Summary: Divina Commedia di Dante: Inferno

This section contains the introductory publishing details and metadata for the electronic edition of Divina Commedia di Dante Inferno. It outlines the distribution terms and conditions under the Project Gutenberg License stating that the ebook is available for free use within the United States and most other parts of the world with minimal restrictions. It also provides bibliographic information including the author Dante Alighieri the initial release date of August 1 1997 and the most recent update date of April 10 2021 along with the language specified as Italian. Following the legal and publishing notices the text provides a complete table of contents for the first cantica of the work. It lists all thirty four cantos of the Inferno sequentially beginning with Canto I and concluding with Canto XXXIV. This index serves as a structural guide to the entire volume outlining the organizational layout of the poetic text that follows.

Midway through life, the narrator finds himself lost in a dark and terrifying forest after wandering off the straight path. Overwhelmed by sleepiness and fear, he reaches the base of a hill bathed in morning sunlight, where his terror finally begins to subside. Recovering his strength, he attempts to climb the lonely slope, but his path is repeatedly blocked by three fierce beasts. First, a swift leopard with a spotted skin appears, followed immediately by a proud and raging lion that causes the air to tremble. Finally, an emaciated she wolf burdened with countless desires confronts him, filling him with such dread that he loses all hope of reaching the summit and is driven back down into a dark place where the sun is silent. As he retreats into the shadows, a figure appears whose voice seems faint from long silence. Crying out for mercy, the narrator discovers the entity is an ancient shade who reveals he was once a man from Mantua, born under Julius and living under Augustus, and famed as the poet who sang of the Trojan hero Aeneas. Recognizing this savior as Virgil, the master and author whose style he has emulated, the narrator begs for help against the terrifying beast that makes his veins and pulses tremble. Virgil explains that anyone wishing to escape this wild place must take another route, because the vicious she wolf slays all who cross her path and remains endlessly unsatisfied until a hound arrives to drive her back into hell. Offering to act as his guide, Virgil proposes to lead him through an eternal place where he will hear desperate cries, witness ancient spirits suffering the second death, and see those who are content within the fire. Virgil adds that another soul more worthy will eventually take over the guidance to the blessed realms, since Virgil himself rebelled against the emperor reigning above. Pleading to be led away from this evil and worse, the narrator asks Virgil to guide him onward, and the poet sets out with the narrator following closely behind.

Dante and his guide Virgil arrive before the dark portal of Hell, reading its ominous inscription that announces eternal sorrow and the lost souls within. Overwhelmed by the difficult meaning of the words, Dante receives reassurance from Virgil, who takes him by the hand and leads him past the gate into the secret realm. Entering the starless air, they are immediately greeted by a deafening tumult of sighs, weeping, and harsh cries uttered in diverse languages by suffering souls. Virgil explains that this miserable crowd consists of the neutral angels who remained uncommitted during the rebellion, alongside the cowardly souls of humans who lived without infamy or praise. Rejected by Heaven to preserve its beauty and refused by deep Hell so the wicked cannot glory over them, these wretched beings possess no hope of death and are condemned to run naked while tormented by hornets and wasps. Their bleeding faces and tears nourish disgusting worms at their feet, and among them Dante recognizes the shadow of the one who made the great refusal out of cowardice. Moving further, the travelers reach the dark bank of the river Acheron, where a vast multitude of souls gathers to cross into eternal torment. An ancient ferryman named Caron shouts warnings at the damned, forbidding Dante from passing because he is still a living soul. Virgil silences the ferryman with a reminder of divine will, causing Caron to quiet his fiery eyes. The terrified, naked souls curse God, their parents, and human history before weeping and gathering by the shore. Caron rounds up the rebellious souls, who cast themselves from the bank like autumn leaves obeying a signal, crossing the dark wave one by one. Virgil explains that all who die in the wrath of God converge here from every land, driven by divine justice so that their fear turns into desire. As the scene concludes, a sudden violent earthquake shakes the tearful ground, producing a red flash of lightning that overwhelms Dante completely and causes him to fall unconscious like a man overcome by sleep.

Waking suddenly from a deep sleep caused by a heavy thunder, Dante finds himself standing on the precipice of the dark and sorrowful abyss that swallows up endless wails. Seeing that his guide Virgil has turned pale with empathy for the suffering below, Dante expresses concern about proceeding. Virgil reassures him, explaining that the profound misery of the people in this blind world evokes the pity Dante mistakes for fear. Together, they step downward into the first circle of the abyss. In this initial realm, the atmosphere rings not with physical torture, but with deep sighs that make the eternal air tremble, originating from vast crowds of men, women, and infants. When Dante asks what spirits these are, Virgil explains that they committed no active sins, yet their merits are insufficient because they lacked baptism or lived before the advent of Christianity and proper worship. For this deficiency alone, and no other crime, they are lost, dwelling in perpetual desire without any hope of redemption. Moved by great sorrow upon learning this, Dante inquires whether anyone has ever left Limbo through their own merit or another's to achieve blessedness. Virgil reveals that shortly after his own arrival, a mighty savior crowned with victory descended and delivered the shade of the first parent Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, and many others, marking the first time human spirits were ever saved. Continuing their journey through the dense forest of souls, the travelers spot a brilliant fire illuminating a hemisphere of darkness and approach a place inhabited by honorable people. A voice proclaims honor to the highest poet as four majestic shades approach with expressions neither sad nor joyful. Virgil identifies them as Homer the sovereign poet, Horace the satirist, Ovid, and Lucan, who welcome Dante into their company as the sixth member of their wise gathering. Together they approach a noble castle surrounded by seven lofty walls and a protecting stream, which they cross as if it were solid ground. Entering through seven gates into a meadow of fresh green verdure, Dante observes noble figures with slow, grave eyes, great authority in their demeanor, and soft voices who speak but rarely. Standing in an open, luminous, and elevated place upon the green enamel, Dante is shown a series of great spirits whose sight fills him with awe. He sees Electra with her companions, Hector, Aeneas, Caesar in armor, Camilla, Penthesilea, King Latino with his daughter Lavinia, Brutus, Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, Cornelia, and Saladin sitting apart. Raising his eyes further, he beholds Aristotle sitting among the philosophical family, surrounded by Socrates, Plato, Democritus, Diogenes, Anaxagoras, Thales, Empedocles, Heraclitus, Zeno, Dioscorides, Orpheus, Cicero, Linus, Seneca, Euclid, Ptolemy, Hippocrates, Avicenna, Galen, and Averroes who made the great commentary. Because his vast theme forces him onward, Virgil leads Dante away from this quiet assembly into the trembling air and the darkness beyond.

Upon recovering his senses after fainting from pity at the story of Francesca and Paolo, Dante finds himself in the third circle of Hell. Here, a relentless, cursed, heavy, and eternal storm of foul water, dark snow, and large hail pours down unceasingly upon the ground, causing the earth itself to stink. Guarding and tormenting the wretched souls submerged in this filth is Cerberus, a cruel and monstrous beast with three canine throats, red eyes, a greasy black beard, a wide belly, and clawed hands with which he flays, skins, and quarters the spirits. The souls howl like dogs under the driving rain and constantly turn their bodies to shield one side from the downpour with the other. As Dante and Virgil approach, the great worm Cerberus opens his jaws and bares his tusks in agitation. Virgil quickly takes up earth in both hands and hurls the dirt straight into the ravenous gullets of the beast. Cerberus reacts just like a greedy dog that barks in eagerness for food, only to quiet down entirely once it seizes the morsel and focuses solely on devouring it. With the monster pacified, the two poets walk over the prone and weightless bodies of the tormented sinners lying thick on the ground. One soul immediately sits up upon seeing them pass and asks Dante if he recognizes him, noting that Dante was made before he himself was destroyed. Dante replies that his anguish makes it difficult to place him, and asks who he is and why he suffers such a grievous punishment. The spirit reveals that he was a citizen of Florence, a city so full of envy that the sack is already overflowing, and that his name is Ciacco. Ciacco explains that he is punished here in the mud and rain because of the sinful crime of gluttony, and that he is joined by many other souls suffering the same penalty for the exact same transgression. Moved by pity, Dante asks Ciacco what the fate of the citizens of the divided city will be, whether any just men remain within it, and what caused such great discord. Ciacco prophesies that after a long struggle, the factions will come to blood, and the savage party will drive out the other with much violence. Within three solar years, however, this faction will fall in turn, and the opposing side will rise to power through the force of a person who is currently playing a neutral game. This triumphant party will keep its head held high for a long time, holding the other under heavy burdens while the losers weep and feel disgraced. Ciacco adds that there are only two just men in the city, but nobody listens to them, and that pride, envy, and avarice are the three fiery sparks that have ignited everyone else's hearts. Before sinking back down into the blindness of the other souls, Ciacco asks Dante to remember him to the living world when he returns there. Dante then asks Virgil about the whereabouts and condition of other notable Florentines from the past, such as Farinata, Tegghiaio, Iacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo, and Mosca, inquiring whether heaven sweetens them or hell poisons them. Virgil informs him that they are among the blackest souls, weighed down by diverse sins at the very bottom of the abyss, and that Dante will see them if he descends that far. As they move slowly through the foul mixture of shadows and rain, Dante asks Virgil whether these torments will increase after the final sentence, become lesser, or remain just as burning. Virgil directs him back to his philosophy, which teaches that the more perfect a thing is, the more keenly it feels both good and pain. Although these damned people will never attain true perfection, Virgil explains that they expect to be more complete after the resurrection than they are now. Continuing their circuit around the path, the two travelers finally reach the edge of the circle where the descent leads further down, and there they find the great enemy Pluto waiting.

Virgil silences the monstrous Pluto with a reference to divine vengeance upon pride as Dante and his guide descend into the fourth circle of hell. Here, they witness a vast throng of souls engaged in eternal torment, divided into two distinct groups pushing heavy weights with their chests. When these opposing factions collide, they turn back and shout accusations at each other regarding hoarding and reckless spending. Dante asks his guide to identify these tormented figures and learns they are the avaricious and the prodigal, including many clerics, popes, and cardinals whose minds were blinded by greed in their mortal lives. Because their unrecognized sins have rendered them indistinguishable, their identities are lost to darkness, though they will rise from their tombs on judgment day with closed fists and cropped hair. Virgil explains that all the gold beneath the moon cannot grant rest to these weary souls. When Dante inquires about Fortune and her control over worldly wealth, Virgil offers a philosophical explanation of her role as a heavenly minister appointed by God to distribute worldly goods and shift them among nations beyond human intellect. Although humanity often blames Fortune unjustly, she remains blissfully indifferent to human praise or criticism as she joyfully pursues her divine rotation. Leaving the fourth circle, the poets descend to the edge of the fifth circle, encountering a dark stream that feeds the murky swamp of Styx. In this foul mire, the wrathful souls attack one another violently in the mud while the sullen victims trapped beneath the black water bubble sighs that break the surface. Skirting the edge of the filthy marsh, Dante and Virgil finally reach the base of a tower.