Dantes Inferno

The Divine Comedy is a long form poem that tells the story of Dante’s a journey through Hell, purgatory and Heaven. Its structure is significantly different from anything that had been written before it, like the Iliad or the Odyssey. Dante’s cosmology is highly ordered, it is divided into 9 main circles that correspond with the punishments for each sinner who is in that particular level. As Dante descends through hell, he comes upon sinners whose sins become increasingly hateful, spiteful, offensive, murderous, and traitorous. He ends with Satan, eating the three greatest traitors in the world, each in one of his three mouths, at the center of the Earth. In the first circle called “limbo,” it contains those who did not accept Christ, but are …show more content…
To continue, the second level of hell is known as “Lust.” In this circle they are the first to truly be punished in Hell. Their souls are blown around by the winds of a violent storm, without hope of rest. All the levels of hell are subjective, but love can be compared to a “whirl-wind” of feelings, and not being able to stay in one place is a constant reminder of their actions before their death. The third level of hell is “gluttony.” This level contains Cerberus who guards the gluttons, who are forced to lie in a vile slush. The sinners lie there without their senses of sight or hearing. This symbolizes the sinners inability to have a sense of others in their lives. Just as lust has revealed its true nature in the winds of the previous circle. The slush in the third circle show the true nature of sensuality. This includes not only overindulgence in food and drink, but also other kinds of overindulgence. Those whose attitude toward material goods deviated from the appropriate mean are punished in the fourth circle known as “Avarice.” The two groups are guarded by a demon named Pluto, these two groups use great weights that they roll over