The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Hell, Volume 05

In Short

Guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil, Dante journeys deeper into the burning circles of Hell, descending past guarded gates, weeping Furies, and winged messengers of heaven. Within this subterranean realm, the poets witness eternal punishments meted out to heretics, blasphemers, and violent offenders, encountering historical and political figures trapped in stone tombs and boiling crimson rivers. The work endures for its breathtaking architectural imagination, its unsparing psychological portraits of historical figures, and its profound exploration of human consequence, bridging medieval theology with timeless human drama.

The Story

The journey begins on the perilous edge of the abyss, where Virgil turns back in sudden dread before a sable air and thick-gathering cloud. Reassuring his terrified companion, the pagan master invokes his rare past descent into the lowest depths of Judas’ circle, conjured long ago by the sorceress Erictho. Before them looms the burning top of the iron city's lofty tower, guarded by three blood-stained Furies with hydras twisting in their hair. These shrieking hags call upon Medusa to turn the trespassers to adamant, forcing Virgil to turn Dante away and shield his eyes with his own hands against the Gorgon's petrifying gaze.

A loud-crashing, terrible sound soon shatters the perturbed waves, announcing a heavenly messenger who walks the Stygian sound with unwet feet. With noble anger, the celestial being touches the iron gates with his wand, flinging them open without impediment before returning across the filthy way in silence. Entering the inner city, Dante beholds a vast plain thick-spread with sepulchres resembling the stagnating marshes of Arles or Pola, save that intense flames shoot from the tombs, making the iron hotter than any craft requires. Lids hang suspended, and dolorous sighs issue from the arch-heretics within.

Venturing among the burning vaults, Dante encounters the proud Ghibelline leader Farinata degli Uberti, who rises from his tomb chest to question his visitor's ancestry and recall old political feuds. Nearby, the shade of Cavalcante dei Cavalcanti arises in despair, lamenting the absence of his son Guido. As they converse, Farinata expounds upon the peculiar nature of the damned, explaining that while the dead possess knowledge of distant futures, their intellects entirely fail them concerning the present once the portals of time are closed.

Leaving the fiery sepulchres behind, the poets pause behind a great monument bearing the charge of Pope Anastasius to accustom their senses to the fetid exhalation rising from the profound abyss. Virgil systematically classifies the remaining depths of hell, explaining that malice takes the form of either force or fraud, with fraud proving more displeasing to God because it is peculiar to man. He divides violence into three distinct rings directed against neighbors, oneself, and God, and details how usury violates nature, which follows divine art as a learner follows an instructor.

Navigating a rough, Alp-like descent, they confront the Minotaur gnawing itself in rage, permitted to pass only because the monster's fury distracts it. Virgil recalls how the old rock toppled down into the chasm during the cosmic earthquake that accompanied Christ's descent into the highest circle of Limbo. Approaching the edge of an ample crimson foss, they encounter centaurs patrolling the banks with bows and arrows. Chiron, who once nursed Achilles, questions their living presence, and eventually assigns Nessus to guide the travelers across the boiling blood. Riding upon the centaur's back, Dante observes tyrants immersed to their brows, including Alexander, Dionysius, and Azzolino, alongside highwaymen and plunderers swept along the seething current.

How It Unfolds

The terrifying approach Virgil hesitates before the thick cloud and sable air, while three blood-stained Furies summon Medusa to turn the trespassers to stone. Virgil hastily covers Dante's eyes with his own hands to protect him from the Gorgon's gaze.

The heavenly messenger A loud-crashing sound sweeps across the waves, heralding a divine emissary who opens the iron gates with a single touch of his wand. The messenger departs in silence, leaving the poets free to enter the city of fire.

The burning sepulchres The landscape opens into a vast plain strewn with glowing tombs that burn intensely without iron covers. Lamentable moans rise from the arch-heretics and their followers interred within these heated vaults.

Farinata speaks Farinata rises from his tomb to interrogate Dante about his Florentine ancestry, revealing old political hatreds. He explains the damned possess foresight of distant events but remain blind to the living present.

The architecture of sin Resting behind a monument to escape the fetid exhalation, Virgil outlines the moral geometry of the netherworld. He categorizes sins of violence and fraud, and explains why usury offends divine goodness.

Crossing the river of blood The poets descend a rough, earthquake-shattered precipice past the raging Minotaur to the banks of a boiling river. Chiron and Nessus negotiate their safe passage across the crimson flood where tyrants wade.

The People

Dante serves as the pilgrim and narrator, moving from coward dread to eager intellectual curiosity as he witnesses the exact architecture of divine justice. Virgil acts as his steadfast guide, blending tender paternal protection with rigorous philosophical exposition, shielding Dante from metaphysical perils while explaining the moral order of the cosmos. Farinata degli Uberti emerges as a towering, proud aristocrat who maintains his defiance of hell even from within a burning tomb, bearing the scars of factional Florentine politics. Cavalcante dei Cavalcanti is a grieving father whose sharp anxieties for his son Guido pierce the gloom of the heretics' cemetery. Chiron, the wise centaur who once tutored Achilles, oversees the armed patrol of the blood river and grants the living travelers safe passage. Nessus, the centaur who died for Deianira, serves as their sure-footed ferryman across the boiling depths.

In Its Own Voice

Around them greenest hydras twisting roll'd / Their volumes; adders and cerastes crept / Instead of hair, and their fierce temples bound.

The three hellish furies appear to Dante and Virgil atop the burning tower.

The arch-heretics are here, accompanied / By every sect their followers; and much more, / Than thou believest, tombs are freighted.

Virgil explains the contents of the heated sepulchres scattered across the plains of Dis.

What dost thou? Turn. / Lo, Farinata, there! who hath himself / Uplyfted: from his girdle upwards all / Expos'd behold him.

Virgil directs Dante's gaze toward the defiant Ghibelline leader rising from his tomb.

What It's Really About

The poem examines the relationship between human free will and eternal consequence, arguing that every sin is a self-inflicted perversion of love and reason. It investigates how earthly political hatreds and intellectual heresies—such as denying the immortality of the soul—project themselves into metaphysical reality. Dante explores the tension between historical memory and divine judgment, showing how earthly greatness offers no shelter against the moral architecture of the universe.

Why Read It Today

Reading this translation offers an unmediated encounter with one of Western literature's foundational masterworks, delivered in a steady, dignified Victorian cadence. Readers who appreciate historical depth, rigorous moral philosophy, and vivid, uncompromising imagery will find much to admire. While the archaic diction and dense web of medieval Italian politics require patience and steady attention, the effort yields immense rewards. It feels less like reading a distant historical artifact and more like walking through a vast, haunting cathedral of human psychology, where every stone is carved with the precise weight of human choices.