Study Note No.

Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Vocabulary Words
1. Primordial - existing from the beginning
2. Coil - a series of loops; spiral
3. Omnipotence - an agency or force of unlimited power
4. Blaspheme - to speak of or address with irreverence
5. Throng - to crowd together in great numbers
6. Lamentation - crying out in grief
7. Scourge - to beat as if by blows of a whip
Biblical Description of Hell
Revelation 20:14
“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”
Matthew 13:50
“And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
Mark 9:44, 46, 48
“Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”

The Divine Comedy - Inferno

Divided into three sections—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso—The Divine Comedy

presents an encyclopedic overview of the mores, attitudes, beliefs, philosophies,
aspirations, and material aspects of the medieval world.
It is a religious allegory, a popular form of literature in which a story points to a hidden
or symbolic parallel meaning. Certain elements, such as people, things, and
happenings in the story.
This is Dante’s journey through the nine circles of Hell, guided by the poet Virgil. At
the beginning of the story, a woman, Beatrice, calls for an angel to bring Virgil to guide
Dante in his journey so that no harm will befall him.
The 9 Circles of Inferno
Circle I: Limbo - Resided by virtuous non-Christians and unbaptized pagans
Circle II: Lust - The souls here are punished by being blown about violently by strong
winds, preventing them to find peace and rest.
Circle III: Gluttony - Sinners lie rotting away in a never ending icy rain, overlooked by a
worm-monster Cerberus.
Circle IV: Greed - The inhabitants drag about heavy weights and boulders with their
chest all the time.
Circle V: Anger - The wrathful fight each other on the surface of the river Styx.
Circle VI: Heresy - The heretics were souls who did not agree to the Christian doctrine.
They are lying in burning tombs.
Circle VII: Violence - The 7th circle is divided into 3 rings — outer are murderers sinking
into boiling blood, the middle are the suicides who turned into bleeding trees, and the
inner ring are blasphemers and sodomites who reside in a desert of burning sand and
are scorched by burning rain falling from above
Circle VIII: Fraud This circle of Hell is divided into 10 Bolgias or stony ditches with
bridges between them. Each bolgia has a different kind of fraud and punishment such
as whipped by demons, steeped in excrement etc.
 Study Note No. 1

Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Circle IX: Treachery - The betrayers are stuck frozen in a lake of ice. The lake consists
of 4 rings, with the last level resided by Lucifer, Brutus, Cassius and Judas.

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