Friday 2 January 2009

The Ten Circles of Hell

1st circle: Limbo. Reserved for the souls of the just people who never knew Christ, and those (especially infants) who died without baptism and never committed a sin.

2nd circle: The Lustful.
Landscape: a violent storm which tosses around the souls.

3rd circle: The Gluttonous.
Landscape: heavy steady rain.

4th circle: The Avaricious and Prodigals.
These souls, mostly clerics, go opposite direction, bumping into each other as they push big rocks. The guardian is Pluto

5th circle: The Wrathful and Sullen.
These souls are submerged into the river Styx, which surrounds the city of Dis. The wrathful emerge from the dirty waters while the sullen are completely submerged.

The city of Dis: High walls with closed doors guarded by devils, helped by the Furies and the Medusa.
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"

6th circle: The Heretics.

7th circle: The Violent. Introduced by the Minotaur, this circle is divided into three rings.

Violent Against their Neighbors (tyrants and murderers). These souls are plunged into a river of boiling blood: the river Phlegethon. They are watched over by the Centaurs.

Violent against Themselves (suicides). It is an unnatural forest with leafless trees. These trees are the souls of the suicides.

Violent against God and Nature. Blasphemers, Sodomites, etc.

The river Phlegethon cascades into the eight circle

8th circle: Fraud. It is called Malebolge because it is divided into ten bolge (ditches).

9th circle: Treachery. It is divided into four sections. The sinners are in a frozen lake, Cocytus. This circle is surrounded by the Giants

The ice of the 9th circled is kept frozen by Lucifer's six flapping wings. Lucifer has three faces, with three mouths, each chewing on a sinner: Judas is in the middle mouth with his head inside, Brutus and Cassius are in the side mouths, with their heads hanging out.