Plot Summary for Dante's Inferno

The Woods
Dante’s Inferno opens in the setting on Good Friday in the year 1300. The voyager-narrator, Dante Alghieri, is lost in a dark forest in the middle of the night. Dante doesn’t recall how he came into the woods and blames it on how he was so full of sleep at the point where he abandoned the right path. Right as he is about to lose hope, he sees the sun rising over the mountainside and as he attempts to reach it, Dante is stopped by three beasts; a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf. Dante becomes afraid and retreats to lower ground when he is met by a faint figure. This ghostly character turns out to be Virgil, a Roman poet, sent to lead Dante back to his path, the top of the mountain. Virgil warns Dante that to reach their destination, they must go through Hell. As Virgil and Dante begin their journey to Hell, Dante begins to question his worthiness to visit the deathless world. When Dante asked Virgil about his worthiness, his guide comforts him by saying that his beloved Beatrice, Dante’s infatuation and one of the three Ladies of Heaven, sent Virgil to bring Dante to Heaven. Dante is heartened in this reply and prays upon the Muses for safe voyage so he can see his beloved Beatrice in Heaven.
Gate of Hell
Virgil leads Dante to the Gate of Hell, which is marked with the inscription, “ALL HOPE ABANDON, YE WHO ENTER IN.” Virgil and Dante go through the gate to the outlying region of Hell, The Ante-Inferno, where cowardly angels the souls who in life did not commit to either good nor evil, are forces to chase a blank banner while being stung by hornets and worms lap their blood. As Dante witnesses this punishment, he feels pity and repugnance for their suffering. As they go through the crowd, Dante notices a big crowd of people gathering on the banks of a river and asks Virgil why they seem so eager to cross over. Virgil responds by telling him to quiet down; he will soon find out why when they get to the banks of the river Acheron, one of the five rivers of the Greek Underworld. When they arrive at the banks, Charon, the ferryman, confronts them and refuses to let them cross because Dante is not dead. Virgil tell Charon that his passage is approved by God and Charon is forced to ferry them across the river. As they are crossing the river, a violent earthquake scares Dante “and like a man whom sleep has seized, I fell.”
Circle One
Dante awakens in the first circle, or Limbo, where the virtuous pagans, unbaptized babies, and worthy people who lived before Christ. The setting in Limbo is silent, with the only sounds being the sighing of the residents and the crying of the infants. The first circle is surrounded by green fields and a castle that has seven gates, representing the seven virtues. Virgil, who resides in Limbo, leads Dante through the castle where they meet four poets; Aristotle, Lucan, Hoarace, and Ovid. They are in Hell because they lived before Christ and were never baptized into Christianity. After passing through the solemn circle, Dante and Virgil also meet others such as Plato, Socrates, Democritus, and Ptolemy. Virgil leads Dante to the border of the second circle, which Dante observes as “to a place where nothing shines.”
Circle Two
As the two protagonists head from the first to second circle, they hear an increasing number of wails and screams of the souls. Here at the border they meet the monster Minos, Who standeth horribly and snarls, Examines the transgressions at the entrance; Judges, and sends according as he grids him.
This mostly says that Minos is the one who assigns condemned souls to their punishments. He curls his tail around himself a certain number of times, indicating which number circle the sinner must go to. After Virgil convinces Minos to let them enter, Dante describes the second circle as a “place mute of all light, which bellows as the sea does in a tempest, if by opposing winds ‘t is combated.” This circle is dedicated to those overcome by lust. Dante condemns these “carnal malefactors” for letting their appetites sway their reason. These souls are blown back and forth in an infernal hurricane, which whirls them around without rest. As Dante and Virgil proceed through the second circle, Virgil tells Dante who some of the sinners are. Among the lustful is Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Paris, Achilles, and many others who were overcome with sexual love during their life. After Virgil told Dante who the sinners were, pity washed over Dante. While walking, Dante becomes curious and asks Virgil to speak to a pair of nearby sinners. Dante ends up talking to Francesca da Rimini, who was forced into a loveless marriage and them committed adultery with her husband’s brother, Paolo Malatesta. Francesa and Paolo died a violent death when her husband, Giovanni, killed them. Francesa reports that their act of adultery was triggered by the reading of the adulterous story of Lancelot and Guinevere. Nevertheless, Francesca is convinced her husband will be condemned for his fratricide in the ninth circle. As Francesa tells Virgil and Dante her and Paolo’s story, the other soul with her weeps and Dante, so overcome with pity, faints “and fell, even as a dead body falls.”
Circle Three
Dante awakens in the third circle and is immediately saddened by the memory of the two lovers in the second circle. Virgil and Dante proceed to the third circle, which is guarded by the “great worm” Cerberus. As Virgil and Dante approach the border of circle three, Virgil throws mud into the three mouths of the monster. This action gives them safe passage past the monsters into the third circle, where the gluttons reside. The punishment within the third circle is the gluttonous are forced to lie in a vile slush while enduring an icy rain of filth. As Dante and Virgil walk across the sinner laying in the earth, one sinner sits up as Dante and his guide pass him. This certain sinner asks to talk with the two men and when Dante gives him permission, reveals himself as Ciacco, a gluttonous Florentine citizen. Ciacco speaks to Dante regarding strife in Florence between the “White” and “Black” Guelphs. Dante asks Ciacco if he knows what will happen to their beloved Florentine and Ciacco predicts the explusion of the White party, to which Dante belongs to, and the bloodshed that will follow with Dante’s exile. Ciacco continues to explain how Florentine is overrun with corruption and greed, and if not stopped with crumble and fall. After uttering his tearful testimony, Ciacco begs Dante to use his speech to warn the citizens of Florentine what awaits them if they continue on this downward spiral. “Then his straightforward eyes he turned askance, Eyed me little, and then bowed his head; He fell therewith prone like the other blind.”
Virgil tells Dante that Ciacco will not rise again until the sound of the angelic trumpet is heard, signaling when all sinners will resume their bodily flesh and tombs and once again face judgment. As Virgil and Dante pass onward over the filthy mixture of shadows and rain, Dante asks Virgil if the tormented will be given a lighter or heavier sentence then they are currently condemned too. Virgil responds by telling Dante that once they return back to Hell, their punishment will find perfection.

Circle Four

Virgil leads Dante into the fourth circle, guarded by Plutus, the Greek god of wealth. Dante becomes afraid by Plutus and Virgil reassures Dante by telling Plutus that their trip is “willed on high,” causing Plutus to fall to the earth. As they proceed forward, Dante states, Here I saw people, more than anywhere else, many, On one side and the other, with great howls, Rolling weights forward by main force of chest. They clashed together, and then at that point Each one turned backward, rolling retrograde, Crying, “Why keepest?” and, “Why squanderedest thou?”
After this observation, Virgil explains to Dante that the two groups of people are the Avarious, people who hoarded their money, and the Prodigals, people who squandered their money away. This punishment of clashing semi-circle and turning around and doing the same thing all over again causes the sinners to lose all individuality and to be rendered “unrecognizable.” Virgil tells Dante that there is one thing that the sinners of the fourth circle have in common; their hatred for Fortune. When Dante inquires as to who Fortune is, Virgil tells him she is force that raises nations and races to greatness, and later plunges them into poverty as she shifts “those empty goods from nation unto nation, clan to clan.” Fortune’s knowledge knows no counterstand against it and she makes all of good judgment that so many souls seek to understand. For this she is often crucified even by those who should praise her judgment, often giving her blame and bad reputations. Virgil says despite all the negativity, Fortune is blissful and ignores all the curses of humans, “among the other primal creatures gladsome, she turns her sphere, and blissful she rejoices.”
Circle Five

As Dante and Virgil enter circle five, Dante views a river that is “darker than deep purple.” Dante identifies the marshy river as the river Styx, one of the five rivers of Hell. As Virgil and Dante make their way toward the banks of the river Styx, Dante spots two tower that appear to be on fire. When Dante asks his guide what they and who made them, Virgil responds by telling him that what is across the turbid waves is too much for Dante to handle just yet. The fourth circle is home to the wrathful and the sullen and is mostly set in the river Styx. As Dante and Virgil reach the banks of the river, Dante sees the two sets of sinners and their separate but equally terrible punishments. The wrathful fight each other on the surface of the water, “not with hands alone, but with their heads and chests and with their feet.” The sullen reside just beneath the murky water, choking on the river’s mud and filth. As Dante is observing the tormented, a small boats comes over the water to where Dante Virgil are standing. The vessel has one sole pilot, Phylegas, who reluctantly gives Dante and Virgil passage over the Styx. As they are crossing the river, a sinner suddenly reaches his hands toward the boat, causing Virgil to thrust the sinner back amongst the masses in the water. Afterwards Virgil grabs Dante’s neck and kisses his face, explaining that the certain sinner had no good, and like in life he is furious in Hell. Dante becomes angry and feels no pity for this certain sinner, asking Virgil if they could watch him get torn apart. Virgil is satisfied in Dante’s attitude toward the sinner and they watch him get demolished by the other angry sinners. Dante then learns that the sinner who reached out to them was Philippo Argenti, a Black Guelph from a prominent family. Philippo took all of Dante’s property when Dante was exiled from Florence. When Dante responds “In weeping and in grieving, accursed spirit, may you long remain,” Virgil blesses him. Toward the end of the fifth circle, Dante explains their arrival to the City of Dis, located in the larger region of Hell. Dante describes the wall to be made of iron, with fiery towers surrounding the entire circle of the city. As Dante and Virgil approach the gates, many souls realize that Dante is mortal and question his presence. Virgil speaks with them quietly and they allow Dante and his guide to go to the front of the gate, which is guarded by fallen angels and the three Furies; Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, who threaten Dante. When Virgil’s attempts to enter the city fail, an angel sent from Heaven secures entry for the poets, opening the gate by touching it with a wand and rebuking those who oppose Dante.

Circle Six

Dante is frightened by the heavy fog and black air as he and Virgil enter the City of Dis, one of Dante's worst fears. Circle six describes the lives of the Arch-Heretics, founders of heretical movements and sects which denied the fundamental policies of the original Christian faith.
The prisoners of this circle falsely represented God's word in their earthly life, therefore they are falsely lead to believe they can reach paradise, creating an insufferable yearning that will never be vanquished. Upon their arrival, they enter the first circle Limbo, where damned souls hopes' of paradise can never be fulfilled as they burn in scorching tombs filled with red hot embers and indescribable pain. Dante regains his pity for the sinners, annoying Virgil. As Virgil and Dante dive deeper into Hersey, they meet the people who followed in the footsteps of the Arch-Heretics and caused reformation in the religion they said to worship. The reason this is a sin is because it is betrayal to beliefs, a punishable act in Hell. One interesting fact about the prisoners of circle six is that they cannot understand or see the present, but have access to the future, which is illustrated when Dante's ancestor Cacciaguida reveals the details of his exile. Dante talks to Farinata degli Uberti, who predicts that Dante will have trouble returing to Florence from exile. Eternal imprisonment in the tombs of Dis is seen as a suitable punishment for those who believed that life ended with the death of the body. Virgil and Dante enter an area surrounded by large boulders along high banks. Virgil describes this as being broken up into three smaller circles of "every malice that earns hate 'in Heaven, injustice is the end, by force or fraud brings harm to other men.” Dante and Virgil come upon an encrypted cave, which is the tomb of Pope Amastasius, a subject of the growing rift between the western (Latin) and eastern (Greek) churches during Dante’s time period.

Circle Seven

As Virgil and Dante cross from the sixth to seventh circle, Virgil finally begins explaining the layout of Hell. Dante learns that all human sins are divided into three large categories; incontinence, violence, and fraud. Virgil explains that the first six circles of Hell belong in the incontinence, lacking self-control, section. The seventh circle is dedicated to all the violent sinners, while the final two circles include all the sinners of ordinary and treacherous fraud. Virgil and Dante cross a deep valley and finally reach the border of the seventh circle, which is guarded by the Minotaur, and is divided in to three rings. First Ring
The first ring contains the sinners who commit violence against people and property. Dante and Virgil walk through the first ring, and Dante describes their punishment as being boiled in rivers of blood and fire, to a level commensurate with their sins. All of the sudden, Dante spots a group of centaurs, half men, half horses, running toward them in file with their bows drawn and arrows cocked. The centaurs are commanded by Chiron and Pholus, who patrol the ring, shooting arrows at sinners who rise above their condemned level. When Virgil explains why they were there and who has sent them, Chiron orders a fellow centaur named Nessus to guide the poets to the next ring. Nessus leads them along the river Phlegethon and across a ford in the shallowest, widest part of the river. Dante is introduced to many sinners in this ring, including Dionysius I of Syracuse, Azzolin, Obizzo of Esti, Guy de Montfort, Alexander the Great, who is submerged up to his eyebrows, and Rinier da Corneto. Second Ring
Nessus leads Dante and Virgil into a wood that was not marked with a path whatsoever.
Dante describes the scenery as “not foliage green, but of a dusky color, not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled, not apple-trees were there, but thorns with poison.” Nessus tells the two poets that the sinners who are violent against themselves, suicides and profligates, are turned into bushes and trees and then fed upon by the Harpies. Nessus describes the Harpies as having Broad wings have they, and necks and faces humans, And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged; They make laments upon the wondrous trees.
Dante proceeds to break a twig of a tree, and the tree cries out, “Why dost thou mangle me?” Dante immediately regrets his action and feels pity for the sinner. Virgil asks the tree who he is and the sinner replies that he is Pietro della Vigne, who committed suicide after falling out of favor with Emperor Frederick II. As Dante and Virgil continue their trek, they come upon Lano da Siena and Jacopo da Sant’ Andrea being ripped apart by the Harpies. This encounter shakes Dante and him and Virgil hurry into the last ring of the seventh circle. Third Ring
Virgil and Dante descend into the third ring, where to the violent against God (blasphemers) and violent against nature (sodomites and usurers) belong. Dante describes the third ring as “having soil that was of an arid and thick sand, o’er all the sand waste, with a gradual fall, were raining down flakes of fire” with herds of naked souls weeping very miserably. As Dante and Virgil walk through the throngs of sinners, Dante notices that each type of sinner is in a different position. The blasphemers lie in the sand, the sodomites wander about in groups, and the usurers sit with their knees drawn to their chests. Virgil explains to Dante the landscape of Hell and how it corresponds with the modern world and all the human sins. As Dante and Virgil continue toward the eight circle, Dante meets two Florentine sodomites. One of them is Dante’s mentor, Brunetto Latini; Dante is very touched and surprised by this meeting and shows Brunetto great respect for what he has taught him. The other sodomite is Iacopo Rusticucci, a politician who blames his wife for his fate. After leaving his mentor, Dante recognizes some usurers, including Florentines Catello di Rosso Gianfigliazzi, Guido Guerra, Ciappo Ubriachi, and Gionvanni di Buiamonte. Dante and Virgil reach a deep abyss where Virgil convinces Dante to wrap one end around his own waist while Virgil throws the other end into the pit. This action summons the beast Geryon, a monster with three mixed natures; human, bestial, and reptilian. Virgil tells Dante to go look at the violent sinner one last time while he talks to Geryon. When Dante returns, they mount Greyon and ride the beast into the eighth circle.

Circle Eight

Greyon carries the two poets to the eight circle of Hell, known as Malebolge, or “evil pockets” or “bolgias.” Circle eight is divided into ten bolgias, with bridges spanning the ditches of stone. Bolgia One
This Boglia is dedicated to the Panderers and Seducers. After Greyon drops Dante and Virgil at the base of the pouch, the two poets proceed into the first Bolgia. Dante sees large field that’s are broken up by several valleys and ditches with castles surrounded by moats. In the first Bolgia, the sinners march in separate lines in opposite directions, one facing the Mountain, the other facing the Castle. Dante describes what he sees by saying, Beheld I horned demons with great scourges, Who were cruelly beating them behind. Ah me! how they did make them lift their legs At the first blows! and sooth not any one The second waited for, nor for the third.
Dante sees a sinner try to cover his face and Dante recognizes him as Venedico Caccianimo, who sold his own sister to the Marchese d’Este. In the line of seducers, Virgil points out Jason, a man who gained the help of Medea by seducing and marrying her only to later desert her for Creusa. Bolgia Two
Dante and Virgil descend to the second pouch, reserved for the Flatterers. As they approach, Dante hears the sinners “moaning, snorting with their muzzles, and with their palms beating upon themselves.” Dante says the bottom of the Bolgia is so deep neither him nor Virgil could see the bottom at any point. The flatterers are forced to lie and wade in a river of human feces and filth. Dante sees one man “with his head so foul of ordure, it was not clear if he were clerk or layman.” The sinner looks up at Dante and screams at him, asking him why Dante is looking at him more than the others. Dante answers, saying he remembers what he looked like with dry hair, and that his name is Alessio Interminei of Lucca. Virgil tells Dante the harlot Thais resides here as well, for her flattering of all the men she slept with and lying to them. Bolgia Three
Upon entering the third Boglia, Dante expresses his immense disdain for those who reside in this pouch; the Simonaics. The sinners in this Bolgia are placed head-first in holes in the rock (resembling baptismal fonts) with nothing but their calves showing above the earth. Flames burn the soles of the sinners’ feet, from heel to point. Dante notices that one sinner is quivering more than his companions and asks Virgil who it is. Virgil tells Dante that he will take Dante down to the particular sinner so Dante can ask him for himself. When the two poets reach the sinner, they find out the man in in the hole if Pope Nicholas III, who mistakes Dante as the next sinner who is to take his place, Pope Boniface VII. Dante becomes angry with Pope Nicholas III, stating that Jesus did not have to pay his disciples to following him so it is wrong to take money from others for personal desire, causing Pop Nicholas to kick his feet even harder. This angry outburst from Dante pleases Virgil as he wants Dante to understand that the sinners deserve their punishments and do not deserve pity. After Dante finishes his speech, Virgil picks him up with both of his arms and carries him to the next valley.

Bolgia Four

Dante and Virgil reach the fourth Bolgia, where the sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets are located. Dante looks down into pit and is amazed when he sees that all the naked sinners “seemed to be distorted from the chin to the beginning of the chest; and backward it behooved them to advance, as to look forward had been taken from them.” Dante feels immense pity for these sinners as he watches them weep miserably, their tears running down their hinder parts. When Dante starts to weep, his escort scolds him by calling him a fool, saying “Here pity lives when it is wholly dead; lift up, lift up thy head, and see for whom ye weep.” In an effort to teach Dante to stop feeling pity, Virgil points out some of the sinners in this Bolgia; Amphiaraus, who wished to see too far before him, Tiresias, who transformed from male to female and then struck two entwined serpents to regain his manliness again, and Aruns, who wanted to read the stars and sea.

Bolgia Five

After crossing the bridge from the fourth to the fifth Bolgia, Dante sees a lake of boiling pitch filled with barrators, or corrupt politicans. All of the sudden, Virgil pulls Dante into his side, out of sight. Dante becomes annoyed and turns to see what alerted his escort. Dante and Virgil watch as a devil runs toward them, putting fear into Dante due to his appearance. Dante explains his fear by saying, “Ah, how ferocious was he in aspect! And how he seemed to me in action ruthless, with open wings and light upon his feet!” Dante goes on to say that the devil’s shoulders were sharp pointed and high, and he was carrying a sinner who was an elder of Saint Zita. The devil hands the elder to the other devils, who are called the Malebranche, and the two poets watch as the devils hurled the sinner into the lake and grabbed another one out of the lake who poked his head above the water and ripe his flesh apart with their hooks and grappling irons. Virgil tells Dante to place himself behind a jab and to wait for his word, for he has been through this before. Virgil approaches the devils and they leap at him out from under the bridge with fury and uproar. As they were about to attack Virgil, he yells at them to at least have one of their kind step forward and hear him out. The Malebranche’s leader, Malacoda, comes forward, and Virgil tells him to let them pass because it is “Heaven willed that I show another the savage road.” Malacoda drops his grapnel and orders his men to not attack Virgil. Virgil then turns toward Dante and tells him to return to him. The devils taunt Dante and Malacoda tells Virgil that they can no longer travel on this ridge because the bridge to cross over has been shattered so they will have to cross at another path. Malacoda assigns ten of his men to accompany Virgil and Dante to the other crossing point and to protect them till the next crag. Dante asks Virgil if they can go without the guides but Virgil reassures Dante that the Malebranche will not harm them. As the party makes their way toward the next bridge, the troops see a sinner who poked his face out of the water and attack him with their weapons. When Virgil asks him who he is, the sinner replies that his name is Ciampolo. Ciampolo then tricks the devils into letting him go, enraging the devils and causing them to fight amongst each other. Virgil learns the next bridge is broken, and Dante convinces him to leave the devils, and the two poets flee into the sixth Bolgia, where the Malebranche cannot pass. Bolgia Six

Upon descending into the sixth Bolgia, Dante and Virgil come upon the hypocrites. These sinners are forced to walk around listlessly, weeping in their weary state. They have on mantles with hoods pulled down low, covered with gold on the outside but weighed down with lead on the inside. As Dante and Virgil are making their way toward the next Bolgia, a sinner yells out for them to wait. Two sinners slowly make their way over to Dante and look him over. After silently scanning Dante, the two sinners turn toward each other said together, “ He by the action of his throat seems living; and if they dead are, by what privilege go they uncovered by the heavy stole.” They ask Dante who he is and Dante tells them his birthplace and returns the question, asking who they are and what pain they are experiencing. One of the sinners replies to Dante, telling him that the orange cloaks are made of lead so heavy that it causes their balance to creak. The two sinners reveal themselves to be Catalano and Loderingo, two members of the Jovial Friars, an order known for not keeping their word. As he is talking with the sinners, Dante notices that a certain sinner is crucified on the ground. Catalano notices and tells Dante that man is named Sixtus V. Calaphas, who is responsible for ordering Jesus’s death and is now walked on by all the hypocrites. After Virgil and Dante finish talking to the two sinners, Virgil finds out that Malacoda lied to them about the bridge, making his angry. Dante and Virgil make a difficult journey over a mountain ridge into the seventh pouch.
Bolgia Seven
After crossing from the sixth to seventh pouch, the two poets climb a set of long, narrow stairs that leave Dante exhausted. When they reach the top of the stairs, Dante and Virgil are met by a disturbing sight; thousands of serpents are chasing and biting naked human sinners, who were running affrighted and without hope. Dante watches as the serpents bite the humans, “and when he on the ground was thus destroyed, the ashes drew together, and of themselves, into himself they instantly returned.” Dante and Virgil watch this process happen with a certain sinner as he is turned to ash and back into a human again. Virgil asks him who he is and the sinner replies, saying his name is Vanni Fucci. Vanni continues to explain his reason for being in this Bolgia; he stole sacred ornaments from the church and allowed another man to take the blame. After telling his story, Vanni curses God and is dragged away by serpents. Right after Vanni is taken away, the two poets are approached by the guardian of the seventh pouch, the centaur Cacus, who has a fire breathing dragon on his shoulders and snakes covering his equine back. Cacus passes by them and the two poets proceed deeper into the seventh pouch. Dante explains the fascinating metamorphosis between the reptile and the human sinner as they switch bodies, the snake becoming human and the human becoming the snake. Dante finds this punishment suiting for the sin, as the thieves must continually steal bodies for the rest of eternity. As Dante and Virgil come the border of the seventh and eight Bolgia, they meet five Florentine sinners, three humans and two reptiles. Dante watches all but one sinner change form, which Dante describes as extremely painful.
Bolgia Eight
In the opening of the eighth pouch, Dante is sarcastically praising Florentine for its fame within Hell. After leaving the seventh Bolgia, Dante and Virgil travel along a solitary path among the rocks and ridges of the crag. Upon entering the eighth Bolgia, Dante automatically feels pity for the sinners who are in this pouch. The fraudulent counselors or evil advisers are forced to wear robes of fire and flames. These are the people who used their position to advise others to engage in fraud. Dante notices that in one flame, there are two people. When he asks Virgil who they are, his guide tells him they are Ulysses and Diomedes and that they are condemned here for the deception of the Trojan horse. Ulysses tells Dante that even after returning from his voyage, his wife Penelope and son weren’t enough to quench his adventurous spirit, and so he set off with his aging crew, surpassing the boundaries of human exploration. Ulysses and his crew perished in a violent whirlpool under the shadow of Mount of Purgatory. After speaking to Ulysses and Diomedes, another sinner cries out and begs the two poets to listen to his story. Dante is curious and Virgil urges Dante to listen to the sinner because he is Latin. The sinner tells Dante that he is Guido da Montefelto, who advised Pope Boniface VIII to capture the fortress of Palestrina, by offering the Colonna family inside false amnesty and then razing it to the ground after they had surrendered. Guido tells them that after he died, the friar St. Francis came for his soul because of Gudio’s subsequent joining of the Franciscan order, only to have a demon assert prior claim over Guido because of his fraudulent actions.
Bolgia Nine
As Dante and Virgil enter the ninth Bolgia, Dante says that he has seen so much suffering and pain that his brain cannot comprehend and remember all of it. Entering the ninth pouch, Dante describes the state of the first sinner he sees, stating “Bewteen his legs were haning down his entrails; his heart was visible, and the dismal sack that maketh excrement of what is eaten.” In the ninth Bolgia, a sword-wielding demon hacks at the Sowers of Discord, dividing parts of their bodies as in life they divided others. As the sinners make their rounds, their wounds close only to have them torn open again by the demon. The sinner turns to Dante and opens his bosom, crying for Dante to look at his state and the state of the other sinners. In this Bolgia, Dante meets Muhammad, who tells him to warn the heretic Dante also encounters Bertran de Born, who carries around his severed head like a lantern (a literal representation of allowing himself to detach his intelligence from himself), as a punishment for (Dante believes) fomenting the rebellion of Henry the Young King against his father Henry II. Bolgia Ten
Dante and Virgil enter the tenth and final Bolgia of the eighth circle of Hell. Here the, all sorts of falsifiers, alchemists, counterferiters, perjurers, and imposters, reside. As Dante and Virgil travel through the Bolgia , Dante begins to feel less and less pity for the souls condemned to their circle. The sinners in this particular Bolgia are plagued with severe diesases, as Dante views them as a “disease” to society. Potiphar’s wife is briefly mentioned for her false accusation of Jospeh. Dante and Virgil point out many other sinners, including thee Achaen spy Simon who suffers from a burning fever for tricking the Trojans into taking the Trojan Horse into their city. Myrrha suffers from madness for disguising herself to commit incest with her father, King Theias. After passing through the sinners, the two poets enter the deepest circle of Hell.

Circle Nine

Virgil and Dante proceed to the ninth circle of Hell through the Giants’ Well. The giants are standing on a ledge above the ninth circle of Hell, so that from the Malebolge they are visible from the waist up. They include Nimrod, Ephialtes, Briareus, Tityos, and Typhon. The giant Antaeus (being the only giant unbound with chains) lowers Dante and Virgil into the pit that forms the ninth circle of Hell. Circle nine is home to the fraudulent against benefactors. There are four zones of traitors. Dante describes the setting of Hell as opposing the usual view. Instead of being fiery, the traitors are frozen in a lake of ice known as Cocytus, with each group of sinners encased in ice to deeper levels according to their sin. Round One- Caina
Dante and Virgil descend to the first zone of the ninth circle, Caina. This zone is named after Cain, who killed his own brother. Dante describes how the sinners in this area are frozen all the way up to their necks. Dante recognizes one of the sinners as Mordred, who attacked his uncle/father King Auther. Round Two- Antaeus
After speaking with Mordred, the two poets descend into the second zone, Antaeus. This certain zone is named after Antenor of Troy, who according to medieval tradition, betrayed his city to the Greeks. Traitors to political entities, such as parties, cities, or countries, are located here and imprisoned in the same way as the traitors in Caïna. Count Ugolino pauses from gnawing on the head of his former partner-in-crime Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini to describe how Ruggieri turned against him after an accidental death of Ruggieri's illegitimate son during a riot and had him imprisoned along with his sons and grandsons, condemning them to death by starvation. Round Three- Ptolomaea
Dante and Virgil descend into Ptolomaea, named after Ptolemt, son of Abubus, who invited Simon Maccabaeus and his sons to a banquet and they wrapped them in rugs and killed them. Virgil explains to Dante that traitors to their guest are punished here, lying supine in the ice, which covers all of them expect for their faces. Dante observes they are punished more severely than the previous traitors, since the relationship with a guest is an entirely voluntary one. Virgil points out the sinner Fra Alberigo. Round Four- Judecca
This zone is named Judecca, after Judas Iscariot, Biblical betrayer of Christ. Here are the traitors to their lords and benefactors. All of the sinners punished within are completely encapsulated in ice, distorted in all conceivable positions. With no one to talk to here, Dante and Virgil quickly move on to the center of Hell. Center of Hell
In the very center of Hell, lays Satan. Satan is described as a giant, terrifying beast with three faces, one red, one black, and one a pale yellow.
Satan is waist deep in ice, weeping tears from his six eyes, and beating his six wings as if trying to escape, although the icy wind that emanates only further ensures his imprisonment (as well as that of the others in the ring). Each face has a mouth that chews on a prominent traitor. Brutus and Cassius are feet-first in the left and right mouths respectively, for their involvement in the assassination of Julius Caesar – an act which, to Dante, represented the destruction of a unified Italy and the killing of the man who was divinely appointed to govern the world.[62] In the central, most vicious mouth is Judas Iscariot, the namesake of Round 4 and the betrayer of Jesus. Judas is receiving the most horrifying torture of the three traitors: his head gnawed by Satan's mouth, and his back being forever skinned by Satan's claws. The two poets escape Hell by climbing down Satan and escape to the surface of the Earth the day before Good Easter.