Heart of the Inferno

Shivering violently in the chill wind, Dante and Virgil ventured onward, closer and closer to very centre of the Inferno. Leaving the deranged shouting of Count Ugolino far behind (for the previous episode in the story of the Inferno, please click here), our poet could not veil his fear, try though he might, for he was grimly aware that somewhere down here, the greatest of all traitors must lie - Lucifer himself...

Dante and Virgil upon Cocytus
Painting by Gustave Doré

After a precarious march further along the frozen lake of Cocytus, Dante noticed that the souls appeared to be fixed deeper into the ice, with all but their tortured faces swallowed by Cocytus. The souls were in agony, for in their plight they wept, but the sheer cold had frozen their tears, as though each bore a visor of crystal over their faces. One such soul gave a muffled cry, and begged our pilgrims to break the ice from his stricken face. Dante, hearing his voice, called back, "If this is what you want, tell me your name; and if I do not help you, may I be forced to drop beneath this ice!" The sinner replied that he was Friar Alberigo, and that he paid the price in Hell even whilst his body still lived on, far above. Years before, at a banquet, he had ordered the deaths of his own brother and nephew. The Friar had called for some figs, and at this prearranged signal, his guards had rushed in and slain his kin. For his heinous betrayal of his guests and family, his immortal soul had been cast by Fate into Hell, as a demon took possession of his mortal form. This penultimate area of Cocytus was Tolomea, Round Three of the Ninth Circle of Hell, to which are condemned those who violate the holy bond between a host and his guest. Unlike all other regions of Hell, the sinners here can well still be alive on Earth, yet bound too, in unholy Cocytus. The Friar speaks too of Branca D'Oria, a fellow sinner bound in the ice, a man whom Dante knew in life. Stunned at this news, and appalled at his crimes, Dante ignored the Friar's plea to clear the ice from his eyes, and sternly walked on.

Lucifer
Photograph taken by the author in the Baptistery
of St. John, Florence

At last, after braving all the perils of the Inferno, Dante had now arrived at the final lair of evil, Judecca, the Fourth Round of the Ninth Circle of Hell. To here are banished the very gravest of sinners, those who have betrayed their own benefactors. In the distant fog, a gargantuan outline began to take form, just as a mountain emerges from a thick mist. The deathly cold gale was so intense that Dante held his head down, as his eyes fell upon a morbid sight. For here, the souls of the damned were frozen deep within Cocytus, their condemned bodies held in suspended animation, in cruelly contorted positions, for as far as the eye could see into the depths of the lake. Completely submerged in ice, no sound came from their lips, but for frantic whimpering destined never to be heard. Dante shuddered at the eerie silence, but Virgil took his arm and led him on. The time had come. Bracing him, Virgil consoled his fellow poet:


                            " This is he, this is Dis; this is the place
                               that calls for all the courage you have in you.

                               How chilled and nerveless, Reader, I felt then;
                               do not ask me - I cannot write about it -
                               there are no words to tell you how I felt.

                               I did not die - I was not living either!
                               Try to imagine, if you can imagine,
                               me there, deprived of life and death at once... "
                                           - DANTE LOOKS UPON THE FACE OF SATAN

Satan Bound
Engraving by Gustave Doré

The mist lifted, and there, in all his infernal glory, lay Lucifer himself, bound to the waist by the icy clutches of Cocytus. Once the most beautiful of all the angels of Heaven, Lucifer, the Morning Star, was perfect in all things but for the most terrible of things, his pride. Refusing to bow to the Son of God, he dared to openly challenge God for the throne of Heaven, and open war thundered across the vaults of Heaven (for more about this, please click here). Defeated, he, along with the one third of the angelic host that had sided with him, were cast out of Heaven, and hurled to ruinous perdition in Hell. Taking the new name of Satan, as one of only two beings to have committed open treachery against God, he now endured an eternity of retribution for his crimes, at the very Pit of Hell. Dante stood transfixed, overcome with awe at the sight of him. Nothing could have prepared him for the colossal being now bound before him. "My height is closer to the height of giants than theirs is to the length of his great arms", Dante remarks. The former archangel towered high above Cocytus, even though his body from the waist down stretched far below the surface. From his titanic head, three faces burst angrily forth, each holding a sinner tight in its jaws. A pair of vast, bat like wings lay fixed below each, the pure white plumage that once adorned them having been burned away after his treachery against the Most High. Tears flowed from his blazing eyes, tears of rage mingled with grief at his lost Paradise. Six streams of tears flowed down his body, mixing with the blood dripping from his mouth. Still he sought to escape his infernal prison, as he violently flapped his enormous wings, desperate to break free of Cocytus. But in his pride, he was blind to the reality that the icy winds generated by his wings merely prolonged his suffering, constantly freezing the waters of the lake.

In the jaws of the left face, one as black as the night, a sinner convulsed in desperation. Virgil revealed to Dante his identity as Marcus Junius Brutus, the man who drove the blade into Julius Caesar, betraying his ruler, and the united Italy that he brought. In the jaws of the right face, one yellow as sulphur, another sinner jerked in pain. He was Gaius Cassius Longinus, a fellow conspirator of Brutus, and another of the assassins of Caesar. But in the central face, one red with fury, was the only other soul apart from Satan himself who had directly betrayed God, all for thirty pieces of silver - Judas Iscariot. The teeth of Satan crunched down upon his twitching body without end, but he also suffered another brutal torture, as the claws of the devil slashed open his body, tearing the flesh asunder.

Dante gazes upon Mount Purgatory
Painting by Bronzino 

The grisly sight caused a ripple of nausea in Dante, and Virgil saw that the time had come to leave the Inferno at last, though alas there was only one way to leave. Waiting for the opportune moment, Virgil seized Dante's arm and dashed forwards, latching onto the tangled and matted hair that grew on Satan's sides. Dante held on for dear life to Virgil's shoulder, as the great Roman poet descended down and down, past the surface of freezing Cocytus. Then, just as the two pilgrim reached Satan's thigh, the world seemed to Dante to turn on its head. Virgil adjusted his grip, and turned to face the feet of the devil, and began to climb. Puzzled, Dante held on still. At last, they came to a rocky cavern, and the two stopped for a rest. Glancing back, there stood the two towering legs of Satan, bursting forth into the air. For they had passed the very core of the cosmos, and gravity had turned on its head. Virgil explained that Satan had been thrown down to Hell with such force that he had smashed his way through the Earth, and now lay frozen in the same position he had fallen, many millennia ago. The very cavern they sat in now was caused when the land had been forced upward by the Morning Star's fall. Eager to put as much distance between themselves and Satan as possible, the two set off together along the rising road, in darkness. After what seemed an age, Dante spotted something that seemed more glorious than anything he had seen for an age. Stars! They had done it, they had reached the surface at last. But for Dante, the adventure had only just begun. Ahead lay a vast mountain, towering high. The Mountain of Purgatory...

With this, the story of the Inferno comes to an end, but the Divine Comedy has only begun, as Dante slowly makes his way toward the ultimate destination, the light of God in Heaven itself. The Inferno, however, has become legendary in its own right, and immortalised Dante as the greatest of all Italian poets, and a father of Western literature. Written in short and easily read chapters, or cantos as they are called, the Inferno is a remarkable read, as engaging today as it was when Dante wrote it as an exile from his native Florence, in the early years of the fourteenth century. Few things have been written which so emphatically warn of the consequences of evil...

The Inferno is readily, and easily available from Amazon, and is more than worthy of a position on your shelf:


United Kingdom

Penguin Classics:
Dante: Inferno (Penguin Classics)
(A translation which retains much of the poetic meter, with good illustrations and notes, as well as the original Italian alongside the English)

Oxford World's Classics:
The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics)
(A combined translation of all three parts of the Divine Comedy; the Inferno, the Purgatorio and the Paradisio, all in a highly accessible style)

United States

Penguin Classics:
The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (Pt. 1)
(A translation which retains much of the poetic meter, with good illustrations and notes, as well as the original Italian alongside the English)

Oxford World's Classics:

The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics)
(A combined translation of all three parts of the Divine Comedy, the Inferno, the Purgatorio and the Paradisio, all in a highly accessible style)

Into the Abyss

His thoughts still wracked by the gruesome sights of cleaved souls, it was with a profound sense of foreboding that Dante ventured onward, deeper and deeper into the Inferno on his dark journey (for the previous episode in this story, please click here). After a rebuke from his guide, Virgil, for his sympathy for the damned souls, the two poets arrive at the edge of a rickety bridge, with the final of the Rotten Pockets of the Eighth Circle of Hell stretching far below on the valley floor...

The Falsifiers
Painting by Giovanni di Paolo

" Wierd shrieks of lamentation
   pierced through me,
   like arrow shafts whose tips
   are barbed with pity,
   so that my hands were
   covering my ears "
          - THE CRIES OF THE FALSIFIERS

It was as all the plague hospitals in marshy, malaria ridden Tuscany had been crammed together into one fetid ditch, Dante thought. The screams of agony rang through his ears, and the grotesque stench of decay rose to his nostrils. Covering their noses with their drapes, the two poets descended to the foot of the mountains, as the din grew louder yet. Fighting back a wave of nausea, Dante looked on, as the rocky floor was strewn with the bodies of men and women struck with the most terrible afflictions. His eyes noticed two men, writhing in pain, frantically slashing at the sores on their flesh with their own nails, desperate to relief the itching that would not cease. For here in the last Rotten Pocket are punished the falsifiers, those who through their lies and perjury in life were a disease upon society. So now their bodies are corrupted by disease in death. Among the many Italians condemned to this plight, Dante spies two souls history knows well. The first, the wife of Potiphar, who through her false accusation incriminated Joseph, the second, Sinon, the Greek spy who persuaded the men of Troy to take the Horse within their walls. Many too, are afflicted with insanity, and frantically cavort around, acting more as beast than men, snapping and biting at any that approach. They see the lady Myrrha too, who through the malicious designs of the gods, seduced her own father whilst disguised (and who, incidentally, that myrrh is named after). Shuddering with disgust, our pilgrims turn their back on the rotten trench, and move on into the darkness.

Antaeus lowers Dante and Virgil
to the Ninth Circle of Hell
Painting by William Blake

Feeling his way through the impenetrable blackness, not for the first time Dante's ears nearly bled with a thunderous noise that blasted throughout Hell. The sound of a horn trumpeting not far ahead roused both men to their senses. As the darkness rolled aside, a city of many, gargantuan, towers seemed to appear. Blinking, with a start Dante realised that they were no towers. Giants! The most colossal beings the cosmos had ever seen. For here, straddling the chasm of the Ninth Circle were the Titans themselves, supreme beings whom the Olympian Gods had fought that devastating war for the mastery of the Heavens (a story which is told here). There too was the race of Giants who had followed them, and tried in vain to overthrow Jupiter himself. With a face greater in form than the mightiest cathedrals in Christendom, the giant Nimrod, who had blown the horn, looked down upon them. Dante's courage began to buckle in fear as he gazed back at the being who, in his pride, had dared to raise the Tower of Babel to God's throne, and was responsible for the fact that man no more speaks a common language. Approaching closer, Dante saw Ephialtes too, the Giant who dared to raise the mountains high to Olympus' lofty heights and seize the Heavenly Halls by force. Terrifying though they were, the Giants were tightly bound in chains, and could not move, but only leer in deathly silence. All that is, except for the Giant Antaeus, whom Heracles had once slain in ancient times. At Virgil's stern command, however, Antaeus obliged, knowing as he did the folly of violating the divine mandate which protected both pilgrims. Opening his titanic hand, Antaeus gently lowered Dante and Virgil into the Ninth and final Circle of Hell, as Virgil expressed relief to Dante that they had not been forced to venture further within the Giants, for deeper within was bound the most fearsome monster that ever lived - Typhon, a terrible abomination who struck fear into the hearts of mortals and gods alike (whose story is also told here).

Lake Cocytus
Engraving by Gustave Doré

As the Giant released them, Dante felt a strange new sensation. Their journey throughout Hell had been a long and torturous one, through Eight Circles they had descended; now just one remained, the final bastion of Sin where those who have committed the most heinous crimes of all are bound. For it is within this Circle that the greatest sinner of them all, Satan himself, is shackled in an eternity of torment. Here was the very Pit of the Universe itself, and the weight of all the cosmos, and all Hell, pressed down upon those bound within the Final Circle. Edging forwards, Dante felt a sudden, piercing cold at his feet. They were walking atop the surface of a vast lake, frozen solid by the sheer cold, an ethereal icy wind blasting over its surface from a distant source. This was the Lake Cocytus, in which were imprisoned forever those beings guilty of that gravest of crimes - Treachery. No lake or river on Earth bore ice so thick, Dante thought, no mountain which crashed upon it would so much as crack its sheets of clear crystal. To his horror, our pilgrim noticed the souls of men and women, encased in the ice below and all around him, frozen solid, yet all too aware, eyes wide in blind terror. The souls frozen in Cocytus in the Ninth Circle are ordered into five Rounds, according to the seriousness of their betrayal  Here, in the First Round, known as Caïna, are tortured those who betrayed their own kin. The souls here, Dante notices, are frozen to the face in the ice, their heads alone, blue with the deathly chill, are free. Among the many Dante knew in life, there are those legendary in history here too. For Cain himself, the Son of Adam and Eve who murdered his own brother Abel in the Book of Genesis, is held here as the Round's namesake. Near Cain's side writhes Sir Mordred, the Knight of the Round Table who betrayed and slew King Arthur himself, his own father, in battle during a climactic duel (whose story will be told in a future post).

Count Ugolino
Illustration by Giovanni Stradano

Shaken, but resolute, Dante and Virgil made their way deeper into Cocytus' icy grip, closer to the heart of the Universe. Starting to shiver uncontrollably, Dante covered his face with his robes, desperate to shield his eyes from the frigid wind. Suddenly a scream pierced through the roaring gale, and Dante realised he had accidentally kicked a poor soul in the face. After a plethora of wrathful words from the man, nearby souls identified him as Bocca degli Abati. Dante recoiled in unveiled fury, for this was the man who betrayed his native Florence, siding with Siena in the crushing Florentine defeat that was the Battle of Montaperti. For here was Round Two of the Final Circle, named Antenora, where those who betrayed their city, party or nation suffer the eternal price. Held here is the Round's namesake, Antenor, the counsellor to King Priam of Troy, who treacherously opened the Gates of the great city to the Greek hordes. Proceeding further in, Dante stops by two souls, one gnawing on the head of another. The man looks up and introduces himself as Count Ugolino, and his companion as Archbishop Ruggieri. Ugolino had conspired to overthrow the Ghibelline (pro-Imperial party in medieval Italy) and replace it with a Guelph (pro-Papacy party in medieval Italy) regime in his native Pisa. Ruggieri, his co-conspirator, later turned on Ugolino, imprisoning him and his family in a tower until they starved to death. Now in Hell both men are punished for their treachery. Time draws in, and both poets continue along Cocytus' icy sheets. The blasting winds grow unbearable, and Dante turns to his guide, "What causes such  a wind, my master? I thought no heat could reach into these depths". Virgil turned, with a dark look, and replied "Before long you will be where your own eyes can answer for themselves...", as both men walked on, and the very heart of Hell opened up before them...


United Kingdom

Penguin Classics:
Dante: Inferno (Penguin Classics)
(A good version with both English and Italian text, as well as illustrations)

Oxford World's Classics:
The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics)
(A readily accessible and well annotated version which also contains Purgatorio and Paradisio)

United States

Penguin Classics:
The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (Pt. 1)
(A good version with both English and Italian text, as well as illustrations)

Oxford World's Classics:
The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics)
(A readily accessible and well annotated version which also contains Purgatorio and Paradisio)

The Thieves, the Deceivers and the Sowers of Discord

Thwarted by the trickery at which Hell's minions are so adept, Virgil and Dante struggle up the vast escarpment which leads forth to the seventh of the Rotten Pockets of the penultimate Circle of Hell (for the previous instalment in this saga, please click here). Drained to exhaustion by the journey, it is with tremendous effort that the two poets drag themselves to the towering crest. After a few words of encouragement from Virgil, with one last heave, Dante clears the summit and finds himself on a slender bridge over a vast gorge, its inky blackness hiding all but faint cries emanating from the blackened depths.

The Thieves
Engraving by Gustave Doré

Overcome with curiosity, Dante stoops, desperate to catch word of the voices far below. But it is in vain, all he can discern is that whoever it is that speaks must be running swiftly. Turning to his master, he begs to know, and the two descend into the murky pit. Coming to the edge of a steep bank, a hideous sight greets their eyes. The souls of sinners, naked and terrified, run across the valley floor, desperate to seek cover which is not there. For the ground is coated in the writhing coils of countless serpents, some far mightier in size than any snake which makes the Earth above its home. The hands of many are bound in the serpentine coils, and yet more are wrapped around their limbs. Just then, the figure of a man sprints past our poets in fear, as a snake rears its great head, its eyes fixed upon him. In a flash as though of lightning, the serpent lunges, its aim true as it strikes the man, murderous fangs piercing his neck. Another flash, and the sinner erupts in flames, a heap of crumbling ash left in his wake. As though a phoenix, soon the man rises anew from the ashes. Sensing Dante's bewilderment, Virgil calls out to the soul, questioning him as to his presence here. "Not too long ago I rained from Tuscany", the man replies, a man named Vanni Fucci, who once stole from the sacristy of Pistoia. Bitter and angry at his fate, Fucci rises up and curses God, but briefly, as a swarm of spitting snakes descends upon him, binding him so tightly that not a muscle can move. Alerted to the blasphemy within his domain, a fierce monster gallops towards them, a raging centaur, his back alive with serpents. Virgil turns to Dante and declares the creature to be Cacus, the famous giant who in the most ancient times once prowled the Aventine Hill, one of the Seven great Hills of that would one day give birth to Rome. Having once stolen a herd of precious cattle, Cacus was slain by Heracles, another foul beast conquered underneath that club. Now he rules over the thieves in Hell.


Three tortured souls suddenly see our two poets looking down upon them. "Who are you two?" one calls out to them. But the spirit pays dearly for his moment's distraction. A colossal snake pounces upon him, binding him in six coils. With a pitiful whimper, the sinner's flesh begins to melt, and the serpent and the man soon become as one, fused into a hideous chimaera. Moaning softly, the soul ambles off into the blackness. The second accursed man is soon seized by another creature, and the man transforms into the snake, and the snake to he. Wisely, the third man flees in fear, destined to continue this deadly game for eternity. For herein lies the true horror of the plight of thieves in Hell. Just as they stole the material things of men in life, now their very identity is taken from them in Hell.

The Deceivers
Engraving by Gustave Doré

Hurrying along the Rotten Pocket, Dante bemoans the sheer number of Florentines he has seen here in Hell. Arriving at the crest of a new valley, our pilgrims look down into the eighth of the Rotten Pockets of the Eighth Circle of Hell. Suddenly reminded of the fireflies rising to the night sky, Dante looks down into the abyss. For this valley is not shrouded in blackness, but shimmers brightly with many brilliant flames. Each flame blusters about the pit, blazing brightly, too brightly to reveal what each holds inside. Virgil turns to his protégé and explains the sorry fortunes of this place, for within each burning conflagration is bound a soul, each swathed in fiery doom. Suddenly spotting a flame with two heads, our inquisitive poet asks what is behind this peculiar fate. Within this flame, Virgil explains, are bound Ulysses (Odysseus) and Diomedes, two great heroes from ancient times, who now suffer jointly in Hell (for the feats of Diomedes, please click here). Both men conceived the trick that spelled the doom for proud Troy. Spurning the valour of arms on the open field, cunning Ulysses and powerful Diomedes turned to malicious fraud to achieve their victory, a sin for which they now burn in Hell. Dante yearns to speak to the heroes of yore, but Virgil intercedes. These men hail from an era long gone, an era which Virgil himself once saw in life, and only he may commune with them. The blazing flame approaches, and the higher of its two peaks flickers, and begins to speak. The voice is that of Ulysses, and the hero tells the tale of his last great voyage over the sea, far beyond the boundaries of the known world. Eager to seek what lay beyond the Western Ocean, his crew rowed for five days and nights, until a fell tempest blasted their ship upon the slopes of Mount Purgatory. Ulysses is overcome by grief at his memories, as another flame approaches.


Recognising the accent of Lombardy which Virgil speaks so well, the flame begs to know of the plight of Romagna, is it in peace or war?  This time, Virgil encourages Dante to speak, proficient in the Italian tongue as he is. For the flame chains within the soul of Guido da Montefeltro, once a great Lord of Urbino and warrior to the Pope. Romagna is still the prey to the savages of war, Dante sadly informs him, as Ravenna's land still seeks peace. Dante asks Guido if he will tell him his story in return. The soul mournfully declares that if he thought Dante had any chance of returning to the land of the living, he would not, but since all who enter Hell never leave, he will do so this once. With bitter fury, Guido reveals that he would have joined the heavenly host, pious friar and loyal defender as he was, but for the machinations of Pope Boniface VIII, whose name he curses in Hell. As the Pope once warred with Palestrina seemingly without end, Guido had advised him to offer amnesty, and then renege upon it after the surrender. The stratagem worked, and the fortress fell, as the papal troops razed it to the ground. Horrified at the slaughter, Guido entered the order of St Francis of Assisi, becoming a devout Franciscan. As the years took their toll, and the spirit of Guido left his body, St Francis came for him, but woe! A cruel cherub of Hell got there first, and dragged him to the fiery depths. For here are punished those who received the gifts of wisdom, but use them for malicious ends, a fate Dante feels great sorrow for. But the hour grows late once more, and our two poets make for the penultimate Rotten pocket of the Eighth Circle of Hell:


                         " Who could, even in the simplest kind of prose
                                   describe in full the scene of blood and wounds
                                   that I saw now - no matter how he tried!
             
                           Certainly any tongue would have to fail:
                                   man's memory and man's vocabulary
                                   are not enough to comprehend such pain. "
                                                        - THE SOWERS OF DISCORD

The Sowers of Discord
Engraving by Gustave Doré

With a shudder of nausea at the grotesque sight before him, Dante reasons that if all the slain from battles past, from wars waged on Italy's fertile plains, were piled high, the sight would be nothing compared with this. For the souls of the damned here have a terrible fate, as their corporeal forms are ripped asunder. As the souls run in chaos and agony, there stand above them horned daemons, each rending flesh with a violent swipe of their cruel blades. Before Dante's very eyes, one soul desperately sprints past, fleeing a daemon behind. But alas, another in front slices him open, spilling his guts onto the filthy floor. As Dante looks upon the man in pity, the soul looks up and the two gaze upon each other. He reveals himself to be Muhammed, the prophet of Islam, deformed and torn in this cruel land. Before him flees Ali, his son-in-law, fleeing the murderous blades. Muhammed explains that all here were condemned to this realm for spreading discord and schism in life (Dante viewed Islam as itself a breakaway faith of Christianity, and condemns Ali for his division of Islam into the Sunni and Shi'a sects). Just as they tore apart societies in life, now they are themselves torn asunder in Hell. Each soul runs a deadly circuit through the Pocket, their wounds slowly healing, only for them to be ripped open once again when they reach the beginning. Muhammed warns Dante of the others still alive on Earth that they are heading for a similar fate, the heretical preacher Fra Dolcino being one of them. The deadly guardians closing in, Muhammed takes flight once again. More shouts, and more souls thunder by, many of them Italians. Gaius Scribonius Curio, the man who advised Julius Caesar to cross the Rubicon and make war on Rome, approaches, though he is mute, for a vengeful daemon has severed his tongue. Another soul, headless, bearing its severed head as though a lantern, calls out to them, daring them to look on at his "monstrous punishment". The decapitated man reveals that he was once Bertran de Born, the man who encouraged the young Prince Henry to raise arms against his own father, King Henry II of England.

Despairing, Dante wonders how many more people he will see in Hell that he recognises. As the two poets begin their journey to the final Rotten Pocket, Dante is left pondering, what dread fate awaits those condemned to the very bottom of Hell, and what manner of crime will earn a being a place there?

United Kingdom

Penguin Classics:
Dante: Inferno (Penguin Classics)
(A nice version which has both the Italian and English text)

Oxford World's Classics:
The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics)
(Well annotated and readily accessible, including the entire Divine Comedy)

United States

Penguin Classics:
The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (Pt. 1)
(A nice version which has both the Italian and English text)

Oxford World's Classics:
The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics)
(Well annotated and readily accessible, including the entire Divine Comedy)

To Lower Hell

Shaken from the sight of the wrathful souls at war with each other, Dante is surprised to suddenly see before him in the distance a towering wall of stone (for the previous episode of this, please click here). Seized by curiosity, he sees great flames bursting upon its lofty battlements, just too far away to perceive. Before his questions can be answered however, an ancient craft appears in the dank waters of the Styx. A boat, ragged with age breaks the surf, steered by a fearsome man, bent with age. He is Phlegyas, boatman of the Styx (and also, in life, was the father of Ixion - for more see here).

The Furies taunt Dante
Engraving by Gustave Doré.

His spiteful exhortations rebuked by swift words of Virgil, Phlegyas steps back to receive his crew. Our pilgrim notices that only when he places a foot in the skiff does it sink with the weight - the weight of the living. Sweeping across the Styx low in the waves, Dante spies in horror a slimy hand emerge from the dark depths. "Who are you, who come before your time?" the shade enquires. The poet recognises the dead man's face; it is Filippo Argenti, a man he once knew in life, an arrogant and foul man. "May you weep and wail, stuck here in this place forever, you damned soul!" Dante bravely replies. Argenti tries in vain to reach for the boat, but harsh words from Virgil lash him back to the depths. Virgil turns to his protégé and commends his rebuke of so vulgar a soul. Reaching the foot of the walls, they set foot upon land once more. A reddish glow seems to rise beyond the citadel. This is the city of Dis, a keep which guards the lower regions of Hell, reserved for graver crimes yet.

The bright glow Dante sees is that of the Eternal Fire burning beyond, maiming so many souls yet to come. Atop the battlements of Dis lurk many thousand Fallen Angels, who once rose in impious war against God himself (for this story, please click here). Intimidated by their jeers, Dante is reassured by Virgil, who tells him that none can harm him, by God's command, they are fearsome to the mind and eyes alone. Approaching the gate, they find their way barred by the demonic host. Awaiting aid, the two poets rest awhile, as Virgil once more strengthen Dante's resolve, reassuring him that he has passed this gate once before. Just then a new apparition appears, but it is no servant of Heaven. The Three Furies; Megaera, Alecto and Tisiphone, and in their wake the Gorgon Medusa (whose story is told here). Quickly clapping his hands over Dante's eyes, Virgil does not trust to chance that our poet may allow curiosity to defeat his fear. For one the glance of the Gorgon will ensure Dante never leaves this place. The fell spirits taunt and chide the pilgrim for his life, and his fear. But, just then, an angel arrives from Heaven, scattering the evil spirits and condemned shades afar. Denouncing the Fallen Angels for their futile resistance, the shining spectre opens the gates for the two poets, and their journey begins in Lower Hell.

The Heretics
Engraving by Gustave Doré.

The land of Hell is different here. 'A countryside of pain and ugly anguish' stretches before Dante's eyes. Scattered in the plain all about are countless graves, open too, their lids cast aside, and roaring flames pouring from within. To his anguish, Dante can just make out the screams of the tortured souls, bound in their deathly graves. Here, in the Sixth Circle of Hell, are condemned those who spread heresy in life. Just as their fiery tongues spread malice in life, so now they bathe in fire in Hell. False prophets of Christendom lie afire, as do ancient philosophers of the Epicurean school, who believed that the soul died with the body on Earth. Nor are the deep graves for one soul each. Each sarcophagus is home to many, all packed within the inferno. Yet another soul, Farinata, is one Dante knew in life, who was his enemy in Florence in days of old. The two speak of the ills of Florence and her scheming politics, as another soul rises from its fiery grave. He was once Cavalcanti in life, and begs Dante tell him of his son, does he still live? Shocked by the shade's emotion, Dante cannot speak. Misinterpreting his silence, Cavalcanti believes his son dead, and retires, weeping, to his ordeal, cursed to ponder it for all time. Dante begs Farinata to go and tell the spirit of Cavalcanti that his son is indeed alive on Earth, and that his silence was not meant as he took it. Seized by curiosity once more, Dante enquires as to why so many souls have asked him of the current affairs on Earth. The souls damned in Hell, Farinata tells him, are cursed to see the future, and future alone, and know nothing of the present, "this much the sovereign lord grant us here". When the Final Judgement comes, the future will be closed off to them, and all hope will be lost, left to see nothing but their own endless torment.

The Violent against people and property
Engraving by Gustave Doré.

Moving on at Virgil's bidding, and coming to a steep bank, a dreadful stench rises from a nearby pit. It is a vast grave, vomiting forth vile miasma. The inscription on the coffin lid nearby states "Within lies Anastasius, the Pope". Indeed, a great many men of the cloth are condemned in Hell, neither Pope nor Cardinal is safe from judgement. Coming to another ridge, they spy a monster, the Minotaur of Crete, lying at the edge of the abyss, guarding the Seventh Circle of Hell. Virgil cries out to the Bull, reminding him that he is cursed there too, cast down to the House of Death by Theseus long ago. The Minotaur writhes in rage, an anger so intense the beast cannot rise, shuddering pathetically by the Pit. Here, in the three rings of the Seventh Circle, are punished the violent, each guilty of malicious violence to a different being. Descending into the first ring, a vast river of boiling blood flows past in cruel torrents. Burning in this foul current are those who through violence injured other men or their property in life. Galloping around the rim of the river Phlegethon are a herd of Centaurs, who hunt with their arrows any soul which tries in desperation to claw its way up from the river. Our pilgrim recognises powerful men of old burning up to the eyebrows, he sees Alexander, the tyrant Dionysius, even Attila, King of the Huns and the Scourge of God, all tormented in the sanguine waves. Eyeing the two poets with suspicion, Chiron, leader of the Centaurs, demands their purpose, lest they be shot too. Once again, Virgil takes control, and asks guidance for the way beyond, ordered thus by the Almighty. Dante, as a living man, cannot touch the Phlegethon, and is borne across a ford by the Centaur Nessus, as they approach the second ring.

The Suicides
Engraving by Gustave Doré.

Reaching a grand forest, the poets enter the second ring. No leaf here was green however. Twisted, gnarled and entangled trees sprouted forth leaves of charcoal black, as cruel thorns of poison bloomed where flowers should be. This is a forlorn place, one of sorrow and melancholy. In the high branches, harpies stir, foul birds, shrieking eerie calls. Wails and lamentations of grief sounded all about, and Virgil eyes our pilgrim:




                       " And so my teacher said, 'If you break off
                                a little branch of any of these plants,
                                what you are thinking now will break off too'.

                        Then slowly raising up my hand a bit
                               I snapped the tiny branch of a great thornbush,
                               and its trunk cried: 'Why are you tearing me'... "
                                                           - DANTE UNCOVERS THE TORMENTED
                                                       
To his horror, Dante realised that all of the trees of this forest are souls, cruelly bound as trees. As blood spurts forth from the stump, the soul cries in pain. Here are punished the suicides. Just as they scorned the gift of their bodies in life, now they are denied their own form here in Hell. The soul reveals himself to have once been Pier delle Vigne, an advisor to King Frederick II of Sicily. He was once his most loyal servant, but due to the intrigues of jealous courtesans, fell from favour and was cast into jail. Lamenting his injustice and losing all hope, he took his own life, dashing his head against the cell wall. He came to Hell, and his earthly body was torn away from him, as King Minos hurled his soul down here. Just as he had shown no care for his body in life, no care was shown for his soul in Hell. His soul fell in this land, and germinated a tree. The Harpies relentlessly feed on his leaves, and their constant movements break off branches, leaving him in constant agony. Just then new souls run into the clearing, terrified and lost. They are profligates, who recklessly did violence to their own property in life. One hides in desperation in a thorny bush. Suddenly a pack of ferocious hounds charge in, snapping branches as they go, as they maul the poor soul, tearing his flesh with their fangs. The thorny bush laments in pain, a soul who was once a Florentine in life who hanged himself in his home. Dante is left to ponder the bond he feels to his native city, weeping at so many others like him now cursed in Hell... Yet much remained along the path of the Inferno...

United Kingdom

Penguin Classics:

Dante: Inferno (Penguin Classics)

(A nice edition which even has the original Italian on the left hand side of the page!)

Oxford World's Classics:

The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics)
(Accessible and well annotated, also includes Purgatorio and Paradisio)

United States

Penguin Classics:
The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (Pt. 1)
(A nice edition which even has the original Italian on the left hand side of the page!)

Oxford World's Classics:
The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics)
(Accessible and well annotated, also includes Purgatorio and Paradisio)

The First Steps Into Hell

A ringing clap of thunder suddenly rouses Dante from his slumber, as the boatman’s craft nears the banks of Hell (for the precursor to this, the entrance of Dante to the Inferno, please click here). Finding himself “upon the brink of grief’s abysmal valley that collects the thundering of endless cries”, our pilgrim must once again be of stout heart and brave resolve, as he slowly descends into the accursed pit of Hell. The darkness was so thick that, but for the guiding hand of the poet Virgil, he would surely be lost. Seeing a look of anguish breaking Virgil’s face, Dante asks what hope there is for him to remain strong, when his guide so clearly is frightened? Not fear, Virgil tells his protégé, but pity it is he feels for the coming souls, condemned for eternity in the void.

The abandoned souls of Limbo
Engraving by Gustave Doré.

Leaving the churning waters of Acheron behind, and the wailing of the naked, wretched forms of the recently deceased crowding fell Charon’s ferry, Dante hears only the sound of soft sighs and despair. The throng of souls ahead is composed of men and women and of infants too, resigned to untormented grief. No physical punishment afflicts these cursed souls. Noting the curiosity upon Dante’s face, Virgil tells our shaken pilgrim of the lot of man condemned to here, Limbo – The First Circle of Hell. “They have not sinned”, he begins, “But their great worth alone was not enough, for they did not know Baptism”. Here too are the souls of those virtuous men who were born before the birth of Christ, the heroes of ancient times, great writers, orators, soldiers and fathers of nations. Realisation dawning upon him, Dante looks suddenly to his guide, but his unasked question is answered. “I myself am a member of this group”, Virgil mournfully states, “for this effect, and for no other guilt, we here are lost”. Condemned to be cut off from hope, and to live on in endless desire, that is the agony that plagues these souls in Limbo.

Dante and the Classical Poets
Engraving by Gustave Doré.

Pity coursing through our pilgrim, he desperately asks his guide if there truly is no salvation for him, or his pagan brethren. “I was a novice in this place when I saw a mighty Lord descend to us”, he replies (Virgil died just nineteen years before the time of Christ), and that the Lord took from Hell the souls of Abel, of Noah, of Moses, of Abram and of David the King and his family, and that before these souls were taken no other human soul had found salvation. The two continue on their journey through the woods of Limbo, talking of melancholy of past days, and the stricken hope of the souls that reside there. Ahead Dante spots four shades approaching, faces betraying neither joy nor sorrow. First comes Homer, the father of poets, then Horace, the satirist, Ovid comes third, and finally Lucan. Virgil moves to join them, creating a truly awe inspiring collection of some of the greatest minds of humanity. They turn to Dante and beckon him to join them, filling him with joy with such an honour.



Reaching the boundaries of a mighty castle, they pass through seven gates, and Dante spots many great heroes of yore. Brave Hector, Aeneas the progenitor of the Roman race, Julius Caesar, chaste Lucretia and standing apart from the group, the chivalrous Saladin, the most honourable foe to the crusaders, only recently dead. A great crowd stands by the shade of Aristotle, most admired of philosophers, which includes such figures as Plato, Socrates, Empedocles and Zeno (whose paradoxes acquired such fame). Orpheus the bard was there too, as was the orator Cicero and the philosopher Seneca. Great pioneers of science, Hippocrates and Galen too, clamour at the approach of this learned group. But the road ahead is long, and the illustrious company is broken up, as Virgil and Dante continue their journey alone into the throat of Hell.

King Minos judges the Damned
Engraving by Gustave Doré.

Upon the boundary of Limbo, Dante and Virgil come to the gates of the Second Circle of Hell, and its dread guardian, King Minos who judges the damned. A hideous, bestial sight greets those who look on the evil crown, which stands upon his grotesque body and powerful tail. The authority of sin, it is he who hears the case of each evil soul brought before him. Binding the soul in his tail, the number of coils around them signifies the Circle of Hell into which they are to be cast. An endless queue awaits their doom, as the wrathful King pronounces judgement, and bellows cruel warnings at Dante, for easy it is to enter Hell, yet never will he emerge. Bold words, however, are spoken by Virgil, and Minos allows them passage into lower worlds.

Here lies a place where anguish, cries and roars ring in our pilgrim’s ears, where sounds of weeping test his nerve once more. This is an accursed place, the first place where the damned souls are punished for their earthly crimes:

The Lustful are blasted by the Tempest.
Engraving by Gustave Doré.

“ I came to a place where no light shone at all,

Bellowing like the sea racked by a tempest,

When warring winds attack it from both sides.

The infernal storm, eternal in its rage,

Sweeps and drives the spirits with its blast:

It whirls them, lashing them with punishment... ”
   - THE LUSTFUL ARE BLASTED BY THE TEMPEST

The howls and screams of the souls within blaspheme against God, as they curse their fate. Dante learns from his master that these are the shades of those who were lustful in life, those “who make reason slave to appetite”. Just as they were swept along by corrupt desire in life, so now the fell wind propels their spirits in Hell. Like cranes in flight, the lustful soar through the vault of Hell, never ending their journey, battered by an evil gale which does not cease. Our pilgrim asks the great poet who these people are, and Virgil points out the most famous of history’s licentious crowd. Virgil casts his hand toward Semiramis, the carnal Queen of Assyria, whose passions knew no bounds, there too was Cleopatra, Helen, whose machinations hurled so many men to the House of Death, Paris, whose lust spelled Troy’s doom, Tristan and Isolde of ruinous passions and Dido, whose sickening infatuation with Aeneas threatened to sway Rome from her glorious destiny. Dante himself calls to Francesca, daughter of the Lord of Ravenna, and Paolo, brother to her husband, with whom she betrayed the faithfulness of marriage. They recall their violent end, when Gianciotto chanced upon Francesca and his brother together, and in a rage slew them both, condemning them to Hell. Dante is once again overcome by the horrific sights before him, and falls into a swoon, unnerved by his first contact with the damned who are truly punished in Hell. Worse, however, and more foul sights were yet to come in the Inferno...

United Kingdom

Penguin Classics:

Dante: Inferno (Penguin Classics)

(A nice edition which even has the original Italian on the left hand side of the page!)

Oxford World's Classics:

The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics)
(Accessible and well annotated, also includes Purgatorio and Paradisio)

United States

Penguin Classics:
The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (Pt. 1)
(A nice edition which even has the original Italian on the left hand side of the page!)

Oxford World's Classics:
The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics)
(Accessible and well annotated, also includes Purgatorio and Paradisio)

Into the Inferno

Dante lost in the wood
Engraving by Gustave Doré. 

“ Midway along the journey of our life

   I woke to find myself in a dark wood,

   wandered from the straight path. ” 

       - DANTE AWAKES IN THE FOREST








So begins the Divine Comedy, as Dante finds himself alone and vulnerable in the wilderness of the dark forest. The fear wells up within him as the eerie silence and blackness of the wood begins to take its grip. An uneasy feeling possesses Dante, a thought that he has stumbled upon ‘the pass that never let a living soul escape’. Unsure of himself, and if he is awake or even alive, Dante begins to climb the slope ahead. No sooner had he begun than he is faced by the form of a leopard, which marks his every move. Just as our pilgrim recovers his nerve, a lion appears and starts toward him. Following in its wake was a she-wolf, who ‘forced me back to where the sun is mute’.

Bracing for his end, Dante spies the figure of a man approaching and cries, ‘Have pity on my soul... whichever you are, shade or living man!’ The stranger reveals to Dante that he once was a poet of old who ‘sang of that just man, son of Anchises, who sailed off from Troy after the burning of proud Ilium’ (He refers to his epic poem – The Aeneid). Dante rejoices as he recognises Virgil, and begs the poet to protect him from the savage beasts. ‘But you must journey down another road’, the great man answered, when he saw Dante lost in tears, ‘if ever you hope to leave this wilderness’. Guided by the comforting words and company of the legendary poet, Dante discovers that he is to be lead through Hell:



                               “ Where you will hear desperate cries, and see

                                    Tormented shades, some old as Hell itself,

                                    And know what second death means, from their screams. ”

                                                               - VIRGIL WARNS US OF WHAT IS TO COME


Our pilgrim is filled with dread at the thought of descending to the Pit, and confesses to his guide that he feels unworthy to follow in the steps of other great men, like Aeneas or St Paul, who once trod the path to Hell. Virgil explains how it was he came to Dante, guided by the will of the Virgin Mary, who took pity on our wandering pilgrim, lost in the forest. The departed soul of Dante’s beloved Beatrice in Heaven came down to Hell and tasked Virgil as to be his infernal guide. Comforted by his story, and word of Beatrice, Dante renews his journey to the accursed place armed with fresh courage. Descending down a barren slope, the two poets reach a vast Gate, the way to the vestibule of Hell itself. Dante spies, in horror, the legend inscribed above the Gate, the last line of which has entered immortality:

 

                                “ I AM THE WAY INTO THE DOLEFUL CITY,

                                    I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL GRIEF,

                                    I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN RACE.



                                  JUSTICE IT WAS THAT MOVED MY GREAT CREATOR;

                                   DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE CREATED ME,

                                   AND HIGHEST WISDOM JOINED WITH PRIMAL COMPASSION.



                                  BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS

                                   WERE MADE, AND I SHALL LAST ETERNALLY.

                                   ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE. ”

                                                             - THE GATE OF HELL

The descent into Hell
Engraving by Gustave Doré.

Virgil turns to his faithful follower, and warns him that all his cowardice and distrust must die on this spot, if he is to brave the journey and the sight of the tormented souls. Placing his hand upon Dante’s shoulders, and encouraging him with a smile, the two cross the Gate of Hell. Immediately an unearthly din breaks the deathly silence:



                             “ Here sighs and cries and shrieks of lamentation

                                  Echoed throughout the starless air of Hell;

                                  At first these sounds resounding made me weep:

                                Tongues confused, a language strained in anguish

                                  With cadences of anger, shrill outcries

                                  And raucous groans that joined with sounds of hands, ”

                                                      - DANTE HEARS THE CRIES OF THE DAMNED



Our pilgrim turns to his guide and asks of the souls so overwhelmed with grief. The great poet reveals that these are the souls of those who lived a life of neither blame nor praise. Men and women who stood undecided, neither faithful nor faithless. So too lie the ‘repulsive choir of angels’ who took no side in the War in Heaven between Satan and God. ‘Heaven, to keep its beauty, cast them out, but even Hell itself would not receive them, for fear the damned might glory over them’. As for the men and women - unknown in life, both Heaven and Hell turn from them, as they bathe in melancholy at their separation from God. 'Why do they lament so bitterly?' asks Dante. Gazing upon the ghastly sight before him, Dante finds his courage, and stomach, tested once again. He spies a banner rushing through the dank air, as though fated to never stop, and behind it follow vainly the souls of the indecisive. Punished to chase a thing and never catch it, this was not the only torment the souls endured:



                             “ These wretches, who had never truly lived,

                                  Went naked, and were stung and stung again

                                  By the hornets and the wasps that circled them



                               And made their faces run with blood in streaks;

                                 Their blood, mixed with their tears, dripped to their feet,

                                 And disgusting maggots collected in the pus. ”

                                                  - THE PUNISHMENT OF THE INDECISIVE



Filled with nausea, our pilgrim gazed beyond and saw a throng of souls gathered upon the shore of a large river. Asking his guide for what they waited, Virgil leads the way to the River Acheron, which forms the boundary of Hell. Suddenly, across the dark waters appeared a boat, steered by an ancient man, ‘with eyes of glowing coals’- Charon, the boatman, who bears the souls of the damned into Hell. Aware that Dante was of the land of the still living, Charon commands our pilgrim to get away from, ‘all these people who are dead’. Placating the boatman, Virgil reveals his purpose there, and his words bring silence to the fearsome Charon:



Charon goads the damned onto the ferry
Engraving by Gustave Doré.



“ But all those souls there, naked, in despair

Changed colour and their teeth began to chatter

At the sound of his announcement of their doom ”

        - THE DAMNED BEMOAN THEIR FATE

Weeping bitterly, the souls of the damned board the craft, as Charon strikes with his oar all those who lag behind. A sudden wind blasted forth from the ‘tear drenched land’, filling Dante with panic, and bringing our two poets on their way into the First Circle of Hell...

The Divine Comedy is the cornerstone of Italian literature, and indeed even the Italian language. Being the first work of epic poetry written in Italian, it formed the model for all that has come since. Most of the stereotypes of what Hell, Heaven and Purgatory are like come directly from this. The punishment of the damned is a classic example of Contrapasso, the idea that the punishment fits the crime. It is a powerful piece epitomising the fear of what lurks after death takes us, and a grisly warning against trespassing the laws of good. In future posts, we will descend with Dante into Hell, and see the hideous fates of the evil men and women of history. Inspiring countless motifs in modern culture, the Divine Comedy is easily available at a low price from Amazon:

United Kingdom

Penguin Classics:

Dante: Inferno (Penguin Classics)

(A nice edition which even has the original Italian on the left hand side of the page!)

Oxford World's Classics:

The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics)
(Accessible and well annotated, also includes Purgatorio and Paradisio)

United States

Penguin Classics:
The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (Pt. 1)
(A nice edition which even has the original Italian on the left hand side of the page!)

Oxford World's Classics:
The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics)
(Accessible and well annotated, also includes Purgatorio and Paradisio)