Knowing what is after death is one of the topics that humanity has always been interested in, so it is not strange that throughout the world there are different versions of how hell is, that place where condemned souls go to Leave your deadly shell . There are several aspects in which different cultures and religions do not coincide, such as how hell is said and the definition of sin for which you will be punished, however, despite the distance that separates them, they also share some characteristics.
The hell devised by Dante Alighieri, Italian poet born in Florence, is described in his famous poetic work The Divine Comedy. This book is an epic divided into three parts: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; each with 33 songs. These group together a series of symbols, references to historical figures and mythology, and the religious and moral beliefs of the writer. In The Divine Comedy Dante is the protagonist and makes a tourist visit for the three rooms already mentioned.
Before Reaching the Nine Circles of Hell
On his walk to hell, Dante's guide is Virgil, the Roman poet he admired. As he relates, he arrived at hell at 35 years of age on a Good Friday and in 24 hours he toured the nine circles that compose it . The described structure of hell is that of an inverted cone, with nine circles, in which as it descends, the sin committed is worse. It is the home of people who did not repent of their immoral acts, but justified them. At the tip of the cone is the center of the Earth and is also the prison of Satan.
His journey begins when he is lost in a jungle and is attacked by a lion, a leopard or panther, and a wolf; which symbolize three capital sins: pride, lust and greed. Falling into destruction, Virgil rescues him to begin his journey through lands unknown to the living.
In this way, the phrase is received at the gates of hell:
It is for me that one goes to the city of tears, it is for me that one goes to eternal pain and to the place where the condemned race suffers, I was created by divine power, the supreme wisdom There is the first love, and there was nothing that existed before me, abandon hope if you enter here.
Vestibule
Before entering hell as such, in an area separated from the nine circles by the Aqueronte River, there are individuals who do not reside in hell, but who are also not outside of it. . Here they never committed themselves, they never did something bad or good and the exiles who did not participate in the angels' rebellion. His punishment is to run, with worms drinking his blood, behind a white flag while fleeing bees and wasps.
The Nine Circles of Dante's Hell
Limbo
Here lie the heathen and the people who were good, but who, having not been baptized, do not deserve to go to Paradise to know God . These individuals are not tortured, despite being the first of the nine circles of hell, and must only deal for eternity with the desire to see the Creator, which will never be fulfilled. The place is described as a neutral one, without good or evil, with meadows and a castle that contains the wisest men of antiquity, like Virgil and Homer himself.
Lust
This is the true entrance to hell, where a being called Minos waits for souls to judge them and decide which circle they belong to . Minos shows it by winding its tail according to the assigned site.
In the Circle of Lust there are those who could not control their fleshly impulses and this led them not to hear the reason . Their punishment is to be whipped by unstoppable high winds that make them crash into the floor and walls, just as in life they were driven by an excessive passion. On this floor there are characters like Cleopatra, Helena and Achilles.
Gluttony
This space is intended for gluttons, arrogant and envious, those who were never really satisfied. The damned are in the mud at the mercy of a rain with hail and with the threat of being torn at any time by Cerberus, the monstrous three-headed dog of the Greek god Hades.
Avarice
It is as much for those who accumulated much wealth as for those who spent great fortunes . His penance is to push or drag huge gold weights, equivalent to the money that went through his hands in life, separated into groups that go in the opposite direction around the circle. At some point they meet and impact each other, then turn around and return to their gait until the cycle is repeated.
Anger and Sloth
In it lies the swampy Laguna Styx. On their surface, those blinded by anger strike and tear their bites; while lazy people, followed by their lack of action, sink in the mud, unable to breathe or speak.
Heresy
This circle marks the beginning of Lower Hell, the one surrounded and separated from the previous High Hell by the walls of the city of Dite and guarded by fallen angels. Sinners in the sixth circle are guarded by three fury: Megera, Alecto and Tisiphone; Spirits of revenge. The punishment, for those who refused to obey the authority of the Church, is to remain in uncovered graves and in flames.
Violence
On this floor are those who surrendered to evil, exposing their bestial side ; This is reflected by the Minotaur that protects the entrance.
It is divided into 3 rings:
-Outer Ring: For homicides, criminals and rapists. Depending on the degree of violence exerted, they will be more or less in a river of boiling blood, named as Flegetone River. In addition, Centauros avoid and punish if they try to get out of their depth.
-Medium Ring: For those who were violent with themselves, that is, for the suicides and those who sought death in the hands of others. The first are turned into gnarled trees that suffer pecking and tearing by Harpies with nests in them. On the other hand, the seconds must flee from bitches so as not to be bitten.
-Lower Ring: For those who blaspheme, those who threatened nature and usurers. Everyone lies in a desert where it rains fire. Those who harmed nature are concentrated in groups, those who exceeded interest charges are seated, and those who were violent against God, lying on the sand.
Fraud
To get there you have to go through a large cliff, guarded by a winged three-headed monster called Gerion, representing fraud with a beautiful appearance but with a poisonous tail. Those who betrayed the trust of others are divided into 10 graves:
- Pimps and seducers: As they used the passion of others to guide them where they wanted, they are sentenced to go in opposite directions while demons whip them.
- Flatterers: The words they uttered to praise in an exaggerated manner are transformed into mountains of human excrement, where they are submerged.
-SimonÃacos: Those who made a profit from the Church. They are accommodated with their heads down while flames burn their feet.
-Guess, wizards and false prophets: As powers attributed to God alone and claimed to be able to observe the future, they have their heads turned back.
-Corrupted Politicians: Those who enriched with public money, are punished by being immersed in boiling pitch, referring to their dirty hands and dark secrets.
- Hypocrites: Having shown a false face to others, as penance they have to carry a golden cape, which looks like gold but is actually lead, which makes them walk bent.
-Ladrones: Tied up, they are chased and bitten by vipers.
- Fraudulent Counselors: They are burned by the flames.
- Sowers of Discord: Those who were responsible for separating people, are now cut by demons with swords. When they heal, they get hurt again. Here Dante met Muhammad.
-Falsifiers: Each one is condemned to suffer a different disease.
Treason
At the bottom of hell there are giants, both condemned and custodians, and the people who betrayed having a close bond with the affected, thus differentiating them with those located in the eighth circle. It is an icy lake called Cocito, where, as in the seventh circle, depending on the seriousness of the sinner's act, it is deeper in him.
There are four zones, called Rounds:
-Round 1: Caina. His name refers to Cain, the biblical character who murdered his brother. In this way, precisely those who live here are those who betrayed their relatives. They are submerged to the head with their faces down.
-Round 2: Antenora. He receives his title from the Antenor Trojan, who betrayed his city to favor the Greeks. This round is for those who acted against their groups, such as their community, political entities, and country. They are immersed to the head, but face up.
-Round 3: Ptolemy. He is named for Ptolemy, who invited a father and his son to his house to eat and then killed them. Those condemned to this place are those who betrayed their guests and their punishment is to lie covered with ice, except for their face.
-Round 4: Judeca. It is in honor of Judas Iscariot, the famous person who betrayed Jesus Christ. Like him, the sinners in this round are those who violated the trust of their benefactors. Everyone lies in different positions completely immersed in ice.
Finally, at the center of the ninth circle is Satan, described as a giant three-headed monster. He is trapped, being covered from the waist down ice and only being able to flutter, whose action is what keeps the Cocito frozen. With his main mouth he deals with chewing Judas's head.
Dante's Hell as Inspiration
The Divine Food of Dante Alighieri is considered one of the pillars of Italian literature and a very important classic piece of universal literature, so it has been translated into more than 20 languages. Dante's vision of hell has served as inspiration for the creation of paintings, sculptures, stories and even video games.
Let's see some examples:
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510): "Hell"
This painter, from Florence as Dante, relied on the description of Hell from The Divine Comedy to create a masterpiece. The painting that recreates the nine circles of hell is taken care of in the vaults of the Vatican library, along with other works that are treasures of humanity. It should be noted that this was not the only illustration that Botticelli made, in fact, there are more than one hundred drawings . Currently there is a documentary called "Botticelli, Inferno" that talks about the painter and his works related to the version of Dante.
Auguste Robin (1840-1917): "The Door of Hell"
This French sculptor was commissioned to make the door for the entrance of the Country Decorative Arts Museum, receiving the instruction to do it " with bas-reliefs linked to Dante's Divine Comedy . " The task was not simple, made several sketches and three models that were materializing and cohesive their ideas . Unfortunately he did not see his finished work, after his death they melted eight pieces from the plaster model. Today there are versions of this door in museums in France, Mexico, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland.
Dan Brown: "Inferno"
Dan Brown's book Inferno is part of the series that tells the adventures of the professor of symbology at Harvard, Robert Langdon. The protagonist, with the help of a mysterious doctor, will seek to prevent a scientist, obsessed with the end of the world and with The Divine Comedy, especially with Dante's hell, destroy life on Earth.
"Dante's Inferno" Video Game
It is a third-person game released in 2010. It tells the story of the Templar knight Dante, the character of the player, who upon returning from a crusade learns that his beloved Beatriz has died. Guided by his immense love, he decides to embark on a journey to hell to rescue her from the clutches of Satan. Consequently he must go through nine circles of hell and battle the monsters and demons that inhabit him.
Author: Diana MartÃnez, editor and translator in the great family of hermandadblanca.org
References:
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infierno_(Divina_comedia)
https://www.misterica.net/los-nueve-circulos-del-infierno-de-dante/
https://www.milenio.com/cultura/cuales-son-los-nueve-circulos-de-la-divina-comedia
https://www.elestudiodelpintor.com/2016/10/dante-alighieri-la-divina-comedia-i-inferno/
https://www.revistaarcadia.com/agenda/articulo/sandro-botticelli-y-el-inferno-de-dante-un-nuevo-documental/62067
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_puerta_del_Infierno_(escultura)#Locations
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante%27s_Inferno_(videogame)
https://www.amazon.com/Inferno-espanol-Spanish-Dan-Brown/dp/0345806492
