The Inferno
On Good Friday 1300 AD, in Dante's thirty-fifth year, he goes astray from the straight road into the Dark Wood of Error. Seeing the Sun (Divine Illumination) lighting the Mount of Joy in the Distance, he attempts to climb up the mountainside but is blocked by three beasts of worldliness: the Leopard of Malice and Fraud, the Lion of Violence and Ambition, and the She-Wolf of Incontinence. When his hope is nearly lost, the shade of the Roman poet Virgil (a symbol of Human Reason) appears to him. Virgil has been sent by Beatrice in Heaven to lead Dante from error; he explains that to defeat the beasts it is necessary to take the harder route through Hell (where sin is recognized), Purgatory (where sin is renounced), then to Heaven to revel in the light of God. Dante accepts and sets off with him. The Poets pass through the Gate of Hell (inscribed with the famous line, Abandon all hope ye who enter here) and step into the Vestibule, where they see the torments inflicted on the opportunists and those who took neither side in the Rebellion of the Angels. They are not officially in Hell nor Heaven because their actions in life were not good enough or bad enough to warrant a place in either. They must forever pursue a banner just out
To exit Hell, the Poets climb down Satan's hairy flanks until they pass over the center of gravity and emerge at the Mount of Purgatory on the other side of the world to finally gaze at the stars. Geryon deposits them in the eighth circle, Malebolge (Evil Ditches) which consists of ten bolgias (ditches/pockets); those guilty of simple fraud are punished therein. Stone dikes running from ditch to ditch will serve as bridges on which the Poets can cross them. The first bolgia contains the souls of panderers and seducers, eternally driven by lashes from horned demons. The souls of the flatterers are sunk in excrement. Upper Hell, for those who committed the least serious sins, is made of five circles, each containing fewer sinners and smaller than the one before it. The first of these is Limbo, where unbaptized children and virtuous pagans are placed. Virgil is one of these souls, who lived decent lives but died before Christ came (in Dante's mind, belief in Christ was necessary to enter Heaven). They are not tormented but must spend eternity without hope. Dante and Virgil tarry in Limbo to talk with other great poets of the ancient world. (Dante must have had tremendous pride in himself to have imagined walking with Homer and Ovid.) It is now two hours before sunrise on Holy Saturday. (Virgil is somehow able to track the motion of the stars, which cannot be seen in Hell as they are a symbol of God's shining hope and virtue.)
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ulysses Diomede, Dante Catholic, Dante Virgil, Poets Malacoda, Evil Ditches, Upper Hell, Wood Suicides, Hell Pit, Holy Virgil, Rebellion Angels, seventh circle, dante virgil, virgil convinces, contains souls, human reason, sixth circle, round seventh circle, worms maggots, judgement day, bolgia contains, seventh bolgia, bolgia contains souls,
Approximate Word count = 2431
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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