Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet born in 1265. The Inferno is an epic poem written in 1310. It tells the story of Dante himself being taken on a guided tour of Hell in the year 1300. The Inferno is the first part of a trilogy; the other two are The Purgatorio (Purgatory) and The Paradiso (Paradise). Collectively, they are called The Divine Comedy, although I’m not sure why, as they are dramatic and not very funny.
This book was on my reading list because it is considered an all-time classic. Dante’s works are often compared with Shakespeare’s, and many of the tropes our society has about Hell come from The Inferno. The images of fiery Hell, horned beasts, and the levels of Hell all originate from this poem. The poem is laid out over 34 cantos (chapters), each canto about 140 lines long, written in three-line verses.
Let’s get into the actual story. Dante finds himself in Hell, though it’s not explained how. He is met by the spirit of another great poet who lived before Christ, Virgil, who will be his guide through Hell. It’s explained to Dante that he is not dead, but his life has taken a wrong turn, and the powers (implied to be God) have demanded he be shown all the levels of Hell so he can return and bear witness to the world. His guide, Virgil, must explain this to many beasts and damned souls along the way, as they are confused and angry that a living person is going through Hell.
Virgil and Dante explain Hell as a funnel or cone descending deep into the Earth’s core. In this book, the Earth is the center of the universe, and the sun, planets, and Heaven (Paradise) are on the outer layers. Therefore, Hell and Satan at the core of Earth are the furthest from God. They are also the source of all gravity, to which all sin and filth fall.
Hell has levels. Each level is a ledge on the downward cone, and each level houses and punishes a different sin or type of sinner, starting with the unbaptized and the souls of people who died before Jesus on level 1. They travel through all the levels, each sin class having a punishment that fits the crime. The first few levels go pretty fast, almost one canto per level. These levels are filled with lesser sins like gluttony, heretics, and suicides. There are also many demons, winged and reptilian, in charge of torture and moving the souls between levels. The last three levels are surrounded by a walled city and are the focus of half the poem.
Level 7 is Violence. This is more bestial violence, actions that are out of passion. Murderers, tyrants, suicides, and those against God (blasphemers, perverts). Side note: he considers sodomites or homosexuals perverts who commit violence against nature. They are punished horribly. This once-famous poem hurt the homosexual community for centuries.
Level 8, he spends the most time on, as it was divided into 10 different trenches or subcategories, all for different types of fraud: pimps, prostitutes, fortunetellers, thieves, sowers of discord, falsifiers. These may seem less evil, but his reasoning is that any animal can kill, but it takes human deviousness to defraud someone.
The last level, where Satan and all the sinners are encased in ice (it is the furthest away from God’s warmth), is Compound Fraud. These are people who committed treachery against kin, country, guests/hosts, lords, and benefactors. He considers anyone who betrays someone who fully trusted them or takes advantage of the most trusted as the worst of the worst. I fully agree, as I have been betrayed thrice this way, as most people who have heard my story know.
Anyway, it was a hard read. The translation I had included summaries of each canto in plain English and notes at the end of each canto to help with some of the references to the time, of which there were many. He uses politicians and cultural leaders of the time to give examples of each type of sinner in each level. Without the index notes, most people reading it today would have no idea who those people were or what they did while alive. Some he even used nicknames or allusions to them, which made recognition that much harder. I didn’t really get much out of this book, but it was good to know for reference and to cross off my bucket list. 2 stars out of 5.
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