Abandon all hope ye who enter here.I am the way into the city of woe
I am the way to a forsaken people
I am the way into eternal sorrow.....
Abandon all hope ye who enter here.
So is marked the gateway through which begins Dante's journey through the nine circles of hell with his guide Virgil, as described in his 12th century masterpiece, the Divine Comedy.
All manner of sins and peccadillos find their appropriate punishment levels in Dante's multilayered Hades.
Virgil? Well he was an "unbaptised virtuous pagan", so he spends eternity in the 1st circle together with Homer, Socrates, Plato and Saladin.
Opportunists? They are a very special lot for whom Dante has found a tailor-made punishment to suit their peculiar crime - that of not taking sides. For this they spend eternity chasing a perpetually waving and unobtainable banner while being stung by hornets. Streams of blood and putrid matter issue from their bodies and fall to the ground providing food for myriads of maggots the sinners walk upon. As they didn't commit, neither does Dante - they are neither in hell or not in hell - he places them in the vestibule to hell!
The Lustful are tossed about by storms of perpetual desire in the 2nd circle of hell.
Gluttons are rewarded with an eternity in freezing putrid slush in level 3 in the company of a snarling three-headed dog called Cerberus.
Penny-pinching misers push heavy weights around in level 4 while the souls of the spiteful and sullen spend eternity drowning in the river Styx in level 5.
Commit suicide and you are stuck with blasphemers, sodomites and money lenders in level 7 for the rest of eternity and flattery, seduction, sorcery and theft will land you in the 8th circle with a bunch of liars and panderers.
But the WORST, the very, very worst, the absolute ROCK BOTTOM of hell......is reserved for ......the TURNCOATS. Yes the TURNCOATS. For the sin of betrayal - of a special relationship or your country - your soul spends eternity in a frozen lake of ice together with the likes of Satan himself, Judas, Brutus, Cassius and.....Bocca... yes, Bocca...the turncoat Ghibelline who during the Battle of Montaperti ("Hill of Death") in the conflicts between two medieval Italian factions, severed the arm of the standard bearer for the rival Guelphs. Because uniforms were not worn in those days, standard bearers were vital and the loss of the standard bearer plunged the army into chaos.
The Lustful are tossed about by storms of perpetual desire in the 2nd circle of hell.
Gluttons are rewarded with an eternity in freezing putrid slush in level 3 in the company of a snarling three-headed dog called Cerberus.
Penny-pinching misers push heavy weights around in level 4 while the souls of the spiteful and sullen spend eternity drowning in the river Styx in level 5.
Commit suicide and you are stuck with blasphemers, sodomites and money lenders in level 7 for the rest of eternity and flattery, seduction, sorcery and theft will land you in the 8th circle with a bunch of liars and panderers.
But the WORST, the very, very worst, the absolute ROCK BOTTOM of hell......is reserved for ......the TURNCOATS. Yes the TURNCOATS. For the sin of betrayal - of a special relationship or your country - your soul spends eternity in a frozen lake of ice together with the likes of Satan himself, Judas, Brutus, Cassius and.....Bocca... yes, Bocca...the turncoat Ghibelline who during the Battle of Montaperti ("Hill of Death") in the conflicts between two medieval Italian factions, severed the arm of the standard bearer for the rival Guelphs. Because uniforms were not worn in those days, standard bearers were vital and the loss of the standard bearer plunged the army into chaos.
The 9th circle is the most interesting level where one can imagine the likes of Quizling, Petain, Benedict Arnold, Kim Philby, Donald Maclean and Aldrich Ames as frozen popsicles... and maybe also an ex-boyfriend or two....
Take a virtual tour of hell at:
http://web.eku.edu/flash/inferno/
posted by doughnuts at 8:22 PM
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