A very good morning to you all. I hope that you have had a fantastic week. I have been wondering how I am going to present part 2 of my 'Discovering Dante: A Journey through the Inferno', article for you without giving you a headache. I am happy to say that, I believe that I have found the perfect way. We are going to go through each of the circles in abridged format.
When I began writing this article , I thought (naïvely) that I could just take you on a journey through each circle and highlight some key points, interesting facts and share some insight into my thoughts behind the work. However, this proved trickier than expected as every time I edited or re-visited the work I spotted something new and interesting that I thought would be note worthy. So in the end what i have decided to do is give you a little bit of everything in one for each circle and a conclusion. There will be a little something at the end of this post to keep an eye on that you may be interested in. So keep those eyes peeled.
Without further ado, Let's dive into part 2.
The Inferno: Circle 1 – Limbo
The first circle of hell in the inferno is Limbo. This is a place for the unbaptised babies, the righteous pagans and all those who lived before the first coming of Jesus Christ. This circle is not actually one where these individuals are actively punished, however the souls that find themselves lingering here find themselves in a state of perpetual longing without hope of seeing or knowing God. It is often described as a grey, sorrowful place that although not punished you wouldn’t want to find yourself stuck in this circle. Notable figures who may have found themselves trapped in the circle of limbo include the ancient poets and philosophers Dante admired like Homer, Plato, Aristotle. As well as figures like Hippocrates, why even Virgil himself had he not been guiding Dante on his journey. What strikes me as interesting about this concept is that for most of us when we envisage hell, we think of endless pain and torment in lakes of fire with demonic figures eternally needling us, (that does come later on) however, imagine eternal separation from the one who loves you the most through no fault other than being born in the ancient world. Not all punishments need to be loud and aggressive to cause suffering. Something Dante, knew all too well.
The Inferno: Circle 2 – Lust
The second circle, that Dante and Virgil arrive at is that where those who were ruled by the sin of lust in life were sent as punishment for their inability to exercise control over their base instincts and lustful nature. The punishments faced in this circle of the inferno were punishments that forced the sinful to face their uncontrolled nature and experience its folly repeatedly for all eternity. This was achieved by the damned souls being battered by violent ceaseless storms which represented their uncontrolled passions in life. You see it is not just the carnal who were sent here, lust comes in many forms indicated by Dante with who he discovered trapped within this particular circle. Prominent figures of history and mythology include Achilles, Cleopatra, Dido, Helen of Troy and Paris. Now the later mentioned in that list were all driven by the carnal however, Achilles always struck me a the odd one out in this illustrious ill-fated line up. There are plenty of other circles that Achilles could have been slotted into, but lust always struck me as a strange choice. This then led me to do a little further research, after which I believe I understand why Dante chose to place him in this circle in the inferno, Achilles greatest passion in life was to be remembered, His name to live on some might argue pride, arrogance but Achilles believed in destiny and that drove him beyond all reason and ultimately controlled his every waking moment. That sounds like the very definition of lustful to me. The second circle is actually a comparatively short passage compared to other circles in the Inferno and therefore one that is usually hurried through. But the warning is clear. Beware the stormy seas of lust or face wrack and ruin on the rocks of despair for eternity.
The Inferno: Circle 3: Part 1 - The entrance to Infernal Judgement.
Dante and Virgil after leaving the second circle arrive at the entrance to the third and are greeted by the grotesque reclining figure of King Minos. Now in life King Minos was the ruler of Crete and famously built a labyrinth to house the minotaur a beast with the body of a giant man and the head of a bull. After his death in the ancient Greek world, it is said that he became the judge of the damned in hades (the ancient Greek land of the dead). It is said that his judgements are final and he by wrapping his tail around himself indicates which circle the doomed soul will spend all eternity in. I have always pictured this part of Dante’s epic as the truth beginning or the gates of the inferno, where punishment for sins in life is dealt more severely.
The Inferno: Circle 3 – Part 2: Gluttony
After Dante and Virgil pass through the kingdom of Minos the infernal judge, they find themselves in the third circle of the inferno reserved for the gluttonous and their eternal punishment.
In the third circle gluttons forced to wallow in the muck of their own excessive consumption a cold icy mush that they eternally wallow in whilst cold rain beats down on them incessantly. As if that is not bad enough, they are also tormented by the great three headed dog Cerberus who was famed as the guardian to the gates of hades in ancient Greek myth maybe he is acting in a similar capacity here with the one key change in his role instead of trying to keep souls out, he is in fact their jailor.
It is in this circle that we encounter someone known to Dante in his personal life for his formative years in Florence. He and Ciacco have a rather lengthy discussion about the filth and corruption in the politics of their fair city. I can only imagine what must have been going through Dante’s mind when he was writing this. If only he had committed it to paper, but I suppose it wouldn’t have served the journey to dig at his wounds any deeper than he already was. The circle of gluttony has always been a particular interest of mine as it is one of the very few circles where there is a guardian/tormentor that oversees the entirety of the realm. I can only imagine that the reason Dante felt it necessary to add this feature was as direct imagery for the consequences of ravening hunger and insatiable appetite and what an awful sight it was.
I think i shall leave it here for today my friends. I hope that you have enjoyed the beginning of our descent into the Inferno. Come back for next week for part 3.
As always thank you for taking the time to read my work. I truly appriciate it. If you would like to help me continue bringing you more pieces like this and other short stories then I humbly ask that you consider donating to the page. Your kind donation helps me to keep all of my work free and accessible to all.
p.s. If you are interested in the deeper dive and would like the full article unabridged, with my full commentary and notes, then you are in luck. I am currently working on creating you a paperback and e-reader version of this work with all of my notes, commentary doodles etc... more news on that to follow.
(I am super excited about it and I hope that you are too. So, if this article in short form has whet your appetite for Dante and The Divine Comedy then look out for those updates by subscribing to the page.)
Once again thank you for reading and I will see you next week for part 3.