Divine Comedy-I: Inferno

Cantos 6

Why were the sinners in the third circle?

Asked by
Last updated by jill d #170087
Answers 1
Add Yours

When Dante awoke to find himself in the smaller third circle, he was surrounded by new suffering. The circle was filled with cold, heavy, dirty rain and the souls there lay unhappily in the stinking mud. They were also tormented by the three-headed doglike demon Cerberus. Virgil tamed Cerberus by throwing some mud into his mouths, allowing Dante to speak to one soul in particular who sat up out of the filth. The spirit said that he had died after Dante's birth, but Dante did not recognize him. He then said that he had been a Florentine named Ciacco, and that he had been damned for gluttony, like the other inhabitants of the third circle.