It’s not quite how I imagined Hell
You know, we all think of cliché fire and brimstone kind of images, demons, people spinning on rotisseries, pitchforks, and all that. Then, you read Dante’s The Inferno and your imagination is dragged down to a place made of layers and layers of horror.
I hate to admit it, but I had never read the entire The Inferno, just small excerpts from it in poetry classes or in a explanation/description of some painting. And then, while looking at some of the history art and Western Civilization. And, as I got down that route, I kept running into The Divine Comedy being of the the pillars of Western culture and literature. Okay, I’ve read much of the Western canon, but not this one… So I picked up John Ciardi’s translation, and wow.
Now, back to Hell… Reading the parts that I have, and seeing the paintings depicting The Inferno, I still wasn’t prepared where Dante takes us with the great Virgil as his guide. I mean, the first circle was The Virtuous Pagans! Who thinks of this world to put the likes of Ovid, Virgil, Horace, and Homer in a circle of hell where they aren’t tortured, but they exist without the hope of Christianity?
There is no way I can do justice to Dante in a blog, not with it sounding like some kind of term paper written just before the due date. So, let me just talk about a couple of images inside the text.
From Canto XIX, Circle Eight: Bogia Three, The Simoniacs: Dante sees holes in the ground, with bodies stuffed inside of them: “From every mouth a sinner’s legs stuck out / as far as the calf. The soles were all ablaze / and the joints of the legs quivered and writhed about.” This is the fate of corrupt popes and clergyman who sold ecclesiastic favors and offices: planted in the ground, with the soles of their feet being burned relentlessly. What a fitting end to the simoniacs. The image of these people, stuffed in holes, and suffering this way just made me smile.
Dante’s description of Satan in Canto XXXIV, Ninth Circle: Cocytus, Round Four: Judecca, The Center and the last circle of Hell is just… yeah. He has three faces and in each of the mouths he gnaws on a sinner: “In every mouth he worked a broken sinner / between his rake-like teeth. Thus he kept three / in eternal pain at his eternal dinner.” And those three souls? Those that betrayed their master: Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius. And that is how their souls spend eternity: skin and muscle torn off of them, writhing in pain, silent forever.
The circles of Hell correspond with different sins: Lust, Greed, Gluttony, etc. Culture Critic wrote an article about it, here is his teaser on the subject. And the Imaginative Conservative ran this article about The Inferno. Give them a read, pick up The Divine Comedy and get into it. John Ciardi’s translation is great because his notes are well done and organized, you will need it to understand some of the allusions and historical references Dante makes.
Read it, contemplate the sins and how the souls are punished for them, and take the time to explore some of the art inspired by Dante’s writing. Repent and get ready to land in The Purgatorio (next).