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Dante’s Divine Comedy
Part 1 – The Inferno
Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321)
 Lived in Florence, Italy
 Born to moderately wealthy family
 Married to Gemma di Manetto Donati – arranged marriage
 In love with Beatrice di Folco Portinari – who was married to someone else
 Fell in love with her at age 9, never stopped
Courtly love – never cheated on his wife, loved Beatrice from afar
 She died in 1290 (age 24)
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Dante Cont.
 Held a number of political offices
 Loved the study of philosophy
 During political struggle, Dante found himself on the losing side
 Exiled from Florence
 He died in exile
 Wrote the Divine Comedy (c. 1308 – c. 1321) while in exile
 His personal journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven
 Incorporates a Christian worldview with classical philosophy and mythology
The Inferno – Hell
Disclaimer
 This lesson contains material that may be disturbing to some viewers (especially
those with a guilty conscience).
 Mr. Kazun cannot be held liable for any nightmares/night terrors, cold sweats, or
upset tummies resulting from this lesson.
Geography of Hell
 Cone shape – Why?
 Separated into three stages
1) Incontinence
2) Violent
3) Fraudulent
 Incontinence – uncontrollable desire/need for something (7 deadly sins)
 Violence – violent acts (unplanned)
 Fraudulent – planned, cold hearted acts against others
 9 circles of hell
 Hell is also in eternal night
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Who goes to Hell?
 Unrepentant mortal sinners
 Mortal Sin
 engage in the sin freely, knowing that it is wrong, and is serious
 In effect, people go there through the life they have chosen to lead
 Dante meets and talks to many sinners as he journeys through hell
Something to Remember
 God’s Justice
 In hell the punishment fits the crime
Usually the punishment could be called – “Poetic Justice”
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Usually the punishment could be called – “Poetic Justice”
 Hell is forever/eternal (once there, you can’t leave)
Entering Hell
 Dante is led through hell by Virgil
 Roman poet
 Gate of Hell
Sign above it says: “Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here”
 Hell is eternal
 Once there, you are there forever
 Meaning punishments are forever; no end; no hope
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The Vestibule
 Not technically part of Hell itself
 This place is reserved for the Uncommitted/Indecisive/Opportunists
 The people who in life these people only thought of themselves; only acted in what
were their own best interests
 Also the angels who didn’t chose a side in the battle between God and Lucifer (not
rebellious against God and not faithful to Satan)
 These people are neither good nor evil
 Therefore they have no real
place in the afterlife; neither
heaven or hell would take them
in
 Constantly chase a banner
which can never be caught
 Are also chased and stung
by hornets and wasps while
running on maggot covered
ground
Circle 1 - Limbo
 Reserved for virtuous pagans
 Those who were not Christians, but lived moral lives
 Virgil spends his time here
 Saladin, Julius Caesar, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are here
 Pleasant place, field and a castle
 Only punishment being separated from God for eternity
Circle 2 –
The Lustful
 Indulged in lustful passion beyond reason
 Trapped forever in a violent storm
 Dante meets Paolo and Francesca here:
 Famous lovers from Florence
 Involved in scandal
 Francesca married to Paolo’s brother
 P. and F. have an affair
 Brother can home early – killed them in the act of adultery
Compare and Contrast
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Compare and Contrast
St. Augustine
 Moral struggles involving sex
 Reads the Bible:
 Picks up one of St. Paul’s letters
 Goes to heaven
 Reads to his salvation
Francesca
 Moral struggles involving sex
 Reads Lancelot
 Picks up Paolo
 Goes to hell
 Reads to her damnation
And the Journey continues…
 Circle 3 – The Gluttons
 Constantly maimed by Cerberus
 Lie in putrid slush (garbage they produced in life)
 Consistently raining and hailing
 Circle 4 – Hoarders and Wasters
 Each group pushed boulders against the other (mundane/useless existence – sin
punishes opposing sin)
 Circle 5 – Wrathful and Slothful
 Wrathful - Forever attack one another, while stuck in the River Styx
 Slothful – forever trapped beneath the waters of the River Styx
Circle 6 – Heretics
 The City of Dis
 Heretics are found here
 Those who denied aspects of Christianity (like the immortality of the soul)
 Therefore denied God
 Entombed in flaming graves for eternity
 Pope Anastasius II is here
Circle 7 – The Violent
 Three categories of Violence:
 Violence Against Neighbours
Warmakers and murderers – immersed in boiling blood.
Centaurs guard the shores
Alexander the Great immersed to his eyebrows.
 Violence Against Self
Suicides – souls enclosed in trees. Harpies feed on their leaves
 Violence Against God
Blasphemers, sodomites and usurers – lay on burning sand, or run around in
circles. The sky rains fire.
Circle 8 – Malebolge (Ordinary Fraud)
 10 categories of sinner here:
 All guilty of committing deliberate evil
 Each category placed in their own pit
 Seducers – run around forever, whipped by demons
 Flatterers – submerged up to the neck in human feces
 Simoniacs – placed in flaming holes head first with only their legs exposed
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 Simoniacs – placed in flaming holes head first with only their legs exposed
Pope Nicholas III and Pope Clement V (current pope; Pope Boniface VIII is
destined for this pit)
 Diviners– contorted until heads are backwards, and cry until blind
 Grafters (corrupt politicians) – trapped in a pool of boiling pitch
Circle 8 Cont.
 Hypocrites – forced to wear brightly painted lead cloaks
Pope Sixtus V and Caiaphas (high priest)
 Thieves – chased and bitten by reptiles
 False Counselors – wrapped in individual columns of flame
 Sowers of Discord – split from chin to groin by a sword, then healed
 Falsifiers – cursed with diseases, and compelled to scratch their skin continuously
What do you think the environment in the lowest pit of hell is like?
Lets just say it’s damn cold
What kind of sin would you have to commit to be sent here (the lowest pit of
Hell)?
Betrayers – Why is this the worst sin?
Circle 9 – Treacherous Fraud
 Treachery = betrayal
 Treachery against family
 Frozen head first in ice
 Cry out for those they betrayed
 Treachery against country
 Frozen in ice up to the neck
 Dante sees one sinner gnawing on the head of his former partner in crime
 Treachery against guests
 Encased up to the head in blocks of ice, tears freeze and pierce their eyes
Circle 9 – Meet Satan/Lucifer
 Finally we get to the final stop in Hell
 Here were find Satan
 We also now know why the last circle of hell is frozen
 Satan’s appearance:
 Three faces on his head
Six eyes constantly crying
Three sets of wings – beat constantly creating a wind that freezes hell
The teeth of each mouth holds a sinner
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Who gets to hang with Satan
 The worst betrayers in history
 Those who betrayed their friend/lord/benefactor
 There are three sinners here
 Can you guess who?
 Brutus and Cassius (betrayed Julius Caesar)
 Judas Iscariot (betrayed Jesus) – he suffers most
 They’re punishment is to be chewed endlessly in Lucifer’s jaws – what fun!
 Other sinners here are contorted and lodged completely in blocks of ice
Notice the use of the number 3
 The Unholy Trinity
 Three stages of Hell
 Three faces on Satan
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 Three faces on Satan
 Three sets of wings on Satan
 Three sinners chewed by Satan
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