Dante and The Inferno - Essay Example

Teacher Dante Inferno Dante’s Inferno is a mythical narrative of hell described composing of nine circles with each circle representing a seen with their symbolic retribution. It must be clarified however to be able to put the writing in proper perspective that this organization of hell is based on Christian faith. The circle was arranged depending on Dante’s perspective of the gravity of sin beginning with the Limbo where non-Christians are punished and in his vortex of hell is the sin of treachery.

Each circle has its corresponding retribution but the three circles that have the most masterful and creative way in attributing symbolic retribution for the sins are found in the second which is the sin of lust, seventh is the sin of violence and the ninth and last circle which is the sin of treachery. Dante and his friend Virgil found in the second circle people who were __ with lust when they were still alive. To their surprise, they found famous people in history who is wallowing in the second circle of hell.

The famous people from history whom they found in the second layer of hell were the adulterers during their lifetime such as Helen of Troy and Cleopatra. They suffered together with the other people in the circle with a strong wind that refuses to abate giving them eternal trouble and without rest. This strong wind is symbolic of the restless sin of lust that made them commit sin during their lifetime and now haunts them as a retribution in afterlife When Dante reached the seventh circle, he found that this pit was filled with people who were violent when they were style alive.

Again, he found mythological figures in history in the seventh circle of hell. There he found Dionysius I of Syracuse, Centaurus and others. This circle of hell however differed from the earlier circles because this hell has three sections – outer ring for the killers, middle ring for the suicidal and the inner right for the blasphemers. The retribution to those who are in the outer right is being dipped for all eternity in the river of boiling blood and fire. The retribution for the suicidal are being turned into food to harpies.

Those who are in the inner rings are subjected to burning rain while being in a desert. As expected, Dante’s vortex of hell has the most colorful retribution. There he found Judas who betrayed Jesus with a kiss and other biblical figures such as Cain who murdered his son Abel. Again this is divided into Caina, Antenora, Tolomea and Giudecca where the retributions were being immersed in ice as they look down, forward, up and totally immersed. In its vortex of retribution is Judas being chewed by the devil Lucifer himself.

The retributions found in second, seventh and ninth circle of hell were of course just a product of Dante’s rich imagination. The people who were found there were also fictitious and there is no way of verifying them if they indeed they were in hell. But these depictions of hell by Dante gave us the idea of the gravity of each sin and its corresponding punishment in hell if it ever exists.