Divine Comedy

Divine
By Dante Alighieri
Comedy

About the
Author:
Durante degli Alighieri
Born Mid-May to mid-June, c. 1265
Florence, Republic of Florence
Died September 13/14, 1321
(aged about 56)
Ravenna, Papal States
Occupation Statesman, poet, language
theorist, political theorist
Nationality Italian
Period Late Middle Ages
Literary movement Dolce Stil Novo
Dante was an Italian poet and moral philosopher best known for the epic poem The Divine
Comedy, which comprises sections representing the three tiers of the Christian afterlife:
purgatory, heaven, and hell.
This poem, a great work of medieval literature and considered the greatest work of literature
composed in Italian, is a philosophical Christian vision of mankind’s eternal fate. Dante is seen
as the father of modern Italian, and his works have flourished since before his 1321 death.
Dante Alighieri

Stucture:
Story
Purgatorio
(Purgatory)
Inferno
(Hell)
Paradiso
(Paradise)
The Divine Comedy is composed of 14,233 lines that are divided into three canticas (Italian
plural cantiche) -
- each consisting of 33 cantos (Italian plural canti). An initial canto, serving as an introduction to
the poem and generally considered to be part of the first cantica, brings the total number of
cantos to 100.
Additionally, the verse scheme used, terza rima, is hendecasyllabic (lines of eleven syllables),
with the lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme aba, bcb, cdc, ded, ....

Sypnosis:
Divine
Comedy
Beatrice
(2nd Guide)
Virgil
(1st Guide)
Saint Bernard
(3rd Guide)
Dante Pilgrim has not been a good boy. His dead love Beatrice asks the Virgin Mary to
help him see the error of his ways. Mary accepts and Dante is sent on a three-day trip through
Hell, and on up Mount Purgatory on the other side of the world, and finally to Heaven in the
sky. He is spiritually lost at the beginning of the story, so he needs guides to help him along the
path.
*The woman he
adored while she
lived.
*(Saint Bernard)
Namesake of the
loyal dog – who
takes him to see
GOD.
*(Virgil) – author
of Aeneid

Inferno[inˈfərnō]
▬a large fire that is dangerously out of control.

Structure:
Inferno
The physical aspect of Hell is a
gigantic funnel that leads to the very
center of the Earth.
According to the legend used by
Dante, this huge, gigantic hole in the
Earth was made when God threw
Satan (Lucifer) and his band of rebels
out of Heaven with such force that
they created a giant hole in the Earth.
Satan was cast all the way to the very
center of the Earth, has remained
there since, and will remain there
through all of eternity.
Circle 1: Those in Limbo
Circle 2: The Lustful
Circle 3: The Gluttonous
Circle 4: The Hoaders
Circle 5: The Wrathful
Circle 6: The Heretics
Circle 7: The Violent
Ring 1:Murderers, Robberers & Plunders
Ring 2:Suicides and those harmful to the world
Ring 3:Against GOD, Nature & Art
Circle 8: The Faudulent
Trench I: Panderers & Seducers
Trench II: Flatterers
Trench III: Simoniacs
Trench IV: Sorcerers
Trench V: Barrators
Trench VI: Hyprocrites
Trench VII: Theives
Trench VIII: Evil Counselors
Trench IX: Sowers of Discord
Trench X: Falsifiers
Circle 9: Traitors
Region 1: Kindred
Region 2: Country
Region 3: Guests
Region 4: Lords

CANTO I The Dark worlds of Error
Dante in the savage wood
The Inferno follows the wanderings
of the poet Dante as he strays off
the rightful and straight path of
moral truth and gets lost in a dark
wood. And that, folks, is just the
beginning.
Dante
At the age of thirty-five, on the night
of Good Friday in the year 1300,
Dante finds himself lost in a dark
wood and full of fear.

CANTO I The Dark worlds of Error
Panther
Lion
She-wolf
The panther at the beginning of the ascent The lion suddently confronts Dante The she-wolf appears
Just as three wild animals threaten to attack him, Dante is
rescued by the ghost of Virgil, a celebrated Roman poet
and also Dante’s idol.
Virgil

CANTO II The Descent
Virgil and Dante begin their
journey
Virgil asked the deceased love-of-
Dante’s-life, Beatrice, to send
someone down to help him. Virgil to
the rescue! He’s an appropriate
guide because he’s very much like
Dante, a fellow writer and famous
poet.
When asked why he came, Virgil
answers that the head honchos of
Heaven—the Virgin Mary and Santa
Lucia—felt sorry for Dante.
Beatrice and Virgil
Beatrice

CANTO III The Opportunists
(Gate)
Virgil and Dante at the gates of Hell
Dante passes through the gate of
Hell, which bears an inscription
ending with the famous phrase
"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi
ch'intrate", most frequently
translated as "Abandon all hope, ye
who enter here
Dante and his guide hear the
anguished screams of the
Uncommitted. These are the
souls of people who in life took
no sides; the opportunists who
were for neither good nor evil,
but merely concerned with
themselves.

CANTO III The Opportunists
(Gate)
Charon on the River Acheron
After passing through
the vestibule, Dante
and Virgil reach the
ferry that will take
them across the river
Acheron and to Hell
proper. The ferry is
piloted by Charon,
who does not want to
let Dante enter, for he
is a living being Virgil forces Charon to
take him however, the
passage across the
Acheron is
undescribed, since
Dante faints and does
not awaken until he is
on the other side.
Charon

CANTO IV The Virtuous Pagan
Circle 1 - Limbo
The doomed souls embarking to cross the Acheron
The first circle of Hell (Limbo),
considered pre-Hell, just contains all of
the unbaptized and good people born
and before the coming of Christ, who
obviously couldn’t be saved by him.

CANTO IV The Virtuous Pagan
Circle 1 - Limbo
Homer, the poets, and heroes in Limbo
The first circle of Hell (Limbo) :
Virgil resides here, along with
a bunch of other Greek and
Roman poets.
Dante encounters the poets
Homer, Horace, Ovid, and
Lucan, who include him in
their number and make him
"sixth in that high company".

CANTO V The Lustful
Circle 2
Minos judges the transgressions and dispatches the souls
Dante and Virgil leave Limbo and
enter the Second Circle — the
first of the circles of
Incontinence — where the
punishments of Hell proper
begin. It is described as "a part
where no thing gleams. They find
their way hindered by the
serpentine Minos.
Minos
who judges all of those
condemned for active,
deliberately willed sin to one of
the lower circles.
He sentences each soul to its
torment by wrapping his tail
around himself a corresponding
number of times.

CANTO V The Lustful
Circle 2
The souls of the lustful in the infernal hurricane
In the second circle,
lustful sinners are tossed
around by endless
storms.

CANTO V The Lustful
Circle 2
The souls of Paolo and Francesca
Dante speaks to the soul
of Francesca da Rimini, a
woman who was stuck in
a loveless, arranged
marriage and committed
adultery when she fell in
love with a dashing youth
named Paolo.
Paolo
Francesca

CANTO VI The Gluttonous
Circle 3
Virgil feeds Cerberus in the third circle
Cerberus - the monstrous
three-headed beast of
Hell, ravenously guards
the gluttons lying in the
freezing mire, mauling
and flaying them with his
claws as they howl like
dogs.
Cerberus

CANTO VI The Gluttonous
Circle 3
The gluttons battered by eternal rain
Dante then awakes in
the third circle,
where the
Gluttonous sinners
suffer under a cold
and filthy rain.

CANTO VII The Avaricious and Prodigal
Circle 4
The souls of the avaricious and the
prodigal forced to roll heavy stones
Virgil leads Dante on to the
fourth circle, where the
Avaricious (greedy people)
and Prodigal (reckless
spenders) roll heavy
weights in endless circles.
Virgil rebukes Plutus at the
entrance to the fourth circle
Circle 4 –
Guarded by Plutus.
Plutus

CANTO VIII The Wrathful and Sullen
Circle 5 – The River Styx
The soul of the Florentine Philippo
Argenti accosts the poets on the Styx
The next stop on
the tour is the fifth
circle, where the
Wrathful and Sullen
are immersed in
the muddy river
Styx.
While they are crossing
the Styx, a sinner
named Filippo Argenti
reaches out to Dante
(presumably for help),
but Dante angrily
rejects him.
Philippo

CANTOIX-XI The Wrathful and Sullen
Circle 5 – The Gate of Dis
Virgil and Dante disembark at the citadel of Dis
Now at the gates of
a city called Dis,
Virgil takes it upon
himself to persuade
the demon guards
to let them pass.
Unexpectedly, he
fails.

CANTOIX-XI The Wrathful and Sullen
Circle 5 – The Gate of Dis
The hideous Erinyes: Megaera, Tisiphone, Alecto
The walls of Dis are
guarded by fallen
angels.
Demon guards
This means that instead of
continuing on with the
journey, Dante and Virgil
must wait for an angel to
come down and force
open the gates for them.
The angel opens the gates

CANTOIX-XI The Heretics
Circle 6
Farinata degli Uberti addresses Dante
After passing the
city of Dis, our
dynamic duo, enters
the sixth circle,
where the Heretics
lay in fiery tombs.
Farinata degli Uberti
Dante talks to
Farinata degli
Uberti, who predicts
that Dante will have
difficulty returning
to Florence from
exile.

CANTO XII The Violent against Neighbors
Circle 7
The Minotaur on the shattered cliff
This circle houses the
violent. Its entry is guarded
by Minotaur.
Divided into 3 rings:
Outer ring
Middle ring
Inner ring
Minotaur

CANTO XII The Violent
Circle 7
As they cross from
the sixth to the
seventh circle, where
the Violent are
punished, Virgil finally
begins explaining the
layout of Hell.
Violent against their neighbors
Circle 7
Violent against themselves
Violent against GOD
Outer ring
Middle ring
Inner ring
*The seventh circle will
show all the violent
sinners.

CANTO XII The Violent against their neighbors
Circle 7 – Outer Ring
Outer ring –
housing the violent
against people and
property, who are
immersed in
Phlegethon – a river
of boiling blood, to a
level commensurate
with their sins.
The centaurs attack the souls in boiling blood

CANTO XIII The Violent against themselves
Circle 7 – Middle Ring
Middle ring –
In this ring are the
suicides, who are
transformed into
gnarled thorny
bushes and trees.
The suicides in the forest
*The trees are a metaphor; In
life the only way of the relief
of suffering was through pain
(suicide)

CANTO XIV-XVII The Violent against GOD, Nature and Art
Circle 7 – Inner Ring
Inner ring –
All reside in a desert
of flaming sand with
fiery flakes raining
from the sky.
Brunetto Latini accosts Dante
Violent against:
GOD – blasphemers,
Nature –Sodomites;
Art – Usurers
Latini

CANTO XVIII The Fraudulent
Circle 8 –
Finally, Dante and Virgil
ready themselves to
cross to the eighth
circle. Dante, at Virgil’s
command, summons the
beast Geryon from the
depths with a cord
wrapped around his
waist.
Geryon
Geryon, symbol of deceit The descent into the abyss on Geryon’s back
Virgil stays to talk with the
beast while urging Dante to
look at the last of the Violent
sinners. When Dante comes
back, they mount Geryon and
ride the beast during the
descent into the eighth circle.

Circle 8 –
The eighth circle
contains ten pouches,
each containing
different types of
sinners.
Dante’s Inferno
Trench V: Barrators
Trench VII: Theives
Circle 9: Traitors
Region 1: Kindred
Region 2: Country
Region 3: Guests
Region 4: Lords

Circle 8 –
Bolgia I : Devils and seducers Bolgia II: Paramours and flatterers in the eighth
circle
Panderers and Seducers walk
in separate line in opposite
direction, whipped by demons.
Flatterers are steeped in
human excrement.

CANTO XIX-XX The Fraudulent
Circle 8 –
Bolgia V Dante rebukes Pope Nicholas III i Bolgia VI: Sorcerers and false prophets
Simoniacs -Those who
committed simony are place
head first in holes in the rock,
with flames burning on the
soles of their feet.
Sorcerers and false prophets-
they have their heads twisted
around on their bodies
backward, so they can only see
what is behind them and not in
the future.

CANTO XXI-XXIII The Fraudulent
Circle 8 –
Bolgia V : Devils torment the barrators Bolgia VI: Hypocrites
Corrupt politicians( barrators)
are immersed in a lake of
boiling pitch, guarded by
devils, the Malebranche
Hypocrites listlessly walking
along wearing gold-gilded lead
cloaks.
lol

CANTO XXIV-XXVII The Fraudulent
Circle 8 –
Bolgia VII : The thieves tormented by serpents Bolgia VIII: Evil Counsellors
Thieves are bitten by snakes.
Snakes bites make them
undergo various
transformations and some
resrrected after being turned
to ashes.
Evil counsellors are
encased in individual
flames
*They’re watching the flaming spirits
of Oddyseus and Diomedes
(Trojan War)

CANTO XXVII-XXXI The Fraudulent
Circle 8 –
Bolgia IX : Sowers of Dicord Bolgia X: The falsifiers and forgers tormented with itching
A sword-wieldded
devil hacks at the
sowers of discord.
As their wounds heal,
the devil will tear their
bodies again.
Groups of various sort of
falsifiers are afflicted with
different types of
diseases.
The severed
head of
Bertrand de
Born speaks
to Dante

Circle 8 –
Ephialtes in manacles among the giants
As they leave,
Virgil points out the
sinning giants who
are immobilized
around them in
punishment.

Circle 8 –
Nimrod of the giants
Nimrod—who was
responsible for building
the Tower of Babel—has
lost the ability to speak
coherently. His words
are gibberish.
Virgil requests that one
of the unbound giants,
Antaneus, transport
them in the palm of his
hand down to the last
circle of Hell. He
complies.
The giant Antaeus lowers Dante and Virgil into the last circle
Nimrod
Antaneus

CANTO XXXIII The Traitors
Circle 9 –
The ninth circle of Hell,
where traitors are
punished, contains four
different zones.
Dante’s Inferno
Trench V: Barrators
Trench VII: Theives
Circle 9: Traitors
Region 1: Kindred
Region 2: Country
Region 3: Guests
Region 4: Lords

Circle 9
Traitors, distinguished
from the “merely”
fraudulent in that their
acts involve betraying
one in a special
relationship to the
betrayer, are frozen in a
lake of ice known as
Cocytus.
The traitors frozen in the ice of Cocytus

Circle 9 – The Four Concentric Zones of 9th Circle
Traitors to their Kindred
REGION 1:
Caïna
Named for Cain, is home to
traitors to their kindered.
REGION 2:
Antenora
Is name for Antenor
of troy,who betrayed
his city to the Greeks.
REGION 3:
Ptolomæa
Is probably named
for Ptolemy, the
captain of Jericho ,
He killed Simon
Maccabaeus and his
sons.
REGION 4:
Judecca
Is named for Judas
the Iscariot, Biblical
betrayer of Christ, is
for traitor to their
Lords.
Traitors to their Country Traitors to their Guests Traitors to their Lords

Circle 9 – REGION 1:Caïna
REGION 1:Caïna
The souls here are
immersed in the ice up
to their necks.
Dante addresses the traitor Bocca degli Abati
Bocca degli Abati

Circle 9 – REGION 2:Antenora
REGION 2: Antenora
The souls here are
immersed the same
level as those in Caïna,
except they are unable
to bend their necks.
Ugolino gnaws upon the head of Archbishop Ruggieri
Archbishop Ruggierir
Ugolino

Circle 9 – REGION 3:Ptolomæa
REGION 3:Ptolomæa
Where traitors against
their guests suffer,
immobilized in ice and
their tears frozen
against their eyes.
As they cry, their tears freeze and seal their eyes shut – they are denied even comfort of tears.

Circle 9 – REGION 4:Judecca
REGION 4:Judecca
In the fourth the final
zone, Judecca, where
traitors against their
benefactors are
punished, Dante
witnesses the king of
Hell, the three-headed
Lucifer, giant and frozen
at the core. In his three
mouths, Lucifer
mechanically chews on
the most evil mortal
sinners—Judas, Brutus,
and Cassius.
Lucifer, king of Hell, frozen in the ice

Credits Special thanks to all the people who
made and released these awesome
resources for free:
⊙ Presentation template by
SlidesCarnival
⊙ Photographs by Unsplash

References
INFERNO SUMMARY
http://www.shmoop.com/inferno/summary.html
The Divine Comedy: Illustrations by Gustave Doré
http://www.danshort.com/dc/page1.php?p=75
DIVINE COMEDY
http://www.slideshare.net/arlene5162/divine-comedy-
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Divine Comedy

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