L'Inferno
L'Inferno (Italian for "Hell") is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso (Paradise). Inferno tells the story of Dante's journey through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil.
The poem begins with Dante lost in a dark wood, symbolizing his spiritual crisis and estrangement from God. Virgil appears and offers to guide him through Hell and Purgatory, promising that Beatrice (Dante's idealized love and a symbol of divine love) will later guide him through Paradise.
Inferno is structured around the classical and medieval Christian conception of Hell, divided into nine concentric circles of increasing wickedness. Each circle punishes sinners according to their sins committed on Earth. The circles are further subdivided, often by specific types of sin or by the nature of the torment endured. The punishments are typically examples of contrapasso, a concept where the punishment mirrors or contrasts with the sin.
The circles, in descending order of sin and severity, are:
- Limbo: Home to the virtuous non-Christians and unbaptized infants. They suffer no physical torment but are eternally separated from God.
- Lust: Driven by relentless winds, the lustful are blown about ceaselessly.
- Gluttony: Subjected to relentless, freezing rain and filth, guarded by Cerberus.
- Greed: Forced to push heavy weights against each other, representing their hoarding and wasteful tendencies.
- Wrath and Sullenness: The wrathful fight each other on the surface of the Styx, while the sullen lie beneath its muddy waters.
- Heresy: Trapped in flaming tombs for denying the immortality of the soul.
- Violence: Divided into three rings: against neighbors (in a river of boiling blood), against oneself (transformed into trees and bushes, preyed upon by harpies), and against God, nature, and art (on a burning plain).
- Fraud: The largest circle, further divided into ten bolge (ditches) that each punish a different form of fraud, such as panderers and seducers, flatterers, simoniacs, fortune tellers and diviners, grafters, hypocrites, thieves, fraudulent counselors, sowers of discord, and falsifiers.
- Treachery: The innermost circle, Cocytus, a frozen lake. Traitors are encased in ice, with degrees of submersion based on the severity of their treachery. The worst traitors, Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius, are eternally gnawed upon by Satan.
The journey through Inferno is not merely a description of Hell; it is an allegorical representation of the soul's path to redemption. By witnessing the consequences of sin, Dante gains a deeper understanding of morality and the importance of divine grace. The poem explores themes of justice, sin, redemption, and the nature of evil. It remains a cornerstone of Western literature, influencing art, literature, and theology for centuries.