DIVINE COMEDY

BY DANTE ALIGHIERI

In this three-part epic poem, Dante Alighieri takes his readers on a pilgrimage to Heaven

via journeys first through Hell and Purgatory. It is a spiritual journey expounding the evils of sin
through the first-person narration of the aptly named main character, Dante the Pilgrim. The
title, The Divine Comedy, is not an implication that the poem is humorous in nature. Rather, the
poem is a “comedy” in that it is of the classical style that existed in partnership with tragedy.
Traditional tragedies had plotlines that began with an optimistic, or positive, event but ended in
sadness, death, or a downtrodden existence. Comedy, considered a base genre, flowed in the
opposite direction with tragedy, or at least unhappiness, reaching a happy or optimistic
culmination.

Pilgrim’s journey through the realms of the dead lasts from the eve of Good Friday to the
Wednesday following Easter in the year 1300. The Roman poet Virgil is Pilgrim’s guide through Hell
and Purgatory. Beatrice, who represents Dante’s ideal woman, leads passage through Heaven.
Given its religious significance, it is not surprising that The Divine Comedy is structured as a trinity.
The three aforementioned sections in literary terms are known as canticas and total 14,233 lines.
Each cantica is made up of thirty-three cantos, once again giving significance to the number
“three.” The poem has an introduction, which is considered part of the first cantica, thus giving the
work a total of one hundred cantos.

The opening section of the poem, Inferno, finds Dante lost in sin, symbolically depicted as a dark
wood. He is attacked by a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf and cannot find a way out to safety, or in
the religious context of the poem, salvation. This situation is represented by a mountain obscuring
the sun. He is ultimately rescued by Virgil who guides them through the underworld. Every sin in
Inferno has a punishment that symbolically, even ironically, levels justice

INFERNO
1. LIMBO- Limbo is filled with virtuous pagans, and people who were never baptized. According to the
poem, many prominent public figures like Aristotle, Julius Caesar, Hippocrates, Cicero, Socrates, and Homer
reside here. Although people are not tortured, there is the presence of sadness and gloominess. The
people’s soul in Limbo is unhappy. Although heaven is near, they won’t be able to enter.

2. LUST- People who were driven by Lust are tormented here. In the poem, Dante says that strong violent
winds blow in the Second Circle of Hell. The violent winds drag and beat the tormenting souls on the rocks
and mountains. It symbolizes the supremacy of lust over the people which driven them to satisfy their
never quenching thirst. 

3. GLUTTONY- They are forced to gurgle around in the solid waste and mud. The monstrous dog beasts with
three heads, Cerberus, also lived in this circle. The souls are tormented not only for their overindulging
excessive eating and drinking but also for their other addictions. Unlike Lust, Gluttony is a self-centered sin,
and, hence it is considered much more heinous.

4. GREED- The person who condemns the sin of greed is punished in the fourth circle of hell. The Circle is
divided into two groups of people- the ones who spent lavishly and those who hoarded for the great and
imperial possession, which is irrelevant. Plutus, the God of Wealth, guards the inner circle of greed. It
includes cardinals, clergyman, and also the popes who accumulated possession and wasteful extravagance
and foolishly misused others’ money for their own benefits. 

5. WRATH- Fifth Circle of Hell is present in the stinking, decaying water of the Styx river. In this Circle live
the souls who lived their entire life wrathfully. According to the poem, Dante along with Virgil find the souls
to fight each other furiously on the surface of the Styx river. People who indulged in a silent sullen lie just
below the surface. The people who were highly driven by their anger struggle deep inside in the river. 
The souls struggle and fight each other for eternity. They choke each other and stop each other from
expressing or speaking.
6. HERETICS- The Sixth Circle of Hell marks the beginning of Lower Hell. The souls being tortured in the
successive Circles committed heinous crimes and are punished with a severely tortured climate. The souls
of people who denied the cores of Christianity are trapped in flaming hot tombs. 

7. VIOLENCE- In the last ring, the Third Ring of Seventh Circle of Hell, people who committed crimes like
blasphemy, sodomy and bestiality and the unfair money lenders are being tortured. 

8. FRAUD- In the Fifth Bolgia, politicians who sold their public offices for money are punished. They are
dunked in boing pitch for indulging into corruption and betraying their country.

9. BETRAYAL- People who committed the absolute sin of treachery against God are punished here. Here,
Satan resides who is trapped in the frozen central zone in the Ninth Circle of Hell. Also, Lucifer, the arch-
angel who betrayed God is trapped waist-deep in the ice. 

PURGATORIO
1. STUBBORNESS - This stage is at the very base of the mountain and is part of what is known as Ante-
Purgatory. In it, the two poets encounter the souls of those who delayed their Christian life because of their
stubbornness to obey God’s laws. They are to remain in here for a time period that is thirty times longer
than the period which they exhibited stubbornness. 

2. REPENTANT- This is the last part of Ante-Purgatory. In this terrace, they encounter deceased kings who
were negligible during their rule, people who never repented while alive, and people who suffered violent
deaths but managed to repent at the last minute.

3. PRIDE- The walls of the terrace have sculptures with examples of humility, which is the opposite of pride.
The prideful never get a chance to see these sculptures, since their backs are arched due to the huge
weights, they must carry using their backs as their sins get purged.

4. ENVY- This terrace is filled with the souls of envious penitents. Soon as they enter the terrace, they hear
voices that speak examples of generosity, which is the opposite of envy, and later on, they also hear the
voices speak examples of envy. The penitents wear gray cloaks and cannot see where they are going
because their eyes have been closed and sewn with iron wire.

5. WRATH- Dante begins to have visions of gentleness, which is an example of the opposite virtue of wrath.
The wrathful forever wonder in a cloud of black smoke, which is a manifestation of the anger that clouded
their mind and blinded them when they were alive.

6. SLOTH- Virgil explains Purgatory’s structure to Dante and how it is determined by love. The wrathful are
forever preoccupied with running around the terrace without rest, since they never had zeal (the opposite
of sloth) in their earthly lives, especially when it came to acting out of love. All example given in this terrace
from the voices is the air are of zeal. 

7. GREED- Their punishment is to lie on the floor, face down, with their hands and feet bound together. The
souls are being punished and purged for desiring material goods with extravagance, greed, or ambition. As
the poets travel through the terrace, it is shaken by a mysterious tremor, but Dante does not ask Virgil
about it, even though he is curious. They run into the Roman, Statius, and he explains the mysterious
tremor to Dante: it happens when a soul is ready to move on from purgatory, and he, Statius, was the soul
that caused the tremor. 

8. GLUTTONY- They experience excruciating hunger and thirst while there are plenty of trees with fruit
around them. The souls experience this because they can never reach the trees. The voices in the trees give
examples of temperance, which is the opposite of gluttony. 
9. LUST- In the terrace of the lustful, the penitent souls must run through a great wall of flames. As they run
through it, they call out examples of chastity, which is the opposite of lust. Everyone must run through the
wall before they leave, including Dante.

PARADISO
1. MOON- Here, they see the souls of those who failed to keep their vows including the sister of Dante’s
friend Forese Donati, Piccarda Donati and Queen Constance of Sicily, both of whom were forced from their
convents. Beatrice explains to Dante why their souls were “punished” by being allocated to the lowest
Heaven for something that wasn’t their fault.

2. MERCURY- Dante and his guide Beatrice meet the souls of those who were just and righteous during
their earthly lives but were primarily driven by ambition. The poet speaks to the Byzantine Emperor
Justinian who tells him the history of the Roman Empire, speaking, among other things, about Julius Caesar,
Augustus, Jesus’ crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem.

3. VENUS- Venus is home to the souls of lovers who “earned” their place in heaven with their love for God
and humanity. 

4. SUN- Dante and Beatrice are surrounded by a crown consisting of St. Thomas Aquinas and eleven other
souls of wise men who also include Boethius, King Solomon, Peter Lombard and the Venerable Bede, to
mention some of the most famous ones. These people were considered wise and intellectual.

5. MARS- Mars is home to holy warriors, whose souls are forming the shape of a cross. 

6. JUPITER- Jupiter is “inhabited” by the souls of just rulers. They spell out the Latin phrase “diligite
iustitiam qui iudicatis terram” (English: “cherish justice, you who judge the earth”) and then form a giant
eagle that speaks to Dante about divine justice and inscrutability.

7. SATURN- Dante encounters the spirits of people who dedicated their lives to prayer, climbing up and
down a golden ladder. In this sphere, the poet speaks to St. Peter Damian who points out to the corruption
of the Church but he also meets St. Benedict who is infuriated with the Church’s moral decline as well. 

8. FIXED STARS- Fixed Stars in the constellation of Gemini. Here, the poet and his guide see the Virgin Mary
and other Biblical saints including the apostles of Peter, John and James who test Dante on faith, love and
hope. Then Dante sees Adam who tells him how old he is, how long he lived in Eden, why God got angry at
him and what was his original language. Before moving forward, Dante and Beatrice also witness Peter’s
anger with the papacy and in particular, Pope Boniface VIII.

9. PRIMUM MOBILE- Primum Mobile is also the last stop before the Empyrean and the last of the physical
Heavens as the Empyrean is beyond space and time. After a brief discussion with Beatrice on the place
they’ve come to, Dante sees an intensely bright light surrounded by nine circles which, as he soon learns,
are the nine orders of angels surrounding God in the center. As they are slowly ascending to the Empyrean,
Beatrice tells Dante the story of creation and history of the angels.