The Nine Rounds of Hell

In Limbo, he meets many famous souls: Hector, Aeneas, Caesar, Plato, Orpheus, and others. They live in the Noble Castle, with seven walls representing the liberal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding) and seven gates representing the liberal arts (grammar, logic, rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy). (According to the footnotes, that is.)

Passing through here, they enter the second circle (or round), where Helena, Paris, Cleopatra, and Achilles reside. Here, lustful souls are blown up and down, left and right for eternity. Hearing the sad story of a pair who were killed by their family (located in a lower circle), he faints (again).

He awakes in the third circle, where gluttons are punished. They lie on the ground, where hail, snow, and turbid water fall onto them. The hound Cerberus tears at them.

Progressing, they come to a pass guarded by Plutus, Roman god of riches. Here the most mystifying words of the poem are uttered: Pape Satan! pape Saten, aleppe! After seven centuries, no one knows what this may mean, and can only guess that it is a phonetic spelling of things in other languages. Virgil understands it, however, and comforts Dante before yelling at Plutus to calm himself. When told that their journey was mandated from on high, Plutus falls to the ground.

They then enter the next circle, where the wasteful and greedy are forced to roll giant stones while beating each other; many of them held high offices in the Church in life.

Passing through, they see a tower in the distance. It makes signals using two flames, and another, farther off, answers it. Phlegyas, son of Ares and Chyrse and king of the Lapiths, arrives on a small boat. He ferries them across the Styx (seen as a marsh, here). As they pass, they see the souls of the wrathful, muddy and naked, beating and tearing at each other.

Arriving at the City of Dis (Satan, Lucifer), where the sins of violence or maliciousnous are punished, rather than Incontinence, they are stopped by fallen angels, who attempt to petrify Dante with Medusa's head. They are allowed to pass through by one of the Messengers of God.

In the sixth circle, heretics are forever burned in flaming sepulchres. A Florentine foretells Dante's exile (the poem taking place before this, but having been written during it) and explains that spirits can see the past and future, but not the present. As such, they will become blind at the End of Days, when the Universe becomes timeless (being the End of all Days, after all).

They pass the Centaur, which Virgil distracts by mentioning his death at the hands Theseus, sending him into a rage.

In the seventh circle, violent souls are punished. They first come upon those who were violent against other men, who are submerged in a boiling river of blood, some only to the ankles, others to their very brows. Centaurs patrol the banks, shooting any that would seek to raise himself above his alotted depth. Here is located Alexander, Dionysius, and Attila. Dante, unable to walk across, being alive and solid, is carried by Nessus.

Farther in is the Wood of Self-Murderers. Here, those who have committed violence against themselves (suicide) are punished. They have become thorn bushes, growing not fruit, but poison. The harpies nest in them and devour them. They are unable to speak unless one of their branches are broken, which then bleeds.

At the edge of the Wood is a desert. In it, those who have committed violence against God (generally in the form of hate) are tortured. Some walk in bands, others sit, and still others are forced to lie down, but all are in agony from the burning sand and falling brimstone.

Opinion:
The Divine Comedy is an interesting book. There is no conflict or any such thing, but it still manages to be interesting; at least partially from shadenfreude. Also interesting are such things as the amount of Roman and Greek myths mixed in, the continual stream of things to look up (from Bible verses to philosophers), and the discord with what is taught today; at least as far as what I know, such things as Limbo and the damnation of suicides are no longer believed in.

Perhaps because of the lack of conflict, I've been lagging behind a bit, though. Despite my enjoyment of it, it doesn't always hold my attention. Plus, the large amount of footnotes (a good quarter of all of the pages are just clarification) tends to drag down the page-per-minute rate.


Also, I have some news!
I fully intend on continuing this blog into the new year, despite the end of the semester and English class. What the post rate will be, I cannot say.