Dante's Inferno, widely hailed as one of the great classics of Western literature, details Dante's journey through the nine circles of Hell. The voyage begins during Easter week in the year 1300, the descent through Hell starting on Good Friday. After meeting his guide, the eminent Roman poet Virgil, in a mythical dark wood, the two poets begin their descent through a baleful world of doleful shades, horrifying tortures, and unending lamentation.
Early in the spring of 1300, "midway along the road of our life," Dante is lost and alone in a dark, foreboding forest. To survive this ordeal, he must visit the three realms of the afterlife, beginning with Hell. Follow Dante's descent circle by circle through the eternal abode of lost souls, down to the pit of Hell at the center of the earth. |
As Dante explains in the opening lines of the canticle, Purgatory is the place in which "the human spirit purges himself, and climbing to Heaven makes himself worthy." Dante's Purgatory consists of an island mountain, the only piece of land in the southern hemisphere. Divided into three sections, Antepurgatory, Purgatory proper, and the Earthly Paradise, the lower slopes are reserved for souls whose penance was delayed. The upper part of the mountain consists of seven terraces, each of which corresponds to one of the seven capital sins. Atop the mountain Dante locates, Eden, the Earthly Paradise, the place where the pilgrim is reunited with Beatrice, the woman who inspired the poem.
Dante and his guide, Virgil, arrive on the shores of the Island-Mountain of Purgatory, located in the southern hemisphere, on Easter morning, 1300. Join them as they climb the mountain, from base to summit, over the course of three full days. |
The third realm of the afterlife details Dante's voyage through the nine spheres of Paradise. Following medieval cosmology, Dante's presentation of the planetary system broadly follows the Ptolemaic geometric model. Beatrice guides Dante successively through the nine spheres, each of which carries a heavenly body which orbits the earth: in succession they include the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Fixed Stars. The voyage culminates in a vision of God in the Empyrean, the realm of pure light.
Dante, under the guidance of Beatrice, completes his journey to the afterlife by leaving the earth and rising through the ten celestial heavens of the ancient cosmos. Join Dante and Beatrice as they encounter blessed spirits in the seven planetary spheres (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), the sphere of the Fixed Stars, the Primum Mobile, and the Empyrean heaven. |