Dantes Inferno Traditional View of the Afterlife What

Dante’s Inferno Traditional View of the Afterlife

What references to Greek Mythology can you find?

Souls of the Dead

How many rivers in Hades? n n n Four Rivers are marked on the Dante’s diagram. Where is the fifth river located? Between Purgatory and Paradise in Dante’s Version. Why might Dante have chosen this positioning? Heaven is a place of bliss; Lethe is the river of forgetfulness.

Similar Locations/People n n n Wall of Dis is equivalent to the Walls of Tartarus Charon – place him on the Acheron as in Greek Mythology Minos – place him right after Limbo at the entrance to hell proper.

William Blake – Dante’s Inferno Pity

The Minotaur

The Sistine Chapel – Last Judgment

William Blake – Dante’s Inferno Whirlwind of Lovers

Circle 1 – Good Pagans Cross the River Acheron and come to Circle 1. n Here are the good pagans – people who lived good lives before the birth of Christ. They suffer no physical punishment, but a spiritual one: since they did not know God on earth, now they are forever deprived of the sight of Him. n

Circle 2 – Carnal Sinners People who sinned through passion… …the illicit lovers…the unfaithful husbands and wives. n Their punishment, of course, fits their crime: as they permitted themselves to be tossed by the storms of passion on earth, as now in hell they are tossed forever by actual winds and gales. n

Circle 3 – Gluttonous Sinners Here they wallow in mud and dirty slush. n As they enjoyed eating on earth, now they are eaten by Cerebus, a horrible three-headed dog. As they enjoyed delicacies on earth, now they live in the indelicate – in the muck! n

Circle 4 – Hoarders and wasters. n n In life they worked without meaning; now they work without meaning in death, pushing Huge boulders against each other. What Greek Titan would you find here?

Fifth Circle – The Wrathful and the Sullen n n The angry, who hit each other on earth, and now spend eternity hitting each other; and of the sullen who sulked on earth and now sulk beneath soft, bubbling mud. This is the End of Upper Hell! n Next follow the heinous evil crimes!

Lower Hell

n Circle 6 - Heretics People who deliberately rejected the teachings of their religion. They lie in burning tombs and on Judgment Day, the lids will be nailed down forever. As they chose to conceal themselves from God, so they will forever be concealed from Him and all beings.

Circle 7 – Domain of the Violent Murders - Violence against neighbors: they are simmering in a river of boiling blood. n Suicides – Violence against themselves: changed into trees since they rejected their human form n Blasphemers, sodomites, usurers – Violence against God, Nature, Art: n Lying on a steaming sterile desert, bather in a constant rain of fire. n

Circle 8 – Guilty of Fraud 10 Sections or bolgias (ditches) 1) Seducers and panderers n 2) Flatters n 3) Simoniacs n 4) Fortune-tellers – heads on backwards n 5) Grafters and swindlers n 6) Hypocrites n 7) Thieves – body stolen by reptiles n 8) Evil counselors 9) Sower of discord n 10) Falsifiers - body disfigured as lies n

Circle 9 – Treason Sinners are ranked according to their guilt 1) Treasonous against kin (family) n 2) Treasonous against country n 3) Treasonous against guests/hosts n 4) Treasonous against their masters n Punishment: All are encased in ICE as their cold hearts suggest they should be. n

At the very Pit of Hell! Judas Betrays Jesus n Brutus Betrays Caesar n Cassius Betrays Caesar n n n They are in the three mouths of Satan himself, being devoured and chewed and ravaged throughout eternity! All three men committed suicide.

What is Dante’s Value System? n n n Sins of the flesh? Sins of violence? Sins of fraud? In your hell you may not think Gluttony is a sin at all. CREATE YOUR OWN HELL Identify the sin and create the punishment