Dante's Inferno

Dante's Inferno, part of his poetic epic The Divine Comedy depicts the poet Dante and his journey through the 9 circles of hell. Here, damned souls are punished according to their sins.

Third Circle illustration by Strandanus

Circle 1: Limbo. Virtus pagans and unbaptized babies.
Circle 2: Lust. Souls are blown about in a maelstrom hitting rocks as they fly about.
Circle 3: Gluttony. Souls lie in a slush and pelted by icy rain.
Circle 4: Greed. Souls push boulders around and must fight when making eye contact.
Circle 5: Anger. Souls fight in the black bog of the river Styx.

Walls of Dis, Strandanus

(Lower Hell is located inside the city of Dis)
Circle 6: Heresy. Souls are trapped in flaming tombs.
Circle 7: Violence.

• Outer ring, violence against people and property. Souls are immersed in a river of boiling blood to a level according to their sins.
• Middle ring, violence against the self. Suicides are turned into trees while spendthrifts are chased by dogs through the trees. (Suicides do not resurrect come the final judgement)
• Inner ring, violence against God and nature. Souls are trapped in a flaming desert as fire falls from the sky. Blasphemers lie on the sand, usurers sit and sodomites wander in groups.

Start at 13.22 to see the City of Dis from the Xbox game Dante's Inferno.



City of Dis from the animated version of the game Dante's Inferno.

Circle 8: Fraud.

• Bolgia 1: Panderers and seducers march in lines and are whipped by demons.
• Bolgia 2: Flatterers are settled in human excrement.
• Bolgia 3: Simony committers are placed headfirst into holes while their feet are aflame.
• Bolgia 4: Sorcerers and astrologers have their heads turned backwards.
• Bolgia 5: Corrupt politicians are immersed in a lake of boiling pitch.
• Bolgia 6: Hypocrites wear lead cloaks.
• Bolgia 7: Thieves are bitten by snakes and lizards as their bodies are stolen.
• Bolgia 8: Evil counsellors are concealed within individual flames.
• Bolgia 9: The sowers of discord are dismembered.
• Bolgia 10: Falsifiers (alchemists, counterfeiters, etc) are afflicted with diseases.

Circle 9: Treachery.

Dante speaks to the traitors in ice

• Round 1 (Caina). Traitors to kin are frozen to their chin.
• Round 2 (Antenora). Traitors to country are also frozen to their chin.
• Round 3 (Ptolomaea). Traitors to guests are frozen save their faces.
• Round 4 (Judecca). Traitors to lords are frozen entirely.

The centre of Hell has Lucifer (Satan, the Devil, etc) frozen to his waist. He beats his black wings to try to get free but only keeps him frozen. He has three heads and chews Brutus and Cassius in his side heads (for the murder of Julius Caesar) and chews Judas Iscariot in the centre head (for betraying Jesus). The centre of Hell is frozen, not fire and brimstone, because this is the farthest place from God's warming light.

Decent into Treachery from the Xbox game Dante's Inferno

Judecca, in the game, is depicted as having a flaming pentagram with the centre as the portal to Purgatory.

Decent into Treachery from the Xbox game Dante's Inferno

 Trailer for the animated version for the game Dante's Inferno. Full movie here.

If Gilles was in Dante's Hell, we would have to decide what his greatest sin was. If it was violence, he's be immersed in a river of blood. If sorcery, his head would be on backwards, or alchemy where he's have a disease. If it was heresy, he'd be in a flaming tomb (my best association). Sodomy would get him on the flaming sands though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)