Inferno (Dante)

Canto I from the Inferno

Dante is lost and found himself in gloomy wood. Engraving illustrated by Gustave Dore

Inferno by the Italian author Dante is a work of fiction published in the 1500s, as part of The Divine Comedy. It tells of the fictional journey that two men, Dante himself as well as Greek poet Virgil, takes through Christian Hell. Hell is made up of several levels, or circles, in which sinners are divided and punished according to their sins. Their punishments are measured according to how many good deeds vs bad deeds were done.

The Divine Comedy describes the journey of the soul toward God. And Inferno is about the recognition and rejection of sin.

Inferno (Dante) Media

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  Gustave Doré's illustration of Canto III: Arrival of Charon

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  The Map of Hell painting by Sandro Botticelli, among the extant ninety-two drawings originally included in his illustrated manuscript of the poem

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  The Harrowing of Hell, in a 14th-century illuminated manuscript, the Petites Heures de Jean de Berry

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  The fifth circle, illustrated by Stradanus