'Dante Alighieri’s Inferno Paper Essay\r'

'Inferno is the eldest segment of Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic poem presage Comedy. Inferno is an allegory telling of the go of Dante through Hell, guided by the roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is described as niner roofys of suffering located inwardly the Earth. Allegorically, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the instinct towards God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin. Because Dante is an educated Christian, he uses unreal references to represent Hell visually appealing. Dante is guided By Virgil because he believes Virgil represents pitying reason, something very important to Dante. The both poets make their journey to Purgatory by descending into the first circle of Hell. The first circle of the nine is Limbo. Limbo is â€Å"a region on the edge of hell for those who atomic number 18 not saved even though they did not sin” (University of Texas). In Limbo, there is a castle with seven gates which l ay out the seven virtues (historylists.org).\r\nThis castle houses the great poets Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan; it too houses great philosophers such as Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Heraclitus, Orpheus, and Euclid. Dante uses the allusion of Aristotle as â€Å"[a] man with honor and respect” (http://apliterature-sasd.wikispaces.com). The imprimatur circle is cognize as zest. zest consists of the â€Å" passel who were over pick out by luxuria” (University of Texas). The soulfulnesss in Lust â€Å" be penalise by being blown violently back and forth by ardent winds, preventing them to find peace and rest” (historylists.org). The toilsome winds symbolizationize the restlessness of a someone who is led by desire for another(prenominal) person. Dante comes crossways a couple, Francesca and Paolo, who were murdered because they were practicing adultery. Lust is guarded by the mythological wolf Minos. Minos’ posterior determines which level eac h and every soul belongs. Once a soul has told Minos why they atomic number 18 in Hell, his tail drum rolls around his body and each coil represents a circle in Hell. Dante uses Minos as the â€Å"king of evildoers” because Minos himself was surrounded by sinner during his lifetime.\r\nThe Third circle is cognise as overeating. Gluttony is where the Gluttonous sinners suffer beneath a cold and filthy rain. Gluttony is guarded by Cerberus, the trine-headed dog. Dante â€Å"adapts him to be more than monstrous by his salient coat and ravenous bite, an apt symbol for gluttony” (foxtwin.com). Dante uses particular names for particular people in each circle. A florescence example of this would be when Dante and Virgil come crosswise Ciacco the most gluttonous man. He warns Dante that their hometown, Florence, go away be destroyed. The cardinalth circle, avarice and prodigality, is known for housing those who lust for material need and those who keep their weal th all for themselves. The penalization for this circle is to carry around large boulders and bump against each other. â€Å"The boulder represents money and the weight of the boulder represents its weight in their lives” (University of Texas). Here, Virgil and Dante come across Plutus, the God of Wealth.\r\nDante uses Plutus to typify â€Å"those that squander and gather money” (foxtwin.com). The two Poets also come across razzing Fortune, the spinner of the world. As a go forth of her spinning wheel, things turn from good to bad. Dante uses wench Fortune to represent chance in a human’s life. The one-fifth circle represents Wrath and Sullenness. â€Å"Wrath is temper that is expressed and Sullenness is and that is repressed” (University of Texas). Dante and Virgil ar transported across the Styx by Phlegyas,” the infernal employee”. Phlegyas is in Hell because he set onset to the temple of Apollo. The sixth circle represents Heresy. In Heresy, the heretics lie in tombs made of compact and engulfed in flames. While in Heresy, the Poets are temporarily halted and must wait for the facilitate from Heaven. While waiting for help, Infernal Furies nettle and curse them. The seventh circle, Violence, is divided into three kinds of violence. The first is violence against neighbors on the bloody(a) River Phlegethon.\r\nThe river is not made of water, but of blood. Here, Virgil and Dante come across the Centaurs, the half-man and half-horse creature. The poets also come across the Minotaur. The Minotaur occasionally eats seven youth men and women, in which Dante uses to symbolize violence. The mho violence is against self in the forest of Self. â€Å"The souls of those who destroyed their bodies or their substance are here to be made into difficult trees” (foxtwin.com). Since the souls destroyed their own bodies, they were denied any relation to a body in Hell. The leaves of these trees were distressingl y eaten by the Harpies. The third violence is against God, Art, and record on the burning sand. The eighth circle consists of the fraudulent sinners. This circle is shaped like to an arena with â€Å"ten concentric ditches where the sinners are tortured” (foxtwin.com).\r\nEach ditch is quiet with different types of fraudulent sinners: the Panderers, the Flatterers, the Simoniacs, the Fortune Tellers, the Grafters, the Hypocrites, Thieves, and Deceivers. In circle eight, the Poets meet the complex junkie Geryon. Geryon would lure in his victims and then fine-tune them, allowing Dante to use him as fraud. Dante also uses pontiff Nicholas II as a symbol as fraud. The final circle is known as The Treacherous or Cocytus. Cocytus â€Å"is the coldest power in Hell” (University of Texas). This circle consists of four smaller circles: Caina, Antenora, Ptolomea, and Judecca. Dante uses three unnamed giants to symbolize â€Å"pride and other spiritual flaws guile behind acts of treachery” (University of Texas). Dante, in his lop Inferno, uses several historical and mythological figures to base his Christian devotion and Greek mythological knowledge. He also used these figures to make the poem a better consider and to make modern connections of the time.\r\n'