The Divine Comedy

Dante meets Virgil at the edge of Hell and passes the gate:

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch' intrate.

They descend the nine circles, seeing sin in its fixed, final form.

• The lustful (e.g. Francesca da Rimini) swept forever by storm.
• The gluttonous, misers and wasters, trapped in grotesque parodies of their desires.
• The wrathful choking in the Styx.
• The heretics (like Farinata) in burning tombs.
• The violent in boiling blood or transformed into thorny trees.
• The fraudulent (e.g. Ulysses, flatterers, hypocrites, thieves) punished with fitting counter-images of their deceit.
• Traitors such as Count Ugolino gnawing the skull of his betrayer.

At the frozen pit, Lucifer is locked in ice, chewing the worst traitors. Dante and Virgil climb past Satan’s body and emerge under the stars:

E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.

On the island-mountain of Purgatory, Dante meets the guardian Cato and a crowd of souls singing the Te Deum. Here, unlike Hell, souls change.

Structure of the ascent:

• Ante-Purgatory: the late-repentant, including the negligent and the excommunicated.

• Seven terraces, each purifying a capital sin:

  • Pride (bent under stones, meditating on humility)
  • Envy (eyes sewn shut)
  • Wrath (souls in blinding smoke)
  • Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, Lust (each with a fitting, healing discipline)

Dante meets Statius the poet, who joins them. Everywhere, souls long for freedom:

Libertà va cercando, ch’è sì cara…

At the summit, in the Earthly Paradise, Virgil vanishes; Beatrice appears, reproves Dante, and then leads him, now purified, toward the heavens.

Led by Beatrice through the celestial spheres, Dante sees blessed souls ordered by love and intellect.

• Moon, Mercury, Venus: souls marked by inconstancy, active life and love (e.g. Piccarda, Justinian).
• Sun: theologians and sages (Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure) in radiant circles.
• Mars, Jupiter, Saturn: martyrs, just rulers, contemplatives.
• The Fixed Stars and Primum Mobile: the Virgin, apostles, angels.

Finally, in the Empyrean, Beatrice cedes to St Bernard, who prays that Dante may behold God. Dante perceives the Trinity as three interreflecting circles and glimpses the mystery of the Incarnation, ending with the vision of the love that orders all:

L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.