The Symbolism in the Punishment of Sin in Dante's Inferno
The Symbolism in the Punishment of Sin in Dante's Inferno Inferno, the first part of Divina Commedia, or the Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, is the story of a man's journey through Hell and his observance of the punishments incurred as a result of committing sin. In all cases the severity of the punishment and the punishment itself, has a direct correlation to the sin committed. The punishments are fitting in that they are symbolic of the actual sin; in other words, “They got what they wanted.” (Literature of the Western World, p.1409) According to Dante, Hell has two divisions: Upper Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of incontinence, and Lower Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of malice. The divisions of Hell are also split into levels corresponding to the sins committed. Each of the levels and the divisions within levels 7,8, and 9 have an analogous historical or mythological figure used to illustrate and exemplify the sin.The first of the two divisions of Hell is Upper Hell. Upper Hell is the area inhabited by those who committed sins of incontinence or lack of self-restraint. This lack of self-restraint comes in the form of many sins ranging from sex to mood. Before delving into the sins of incontinence, one must first look into the first inconsistency of the Inferno. This inconsistency is found in the Vestibule of Hell. The Vestibule of Hell contains the trimmers and the neutrals. Although almost all other sins mentioned in the Inferno are of an ethical, universal standpoint, the ones mentioned here are sins only from the Christian point of view. These neutrals are the people who either showed no partisanship or did not take sides. Lines 37-39 and 46-50 read: They are joined with that choir of wicked angels who were neither rebellious nor faithful to God, but for themselves. They have no hope of death, and their blind life is so debased that they are envious of every other lot. The world does not grant them any fame; pity and justice alike disdain them. Eternal penalty for the sin of neutrality, of never taking a stand and risking the pain involved in showing one's true self, is to be exposed in totality and suffer deadly pain in perpetuity as evidenced in lines 64-66: These wretches, who had never really lived, were naked and stung constantly by hornets and wasps that were there. Circle one of Hell is reserved for those whose only crime is living before Christianity and therefore not worshipping God as is deemed proper by God. These shades are the unbaptised infants and virtuous pagans who came before Christ. Virgil explains the sin in lines 34-39: ...they did not sin, but having merit was not enough, for they lacked baptism, which is a portal of the faith you hold; and if they lived before Christianity they did not worship God rightly; among such as these am I myself. and in lines 40-42, the penalization: For such defects, not for other faults are we lost, and afflicted only in that we live in longing without hope. The punishment here is ceaseless longing, longing without hope, for God's forgiving grace. The moral is that without God and his forgiveness, even the virtuous man is doomed to eternal damnation. Virgil is here used as the example of the doomed man of virtue. Circle two shows the penalty deemed fitting for those committing crimes of lust. Those who allow themselves to succumb to the winds of passion are doomed to forever ride winds, not of passion but of torment as evidenced in lines 31-33: The infernal storm which never stops drives the spirits in its blast; whirling and beating, it torments them. All of the shades found here are carnal sinners. Examples cited are those such as Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Achilles, Paris, and Tristan. Dante speaks with Francesca da Rimini and learns of how, in a moment of passion induced by a love story about Sir Lancelot and Guinevere of Camelot, she found herself intertwined with her brother-in-law. There was no premeditation and no time for the repentance which would have given her absolution from her sin, as she and her lover were both murdered in the act. Canto six is devoted to the third circle of Hell. The third circle is reserved for those in which the sin is gluttony. Those people guilty of committing this disfiguring sin are doomed to spend eternity in a condition which is so full of filth it can by likened to a pig sty. For lovers of luxury this sentence is particularly displeasing in that all the senses are assailed. Lines 6-9 explain the filth in which
the gluttons must forever exist: I am in the third circle of the rain, eternal, accursed, cold, and heavy; its amount and kind never change. Large hailstones, dirty water, and snow pour down through the dark air; the ground that receives them stinks. The punishment of living in a sty is fitting for the gluttons because as when alive they will forever be in death, overeating, filthy, pig-like monstrosities. The example given in this canto is of a soul nicknamed "Ciacco" (the pig). He has earned his nickname in the land of the living and so must live in the ...
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the gluttons must forever exist: I am in the third circle of the rain, eternal, accursed, cold, and heavy; its amount and kind never change. Large hailstones, dirty water, and snow pour down through the dark air; the ground that receives them stinks. The punishment of living in a sty is fitting for the gluttons because as when alive they will forever be in death, overeating, filthy, pig-like monstrosities. The example given in this canto is of a soul nicknamed "Ciacco" (the pig). He has earned his nickname in the land of the living and so must live in the hereafter as a bloated pig. Circle four holds those souls who let the fruit of their labors, in this case money, control them to one extreme or the other, either by hoarding or by squandering. These shades are the avaricious and the prodigal, forever to labor in vain by pushing great weights around a semicircle for no reason at all. The sentence is deserving in that for eternity they must work hard, just as in life in the case of the avaricious, but cannot enjoy the benefit of their labor. The prodigal must work hard but receive nothing to squander. Labor with nothing to show for it is their interminable damnation. And I, who remained intent on looking, saw muddy people in that bog, naked, and with angry looks. With this excerpt from canto seven, Dante first comes in contact with the angry and the sullen, the last group of sinners in the Upper Hell. For those who let anger overcome They struck each other not only with their hands, but with their heads, chests, and feet, and tore each other with their teeth, bit by bit. Those consumed by this burning anger are grouped with the souls who lived a life of sullenness. They are doomed to exist only under the slime forever sighing ...,'Sullen were we in the sweet air gladdened by the sun, keeping within us fumes of spite; now we are sullen in the black mire' Because they allowed themselves to be consumed with rage or held a dark grudge in the world brightened by the sun, they are destined to forever live in anger and darkness. The example given of this realm is of Phlegyas, a man who let the anger of the rape of his daughter by Apollo overcome his judgment. As retribution for this crime Phlegyas burned down the temple of Apollo and was subsequently killed. Dante now enters the second division of Hell, Lower Hell. The first group of sinners reached is the Heretics in circle six. Although Lower Hell is comprised of sinners of violence and fraud, heretics are not necessarily violent nor fraudulent and it is here we find the second inconsistency found in the Inferno. Heresy is not a fault in the eyes of a universal set of ethics, only in the eyes of Christian ethics. Heresy does not negate the possibility of ethical behavior, but it does negate the possibility of orthodox Christianity. The historical figure first shown as an example of heresy is that of Epicurus who, along with his followers, denied the possibility of an immortal soul. The punishment thought to be fitting for the heretics is to be burned in open sepulchers until Judgment day when they will be closed forever, as shown in lines 10-12: And he to me, "All will be locked in when they return from Jehoshaphat with the bodies they have left above. The reasoning behind this punishment is this: heretics deny the eternal burning of Hell's fire and so it is deemed necessary to "teach a lesson" even though it is now too late for repentance. Circle seven of Hell is where Dante finds the sinners of violence. Circle seven is divided into three areas corresponding to three types of violence. The first area reached is a boiling river of blood, penalty for those who commit acts of violence against neighbors and fellow men. One historical figure mentioned is Alexander the Great, ruler of the known world in his time and, as everyone knows, to achieve such status involves great acts, usually of fratricide. The symbolic importance of this river of blood is that the violence committed by all found here was of the nature of bloodshed. The tyrants found here wished to let loose a river of blood to achieve their goals and must, for all time, boil in the blood they so revered. The second area in circle seven is the wood of the Christian suicides. This forest is infested with Harpies, mythical half-human, half-bird creatures that trample down the foliage which contain the souls of humans. The Harpies are representative of the passions which these humans tried to escape with suicide. Now the suicides must endure forever the pains that caused them to take their own life. The example Dante gives for the suicides is of a famous statesman from the court of Frederick II named Pier delle Vigne. Pier was accused of treason by Frederick and as punishment was led from town to town on a donkey as an example to his subjects. To avoid his dishonor, Pier committed suicide and now must face his sin in every moment of eternity. The third and final area in circle seven is a hot desert in which fire rains down upon the sinners. This area is filled with those sinners who committed violence against God in the forms of blasphemy, sodomy, and usury. The blasphemers are lying supine and in such a way that the wrath of God, symbolized by the rain of fire, can "slap" them in the face in much the same way the blasphemers actions were a slap in the face of God. The sodomites are found running, they are restless as all sinners of a sexual nature are. This restlessness is symbolic of the nature of sex over love. Sex, a perverted form of love, love being symbolic of God, is unfulfilling and one is left with a longing to search for more, characterized by the restlessness. God's love is fulfilling and one feels no need to search for any other. The sodomites are restless because in their lives, they enjoyed a form of love perverse in the eyes of God. The final group of sinners found in the third division of the seventh circle are the usurers. In the same way they defied God and rested while others made their living for them they now and for eternity must rest and suffer the wrath of God, symbolized by the fiery rain. The eighth circle of Hell is dedicated to those whose sins are of a fraudulent nature against those with no special trust and canto eighteen describes the first division, known as a bolgia, of the eighth circle. This bolgia contains those guilty of pandering, seduction, and flattery. As with other sins of a sexual nature, the panders and the seducers are kept forever moving, this time in a circular path, by a devil wearing the horns of adultery. The representative of pandering is a shade, the first one showing shame, known as Venedico Caccianemico. Venedico's sin was in the selling of his sister to the Marquis of Este. The seducers are moving on the same circular route as the panders but in the opposite direction. Representative of the sin of seduction is Jason. His crimes include the seduction of the Colchians to acquire the golden fleece, the sexual seduction of Hypsipyle, and for the seduction and deception of Medea. The next bolgia contains the flatters who "like dogs, lick the sores of those they exploit."(Literature of the Western World, p.1484) Like dogs, these sinners must live in the filth of their own excrement, among other things, as shown in lines 112-114: We reached that place, and down in the ditch I saw people plunged in excrement which seemed to have come from human privies. The example used here is of Thaïs, a literary demimondaine who when asked by her paramour "Have I great favor with you?" her answer was "No, marvelous!" Dante now finds himself among the Simonists. Named after Simon Magus who tried to buy the God given powers of the apostles, simonists made money by selling ecclesiastical pardons or offices. God's sentence for simony is placement into holes, upside down, with the feet and calves protruding and on fire. This punishment is symbolic of the apostolic succession of Episcopal office. Pope Nicholas III is used as an example of simony as he used his office to advance undeserving members of his own family, lining his own pockets in the process. He mistakes Dante for Boniface III who, after outraging the church, will find his way into the same hole as he. The punishment is a parody of the succession as shown in lines 73-78: Below, under my head, the others who preceded me in simony are compressed, squeezed into the fissures of the rock. Down there I also will be pressed when he comes for whom I took you when I asked the sudden question. The next division of sinners are the diviners or soothsayers who, in their zeal for looking too far forward, damned themselves to an eternity of moving backward. Their heads have been twisted at the neck to face the rear and so they must walk backward to see forward. Examples given of the diviners are Tiresias, Aruns, and Manto, of whom Virgil tells the story of the cause of her descent to Hell. Canto twenty-two describes the fifth bolgia of the eighth circle, those sinners guilty of barratry or using their position unscrupulously to gain special advantage. The punishment for this sin is to be placed in boiling pitch. Like frogs raising their heads above the pitch, the barrators, after having misused their high positions, have been placed lower than the land creatures they once were. In the same way the barrators craft is clandestine, devious and better left to the shadows, the barrators are now left for all time to hide themselves from the rest of the world, to run and hide at the first sign of others. The example shown to Dante of the barrators is of Ciampolo of Navarre who committed barratry while in the service of King Thibault. The sixth division of circle eight is filled with the hypocrites. Eternal damnation for the hypocrites is to bear a burden, either of a fabulously gilded cape made of lead, or the capes and the bodies on which they were worn. Like in their lives, the outward appearances of the hypocrites often hide the inner truth found under close scrutiny. The shades exemplary of the title hypocrite are two Bolognese Friars named Catalano and Loderingo. These Friars were chosen to be arbiters in the party struggle between the Ghibellines and the Guelfs of Florence, of which they favored the latter. Because of the hypocritical actions of the two men, they must forever carry the weight of their leaden burden as a reminder of their hypocrisy. Another hypocrite, Caiaphas, who is seen lying crucified in the road is mentioned in lines 115-120: ...,"The transfixed one at whom you are looking counseled the Pharisees that it was fitting to torture one man for the people. Now he is lying crosswise and naked on the road, as you see; and he must feel the weight of each one who passes. Caiaphas', in counseling the Pharisees to crucify Christ, sealed his infinite fate. His position in the road is symbolic of Christ's position on the cross and the weight that comes to bear on him as the other hypocrites pass is symbolic of the weight of the cross Christ was made to bear, partially due to Caiaphas' advocation of the crucifixion. The next area Dante comes to is the ditch of thieves. Punishment of the thieves comes in the form of a metamorphosis from a man-like form of the shade to that of a serpent, which can symbolize the cunning nature of the actions of thieves or possibly can symbolize the thievery shown by Satan, as a serpent, in the Garden of Eden. The metamorphosis as punishment, as with all other forms of punishment in Inferno, is a direct correlation with the sin committed. In the same way the thieves transformed themselves into a lower form in life, they must undergo a constant, unending transformation in Hell. Just as Satan transformed himself into the form of the serpent to perform his acts of deception in Eden, the thieves find themselves in interminable change. The sinners found in the next area are those guilty of evil counsel who found the ends to justify the means of their actions. Dante sees the souls, burning like a flame, wrapped up in the sin that has brought them to this place. Dante sees one flame in particular that draws his attention. This flame is described as being a double flame such as the one found on the funeral pyre of Etocles and Polynices. He soon finds this double flame to belong to Ulysses and Diomed with whom he makes the example of evil counsel. Ulysses and Diomed are guilty on three counts of evil advice, these being the trick of the Trojan horse, this trick being a catalyst to the fall of Troy, the enticement of Achilles to leave Deidamia, and the theft of the statue of Pallas, also a catalyst in the fall of Troy. The flames consuming the evil counselors can be seen to symbolize change. Especially in the case of Ulysses and Diomed, the advice given caused dramatic, violent change. Each act of evil counsel, whether directly, as in the case of the Trojan horse or the theft of the Palladium, or indirectly, as in the case of the enticement of Achilles, caused a major change. The ninth bolgia in the eighth circle of Hell is where Dante finds the dividers or the sowers of discord. The first example of this schism is Mahomet, the one seen as responsible for the separation of the world into two monotheistic faiths. Mahomet's and the rest of the divider's punishment and the blatant symbolism is described in lines 22-27 and 37-42: Indeed, a cask without a stave or endboard looks less mutilated than one I saw split from his chin down to where wind is broken. His entrails hung between his legs, the vital parts appeared with the foul sack which makes excrement of what is swallowed. A devil is here behind us who cuts us thus cruelly with the edge of his sword, reopening all the wounds when we have gone around the doleful road, since they are healed before we come again before him. The blatant symbolism of the punishment is found in the splitting of the ones who sowed the discord and, ergo, split the people. Another particularly symbolic example is found in the story of the poet Bertran de Born who sowed the seeds of discord between father and son, the "young English king", Henry and his father. Instead of his body being split longitudinally as with the other dividers, his head is removed at the shoulders. The symbolism found here is in the similarity of the father to the head, and the son to the body. The final bolgia of circle eight, the tenth bolgia, is where the falsifiers are found. In much the same way as the third division of the seventh circle was found to contain different varieties of the same sin, the shades in the tenth bolgia are divided into four groups and within the four groups one finds separate punishments. The first group are the alchemists who are afflicted with leprosy and paralysis. The second group, the impersonators, are afflicted with delirium. The punishment for the third group, the counterfeiters, is dropsy. The fourth and final group are the liars who suffer from high fevers. The example of the alchemist is given as Griffolino, an alchemist afflicted with leprosy. The symbolism here is fitting in that the alchemist defiles the metals, which come from the Earth, the Earth being a symbol of God, and therefore defiles God. The punishment for this defilement is the defilement created by leprosy in the body of the defiler. The next group are the falsifiers of people, the impersonators. One of the impersonators, a man known as Gianni Schicchi, has fallen prey to madness for impersonating Buoso Donati in the dictation of a last will. The symbolism apparent in his punishment is that the madness has taken his identity, punishment for trying to take on the identity of another. Exemplary of the counterfeiters is one called Master Adam. Swollen with dropsy, Master Adam is punished with an unquenchable thirst. Because in life he lived in an area of abundant water and had abundant money, he must now suffer perpetual thirst for his acts of greed. The example of the liars, who make up the final group, is the Greek Sinon who lied to the Trojans and pretended to be a fugitive from the Greeks, enticing the acceptance of the Trojan horse. Sinon's punishment is to be afflicted with a high fever symbolizing the deception involved in a lie. While the other punishments in Hell involve the outward appearance, the fever exhibited by the liars is of a more inward nature symbolizing how a lie is intended to hide the inward truth. The final circle of Hell, the much talked about ninth circle known as Cocytus, composes the final leg of Dante's journey through Inferno. Cocytus contains those who have committed sins of fraud against those with special trust. The ninth circle is divided into four regions named after infamous committers of the very sins the divisions embody. The first division, Caina, is named for the murderer of Abel, his brother Cain, as told in the fourth chapter of Genesis; this division constitutes murderers of kindred. The example given for murderers of kindred is of the two counts of Mangona, brothers who killed each other over an inheritance. The second division is named after Antenor, a Trojan who betrayed his city to the Greeks. Antenora is the region dealing with those who have committed fraudulent acts against party and country. Cited here is Bocca degli Abati who, in the middle of a battle between the Gelfs and the Ghibellines, cut off the hand of the standard bearer; this act was seen as the cause of the defeat. Tolomea, the third division in Cocytus, is named for the viscous captain of Jericho, Ptolomey, who arranged a banquet for his two sons and his father-in-law Simon, the high priest, and proceeded to murder them. This division is for murderers of guests. Friar Alberigo is mentioned as the example of a murderer of guests. Much like Ptolemy, Alberigo had his guests murdered at a banquet. The final division of the ninth circle is for murderers of lords and benefactors and is named for Judas Iscariot and is called Giudecca. This is the only area of Hell not exemplified by a historical or mythological figure with which Dante speaks. The punishment found in the ninth circle is submersion in ice. The symbolism shown here relates to the cold-bloodedness of these sins. Each sinner found in the ninth circle has turned a warm trust into a frigid mistrust and must forever contemplate the harshness of their acts. Dante's Inferno is a religious allegory telling of mankind's journey into the downward spiral of sin and ultimately Hell. The symbolic relationships between individual sins and the eternal and certain punishment are presented in a way as to warn mankind of the dangers of sin and the merits of absolution. Dante cites now-historical and mythological figures to exemplify the sins and to make for the better understanding of sin to even the most inept of readers. This work stands alongside The Bible as one of the greatest religious-literary masterpieces of all time.