Dantes Inferno

SOME BACKGROUND
For the Medieval faithful, Hell was the place of turmoil, chaos, pain,
despair, wretchedness, and a general bad time. The Christians
certainly took on these definitions of Hell, and used that fear aspect
to its fullest.
This early 'popular' view of Hell is vividly depicted in Dante Alighieri's
'Inferno', which is probably the most recognised non-religious
depiction of Hell. Part of a total set of works, known as 'The Divine
Comedy', written from 1307 to 1321, it also includes 'Purgatorio'
(Purgatory) and 'Paradiso' (Heaven or Paradise). His Rings or
Circles of Hell are quite detailed, and he had a spot in them for just
about everyone he knew, including the Pope! His work combines the
positive values of Christian thought and chivalric idealism. Although it
has an affection for classical antiquity, its world is the neatly
structured, enclosed world of medieval theology.
The cosmographical idea on which the poem is founded is extremely
simple. The Earth is a fixed point in the centre of the Universe. The
Northern Hemisphere is inhabited by the race of Adam. Purgatory is
an isolated mountain in the seas of the Southern Hemisphere, which
was unexplored at the time at which the poem was written. The nine
Heavens extend, one beyond the other, above the earth on every
side, the ninth being infinite in extent. Hell is a central core of evil in
the earth's interior.
The first level of Dante's work is a narrative of a journey through Hell,
Purgatory, and Heaven, the three realms of the dead, as they were
conceptualised by the medieval church of his day, which saw Earth
as the centre of the solar system, and indeed of the Universe. As
described by Anderson and Warnock, "Dante pictured the earth as a
sphere floating in space, whose northern hemisphere consisted
primarily of land extending from Gibraltar in the west to the Ganges
in the east with the holy city of Jerusalem in its centre. Beneath this
inhabited hemisphere is Hell, a vast pit in the shape of a funnel or
inverted cone, having its apex at the centre of the earth. When Satan
and the rebellious angels fell, this pit opened to receive them."
There are nine circles in Hell, each corresponding to the seriousness
of the sins of the damned souls, in the lowest of which is Satan
himself, here known as Dis, frozen forever in ice. On the other side of
the globe of the Earth, in the centre of the Southern Hemisphere and

directly opposite Jerusalem, is the Island Mountain of Purgatory. It is

a gigantic pyramid structure, with nine ledges on which the souls of
the dead may purify themselves for a time. At the apex of the
pyramid is the Garden of Eden, the earthly paradise in which human
beings originally fell from grace. Above the earthly Eden is the
heavenly Paradise consisting of nine concentric circles of heavens
revolving about the earth and corresponding to the sun, the moon,
the planets, and the stars. Surrounding them is the Empyrean, the
motionless heaven where God and the Virgin Mary reside. It is the
adventure of this trip through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, so often
encountered in the literature of the ancients, that comprises the first
level of meaning in the poem, with Dante demonstrating the Medieval
theological world view.
JUSTIFYING HELL
(Paraphrased from the section on Hell in the Catholic
Encyclopaedia)
[Note that I do not agree with any of this, being an atheist.]
The objection is made that there is no proportion between the brief
moment of sin and an eternal punishment in Hell. But why not? We
certainly admit a proportion between a momentary good deed and its
eternal reward. Though not, it is true, a proportion of duration, but a
proportion between the law and its appropriate sanction.
Again, sin is an offence against the infinite authority of God, and the
sinner is in some way aware of this, though but imperfectly.
Accordingly there is in sin an approximation to infinite malice
that deserves an eternal punishment.
Finally, it must be remembered that, although the act of sinning is
brief, the guilt of sin remains forever; for in the next life the sinner
never turns away from his sin by a sincere conversion.
It is further objected that the sole object of punishment must be to
reform the evil-doer. This is not true. Besides punishments inflicted
for correction, there are also punishments for the satisfaction of
justice. But justice demands that whoever departs from the right way
in his search for happiness shall not find his happiness, but lose it.
The eternity of the pains of Hell responds to this demand for justice.
And, besides, the fear of Hell really does deter many from sin. And
thus, in as far as God threatens it, eternal punishment also serves for
the reform of morals. But if God threatens man with the pains of Hell,
He must also carry out His threat if man does not heed it by avoiding

sin.
We must not consider the eternal punishment of Hell as a series of
distinct terms of punishment, as if God were forever again and again
pronouncing a new sentence and inflicting new penalties, and as if
He could never satisfy His desire of vengeance. Hell is, especially in
the eyes of God, one and indivisible in its entirety - it is but one
sentence and one penalty. We may represent to ourselves a
punishment of indescribable intensity as in a certain sense the
equivalent of an eternal punishment - this may help us to see better
how God permits the sinner to fall into Hell - how a man who sets at
naught all Divine warnings, who fails to profit by all the patient
forbearance God has shown him, and who in wanton disobedience is
absolutely bent on rushing into eternal punishment, can be finally
permitted by God's just indignation to fall into Hell.
The damned are confirmed in evil; every act of their will is evil and
inspired by hatred of God. This is the common teaching of theology,
which St. Thomas sets forth in many passages.
HELL IN GENERAL
Dante's layout/vision of Hell as interpreted by Barry Moser from
Mandelbaum's translation is as shown below:

Everything vanishes into deep gloom in the distance.

The air smells foetid, with an acrid tinge; of decay with sickly sweet
perfume over it to cover the smells of death; orange blossoms mixed
with hospital smells. All of these are sufficiently subtle to not be too
noticeable, but are sickening all the same. The stench of Hell has too
much in the blend and changes too often for anyone to become used
to it and stop noticing it.
The sky over Hell is a uniform grey, perhaps made up of clouds, but
with no details whatsoever so it is hard to tell from the ground. Close
up it is in fact a hideous grey fog. Inside this fog it stinks of
excrement, oil, smog, sickness, slaughter-houses and everything
hideous.
The damned in Hell have a continual miraculous healing effect upon
them, so that they may be tortured for eternity, eternally recovering
so that they may be tormented again. The damned do not breathe,
nor do they cast shadows. Most, but not all, of them wear a loose
white gown, partly open down the front, not unlike a hospital gown.
The rivers of Hell, whose source is the island of Crete, unite in the
frozen pool of Cocytus at the bottom of Hell.
THE WOODS OUTSIDE OF HELL
Dante's poem starts with the introduction of Dante the Pilgrim
halfway through his life (in his thirties) finding himself on the edge of
some dark woods. He does not understand how he arrived there, but
feels he may have got there by wandering from the 'straight path', or
'the path of truth'. Nonetheless, he raises his head from the dark
valley to see a hilltop "shawled in morning rays of light sent from the
planet that leads men straight-ahead on every road". As he climbs
the hill, three beasts block his path; a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf.
It can be argued that these beasts represent sins that are blocking
Dante's path to righteousness, fraud, violence, and incontinence
respectively.
Fear of the beasts forces Dante to retreat back to the edge of the
dark woods. "This last beast brought my spirit down so... I lost all
hope of going up the hill". He is, however, stopped by a figure that
first appears unrecognisable to him. The person soon presents
himself to Virgil, the famous pagan Roman poet. Dante asks Virgil for
assistance to help rid of the beasts so he can pass on to the hilltop of
Divine Light. Yet, Virgil indicates that Dante is to go down another
road. Virgil goes on further to explain that he will help Dante on his

path, but that he will have to leave him once he gets to Purgatory
because he was born before Christ and therefore cannot know of
true salvation. [The light and dark imagery that is often repeated and
becomes more abundant in later cantos of Dante's poem. The light
represents reason, truth, righteousness, and goodness. This is seen
in the fact that the hill to 'Divine Light' is cloaked in rays of the sun.
On the other hand, the dark is often depicted in times of torment,
blindness, and evil. This imagery is seen in the fact that the path
through Hell that Dante must take is dark and the sun does not shine
there.]
The path through the dark woods leads to an archway, which is the
true entrance into Hell. On its high arch are inscribed in dim colours
the words:
Through me you pass into the city of woe:Through me you pass into
eternal pain:Through me among the people lost for aye.Justice the
founder of my fabric mov'd:To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.Before me things create were
none, save thingsEternal, and eternal I endure.All hope abandon ye
who enter here.
Passing under the arch one enters Ante-Hell.
ANTE-HELL; THE VESTIBULE
The inscribed arch into Hell cannot be seen behind one once one
has passed through it.
The beginning of Upper Hell, Ante-Hell (also described as
"Nowhere") lies outside the River Acheron, a fast-moving river of inkblack water. The shore of the river is a shiny mud flat that shades
into a flat field of dirt that appears to stretch inland for about two
miles to some low brown hills. The hills run up against a high wall
that stretches off in both directions to the limit of visibility; it is just
about possible to see this wall curving inwards at the limits of
visibility. It is hard to tell how large or far away the wall is, and it is
impossible to reach anyway. Invisible biting insects sting irritatingly.
Underfoot, worms write in the soil in an unknown script.
Anyone who has any contact whatsoever with the River Acheron will
be trapped forever in the river, very cold and very uncomfortable,
aware and unable to move.
It is the place where those who would make no choices in life, "who
lived a life but lived it with no blame and no praise", are condemned
to spend their eternity. This includes those too self-absorbed to

make choices, those who were neither warm nor cold on important
matters, those who were neither believers nor blasphemers. They
run about the hills of Ante-Hell forever having no hope of truly dying,
chasing banners they will never catch, and being stung repeatedly by
hornets and wasps. An example of such a person who refused to
make decisions in his life would be Pontius Pilate, who refused to
pass sentence of Christ.
Some people, such as self-absorbed agnostics, end up trapped in a
bronze jar in the Vestibule. These jars, of varying sizes, are scattered
about the field of dirt; the voices of those trapped inside can be
faintly heard through the walls of the jars.
A wooden jetty protrudes out into the River Acheron, from which
Charon, a tall, wiry old man with a long white beard and eyes like
glowing coals, poles a ferry across the Acheron to the First Circle of
Hell. He will carry everyone who wishes to cross, but will chastise
those who displease him with the pole with which he propels the ferry
(that is, beat them senseless). The ferry is a low punt-like boat that
can hold many more people than it seems it should be able to.
Note that Circles One to Five of Hell are termed 'Incontinence'
and include all wrong action due to the inadequate control of
natural appetites or desires.
CIRCLE I - LIMBO - THE UNBAPTIZED, VIRTUOUS PAGANS
The First Circle of Hell consists of green fields and white
Mediterranean-style villas arranged in walled complexes with a squat
classical look to them, some quite large. They are not arranged in
any order but the overall effect is pleasing. In the First Circle the
ground is firm, grassy and pleasant. The air is clean and fresh, as at
the top of a mountain (that is, entirely unlike that in the rest of Hell).
The First Circle is encompassed by a "hemisphere of light",
representing Reason. As one travels into the depths of Hell, less and
less light is seen.
Limbo is not the horrible place usually associated with the fiery pits
of Hell, but instead the punishment for its residents is the loss of
Hope; they must exist in desire for the glory of God (often a God who
they do not believe in), without ever being able to attain it. The First
Circle of Hell is made up of all those shades that were good people,
but lacked the ideology of God's saviour and so must reside there for
eternity. That is, all of the people in Limbo are virtuous and sinless,

but who for the lack of a single ceremony cannot be admitted into
Paradise; this includes everyone who had the misfortune to live
before the time of Christ, all non-Christians, the un-baptised, and
even infants 'stained' by Original Sin (there is an abundance of
these). Virgil himself is from this circle of Hell, as he was born before
the crucifixion. Dante saw some of the most famous of all Historical
shades to be remembered by our modern society such as Homer,
Horace, Ovid, Caesar, Brutus, Lucretia, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle,
Democritus, Thales, Heraclitus, Euclid, Hector, Aeneas, Epictatus,
Ptolemy, and Hippocrates. Great thinkers, classic poets, great men,
and murderers alike are placed in the same 'punishment' simply
because they do not worship the Christian God. In some
interpretations, those in Limbo are excluded from the beatific vision
until Christ's triumphant ascension into Heaven (the "limbus
patrum").
Those who come across from the Vestibule on Charon's ferry do not
go into Limbo as a whole; instead they are let off at one end of a
road which twists between high walls to the Palace of Minos.
The walls hemming in the road can just be climbed, and there are
also gates in the walls, though these are kept locked from the inside.
However, anyone who does gain entry to Limbo from outside is
obvious to the inhabitants of Limbo, as they carry the stench of the
rest of Hell with them. On the inner edge of Limbo is erected the
Palace of Minos. This is circled by seven walls and contains seven
gates (according to theologians, seven is the number of perfection,
based on the seven days of creation).
The Palace of Minos is an enormous marble structure, without
furniture, lit by torches in bronze holders. The walls are covered in
Minoan-style frescos of bulls, dolphins and people. The Palace winds
on and on, chamber after chamber, with huge staircases and great
pillars inscribed in unreadable languages.
People easily become separated from one another in the Palace, so
that, in general, everyone eventually comes alone to an enormous
room open at the far end. This room gives, through the pillars, a vista
down over the depths of Hell - an enormous, world-sized bowl, with
fire and smoke visible far below. On a throne at the far end, backing
onto the view over Hell, sits a Minotaur, Minos, Judge of the Dead,
son of Zeus and Europa, King of Crete, and known for his wisdom
and judicial skills. His purpose is to assign all those that enter Hell to

that level of Hell to which their sins best suit them.

Minos talks to those who come to the Palace, and once he has
determined the best place for them, sends them to the appropriate
part of Hell, wrapping them up in his tail, which extends off and
carries the sinner away. The number of times Minos winds his tail
around a person indicates the Circle of Hell they have been
relegated to. Those who come to the Palace from the Vestibule of
their own accord do not have to be judged by Minos (though they
may not know that). However, Minos is unlikely to let them return
higher into Hell, but only to let them descend. There is a set of steps
behind his throne which leads down to the Second Circle; once one
starts down these stairs one cannot return upwards - no matter how
long one climbs, one never gets closer to the top.
CIRCLE II - THE LUSTFUL
The steps down from Limbo peter out into a rocky forty-five degree
slope, which is also where the wind begins to rise. The slope ends in
the broad ledge of the Second Circle, where it is pitch dark.
In the second circle are punished those who sinned by excess of
sexual passion, those souls who in life made pleasure their hope,
with reason and love of God second. Since this is the most natural
sin and the sin most nearly associated with love, its punishment is
the lightest of all to be found in Hell proper. "The Carnal are whirled...
endlessly through the murky air... by a great gale (symbolic of their
lust)." The punishment for the Lustful is an infernal storm that lashes
at them in darkness with rage and punishment, spinning through the
air. The Lustful are mostly blown about in pairs, but this is not always
so. They cry out lamentations and insults to God as they go. All the
great lovers are here - Semiramis, Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, Paris,
Tristan.
Standing on the ground in the Second Circle are unsuccessful lovers
attempting to be caught up by the winds of passion.
CIRCLE III - THE GLUTTONOUS
A great storm of putrefaction falls incessantly in this circle, a mixture
of stinking snow and freezing rain, which forms into a vile slush
underfoot. Everything about the Circle suggests a gigantic garbage
dump. The souls of the Damned Lie in the icy paste, swollen and
obscene, and Cerberus, the ravenous three-headed dog of Hell,
stands guard over them, ripping and tearing them with his claws and

teeth.
Those condemned here are the Gluttons. "In life they made no
higher use of the gifts of God than to wallow in food and drink,
producers of nothing but garbage and offal. Here they lie through all
eternity, themselves like garbage, half-buried in the foetid slush,
while Cerberus, the guardian, slavers over them as they in life
slavered over their food."
A winding, dangerous trail leads down the precipice to the Fourth
Circle.
CIRCLE IV - THE HOARDERS AND THE SPENDTHRIFTS
As one descends the trail into the Fourth Circle, one may meet
Plutus, the god of Wealth. Entering the Fourth Circle, it seems there
are "more shades were here than anywhere else".
In this circle, a flat plain of hard-baked clay, the sinners are divided
into two raging mobs, each soul among them straining madly at a
great boulder-like weight, representing their material wealth in life.
The two mobs meet clashing their weights against one another, one
side screaming 'Why hoard?', the other side 'Why waste?'. After
meeting the mobs separate, pushing the great weights apart, and
begin all over again. Upon closer examination it can be seen that
these weights are actually huge faceted diamonds, their surfaces
dulled by time.
The mobs consists of the Hoarders and the Wasters, those who, in
life, lacked all moderation in regulating their expenses and so
destroyed the light of God within themselves by thinking of nothing
but money. Thus in death their souls are encumbered by dead
weights (mundanity) and one excess serves to punish the other in a
joint effort, one side against the other. The wasters wear the torn and
filthy remnants of the finest clothing from all ages. The hoarders
simply wear rags. Dante points out specific people in this level, but
first generalising by finding "priests, and popes and cardinals, in
whom avarice is most likely to prevail."
Destined to be eternally caught between the two groups are people
such as Allister Toomey, who fits both categories (a collector of
science fiction pulp and novels, he hoarded a great literary and
historic wealth, refusing to sell any of his collection; but due to this
hoarding, Toomey could not afford to maintain his collection, which
was destroyed by rain, rot, and rats; therefore Toomey's hoarding
caused his wasting). They are regularly smashed by the weights, but

this being Hell, always recover, only to be smashed again...

Working over a chasm in the edge of the Fourth Circle are groups of
bridge builders and destroyers. These are those hoarders and
wasters who are obsessed with development, either stopping it at all
costs, or promoting it at all costs. Pipes in the walls of the chasm
gush filth, which ends up in the Styx, below.
CIRCLE V - THE RIVER STYX - THE WRATHFUL AND THE
SULLEN
This circle consists of a stinking swamp, mostly hidden by thick fog.
The swamp is only ankle-deep, but slimy and thoroughly unpleasant.
There are low-hanging trees and bushes dotted about. This circle is
home to two types of sinner, the wrathful and the sullen.
Most obviously, in this Circle countless souls attack one another in
the foul slime. These are "the souls of those that anger overcame".
These are the Wrathful and the symbolism of their punishment is
obvious. They also have an eternal rage against themselves due to
which they attack and bite their own bodies.
Virgil also points out to Dante certain bubbles rising out of the slime
and informs him that below that mud lie entombed the souls of the
Sullen. In life they refused to welcome the sweet light of the sun
(spiritual awakening) and in death they are buried forever below the
stinking waters of the Styx, gargling words of an endless chant in a
grotesque parody of singing a hymn.
At its inner edge the swamp of the Fifth Circle deepens into the River
Styx proper, where the wrathful still fight, under the water, and the
sullen too lie there. Large black towers are spaced along the edge of
the swamp. These are ferry terminals. Red light signals - like flames
or lasers - flash from their upper windows to other towers and the
City of Dis, over the river. This signal can summon a ferryman, for
example Phlegyas, to carry people across to Dis, though not without
argument. Phlegyas is a large bearded man with a low gold crown
who stands in the stern of his boat propelling it (much faster than it
looks like it should go) with an oar over the stern. He takes
passengers to the other ferry terminal, on the Dis side.
ACROSS THE RIVER STYX
The fog begins to clear as one crosses the Styx, and it gets hotter
and hotter. The fog is eventually entirely burned away to reveal, on
the other side of the Styx, a quarter of a mile of hard stinking mud

before the walls of the city of Dis. These walls are like a castle
curtain wall, with straight sections and towers, made of hot iron,
some merely hot enough to burn, some glowing red-hot. The eternal
fire that burns within the city serves as the only light in Hell. In one
place is a huge gate through the wall that has been torn off its
hinges, where Christ tore the gates down. Demons guard the walls
and the opening where the gate was.
This region is the end of Upper Hell and the beginning of Nether, or
Lower, Hell.
Between the Fifth and the Sixth Circles, inside the city of Dis, is the
human bureaucracy of Hell, a vast organisation that wastes
everyone's time doing things that aren't helpful. Bureaucratic minions
man posts at small information windows in the wall. They require
multiple copies of huge, complex forms (inconsistent between
copies, and you only get one small pencil to fill them out) before they
will do anything. However, they can be bullied and bluffed... Trying to
leap through the windows will fail; the iron turns red-hot if
approached with the intention of doing so.
Furies will appear if one loiters too long, flapping down from the sky,
and call upon Medusa to turn the loiterers into stone and keep them
in Hell forever.
It is possible to get over Dis, by way of gliders or parachutes made in
the upper levels, or perhaps even by bluffing one's way through the
city.
CIRCLE VI - THE CITY OF DIS - THE HERETICS
This Circle is "a countryside of pain and anguish", teeming with
tombs. "There lie arch-heretics of every sect, with all their disciples,"
Virgil tells Dante. Arch-heretics include those who followed the
philosophy of the Epicureans, who taught that the highest good was
temporal happiness and therefore denied the immortality of the soul
and the afterlife.
The circle of the Heretics is divided into two parts:
One part is a plain of flinty ground dotted with the iron tombs of
heretics; these are all hot, varying from simply burning to the touch to
red-hot. Each holds a heretic. Large vat-like pits full of fire are
distributed between the tombs; next to each one is a large iron lid,
just big enough to cover the pit. The air is hot and dry.
The other part of Dis is a huge white marble mausoleum, a maze of
corridors about five metres wide and nearly as high. The air inside is

cool, despite the heat outside. Sweet, sprightly, insipid music plays,
its volume never changing - nature themes, melodramatic
sweetness, singing violins and the like - never funeral dirges or
sombre tones. In some places within the mausoleum every wall is
covered with square-cut marble slabs each of which has a brass
plate listing name, birth date and date of death, sometimes with an
insipid poem. Behind each slab is imprisoned an unbeliever; rapping
on the slab can sometimes summon their shade forth. In other places
the walls are lined with densely-packed niches, each with an urn in it.
In yet others there are short alcoves with huge, ornate tombs in
various styles, copies of the real tombs or crypts of the person
imprisoned inside. After a while there one begins to hear groans,
whimpers, rage, curses and so on coming from inside the tombs
where people are trapped.
Some of the corridors of the mausoleum lead back to the iron walls
of Dis. There are the same sort of information windows on the inside
as the outside. Other halls lead to the drop-off into the Seventh
Circle.
Inward from the torn-down gate in the wall of Dis is a craggy
landslide, which legend has it was the place where Christ descended
into Hell. This also leads down to the Seventh Circle.
At the edge of the Sixth Circle a disgusting stench arises from below.
This is so strongly offensive that travellers may have to wait to
become accustomed to it.
CIRCLE VII - THE VIOLENT
This circle holds those condemned for Brutishness or Bestiality, the
morbid states in which what is naturally repulsive becomes attractive.
The guardian of this circle is the Minotaur, which normally lets no-one
pass easily, but who suffers from fits of rage, during which he can be
avoided.
This Circle is divided into three rings, each of which deals with
sinners condemned for different types of violence.
RING I - THE RIVER PHLEGETHON - TYRANTS AND
MURDERERS
In the first Ring, which lies directly below the edge of the Sixth Circle,
are found those who were violent to their neighbours in life, whether
it be from malice, homicide, or plundering. It consists entirely of the
River Phlegethon (also known as the River Phlegyas), a river of

boiling blood. Its smell is overpowering, fresh blood and clotted

blood, copper bright and polluted foul.
As they wallowed in blood during their lives, so in Hell those
condemned here are immersed in boiling blood forever, the depth of
each according to the degree of his guilt, while fierce centaurs and
the damned souls of people who had to be violent as part of their
duty, but who enjoyed it, patrol the banks, ready to shoot with their
arrows and other weapons any sinner who raises himself out of the
boiling blood beyond the limits permitted him. The depth of the blood
varies from ankle-deep to over a person's head. The sinners
condemned to the banks wear the uniforms they wore in life, from all
periods of history; their eyes are dull, expressionless and intent on
their task.
The leader of the Centaurs is Chiron, the son of Saturn and Philyra
and known for his wisdom. Nessus, another Centaur, was appointed
by Chiron to guide Dante and Virgil across the river Phlegethon.
The boiling blood in this Ring also has at least one sunken wooden
sailing ship immersed in it. This contains slave traders trapped under
the grilles in the deck. There is also an island, entirely made up of
officials who knowingly let criminals go free. This island is peopled by
those who were 'justified' murderers. Those on the island have to
keep the people upon whom they are standing too injured to fight,
otherwise the island will dissolve as its foundations rise up and
escape or try to get up on the island itself, so although they are out of
the blood the inhabitants of the island are not in a happy place.
In one place a stream of the blood leaves the River Phlegethon and
flows downwards through the rest of this Circle towards the drop into
the Eighth Circle.
RING II - VIOLENCE AGAINST SELF
In the second Ring of the Seventh Circle are found those who raised
a hand against themselves, such as in suicide, or those who gamble
all their wealth away and weep when they should have rejoiced.
Those who were violent against themselves are eternally destroyed
by Harpies in the Wood of the Suicides, a dark, deathly forest of
tangled trees with black leaves. The souls of the suicides are
encased in thorny trees that are constantly torn at by the odious
Harpies, the overseers of these damned. When the Harpies feed
upon them, damaging their leaves and limbs, the wounds bleed. Only
as long as the blood flows are the souls of the trees able to speak.

Thus, they who destroyed their own bodies are denied human form;
and just as the supreme expression of their lives was self
destruction, so they are permitted to speak only through that which
tears and destroys them. Only through their own blood do they find
voice.
Running through the wood are the Violent Wasters, people who
would prove their wealth in life by destroying their possessions. They
are pursued by packs of wild dogs. If the dogs catch those they
chase they tear them apart.
Interspersed throughout the Wood of Suicides are areas of modern
wasteland, filled with all known examples of human pollution. Here
are the modern version of the Violent Wasters, the Polluters. Some
are chased by animated bulldozers; some are condemned to work in
slime-belching factories just like those they owned and profited from
in life; some assemble pointless gadgets while others dissemble the
same gadgets and pass the parts back for re-assembly. Parts of
these wastelands are riven by gullies with filthy rubbish-strewn water
at the bottom. Some lie in pools of oil, pecked incessantly by oilsmeared birds. Noxious gases and pollutants waft across these
areas too, up to and including nerve gas. There is a constant sound
of wailing, roaring motors and clanking machines.
The stream of boiling blood from the Phlegethon flows down through
this Ring.

RING III - VIOLENCE AGAINST GOD AND NATURE

In the third and final Ring of the Seventh Circle are condemned those
who were violent against God in life, either by cursing God's name or
by despising Nature and God's bounty. Sinners in this Ring include
blasphemers, usurers and sodomites. They are stranded forever on
the Plain of Burning Sand where it constantly rains great burning
flakes of fire which vanish when they hit the ground, but not when
they hit the flesh of sinners. This region is also known as The
Abominable Sands. "The symbolism of the burning plain is obviously
centred in sterility... and wrath."
The different sinners condemned to this Ring behave in different
ways:
Blasphemers, who were violent against God, are stretched supine
and naked upon the ground under the burning rain. Many shout and
curse God.
Sodomites, also naked, must wander forever on those hot sands, or

squat with their arms about themselves.

Usurers, who were in life violent against art, must crouch on the hot
sand with heavy moneybags around their necks. They are dressed in
the finery of all ages, but their identities are concealed. This is a
symbol of how they have lost their identity due to their concern with
material goods. However, the colours they wear express their family
shields. Loan Sharks are the modern Usurers, and are also
condemned here.
The stream of boiling blood from the Phlegethon flows through this
Ring and over the edge into the Eighth Circle. It is narrow but fast, its
roar somehow different from that of water, and it is bright scarlet. It
falls with a sound of rushing water into the Abyss.
CIRCLE VIII - MALEBOLGE - THE FRAUDULENT (ORDINARY
FRAUD)
This Circle holds those sinners condemned for simple Fraud or
Malice, that is, those who used fraud on others who put their trust in
them, and those who used fraud on those who had no trust invested.
These sins (the first class of Fraud) consist of those evil actions that
involve the abuse of the specifically human attribute of reason.
Those who used fraud on others who put their trust in them include
hypocrites, flatters, dabblers in sorcery, falsifiers, thieves and
simonists.
This Circle is divided into ten steep-sided Bolgias, Regions, Rings or
Ditches, each perhaps twenty-five metres deep and fifty metres wide,
in which the different classes of the fraudulent are placed. These
Rings run all around the Eighth Circle. Arching bridges, each one
about three metres wide, go over each ring, further down into Hell.
They drop steeply at the inner end, each Bolge being about seven
metres lower then the one immediately outside it.
The guardian of the Eighth Circle is Geryon. Geryon is the
personification of Fraud, which can be determined by the fact that the
creature has the face of an honest man, but the body of a serpent;
his voice is deep, with a queer buzzing quality. Geryon can carry
people down to the Eighth Circle, but must be summoned in some
manner; throwing a rope down was sufficient for Virgil and Dante.
Once he rises out of the depths, Geryon must be bargained with to
carry the traveller down to the Eighth Circle.
BOLGE

I/THE

FIRST

EVIL

DITCH

PANDERERS

AND

SEDUCERS
"With... honeyed tongue[s] and... dishonest lover's wiles... [they] left
[women] pregnant and forsaken. Such guilt condemns [them] to such
punishment..." This Bolge holds those sinners condemned for
pandering to and seducing others in life. In addition to the more
conventional interpretations of panderer and seducer, this Bolge also
contains pimps, movie producers who talked actresses onto their
'casting couch', and emotional rapists.
In life these sinners goaded others on to serve their own foul
purposes; so in Hell they are driven in their turn. As such the
Panderers and Seducers make two files, one along either bank of the
Bolge, and are driven at an endless fast walk by horned demons who
hurry them along with great lashes. These demons are blackskinned, at least ten feet tall, very ugly, and mock the sinners as they
whip them along. The two files are divided by a wall of rock which
has occasional gaps in it. Panderers go in one direction along the
Bolge, seducers in the other; those who did both get to swap from
one side to the other now and again.
The horned demons that drive them symbolise the vicious natures of
the sinners themselves, embodiments of their own guilty
consciences. Dante may also have intended the horns of the demons
to symbolise cuckoldry and adultery.
BOLGE II/THE SECOND EVIL DITCH - FLATTERERS
In the second ditch are the souls of those who were flatterers in life;
this includes advertisers. In Hell they are sunk in excrement, the true
equivalent of their false flatteries on earth. They have also been
physically altered so that excrement comes out of their mouths
whenever they speak.
Steaming from the Bolge comes a foul vapour, which crusts the
banks of the Bolge with a slime that sickens the eyes and hammered
at the nose. The sinners in the Bolge are sunk in the excrement in
long lines of people. The river of excrement in the Bolge seems so
large "that [it] seemed to overflow the world's latrines..."
BOLGE III/THE THIRD EVIL DITCH - SIMONIACS
The Simoniacs are "those who corrupt the things of God, by selling
Church offices rather than assigning them according to the rules... As
always the punishment is a symbolic retribution. Just as the
Simoniacs made a mock of holy office, so are they turned upside

down in a mockery of the baptismal font; they lay upside down in a

hole filled with oil from which only their feet stick out. Flames engulf
their feet, which twitch frenziedly. The simoniacs include some Popes
(including Nicholas II), as well as the likes of those who run theology
diploma mills and New Age gurus selling enlightenment.
We might suppose that those who mock holy matrimony, will spend
eternity in real chains.
BOLGE IV/THE FOURTH EVIL DITCH - SORCERERS,
SOOTHSAYERS AND FORTUNE TELLERS
Here, the soothsayers, sorcerers and fortune tellers are punished.
All of those condemned to this Bolge have their heads twisted
around on their necks so that they face backwards, and they have to
move ahead by moving backward. Such famous soothsayers as
Amphiarus, Tiresias, Aruns, Manto, Euryplus, Michael Scot, Guido
Bonatti and Asdente are condemned to this Bolge, along with all
"those wretched hags who traded in needle, spindle, shuttle, for
fortune-telling, and cast their spells with image dolls and potions".
Another type of fortune teller found in this Bolge is a teacher who
would label any slow reader as dyslexic, thereby predicting the
child's educational future.
BOLGE V/THE FIFTH EVIL DITCH - BARRATORS AND
GRAFTERS
In this Bolge the Grafters, those who stole from people who trusted
them, or those who acquired money or gain in unfair and dishonest
ways, lie in boiling pitch, hardly daring to bring their heads above the
surface, for fear of the "demons, who tear them to pieces with claws,
pitchforks and grappling hooks" if they see them. The sticky pitch is
symbolic of the sticky fingers of the Grafters. The demons, too,
suggest symbolic possibilities, for they are armed with grappling
hooks and are forever ready to rend and tear all they can get their
hands on. Perhaps he who takes in life, will be forced to give in Hell.
The devils of this Bolge are known as the Malebrache. Their leader is
Malacoda. The other devils are Alichino, Calcabrina, Cagnazzo,
Barbariccia, Libicocco, Draghignazzo, Ciriatto, Graffiacane,
Farfarello, and Rubicante. They cannot leave the fifth Bolge.
The main bridge across this Bolge was knocked down during Christ's
descent into Hell; however, there are alternative bridges that may be
used to cross.

led the mission are found in this Bolge.

BOLGE VI/THE SIXTH EVIL DITCH - HYPOCRITES
In this Bolge are the hypocrites, who are "weighted down by great
leaden robes like cloaks with hoods pulled low covering the eyes,
weary and defeated, in pain they must walk eternally round and
round a narrow track. The robes are brilliantly gilded on the outside
and are shaped like a monk's habit, for the hypocrite's outward
appearance shines brightly and passes for holiness, but under that
show lies the terrible weight of his deceit which the soul must bear
through all eternity." If the sinner stops walking their cloak becomes
hotter and hotter. These sinners include the likes of the (first)
millennium priests as well as televangelists.
Like those of the fifth Bolge, the bridges across this Bolge were
knocked down during Christ's descent into Hell. The rockslides that
remain must be climbed down and then up to cross this Bolge.
BOLGE VII/THE SEVENTH EVIL DITCH - THIEVES
This Bolge is much wider than the others in this Circle.
The naked and terrified sinners within the Bolge are thieves and the
buyers of stolen goods. They are constantly attacked by snakes.
Sometimes when they are bitten, the shade combusts into flames
and then into a heap of ash. Within a few seconds, the ashes came
to form the shade again, confused and in torment. At other times the
bite of the snakes (actually transformed sinners) steal the human
form of the sinner, turning the snake back into a human, while the
sinner becomes a snake. At other times yet, the snakes "curl
themselves about the sinners like living coils of rope, binding each
sinner's hands behind his back, and knotting themselves through his
loins. No ivy ever grew about a tree as tightly as that monster wove
itself limb by limb about the sinner's body; they fused like hot wax,
and their colours ran together until neither wretch nor monster
appeared what he had been when he began..."
Cacus the Centaur is the guardian of this Bolge.
BOLGE VIII/THE EIGHTH EVIL DITCH - FRAUDULENT
COUNSELLORS/DECEIVERS
The eighth Bolge is brightly marked due to the flames that burn all
around. Virgil tells Dante that within each of the flames are souls, the
souls of those who gave false counsel, burning eternally. The likes of
the man who approved the Dresden fire-bombing and the man who

BOLGE IX/THE NINTH EVIL DITCH - SOWERS OF DISCORD,

SCANDAL AND SCHISM
The floor of this Bolge is bloody mud. In it are held those who sowed
discord, scandal and schism in life. "And just as their sin was to rend
asunder what God had meant to be united, so are they hacked and
torn through all eternity by a great demon with a bloody sword. After
each mutilation the souls are compelled to drag their broken bodies
around the pit and to return to the demon, for in the course of the
circuit their wounds knit in time to be inflicted anew." Sowers of
Discord include people such as Mohammed, Ali, Henry VIII, Vlad
Tepes, lawyers who goaded people into suits and divorces, people
who advocated hatred, and people who started wars or refused to
end them. In addition many here are religious schismatics - people
who fractured the true church for their own gain.
The demon here is huge, twenty feet tall, and stands under one of
(indeed, under all of) the bridges across the Bolge. His 'sword' is the
overdeveloped fingernail on his overdeveloped middle finger, which
he uses it like a rapier. He will challenge those who attempt to cross
the bridge, as well as those within the Bolge itself.
BOLGE X/THE TENTH EVIL DITCH - THE FALSIFIERS
In this Bolge, the last of the ten, are held those who falsified in life,
the 'Evil Impersonators', whatever the exact details of that which they
falsified. There is a terrible stench about this Bolge. All of the sinners
here are plagued with different types of illnesses, including leprosy
(which creates the circle's terrible stench), rabies (with the rabid
running about biting people), and sexually transmitted diseases. All
of the sinners drag themselves on the ground because they are so
weak that they are unable to walk.
Falsifiers of Metals (including alchemists) are punished with scabs
covering the body which itch with no relief.
Falsifiers of persons are changed into hogs that chase others. "In life
they seized upon the appearance of others, and in death they must
run with never a pause, seizing upon the infernal apparition of these
souls, while they in turn are preyed upon by their own furies."
Falsifiers of coins - counterfeiters - suffer an eternal thirst, cracked
tongue and bloated belly. They can hear and see water a few feet
ahead of them, but are unable to reach it.

The Falsifiers of Words (false witnesses) suffer a continual intense

fever, so intense that their body continually smokes, as if cooking.
These falsifiers include women who would 'roll' unsuspecting, horny
men, men who sold quack cures, and psychiatrists who were
egotistical frauds. Many of them are rabid. "Hecuba - mourning,
wretched, and a slave - having seen Polyxena sacrificed, and
Polydorous dead without a grave; lost and alone, beside an alien
sea, began to bark and growl like a dog in the mad seizure of her
misery. But never in Thebes nor Troy were Furies seen to strike at
man or beast in such mad rage as two I saw, pale, naked, and
unclean, who suddenly came running toward us the[m], snapping
their teeth as they ran, like hungry swine let out to feed after a night
in the pen."
THE WELL OF GIANTS
After the Bolgias, but still within the Eighth Circle, there is an empty,
rocky land which leads on down into the gloom of Hell. Perhaps it is
reserved for brand news sins, those yet to be invented.
On the far side of this land enormous giants are buried from the
navel down in the ground. They are bound in chains so tightly they
can do little more than move their eyes and snap their teeth (which
are the size of medieval shields). The giants are buried just outside a
wall, which is chin-high to them. Its top is flat and the inner side
slopes sufficiently that one can climb up the giants and then slide
down from the wall into the ninth circle. The only problem with this is
that it is so cold there that any exposed flesh will stick to the ice...
The giant Antaeus can be persuaded to carry travellers to the Ninth
Circle, known as the Cocytus. Another of the other giants is Nimrod,
the supposed builder of Babylon, who is forced to blather nonsense
for eternity. A third is named Ephialtes, a giant son of Poseidon from
Greek mythology.
CIRCLE IX - COCYTUS - THE TRAITORS
This Circle includes the second class of frauds, those who are
traitors by means of complex or treacherous fraud or malice. The
landscape here is the frozen Pool of Cocytus, and is "more like a
sheet of glass than frozen water". The slightest breeze leeches all
the warmth from one, and nothing will help one to shelter from the
cold. The wind whips up to sweep those unworthy back to where
they belong in Hell, leaving the worthy behind.

This Circle is divided into four Regions, based on different kinds of

treachery, and are listed in the order in which one would encounter
them when going down into the very depths of Hell.
CAINA - TRAITORS TO KINDRED
The outermost region of the icy lake of Cocytus is the first division of
the circle, and is named Caina, after Cain, whom performed the first
sin of treachery by killing his brother Abel. Here, the traitors to kin are
punished. Their punishment consists of being frozen in the ice with
only their faces above the ice to express their pain. Sinners held here
include Mordred, the nephew of King Arthur who also attempted to
kill him.
ANTENORA - TRAITORS TO THEIR COUNTRY
This region is named Antenora after the Trojan warrior who betrayed
his city to the Greeks. As symbolised by the region's name, this area
contains those who were traitors to their country, city, or political
party. Only the heads of the those imprisoned here project above the
ice.
PTOLOMEA - TRAITORS TO THEIR GUESTS OR HOST
Ptolemea is where those who are traitors to guests, hosts or
associates are found. The region was named after the captain of
Jericho, Ptolemy, who had Simon, his father-in-law and two of his
sons killed while they dined. Here, the punishment is more severe
due to the fact that the sinners, while being frozen flat on their backs
in the ice, also have their heads facing up with their eyes frozen with
their tears. Shades will tell travellers about the region if they break off
the veils of ice over their eyes.
The sinners in this region actually have bodies that remain in the
living world and continue to live. However, they are possessed by
demons. As soon as one commits a sin against a guest, their shade
is sent to this region. An example of such a sinner is Ser Branca
D'Origa, who murdered his father-in-law after serving him dinner.
JUDECCA - TRAITORS TO THEIR BENEFACTORS
In this region those who betrayed their Lords and Masters or their
benefactors are punished by being entirely frozen in the ice, with no
part of themselves exposed.
As one moves across this region of the Circle, across the ice a faint

object becomes visible. It is the King of Dis, Lucifer. The Dark Angel
is as foul as he once was fair. He too is frozen in the ice in the centre
of Judecca, but with half his chest above the ice; even the part
projecting above the ice is more than a mile tall. He has bat-like
wings.
Lucifer has three faces from which he weeps tears mixed with bloody
slaver, a mockery of the Trinity. The forward-facing face is red,
mocking Primal Love with hatred; one is yellow, parodying Diving
Omnipotence with impotence; and one is black, perverting Highest
Wisdom with ignorance. Each of the faces has a mouth that is stuffed
with one of the worst traitors of the world, those who are treacherous
against their benefactors. The first is Judas Iscariot, who was a
traitor to Christ for thirty pieces of silver. He endures the worst
punishment by being chewed on by the red face and being clawed by
his bat-like wings. The second is Marcus Brutus, traitor to Caesar.
The black face is chewing him. The third sinner is Caius Cassius
Longinus, who was another member of the conspiracy against
Caesar.
THE EXIT FROM HELL
To exit Hell, one must climb down the body of Lucifer, which is
covered in shaggy hair; the ice stops a yard or so from Lucifer
himself. If one climbs down for long enough, one eventually feels as
if one is climbing up again. This marks that one is crossing the centre
of the earth, or "the point to which all weight from every part is
drawn". One then makes their way up to a type of hollow tomb, a
echoing grotto of dimly lit grey rock, from the floor of which the
hooves of Lucifer project upwards, upside-down from this
perspective. A stream of clear, sweet water runs through this grotto.
This place serves as the exit of Hell and entrance to Purgatory. Its
roof goes up thousands of miles, tapering gradually until the opening
into Purgatory is reached. This distance must be climbed, and when
it is the travellers finally make their way to the surface, where they
come "out to see once more the stars" on the shore at the base of
Mount Purgatory...

Dantes Purgatorio
SOME BACKGROUND
Purgatory is the second part of Dante's 'Divine Comedy'. We find the
Poet, with his guide Virgil, ascending the terraces of the Mount of
Purgatory inhabited by those doing penance to expiate their sins on

Earth. There are the proud - forced to circle their terrace for aeons
bent double in humility; the slothful - running around crying out
examples of zeal and sloth; while the lustful are purged by fire.
Dante's Purgatory is a lofty island-mountain, the only land in the
southern Hemisphere, at the antipodes of Jerusalem. On the lower
irregular slopes are the souls whose penitence has, for some reason,
been delayed in life and whose purgation is now delayed in death.
Above that is the base of Purgatory proper, the place of active
purgation, which consists of seven level terraces surrounding the
mountain and rising one above another, connected by stairways in
the rock.
On these terraces the seven deadly sins are purged by penance
from the souls that have been beset by them. On the summit of the
mountain is the Garden of Eden, or Earthly Paradise, from which the
purged souls ascend to Heaven.
Purgatory (from the Latin 'purgare', to make clean, to purify) in
accordance with Catholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal
punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are not
entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction
due to their providence and free transgressions. All sins are not
equal before God, nor dare anyone assert that the daily faults of
human frailty will be punished with the same severity that is meted
out to serious violation of God's law.
On the other hand whosoever comes into God's presence must be
perfectly pure for in the strictest sense His "eyes are too pure, to
behold evil". For un-repented venial faults and for the payment of
temporal punishment due to sin at the time of death, the Church has
always taught the doctrine of purgatory.
The Catholic doctrine of purgatory supposes the fact that some die
with smaller faults for which there was no true repentance, and also
the fact that the temporal penalty due to sin is it times not wholly paid
in this life. This doctrine that many who have died are still in a place
of purification and that prayers avail to help the dead is part of the
very earliest Christian tradition. If a man departs this life with lighter
faults, he is condemned to fire which burns away the light materials;
for God, to those who can comprehend heavenly things is called a
cleansing fire. But this fire consumes not the creature, but what the
creature has himself built, wood, and hay and stubble. It is manifest
that the fire destroys the wood of our transgressions and then returns

to us the reward of our great works, and prepares the soul for the
kingdom of God, where nothing defiled may enter.
Are the souls detained in purgatory conscious that their happiness is
but deferred for a time, or may they still be in doubt concerning their
ultimate salvation? The ancient Liturgies and the inscriptions of the
catacombs speak of a "sleep of peace", which would be impossible if
there was any doubt of ultimate salvation.
PURGATORY IN GENERAL
Dante's layout/vision of Purgatory is as shown below:

such as serpents. This can lead to a rapid descent down Mount

Purgatory...
Those expiating their sins in Purgatory do not eat or drink, and like
those condemned to Hell will heal from any wound or injury. They
also do not cast shadows, being dead as they are.
According to Statius it is entirely possible for sinners to be
condemned to different part of purgatory for their different sins in life,
moving upwards from terrace to terrace until all of their sins are
purged.
Although it is part of the world, Purgatory is inviolate to all merely
physical forces, such as those of the weather, fire, ice, and so on. It
is also guarded by angels, an angelic gatekeeper at the entrance to
purgatory proper, and angels stationed at the way up from each
terrace of Purgatory to the next (who when Dante travelled through
Purgatory, usually indicated to him and his companions the way up).
This tends to imply that if one somehow came to Purgatory without
permission, and tried to ascend, it would not be long before one was
stopped or turned back to ones proper place by the angels stationed
throughout the terraces.

The will fails one at night in Purgatory, and one can blindly stray
about - usually downwards. Sleeping unprotected or alone in
Purgatory may also cause one to be tempted by agents of the Devil,

ARRIVING IN PURGATORY, AT ANTE-PURGATORY

Exiting from Hell, one emerges on a flat and reed-grown seashore,
with the mass of Mount Purgatory looming above. If one emerges at
night, in the southern sky is a cross of four particularly noticeable
stars that light up the whole sky. These stars are the symbols of the
four Cardinal Virtues, Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, and Justice
- the virtues of active life, sufficient to guide men in the right path, but
not to bring them to Paradise. According to the geography of the time
Asia and Africa lay north of the equator, so that even to their
inhabitants these stars were invisible, meaning that only Adam and
Eve have ever seen these stars, from the terrestrial Paradise, on the
summit of the Mount of Purgatory. Possibly the meaning is that these
stars, symbolising the cardinal virtues, had been visible only in the
golden age.
People are present by the exit from Hell, mostly those who guide
souls up into Purgatory, and know what it is. One of them is Cato.
They will challenge those who emerge, and if the emergees do not
show proper reverence to God, and that they come here by His will,
who knows what may happen?
Along the shore, up the steep slope are shady places where, at

dawn, enough dew remains to wash away the stains of Hell from the
emergee.
As dawn rises, an angel comes to the shore. It is at first visible as a
bright white light moving swiftly over the sea, out of the dawn. As it
approaches it can be seen to be standing on a boat, which leaps
lightly over the waves, leaving scarcely a ripple behind it, propelled
by the angel's outstretched, motionless wings, with no sails or oars.
The angel is sufficiently glorious that mortal eyes shrink from it.
The boat which the angel pilots carries a hundred souls to purgatory.
They sing 'In exitu Israel de Aegypto' as the boat carries them along.
The angel brings its boat to the shore and disembarks the souls
there, blessing each one as they step onto the shore.
With all of its souls off-loaded, the angel sails away again in search
of more souls to bring here. Similar boatloads of souls arrive on the
shores of Purgatory quite regularly.
The newly arrived souls head up Mount Purgatory, guided and
hurried along by the likes of Cato, into Ante-Purgatory.
THE EXCOMMUNICATE
However, also upon the beach are the souls of those who have died
in outside the Church. Those who died repentant but un-reconciled
with the Church must wait outside of Purgatory proper for thirty times
longer than they were outside the Church, though the prayers of
those on Earth can reduce this time somewhat.
Those who have come to Purgatory by means other than an angel's
boat will have a hard time finding a way further up the mountain from
here - its lower slopes seem simply too steep. However, souls here
can, with persuasion, reveal the path upwards, a steep and narrow
cleft, so small that both shoulders brush its walls as one climbs.
THE LETHARGIC
After quite a hard climb, one emerges from the cleft in the rocks onto
a terrace, the first level of Ante-Purgatory. From here Mount
Purgatory can be seen looming above, and the shore can be seen
below.
This ledge holds the negligent, those who postponed their
repentance to the last hour, but who did repent before death. There
is a band of them waiting on this ledge. The Lethargic must wait, and
pray, for a time equivalent to the time they spent drifting through
unrepentant days before they can be admitted upwards, into

Purgatory proper. Again, the prayers of those on Earth can reduce

this time somewhat. All of those here are lethargic in behaviour, as
well as in religious observance.
The narrow cleft continues upwards from here to the next ledge.
THE UN-ABSOLVED
This ledge holds the spirits of those who had delayed repentance,
and met with death by violence, but died repentant, pardoning and
pardoned. Nonetheless, they must wait, and pray upon this ledge
until they are allowed upwards into Purgatory proper. Mortal visitors
will attract large numbers of those here, who wish to be heard, and
absolved.
Again, the cleft continues upwards, but this time also leads around
Mount Purgatory to the right.
THE NEGLIGENT RULERS
The cleft leads around the mountain to a valley cut into its side with
the steep bare height of the mountain above. The path winds down
into the valley to the level of its floor; it takes only three steps - far
fewer than would seem necessary - to go from the side of the valley
to its floor. The valley is very lush. "Gold and fine silver, cochineal
and lead, The Indian wood-blue lucid and serene, The fresh-flaked
shining of the emerald green, Would fade defeated from too hard
compare With the bright flowers and spreading verdure there. Not
colour only, but their fragrant scent - Nature to one a thousand
odours blent - A large anonymous delight supplied, Sweetness unsingled, unidentified."
In the midst of the valley a group of souls can be seen singing Salve
Regina. These are the rulers who were virtuous, but negligent of
salvation in life, and who must now wait and pray here until they are
admitted to Purgatory proper. These include the Emperor Rudolph,
Ottocar (the father of King Wenceslas), Peter the Third of Aragon
and Henry III of England.
At dusk, all of those in the valley sing a hymn. Also at dusk, a snake
comes to the Valley to tempt those who wait within it, and make them
its prey. It always comes from the unguarded end of the valley,
glancing backwards at times, licking and sleeking its scales "as
though assured and leisured for the overthrow of those it sought".
However, to protect those within from the snake, a pair of Guardian
Angels are assigned to the valley, coming "from Mary's heart", and fly

downwards through the dusk. "Two angels in a single wonder came,

and in their hands two swords of shortened flame, shorn of their
points; and their down-planing wings were green, and all their windblown raiment, green as leaves new-born, as when on Earth is seen
the tender break of her returning springs". One settles close above
where the path upwards enters the valley; the other on the opposite
side of the valley. No one can bear to see the eyes of the Angels.
They swoop down on and drive away the snake before it can bother
those in the valley - if they did not, those inside (and elsewhere on
the mountain) would be in danger of corruption, and falling, down the
mountain.
Dante rested in the Valley, and dreamed of an eagle. "Then saw I in
the far blue heights of air, with wide-stretched wings, a golden eagle
soar: An eagle poised to swoop. And I was where the friends of
Ganymede he left behind stood (so it seemed) and upward gazed,
when he was raped aloft to Heaven's consistory. 'Perhaps,' I thought,
'it soars by custom here disdaining else to strike an earthly prey.'
And, as I thought, it wheeled, and stooped, and came swifter than
any bolt, and yet more dread, and bore me upward in its claws. . .
The flame Of Heaven was round us now. I felt it sear my shrinking
flesh, and in that tortured fear perforce I waked."
A gap in the face of Mount Purgatory leads upwards from the valley.
THE GATE OF PURGATORY; THE ANGELIC GATEKEEPER
Going upwards again from the valley, one comes to the gate to
Purgatory itself. At first this appears as a simple fissure in the wall of
the path, but as one approaches it becomes clear that it is, in fact, a
gateway entrance, with three steps before it that shine blindingly in
three colours. The first is white marble, polished to a mirror finish.
The second is basalt, coloured darker than purple with a rough finish
and two cracks along its length and width forming the sign of the
Cross. The third, and last, is flaming porphyry, brighter red then
arterial blood. The gate itself is of solid banded iron.
In this blinding light sits an angelic gatekeeper, as glorious as the
one bringing souls to the shore of Purgatory. He sits on a granite
block, its feet on the third step, holding a drawn sword, with light
reflecting from it like a bright flame, too near to the light of Heaven for
mortal eyes. He wears a dusty-earth coloured robe.
The gatekeeper guards the gate into Purgatory proper well, but will
allow those who are sufficiently devout, and who have a valid reason

through. Pleading devoutly will help in this. When Dante comes to

the gate, the gatekeeper inscribes seven 'P's on his forehead with
the point of his sword, one for each mortal sin, and advises Dante
that he does not fail to wash them all off as he ascends.
The gatekeeper has two keys in his robe, one of silver and one of
gold. These were given to him by St Peter, who advised him to err on
the side of generosity when using them. Both are needed to open the
gate when used in order, silver then gold. If the keys do not turn in
the lock, then the person's entry to Purgatory is denied, at least at
present.
If the gate does open, which it does with a shrill shriek of un-oiled
hinges, the gatekeeper advises those let in not to look back as they
ascend further - those who do are brought back to ante-Purgatory,
perhaps because, in looking back, they show that they still have
some urge for the sins below.
When passing through the gate, one hears a distant 'Te Deum'. The
gate clangs shut behind those who are let in.
Beyond the gate, the way up is narrow and difficult, with the rocks to
both sides being very irregular, the rocks receding back and
protruding out at random. This makes the upward path slow to
traverse...
The first three terraces of purgatory expiate the sins which can
be considered to arise from love perverted, that is, sins which
arise from the heart of the sinner being set upon something
which is wrong in the eyes of god. Those being purged here
must have their love set upon the right path.
THE FIRST TERRACE - THE PROUD
But eventually one emerges on the first terrace of Purgatory proper.
This is a flat are about six metres wide, with sheer rock rising before
and falling away behind. The bare, flat rock of the first terrace
stretches away to left and right.
The rock face ahead has no visible way up to the next terrace, but is
of clear white marble, carved with many wonderful life-like sculptures
giving examples of humility - angels, the Ark of the Covenant on a
car drawn by oxen with seven choirs the carvings of whom seem
almost to sing going before it, and many others. Even the speech of
the subjects seems to have been sculpted:
"Upon the fronting rock I gazed. It seemed, our further course to

block, it rose uncleft by fissure, gate or stair. But its own marvel filled
mine eyes. Its white clear marble was with sculptured wealth so well,
so richly furnished, Polycletus' art not only, but the actuality of
Nature, might accept the inferior's scorn. I saw an angel who, I might
have sworn, spoke Hail! to her to whom he came to tell the gracious
verdict that reversed our woe, when the long-wept-for peace, by
Heaven's decree, to men was granted; held no more apart by God's
refusal of our guilt. For she to whom he bent, who turned the holy
key of Love's high gates, this speech imprinted showed: Ecce ancilla
Dei! Apt as seal on the soft wax. ... Here the marble live seemed
motion, as their car the oxen drew, bearing the sacred ark, which
taught the bane of those who more than seemly service do. Before
them moved seven choirs. My senses warred: 'They sing.' 'They sing
not.' With no more accord sight knew the incense real that scent
denied. The humble Psalmist, more and less than king, danced on
before, with garments girded high; While Michal, from a palace
window nigh, looked sombre scorn upon him. I moved to bring before
mine eyes the next bright history that gleamed beyond that leaning
queen's contempt. Here rode the prince for whom Saint Gregory by
prayer won Heaven: the saint's high victory according to the
Emperor's worth. Was he, Trajan, outriding seen. Beneath his rein a
woman wept. Around him horsemen rode with stir of trampling
hooves beneath. Above, the golden eagles that his standards
showed swayed in the wind, so live the scene. It seemed, the woman
holding to his bridle said: 'Lord, wilt thou venge me for my dearest
dead, My son, for whom I mourn uncomforted?' And he to her: 'My
soon return await.' And she, as one by urgent grief possessed: 'But,
Lord, if thou return not?' 'Then will he True justice deal who takes my
vacant state.' 'But will another's deed be praise for thee, Who hast
thyself ignored it?' He thereat: 'Take comfort, for thy prayers prevail.
The plea of justice rules, and pity's call must be as potent to delay
me.' Visible speech so sculptured we beheld, beyond the reach of
earthly art: nor can I clearly tell a thing so different."
Around this terrace slowly move those purging their sins here, each
weighed down and bent over by a heavy burden, praying as they go,
for themselves and those on Earth who are still in danger of Hell.
On the pavement itself, placed where the penitents here cannot help
but see them, bent under their loads as they are, are carvings as
wondrous as those on the cliff-face, giving examples of the sin of
Pride, which is the sin being purged on this terrace.

"There saw I Lucifer as lightning fall, Heaven's noblest cast from

Heaven. The further side showed where Briareus, raised by equal
pride, smitten by celestial lightning, sprawled supine, by chill death
weighted to the earth he spurned. Thymbraeus I saw. Pallas and
Mars I saw yet armed around their father, gazing down upon the
giant's dismembered limbs. I saw Nimrod beneath his toil bewildered
stand, the nations ranged around on either hand who shared his
pride in Shinar. Tears were mine thy seven and seven children,
Niobe, slain in their youth around thy feet to see. And here was Saul,
face-fallen, pierced and dead by his own conquered weapon: rain nor
dew Gilboa from that fated moment knew. And foolish here I saw
Arachne too, half-spider now, and mournful to survey the tatters of
the work her hurt had wrought. And Rehoboam, his high threats
forgot, now terrored in his clanging chariot fled the hard pursuit
behind him. Forward lay Vision succeeding vision. Alcmaeon within
the lucid pavement made appear his mother's bright adorning bought
too dear. Further, Sennacherib on the temple stone stretched lifeless,
while his murdering sons withdrew. And next Tomyris, who to Cyrus
said: 'With blood that was thy thirst I feed thee full.' And all the
pitiless ruin she caused was shown. Headless beyond, the bold
Assyrian bull. Great Holofernes, sprawled, whom Judith slew, while
on its flying rear his army bled. Troy saw I also there, how piteous
low! Blackened and hollowed by its eating fire, and all its pride
degraded."
Around the curve of the first terrace from when one ascends to it one
eventually nears the way up to the second terrace. An angel is
stationed there, white-winged and white-robed, with an unthreatening
visage, full of light.
For Dante, he beats his wings across Dante's forehead, erasing one
of the 'P's the gatekeeper placed there and making the others fainter.
Dante quickly discovers that the fewer and fainter the 'P's on his
forehead, the easier his ascent.
Upwards, a neatly-cut but steep and narrow stair is carved into the
rock, so narrow that ones elbows easily touch both sides at once as
one ascends to the second terrace.
THE SECOND TERRACE - THE ENVIOUS
This terrace is very similar to that below, but lacks the carvings,
being very bare and empty, with no apparent penitent.
However, as one walks along the second terrace, one begins to hear

the wings of invisible entities sweeping past, and among other things
they call the traveller to join them "in their courtesy to join the Table
of Love" as they fly invisibly past.
On this terrace the sin of Envy is purged. The penitents here sit,
dressed in hair-cloth, along the inner edge of the terrace, so still and
so coloured that they are, at first, very hard to notice. Their eyelids
have been sewn closed with threads of iron, and they resemble blind
beggars who constantly sigh and pray to the saints to be prayed for.
They can and will talk to passing travellers, and warns of the dangers
of Envy, though some do not like to relive the memories this stirs...
At this point, Dante is assailed by thunderous flying voices that are a
warning to him to stay on the correct path, in the same way as a bit
keeps a horse on the correct path. It seems that Dante is, at this
point, paying to little attention to Heaven, which he can see above
him, and too much to Hell and the Earth below.
As one carries on around the terrace, one comes to face the Sun,
which seems very bright, too bright to be shaded even with ones
hands, and which seems to advance on one.
In fact, and angel is standing in the sunlight at the foot of the way up
to the third terrace. He tells travellers to enter the less steep steps
which lead up to the next terrace. He erases a second 'P' from
Dante's forehead.
'Beati Misericordes' accompany one up these stairs.
On the way up, Dante is lectured by Virgil regarding the way in
which, the more people who are accepted into Heaven, the more
God likes it, as the larger the numbers there, the more they reinforce
one another's praise and worship, to the greater glory of God. "The
Eternal Good Is both ineffable and infinite. The more there are who in
its rays unite, The more its conflagration heats. The more Of folk in
Heaven whose souls have understood Each other, in the light of
Love Divine, The more of love doth midst and round them shine, As
mirrors, each to each, reflected light Cast to their own advantage."
For half a league or so, Dante has ecstatic visions of forebearance
on the stair. "Here a temple showed, with moving groups about its
doors, and one who with a mother's gesture called: 'My son, why
hast thou disregarded? While that we have sought thee grieving?' ...
Then a crowd I saw fired with fierce hate, and voices shouted: 'Slay!'
And in their midst a youth was bound, and they hurled stones on him
from every side, that he sank deathward, but his eyes were gates of
prayer raised to an opening heaven, and from his lips, un-stilled by

scourging pains or life's eclipse, petitions for their pardon came, that
so stirred pity to see it."
These are sent to him to aid him by opening his heart to the peace of
God.
Higher up the stair, smoke begins to drift across the sun, darkening it
more and more until sight is completely lost and there is no clear air.
One stumbles on blindly.
THE THIRD TERRACE - THE WRATHFUL
Through the smoke, one begins to hear the 'Agnus Dei', "Oh, lamb of
God, who takes all sins away" coming from all sides. These are the
voices of the penitent who are being purged of their Wrath on the
third terrace and who are hidden in the smoke. They ask travellers to
be mentioned in the prayers of those who pass.
The way up out of the third terrace lies opposite that up onto the
third terrace.
Going onward through the smoke the sun eventually becomes visible
again.
Dante sees visions of examples of anger in the clearing smoke.
"Born of Light, by Heavenly Will, Its power descends upon us. She
who sings, Impious, in likeness of the bird which most For sorrow in
its song finds ecstasy, First my imagination held: so still My mind was
mirrored on itself that naught Intruded inward to divert its thought.
Next after Philomela came a sight Of one who hung in torment
crucified, Yet haughty and dispiteous while he died, While round him
grouped Ahasuerus stood, Esther, and Mordicai called the Good,
Who was of speech unbending. As will burst A bubble, failing of its
watery frame, So passed this vision. In its place there came A
maiden, weeping anguished tears, who said: 'O Queen, why hast
thou made this choice accurst, Wrath-blinded? Not to lose Lavinia,
Thy own life hast thou lost; so losing me. Mine is the grief, the bitter
grief for thee. Oh, Mother, for thy ruin must I weep Much more than
for another's.'"
Some of the light which seems to come from the sun in fact comes
from an angel, who guards the stair upward, and who will point it out
to travellers. His glory makes it impossible for mortals to look at him.
The angel removed a third 'P' from Dante's forehead, sweeping his
wings over Dante's face to do so, saying "Beati Pacifici who from evil
wrath are free."
The stair upwards from the third terrace is wide enough for two to

walk abreast.
The fourth terrace of purgatory expiates the sins which can be
considered to arise from love defective, that is, love which,
although directed towards the correct subjects is too weak to
drive the sinner to act as they should. Those being purged here
must have their love strengthened so as to drive them correctly.
THE FOURTH TERRACE - THE SLOTHFUL
On this terrace, those who were slothful in life, who loved the Good
but who did not act to promote it as well as they might have expiate
their sins. Their love is strengthened on this terrace - "the loitering
oar resumes its regular stroke."
This terrace is of plain undecorated flinty rock. As one goes along it
in search of the way up to the fifth terrace, a clamourous outcry
arises from in the distance. This comes from a crowd of people
running at speed along the terrace, weeping and crying aloud as they
go. "Swiftly they came, and voices cried aloud amid their weeping.
Two in front proclaimed: 'How quickly Mary to the mountain ran!' and:
'Caesar once, Ilerda to subdue, struck at Marseilles, and ere his
foemen knew had entered Spain.' And other of the crowd, jostling
behind, cried: 'Hasten! Hasten all! From insufficient love let love's
pursuit not slacken, and the power of grace recruit from strain to
reach it.' ... In the rear they ran, and shouted: 'Those who saw the
seas divide to give them passage, in their sloth they died before the
chosen heirs to Canaan came.' And: 'They who would not, with
Anchises' son, toil to the end, they bought a life of shame with that
reluctance.'"
The members of the crowd are quite spread out, but still move quite
fast, as a mass, passing anyone who is merely walking and racing off
into the distance. There are many such crowds, each one racing
around the terrace. They are not allowed to pause in their running
through night and day.
Dante was assailed by a dream of a Siren on this terrace, from which
he was only rescued by the intervention of Virgil. "A woman crooked
in deformity, squint-eyed, and stammering in her speech, with hands
Ill-shaped to make caresses, and her hair it seemed disease had
whitened. Such to see was little bliss, but as the light expands with
morn, and the chilled limbs their strength renew which night hath
stiffened, so my gaze on her had power for her transforming. Straight

and tall she rose, and soft swift speech, and eyes of love, she gave,
and in her face the warm blood beat, even as desire would have it. I
could not stir mine eyes from that regard. Her speech was sweet as
song, and song became. 'I am,' she sang, 'I am that siren who the
seaman charms in distant ocean. Not to heed would wrong the
fountains of delight. To find my arms I turned Ulysses once. Who
once belong to what I gave them will but seldom go. Such peace I
give.' She had not ceased her song when came another of a different
hue, alert to foil her, holy and austere, 'Virgil,' who cried, 'behold,
what meet we here?' And he came forward in my dream, as though
he saw this last one only, on the first, rude hands who laid, and tore
her garments through, Opening her before, and showed her belly
bare. Whereat there issued from that womb accursed such stench as
waked me."
Progressing further around the terrace, one arrives at the way
upwards, at which is stationed an angel, who invites travellers to
'Come hither' with a voice far beyond those of mortals in its
sweetness and benignity. He has white, swan-like wings, with which
he fans those who ascend the stairway past him. For Dante, he
removed one of the 'P's which had been inscribed on his forehead.
The fifth, sixth and seventh terraces of purgatory expiate the
sins which can be considered to arise from love excessive, that
is, love which although directed towards ends which god
considers good is directed towards them too much for the
sinner to gain bliss from them, and also so that the sinner is
distracted from the love of other things of which god approves.
Their love must be cooled to a more sensible level.
THE FIFTH TERRACE - THE AVARICIOUS
The way up to the fifth terrace brings one out onto a place not unlike
the other terraces. This terrace differs from the others in that the
ground here is covered with people lying face-down, sobbing tears
and lamentations. In between their tears they sigh, and speak words
such as 'Adhaesit pavimento' and 'Anima mea.'
Those expiating their sins here are both those who were too
avaricious in life, and those who were not avaricious enough. They
are those who turned their eyes to Earth and its goods, separating
themselves from God by their own will, by either desire for earthly
things, or too great a rejection of them. Now where, in life, they did

not lift their eyes to Heaven, their avarice holding them from high
pursuits, now they must lie with faces and bodies presses to the
Earth until their sin is cleansed. Those doing so claim that there is no
worse punishment in all of Purgatory.
There are so many people lying on the ground here that one must
pick one's way carefully to avoid treading on them; the easiest way is
along the very edge of the terrace.
When Dante was here, he felt Mount Purgatory shake as if in a
mighty earthquake. When this happened, a cry of 'To God be Glory in
Excelsis' rose up from all those in Purgatory. The mountain quakes in
this way when someone at last ends the expiation of their sins and is
freed to ascend, and all of those in Purgatory hail their release.
Dante and Virgil learned this from Statius, the former sinner whose
release caused the shaking of the mountain in the first place.
The way up from the fifth terrace lies to the right of the place where
one climbs up onto the terrace. Another angel stands watch at the
entrance of the way up, and when Dante passed erased another of
the 'P's from his forehead. The way up to the sixth terrace is a steep
one.
THE SIXTH TERRACE - THE GLUTTONOUS
In the same way as below, the steps leading up from the sixth terrace
lie to the right of those which lead up to it.
As one goes around the sixth terrace, in the middle of it an apple tree
becomes visible. It branches hold ripe, sweet-smelling applies. In
shape it brings to mind an inverted fir tree, growing broader the
higher one goes, making it impossible to climb. A stream falls from
the mountain above onto the tree, drenching all of its leaves.
Approaching the tree, a voice from out of the branches warns one
not to eat of the fruit of the tree, as if one does, ones food will lack as
if it were no food at all. There is no sign of the source of the voice.
The voice will then continue on, giving examples of the virtue of
Temperance. "More did it in her thoughts to Mary seem that all the
wedding should be fitly set and furnished forth than that rich wines
should wet the lips which answer now for you. And they, the Roman
matrons of old time, would stay their thirst with water. Daniel counted
naught the price of food, if wisdom might be bought with the same
coin. The earliest age of men had golden beauty of simplicity: acorns
were sweet, and brooks were nectar then. And so John Baptist in the
wilderness ate honey and locusts only - wherefore he, the greatness

of abstention to express, is glorious in the gospel's imagery."

Those on this terrace are expiating the sin of gluttony. As such, they
are starved skeletons, with chalk-white cavernous faces, hollow
eyes, skin tight to their bones and all the other signs of prolonged
hunger. To those on this terrace, and indeed most likely to anyone
who is at all hungry, the scent of the apples and the water falling on
the tree is irresistible, and they cannot help but eat and drink of them.
Unfortunately, that is part of their punishment, as in doing so they are
left hungrier and thirstier than before.
A number of those on this ledge are former highly-placed members
of the Church, now paying the price for their indulgences in life. At
first reluctant to speak, as soon as one talks to a traveller, many
those here will flock around visitors to speak to them, and tell their
tale.
Continuing on around the terrace, one comes upon a second apple
tree, with broad-spread fruit-laden branches bending low. This tree is
concealed by the curve of the mountain so that one is close to it
when it is first seen. Its fruit, although appearing to hang low, are in
fact held up just too high to reach. There is a crowd of sinners
around the tree, raising appealing hands towards its fruit, until they
become disillusioned and depart.
A voice from the branches of this tree warns passers-by not to come
too close, as the tree is one grown from a seed of the apple tree from
which Eve plucked that fateful apple. "Pass warily, nor come too
nigh; a tree there is beyond from which Eve plucked the knowledge
of sad years, and this one from that fatal seed is bred." Having
spoken its warning, the voice from the tree will continue on, speaking
of the dangers of gluttony and the punishments awaiting those who
succumb to it.
A thousand paces or so beyond this second tree a voice hails
travellers. It comes from an angel, glowing with a fierce, bright clear
red light. He points out the way up to next terrace.
When Dante passed, a wind smelling of sweet graces and a million
flowers brushed his forehead, as the angel's wings, shedding an
ambrosial fragrance, erased the penultimate 'P' from his forehead.
The staircase up to the seventh terrace is narrow, so that travellers
must go in single file. As Dante ascended he was lectured by Statius
on generation, the infusion of the Soul into the body, and the
corporeal semblance of Souls after death.

THE SEVENTH TERRACE - THE LUSTFUL

One emerges onto the seventh terrace to face a field of tall, clear,
flames, held back from a narrow path along the edge of the terrace
by a strong wind rising from below.
There is a sound of voices from out of the fire, singing hymns,
'Summae' and 'Deus Clementiae', and those expiating their sins here
can be seen moving in the fire, burning as they chant. They also cry
of the virtues of husbands and wives, the obligations of marriage,
and repeat their hymns again. Those on this terrace are expiating the
sin of lust, having their excessive passion burned away in fire.
There are, in fact, two groups of sinners in the fire, one stationary,
one moving around the terrace. When the two groups meet, their
members kiss shortly and move on without pausing, as they turn
away crying "Sodom and Gomorrah!" and "Pasiphae in a cow
incarnate lay that she might draw the bull her lust to sate!" The
moving group are those who committed unnatural acts of lust (those
who cry 'Sodom and Gomorrah!') while the stationary are those who
sinned no less, but by simply lusting too much, rather than wrongly.
Around the terrace, one comes upon the angel who guards the way
up to the Earthly Paradise, as glorious as all the others. He sings
"Beati mundi corde" in a voice with such an intensity of life that no
human voice can compete with it. The angel tells travellers that they
may not ascend unless they submit themselves to the fire - the way
up lies on the inner edge of the terrace, through the flames, towards
the chanting which comes from the other side. "O ye spirits purified,
you may not enter by this stair except the fire hath licked you.
Through its flames ascend, heeding the chant beyond." This angel
removed the last 'P' from Dante's forehead.
Dante was very dubious about this, but was assured by Virgil that the
fire was of a spiritual nature, and would not harm him physically. And
indeed, this is the case. The fire does not burn the body, but it is
nonetheless very painful. "After them I went, but when I felt that
cleansing heat's intensity, I would have flung myself in boiling glass
to quench the burning."
A chant is heard from the other side as one makes one's way
through the flames. "Venite, benedicti Patris," it says. It from a
blinding white glow which is present at the bottom of the steep
ascent to the Earthly Paradise, where one emerges from the flames.
It encourages those who emerge to carry on upwards while there is
light to do so.

The ascent, though steep, runs straight between the rock faces to
either side, and lies so that the light of the setting sun illuminates it
along its whole length until the sun is entirely set.
Dante, Virgil and Statius slept on the stairs rather than ascend all the
way to the Earthly Paradise after emerging from the flames. While he
slept, Dante dreamed. "I dreamed a dame I saw youthful and fair.
Amid a field of flowers she pluckt, and wandered singing. This she
sang: 'Tell him who asks my name that Leah am I. With my fair
hands a garland wreath I weave, my mirror and myself to satisfy. But
Rachel at her glass from morn to eve sits ever. Fain her own sweet
eyes is she to worship: better with my hands to me it seems to twist
my crown; for diversely my pleasure is to do, and hers to see.'"
And carrying on up the stairs, one emerges in the Earthly Paradise...
THE EARTHLY PARADISE
The very top of Mount Purgatory is a flat, circular land. This land is
the Garden of Eden, from which Adam and Eve were exiled so long
ago.
The Earthly Paradise is like a beautiful lush garden, the place where
human life began, before the Fall. The sun shines, the sky is blue,
grass and shrubs grow, flowers bloom. None of them show any signs
of disease or death, as if carefully tended. The trees are beautiful.
Everything smells fresh, fragrant and lovely. The breeze sings gently
through the trees, accompanied by a great deal of birdsong, strong
enough to be pleasant, but not so strong as to be annoying. It is very
easy to walk through the place, though there are no obvious paths. In
some places there are meadows, the lush grass dotted with many
beautiful flowers. It seems a place of eternal peace. All of the living
things there are eternal, made so by God, and inclement conditions
never trouble the place.
Dante encountered a beautiful damsel, Matilda, picking flowers in
one such meadow, singing as she went. She explained to Dante
about the Garden, its creation and maintenance, and the two clear,
beautiful streams which flow through it. The first (the one by which
Dante finds her) is the Lethe, which empties the minds of those who
drink of it of all cancelled sins. The second one, the Eunoe, when
drunk enhances ones recollection of the good which one has
accomplished. The Lethe must be drunk of before the Eunoe,
though. The water in the two streams flows eternally.

THE MYSTIC PROCESSION

As Dante walked with Matilda, on the other side of the Lethe to
where he was (the same side as Matilda), a bright white light burst
through the woods all around them, as fierce and sudden as
lightning, but constant. A sweet melody came through the light, at
which point Dante felt reproach at Eve for causing all of this glory to
be lost to mankind. The melody became an articulate chanting voices singing 'Hosanna'.
The light proved to come from seven candles, their flames so pure
and steady that they could be confused with golden masts, leaving
long rainbow trails through the air behind them. They moved of
themselves, unsupported.
Behind them came twenty-four Elders, prophets and evangelists,
robed in a white which shines beyond the whites seen on Earth
come, going two-by-two, garlanded with lilies. In unison they sing "Of
Adam's daughters blest be thou, and ever blest thy beauties".
Following the Elders came four six-winged angels, moving in a
square formation, their wings crowded with eyes, each one crowned
with a garland of green leaves, like the angels seen by Ezekiel and
John. In the square delineated by the angels moves a two-wheeled
chariot, drawn by a griffin whose high-raised wings (raised up too
high for Dante to see their tips) pass through the rainbow trails left by
the candles, but do not break them. The bird-like forelimbs of the
griffin are golden; the rest of it is white and vermilion red. The chariot
it drew is beautiful, but simple in construction. To the right of the
chariot three damsels (actually nymphs) danced a whirling dance,
the first glowing as red as the heart of fire, the second glowing an
emerald green, the third a white as pure as the new-drifted snow. On
the left of the chariot another four nymphs dance, all draped in
purple. The leader of the purple-dressed nymphs has three eyes.
After the chariot and its attendants came two more elders, wearing
different clothing to those who went before, sober and grave of mien.
One held a caduceus, the other a bright and naked blade, seeming
to be so keen that even though he is out of its reach it inspires fear in
Dante. One is a healer; the other is not.
Next came four more Elders in humbler clothes, and behind them an
old man with undimmed eyes, but who is blinded by an inward
dream.
Lastly come seven garbed in the same style as those following the
candles but rather than being garlanded in lilies, these are garlanded

in fire-red roses and other scarlet flowers so that they seem crowned
in fire.
This Mystic Procession symbolises the Triumph of the Church.
When the chariot was level with Dante, the entire procession halted
at the sound of a crack of thunder, and all of those in it gathered
around the chariot and sang, crying "Come, spouse to Lebanon",
"Benedictus gui Venis" and "Menibus o date lilla plenis", scattering
flowers over the chariot as they did so, so that it en-globed in a cloud
of petals.
A woman appeared out of the cloud of flowers, crowned with olive
branches, from which a white veil hung, wearing a green mantle over
a flame-red gown. This is Beatrice, Dante's new guide.
It was at this point that Dante noticed that although Statius was
present, Virgil had disappeared, his work in escorting Dante here
completed. Virgil being unable to go any further towards Heaven, or
see any further ahead, he had departed. It is not entirely clear what
becomes of Virgil after this; presumably he returns to Limbo, in Hell...
Dante recognises Beatrice from when she was alive on Earth, and
cannot help but stare. She reproves him for this rudeness. Those in
the procession sing "In te Domine speravi", and Dante weeps in
anguish at the shame of this. Members of the procession ask
Beatrice why Dante is being chastised, and she tells them that it is
because he spurned her in life, and fell so far that only his seeing
Hell could save him, and that Dante himself requires repentance
before he can enter Heaven. Hearing this, Dante eventually admits
his sin, and his error, confessing all.
By now the procession has ceased strewing flowers over Beatrice,
and Dante is almost hypnotised by her, suddenly finding himself
immersed in the stream (the Lethe) up to his neck. Beatrice baptises
him in the stream, and he drinks of it before emerging on the far side
(where the procession is) and being embraced by the purple-clad
nymphs (who are Beatrice's handmaids), one after another, before
they lead him to Beatrice who is now standing by the griffin, unveiled. He sees the griffin reflected in her eyes as the other three
nymphs dance around him to an angelic choir.
Statius has accompanied Dante across the stream and to the chariot.
Then the procession turned, wheeling rightwards to face the sun, and
moving off, with Dante and Statius in tow, everyone moving in time to
the angelic choir.
Three bow-shots later, the procession halts at the base of a huge

tree, bare of fruit, flower or foliage, which looms huge overhead. This
is the apple tree from which Eve plucked the fatal fruit, so long ago.
Dante is told that anyone who strips the Tree of its leaves or fruit is
committing blasphemy against God by doing so.
Upon arrival, everyone in the procession cries out to the griffin.
"Blessed art thou, O Grifon, that thy beak rends not the rind of this
accursed tree. For sweet although the tasted wood may be, bitter its
tortures in the belly's bound", and the griffin draws the pole of the
chariot to the tree, and binds it there, saying "So is preserved all
seed of righteousness". When it does this, the tree bursts into life
again, leaves and flowers appearing all over it, accompanied by a
heavenly tune which entranced Dante into sleep.
Dante woke to find Matilda bending over him. Of the procession, only
Beatrice, the chariot and the seven nymphs remain, the other having
risen up into heaven while Dante slept. Beatrice tells him to write of
what has been revealed to him on his journeys when he returns to
Earth.
At this point an eagle stooped from the skies down at the tree,
tearing its bark with its claws and shredding swathes of foliage, its
wings smiting the holy chariot before it returned to the sky.
Then a starved vixen crawled out the undergrowth and towards the
chariot, but was driven off by the scourging words of Beatrice, and
fled back into the undergrowth.
With the vixen fled, the eagle struck again, at the chariot this time,
leaving feathers scattered over its floor, and a voice from Heaven
came, saying "O ship of mine! What evil cargo weights thy hold!".
Dante saw a scorpion rise from between the two wheels of the
chariot, boring through its floor with its sting, then wrenching out a
part of the floor and wandering about with it, as if with a trophy.
The chariot, however, immediately regenerated itself by sprouting a
covering of feathers, like those which the eagle shed onto it, before
growing seven heads, three along the chariot pole, and one at each
corner of the chariot body. The lead head on the pole was horned
like a bull, while the four at the corners of the body each have a
single horn.
In the car then appeared a harlot, then a fierce giant, rising up as if to
keep her for himself, and they embraced for a while, though the eyes
of the harlot roved onto Dante they did so. When the giant noticed
this, he whipped the harlot from head top toe and freed the monster
which was the chariot from the tree and raced off through the woods

with it, and out of sight.

With the chariot gone, the seven nymphs sing around Beatrice,
sighing and pitiful, and, with the nymphs before her, and Dante,
Statius and Matilda behind she leads them off through the woods,
saying "Modicum et vos videbitis me", inviting Dante closer so that
he may better hear what she has to say and then, before long,
chiding him for asking no questions of her, telling him to reject his
shame and fear and to speak as one fully awake, rather that
somewhat enmeshed in dreams. And so Dante is told about the
chariot (God's vessel, though it endures no more), the creatures and
what it all means. Beatrice also speaks a prophesy concerning one
who shall restore the Roman Empire. "Thou knowest the chariot
which the scorpion tore was once God's vessel, but endures no
more; but let him well believe whose guilt is this: God's vengeance
will not spare that deed amiss for eaten sops above the victim's
grave. The eagle who with plumage strewed the car, making it
monstrous first, and then to prey, will not be heirless always. This I
say, who see its certain coming. Stars too high for human hindrance
or assault decree That very near from now the time shall see five
hundred, ten, and five, God's ministry, the two who sinned, both giant
and harlot, slay."
After a time Dante is led to a place where two streams emerge from
a single spring - the source of the Eunoe.
And with Dante and Statius both having drunk from the Eunoe,
partaking of its indescribable, almost addictive sweetness, they are
purified and ready to ascend to Heaven...
Perhaps the Eunoe is the last test before entering Heaven, and those
who are not worthy do become addicted to its waters, and cannot
leave its banks until they are worthy...

DANTES HEAVEN
SOME BACKGROUND
Heaven is the dwelling of God, for, although God is omnipresent, He
manifests Himself in a special manner in the light and grandeur of
the firmament. Heaven is also the abode of the angels, for they are
constantly with God and see His face. With God in Heaven are
likewise the souls of the just. Thus the term Heaven has come to
designate both the happiness and the abode of just in the next life.
In this part of the Divine Comedy, Dante, led by his guide Beatrice,
leaves the Earth behind and soars through the Heavenly spheres of
Paradise. In the third and final part of the Divine Comedy, he
encounters the just rulers and holy saints of the Church. The horrors
of the Inferno and the trials of Purgatory are left far behind.
Ultimately, in Paradise, Dante is granted a vision of God's Heavenly
court - the angels, the Blessed Virgin and God Himself.
There are ten Heavens, going outwards from the Earth. Following the
Ptolemaic astronomy of his time Dante conceived of the earth as
stationary and central in the universe, with the sun and moon and the
five visible planets revolving about it at various speeds. Each of
these seven Heavenly bodies has its own sphere, or 'Heaven'.
Beyond them is the sphere of the fixed stars, and beyond that the
ninth and last of the material Heavens, called the Crystalline because
it is transparent and invisible, or the Primum Mobile because from its
infinite speed the other lower Heavens take their slower motions.
These nine spheres are severally moved and controlled by the nine
orders of the angels, and all the spheres and the Heavenly bodies in
them have a certain spiritual significance and certain influences on
human life and character. As Dante passes upward with Beatrice the
souls of the blessed appear to them in the successive Heavens
according to their corresponding predominant character in their
earthly lives. Beyond the nine material spheres is the Empyrean,
outside of time and space, the Heaven of God's immediate presence
and the only real home of the angels and the redeemed, whose
blessedness consists of their eternal vision of Him.
All of Heaven is perfect and orderly, with souls in their correctly
appointed Heavens.
All of the blessed are equally high in Heaven, and close to God, but
differ in what part of the Eternal Inspiration they are aware of. Those

visible in each Sphere of Heaven are not contained in that Sphere,

but appear to be there because they claim that particular celestial
eminence. They, like God and the angels, appear to be human
because that is what the human viewer expects to see. The varying
voices of the spirits in the different Heavens blend into a sweet
harmony. 'As varying voices make sweet harmony on earth, so is it
this holier sphere. Degrees of difference make one song entire; and
various flames construct one wheel of love.'
All of the blessed are of the truest substance, and do not lie. They
have greater beauty in Heaven than they did in life. Their passions
can now know nothing lowlier than the glowing flame of the Holy
Spirit, in which, joyous, they exult.
The grace of God becomes greater and greater as one moves into
the higher and higher Heavens. However, the blessed are happy in
their lot, wherever in Heaven they are.
'Brother, the quality of our Love doth still the impulse of rebellion; all
our will being God's only. Here we rest content. What God hath in his
perfect counsel meant in our assorting is our certain good. Incapable
of a different thirst are we, and, that you may the clear occasion see,
consider that Love rules omnipotent from threshold unto threshold,
from this low soon-circling moon, that for our home we know, to the
vast Ultimate Heaven. And think again. What is Love's nature? Love
itself were vain if envy could corrupt it. Love must be Surrender by its
own necessity unto the God from whom itself derives. No more
desire in emulation strives, but all our joy is in this will supreme; and
thence is His joy also, that our wills find peace in His - the universal
sea which to itself all that itself creates, and all that Nature thence
originates, draws in divine attraction.'
HEAVEN IN GENERAL
Dante's layout/vision of Heaven, and how it fits into the rest of the
universe, is as shown below:

as long as he is able. When he drops his gaze it seems to him as if a

second sun is illuminating everything. Dante finds that he and
Beatrice have ascended to a sphere of celestial fire.
They continue to ascend, and Dante feels himself to be pure light,
pure spirit, and draws himself towards God with this feeling. Beatrice
tells him that he is now rising up faster than lightning strikes down.
She states that everything seeks its own level and that the flame (of
the Sun) seeks the Moon and is the heart of things that die. The
natural urge of men's souls is to rise to Heaven, but they can kill this
urge by sin and false joys - it is their not rising which is un-natural.
'The natural deathless thirst in Heaven to be - the aspiration all from
birth may claim - impelled us upward with the speed of light wellnigh
as fast to rise as eyes could see into the luminous vault's immensity,
the while I on Beatrice gazed, and she gazed upward.'
It is not clear what happens to Statius from this point onwards; it is
probably safe to assume that he ascends into Heaven separately
from Dante and Beatrice.

THE ASCENT TO HEAVEN; THE SPHERE OF FIRE

Beatrice stares up at the noonday sun, and Dante does likewise for

THE HEAVEN OF THE MOON

As one ascends, one arrives at the first of the levels of Heaven, that
closest to the Earth - the Heaven of the Moon. 'It seemed a cloud
enclosed us, shining, dense, with polished surface firm that,
diamond-bright, was dazzling in the sun's reflected light. We passed
within the eternal pearl, as sinks a ray of sunlight in the stream,
which drinks the light, land is not opened: cleft and whole. If I were
body or unsubstanced soul I know not.' This is not unlike being inside
a dazzlingly bright cloud.
When there, Beatrice explains the dark marks seen upon the face of
the Moon to Dante. Beatrice points out that they cannot be caused
by variance in the density or transparency of the Moon, as otherwise
eclipses would not be as they are. She tells Dante that they are a
visible sign of the diverse states and essences distributed throughout
the Heavens.
The Heaven of the Moon is the slowest moving of the Heavens,
being the furthest from the Primum Mobile.
As this point Dante is surrounded by the blessed of this Heaven. 'As
translucent glass, or shallow water where the light will pass clear to
the bottom, mirrors those who gaze. Faint as a white pearl on as
white a brow, so there were many faces round me now eager for
speech'. They appear as if made of, or glowing with, moonlight, and

can fade in and out of sight at will, as a stone sinks into dark waters.
They are relegated here, to the lowest Heaven, for the failure of their
vows of chastity in life, even if not by their own fault, such as those
who were victims of rape.
Dante wordlessly questions Beatrice as to why those blessed are
placed in a lower Heaven because of things which, in life, they could
not control. She explains that all of the blessed are equally high in
Heaven, and close to God, but differ in what part of the Eternal
Inspiriation they are aware of. Those visible in each Sphere of
Heaven are not contained in that Sphere, but appear to be there
because they claim that particular celestial eminence.
As for their apparently being punished for things beyond their control,
Beatrice points out that this is because they bent to that violence, by
lack of will, rather than resisting unto death, and that this is important
because Free Will is God's greatest gift to man. She tells Dante that
the Old and New testaments are man's guide within the care of the
Church, but that people should also beware of 'evil shepherds' and
not be led astray by them - to be 'men, not sheep'.
Following this, with Beatrice, Dante almost instantly ascends to the
second sphere of Heaven.
THE HEAVEN OF MERCURY
As soon as one arrives at the Heaven of Mercury one is surrounded
by hundreds of spirits of the Blessed, each one casting an affluent
glow. The spirits in this Heaven glow with the light of the sun, and are
clothed in the same light. They are pleased to see visitors, as they
see them as people by whom their loves are magnified. They can
come and go almost instantly, flying like swift sparks.
The spirit of the Emperor Justinian tells Dante that 'this small low star
on which we meet contains good spirits passionate in pursuit of fame
and honour of earthly life, and hence desires may swerve so far that
strength which love requires is somewhat lessened for its mounting
rays. But yet no less we give to God the praise, no less perceive that
our deserts and gains are justly measured in the perfect scale. For in
us the live justice doth prevail, and malice may not warp affections
here.'
That is, those here are those who gave service in life, but whose
service was somewhat marred by ambition.
Following the departure of the spirits of this Heaven, Beatrice
lectures Dante on the fall of Man, and God's scheme for his

redemption, and then, as quickly as before, Dante and Beatrice

ascend to the third sphere of Heaven.
THE HEAVEN OF VENUS
Dante does not know where he is going until he arrives at the
Heaven of Venus. It is the most beautiful place he has ever been.
The souls in this Heaven glow and dance like the flame of a torch, at
varying speeds, some faster than the lightning. As they go, they sing
hosannas in voices so beautiful that anyone hearing them will long to
hear them for ever after.
Those in this Heaven are the spirits of lovers, but those whose love
was marred by wantonness.
From this Heaven, the glory of the Sun, in the next Heaven, is visible.
Some of those in this Heaven are unhappy with the avarice and
corruption of the Papal court.
THE HEAVEN OF THE SUN
Again, one travels instantly up from the Heaven of Venus to the
Heaven of the Sun.
The Heaven of the Sun glows with a glorious light. 'Round us bent a
glowing girdle, living, conquering, that more than all it showed could
sweetly sing, making itself a circling crown, and we its centre.'
Each of the spirits here is an ardent sun in their own right, glowing
with the light of love. They dance and whirl about, and will circle
around visitors such as Dante to inform them of what lies in this
Heaven. They can also see the thoughts of visitors. Different groups
of spirits may speak to visitors as they pass through this Heaven.
Thomas Aquinas is one of the spirits here, who consist of wise
religious men, doctors of the Church and teachers.
From here one ascends rather more slowly to the Heaven of Mars.
THE HEAVEN OF MARS
As one approaches Mars itself, one can see that on its face is a huge
white Christian cross with the figure of Christ upon it, which gleams
as if with moving specks of white light. Up from the specks of light
comes a sublime hymn that can easily entrance the listener, whose
theme is 'Arise and Vanquish'. 'From arm to arm, from crest to base,
thereon there moved innumerable specks of light, as the cool
darkness men in daylight make may be transthrust by one invading
ray, wherein the motes unnumbered whirl and play. So in continual

interchange did they motelike their interlacing dances break and join
and alter. Crossing swift or slow, from short to long, the specks
unnumbered go. And as sweet music turned to harmony of many
cords of viol or harp may chime sweetly to one who doth not
understand the notes they render, so a strain sublime entranced me
from those myriad notes, although I could not follow their triumphant
hymn.'
Each of the specks of light is a spirit, the souls of the soldiery of
Christ, or, as a voice from the cross puts it 'In this fifth circle of the
Eternal Tree of which no fruit shall fail, no leaf be shed, which from
its summit with full life is fed, are spirits which before to Heaven they
came were of such eminence of earthly fame as must the more exalt
the loftiest song'. One or more of the spirits here will rise to greet the
visitor, leaving the cross and yet remaining on it. 'As down the
tranquil night's unclouded sky a light may dart and draw the following
eye, as though some star its station changed (yet not leaving a
vacant place among the stars, nor where it goes itself establishing),
so from its place upon that cross there shot a star toward me, yet
which did not leave the cross's foot, but, gem to, scarf, thereon like
glowing fire in alabaster shone.'
The colour of the glow of the spirits of this Heaven can change from
white to a topaz colour, which glows more as the spirit is spoken to.
For Dante, Beatrice has him gaze at the cross, and a voice from it
has him gaze on the Cross's horns. As the voice names some of the
spirits there, they flash along it, like lightning flashing along a cloud.
The spirits in this Heaven include Joshua, Maccabee, Orlando,
Charlemagne, William, Rinaldo, Robert Guiscard, Duke Godfrey and
many others.
From this Heaven, one instantly arises to the Heaven of Jupiter, the
light changing from the red of Mars to the white of Jupiter as one
goes.
THE HEAVEN OF JUPITER
In this Heaven the spirits again glow with light, and wheel in ordered
flight through the wide white star of Jupiter, singing as they go the
Song of the Just. Each flight moves so as to form a golden letter on
the face of the Heaven, and chants the Latin words and phrases
which these letters, collected together, shape, such as 'Diligite
Justitiam' and 'Qui Judicatis Terram'. When a word is formed, the
spirits pause for a while before moving on to form new words and

phrases in the Heaven. The spirits here are the just, Princes who
have loved righteousness, and people who were once Pagans who
are now in bliss.
THE EAGLE
As Dante watches the spirits of Jupiter gradually form a gigantic
eagle, its wings outspread, on the face of Jupiter. It is a 'myriad entity
woven of praises of the will divine'. The eagle then speaks to him in
the voice of all the spirits which form it of the mysteries of Divine
justice, comparing the depths of divine justice to the depths of the
sea, which, although man cannot see them, they are still there. It
then speaks of the necessity of Faith for salvation, and of the sins of
certain kings across Europe and the Middle East. Having spoken the
eagle closes its beak, and the spirits making it up each glow brighter
than any star and sing the Song of the Just again. As Dante puts it
'Music they were, but not as notes that blew, but rather thoughts of
God, the flute-holes through'. The eagle then speaks again of faith,
salvation and predestination.
From here one again arises instantly to the next Heaven, the Heaven
of Saturn.
Presumably the spirits here unmake the eagle and go back to their
shaping of words on Jupiter once Dante is gone...
THE HEAVEN OF SATURN
Upon arriving at the crystal sphere of the seventh Heaven, Dante is
immediately faced with a great golden ladder. 'In that great crystal
which doth bear the name of the earth's ruler through that golden
age when every evil left the temperate land, I saw a ladder. To so
great a height it rose that not my eager straining sight could follow,
coloured like reflected gold; and on its steps were splendours
manifold, ascending and descending. Countless they, numerous as
though upon those golden bars the emptied depth of Heaven had
poured its stars. As jackdaws, when the day begins to break, lift their
chilled wings, and rise in flocks that make straight outward, or a
wheeling course prefer, so seemed that sparkling host, that made its
flight in groups which on their chosen steps would light.'
The ladder is filled with the spirits of this Heaven, 'gloriously flashing
their message of pure love'. They are lucent spheres of beautiful
light, who each enhance the light of the others, and who can whirl as
they speak and ascend and descend the ladder. Those here are
those who had given themselves to devout contemplation in life, and

who practised temperance. This includes St Benedict.

A spirit on the lowest rung of the ladder named Damien's Peter
speaks to Dante of this Heaven, and those here. He also condemns
the luxury in which modern prelates of the Church live, and he and
Dante speak of predestination. As they do so the other spirits on the
ladder begin to change their motion. 'As thus he spoke those other
flames, that shone upon the higher steps, began to whirl and
brighten, and descend from rung to rung. And every motion that they
made thereon enhanced their beauty.'
Grouping around Damien's Peter, they send a cry 'unto the heights of
Heaven', which ascends as a deep articulate thunder, beyond
Dante's comprehension, and which stupefies him. Beatrice comforts
him, telling him that everything is holy here in Heaven. She tells him
that 'in that cry you lacked the wit to hear, the vengeance you shall
see before you die thundered aloft through Heaven its meaning clear.
The sword of wrath, which smites and sundereth, will haste or hinder
not to deal its death, though those whose wrong it vengeth think it
slow, and those who fear its dreadful edge to know think it too instant
in its fall.'
After conversing with the spirits here, as though a whirlwind blows
the spirits all sweep upward, carrying Beatrice and Dante with them.
'Believe that flight of mine was over ere a hand which feels the flame
could be snatched backward. In that space I came to reach the high
sign of the Heavenly wheel which follows Taurus. O most glorious
stars! Impregnated with virtues luminous! All that I am, or have of
genius, or much or little, from your lights derives. With you was
rising, and with you would set, that ardent heart which sires all mortal
lives when first I breathed the air of Tuscany and then, when
largesse was bestowed on me to enter the high sphere in which you
wheel, I found your region mine. Oh, give me now, devoutly I entreat
thee, equal power to the hard passage that I take!'
Beatrice speaks to him as they rise, telling him that as he is so near
'the ultimate blessedness, that you should seek approach with
eyesight clear and most awareness of the glories here; and
therefore, ere to more ascent we go, I charge thee to look backward.
Look below; and see how wide a realm, and how complete, already
have I placed beneath your feet. For then the exultance of your heart
will be of equal mood to meet Christ's chivalry triumphant in its height
celestial, when through the ether on your sight it breaks.'
So Dante looks back towards the Earth, seeing the sun and all the

planets in their crystal spheres with the globe of the Earth laid out
within them all. 'Then looked I downward through the seven spheres.
How mean, how paltry our proud earth appears seen from that
height! I needs must smile to see its meagre aspect. O sound choice
that takes its value at the least! How truly they are upright called who
raise their eyes away. I saw Latona's daughter,' (Artemis, the Moon)
'shining now without those shadows which to earth she turns, making
me doubtful of her density; sustained the aspect of Hyperion's son;'
(Helios, the sun) 'and saw the daughter fair of Dione,' (Aphrodite,
Venus) 'and Maia's son,' (Hermes, Mercury) 'in his vicinity their
courses take; I saw Jove's temperate fire between his hot son and
his chillier sire; observed their various orbits; all I learned, their size,
their swiftness, and the distant vast that parts them on their paths.
And far below the map of Earth was spread: the hills I know: the
winding rivers. All that threshing floor for which we strive so hard, to
lose at last. So from the Eternal Twins my glance I cast on all we had
passed to that far height attain, and turned it to her beauteous eyes
again.'
And with that, one arrives at the Heaven of the Fixed Stars.
THE HEAVEN OF THE FIXED STARS
As soon as he arrives in this Heaven, Dante is presented with a
procession of the Triumph of Christ.
THE TRIUMPH OF CHRIST
When he arrives, the Heaven is dark, but quickly a faint light grows
golden, brightening the sky. This marks the drawing nigh of the
'Squadrons of the Rule of Christ', and of Christ Himself. As the
curtain of pure light draws nearer, it seems like the bright light of a
full Moon, though everyone seeing it knows that it is the light of
Christ. He has all the souls who were true to him on Earth around
him, vast hosts of them, all formless and merged into a single clear
translucent flame. 'For each soul was not, in its Master's sight,
substantial seeming, but reflected light, and He the Substance.'
Through the curtain of light, one can see Christ Himself, but the light
is so bright that one must turn away. Beatrice tells Dante that what
he sees is 'the path God's suffering paved with fire, and Christ comes
down it'. The mortal soul cannot look upon Christ as he approaches
without having their mind refuse, and give way under the pressure.
Dante gets around this by seeing 'the Banquet of the Lord of Heaven'
reflected in Beatrice. He sees 'splendours in a space I might not

share, and yet could know them'. This inspires Dante to prayer.
The light of Christ grows a garden around him, of lilies, for His life,
and roses, for His blood.
As Dante prays, lifting his heart to God, a response comes down to
Beatrice. 'Down from midHeaven, through all its splendours, came
separate intense, a tiny orb of flame, that when it reached her, ringed
her round complete, a crown of light, pulsating. Song most sweet
were discords of the storm, to that great lyre that sounded, as their
Queen was throned in fire. O, sapphire, that the brightest Heavens
contain, central! O, song that hymns thy, deathless reign! Clear
through the breathless, waiting hosts, it said: "I am the Angelic love.
The light that led the waiting world to God. The Uncreate Fire. Who
sheltered in her womb the World's Desire I compass ever, height on
height to tread. O Lady, follow where thy Christ hath led! The highest,
holiest, inmost sphere shall be Diviner, flowering all its hope in thee."'
As the song ceases, the circling lights return Beatrice's praise in a
sweet silence, before they lengthen upwards with a chant of 'Regina
caelis rose'.
These lights are some of the spirits of this Heaven. Beatrice speaks
to them and they become each become a golden-red radiant sphere,
spinning on its axis. Together they dance in perfect harmony.
The spirits here are all vicars of Christ, who have done His will in life.
One of the spirits of this Heaven, a sphere of light of the greatest
beauty, is St. Peter. He examines Dante concerning Faith, and
approves his answer with a triumphant cry through the Heaven of
'Deus Laudmus'. Following this, he is examined on Hope by St.
James, who also approves his answer with a cry of delight from
Heaven, and a clarion cry of 'sperent in te' from the spirits there
which is accompanied by a glorious flash of white light. Lastly, St.
John appears, the light emanating from him so bright that it blinds
Dante (though not permanently). He examines Dante concerning
Love. Again, Dante passes the examination, and the most sweet
strain Dante has yet heard sounds through Heaven. A strong light
strikes him and by it, Beatrice restores his sight, making it, in fact,
better than before.
It can be assumed that a similar set of examinations would be
applied to any other mortals who travel so far in Heaven...
With his sight restored, Dante sees that Adam has joined the three
saints. He tells Dante that he lived from nine hundred and thirty years
on Earth, and was four thousand, three hundred and two years in the

same place as Virgil (presumably Limbo) before spending a short

time in the Earthly Paradise and ascending into Heaven.
As he watches, Dante sees the four spirits change to a crimson hue
as Saint Peter also denounces his degenerate successors upon the
Papal throne. Then they rise up into the air. 'As we see the frozen
vapours in white flakes to fall when the Sun feels the Goat's
extended horn, so through the ether rose, like flakes of fire, those
lights triumphant. Not could sight aspire so high to follow.'
As he watches the four spirits rise, Beatrice points out to Dante how
far they themselves have risen. He sees the Earth below him again
as they rise to the Crystalline Heaven.
THE CRYSTALLINE HEAVEN, OR PRIMUM MOBILE
This is the ninth and last of the material Heavens, called the
Crystalline because it is transparent and invisible, or the Primum
Mobile because from its infinite speed the other lower Heavens take
their slower motions.
Beatrice talks to Dante about the nature of this Heaven. 'All reality
Round its fixed centre moves; but in this height where God is all the
love and all the light, where is no otherwhere, no where can be. Love
graspeth all in one including zone of mystery only to its Maker
known. What language can define infinity? Five is the half of ten, but
that to see the limit of the ten must first be seen. Here is no limit of
space; and naught hath been, nor will be, ended or commenced.
Behold the roots of Time's full-leaved but fading Tree!' She also
rebukes the covetousness of mortals.
In this Heaven Dante sees a bright point of light directly overhead
surrounded by nine concentric rings of fire, the innermost very small,
and spinning very fast, the outermost huge and spinning slowly. At
the point of light everything begins, and everything concludes,
Beatrice tells Dante. As she speaks, each of the rings sends forth
innumerable lights which dance within its circle, sounding hosannas
as they go. She continues to explain that they each ring is one of the
Angelic Orders, around God, in the centre:
'The inmost circles have revealed to thee the Seraphim and
Cherubim. So fast they spin around that central source that they
shall share its verity the most they may. And as their vision is
sublime, so far they gain their purpose.
'Those their course beside, the loves that round the next swift circle
ride, are named the Throne, because they brought to be completion

of the primal ternary. And you should know that their delightings are
according as their sights can penetrate the truth which quietens
every intellect. From which we can perceive the blissful state is
founded on the sight of God direct, from which love followeth in its
course. The sight is merit in itself, which grace begets, and the
desire for holiness; and so from grade to grade doth the sweet
process go.
'The second ternary which flowereth thus in this eternal spring,
where never night sees Aries trample, doth perpetually unite in its
hosannas, which it sets in three accordant strains of melody, as the
three orders of its gladness are. For here are three ranks of divinity;
thus ordered - Dominations, Virtues, Powers.
'The third, last ternary consists of these: first Principalities,
Archangels next, and, last and outmost, Angels flame and sing. All
these gaze upward, being so drawn, and draw from downward with a
might as victoring.'
Beatrice then talks of the creation and nature of the angels, before
denouncing modern preachers on Earth.
As she speaks, she and Dante ascend to the Empyrean, rising
towards the centre of the rings of angels, into the bright point of light,
the rings of light fading as they go into that blinding light.
THE EMPYREAN
This is the highest Heaven, outside of time and space. It is the
Heaven of God's immediate presence and the only real home of the
angels and the redeemed, whose blessedness consists of their
eternal vision of Him.
'Behold, from out the Heaven of greatest space passed have we to
the sphere where light is all; light intellectual by pervading love
impregnated: pure love of holiness impregnated with bliss, which
bliss transcends all separate sweetness. Here your eyes shall see
the twofold chivalry of Paradise; and those who from an earthly
conflict rise in the same aspect as their forms shall be before the
throne of judgement,' says Beatrice as she and Dante enter the
Empyrean.
At this point a bright light swathes Dante so that he cannot see. From
within himself he summons a power to conquer all that he had been,
and is able to see again. 'There I saw Light like a river in its molten
glow That golden flowed between two banks aflower With spring's
fresh miracle. From out the stream Came leaping sparks that in the

blossoms fed, Rubies in cups of sunlight. Each would seem To sate

itself with fragrance, and return As others outward leaped that joy to
learn.'
Dante bends to taste from the stream, and as his eyes meet its flow,
he sees the stream change to a golden rose, and sees through 'the
previous beauty of the sparks and flowers, lo, the two courts of
Heaven were manifest! But where are words their wonder to
declare? A light transcending every light is there by which His
creatures their Creator see, where only in that sight their peace may
be.'
Up through the petals of the Rose of Paradise are the ranked thrones
of the saints, with the Blessed Virgin at the peak. The boundary of
the top petals of the open Rose contains a point even more radiant
than the general golden glow of the Empyrean with 'over it a
thousand angels making festival hovered and sang and sported;
every one distinct in art and function, separately a thought of God
created.' At that point sits the Blessed Virgin, the sight of whom fills
Dante with deepest joy, the 'deliciousness for which the victor saints
of Heaven are glad.'
Beatrice points out to Dante an empty throne set in the Rose, which
is designated for Henry VII. 'As a hill images itself in some clear lake,
as though upon its own rich verdancy to gaze, so in that light, around
that eminence, round and around in thousand ranks I saw the
conquering saints of God. And if so low, so large the light, the
concourse, nearly viewed, judge what must be the outmost amplitude
of the wide petals of that golden Rose. But not the great breadth nor
the ample height could give denial to mine eager sight of the full
sweep of that ranged ecstasy. For, where God is, nor near nor far
can be, nor Nature's laws have any meaning there. Within the yellow
of the eternal Rose Beatrice drew me, while its petals spread wide
open to that sun which round it shed an everlasting spring, the while
its praise continual perfume gave.'
Those in the Empyrean, within the Rose of Paradise, are 'the ranks
of Christ's great chivalry, which with His blood, a sacred spouse, He
won'. The many saints there do not obstruct the light from above.
They constantly sing hosannas.
Over them fly Angels who, 'while they fly, do sing His glory whom
continually they serve, and by that service magnify'. They descend
into the Rose of Paradise and drink the love of God there before
ascending back into the sky. 'Their faces were of lively flame: alight

their wings with lustrous gold: the rest so white that dull in contrast
were the whitest snow. And as within the flower they ministered with
fanning wings the ranks of saints along, passion they gave and
peace alike to know; for in the bliss of that most holy state passion is
peace, and peace is passionate.'
At this point, Beatrice goes from Dante while he is gazing around,
and ascends to her throne, which is in the third circle below the
Blessed Virgin. Saint Bernard, who has been assigned to Dante to
ensure that he 'mightst complete a perfect progress' points her out to
Dante. 'Seated high, the living everlasting light divine crowning her
brows with its reflected rays, I saw her, far from any reach of mine.
Far as from darkness of the deepest sea the thunders of the utmost
Heaven may be, I saw her inaccessible'. Dante prays to her, thanking
her for what she has done, and she smiles down on him in response.
St Bernard describes the ranks and orders of the Rose to Dante. At
Mary's feet, the only inhabitant of the second rank, sits Eve. In
addition to Beatrice, the third rank contains Rachel. 'After these,
Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, and beyond the Moabite maid who was the
ancestress of him who sinned and sang, and in the stress of
penitence misereri mei cried.'
'Petal by petal, rank by rank,' St Bernard tells Dante of the 'illustrious
names of old, half-circling down the Rose's rounded cup,' until he
reaches the seventh rank which contains the 'unnumbered names,
but ancient all, a tale of Hebrew dames and others who, before
Christ's victory, looked forward, and believed the light to be.' On the
other side of the Rose, separated from them by a cleft between
petals, 'are those who loved the Christ their eyes had seen, or looked
with faith upon a backward day.' Because of this every petal is filled
on the first side, but there are many vacant seats on the other
'waiting those who yet shall rise triumphant.'
On a throne at an equal level to that of Mary sits St John. Beneath
him sit Saints Francis, Benedict and Augustus, with, below them, the
'conquering Christian saints'.

Close to Mary sit the patricians of the Court of Heaven. On Mary's

left hand sits Adam, on her right sits St Peter. Beside him sits St
John, and beside Adam sits Moses. Next to Peter sits Anna, Mary's
mother, so entranced by her daughter that she does not sing
hosannas. Beyond Anna sits Lucia. Note that some of the saints here
are also present in, or perhaps visit, the lower Heavens too...
In a third division of the Rose are enthroned those 'who come to God
unmerited either by deeds or faith, their lives too soon expiring', that
is, the children, who remain children in Heaven forever. He tells
Dante that 'in the first ages innocence alone secured salvation to the
child of those who were themselves devout. A later day allowed male
children such release if they were circumcised and sinless. After that
the period of full grace full rite required of Christian baptism, that the
innocent wings should gather power to soar.' So that, now, only
baptised Christian children will find their way to the Empyrean.
When Dante has seen all this, St Bernard begins a prayer to the
Virgin, asking her to complete Dante's journey, so that what he has
seen does not lose its power on him. She looks down at him, then
up, and the Light of God shines down on Dante, giving him the
Beatific Vision and the Ultimate Salvation. 'But what I saw therein no
words could tell, no human memory from God's citadel retire with
plunder of its wondrous store. As he who dreamed, and can recall no
more, nor that from his encumbered mind dismiss, so toiled am I. I
know no more than this: I dreamed. I waked. I know the sweetness
yet, though the deep source my yearning thoughts forget.' 'This I
know: Had mine eyes wavered from that sacred glow I had been
irretrievably lost. Therefore, aware of peril, did I strive the more the
weight of infinite value to sustain.' 'As I gazed, it seemed that form
was on that painted light pictured in human semblance. There I
raised Eyes tranced and raptured by that wondrous sight.'
And so, with his journey complete, Dante returns to Earth...