THE INFERNO: GUIDE TO THE 9 CIRCLES OF HELL

I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOEI AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROWSCARED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECTI WAS RAISED HERE BYDIVINE OMNIPOTENCE PRIMODRIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECTONLY THOSE ELEMENTS TIME CANNOT WEARWERE MADE BEFORE MEAND BEYOND TIME I STILL STANDABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE

THE VESTIBULE – THE OPPORTUNISTS

• Not actually in hell – they don’t have a place in hell because they never actually chose God they only did things to further themselves

• Neither good nor evil – only for themselves

• PUNISHMENT: Chasing a banner, running on maggots and worms, and chased ceaselessly by swarms of wasps and hornets that are continuously stinging them

SINS OF INCONTINENCE

CIRCLE ONE - LIMBO (LACK OF FAITH)

• Souls not in torment – “virtuous pagans” and the unbaptized

• This is where Virgil has been placed – he lived before the age of Christianity

• Aristotle, Socrates, Plato

• Human reason alone (without lead by God) isn’t enough to enter into Heaven

CIRCLE 2: THE LUSTFUL (SEXUAL IMMORALITY)

• In life swept away by their passions

• PUNISHMENT: Caught in tempest (whirlwind) for all eternity – no hope, no release, no less pain

• Cleopatra

• Helen of Troy

• Francesca and Paolo

• Minos decides your punishment – each ring his tail makes = what level of hell you are in

CIRCLE 3: THE GLUTTONOUS

• In life: given to excess of consumption, did nothing with gifts of God produced nothing but garbage

• Punishment: in a dump of garbage and human filth, naked, with freezing rain and slush pouring down on them

• Cerberus (3 headed dog) stands guard and slobbers over them

CIRCLE 4: AVARICE AND PRODIGALITY

• Definitions:

• Avarice: Greedy

• Prodigality: Wasteful

• Punishment:

• Push and strain at great weights (boulders) clashing them against each other again and again for all time

• In life – they didn’t do anything of value (fruitless) or productful

CIRCLE 5: THE WRATHFUL

• Definition:

• Wrath – strong or vengeful anger

• Sullen - Bad-tempered and sulky; gloomy

• Punishment:

• Wrathful: trapped in the filthy slime of the Styx constantly fighting each other

• Sullen – partially drowning in the Styx, gurgling

CIRCLE 6: THE HERETICS (HERESY AND UNBELIEF)

• In life: The people who did not follow the church's doctrine or goes against God; thought that the soul would die with the body; the denial of God – based on intellectual pride!

• Atheists and Fallen Angels

• Punishment: lie in tombs made of iron and blazing hot from the flames in and around them, the lids are next to them and they will be sealed shut with Christ comes again (during the Days of Judgment), the suffering is audible

SINS OF MALICE

CIRCLE 7: VIOLENCE

• This circle is split into three different rings:

• Violence against others

• Violence against self

• Violence against God

CIRCLE 7.1: VIOLENT AGAINST NEIGHBORS (OTHERS)

• In life: the ones who made battle and war on countries and people around them

• Evil tyrants (i.e. Hitler would be here, Napoleon, etc.)

• Punishment:

1. Smothered underneath the boiling – hot River of Blood – their violence caused bloodshed of their neighbors so they’ll wallow in blood themselves – forever

2. Centaurs stab them with spears and shoot them with arrows when they try to rise from the river – because their violence was on others in life, violence is forever on them

CIRCLE 7.2: VIOLENT AGAINST SELF

• Wood of suicides

• Since they destroyed their own bodies denied any resemblance of a body in Hell (thorny trees)

• Punishment:

1. Their leaves are painfully eaten by the Harpies

2. When their leaves or branches are plucked they bleed only moments when they can speak is in groans of torments

3. Their wounds heal which mean they can happen again and again & the Harpies can eat them eternally.

CIRCLE 7.3: VIOLENT AGAINST GOD

• Blasphemers, Violent against Nature, Usury

• On the Burning Sands

• Punishment:

• 1. Violent against God (Blasphemers)

• Violent to God so they will feel Gods wrath

• Suffer a slow rain of fire from above.

• 2. Violent against Nature (ex. Homosexuals)

• Continually run in circles on burning sand

• 3. Usury (Money lenders with really high interest EX: Mafia)

• Huddled or crouched on the fiery ground

CIRCLE 8: THE FRAUDULENT

• This is shaped like an arena with 10 different bolgias (ditches)

• General confidence between people are destroyed

1. Panderers & Seducers 2. Flatterers3. Simoniacs4. Fortune Tellers 5. Grafters6. Hypocrites

7. Thieves8. Evil Counselors9. Sowers of Discord10.Falsifiers

8.1: PANDERERS AND SEDUCERS

• Panderers: pimps

• This bolgia has pimps and lying seducers

• Drove others to serve their own evil wills and now they are driven by evil

• Punishment: endlessly driven like cattle by horned demons and their whips

8.2: FLATTERERS

• Sewer of hell

• Ex: Politicians

• Punishment:

• Immersed in human excrement…

• The stench and filth of their crime

8.3: SIMONY

• Definition:

• Simony = church offense

• Guilty of selling the church for personal gain

• Taking money for “forgiving” sins OR selling relics

• Punishment:

• Placed upside down in a baptismal fount (a hole in the ground) with their feet on fire

• The more guilty they are – the hotter the flames

8.4: DIVINATION/SORCERY

• Astrologists, seers, sorcerers and others who attempted to pervert God’s laws to divine the future are punished here.

• Tiresias is placed here

• Punishment: They must forever walk while their heads have been twisted around to face backwards and are forced to walk around the circumference of their circle forever.

8.5: BARRATERS/GRAFTERS

• Barrater: selling offices of the state

• Extortionists, blackmailers, and unscrupulous businessmen corrupt men and women

• In life: They used their positions in life to gain personal wealth or other advantages for themselves

• Punishment: Placed in a river of boiling tar (which is very hot and sticky) and whenever their head pops up demons with grappling hooks and pitchforks grab and poke at them.

8.6: HYPOCRITES

• Hypocrisy: feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not – “Do as I say, not as I do” mentality

• Punishment: They are forced to wear heavy lead robes as they walk around the circumference of their circle. The robes are golden and resemble a monk’s cowl but are lined with heavy lead, symbolically representing hypocrisy. (They pretended to be something that they were not in life, so in death they must appear one way while reality is another).

• Caiaphas the head Pharisee is here (he’s crucified to the ground while everyone else in this circle march across him).

8.7: THIEVES

• Punishment: This bolgia is filled with serpents, dragons, and other vengeful reptiles that torture the thieves endlessly. The bites of some of the snakes cause the theives to spontaneously combust, only to regenerate their bodies for further torment in a few moments.

8.8: DECEIVERS (EVIL COUNSEL & SLANDER)

• In life: These sinners gave false or corrupted advice to others for personal benefit are punished

• Punishment: They are constantly ablaze, appearing as nothing so much as living, speaking tongues of flame.

8.9: SOWERS OF DISCORD

• In life: Promoted scandals, schism (a split or divide), and discord Particularly those who cause schism within the church, politics, or families.

• Punishment: Forced to walk around the circumference of the circle bearing horrible, disfiguring wounds inflicted on them by a demon with a sword.

• Nature of wound mirrors the sins of the particular soul. For example: some only have gashes, or fingers and toes cut off, while others are decapitated, and some are cut in half (as schismatics), or are completely disemboweled.

• Muhammad (the Muslim prophet) is tortured in this bolgia.

8.10: FALSIFIERS

• Those who attempted to alter things through lies or alchemy (transformation of matter especially metal into gold) or those who tried to pass off false things as real things such as counterfeiters of coins.

• This bolgia has four subdivisions where specific classes of falsifiers are punished (alchemists, impostors, counterfeiters, and liars)

• Punishment: Endure different degrees of punishment based on horrible, consumptive diseases such as rashes, dropsy, leprosy, and consumption.

CIRCLE 9: TREACHEROUS

• Betrayal or deception Murderers

• Icy Cold (furthest from light and love of God)

• Guarded by giants

• Frozen lake – Cocytus

1. Betrayal of Family

2. Betrayal of Country

3. Betrayal of Guests

4. Betrayal of Lords and Benefactors

9.1: BETRAYAL OF FAMILY

• This circle is Cainia – named for Cain

• Paolo’s brother is here

• Punishment:

• Buried in ice up to necks BUT they can move their necks and bow their heads

9.2: BETRAYAL OF COUNTRY OR CAUSE

• For Example: Benedict Arnold would be here

• Punishment: Buried in ice up necks BUT unable to bend their necks

9.3: BETRAYAL OF GUESTS • These are those who killed people who were guests in their homes – their friends for

example. Or a serial killer that invites people into their home.

• Punishment: Buried in ice and only half of their heads show. They cry tears of sorrow but their tears seal their eyes shut so they are denied even the comfort of tears.

9.4: BETRAYAL OF LORDS AND BENEFACTORS

• This is where Satan is!

• Satan has 3 heads and in each of his heads he chews on a sinner

• Frozen from the waist down – flaps his wings trying to escape

• Satan thought he was better than God

• Judas thought he was better than Jesus

• Brutus and Cassius thought they were better than Ceaser.

• Punishment:

1. Satan is frozen from the waist down, unable to ever escape

2. Judas, Brutus, and Cassius are being chomped individually by one of each of Satan’s heads.