The poem begins on the day before Good Friday in the year 1300.

The narrator, Da
nte Alighieri himself, is thirty-five years old, and thus "halfway along our lif
e's path" (Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita) half of the Biblical life expectan
cy of seventy (Psalm 90:10). The poem finds him lost in a dark wood, assailed by
three beasts (a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf) he cannot evade, and unable to
find the "straight way" (diritta via) also translatable as "right way" to salvation
. Conscious that he is ruining himself and that he is falling into a "deep place
" (basso loco) where the sun is silent (l sol tace), Dante is at last rescued by
the Roman poet Virgil, and the two of them begin their journey to the underworl
d. Each sin's punishment in Inferno is a contrapasso, a symbolic instance of poe
tic justice; for example, fortune-tellers have to walk forwards with their heads
on backwards, unable to see what is ahead, because they tried, through forbidde
n means, to look ahead to the future in life. Such a contrapasso "functions not
merely as a form of divine revenge, but rather as the fulfilment of a destiny fr
eely chosen by each soul during his or her life."[2]

The Barque of Dante by Eugène DelacroixDante passes through the gate of Hell, whic
h bears an inscription, the ninth (and final) line of which is the famous phrase
"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", or "Abandon all hope, ye who enter he
re"[3] Before entering Hell completely, Dante and his guide see the Uncommitted,
souls of people who in life did nothing, neither for good nor evil (among these
Dante recognizes either Pope Celestine V or Pontius Pilate; the text is ambiguo
us). Mixed with them are outcasts who took no side in the Rebellion of Angels. T
hese souls are neither in Hell nor out of it, but reside on the shores of the Ac
heron, their punishment to eternally pursue a banner (i.e. self interest) while
pursued by wasps and hornets that continually sting them while maggots and other
such insects drink their blood and tears. This symbolizes the sting of their co
nscience and the repugnance of sin. As with the Purgatorio and Paradiso, the Inf
erno has a structure of 9+1=10, with this "vestibule" different in nature from t
he nine circles of Hell, and separated from them by the Acheron.
After passing through the "vestibule," Dante and Virgil reach the ferry that wil
l 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 living being. Virgil
forces Charon to take him by means of another famous line Vuolsi così colà ove si pu
ote, which translates to "So it is wanted there where the power lies," referring
to the fact that Dante is on his journey on divine grounds. The wailing and bla
sphemy of the damned souls entering Charon's boat are a contrast to the joyful s
inging of the blessed souls arriving by ferry in the Purgatorio. However, the ac
tual passage across the Acheron is undescribed since Dante faints and does not w
ake up until he is on the other side.
Virgil then guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell. The circles are conce
ntric, representing a gradual increase in wickedness, and culminating at the cen
tre of the earth, where Satan is held in bondage. Each circle's sinners are puni
shed in a fashion fitting their crimes: each sinner is afflicted for all of eter
nity by the chief sin he committed. People who sinned but prayed for forgiveness
before their deaths are found not in Hell but in Purgatory, where they labour t
o be free of their sins. Those in Hell are people who tried to justify their sin
s and are unrepentant.
Allegorically, the Inferno represents the Christian soul seeing sin for what it
really is, and the three beasts represent three types of sin: the self-indulgent
, the violent, and the malicious.[4] These three types of sin also provide the t
hree main divisions of Dante's Hell: Upper Hell (the first 5 Circles) for the se
lf-indulgent sins; Circles 6 and 7 for the violent sins; and Circles 8 and 9 for
the malicious sins.
[edit] The Nine Circles of Hell
The Harrowing of Hell, in a 14th c. illuminated manuscript, the Petites Heures d
e Jean de Berry[edit] First Circle (Limbo)
In Limbo reside the unbaptized and the virtuous pagans, who, though not sinful,
did not accept Christ. They are not punished in an active sense, but rather grie
ve only because of their separation from God, without hope of reconciliation. Li
mbo shares many characteristics with the Asphodel Meadows; thus the guiltless da
mned are punished by living in a deficient form of Heaven. Without baptism ("the
portal of the faith that you embrace"[5]) they lacked the hope for something gr
eater than rational minds can conceive. Limbo includes green fields and a castle
, the dwelling place of the wisest men of antiquity, including Virgil himself, a
s well as the Islamic philosopher Averroes and the Persian polymath Avicenna. In
the castle Dante meets the poets Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan, the Amazon que
en Penthesilea, the mathematician Euclid, the philosophers Socrates and Aristotl
e, and many others, including Julius Caesar in his role as Roman general ("in hi
s armor, falcon-eyed"[6]). Interestingly, he also sees Saladin in Limbo (Canto I
V). Dante implies that all virtuous non-Christians find themselves here, althoug
h he later encounters two (Cato of Utica and Statius) in Purgatory and two (Traj
an and Ripheus) in Heaven.
In this Canto, Virgil mentions to Dante various figures from the Old Testament,
including Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, and states that they were confined to
this circle until the death of Christ ("when I beheld a Great Lord enter here;
/ the crown he wore, a sign of victory."[7]). Following this Harrowing of Hell,
these good souls were then taken by Christ into Heaven. This widespread medieval
belief was based on such biblical texts as 1 Peter 3:19.[8]
Beyond the first circle, all of those condemned for active, deliberately willed
sin are judged by Minos, who sentences each soul to one of the lower eight circl
es by wrapping his tail around himself a corresponding number of times (Minos in
itially hinders the poets' passage, until rebuked by Virgil). The lower circles
are structured according to the classical (Aristotelian) conception of virtue an
d vice, so that they are grouped into the sins of incontinence, violence, and fr
aud (which for many commentators are represented by the leopard, lion, and she-w
olf[9]). The sins of incontinence weakness in controlling one's desires and natura
l urges are the mildest among them, and, correspondingly, appear first, while the
sins of violence and fraud appear lower down.

Gianciotto Discovers Paolo and Francesca by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres[edit]

Second Circle (Lust)
In the second circle of Hell are those overcome by lust. Dante condemns these "c
arnal malefactors"[10] for letting their appetites sway their reason. They are t
he first ones to be truly punished in Hell. These souls are blown about to and f
ro by the terrible winds of a violent storm, without hope of rest. This symboliz
es the power of lust to blow one about needlessly and aimlessly.
In this circle, Dante sees Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Achilles,
Paris, Tristan, and many others who were overcome by sensual love during their l
ife. Dante is told by Francesca da Rimini how she and her husband's brother Paol
o Malatesta committed adultery, but then died a violent death, in the name of Lo
ve, at the hands of her husband, Giovanni (Gianciotto). Francesca reports that t
heir act of adultery was triggered by reading the adulterous story of Lancelot a
nd Guinevere (an episode sculpted by Auguste Rodin in The Kiss). Nevertheless, s
he predicts that her husband will be punished for his fratricide in Caina, withi
n the ninth circle (Canto V).

The third circle, illustrated by StradanusThe English poet John Keats, in his so
nnet "On a Dream," imagines what Dante does not give us, the point of view of Pa
olo:
"... But to that second circle of sad hell,
Where mid the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw
Of rain and hail-stones, lovers need not tell
Their sorrows. Pale were the sweet lips I saw,
Pale were the lips I kiss d, and fair the form
I floated with, about that melancholy storm."[11]
[edit] Third Circle (Gluttony)
Cerberus guards the gluttons, forced to lie in a vile slush produced by ceaseles
s foul, icy rain (Virgil obtains safe passage past the monster by filling its th
ree mouths with mud). In her notes on this circle, Dorothy L. Sayers writes that
"the surrender to sin which began with mutual indulgence leads by an impercepti
ble degradation to solitary self-indulgence."[12] The gluttons lie here sightles
s and heedless of their neighbours, symbolising the cold, selfish, and empty sen
suality of their lives.[12] Just as lust has revealed its true nature in the win
ds of the previous circle, here the slush reveals the true nature of sensuality
which includes not only overindulgence in food and drink, but also other kinds o
f addiction.[13]
In this circle, Dante converses with a Florentine contemporary identified as Cia
cco, which means "hog."[14] A character with the same nickname later appears in
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio.[15] Ciacco speaks to Dante regarding strife
in Florence between the "White" and "Black" Guelphs. In one of a number of prop
hecies in the poem, Ciacco "predicts" the expulsion of the White party, to which
Dante belonged, and which led to Dante's own exile. This event occurred in 1302
, after the date in which the poem is set, but before the poem was written[14] (
Canto VI).

In Gustave Doré's illustrations for the fourth circle, the weights are huge money
bags[edit] Fourth Circle (Avarice and Prodigality)
Those whose attitude toward material goods deviated from the appropriate mean ar
e punished in the fourth circle. They include the avaricious or miserly (includi
ng many "clergymen, and popes and cardinals"[16]), who hoarded possessions, and
the prodigal, who squandered them. The two groups are guarded by Plutus, the Gre
ek god of wealth (who uses the cryptic phrase Papé Satàn, papé Satàn aleppe). The two gr
oups joust, using as weapons great weights which they push with their chests:
" I saw multitudes
to every side of me; their howls were loud
while, wheeling weights, they used their chests to push.
They struck against each other; at that point,
each turned around and, wheeling back those weights,
cried out: Why do you hoard? Why do you squander?' "[17]
The contrast between these two groups leads Virgil to discourse on the nature of
Fortune, who raises nations to greatness, and later plunges them into poverty,
as she shifts "those empty goods from nation unto nation, clan to clan."[18] Thi
s speech fills what would otherwise be a gap in the poem, since both groups are
so absorbed in their activity that Virgil tells Dante that it would be pointless
to try to speak to them indeed, they have lost their individuality, and been re
ndered "unrecognizable"[19] (Canto VII).

The fifth circle, illustrated by Stradanus[edit] Fifth Circle (Wrath and Sullenn
ess)
In the swamp-like water of the river Styx, the wrathful fight each other on the
surface, and the sullen lie gurgling beneath the water, withdrawn "into a black
sulkiness which can find no joy in God or man or the universe."[20] Phlegyas rel
uctantly transports Dante and Virgil across the Styx in his skiff. On the way th
ey are accosted by Filippo Argenti, a Black Guelph from a prominent family. When
Dante responds "In weeping and in grieving, accursed spirit, may you long remai
n,"[21] Virgil blesses him. Literally, this reflects the fact that souls in Hell
are eternally fixed in the state they have chosen, but allegorically, it reflec
ts Dante's beginning awareness of his own sin[22] (Cantos VII and VIII).
The lower parts of Hell are contained within the walls of the city of Dis, which
is itself surrounded by the Stygian marsh. Punished within Dis are active (rath
er than passive) sins. The walls of Dis are guarded by fallen angels. Virgil is
unable to convince them to let Dante and him enter, and the Furies and Medusa th
reaten Dante. An angel sent from Heaven secures entry for the poets, opening the
gate by touching it with a wand, and rebuking those who opposed Dante. Allegori
cally, this reveals the fact that the poem is beginning to deal with sins that p
hilosophy and humanism cannot fully understand[22] (Cantos VIII and IX).
[edit] Sixth Circle (Heresy)
In the sixth circle, Heretics, such as Epicurians (who "say the soul dies with t
he body"[23]) are trapped in flaming tombs. Dante holds discourse with a pair of
Epicurian Florentines in one of the tombs: Farinata degli Uberti, a Ghibelline
(posthumously condemned for heresy in 1283); and Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, a Gu
elph, who was the father of Dante's friend and fellow poet Guido Cavalcanti. The
political affiliation of these two men allows for a further discussion of Flore
ntine politics (Canto X).
In response to a question from Dante about the "prophecy" he has received, Farin
ata explains that what the souls in Hell know of life on earth comes from seeing
the future, not from any observation of the present. Consequently, when "the po
rtal of the future has been shut,"[24] it will no longer be possible for them to
know anything.

Lower Hell, inside the walls of Dis, in an illustration by Stradanus. There is a

drop from the sixth circle to the three rings of the seventh circle, then again
to the ten rings of the eighth circle, and, at the bottom, to the icy ninth cir
cle.Pausing for a moment before the steep descent to the foul-smelling seventh c
ircle, Virgil explains the geography and rationale of Lower Hell, in which viole
nt and malicious sins are punished. In this explanation, he refers to the Nicoma
chean Ethics and the Physics of Aristotle (Canto XI). In particular, he asserts
that there are only two legitimate sources of wealth: natural resources ("nature
") and human activity ("art"). Usury, to be punished in the next circle, is ther
efore an offence against both:[25]
"From these two, art and nature, it is fitting,
if you recall how Genesis begins,
for men to make their way, to gain their living;
and since the usurer prefers another
pathway, he scorns both nature in herself
and art her follower; his hope is elsewhere."[26]
[edit] Seventh Circle (Violence)
The seventh circle houses the violent. Its entry is guarded by the Minotaur, and
it is divided into three rings:
Outer ring: This ring houses the violent against people and property, who are im
mersed in Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood and fire, to a level commensurate
with their sins: Alexander the Great is immersed up to his eyebrows. The Centau
rs, commanded by Chiron, patrol the ring, firing arrows into those trying to esc
ape. The centaur Nessus guides the poets along Phlegethon and across a ford in t
he river (Canto XII). This passage may have been influenced by the early medieva
l Visio Karoli Grossi.[27]
The Gianfigliazzi family was identified by a heraldic device of a lion (blue on
yellow background).Middle ring: In this ring are the suicides (the violent again
st self), who are transformed into gnarled thorny bushes and trees, which are fe
d on by the Harpies. Unique among the dead, the suicides will not be bodily resu
rrected after the final judgement, having given their bodies away through suicid
e. Instead they will maintain their bushy form, with their own corpses hanging f
rom the limbs. Dante breaks a twig off one of the bushes and from the broken, bl
eeding, branch hears the tale of Pier delle Vigne, who committed suicide after f
alling out of favour with Emperor Frederick II (his presence here, rather than i
n the ninth circle, indicates that Dante believes that the accusations made agai
nst him were false[28]). The trees are a metaphor for the state of mind in which
suicide is committed.[29] The other residents of this ring are the profligates,
who destroyed their lives by destroying the means by which life is sustained (i
.e. money and property). They are perpetually chased by ferocious dogs through t
he thorny undergrowth (Canto XIII).
Inner ring: Here the violent against God (blasphemers) and the violent against n
ature (sodomites and, as explained in the sixth circle, usurers) all reside in a
desert of flaming sand with fiery flakes raining from the sky. The blasphemers
lie on the sand, the usurers sit, and the sodomites wander about in groups. Dant
e converses with two Florentine sodomites from different groups. One of them is
Dante's mentor, Brunetto Latini. Dante is very surprised and touched by this enc
ounter and shows Brunetto great respect for what he has taught him ("you taught
me how man makes himself eternal; / and while I live, my gratitude for that / mu
st always be apparent in my words"[30]), thus refuting suggestions that Dante on
ly placed his enemies in Hell.[31] The other sodomite is Iacopo Rusticucci, a po
litician, who blames his wife for his fate. Those punished here for usury includ
e the Florentines Catello di Rosso Gianfigliazzi, Ciappo Ubriachi, and Giovanni
di Buiamonte; and the Paduans Reginaldo degli Scrovegni and Vitaliano di Iacopo
Vitaliani. They are identified not primarily by name, but by heraldic devices em
blazoned on the purses around their necks purses which "their eyes seemed to fea
st upon"[32] (Cantos XIV through XVII).
[edit] Eighth Circle (Fraud)
The last two circles of Hell punish sins that involve conscious fraud or treache
ry. These circles can be reached only by descending a vast cliff, which Dante an
d Virgil do on the back of Geryon, a winged monster traditionally represented as
having three heads or three conjoined bodies,[33] but described by Dante as hav
ing three mixed natures: human, bestial, and reptile.[33] Geryon is an image of
fraud, with his face appearing to be that of an honest man, and his body beautif
ully coloured, but with a poisonous sting in his tail[34] (Canto XVII).

Jason and Medea, by John William Waterhouse (1907).

Dante's guide rebuffs Malacoda and his fiends between Bolgie 5 and 6, Canto 21.
Dante climbs the flinty steps in Bolgia 7, Canto 26.
Dante sees the Trojan Horse as an evil trick, punished in Bolgie 8 and 10 (The F
all of Troy, by Johann Georg Trautmann).The fraudulent those guilty of deliberate,
knowing evil are located in a circle named Malebolge ("Evil Pockets"), divided in
to ten Bolgie, or ditches of stone, with bridges spanning the ditches:
Bolgia 1: Panderers (pimps) and seducers march in separate lines in opposite dir
ections, whipped by demons (Dante makes reference here to a recent traffic rule
developed for the Jubilee year of 1300 in Rome: keep to the right[35]). Just as
the panderers and seducers used the passions of others to drive them to do their
bidding, they are themselves driven by demons to march for all eternity.[35] In
the group of panderers, the poets notice Venedico Caccianemico, who sold his ow
n sister to the Marchese d'Este. In the group of seducers, Virgil points out Jas
on, who gained the help of Medea by seducing and marrying her, only to later des
ert her for Creusa.[35] Jason also seduced Hypsipyle, but "abandoned her, alone
and pregnant"[36] (Canto XVIII).
Bolgia 2: Flatterers also exploited other people, this time using language. They
are steeped in human excrement, which represents the words they produced.[35] (
Canto XVIII).
Bolgia 3: Dante now forcefully expresses[37] his condemnation of those who commi
tted simony. These are placed head-first in holes in the rock (resembling baptis
mal fonts), with flames burning on the soles of their feet. One of the simoniacs
, Pope Nicholas III, denounces two of his successors, Pope Boniface VIII and Pop
e Clement V, for the same offence. The simile of baptismal fonts gives Dante an
incidental opportunity to clear his name of an accusation of malicious damage to
the font in the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini[38] (Canto XIX).
Bolgia 4: Sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets here have their heads twist
ed around on their bodies backward, so that they "found it necessary to walk bac
kward, / because they could not see ahead of them."[39] While referring primaril
y to attempts to see into the future by forbidden means, this also symbolises th
e twisted nature of magic in general.[40] In this Bolgia, Dante sees Amphiaraus,
Tiresias, Michael Scot, and Guido Bonatti, among others (Canto XX).
Bolgia 5: Corrupt politicians (barrators) are immersed in a lake of boiling pitc
h, which represents the sticky fingers and dark secrets of their corrupt deals.[
41] The barrators are the political analogue of the simoniacs, and Dante devotes
several cantos to them. They are guarded by devils called the Malebranche ("Evi
l Claws"), who provide some savage and satirical black comedy. The leader of the
Malebranche, Malacoda ("Evil Tail"), assigns a troop to escort Virgil and Dante
safely to the next bridge. The troop hook and torment one of the sinners (ident
ified by early commentators as Ciampolo), who names some Italian grafters and th
en tricks the Malebranche in order to escape back into the pitch. The promise of
safe conduct the poets have received from the demons turns out to have limited
value (and there is no "next bridge"[42]), so that the poets are forced to scram
ble down into the sixth Bolgia (Cantos XXI through XXIII).
Bolgia 6: In the sixth Bolgia, the poets find the hypocrites listlessly walking
along wearing gilded lead cloaks, which represent the falsity behind the surface
appearance of their actions falsity that weighs them down and makes spiritual p
rogress impossible for them.[42] Dante speaks with Catalano and Loderingo, two m
embers of the Jovial Friars, an order which had acquired a reputation for not li
ving up to its vows,[42] and which was eventually suppressed by Pope Sixtus V. C
aiaphas, the high priest responsible for ordering Jesus crucified, is also seen
here, crucified to the ground and trampled (Canto XXIII).
Bolgia 7: Two cantos are devoted to the thieves, who are guarded by the centaur
Cacus, who has a fire-breathing dragon on his shoulders (in Roman mythology, Cac
us was not a centaur, but a fire-breathing monster slain by Heracles). The thiev
es are pursued and bitten by snakes and lizards. The full horror of the thieves'
punishment is revealed gradually: just as they stole other people's substance i
n life, their very identity becomes subject to theft here,[43] and the snake bit
es make them undergo various transformations. Vanni Fucci is turned to ashes and
resurrected; Agnello is blended with the six-legged reptile that is Cianfa; and
Buoso exchanges shapes with the four-legged Francesco: "The soul that had becom
e an animal, / now hissing, hurried off along the valley; / the other one, behin
d him, speaks and spits."[44] (Cantos XXIV and XXV).
Bolgia 8: Two further cantos are devoted to the fraudulent advisers or evil coun
cillors, who are concealed within individual flames. These are not people who ga
ve false advice, but people who used their position to advise others to engage i
n fraud.[45] Ulysses and Diomedes are condemned here for the deception of the Tr
ojan Horse. Ulysses also tells the tale of his fatal final voyage (an invention
of Dante's), where he left his home and family to sail to the end of the Earth,
only to have his ship founder near Mount Purgatory. Guido da Montefeltro recount
s how he advised Pope Boniface VIII to capture the fortress of Palestrina, by of
fering the Colonna family inside it a false amnesty, and then razing it to the g
round after they surrendered. Guido became a Franciscan in 1296, and died two ye
ars later. Guido describes St. Francis as coming to take his soul to Heaven, onl
y to have a demon assert prior claim. Although Boniface had absolved Guido in ad
vance for his evil advice, Dante points out the invalidity of that, since absolu
tion requires contrition, and a man cannot be contrite for a sin at the same tim
e that he is intending to commit it[46] (Cantos XXVI and XXVII).
Bolgia 9: In the ninth Bolgia, a sword-wielding demon hacks at the sowers of dis
cord, dividing parts of their bodies as in life they divided others.[47] As they
make their rounds the wounds heal, only to have the demon tear apart their bodi
es again. Dante encounters Muhammad, who tells him to warn the schismatic and he
retic Fra Dolcino. Dante describes Muhammad as a schismatic,[47][48] apparently
viewing Islam as an off-shoot from Christianity, and similarly Dante seems to co
ndemn Ali for schism between Sunni and Shiite (for more on Dante's relationship
to Islam, see the relevant section of the main article). In this Bolgia, Dante a
lso encounters Bertran de Born, who carries around his severed head like a lante
rn, as a punishment for (Dante believes) fomenting the rebellion of Henry the Yo
ung King against his father Henry II (Cantos XXVIII and XXIX).
Bolgia 10: In the final Bolgia, various sorts of falsifiers (alchemists, counter
feiters, perjurers, and impersonators), who are a "disease" on society, are them
selves afflicted with different types of diseases.[49] Potiphar's wife is briefl
y mentioned here for her false accusation of Joseph, as is Sinon, the Greek spy
who tricked the Trojans into taking the Trojan Horse into their city (Sinon is h
ere, rather than in Bolgia 8, because his advice was false as well as evil). In
the notes on her translation, Sayers remarks that the descent through Malebolge
"began with the sale of the sexual relationship, and went on to the sale of Chur
ch and State; now, the very money is itself corrupted, every affirmation has bec
ome perjury, and every identity a lie;"[49] so that every aspect of social inter
action has been progressively destroyed (Cantos XXIX and XXX).
Dante speaks to the traitors in the ice, Canto 32.[edit] Ninth Circle (Treachery
)
The Ninth Circle is ringed by classical and Biblical giants, who perhaps symboli
ze the pride and other spiritual flaws lying behind acts of treachery.[50] The g
iants are standing on a ledge above the ninth circle of Hell,[51] so that from t
he Malebolge they are visible from the waist up. They include Nimrod, as well as
Ephialtes, who with his brother Otus tried to storm Olympus. The giant Antaeus
lowers Dante and Virgil into the pit that forms the ninth circle of Hell (Canto
XXXI).
The traitors are distinguished from the "merely" fraudulent in that their acts i
nvolve betraying a special relationship of some kind. There are four concentric
zones (or "rounds") of traitors, corresponding, in order of seriousness, to betr
ayal of family ties, betrayal of community ties, betrayal of guests, and betraya
l of liege lords. In contrast to the popular image of Hell as fiery, the traitor
s are frozen in a lake of ice known as Cocytus, with each group encased in ice t
o progressively greater depths.
Round 1 is named Caïna, after Cain, who killed his brother. Traitors to kindred ar
e here immersed in the ice up to their faces "the place / where shame can show i
tself"[52] Mordred, who attacked his relative King Arthur, is one of the traitor
s here: "him who, at one blow, had chest and shadow / shattered by Arthur's hand
;"[53] (Canto XXXII).
Round 2 is named Antenora, after Antenor of Troy, who according to medieval trad
ition, betrayed his city to the Greeks. Traitors to political entities, such as
party, city, or country, are located here. Count Ugolino pauses from gnawing on
the head of his rival Archbishop Ruggieri to describe how Ruggieri imprisoned hi
m along with his children, condemning them to death by starvation. A number of c
orrespondences, such as allusions to the same passage of the Aeneid, link this p
assage to the story of Paolo and Francesca in the second circle,[54] indicating
that this icy hell of betrayal is the final result of consent to sin[54] (Cantos
XXXII and XXXIII).
Round 3 is named Ptolomaea, probably after Ptolemy, son of Abubus, who invited S
imon Maccabaeus and his sons to a banquet and then killed them.[54] Traitors to
their guests are punished here, lying supine in the ice, which covers them, exce
pt for their faces. They are punished more severely than the previous traitors,
since the relationship to guests is an entirely voluntary one.[55] Fra Alberigo,
who had armed soldiers kill his brother at a banquet, explains that sometimes a
soul falls here before Atropos cuts the thread of life. Their bodies on Earth a
re immediately possessed by a demon, so what seems to be a walking man has reach
ed the stage of being incapable of repentance (Canto XXXIII).
Round 4 is named Judecca, after Judas Iscariot, Biblical betrayer of Christ. Her
e are the traitors to their lords and benefactors. All of the sinners punished w
ithin are completely encapsulated in ice, distorted in all conceivable positions
. With no one to talk to here, Dante and Virgil quickly move on to the centre of
Hell (Canto XXXIV).
Satan is trapped in the frozen central zone in the Ninth Circle of Hell, Canto 3
4.In the very centre of Hell, condemned for committing the ultimate sin (persona
l treachery against God), is Satan (Lucifer). Satan is described as a giant, ter
rifying beast with three faces, one red, one black, and one a pale yellow:
he had three faces: one in front bloodred;
and then another two that, just above
the midpoint of each shoulder, joined the first;
and at the crown, all three were reattached;
the right looked somewhat yellow, somewhat white;
the left in its appearance was like those
who come from where the Nile, descending, flows.[56]
Satan is waist deep in ice, weeping tears from his six eyes, and beating his six
wings as if trying to escape, although the icy wind that emanates only further
ensures his imprisonment (as well as that of the others in the ring). Each face
has a mouth that chews on a prominent traitor, with Brutus and Cassius feet-firs
t in the left and right mouths respectively. These men were involved in the assa
ssination of Julius Caesar an act which, to Dante, represented the destruction of
a unified Italy and the killing of the man who was divinely appointed to govern
the world.[57] In the central, most vicious mouth is Judas Iscariot the namesake o
f Judecca and the betrayer of Jesus. Judas is being administered the most horrif
ying torture of the three traitors, his head gnawed by Satan's mouth, and his ba
ck being forever skinned by Satan's claws. What is seen here is a perverted trin
ity: Satan is impotent, ignorant, and full of hate, in contrast to the all-power
ful, all-knowing, and loving nature of God.[57]
The two poets escape Hell by climbing down Satan's ragged fur, passing through t
he centre of the earth (with a consequent change in the direction of gravity), a
nd emerge in the other hemisphere (described in the Purgatorio) just before dawn
on Easter Sunday, beneath a sky studded with stars (Canto XXXIV).