Dante and Virgil arrive at the next circle of Hell and look down into the valley at a site of carnage.  Dante describes these souls who are dismembered and disfigured, comparing them to those of all the battles that have occurred over time.  These are the sinners who sewed schism and discord.  Their bodies are sliced open by a devil with a sword, causing their their entrails to spill out, as they walk eternally through Hell.  However, just as their wounds finish healing, they return the the devil to be dismembered and mutilated again, forever repeating the process.

These sinners include those who sewed schism in religion, and political figures who sewed discord in Italian politics.  One of the most incredible characters is Bertrand De Born, who sewed discord between family members, separating father from son (causing a quarrel between King Henry II and his son Prince Henry).  Bertrand is decapitated by a devil and must travel carrying his head in his upraised hand like a lantern.  This is one of the best examples of Dante’s punishment of splitting the body open for the sin of splitting religion and society up.

As gruesome and bloody as this scene is, Dante and Virgil will encounter even more in the next valley. …to be continued… …or go back…

Another sinner in a flame approaches Dante and Virgil. This sinner is Guido Da Montefeltro. Guido was a captain in a rival army to Dante’s party, who later became a monk. As a monk, Guido conspired with Pope Boniface VIII in fraudulent Italian politics. Dante compares the voice of Guido coming out of the flames to that of the cries coming out of an Italian instrument of torture where the victim was roasted alive inside a bronze bull.

When Pope Boniface plotted with Guido, the Pope agreed to absolve him of the sins he was about to commit. Since absolution cannot be done ahead of time, and the sinner must be repentant (which Guido was not), Guido was condemned to Hell. Guido tells Dante that he was originally destined to Heaven when he died since he was a Franciscan Friar, but Satan snatched him away from Saint Francis at the last minute for his lack of repentance.

Dante and Virgil leave the valley for the next group of sinners, a site of horror. …continue… …or go back…

Dante and Virgil climb out of the valley of the thieves and see the next valley below them dark and dotted with small lights like fireflies. As they get closer they see that these lights are really flames with souls encased inside of them. This is the valley of the Deceivers and evil counsellors. Just as in life they sinned with their tongues, they are now condemned to live eternally in tongues of fire. Dante and Virgil approach a flame with two heads holding two souls, Ulysses and Diomede. Ulysses and Diomede planned the plot to use the trojan horse to enter and destroy Troy and subsequently steal the pagan statue of Pallas.

Ulysses (inside the flame with Diomede) then tells Virgil of his last voyage through the Pillars of Hercules (the end of the known world at the Straits of Gibraltar). Ulysses sailed through the forbidden sea and at last saw a mountain in the distance. However a storm arose and sunk his ship, killing everyone, before they were able to reach the mountain. The mountain they saw in the distance was the seven story mountain of Purgatory, which will be the setting for the next section of the Divine Comedy.

Dante and Virgil then move on to talk to another sinner encased in flame. …continue…  … or go back…