John Nicotra

Miss Skirtich
19 March 2018
English 10: World Literature

"Inferno" Thesis Paper

The Inferno is home to many different monsters that guard the sinners and make them

pay for their sins. Dante Alighieri was a Renaissance author who wrote an epic poem called "The

Divine Comedy." The monsters in this poem live in the Inferno and guard the sinners. Dante

Alighieri appropriately assigns the Monsters of Hell in "Inferno" by their background stories,

physicality, and Law of Retribution relationship with the sinners.

Dante Alighieri appropriately assigns the Monsters of Hell in "Inferno" by their

background stories. One of the fitting monsters of Hell is King Minos, the judge of Hell, "There

Minos sits, grinning, grotesque, and hale. He examines each lost soul as it arrives and delivers

his verdict with his coiling tail" (Alighieri 35). In this quote, Minos judges the sinners and uses

his coiling tail to assign each sinner to their punishment. Minos ruled as the mythological king of

Crete and he presented himself as a good and just one. Now he judges sinners and assigns them

to a just punishment for their sins like how he was a just king. Another fitting monster in Hell is

Phlegyas the guardian of the wrathful and sullen and ferryman of the Styx River, "Phlegyas, the

madman, blew his rage among those muddy marshes like a cheat deceived, or like a fool at some

imagined wrong" (Alighieri 60). The quote says how Phlegyas is a madman and now guards the

muddy marshes of the Styx River. Phlegyas guards the sinners of the Styx River, the wrathful

and the sullen, and he was wrathful when he burned down Apollo's temple after Apollo raped his

daughter. Now he is wrathful guardian that guards the wrathful. This is how Dante Alighieri

assigns the monsters of Hell by their background stories.

 Also, Dante Alighieri appropriately assigns the Monsters of Hell in "Inferno" by their

physicality. Geryon, the Monster of Fraud, is one of the monsters that is appropriately assigned

by their physicality, "His face was innocent of every guile, benign and just in feature and

expression; and under it his body was half reptile" (Alighieri 135). Geryon is being physically

described in this quote as a fraudulent creature with a trustworthy face, reptile lower body, and

scorpion tail. He deceives others by appearing good with his face, but it is revealed that he is a

dangerous monster. The Minotaur also has an appearance that appropriately assigns him to his

place in Hell, "There at the very top, at the edge of the broken cleft, lay spread the Infamy of

Crete, the heir of bestiality and the lecherous queen who his in a wooden cow. And when he saw

us, he gnawed his own flesh in a fit of spleen" (Alighieri 93). The Minotaur is a half-human,

half-beast creature that was the offspring of a human and bull. He is the guardian and symbol of

the violent against neighbors because they committed bestial acts of violence and are now

guarded by a creature physically describing their actions. The Monsters of Hell in "Inferno" are

assigned by their physicality.

Furthermore, Dante Alighieri appropriately assigns the Monsters of Hell in "Inferno" by

their Law of Retribution relationship with the sinners. One monster that is appropriately assigned

by their Law of Retribution relationship with the sinners is the three-headed dog, Cerberus, "His

eyes are red, his beard is greased with phlegm, his belly is swollen, and his hands are claws to rip

the wretches and flay and mangle them" (Alighieri 45). Cerberus is the guardian of the gluttons

and would attack and eat the gluttons. Since he constantly eats the gluttons this makes Cerberus a

glutton. The giants are also being appropriately assigned in Hell, by Dante Alighieri, "They are

not towers, but giants. They stand in the well from the navel down; and stationed round its bank

they mount guard on the final pit of Hell" (Alighieri 252). In this quote, the giants are identified
as the guardians of the final Circle of Hell, Compound Fraud. They are chained to the ground

and are trapped just like the sinners they guard, who are frozen in ice. The Monsters of Hell in

"Inferno" are assigned by their Law of Retribution relationship with the sinners.

In conclusion, Dante Alighieri appropriately assigns the Monsters of Hell in "Inferno" by

their relatability to the sinners, physicality, and Law of Retribution relationship with the sinners.

Dante Alighieri used his ability brilliantly to assign the different monsters from Christianity and

Greek mythology to punish and guard the sinners of the Inferno.