Gate of Hell - Cowards who refused to take a stand for or against God

Forever running and getting stung by wasps.

Circle one - Limbo

Virtuous pagans, Virgil,  Plato.  Unfulfilled desire and hopelessness.

Circle two - The lustful

Francesa and Paolo. Cleopatra. Eternally being swirled in wind.

Circle three - The gluttons

Guarded by the three-headed dog, Cerebrus.  Eating slime and muck.

Circle four - The prodigal and the miserly

Hoarders and wasters pushing an enormous stone against each other.

Circle five - The wrathful and the sullen

Thrashing and bodies torn apart in dark filthy water.

Circle six - The heretics

Living in smoking tombs.

Circle seven - The violent, the suicides, the blasphemers, the sodomites, the usurers

A river of boiling blood guarded by Centaurs.  Souls become a forest of suffering trees, others torn apart by dogs, rain of fire, mutilation.

Circle eight - Fraudulent, pimps, seducers, flatterers, simonists, sorcerers, corrupt politicians, sewers of division, falsifiers, alchemists, thieves

Eternally walking and tormented.  Living in excrement.  Stuffed into holes.  Heads turned backwards.  Boiling tar.  Lead capes.  Snakes.  Flames.

Circle nine - Sinners against family, betrayers, traitors against country

Encased in ice.  Home of Satan.  Cannibalism. Judas being eternally chewed by Lucifer.

As Dante and Virgil continue to walk, they see sinners now completely encased in the ice.  They are frozen alive for eternity in various contortions and positions, unable to even speak.  In the distance Dante sees what looks to him like a windmill.  As they get closer, they see it is Satan, flapping his bat-like wings, frozen in the water from the chest down.  In a mockery of the Trinity, Satan has three terrifying faces, each face chewing on a sinner.  The three sinners Satan is eating are Judas, Cassius, and Brutus.  Cassius and Brutus conspired to assassinate Caesar, just as Judas conspired against Christ.  These three sinners represent those who commit treachery against the Church and the Roman empire.

The climax of this final scene is the escape from Hell as Virgil leads Dante out by climbing down Satan’s hairy flanks toward the center of the earth.  As they climb down Satan’s legs, they are in the exact middle of the earth and are now climbing upward toward the other side of the earth.  This leads Dante and Virgil out of Hell and to the other side of the earth (on Easter morning) to a sight that brings joy to Dante, a sky full of stars.

we climbed up, he first and I behind him,
far enough to see, through a round opening,
a few of those fair things the heavens bear.
Then we came forth, to see again the stars.

go back…

Dante watches in shock as the sinner looks up from chewing on the bloody head of his companion. This sinner is Count Ugolino, and his eternal meal is Archbishop Ruggieri, traitors against their country. Ugolino describes in excruciating detail the story of how he was betrayed by Ruggieri and locked in a prison with his sons to starve to death. Ugolino leads us to believe that he probably ended up cannibalizing his own children (scholars believe they were actually his grandchildren). Dante’s punishment once again mimics the sin.

Dante and Virgil then encounter souls with only their faces above the ice, their eyes frozen in the sockets by tears. One of these was a corrupt Friar involved in a murder plot. Dante learns that even though the soul of this Friar is in Hell, his body is still alive on earth, inhabited by a demon. It’s worth noting that the center of Hell is dominated by ice, not fire. Ice represents the absence of love and separation from God. Although fire is encountered in other parts of Hell, it is often associated with the love of God and is a theme found in purgatory.

Dante and Virgil then begin incredible climax of Inferno. …continue…   …or go back…