“Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.”
Dante encounters the poet Virgil
Doorway into the Inferno
“All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"
"It is easy to go down into Hell; night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide; but to climb back again, to retrace one's steps to the upper air - there's the rub, the task."
“Through me the way into the suffering city, Through me the way into eternal pain, Through me the way that runs among the lost.”
“There is no greater sorrow than to recall our time of joy in wretchedness.”
The Hypocrites address Dante
The Kingdom of Hell
The River Styx
"Charon the demon, with the eyes of glede, Beckoning to them, collects them all together, beats within his oar whoever lags behind."
First Circle : Limbo "Lost we are, and are only so far punished, that without hope we live on in desire"
"There standeth Minos horribly, and snarls; Examines the transgressions at the entrance, judges, and sends according as he girds him"
Second Circle: Lust “And I was told about this torture, that it was the Hell of carnal sins when reasons give way to desire.”
Third Circle: Gluttony "For the pernicious sin of gluttony, I, as thou seest, am battered by this rain."
Fourth Circle: Greed “There, pride, avarice, and envy are the tongues men know and heed, a Babel of depsair”
Fifth Circle: Wrath "All of them naked and with angry look. They smote each other not alone with hands, but with the head and with the breast and feet, tearing each other piecemeal with their teeth."
Sixth Circle: Heresy "They shall be closed all, what-time they here From Josaphat return'd shall come, and bring Their bodies, which above they now have left. The cemetery on this part obtain With Epicurus all his followers, Who with the body make the spirit die."
Seventh Circle: Violence "The world ofttime converted into chaos, and at that moment this primeval crag both here and elsewhere made such overthrow. But fix thine eyes below; for draweth near the river of blood, within which boiling is Whoe'er by violence doth injure others."
Eight Circle: Fraud “Of every malice that wins hate in Heaven, Injury is the end, and all such end Either by force of fraud afflicteth others. But because fraud is man’s peculiar vice, More it displeaseth God; and so stands lowest The fraudulent, and greater dole assails them.”
Ninth Circle: Treachery "Livid, as far down as where shame appears, were the disconsolate shades within the ice, setting their teeth unto the note of storks. Each one his countenance held downward bent; from mouth cold, from eyes the doleful heart among them witness of itself procures."
Contrapasso “The devil is not as black as he is painted.”
Beatrice, Dante's True Love
The Demons in Hell Torment Beatrice
Dante and Beatrice are reunited
