Introduction
Canto 1
The Dark Wood
Dante finds himself lost in a dark wood, representing spiritual confusion and moral crisis.
Key Events
- Encounter with three beasts: leopard, lion, and she-wolf
- Meeting Virgil, who becomes Dante's guide
- Beginning of the journey through Hell
Ante-Inferno & Limbo
Cantos 2-4
The Vestibule
The realm of the uncommitted, whose souls refused to choose between good and evil.
First Circle: Limbo
Home to virtuous pagans and unbaptized souls who did not sin but lacked Christian faith.
Notable Spirits
- Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan
- Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato
- Other classical figures of virtue
Upper Hell
Cantos 5-8
Circle 2: Lust
Souls blown about by eternal storms, representing their submission to passions.
Circle 3: Gluttony
Souls laid in mud, pelted by eternal rain and hail.
Circle 4: Greed
The hoarders and wasters clash weights eternally.
Notable Spirits
- Paolo and Francesca
- Ciacco the Glutton
- Many clergymen and cardinals
City of Dis
Cantos 9-17
Circle 6: Heresy
Heretics trapped in flaming tombs.
Circle 7: Violence
Three rings punishing violence against others, self, and God.
Key Features
- The fiery walls of Dis
- River of boiling blood
- Wood of the Suicides
- Desert of burning sand
Lower Hell
Cantos 18-34
Circle 8: Malebolge
Ten trenches containing different forms of fraud.
Circle 9: Cocytus
The frozen lake of treachery, containing Satan himself.
Zones of Treachery
- Caïna: Betrayal of family
- Antenora: Betrayal of country
- Ptolomea: Betrayal of guests
- Judecca: Betrayal of benefactors