Divine Comedy-I: Inferno Video

Inferno is the first of three installments in Dante Alighieri's 1321 epic poem, The Divine Comedy, and is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. Written in a politically unstable moment in Renaissance Florence, the poem follows a fictionalized Dante as he moves through the nine circles of hell, guided by the ghost of ancient Roman poet, Virgil.

“Midway upon the journey of our life / I found myself within a forest dark.” This is how Dante’s Inferno opens: with Dante himself, lost in a dark wood, unsure of the way out. Soon, Dante sees a sunlit hill and tries to climb it, but three wild beasts frighten him back. Fortunately, the spirit of Virgil appears, with news that he has been sent by Dante’s former beloved, the late Beatrice, to lead him to salvation. But Virgil warns that they must go through Hell to escape.

First, Dante and Virgil traverse the Ante-Inferno, or the space outside of Hell, where spirits who were neither good nor bad are left to bemoan their fate: neither Heaven nor Hell will accept them. Before long, Dante and Virgil reach the Acheron, an infernal river where the boatman Charon ferries damned souls into Hell. A sudden earthquake leaves Dante unconscious, and when he awakes, he finds himself in the first circle of Hell: Limbo.

In Limbo, Dante finds virtuous non-Christians, including those who were born before the advent of Christianity or never baptized. This comprises ancient Greek and Roman heroes, philosophers, and poets, including Virgil himself. Virgil introduces Dante to Homer, Horace, and Ovid, who accept Dante as an equal. Although they technically exist in Hell, the spirits in Limbo are not tormented: they live in green meadows, yet in a persistent state of sadness.

Next, Dante and Virgil advance to the second circle, where the demon Minos judges sinners who were consumed by lust. A violent, interminable wind blows these spirits about, representing their inability to control themselves while living. Here, Dante sees Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, and Francesca da' Rimini, who fell unhappily in love with her husband's younger brother. Dante feels so sorry for these spirits that he faints.

When Dante comes to, he finds himself and Virgil in the third circle of Hell, where gluttons are punished. This circle is guarded by Cerberus, a doglike demon with three heads. Once Virgil pacifies the creature, he and Dante see gluttons tormented by a heavy, cold rain of excrement and filth.

In the fourth circle, Dante and Virgil encounter the demon Plutus, who oversees the punishment of the greedy. These souls are forced to roll weights around a circle until they crash into each other and turn around. Next, Dante and Virgil arrive at the fifth circle: in the river Styx, the wrathful fight each other, and the sullen perpetually drown in mud. The boatman, Phleygas, ferries Dante and Virgil across the river, where Dante notices his enemy, Filippo Argenti.

Soon, their boat arrives at the walls of the city of Dis, but the fallen angels block Dante from entering on the grounds that he is a living soul. Fortunately, a messenger from heaven comes to Dante and Virgil’s aid, opening the gates to the sixth circle, where heretics are imprisoned in flaming tombs. Dante and Virgil then come to a stinking valley, where Virgil explains to Dante that, in the proceeding circles, they will see how the most serious sins—including violence, fraud, and betrayal—are punished.

Reaching the seventh circle, Dante and Virgil find three rings. In the first ring, they meet the Minotaur, who shoots murderers and tyrants with arrows as they try to escape from the Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood. In the second ring, they find a black forest full of twisted trees that bleed—suicides. Dante notices two souls being chased through the woods by black hounds: those who squandered their possessions. And in the third ring, Dante finds blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers, who sit beneath a rain of fire.

Next, Virgil calls on the monster Geryon, who takes Dante and Virgil to the eighth circle, which is divided into ten different enclosures for different types of fraudsters. Here, Dante sees all kinds of sinners, including seducers, like Jason of Greek mythological fame, being whipped by demons; flatterers mired in a stew of human excrement; corrupt popes; magicians who are punished by having their heads put on backwards; and hypocrites made to wear heavy, lead robes.

Finally, as Dante and Virgil reach the ninth circle, they are frightened by a loud bugle blast: what Dante interprets as a towering city turns out to be giants, including Nimrod, who helped to build the Tower of Babel, bringing division to the world. As Dante proceeds deeper into the circle, he sees that it is a frozen lake where traitors are punished. This includes traitors against their kin, like two brothers who murdered each other, along with assassins, cannibals, and treasoners.

Finally, at the bottom of Hell, Dante sees Lucifer, an enormous demon who chews on the most famous traitors of all time in his three mouths: Judas, who betrayed Christ, and Brutus and Cassius, who betrayed Julius Caesar. Terrified, Dante and Virgil climb atop Lucifer, proceeding all the way through the center of the earth and emerging on its surface, in the southern hemisphere.