Thieves​

Sin – Stealing what does not belong to them​

Punishment – Pursued by snakes and lizards and constantly bit by them.​

Eighth Ring – Fraudulent Counselors​

Sin – Lying to someone to gain from that person​

Punishment – Encased in flames​

Ninth Ring – Sowers of Scandal/Discord and Schism​

Sin – Lying to others and, in result, destroying their lives​

Punishment – A demon hacks apart their poor souls just as they did on earth​

Tenth Ring – Falsifiers of Metals, Persons, Coins, and Words​

​
 Sin – Creating something that is not true throughout these different sins​

Punishment – Afflicted with different types of diseases since, they themselves,

are a “disease” to society​

9. Ninth Circle – Treachery​

​ First Ring (Caina) – Traitors to Kin​

Sin – Traitor to your own family​

Punishment – Immersed in ice up to their faces​

​ a vast frozen lake, as clear as glass—Cocytus​

Second Ring (Antenora) – Traitors to political entities​

​
Sin – Traitor to your own country​

Punishment – Lying face up covered in ice​

Third Ring - Traitors to Guests (Ptolomea)

​

Sin - Killing of a guest in your house​

​
Punishment - Covered in ice except for the face.​

Fourth Ring – Traitors to Benefactors (Judecca)​

Sin – Traitors to their lords and benefactors​

​
Punishment – Completely encased in ice with no one to talk to​
In the ultimate depths of this circle lies Lucifer/Satan and the three worst human
offenders:​

Judas Iscariot​

Brutus​

Cassius​

Christ, whose church is centered in Rome, was the perfect manifestation of

religion, Dante feels that Caesar was the perfect manifestation of secular government,
as the emperor of Rome at the height of its power. ​

Virgil and Dante climbed on Lucifer all the way through the center of the earth
and to the other side, where they finally emerged in the southern hemisphere.​