Dante's Inferno What is it?
What is Dante's Inferno? Inferno (The Italian word for "Hell") is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth. Allegorically, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul towards God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin.
The poem begins on the day before Good Friday in the year of our Lord 1300 A.D.
The narrator, is Dante himself. At the tim, he is thirty-five years old, and thus "halfway along life's path"—that is, half of the Biblical life expectancy of seventy (See Psalm 90:10).
The poet finds himself lost in a dark wood in front of a mountain, assailed by three beasts he cannot evade, and unable to find the "straight way" —also translatable as "right way"—to salvation. Conscious that he is ruining himself and that he is falling into a "deep place" where the sun is silent (absent), Dante is at last rescued by the Roman poet Virgil, who claims to have been sent by Dante's girl friend Beatrice. (Dante met when Beatrice was eight years old, a year younger than Dante. Dante was instantly taken with her and remained so throughout her life even though she married another man, banker Simone dei Bardi, in 1287. Beatrice died three years later in June of 1290 at the age of 24. Dante continued to hold an abiding love and respect for the woman after her death, even after he married Gemma Donati in 1285 and had children. After Beatrice's death, Dante withdrew into intense study and began composing poems dedicated to her memory).
Virgil and Dante begin their journey to the underworld.
Each sin's punishment in Inferno is a contrapasso, a symbolic instance of poetic justice; for example, fortune-tellers have to walk forwards with their heads on backwards, unable to see what is ahead, because they tried, through forbidden means, to look ahead to the future in life. Such a contrapasso "functions not merely as a form of divine revenge, but rather as the fulfilment of a destiny freely chosen by each soul during his or her life."
Dante passes through the gate of Hell, which bears an inscription, the ninth (and final) line of which is the famous phrase "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"
Before entering Hell completely, Dante and his guide see the Uncommitted, souls of people, who in life did nothing, neither for good nor evil. Mixed with them are the outcasts who took no side in the Rebellion of the Angels.
These souls are neither in Hell nor out of it, but reside on the shores of the Acheron, their punishment to eternally pursue a banner (i.e. self interest) while pursued by wasps and hornets that continually sting them while maggots and other such insects drink their blood and tears.
This symbolizes the sting of their conscience and the repugnance of sin. The Inferno has a structure of 9+1=10, with this "vestibule" different in nature from the nine circles of Hell, and separated from them by the Acheron. (In ancient Greek mythology, Acheron was known as the river of pain, and was one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld. In the Homeric poems the Acheron was described as a river of Hades, into which Cocytus and Phlegethon both flowed.)
After passing through the "vestibule," Dante and Virgil reach the ferry that will take them across the river Acheron and to Hell proper. The ferry is piloted by Charon,(Charon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person. Some say that those who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were left unburied, had to wander the shores for one hundred years).
Charon does not want to let Dante enter, for he is a living being. Virgil forces Charon to take him by means of another famous line, which translates to "So it is wanted there where the power lies," referring to the fact that Dante is on his journey on divine grounds. The wailing and blasphemy of the damned souls entering Charon's boat are a contrast to the joyful singing of the blessed souls arriving by ferry in the Purgatorio. However, the actual passage across the Acheron is undescribed since Dante faints and does not wake up until he is on the other side.
Charon
Virgil then guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell. The circles are concentric, representing a gradual increase in wickedness, and culminating at the centre of the earth, where Satan is held in bondage. Each circle's sinners are punished in a fashion fitting their crimes. Each sinner is afflicted for all of eternity by the chief sin he committed.
People who sinned but prayed for forgiveness before their deaths are found not in Hell but in Purgatory, where they labour to be free of their sins. Those in Hell are people who tried to justify their sins and are unrepentant.
Allegorically, the Inferno represents the Christian soul seeing sin for what it really is, and the three beasts represent three types of sin: the self-indulgent, the violent, and the malicious.
These three types of sin also provide the three main divisions of Dante's Hell: Upper Hell (the first 5 Circles) for the self-indulgent sins; Circles 6 and 7 for the violent sins; and Circles 8 and 9 for the malicious sins
Coming Next The nine circles of Hell
The poem begins on the day before Good Friday in the year of our Lord 1300 A.D.
The narrator, is Dante himself. At the tim, he is thirty-five years old, and thus "halfway along life's path"—that is, half of the Biblical life expectancy of seventy (See Psalm 90:10).
The poet finds himself lost in a dark wood in front of a mountain, assailed by three beasts he cannot evade, and unable to find the "straight way" —also translatable as "right way"—to salvation. Conscious that he is ruining himself and that he is falling into a "deep place" where the sun is silent (absent), Dante is at last rescued by the Roman poet Virgil, who claims to have been sent by Dante's girl friend Beatrice. (Dante met when Beatrice was eight years old, a year younger than Dante. Dante was instantly taken with her and remained so throughout her life even though she married another man, banker Simone dei Bardi, in 1287. Beatrice died three years later in June of 1290 at the age of 24. Dante continued to hold an abiding love and respect for the woman after her death, even after he married Gemma Donati in 1285 and had children. After Beatrice's death, Dante withdrew into intense study and began composing poems dedicated to her memory).
Virgil and Dante begin their journey to the underworld.
Each sin's punishment in Inferno is a contrapasso, a symbolic instance of poetic justice; for example, fortune-tellers have to walk forwards with their heads on backwards, unable to see what is ahead, because they tried, through forbidden means, to look ahead to the future in life. Such a contrapasso "functions not merely as a form of divine revenge, but rather as the fulfilment of a destiny freely chosen by each soul during his or her life."
Dante passes through the gate of Hell, which bears an inscription, the ninth (and final) line of which is the famous phrase "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"
Before entering Hell completely, Dante and his guide see the Uncommitted, souls of people, who in life did nothing, neither for good nor evil. Mixed with them are the outcasts who took no side in the Rebellion of the Angels.
These souls are neither in Hell nor out of it, but reside on the shores of the Acheron, their punishment to eternally pursue a banner (i.e. self interest) while pursued by wasps and hornets that continually sting them while maggots and other such insects drink their blood and tears.
This symbolizes the sting of their conscience and the repugnance of sin. The Inferno has a structure of 9+1=10, with this "vestibule" different in nature from the nine circles of Hell, and separated from them by the Acheron. (In ancient Greek mythology, Acheron was known as the river of pain, and was one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld. In the Homeric poems the Acheron was described as a river of Hades, into which Cocytus and Phlegethon both flowed.)
After passing through the "vestibule," Dante and Virgil reach the ferry that will take them across the river Acheron and to Hell proper. The ferry is piloted by Charon,(Charon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person. Some say that those who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were left unburied, had to wander the shores for one hundred years).
Charon does not want to let Dante enter, for he is a living being. Virgil forces Charon to take him by means of another famous line, which translates to "So it is wanted there where the power lies," referring to the fact that Dante is on his journey on divine grounds. The wailing and blasphemy of the damned souls entering Charon's boat are a contrast to the joyful singing of the blessed souls arriving by ferry in the Purgatorio. However, the actual passage across the Acheron is undescribed since Dante faints and does not wake up until he is on the other side.
Charon
Virgil then guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell. The circles are concentric, representing a gradual increase in wickedness, and culminating at the centre of the earth, where Satan is held in bondage. Each circle's sinners are punished in a fashion fitting their crimes. Each sinner is afflicted for all of eternity by the chief sin he committed.
People who sinned but prayed for forgiveness before their deaths are found not in Hell but in Purgatory, where they labour to be free of their sins. Those in Hell are people who tried to justify their sins and are unrepentant.
Allegorically, the Inferno represents the Christian soul seeing sin for what it really is, and the three beasts represent three types of sin: the self-indulgent, the violent, and the malicious.
These three types of sin also provide the three main divisions of Dante's Hell: Upper Hell (the first 5 Circles) for the self-indulgent sins; Circles 6 and 7 for the violent sins; and Circles 8 and 9 for the malicious sins
Coming Next The nine circles of Hell
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