CANTO III

THE SUMMARY
Dante and Virgil stop to look in awe at the
Hellgate, on which encouraging words like
"ABANDON EVERY HOPE, [YOU] WHO ENTER
HERE" appear.
There is more to the inscription, which
describes the origins of Hell—how it was made
by "Justice," "the Highest Wisdom," and "Primal
Love.“
Dante tells Virgil he doesn’t understand the
inscription.
Virgil,
in his sage way, doesn’t really answer
Dante’s question, but tells him to be brave.
He also describes Hell’s sinners as people who
have "lost the good of the intellect." (This is a
good place to stick a big bright sticky note
because this is an Important Concept.)
 Dante’s first impression of Hell: it’s noisy. It’s
full of "strange utterances, horrible
pronouncements, / accents of anger, words
of suffering, / and voices shrill and faint, and
beating hands…"
Horrified,Dante asks Virgil who these people
are that scream so loudly.
Virgil explains that they’re neutrals, people
who failed to choose either good or evil in
their lifetimes and so are condemned to exist
in a kind of ante-Inferno...pre-Hell, if you will.
The "coward angels" are here too—those that
sided with neither God nor Lucifer in the great
battle that created the Devil.
When Dante repeats his question, Virgil
(slightly peeved) answers shortly:
These sinners have "no hope in death" and their
entire existence is driven by envy for any other
kind of existence… even one in the true circles
of Hell. Virgil says this so quickly and tersely that
he implies that these sinners aren’t even worth
wasting many words over.
While sightseeing, Dante notices the neutrals’
punishment: various insects sting their naked
bodies, irritating them and making them run
around in big circles under a long banner.
Dante is blown away by the sheer
number of them; in other words, there are
a lot of neutrals.
Among the horde, Dante recognizes the
one "who made […] the great refusal."
Scholars have interpreted this sinner
as Pope Celestine V, who abdicated his
papal seat just five months after taking
office. This paved the way for the
election of Pope Boniface VIII, whom
Dante hates with a passion.
Dante observes a big crowd of people
gathering on the banks of a big river and
asks Virgil why they seem so eager to
cross the river.
Our wise man tells Dante to quiet down;
he’ll find out why when they actually get
there. "There" being the banks of the river
Acheron, one of the five rivers of the
Greek Underworld
When they do get there, Virgil doesn’t even
get the chance to explain before an old man
with a long white beard comes up to them
and basically says, "No chance the two of you
are getting on my boat. Only dead people
allowed." This guy is Charon, the ferryman that
takes people across the river.
ThenVirgil gets all up in Charon’s face
and one-ups him with "God sent us, so let us
through." Or something like that.
SoCharon is forced to ferry them across,
but he’s pouty and sullen about it.
Dante, in poet mode, compares all the
dead souls gathering on the riverbanks to
falling leaves in autumn and later to
hunting falcons returning to their masters
when called. Dante is big on metaphors
Virgil
explains that only sinners ever have
to undertake this crossing.
Allof a sudden, an earthquake hits,
complete with a tornado and a "blood-
red light."
Dante loses consciousness.