ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Durante Degli Alighieri

• Born Mid-May to mid-June, c. 1265

Florence, Republic of Florence

• Died September 13/14, 1321

(aged about 56)
Ravenna, Papal States

• Occupation Statesman, poet, language

theorist, political theorist
• Nationality Italian

• Period Late Middle Ages

• Literary movement Dolce Stil Novo

STRUCTURE OF THE STORY
The Divine Comedy is composed of 14,233 lines that are divided into
three canticas (Italian plural cantiche)

Inferno Purgatori Paradiso

(Hell) (Purgatory) (Paradise)
-each consisting of 33 cantos (Italian plural canti). An initial canto, serving as
an introduction to the poem and generally considered to be part of the first
cantica, brings the total number of cantos to 100.

Additionally, the verse scheme used, terza rima, is hendecasyllabic (lines of

eleven syllables), with the lines composing tercets according to the rhyme
scheme aba, bcb, cdc, ded, ....
 Circle 1: Those in Limbo
Circle 2: The Lustful
The physical aspect of Hell is a Circle 3: The Gluttonous
gigantic funnel that leads to the Circle 4: The Hoaders
very center of the Earth. Circle 5: The Wrathful
Circle 6: The Heretics
Circle 7: The Violent
According to the legend used by Ring 1:Murderers, Robberers & Plunders
Dante, this huge, gigantic hole in Ring 2:Suicides and those harmful to the world
the Earth was made when God Ring 3:Against GOD, Nature & Art
threw Satan (Lucifer) and his Circle 8: The Faudulent
Trench I: Panderers & Seducers
band of rebels out of Heaven Trench II: Flatterers
with such force that they created Trench III: Simoniacs
a giant hole in the Earth. Trench IV: Sorcerers
Trench V: Barrators
Trench VI: Hyprocrites
Trench VII: Theives
Satan was cast all the way to the Trench VIII: Evil Counselors
very center of the Earth, has Trench IX: Sowers of Discord
remained there since, and will Trench X: Falsifiers
remain there through all of Circle 9: Traitors
eternity. Region 1: Kindred
Region 2: Country
Region 3: Guests
Region 4: Lords
DIVINE COMEDY
Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso
BY DANTE ALIGHIERI
CANTO I The Dark worlds of Error

The Inferno follows the

wanderings of the poet Dante
as he strays off the rightful
and straight path of moral
truth and gets lost in a dark
wood. And that, folks,
is just the beginning.

At the age of thirty-five,

on the night of Good
Friday in the year 1300,
Dante finds himself lost in
a dark wood and full of
fear.
CANTO I The Dark worlds of Error

Just as three wild

animals threaten
to attack him,
Dante is rescued
by the ghost of
Virgil, a
celebrated
Roman poet and
also Dante’s idol.
CANTO II The Descent
When asked why
he came, Virgil
answers that the
head honchos of
Heaven—the
Virgin Mary and
Santa Lucia—felt
sorry for Dante.
Beatrice
Virgil asked the
deceased love-of-
Dante’s-life,
Beatrice, to send
someone down to
help him. Virgil to
the rescue! He’s an
appropriate guide
because he’s very
much like Dante, a
fellow writer and
famous poet.
CANTO III The Opportunists
(Gate)

Dante passes through the gate of

Hell, which bears an inscription
ending with the famous phrase
"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi
ch'intrate", most frequently
translated as "Abandon all hope, ye
who enter here

Dante and his guide hear the

anguished screams of the
Uncommitted. These are the souls
of people who in life took no sides;
the opportunists who were for
neither good nor evil, but merely
concerned with themselves.
CANTO III The Opportunists
(Gate)

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, who does not want
to let Dante enter, for he is a
Charon living being

Virgil forces Charon to take

him however, the passage
across the Acheron is
undescribed, since Dante
faints and does not awaken
until he is on the other side.
CANTO IV The Virtuous Pagan
Circle 1 - Limbo

The first circle of Hell (Limbo),

considered pre-Hell, just contains all
of the unbaptized and good people
born and before the coming of
Christ, who obviously couldn’t be
saved by him.
CANTO IV The Virtuous Pagan
Circle 1 - Limbo

The first circle of Hell (Limbo) :

Virgil resides here, along with

a bunch of other Greek and
Roman poets.

Dante encounters the poets

Homer, Horace, Ovid, and
Lucan, who include him in
their number and make him
"sixth in that high company".
CANTO V The Lustful
Circle 2

Dante and Virgil leave Limbo

and enter the Second Circle
— the first of the circles of
Incontinence — where the
punishments of Hell proper
begin. It is described as "a
part where no thing gleams.
They find their way hindered
by the serpentine Minos.

- who judges all of those

Minos condemned for active,
deliberately willed sin to
one of the lower circles.

He sentences each soul to

its torment by wrapping his
tail around himself a
corresponding number of
times.
CANTO V The Lustful
Circle 2

In the second circle,

lustful sinners are tossed
around by endless
storms.
CANTO V The Lustful
Circle 2

Paolo

Dante speaks to the soul

of Francesca da Rimini, a
woman who was stuck in
a loveless, arranged
marriage and committed
adultery when she fell in
Francesca
love with a dashing youth
named Paolo.
CANTO VI The Gluttonous
Circle 3

Cerberus - the monstrous

three-headed beast of
Hell, ravenously guards
the gluttons lying in the
freezing mire, mauling
and flaying them with his
claws as they howl like
dogs.
CANTO VI The Gluttonous
Circle 3

Dante then awakes in

the third circle,
where the
Gluttonous sinners
suffer under a cold
and filthy rain.
CANTO VII The Avaricious and Prodigal
Circle 4

Virgil leads Dante on to the

Circle 4 –
fourth circle, where the
Guarded by Plutus.
Avaricious (greedy people)
and Prodigal (reckless
spenders) roll heavy
weights in endless circles.
CANTO VIII The Wrathful and Sullen
Circle 5 – The River Styx

The next stop on the

tour is the fifth circle,
where the Wrathful and
Sullen are immersed in
the muddy river Styx.

While they are crossing

the Styx, a sinner
named Filippo Argenti
reaches out to Dante
(presumably for help),
Philippo
but Dante angrily
rejects him.
CANTO IX-XI The Wrathful and Sullen
Circle 5 – The Gate of Dis

Now at the gates of

a city called Dis,
Virgil takes it upon
himself to persuade
the demon guards
to let them pass.
Unexpectedly, he
fails.
CANTO IX-XI The Wrathful and Sullen
Circle 5 – The Gate of Dis

Demon guards

The walls of Dis are This means that instead of

guarded by fallen continuing on with the
angels. journey, Dante and Virgil
must wait for an angel to
come down and force
open the gates for them.
CANTOIX-XI The Heretics
Circle 6

After passing the

city of Dis, our
dynamic duo, enters
the sixth circle,
where the Heretics
lay in fiery tombs.

Dante talks to
Farinata degli
Uberti, who predicts
that Dante will have
Farinata degli Uberti difficulty returning
to Florence from
exile.
CANTO XII The Violent against
Neighbors Circle 7

This circle houses the

violent. Its entry is guarded
by Minotaur.
Minotaur

Divided into 3 rings:

Outer ring
Middle ring
Inner ring
CANTO XII The Violent Outer ring
Circle 7
Violent against their neighbors

Middle ring
Violent against themselves

Inner ring
Violent against GOD

Circle 7

As they cross from

the sixth to the
seventh circle, where
the Violent are
punished, Virgil finally
begins explaining the
layout of Hell.
 The Violent against their
CANTO XII neighbors
Circle 7 – Outer Ring

Outer ring –
housing the violent
against people and
property, who are
immersed in
Phlegethon – a river
of boiling blood, to a
level commensurate
with their sins.
 The Violent against
CANTO XIII themselves
Circle 7 – Middle Ring

Middle ring –
In this ring are the
suicides, who are
transformed into
gnarled thorny
bushes and trees.

*The trees are a

metaphor; In life the
only way of the relief
of suffering was
through pain
(suicide)
 The Violent against GOD, Nature
CANTO XIV-XVII and Art
Circle 7 – Inner Ring

Inner ring –

All reside in a desert

Latini of flaming sand with
fiery flakes raining
from the sky.
Violent against:

GOD – blasphemers,
Nature –Sodomites;
Art – Usurers
CANTO XVIII The Fraudulent
Circle 8

Finally, Dante and Virgil stays to talk

Virgil ready with the beast while
themselves to urging Dante to look
cross to the eighth at the last of the
circle. Dante, at Violent sinners.
Virgil’s command, When Dante comes
summons the beast back, they mount
Geryon from the Geryon and ride the
depths with a cord beast during the
wrapped around descent into the
his waist. eighth circle.

-Geryon, symbol of
Geryon
deceit
CANTO XVIII The Fraudulent
Circle 8 Dante’s Inferno
Circle 1: Those in Limbo
Circle 2: The Lustful
Circle 3: The Gluttonous
Circle 4: The Hoaders
Circle 5: The Wrathful
Circle 6: The Heretics
Circle 7: The Violent
Ring 1:Murderers, Robberers & Plunders
Ring 2:Suicides and those harmful to the world
Ring 3:Against GOD, Nature & Art
Circle 8: The Faudulent
Trench I: Panderers & Seducers
The eighth circle Trench II: Flatterers
Trench III: Simoniacs
contains ten pouches, Trench IV: Sorcerers
each containing Trench V: Barrators
Trench VI: Hyprocrites
different types of Trench VII: Theives
sinners. Trench VIII: Evil Counselors
Trench IX: Sowers of Discord
Trench X: Falsifiers
Circle 9: Traitors
Region 1: Kindred
Region 2: Country
Region 3: Guests
Region 4: Lords
 The Fraudulent Circle 8
CANTO XVIII Trench I: Panderers & Seducers
Trench II: Flatterers

Panderers and Seducers walk Flatterers are steeped in

in separate line in opposite human excrement.
direction, whipped by demons.
CANTO XIX-XX The Fraudulent - Circle 8
Trench III: Simoniacs
Trench IV: Sorcerers

Simoniacs -Those who Sorcerers and false prophets-

committed simony are place they have their heads twisted
head first in holes in the rock, around on their bodies
with flames burning on the backward, so they can only see
soles of their feet. what is behind them and not in
the future.
 The Fraudulent
CANTO XXI-XXIII Circle 8
Trench VI: Hyprocrites
Trench VII: Theives

lol

Corrupt politicians( barrators) Hypocrites listlessly walking

are immersed in a lake of along wearing gold-gilded lead
boiling pitch, guarded by cloaks.
devils, the Malebranche
 The Fraudulent Circle 8
CANTO XXIV-XXVII Trench VII: Theives
Trench VIII: Evil Counselors

*They’re watching the flaming spirits

of Oddyseus and Diomedes
(Trojan War)

Thieves are bitten by snakes.

Snakes bites make them
undergo various
transformations and some Evil counsellors are
resrrected after being turned encased in individual
to ashes. flames
CANTO XXVII-XXXI The Fraudulent Circle 8
Trench IX: Sowers of Discord
Trench X: Falsifiers

The severed
head of
Bertrand de
Born speaks
to Dante

A sword-wieldded
devil hacks at the
sowers of discord.
As their wounds heal,
the devil will tear their
bodies again.
Groups of various sort of
falsifiers are afflicted with
different types of
diseases.
CANTO XXVII-XXXI The Fraudulent
Circle 8

As they leave,
Virgil points out the
sinning giants who
are immobilized
around them in
punishment.
CANTO XXVII-XXXI The Fraudulent
Circle 8
The giant Antaeus lowers Dante and Virgil into the last circle
Nimrod of the giants

Antaneus

Nimrod

Nimrod—who was
Virgil requests that one
responsible for building of the unbound giants,
the Tower of Babel—has Antaneus, transport
lost the ability to speak them in the palm of his
hand down to the last
coherently. His words
circle of Hell. He
are gibberish. complies.
CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9 Dante’s Inferno
Circle 1: Those in Limbo
Circle 2: The Lustful
Circle 3: The Gluttonous
Circle 4: The Hoaders
Circle 5: The Wrathful
Circle 6: The Heretics
Circle 7: The Violent
Ring 1:Murderers, Robberers & Plunders
Ring 2:Suicides and those harmful to the world
Ring 3:Against GOD, Nature & Art
Circle 8: The Faudulent
Trench I: Panderers & Seducers
Trench II: Flatterers
Trench III: Simoniacs
Trench IV: Sorcerers
Trench V: Barrators
Trench VI: Hyprocrites
Trench VII: Theives
Trench VIII: Evil Counselors
Trench IX: Sowers of Discord
Trench X: Falsifiers
The ninth circle of Hell, Circle 9: Traitors
Region 1: Kindred
where traitors are Region 2: Country
punished, contains four Region 3: Guests
different zones. Region 4: Lords
CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9

Traitors, distinguished
from the “merely”
fraudulent in that their
acts involve betraying
one in a special
relationship to the
betrayer, are frozen in a
lake of ice known as
Cocytus.

The traitors frozen in the ice of Cocytus

CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9 – The Four Concentric Zones of 9th Circle

Traitors to their Kindred Traitors to their Country Traitors to their Guests Traitors to their Lords

REGION 1: REGION 2: REGION 3: REGION 4:

Caïna Antenora Ptolomæa Judecca

Named for Cain, is home to Is probably named Is named for Judas
Is name for Antenor
traitors to their kindered. for Ptolemy, the the Iscariot, Biblical
of troy,who betrayed
captain of Jericho , betrayer of Christ, is
his city to the Greeks.
He killed Simon for traitor to their
Maccabaeus and his Lords.
sons.
CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9 – REGION 1:Caïna

REGION 1:Caïna

The souls here are

immersed in the ice up
to their necks.

Bocca degli Abati

Dante addresses the traitor Bocca degli Abati

CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9 – REGION 2:Antenora

REGION 2: Antenora

The souls here are

Ugolino
immersed the same
level as those in Caïna,
Archbishop Ruggierir
except they are unable
to bend their necks.

Ugolino gnaws upon the head of Archbishop Ruggieri

CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9 – REGION 3:Ptolomæa

REGION 3:Ptolomæa

Where traitors against

their guests suffer,
immobilized in ice and
their tears frozen
against their eyes.

As they cry, their tears freeze and seal their eyes shut – they are denied even comfort of tears.
CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9 – REGION 4:Judecca

Lucifer, king of Hell, frozen in the ice

REGION 4:Judecca

In the fourth the final

zone, Judecca, where
traitors against their
benefactors are
punished, Dante
witnesses the king of
Hell, the three-headed
Lucifer, giant and frozen
at the core. In his three
mouths, Lucifer
mechanically chews on
the most evil mortal
sinners—Judas, Brutus,
and Cassius.
• Having survived the
depths of Hell, Dante
and Virgil ascend out
of the undergloom, to
the Mountain
of Purgatory on the far
side of the world.
 Beatrice, Dante's ideal
woman, guides him
through PURGATORY.
Beatrice was a Florentine
woman whom he had met
in childhood and admired
from afar in the mode of
the then-
fashionable courtly love
tradition which is
highlighted in Dante's
earlier work La Vita
Nuova.
 THE TERRACES OF PURGATORIO
LATE-REPENTANT

PROUD

ENVIOUS

WRATHFUL

SLOTHFUL

AVARICIOUS

GLUTTONOUS

LUSTFUL
 ANTE-PURGATORY
(LATE-REPENTANT)

• This is the level where the late-repentants stay.

• These sinners stay in purgatory until the

prayers of their loved ones shorten their stay
there.
 FIRST TERRACE
(PROUD)

• Those who are proud are being punished in this

level.

• The proud are purged by carrying giant stones

on their backs, unable to stand up straight
 SECOND TERRACE
(ENVIOUS)

• Those who are envious are being punished in

this level.

• The envious are purged by having their eyes

sewn shut and wearing clothing that makes the
soul indistinguishable from the ground
 THIRD TERRACE
(WRATHFUL)

• Those who are wrathful are being punished in this level.

• The wrathful are purged by walking around in acrid smoke

 FOURTH TERRACE
(SLOTHFUL)

• Those who are slothful are being punished in this level.

• The slothful are purged by continually running

 FIFTH TERRACE
(AVARICIOUS)

• Those who sinned on the fifth through seventh terraces

are those who loved good things but loving them in a
disordered way.

• Those who are avaricious and prodigal are being

punished in this level.

• The avaricious and prodigal are purged by lying face-

down on the ground, unable to move
 SIXTH TERRACE
(GLUTTONOUS)

• Those who are gluttonous are being punished in this

level.

• The gluttonous are purged by abstaining from any food

or drink
 SEVENTH TERRACE
(LUSTFUL)
• Those who are lustful are being punished in this level.

• The lustful are purged by burning in an immense wall of

flame
An illustration of purgatorio
• Dante, under the guidance of Beatrice,
completes his journey to the afterlife by leaving
the earth and rising through the ten celestial
heavens of the ancient cosmos. Paradiso
narrates how Dante and Beatrice encounter
blessed spirits in the seven planetary spheres.
In describing the heavens, Dante is going beyond
previous poets, driven by intellect (Minerva),
steered by divine creativity (Apollo), and guided by
poetic inspiration (The Muses).
 The System of
Dante's Paradise
 Moon
The sphere is that of faith, the content of faith,
taken on trust that will be revealed, realised,
self-evidently as “truth.”

The spirits in the moon is also associated in our

culture with woman, with the virginity and
chastity of Diana.

Spirits are those who failed in the aspect of faith

by breaking their vows.
 Mercury

• Justinian and the hope of the Roman Empire

• refers to the justice of the sin of the Fall of

Man.

• Mercury is filled with spirits who hoped for

earthly fame and honor, so they impaired the
force of their spiritual hope.

• The spirits are satisfied because reward is

matched with merit and they are free of envy.
 VENUS
• Still in the heaven of Venus, Dante speaks first with
Cunizza, the mistress of the troubadour poet, Sordello,
and sister of the tyrant, Ezzelino da Romano, and
secondly with Foulquet of Marseilles, a troubadour poet,
renowned as much for his amours as for his poetry. The
discourse of both souls is concerned with affairs on earth,
Cunizza foretelling the disasters which will befall the
inhabitants of the Trevisan territory, and Foulquet
deploring the avarice of the Church and her neglect of true
religion. Both spirits rejoice in the degree of bliss to which
God has destined them; the love in which they erred in
their first life is now discerned by them as the power
by which the universe is governed.
 SUN
• The spirits are manifested who reconciled spiritual and earthly
wisdom; pagan and Christian learning and history, and directed
the virtuous Christian life on Earth.
 MARS
Signifies the virtue of Fortitude.

• The red planet carries traditional associations of blood

and war in myth and astrology; but in here, it represents the
associations of the Church Militant and of the Crucifixion.

• The Spirits are those of the warriors of God; those who

fought for the Chosen People of the old law (Old Testament),
and of Christ’s Church in the new (New Testament).
 JUPITER
• It is associated with Justice and Wisdom, with Jupiter
the Roman God, and therefore with the Roman
Emperors, and with the Christian God.

• The head and neck of an Eagle

• 1. The emblem of Rome
• 2. The divine sign of Empire and justice

• The mind of God inspires the earthly forms, the nests

where intellect builds and creates justice.
 SATURN

• The contemplative spiritual life of an individual and the

fourth cardinal virtue of Temperance

• Is also a reminder of the Golden Age when in myth, Saturn

ruled the Earth; a time of simplicity, moderation and primal
innocence.
 FIXED STARS

• Love, in all its forms, reads to him, is Divine Love, The

good God, Himself. Love is one continuum, from the
divine to the earthly. All love is one.
Dante will be examined by the Apostles who stand at the threshold
to the Primum Mobile, concerning his understanding of the
theological virtues:

Saint Peter Saint James Saint John

• Faith • Hope • Love
 The Primum Mobile/ Crystalline

The Angelic Circles

-There is a spiritual
rather than a spatial Concentric Angelic
Concentric Sphere
correspondence -Orders
-Centered on Earth
between the two Centered on God
arrangements.
 The Empyrean
• Here, Dante had seen the redeemed spirits and the
angels in their form of the Last Judgment.

• The Emyprean is the full Light of Truth which is filled

with Divine Love. That love is full of transcendent joy
coming from the Supreme God, the essence of Love.

• The Angels fly among the redeemed, in the form of a

white rose, and God. Angels’ faces are flame, their
wings golden and the rest, white: the three colors that
symbolize Love, Knowledge and Purity.