In classic literature The divine Comedy, the Italian Dante Alighieri described the nine floors of hell, descending from Jerusalem to the devil’s house. See below what these divisions are and which type of sinner goes to which place.
– (Eduardo Belga/)
WORLD MAP
In Dante’s time, there were only three known continents – Europe, Asia and Africa. The poet imagined that, at the opposite pole from Jerusalem, was the island of purgatory – connected to hell by a passage opened by the fall of Lucifer
– (Eduardo Belga/)
A) Hell’s Gate
The journey begins in a dark jungle full of beasts where Dante meets the spirit of Virgil, who is willing to be his guide. At the entrance to hell, without doors or padlocks, there is a warning: «Give up all hope, you who enter!»
B) ANTESLAY OF EVIL
Indecisive and cowardly people can neither go to heaven nor to hell and they agonize here. Stung by swarms of wasps, they run non-stop. The blood that comes out of the bites mixes with tears and runs down to the feet, which are gnawed by worms.
C) AQUERONTE RIVER
The condemned cross a marshy, gray river, led by Charon – the ferryman of the dead in Greek mythology. “Bad souls, I came to get you for eternal punishment!”, He announces, lowering the oar to those who hesitate to board. The descent through the nine circles of hell begins!
– (Eduardo Belga/)
1st CIRCLE – LIMBO
There is no suffering or lamentation here: only sighs and despair. This is the place of souls who, in life, were virtuous, but who had the misfortune of not being baptized. Those who lived before Christ also inhabit limbo
2nd CIRCLE – LUXURIOUS
The monster Minos welcomes you by wrapping its tail around the body of sinners – the number of turns of the tail indicates the circle that the condemned person will inhabit. At this level, those who have sinned out of lust are tossed to and fro by strong whirlpools.
3rd CIRCLE – GREAT GUYS
The gluttons are sunk in the mud, unable to speak to their neighbors, and are lashed by a blizzard and sleet. To make matters worse, they suffer from the haunting presence of Cerberus, the three-headed dog of Greek mythology, who bites them mercilessly.
– (Eduardo Belga/)
4th CIRCLE – AVARENTS AND SPENTERS
Anyone who was too stingy or spent too much will stay here. In an analogy with the wheel of fortune, the penalty for those who did not know how to deal with finances is to spend eternity rolling large and heavy stones and colliding incessantly with each other
5th CIRCLE – ANGRY AND RANCOROUS
The torment of those who haven’t controlled their anger is to live immersed in the disgusting mud of the River Styx. There, the angry ones are beating, kicking and biting each other. At the bottom of the river, the spiteful ones, who never expressed their anger, sigh stinking pimples
6th CIRCLE – HERETICS
Behind the walls of the “City of Eternal Pain”, those who did not believe in the existence of God burn red hot inside open tombs. Here lies the boundary between sins committed unintentionally and those committed consciously.
– (Eduardo Belga/)
7th CIRCLE – VIOLENT
Murderers, tyrants and robbers are shot with arrows in the river of boiling blood. In the forest, suicides saw plants devoured by harpies, while blasphemers, sodomites and moneylenders “refresh themselves” in the eternal rain of embers, in the middle of the desert
8th CIRCLE – FRAUDERS
There are ten circular ditches, one deeper than the other, where deceivers are punished – from thieves to bag-handlers. They are beaten by horned demons, buried upside down, boiled in lava and bitten by snakes.
9th CIRCLE – TRAITORS
At the bottom of hell are those who committed the worst of crimes: betrayal. They dive into a frozen lake, called Cocytus, leaving only the head and torso out. Chins droop from the cold and their tears freeze, driving them to despair. In the center of the ninth circle, Lucifer himself is in charge of torturing those who have betrayed their benefactors. The bad thing has three heads and in each mouth crushes a traitor: Judas – who betrayed Jesus -, Brutus and Cassius – traitors of Roman emperors