Canto I


Dante, finding himself in the darkness of the
wood of Error, is baffled by a Leopard (Lust),
a Lion (Pride), and a She-Wolf (Avarice). Virgil,
who will guide him through Hell, appears and
beckons him to follow.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto II


Virgil then discloses that Beatrice came from
Heaven, prompted by Divine Grace, to ask him to
rescue Dante.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto III


The poets pass through the door of Hell. After
meeting the spirits of those who pursued neither
good nor evil in Hell's anteroom, they come to
the shores of Acheron, the river which circles
the rim of Hell. Across it Charon ferries the
lost souls, but demurs to taking Dante in his
boat.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto IV


Dante descends with Virgil to the First Circle or
Limbo, where are the souls of the unbaptized and
of the virtuous heathen.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto V


The descent to the Second Circle, where carnal sin-
ners are blown about forever on stormy winds. Here
he hears the story of Francesca and Paolo.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto VI


Dante awakes in the Third Circle, where an icy
rain falls on souls of the gluttonous, watched
over by Cerberus.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto VII


Plutus, the ancient God of Riches presides over
the Fourth Circle, where Misers and the Spend-
thrifts roll dead weights in opposite directions.
Then they arrive at the descent into the Fifth
Circle, where are the Wrathful, quarrelling in
the mud, and the Sullen, sunk beneath it.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto VIII


The boat carrying them across the marsh of Styx
is clutched at by Filippo Argenti who is set on
by his fellow-sinners. As they approach the red
city of Dis, fallen angels refuse the poets admis-
sion.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto IX


Three Furies threaten Dante with the Medusa head.
The Angel appears, puts the demons to flight and
opens the gate of the City. Inside they find a
plain covered with sepulchres, the lids of which
are open and which are full of flames. These se-
pulchres contain the Heretics.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto X


From one of the sepulchres the father of Guido
Cavalcanti (Dante's greatest friend, poet), not
seeing Guido with Dante is anxious to know if he
is alive or dead. Dante also learns that Freder-
ic II and the Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini,
are among the heretics entombed.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XI


Virgil explains to Dante how the circles are based
on Aristotle's classification. Three kinds of vio-
lence are punished in three separate rings of the
Seventh Circle. The fraudulent are in the Eighth,
and those guilty of the special fraud of treachery
in the Ninth and lowest circle.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XII


In the Seventh Circle is a River of Blood (Phie-
gethon). Boiling in its stream are those who have
been violent against others. Centaurs trot about
the bank and shoot those who emerge more than
their punishment allows.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XIII


Crossing Phlegethon by the ford, the poets arrive
in the Wood of the Suicides, who have become with-
ered and poisonous trees among which the Harpies
cry.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XIV


The third ring of the Seventh Circle is the ring
of Burning Sand, which torments the violent against
God, who lie supine; the violent against Nature
and Art, who sit all huddled up; and the violent
against Nature, who are forced to be continually
moving: on all of them falls a fiery rain.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XV


Dante follows Virgil along one of the petrified
high banks of the stream which crosses the sand;
and as they go, they meet a troop of those who
indulged unnatural lust (the "violent against na-
ture")


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XVI


The poets have now arrived at the place where the
stream falls roaring over into a great abyss. Vir-
gil takes the cord which Dante wears as a girdle
and throws it down into the pit; and to Dante's
astonishment a strange monster floats up and poi-
ses itself on the brink of the precipice.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XVII


The monster Geryon is the emblem of Fraud.
The poets are now to descend on Geryon's
back to the Eighth Circle. But first Dante
goes alone to see the Usurers, who are vi-
olent against Nature and Art.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XVIII


The Eighth Circle is divided into ten concen-
tric rings forming deep chasms called Malebolge
or Evil Pockets. Dante passes to the cliff above
the next chasm or bolgia where are flatterers
immersed in filth.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XIX


The third chasm contains the Simonists, who are
each fixed head downwards in holes in the rock.
Pope Nicolas III tells how he promoted the in-
terests of his family, the Orsini ("I was a son
of the She-Bear"), and prophesies the advent in
Hell of a Pope "from the West."


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XX


Dante looks down on the fourth chasm of Male-
bolge, where the Sorcerers and Diviners go with
their faces twisted so as to look behind them.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXI


The next chasm of Malebolge contains those who
made a traffic of public offices. These are sub-
merged in a river of boiling pitch and are kept
under by a horde of demons armed with long hooks
and called Malebranche or Evil-Talons.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXII


One of the Malebranche catches a sinner who has
emerged from the pitch and holds him up by the
hair. By a trick he escapes and two of the de-
mons quarrel among themselves and are left en-
tangled in the pitch.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXIII


In the next chasm are the Hypocrites pacing in
copes of lead, heavier than those devised by
Frederic II. for malefactors. Dante catches
sight of Caiaphas crucified on the ground.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXIV


Down into the seventh chasm, occupied by the
Thieves, who are tormented by serpents. One
of the thieves, Vanni Fucci, is seized by a
serpent, and is instantly burnt to ashes, but
at once the ashes resume the former shape.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXV


Fucci cries out in blasphemous rage, and is set
upon by the serpents. Then on another thief, Ag-
nello, a kind of dragon fastens itself so close-
ly that they merge into one strange shape. Fin-
ally, a viper bites Buoso deli Abati; and ser-
pent changes into man and man into serpent.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXVI


In the eighth, are the Evil Counsellors, whose
theft is spiritual, each imprisoned in a burn-
ing flame. One of the flames has a double tip
and conceals the spirits of Ulysses and Diomed.
Ulysses tells of his last voyage into the un-
known ocean below the Equator and shipwreck
near the Mount of Purgatory.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXVII


Another flame appears, and a voice from it asks
for news of Romagna. He is Guido da Montefeltro,
a distinguished Ghibeline. He tells how he was
persuaded by Pope Boniface VIII. to give fraud-
ulent counsel.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXVIII


The ninth chasm punishes the schismatics with
fearful mutilations. First appears Mahomet,
regarded by Dante as a perverter of Christian-
ity. Next Dante is shown Curio, who, when Caesar
was at Rimini, counselled him to persist in his
march on Rome.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXIX


They now come to the tenth and last bolgza, con-
taining the Falsifiers. Their penalty is to be
afflicted with loathsome diseases, and they lie
grovelling and helpless and inert.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXX


The poets are still in the tenth chasm and now
meet the Counterfeiters. Counterfeiters of per-
sons, such as Myrrha, are afflicted with madness.
Next are the coiners, counter-feiters of things,
punished with dropsy. Finally perjurers, falsi-
fiers in words, who are afflicted with fever.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXXI


Surrounding the central well which leads to the
last circle is a ring of giants. Among them is
Nimrod who built the Tower of Babel, and pays
for it by his unintelligible speech. Antaeus
takes them up in his grasp and deposits them
at the bottom of the pit, in the Ninth Circle.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXXII


The Ninth Circle is formed by the frozen waters
of the Cocytus, into which all the rivers of Hell
descend. It is divided into four concentric rings.
These contain those who have done violence to
their own kin and those who betrayed their cou-
ntry. Dante also sees two sinners in one hole,
one of whom gnaws the head of the other.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXXIII


The two sinners are Count Ugolino, who allied
himself with the other, Archbishop of Pisa, to
get rid of his nephew but was in turn betrayed
by him. Then the poets go to the third ring,
the Ptolomea, so called from Ptolemy, whose
act of murder is told in the Book of Ailacca-
bees. In Ptolomea sometimes a man is brought
there still alive, leaving a demon in his body
on earth.


　　　　　　　　　 Canto XXXIV


In the last ring of the circle, the Giudecca
(so named from Judas Iscariot), the sinners are
wholly. imprisoned in the ice. Here at the centre
of the earth is the monstrous form of Lucifer,
half above the ice and half below it. He has
three heads; and in his teeth are mangled the
spirits of Judas, of Brutus, and of Cassius.
After seeing this the poets climb up through a
long passage in the rock till through a round
opening they see the stars, and emerge at last
in the southern hemisphere on the shores of
the Mount of Purgatory surrounded by the sea.