This is an outline of the structural organization of Dante’s hell as depicted in the Inferno. For an outline of Inferno’s plot, see here.
[Gate of HELL]
VESTIBULE
Sin: Undecidedness
Punishment: Forever running after banners and attacked by hornets and wasps
Examples: (Possibly) Pontius Pilate
[River ACHERON] [Boatman: Charon]
[Here begins UPPER HELL]
FIRST CIRCLE - Limbo
Sin: They did not know God (either born before Christ or died without hearing the Gospel)
Punishment: “cut off from hope, we live on in desire” (IV, 42)
Examples: Virgil, Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan; Electra (mother of Dardanus), Aeneas, Hector, Caesar, Saladin, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Diogenes, Thales, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Zeno, Heraclitus, Orpheus, Cicero, Seneca, Euclid, Ptolemy, Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna (ibn-Sina), Averroës (ibn-Rushd)
[Judge MINOS]
[Here begins the Sins of Incontinence]
SECOND CIRCLE
Sin: Lust
Punishment: Whirled around in an infernal storm that drives and lashes the sinners
Examples: Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen, Paris, Tristan, Francesca & Paolo
[CERBERUS]
THIRD CIRCLE
Sin: Gluttony
Punishment: Mired in filthy muck and battered by cold and dirty hail, rain, and snow
Examples: “Ciacco”
[PLUTUS, god of wealth]
FOURTH CIRCLE
Sin: Prodigality & Miserliness
Punishment: Rolling heavy stones at each other
Examples: Various avaricious clergymen
FIFTH CIRCLE
[River STYX] [Boatman: Phlegyas]
Sin: Wrathfulness & Slothfulness
Punishment: The Wrathful are mired in the bog of the Styx, while the Slothful are underneeth the surface
Examples: Filippo Argenti (Wrathful)
[Here begins LOWER HELL]
[Here begins the CITY of DIS]
[Guardians: devils, Erinyes, Gorgons]
SIXTH CIRCLE
Sin: Heresy
Punishment: Burned in sarcophagi (entombment of the soul)
Examples: Farinata (epicurean), Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti (epicurean), Pope Anastasius II
[Here begins the Sins of Malice]
[Here begins the Sins of Malice through Violence]
[MINOTAUR]
SEVENTH CIRCLE - Ring 1 - River of Blood
[River PHLEGETHON] [Guardians: Centaurs]
Sin: Violence against Neighbours; Tyranny
Punishment: Forced by Centaurs shooting arrows the remain below the boiling blood
Examples of Tyrants: Alexander (the Great, or Alexander of Pherae), Dionysius (of Syracuse), Azzolino, Opizzo d’Esti, Attila the Hun, Guy de Montfort, Pyrrhus (either a tyrant or the violent son of Achilles), Sextus (either a tyrant or the man who raped Lucretia)
SEVENTH CIRCLE - Ring 2 - Wood of Suicides
[Guardians: Harpies]
Sin: Violence against Self (i.e., suicide)
Punishment: Became trees and plants; a broken twig drips blood
Examples: Pier delle Vigne (counselor of Frederick II)
SEVENTH CIRCLE - Ring 3 - The Burning Sand
Sin: Violence against God (including Nature and Art); Blasphemy, Usury, and Sodomy
Punishment: on the burning sand, Blasphemers lie supine, Usurers (faceless with pouches) crouch, and Sodomites walk around
Examples:
Blasphemer: Capaneus
Sodomites: Brunetto Latini, Jacopo Rusticucci
Usurers: members of various Italian families
[Here begins the Sins of Malice through Fraud]
[The Great Barrier & Waterfall]
[GERYON]
EIGHTH CIRCLE - Bolgia 1
[Guardians: devils]
Sin: Seduction, the sin of Panderers or Pimps
Punishment: Walking naked and whipped by devils
Examples:
Seducer: Jason
Pimp: Venedico Caccianemico
EIGHTH CIRCLE - Bolgia 2
Sin: Flattery
Punishment: Mired in excrement
Examples: Alessio Interminei, Thaïs the whore
EIGHTH CIRCLE - Bolgia 3
Sin: Simony
Punishment: Buried head down in fonts, legs extended and soles burned by flames
Examples: Pope Nicholas III, Pope Boniface VIII (not yet there), Pope Clement V (not yet there)
EIGHTH CIRCLE - Bolgia 4
Sin: Sorcery (or Soothsaying)
Punishment: Weeping and walking backward with their heads twisted
Examples: Amphiaraus, Tiresias, Aruns, Manto, Eurypylus, Michael Scot, Guido Bonatti, Asdente
EIGHTH CIRCLE - Bolgia 5
[Guardians: Malebranche devils]
Sin: Barratry
Punishment: If one shows himself above the boiling pitch, the devils fork him up, peel his skin, and dismember him
Examples: Ciampolo (servant of Thibault II)
EIGHTH CIRCLE - Bolgia 6
Sin: Hypocrisy
Punishment: 1. Walking around in coats of lead; 2. Crucified by stakes on the ground
Examples: Two Jovial Friars (1st punishment); Caiaphas (2nd punishment)
EIGHTH CIRCLE - Bolgia 7
Sin: Thievery
Punishment: 1. Hit by snakes and turned into ash before returning to a man’s form; 2. Merging with a snake into a hideous monster; 3. Exchange shapes with a snake/man
Examples: Vanni Fucci (1st), Cianfa and Agnèl (2nd), Francesco Cavalcanti (Guercio) and Buoso (3rd), Puccio Sciancato
EIGHTH CIRCLE - Bolgia 8
[A black cherubim serves as psychopomp]
Sin: Deception (or false counsel)
Punishment: Moving around enclosed in a flame
Examples: Ulysses, Diomedes, Guido da Montefeltro
EIGHTH CIRCLE - Bolgia 9
[Guardian: a devil with a sword]
Sin: Sowering of Discord and Schism
Punishment: Severe physical mutilation and dismemberment
Examples: Mahomet, Ali, Bertran de Born, Pier da Medicina, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Mosca de’ Lamberti, Fra Dolcino (not there yet)
EIGHTH CIRCLE - Bolgia 10
Sin: Falsification
Punishment: Alchemists have leprosy; liars have fever; impersonators are mad; counterfeiters have dropsy
Examples: Griffolino da Arezzo and Capocchio (alchemists); Sinon and Potiphar’s wife (liars); Gianni Schicchi and Myrrha (impersonators); Adamo (counterfeiter)
[Well of GIANTS]
[Here begins the ice lake COCYTUS]
NINTH CIRCLE - Ring 1 - Caïna
Sin: Betrayal of one’s kindred
Punishment: Frozen below the head in the lake
Examples: Napoleone and Alessandro of Mangona, Mordred, Focaccia, Bocca
NINTH CIRCLE - Ring 2 - Antenora
Sin: Betrayal of one’s country
Punishment: Frozen below the head in the lake; other punishments specific to the sinner
Examples: Count Ugolino (gnaws on the head of Archbishop Ruggieri)
NINTH CIRCLE - Ring 3 - Tolomea
Sin: Betrayal of one’s guests
Punishment: Frozen below the head in the lake, tears frozen around the ice
Examples: Archbishop Ruggieri; Alberigo (his body is still alive on earth, inhabited by a devil)
NINTH CIRCLE - Ring 4 - Judecca
Sin: Betrayal of one’s lords or benefactors
Punishment: Frozen entirely in ice or chewed by Lucifer
Examples: Judas Iscariot, Brutus, Cassius, Lucifer
[Legs of LUCIFER]
[Center of Gravity]
[Path to Purgatory]