The poets encounter the Furies and enter the 6th circle of Hell housing heretics. There, they speak with Farinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti about politics and the damned's limited foresight. In the 7th circle, they see Centaurs and the violent against others submerged in boiling blood. Pier delle Vigne explains the fate of suicides as twisted trees. They enter the wood of suicides and meet other souls. Crossing a burning plain, they see the blasphemers and usurers, including Brunetto Latini, who warns Dante of Florence turning on him. Reaching the usurers, Dante sees their emb

1. The Inferno IX-XVII

2. Dante asks if others from Limbo have
descended deeper into Hell
Virgil tells him that the
sorceress Erichtho once
sent him to bring up a
spirit from the deepest
circle.

3. Suddenly, the Furies confront the poets

5. Virgil introduces them as Megaera,
Tisiphone, and Alecto

6. The furies call
for Medusa

7. Virgil tells Dante not to look

8. A tremendous sound is heard, and the evil
spirits scatter like frogs

9. The heavenly messenger unblocks the door
to Dis

10. The poets enter Dis, and the 6th circle

11. It is a place of flames, and red hot tombs
from which groans are heard

12. Virgil tells Dante that this
is where the arch-
heretics dwell.

13. Canto X: Circle 6

14. Dante notices that the lids are not on the
tombs, and asks if the spirits inside can be
seen

15. Virgil responds that Epicurus, and those who believe
the soul dies with the body, lie here. The lids will go
on the tombs, but the bodies will be left behind

16. A voice from a vault addresses Dante as
“Tuscan”

17. The voice belongs to Farinata a degli Uberti

18. When Dante
identifies himself,
Farinata recalls his
family’s political
victories over
Dante’s.

19. Another spirit rises up and speaks to Dante

20. Cavalcante asks why his poet son Guido
does not accompany Dante
When Dante disdains
to answer,
Cavalcante assumes
his son is dead, and
drops back into his
tomb.

21. Farinata warns Dante of the poor outcome of
politics, and predicts Dante’s future perils

22. Farinata explains that the damned can see the
distant future, but the present is a blank

23. Feeling guilty, Dante tells Farinata to tell
Cavalcante his son Guido still lives

24. Dante asks Farinata what spirits are beside
him
Frederick II,
Farinata replies.

25. And Cardinal Ubaldini

26. Dante is troubled by his fate, but Virgil tells him
he will see his whole life journey when he meets
with Beatrice

27. Canto
XI

28. The poets come to a high bank, overlooking
cruel crowds, a terrible stench dominates

29. They see a monument accusing Pope Anastasius
of leading Deacon Photinus from the true path

30. While they wait to
accustom themselves
to the smell, Virgil
explains the remaining
three circles of hell.

31. Heaven hates harm, Virgil explains, caused
by force or deceit
But because deceit (fraud,
froda) is a vice peculiar to
humans, God hates it
more.

32. The entire 7th circle contains those who
committed violence

33. Virgil explains the 3 subdivisions of the 7th
circle
1. The violent to
neighbor
2. The violent to self
3. The violent to God

34. The violent to neighbor will include tyrants
and murderers

35. The violent to
self, suicides

36. Violent to nature, art, and God
Violence to nature:
sodomy (city of
Sodom, Genesis 19),
unnatural sex

37. Violence to Art
• Usury: charging interest
when lending money
• Cahors: city in southern
France known especially
for usury

38. Violence to God
Blasphemy

39. Deceit is punished in the 8th circle
• Hypocrisy
• Sorcery
• Flattery
• Cheating
• Theft
• Selling of Holy Orders
• Pimping
• Corrupting Public Office

40. The treachery of traitors is punished in the
9th circle

41. Dante asks why those in the upper circles
do not suffer as harshly
Virgil reminds him of the three types of sin Aristotle
mentions in his Ethics—incontinence, brutishness, and
malice—and how God is less angry at the incontinent.

42. Dante asks why usury is a crime against
nature
Virgil explains that, according to Genesis, after the fall
of man it was his nature to work for his bread; earning
money through interest denies that nature.

43. Canto XII

44. The poets climb fallen rock and come upon
the minotaur

45. Virgil distracts the
Minotaur with
insults while
Dante runs to the
passage.

46. As they approach the 7th circle, Virgil
explains the fallen rock

47. Circle 7: River of blood

48. Dante sees Centaurs with weapons

49. The Centaur Nessus threatens to shoot
Nessus stole
Dejanira from
Hercules.
Hercules killed
him. Nessus gave
Dejanira his
poisonous blood
which killed
Hercules.

50. Virgil says they will only speak to Chiron

51. Virgil asks Chiron for a guide, and he
assigns Nessus

52. They see shrieking spirits immersed in
boiling blood

53. Here are tyrants, like
Dionysius of Syracuse.

54. Alexander

55. Azzolino

56. Obizzo da Este

57. Guy de Montfort

58. Attila

59. Pyrrhus
Either the
son of
Achilles

60. Or the king of Epirus, who campaigned
against the Carthaginians and the Romans

61. Sextus Pompeius
His attacks on Rome
disrupted the food supply

62. And two highwaymen, Rinier da Corneto
and Rinier Pazzo

63. Canto XIII: Circle 7, Ring 2

64. Nessus takes the poets into a wood of
knotted branches and poisonous thorns

65. Here nest harpies

67. Dante hears sighs from among the trees

68. Virgil tells him to break a twig

69. Blood and words gush from the broken
branch

70. The speaker is Piero delle Vigne

71. Envy of his power
caused others to
dishonor him.
Imprisoned, he
committed suicide.

72. Virgil asks him to explain the fate of
suicides to Dante

73. Pier says that their souls
become like seeds,
which grow into thorny
trees, tormented by the
harpies.

74. On the day of
judgment, they will
retrieve their bodies,
but only to hang them
on the thorns.

75. Two torn spirits chased by black hounds
crash into the woods
They are Lano Maconi and Jacomo da Sant’ Andrea,
who squandered fortunes and courted death.
Jacomo merges with a bush, but Lano is torn apart by
the dogs.

76. The bush, having been torn, speaks
The spirit is that
of a Florentine,
who hanged
himself from his
roof beam

77. Canto XIV: Circle 7, Ring 3
The violent
against god,
nature, art

78. Emerging from the wood of suicides, the
poets come upon a plain of burning sand

79. Some figures lie face up, some crouch, and
some run as embers fall from above

81. Dante asks Virgil about one figure who lies
there, scornful

82. It is Capaneus the blasphemer, who cursed
Jupiter

84. Blasphemy is violence against God

85. To avoid the burning sand, the poets will
walk on the petrified banks of a stream
that runs red

86. Virgil explains the Old Man of Crete

88. The old man represents the history of man,
from which tears fall to form the rivers of
Hell

89. Canto XV The Violent against Nature

90. Sodomites and usurers

91. A group of spirits runs towards Dante, and
he recognizes Brunetto Latini

92. Dante walks fast to keep up with his old
friend

93. Brunetto warns Dante that Florence will
turn on him

94. Dante thanks his
friend for all he
taught him in life, and
tells him he does not
fear the future as
long as his conscience
remains clear.

95. Brunetto introduces his companions

96. They are Priscian the grammarian,
Franceso d’ Accorso, and Andrea di Mozzi

97. Brunetto bids
farewell, asking
Dante to remember
his Tresoro.

98. Canto XVI

99. Three scorched Florentines run up to Dante

100. Jacopo Rusticucci introduces himself,
Guido Guerra, and Tegghiaio Aldobrandi

101. They ask about their native city, and
complain about Guglielmo Borsiere

102. Dante tells them that new men and
excess wealth are destroying
Florence
They thank him and asked to be remembered when he
returns to the world.

103. They reach a waterfall, and Dante unties a cord
from around his waist and gives it to Virgil
Virgil lowers it
over the edge of
the cliff.

104. A monstrous shape appears in the water

105. Canto VII: Usurers

106. They approach Geryon

107. Geryon has the face of an honest man, but
the body of a serpent

108. Virgil advises Dante to visit the last group
in circle seven
These are the
usurers, who
are crouched
on the
burning plain.

109. They huddle, batting at embers, their eyes on
pouches around their necks

110. Gianfigliazzi’s pouch bears an animal crest

111. Ubbriachi’s crest is a goose

112. Usury
Pope Innocent IV (1250-1261) wrote if usury were permitted rich
people would prefer to put their money in a usurious loan rather
than invest in agriculture. Only the poor farm and if they didn't
have the tools, famine would result. Burudian (d. 1358), a professor
at the University of Paris wrote that: "Usury is evil... because the
usurer seeks avariciously what has no finite limits". This places its
results outside of nature. St. Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444)
observed that usury concentrates the money of the community in
the hand of the few.
Divine and human law: All mankind's moral/legal codes censured
usury, normally with mild limits on interest rates. But the Old
Testament strictly forbade Jews form taking usury from their
"brothers" (other Jews), and discouraged taking it from strangers.
The Scholastics looked on all mankind as brothers.

113. s

114. Rinaldo degli Scrovigni, a pregnant sow

115. Vitaliano

116. And Giovanni Buiamonte

117. College loans? Credit cards?

118. Disgusted, Dante hurries away and joins
Virgil on the back of Geryon

119. Geryon descends in slow spirals

120. While Dante ponders the fates of Phaeton
and Icarus