Dante’s Inferno Holbrook’s Highway to Hell No Speeding!

1. Dante’s Inferno Holbrook’s Highway to Hell No Speeding!

2. Proceed With Caution! The Vestibule Souls of the Indifferent; the uncommitted Punishment: Run through wasps & hornets while carrying a banner Soul here – Pontius Pilot for making the great refusal

3. River of Acheron:River of Woe Only the dead may pass across this river Charon (from Greek mythology) is the boat keeper of the Acheron The Doomed Souls Embarking to Cross the Acheron Gustave Doré

4. Circle 1 Limbo • Those who came before Christ • The Unbaptized Homer and the Classic Poets Gustave Doré Punishment – No hope of seeing God Always Melancholy Souls Present – Homer, Socrates, Virgil, Plato, Aristotle, Ovid…

5. Abandon All Hope, Judgment Ye Who Enter Here • KING MINOS • (formerly the ruler of Crete; a son of Zeus) • Decides the fate and punishment of the Dead • Wraps his tail around a sinner to tell him to which circle he will be going. Minos Gustave Doré

6. King Minos Minos William Blake

7. Circle 2 The Lustful Sins of Lust Punishment – Spin within a whirlwind for eternity Souls Here – Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Paolo & Francesca Whirlwind of Lovers by William Blake

8. The Lustful continued… The Souls of Paola and Francesca Gustave Doré (give the story here…)

9. Guardian – Cerberus: 3-headed dog of hell, stands over the Gluttons slavering over them. Gluttony - 1: excess in eating or drinking2: greedy or excessive indulgence Producers of nothing but garbage and offal Punishment – live in a mixture of stinking snow & freezing rain that forms a bile slush (basically a giant garbage dump) Souls - Ciacco the Hog, a citizen of Florence Circle 3 The Gluttons

10. Circle 3 The GluttonsCerberus • Cerberus presides over the third circle of Hell. • He is prevented from devouring Virgil and Dante by Virgil who distracts the beast by feeding him handfuls of earth. Cerebus William Blake

11. The Gluttons: Circle 3 The Souls of the Gluttonous Gustave Doré

12. The Gluttons…continued (more art) The Gluttons Ciacco Gustave Doré

13. Circle 4 Hoarders & Wasters(Avaricious & Prodigal) Those who are greedy & those who are recklessly extravagant. Punishment – roll stones at each other while screaming, “Why squander,” and “Why grasp.” Souls – You can’t recognize anyone here because their features were so dimmed from fighting. The Souls of the Avaricious Gustave Doré

14. Avaricious & Prodigal The Avaricious and the Prodigal Gustave Doré

15. People who are always sad, resentful, angry, etc. Punishment: The wrathful are immersed in the marsh of the Styx River while fighting each other Punishment for the Sullen – entombed under the mud of the Styx River Souls – Filippo Argenti, who rises from the mud and attacks the Virgil and Dante Circle 5 The Wrathful & the Sullen

16. Wrathful & Sullen continued… Virgil shows Dante the Souls of the Wrathful Gustave Doré Circle 5

17. Wrathful & Sullen (art) The Stygian Lake, with the Ireful Sinners Fighting William Blake

18. Wall of the City of Dis Guarded by the Furies and Rebellious Angels A heavenly messenger opens the gate to the city with a poof! The City of Dis and The Heretics Botticelli

19. Wall of City of Dis continued… • Dante and Virgil have to run past a scary minotaur (a monster shaped half like a man and half like a bull) The Minotaur on the Shattered Cliff Gustave Doré

20. Circle 6 The Heretics Sin - a baptized member of the Roman Catholic Church who disavows a revealed truth Punishment – Confined to burning tombs Souls – … Guardians… The Heretics Botticelli

21. Circle 7 RING ONE Violence Against Neighbors Punishment – Immersed in River of blood according to the sinner’s degree of guilt Souls – Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun The Violent against their Neighbour Botticelli

22. Circle 7 Violence Against Oneself (Suicides) RING TWO Punishment – Souls encased in trees with Harpies pecking at them. Those who destroy their own bodies are denied Human Forms. Harpies are foul mythological creatures that are part woman & part bird. Harpies in the Forest of the Suicides Gustave Doré

23. RING 3 Circle 7 Violence Against God THREE TYPES: • Blasphemers – stretched on burning sand • Sodomites – running on burning sand • Usurers – huddled on burning sand & sit with purses around their necks (kind of like a loan shark) Souls – Brunetto Latini, Dante’s former teacher The Blasphemer William Blake (British Museum)

24. Violence Against GodCircle 7: Ring 3 • Capaneus - one of the seven kings who besieged Thebes. He defied Jupiter and was killed by a thunderbolt. Dante describes him as lying proud and disdainful, apparently unaffected by the flames. Capaneus the Blasphemer   William Blake

25. RING 3 ART Circle 7 Violence Against God, Nature, and Art Brunetto Latini accosts Dante Gustave Doré

26. River Styx:The River of Hate Phlegyas ferries Dante and Virgil across the Styx Gustave Doré

27. Bolgia 1 Circle 8 The Fraudulent:Panderers & Seducers • Sin – Panderers (to provide gratification for others' desires ) & Seducers (to persuade to disobedience or disloyalty; sometimes has to do with sexual) • Punishment – Whipped by devils

28. Bolgia 2 Circle 8 The Fraudulent:Flatterers • Punishment – Covered with filth • Souls Present Jason and others Definition -to praise excessively especially from motives of self-interest Paramours and Flatterers Gustave Doré

29. Bolgia 3 Circle 8 The Fraudulent:Simonists • Simonists are people who sell ecclesiastical favors (If you pay me money, I’ll make sure you get into heaven.) • Punishment – Turned upside down with fire on their feet • Souls present – Pope Nicholas III - Pope from 1277 - 1280. Dante views him as one who corrupted church office. The Simonists, by Gustave Doré

30. Bolgia 4 Circle 8 The Fraudulent:Fortune Tellers • Punishment – Their heads are twisted and then turned backwards • Souls Present – Tieresias (the blind prophet from Oedipus and Antigone) • Dante names seven souls in all, one of them a woman, Manto, after whom Virgil's birthplace Mantua was named; one of the men is probably her father Tiresias. Virgil and Dante look down from the rock bridge above. The Necromancers and Augurs William Blake

31. Bolgia 5 Circle 8 The Fraudulent:Corrupt Officials • Punishment – Covered by boiling pitch (dirt/tar) and harassed by 10 sneaky demons • This art scene is set in the fifth chasm of the eighth circle. Bonturo Dati's fellow magistrate is being carried by a demon and is about to be thrown into the boiling pitch before being attacked with hooks. The Devil Carrying the Lucchese Magistrate to the Boiling-Pitch Pool of Corrupt Officials William Blake

32. Circle 8 Bolgia 6 The Fraudulent:Hypocrites • Definition - a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion • Punishment – Clothed in leaden mantles (like a cloak) • Souls Present – Caiaphas The Hypocrites Gustave Doré

33. Circle 8 Bolgia 7 The Fraudulent:Thieves • Punishment – Trapped in a snake pit with their hands bound; then they change into snakes • Souls Present – Vanni Fucci Thieves Gustave Doré

34. Thieves: Vanni Fucci Vanni Fucci had been bitten by a serpent, instantly transformed into ashes, and then, like the phoenix, reconstituted into his former shape. This was his punishment for robbing the treasury of San Jacopo in the Church of San Zeno, Pistoia, in 1293. Here Vanni Fucci blasphemes against God with an obscene gesture. The flames rain down on him from the dark cloud above and serpents renew their attacks on him. Vanni Fucci 'Making Figs' Against God William Blake

35. The Fraudulent: Thieves Here, the two poets have crossed over the cliff into the seventh chasm of the eighth circle, where the Thieves are punished by serpents. The Thieves and the Serpents   William Blake

36. Circle 8 Bolgia 8 The Fraudulent:Evil Counselors • Punishment – Concealed in flames • Souls Present – Ulysses, Diomed, Guido Evil Counselors Gustave Doré

37. Evil Counselors (art) Virgil and Dante are now in the eighth chasm of the eighth circle, where the punishment of Evil Counselors occurs. The figures are swathed in individual flames, likened by Dante to fireflies. Ulysses and Diomed are punished for deceiving the Trojans with the Wooden Horse. Ulysses and Diomed Swathed in the Same Flame William Blake

38. Circle 8 Bolgia 9 The Fraudulent:Sowers of Discord • Definition – (lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, things, or ideas) b: active quarreling or conflict resulting from discord among persons or factions : Strife) • Punishment – Physically torn apart, wounded, and mutilated The Sowers of Discord Gustave Doré

39. Bolgia 10 Circle 8 The Fraudulent: Counterfeiters & Alchemists • Punishment – diseased with all kinds of deformities • Dante sees two pale and naked shadows rushing out biting like hungry swine. One, Gianni Schicchi, grabs Capocchio by the neck with his fangs. Capocchio, is probably the Florentine alchemist who was burned alive in Sienna in 1281. The other animal-headed figure on the left is Myrrha, daughter of King Cinyras of Cyprus with whom she had an incestuous relationship. The Pit of Disease: Gianni Schicchi and Myrrha by William Blake

40. Giant’s Well (art) • In antiquity Geryon was a monster with three heads, six arms and three bodies joined together at the waist; he was slain by Hercules. In the middle ages, however, Geryon was equated with fraud, with the face of a just man but the body of a reptile. Geryon Conveying Dante and Virgil Down Towards Malebolge William Blake

41. Giant’s Well Geryon Gustave Doré • Geryon: Giant on whose back Dante descends to lower hell; has a dragon-like form in accordance with Revelations 9: 9-20 • The Giant’s Well leads to Circles 8 because Geryon represents Fraud.

42. Circle 9 Round ONE Treachery:Traitors Against Kin (Family) • Punishment – Held in ICE with their heads bent forward The Circle of the Traitors: Dante's Foot Striking Bocca degli Abbati William Blake

43. Circle 9 Round TWO Treachery: Against Country • Punishment – Gripped by ICE while biting one another’s head • Souls Present – Archbishop Ruggieri, Ugolino Ugolino Gustave Doré

44. Circle 9 Round 3 Treachery:Against Guests & Hosts • This means being a traitor to a guest in your home or to a person hosting you (like hospitality) • Punishment – Held in ICE with head up, freezing their eyes Traitors Gustave Doré

45. Circle 9 Round 4 Treachery:Against Lords & Benefactors • This means treachery to masters (like Brutus & Cassius) • Punishment – Completely immersed in ICE, held by Lucifer Traitors Botticelli

46. Lucifer Dante and Virgil are now in the ninth and last circle, that of the Traitors, and have reached the inner of four concentric rings where traitors are frozen in a kind of building, shining like straw in glass. At the centre stands Lucifer, frozen from the waist down, with three heads and bat-like wings, the flapping of which freezes the heart of Hell. In each mouth he chews on a sinner: Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius. Lucifer William Blake

47. Lucifer (art) Lucifer, King of Hell, by Gustave Doré

48. Lucifer (art) Lucifer Botticelli

49. Lucifer (art) • Dante, in the lowest circle of hell, witnesses a gigantic Lucifer who possesses three heads, the wings of a bat, and is covered with frozen, matted hair.  He weeps from all six eyes a grotesque mixture of tears, blood, and pus. artist unavailable

50. Lucifer (art) • “We must depart from evil so extreme.” Dante AlighieriLa Divina Commedia Lucifer Salvadore Dalí