Inferno

( The ), in thirty-four cantos, by Dantê [Alighieri] (1300). While wandering through a wood ( this life ), the poet comes to a mountain ( fame ), and begins to climb it, but first a panther ( pleasure ), then a lion ( ambition ), and then a she-wolf ( avarice ), stand in his path to slay him. The appearance of Virgil ( human wisdom ), however, encourages him (canto i.), and the Mantuan tells him he is sent by three ladies [Be at rice ( faith ), Lucia ( grace ), and Mercy] to conduct him through the realms of hell (canto ii.). On they proceed together till they come to a portal bearing this inscription: ALL HOPE ABANDON YE WHO ENTER HERE ; they pa through, and come to that neutral realm where dwell the spirits of those not good enough for heaven nor bad enough for hell, “the praisele and the blamele dead.” Pa ing through this border-land, they command old Charon to ferry them acro the Achĕron to Limbo (canto iii.), and here they behold the ghosts of the unbaptized, “blamele of sin,” but not members of the Christian Church. Homer is here, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan, who enroll Dantê “sixth of the sacred band.” On leaving Limbo, our adventurer follows his guide through the seven gates which lead to the inferno, an enormous funnel-shaped pit, divided into stages. The outer, or first “circle,” is a vast meadow, in which roam Electra (mother of Dardănus, the founder of Troy), Hector, Æne´as, and Julius Cæsar; Camilla and Pen the sile´a; Latīnus and Junius Brutus; Lucretia, Marcia (Cato’s wife), Julia (Pompey’s wife), and Cornel i a; and here “a part retired,” they see Salad in, the rival of Richard the Lion-heart. Linos is here and Orpheus; Aristotle, Socratês, and Plato; Democrĭtos, who ascribed creation to blind chance, Diogĕnês, the cynic, Heraclītos, Emped´oclês, Anaxag´or as, Thalĕs, Dioscor´idês, and Zeno; Cicero and Senĕca, Euclid and Ptolemy, Hippocrătês and Galen, Avĭcen, and Averroês, the Arabian translator and commentator of Aristotle (canto iv.). From the first stage they descend to the second, where Minos sits in judgment on the ghosts brought before him. He indicates what circle a ghost is to occupy by twisting his tail round his body: two twists signify that the ghost is to be banished to the second circle; three twists that it is to be consigned to the third circle, and so on. Here, says the poet, “light was silent all,” but shrieks and groans and blasphemies were terrible to hear. This circle is the hell of carnal and sinful love, where Dante recognizes Semirămis, Dido, Cleopatra, and Helen; Achillês and Paris; Tristan, the lover of his uncle’s wife, Isoldê; Lance lot, the lover of Queen Gui never; and Francesca, the lover of Paolo, her brother-in-law (canto v.). The third circle is a place of deeper woe. Here fall in ceasele showers, hail, black rain, and sleety flaw; the air is cold and dun; and a foul stench arises from the soil. Cerbĕrus keeps watch here, and this part of the inferno is set apart for gluttons, like Ciacco (2 syl. ). From this stage the two poets pa on to the “fourth steep ledge,” presided over by Plutus (canto vi.), a realm which “hems in all the woe of all the universe.” Here are gathered the souls of the avaricious, who wasted their talents, and made no right use of their wealth. Cro ing this region, they come to the “fifth steep,” and see the Stygian Lake of inky hue. This circle is a huge bog in which “the miry tribe” flounder, and “gulp the muddy lees.” It is the abode of those who put no restraint upon their anger (canto vii.). Next comes the city of Dis, where the souls of heretics are “interred in vaults” (cantos viii., ix.). Here Dantê recognizes Farina´ta (a leader of the Ghibelline faction), and is informed that the Emperor Frederick II. and Cardinal Ubaldini are amongst the number (canto x.). The city of Dis contains the next three circles (canto xi.), through which Ne us conducts them; and here they see the Minotaur and the Centaurs, as Chiron, who nursed Achillês and Pholus the pa ionate. The first circle of Dis (the sixth) is for those who by force or fraud have done violence to man , as Alexander the Great, Dionysius of Syracuse, Attila, Sextus, and Pyrrhus (canto xii.). The next (the seventh circle) is for those who have done violence to themselves , as suicides; here are the Harpies, and here the souls are transformed to trees (canto xiii.). The eighth circle is for the souls of those who have done violence to God , as blasphemers and heretics; it is a hell of burning, where it snows flakes of fire. Here is Cap´ane us (3 syl. ) (canto xiv.), and here Dantê held converse with Brunet to, his old schoolmaster (canto xv.). Having reached the confines of the realm of Dis, Ger´yon carries Dantê into the region of Malêbolgê (4 syl. ), a horrible hell, containing ten pits or chasms (canto xvii.): In the first is Jason; the second is for harlots (canto xviii.); in the third is Simon Magus, “who prostituted the things of God for gold;” in the fourth, Pope Nicholas III. (canto xix.); in the fifth the ghosts had their heads “reversed at the neckbone,” and here are Amphiarāos, Tirēsias, who was first a woman and then a man, Michael Scott, the magician, with all witches and diviners (canto xx.); in the sixth, Caïaphas and Annas, his father-in-law (canto xxiii.); in the seventh, robbers of churches, as Vanni Fucci, who robbed the sacristy of St James’ in Pistoia, and charged Venni dell a Nona with the crime, for which she suffered death (canto xxiv.); in the eighth, Uly ês and Diomed, who were punished for the stratagem of the Wooden Horse (cantos xxvi., xxvii.); in the ninth, Mahomet and Ali, “horribly mangled” (canto xxviii.); in the tenth, alchemists (canto xxix.), coiners and forgers, Potiphar’s wife, Sinon the Greek, who deluded the Trojans (canto xxx.), Nimrod, Ephialtés, and Antæus, with other giants (canto xxx i.). Antæus carries the two visitors into the nethermost gulf, where Judas and Lucifer are confined. It is a region of thick-ribbed ice, and here they see the frozen river of Cocy´tus (canto xxxii.). The last persons the poet sees are Brutus and Ca ius, the murderers of Julius Cæsar (canto xxxiv.). Dantê and his conductor, Virgil, then make their exit on the “southern hemisphere,” where once was Eden, and where the “moon rises when here evening sets.” This is done that the poet may visit Purgatory, which is situated in mid-ocean, somewhere near the antipodes of Judea. ⁂ Canto xvi. opens with a description of Fraud, canto xxxiii. contains the tale of Ugoli´no, and canto xxxiv. the description of Lucifer.