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About Dante’s Comedy• There are three parts or canticas:–Inferno–Purgatorio–Paradiso
• Each part is composed of 33 cantos (with an additional canto serving as an introduction).
About Dante’s Comedy
• Each verse has three lines (or tercets). • Terza rima (“third rhyme”) is used (a three-line stanza using chain rhyme, e.g., A-B-A, B-C-B, etc.).
An Overview of Dante’s Inferno
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 1 (Limbo)
Virtuous pagans
and unbaptized babies
Not actively
punished, but have no hope
of getting to heaven
THE SINS OF THE SHE-WOLF(CIRCLES 2 TO 5)
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 2 The lustful or carnal
Swept forever in
a whirlwind
Circle 3 Gluttons Wallow in mud while rain and snow fall
constantly
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 4 Hoarders and
Wasters
Crash boulders against
each others
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 5 Wrathful and
Sullen
Wrathful attack each
other in the slime
of the River Styx,
while the Sullen lie beneath
the surface
THE CITY OF DIS(CIRCLES 6 TO 9)
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 6 Heretics Lie in metal tombs
that are heated by
unseen fires
THE SINS OF THE LION(CIRCLE 7)
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 7, Ring One
Violent against Others
(Murderers and
Bandits)
Submerged to
varying degrees in the River Phlegethon (a river of boiling blood)
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 7, Ring Two
Violent against
Self (Suicides
and Squanderer
s)
Suicides are turned into trees, while the
Squanderers are
chased and
attacked by dogs
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 7, Ring
Three
Violent against
God, Nature, and Art
(Blasphemers,
Sodomites, and
usurers)
Blasphemers lie on
the burning sand;
sodomites run across
it; the usurers sit with bags
hanging on their necks
THE SINS OF THE LEOPARD(CIRCLES 8 AND 9)
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 8, Bolgia One
Panderers and
Seducers
Form two lines and
are whipped
by demons
Circle 8, Bolgia Two
Flatterers Swim in a river of
excrement
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 8, Bolgia Three
Simoniacs Placed headfirst
in the earth, while
their feet burn
Circle 8, Bolgia Four
Fortunetellers
Their heads are
twisted around their
bodies
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 8, Bolgia Five
Grafters Submerged in pitch
and tormente
d by demons
Circle 8, Bolgia
Six
Hypocrites Walk around in
golden robes
lined with lead
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 8, Bolgia Seven
Thieves Bitten by snakes;
some turn into
snakes themselv
esCircle 8, Bolgia Eight
Evil Counselors
Encased in
tongues of flame
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 8, Bolgia Nine
Sowers of Discord
Bodies are
hacked by demons
Circle 8, Bolgia
Ten
Falsifiers (Alchemists, Counterfeiters, Perjurers,
and Impersonator
s)
Suffer all sorts of
afflictions or
diseases
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 9, Zone One
(Caina)
Traitors to Family
Encased in ice up to their necks
Circle 9, Zone Two (Antenor
a)
Traitors to Country
Immersed up to their
necks, but they cannot
bend their necks
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 9, Zone Three
(Ptolomea)
Traitors to Guests
Lie supine in the ice; their faces exposed to cold winds
so their tears
freeze and seal their eyes shut
Location Sinners Punishment
Circle 9, Zone Four
(Judecca)
Traitors to Lords and Benefactor
s
Completely
encapsulated in ice,
their bodies
distorted in different positions; Satan is trapped
here
Tomorrow (Tuesday)• Please be ready for a discussion of
Cantos 1 to 5 of Inferno. Any English translation will do.
• You can access the full text translations online at:–http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1001/10
01-h/1001-h.htm (has the Longfellow translation)–http://www.divinecomedy.org/divine_co
medy.html (has three translations: Longfellow, Cary, and Mandelbaum)
