Dantes Inferno

Holbrooks Highway to Hell No Speeding!

The VestibuleSouls of the Indifferent; the uncommitted Punishment:Run through wasps & hornets while carrying a bannerSoul here Pontius Pilot for making the great refusal ProceedWith Caution!

River of Acheron:River of WoeOnly the dead may pass across this riverCharon (from Greek mythology) is the boat keeper of the Acheron The Doomed Souls Embarking to Cross the AcheronGustave Dor

Limbo Those who came before ChristThe Unbaptized

Circle1Punishment No hope of seeing GodAlways Melancholy

Souls Present Homer, Socrates, Virgil, Plato, Aristotle, Ovid Homer and the Classic PoetsGustave Dor

JudgmentKING MINOS(formerly the ruler of Crete; a son of Zeus)

Decides the fate and punishment of the DeadWraps his tail around a sinner to tell him to which circle he will be going. Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here MinosGustave Dor

King MinosMinosWilliam Blake

The Lustful Sins of LustPunishment Spin within a whirlwind for eternitySouls Here Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Paolo & Francesca Circle2Whirlwind of Loversby William Blake

The Lustful continuedThe Souls of Paola and FrancescaGustave Dor

(give the story here)

The GluttonsGuardian Cerberus: 3-headed dog of hell, stands over the Gluttons slavering over them.

Gluttony - 1 : excess in eating or drinking 2 : greedy or excessive indulgence

Producers of nothing but garbage and offalPunishment live in a mixture of stinking snow & freezing rain that forms a bile slush (basically a giant garbage dump)Souls - Ciacco the Hog, a citizen of Florence

The GluttonsCerberusCerebusWilliam BlakeCerberus presides over the third circle of Hell. He is prevented from devouring Virgil and Dante by Virgil who distracts the beast by feeding him handfuls of earth.

The Gluttons: Circle 3The Souls of the GluttonousGustave Dor

The Gluttonscontinued (more art)The Gluttons Ciacco Gustave Dor

Hoarders & Wasters(Avaricious & Prodigal)Those who are greedy & those who are recklessly extravagant. Punishment roll stones at each other while screaming, Why squander, and Why grasp. Souls You cant recognize anyone here because their features were so dimmed from fighting. Circle 4The Souls of the Avaricious Gustave Dor

Avaricious & Prodigal The Avaricious and the ProdigalGustave Dor

The Wrathful & the SullenPeople who are always sad, resentful, angry, etc. Punishment:The wrathful are immersed in the marsh of the Styx River while fighting each other

Punishment for the Sullen entombed under the mud of the Styx River

Souls Filippo Argenti, who rises from the mud and attacks the Virgil and Dante

Circle 5

Wrathful & Sullen continuedVirgil shows Dante the Souls of the WrathfulGustave DorCircle 5

Wrathful & Sullen (art)The Stygian Lake, with the Ireful Sinners FightingWilliam Blake

Wall of the City of DisGuarded by the Furies and Rebellious Angels

A heavenly messenger opens the gate to the city with a poof!The City of Dis and The Heretics Botticelli

Wall of City of Dis continuedDante and Virgil have to run past a scary minotaur (a monster shaped half like a man and half like a bull)

The Minotaur on the Shattered Cliff Gustave Dor

The HereticsSin - a baptized member of the Roman Catholic Church who disavows a revealed truthPunishment Confined to burning tombsSouls Guardians Circle 6The Heretics Botticelli

Violence Against NeighborsPunishment Immersed in River of blood according to the sinners degree of guilt

Souls Alexander the Great, Attila the HunCircle7RINGONEThe Violent against their NeighbourBotticelli

Violence Against Oneself (Suicides)Punishment Souls encased in trees with Harpies pecking at them. Those who destroy their own bodies are denied Human Forms.

Harpies are foul mythological creatures that are part woman & part bird.Harpies in the Forest of the Suicides Gustave DorCircle7RINGTWO

Violence Against GodTHREE TYPES: Blasphemers stretched on burning sandSodomites running on burning sandUsurers huddled on burning sand & sit with purses around their necks (kind of like a loan shark)

Souls Brunetto Latini, Dantes former teacherThe Blasphemer William Blake (British Museum)Circle7RING3

Violence Against GodCircle 7: Ring 3Capaneus - one of the seven kings who besieged Thebes. He defied Jupiter and was killed by a thunderbolt. Dante describes him as lying proud and disdainful, apparently unaffected by the flames.

Capaneus the Blasphemer William Blake

Circle7RING3ARTViolence Against God, Nature, and ArtBrunetto Latini accosts Dante Gustave Dor

River Styx:The River of HatePhlegyas ferries Dante and Virgil across the StyxGustave Dor

The Fraudulent:Panderers & SeducersSin Panderers (to provide gratification for others' desires ) & Seducers (to persuade to disobedience or disloyalty; sometimes has to do with sexual)

Punishment Whipped by devils

Circle8Bolgia1

The Fraudulent:FlatterersPunishment Covered with filthSouls PresentJason and othersDefinition - to praise excessively especially from motives of self-interest Circle8Bolgia2Paramours and Flatterers Gustave Dor

The Fraudulent:SimonistsSimonists are people who sell ecclesiastical favors (If you pay me money, Ill make sure you get into heaven.)Punishment Turned upside down with fire on their feetSouls present Pope Nicholas III - Pope from 1277 - 1280. Dante views him as one who corrupted church office.

Circle8Bolgia3The Simonists, by Gustave Dor

The Fraudulent:Fortune TellersPunishment Their heads are twisted and then turned backwardsSouls Present Tieresias (the blind prophet from Oedipus and Antigone)Dante names seven souls in all, one of them a woman, Manto, after whom Virgil's birthplace Mantua was named; one of the men is probably her father Tiresias. Virgil and Dante look down from the rock bridge above.

Circle8Bolgia4The Necromancers and AugursWilliam Blake

The Fraudulent:Corrupt OfficialsPunishment Covered by boiling pitch (dirt/tar) and harassed by 10 sneaky demons This art scene is set in the fifth chasm of the eighth circle. Bonturo Dati's fellow magistrate is being carried by a demon and is about to be thrown into the boiling pitch before being attacked with hooks.Circle8Bolgia5The Devil Carrying the Lucchese Magistrate to the Boiling-Pitch Pool of Corrupt OfficialsWilliam Blake

The Fraudulent:Hypocrites Definition - a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion Punishment Clothed in leaden mantles (like a cloak)

Souls Present Caiaphas Circle8Bolgia6The Hypocrites Gustave Dor

The Fraudulent:ThievesPunishment Trapped in a snake pit with their hands bound; then they change into snakes

Souls Present Vanni FucciCircle8Bolgia7ThievesGustave Dor

Thieves: Vanni FucciVanni Fucci had been bitten by a serpent, instantly transformed into ashes, and then, like the phoenix, reconstituted into his former shape. This was his punishment for robbing the treasury of San Jacopo in the Church of San Zeno, Pistoia, in 1293. Here Vanni Fucci blasphemes against God with an obscene gesture. The flames rain down on him from the dark cloud above and serpents renew their attacks on him.

Vanni Fucci 'Making Figs' Against God William Blake

The Fraudulent: Thieves Here, the two poets have crossed over the cliff into the seventh chasm of the eighth circle, where the Thieves are punished by serpents.

The Thieves and the Serpents William Blake

The Fraudulent:Evil CounselorsPunishment Concealed in flames

Souls Present Ulysses, Diomed, GuidoCircle8Bolgia8Evil CounselorsGustave Dor

Evil Counselors (art)Virgil and Dante are now in the eighth chasm of the eighth circle, where the punishment of Evil Counselors occurs. The figures are swathed in individual flames, likened by Dante to fireflies. Ulysses and Diomed are punished for deceiving the Trojans with the Wooden Horse. Ulysses and Diomed Swathed in the Same Flame William Blake

The Fraudulent:Sowers of DiscordDefinition (lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, things, or ideas) b : active quarreling or conflict resulting from discord among persons or factions : Strife) Punishment Physically torn apart, wounded, and mutilated Circle8Bolgia9The Sowers of DiscordGustave Dor

Circle8Bolgia10The Fraudulent: Counterfeiters & AlchemistsPunishment diseased with all kinds of deformitiesDante sees two pale and naked shadows rushing out biting like hungry swine. One, Gianni Schicchi, grabs Capocchio by the neck with his fangs. Capocchio, is probably the Florentine alchemist who was burned alive in Sienna in 1281. The other animal-headed figure on the left is Myrrha, daughter of King Cinyras of Cyprus with whom she had an incestuous relationship.

The Pit of Disease: Gianni Schicchi and Myrrhaby William Blake

Giants Well (art)In antiquity Geryon was a monster with three heads, six arms and three bodies joined together at the waist; he was slain by Hercules. In the middle ages, however, Geryon was equated with fraud, with the face of a just man but the body of a reptile. Geryon Conveying Dante and Virgil Down Towards Malebolge William Blake

Giants WellGeryon: Giant on whose back Dante descends to lower hell; has a dragon-like form in accordance with Revelations 9: 9-20The Giants Well leads to Circles 8 because Geryon represents Fraud. GeryonGustave Dor

Treachery:Traitors Against Kin (Family)Punishment Held in ICE with their heads bent forwardCircle9Round ONEThe Circle of the Traitors: Dante's Foot Striking Bocca degli AbbatiWilliam Blake

Treachery: Against CountryPunishment Gripped by ICE while biting one anothers head

Souls Present Archbishop Ruggieri, UgolinoCircle9Round TWOUgolinoGustave Dor

Treachery:Against Guests & HostsThis means being a traitor to a guest in your home or to a person hosting you (like hospitality)

Punishment Held in ICE with head up, freezing their eyesCircle9Round 3TraitorsGustave Dor

Circle9Round 4Treachery:Against Lords & BenefactorsThis means treachery to masters (like Brutus & Cassius)

Punishment Completely immersed in ICE, held by LuciferTraitorsBotticelli

Lucifer Dante and Virgil are now in the ninth and last circle, that of the Traitors, and have reached the inner of four concentric rings where traitors are frozen in a kind of building, shining like straw in glass. At the centre stands Lucifer, frozen from the waist down, with three heads and bat-like wings, the flapping of which freezes the heart of Hell. In each mouth he chews on a sinner: Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius.

LuciferWilliam Blake

Lucifer (art)Lucifer, King of Hell, by Gustave Dor

Lucifer (art)LuciferBotticelli

Lucifer (art)Dante, in the lowest circle of hell, witnesses a gigantic Lucifer who possesses three heads, the wings of a bat, and is covered with frozen, matted hair. He weeps from all six eyes a grotesque mixture of tears, blood, and pus.

artist unavailable

Lucifer (art)We must depart from evil so extreme. Dante Alighieri La Divina Commedia

LuciferSalvadore Dal

Lucifer (art)Salvadore Dali as Luciferby Jade Christian Green

*a foul malign creature in Greek mythology that is part woman and part bird 2 a : a predatory person : LEECH b : a shrewish woman *blaspheme 1 : to speak of or address with irreverence 2 : REVILE, ABUSE intransitive senses : to utter blasphemy sodomite Pronunciation: -"mIt Function: noun one who practices sodomy

usurer Pronunciation: 'y-zh&r-&r, 'yzh-r&r Function: noun one that lends money especially at an exorbitant rate