0 Many have heard the saying about some circles of Hell, but few can say that they know the meaning and origin of this phraseological unit. In this article we will talk about How many circles of hell are there in Dante??
However, before continuing, I would like to recommend you a few more interesting articles on the topic of street slang. For example, what is Bludnyak; how to understand the expression What a fright; what does Pisyun mean, what does Zadolbal mean, etc.
So let's continue How many circles of hell? Dante Alighieri first mentioned the circles of Hell in his " Divine Comedy". In his work there are only nine circles of Hell, and the final circles are divided into separate zones. Souls fall into different circles, and the lower the circle, the more serious the offense they committed during life.

How many circles of Hell- this is described in most detail in Dante Alighieri’s poem “The Divine Comedy”, which was created over about 14 years from 1307 - 1321

There are only seven main circles of hell, which is why everyone says go through the seven circles of hell.

It is worth noting that the Greek philosopher Aristotle mentioned the nine circles of hell in his work. Later Dante borrowed and popularized this idea. So, what is Dante's Inferno?

How many circles of Hell does Dante have?

Second circle of hell. Fornicators, adulterers and sensualists fall into it.

Third circle of hell. It contains gluttons, gourmets and gluttons.

The fourth circle of hell. Created for hoarders, greedy and wasteful citizens.

Fifth circle of hell. It is inhabited by angry and lazy individuals.

The sixth circle of hell. Designed for heretics and false teachers.

Seventh circle of hell. The souls of those who committed violence to one degree or another languish here.
Moreover, the seventh circle is divided into three belts:

First belt. Tyrants and robbers live.

Second belt. It houses suicides, gamblers and spenders.

Third belt. Adherents of covetousness, blasphemers and homosexuals with lesbians.

The eighth circle of hell. It is intended for those who deceived people, that is, for deceivers, and it is divided into ten ditches.

First ditch. It contains pimps and seducers.

Second ditch. Flatterers languish here.

Third ditch. Lived by Simonists (adherents of the teachings of Saint-Simon) and holy merchants.

Fourth ditch. Sorcerers, astrologers, fortune tellers and wizards live here.

Fifth ditch. The souls of bribe-takers and bribe-takers languish in it.

Sixth ditch. This ditch is exclusively for hypocrites.

Seventh ditch. Thieves are concentrated in it.

Eighth ditch. Here are the crafty advisers.

Ninth ditch. In this place of sorrow, people are located, sowing confusion and discord.

Tenth ditch. This area is for counterfeiters only.

Ninth circle. It was created for traitors, and it is divided into five belts.

First belt (called Cain). Those who committed betrayal of their relatives serve their sentences here.

Second belt (called Antenor). Traitors of their Motherland and their like-minded people are imprisoned here.

The third belt (called Tolomeya). In this dark place the souls of traitors to friends and table comrades languish.

Fourth belt. (called Giudecca). Here traitors to their benefactors, human and divine greatness are found.

Fifth belt. (called Satan). Traitors of earthly and heavenly things serve their sentences here.

In Catholicism ninth circle of hell is considered the most terrible and merciless punishment for offenses committed by a person.

It is worth understanding that this entire book is imbued with religious dogmas, and is based on Christianity. However, where do the souls of those who worship other gods go? Also to Christian hell? Well, this is actually funny.

In Dante, circles 2-5 are for intemperate people, circle 7 is for rapists, circles 8-9 are for deceivers (the 8th is simply for deceivers, the 9th is for traitors). Thus, the more material the sin, the more forgivable it is. %))

Nine circles of HELL or take your pick

Structure

1 lap
Limbo
Guardian
Charon (at least a mediator)
Type of punishment
Painless grief
Languishing (departing %)))
Unbaptized infants [not the official position of the Vatican, according to the report of the Vatican International Theological Commission dated January 19, 2007] and virtuous non-Christians

All examples of Dante
The greatest poets of antiquity - Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan;

Roman and Greek heroes - Electra, Hector, Aeneas, Caesar, Penthesilea, Camilla, Lavinia with her father Latin, Brutus, Julia (wife of Pompey), Lucretia (dishonored by the royal son Sextus Tarquinius), Cornelia, Marcia (wife of Catanus Uticus) + Saladin ( Salah ad-din Yusuf ibn Ayyub; his own name is Yusuf, son of Ayyub, and Salah ad-din is an honorary nickname meaning “Rightness of Faith” (1137, Tikrit-1193, Damascus) - Muslim commander, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty in Egypt and Syria. Kurdish by origin.);

Scientists, poets and doctors - Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Democritus, Diogenes, Thales, Anaxagoras, Zeno, Empedocles, Heraclitus, Dioscorides, Seneca, Orpheus, Linus, Tullius, Euclid, Ptolemy, Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, Averrois

2 round
-----
Guardian
Minos (In mythology, a just king; here it is a demon)

Languishing (departing %)))
Voluptuaries (fornicators and adulterers, simply passionate lovers).

Type of punishment
Torn and tormented by the storm
All examples of Dante
Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen the Beautiful, Achilles, Paris, Tristan; Francesca and Paolo

3 circle
-----
Guardian
Cerberus
Languishing (departing %)))
Gluttons, gluttons and gourmets.
Type of punishment
Rotting under the sun and rain
All examples of Dante
Ciacco (Italian: Ciacco) is one of the characters in the Divine Comedy of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, written between 1308 and 1321.

Chacko is a glutton who is in a stinking swamp under the cold rain in the third circle of Hell. Dante sympathizes with him, so it is he who predicts Dante's future exile

4 circle
-----
Guardian
Plutos In mythology, the god of wealth, here he is a beast-like demon

Languishing (departing %)))
Misers and spendthrifts (inability to spend wisely)

Type of punishment
Wall-to-wall (eternal dispute)
All examples of Dante
You can't recognize them:
There is such dirt on them from a disgusting life,
That their appearance is dark to the mind

5 circle
Stygian swamp
Guardian
Phlegius is a ferryman through the swamp (in ancient Greek mythology - the son of Apeca and Chryse, who ruled in Orkhomenes after Eteocles, the father of Eton and Coronis, who was the mother of Asclepius from Apollo. Angry at his daughter for her love affair with Apollo, Phlegius burned the temple of the god, but as punishment for this, he was killed with his arrows and in the underworld was condemned to eternal execution - to sit under a rock, ready to collapse every minute. Phlegias was the ancestor of the mythical robber tribe of the Phlegians, who were classified as the Minyan people and who lived in Phocis or Girton (Thessaly) Phlegias was credited with the founding of the ancient Boeotian city of Phlegia.)

Languishing (departing %)))
Angry and lazy
Type of punishment
Eternal fight up to the neck in the swamp
All examples of Dante
Florentine knight Filippe degli Adimari (“Argenti”) (a rich Florentine knight, a supporter of the Blacks, distinguished by his arrogance and furious disposition. He was nicknamed Argeiti, that is, “silver,” because he shod his horse with silver. There is reason to believe that there was a sharp personal enmity between him and Dante.)

6 circle
The walls of the city of Dita (Hades among the Greeks (or Hades, Greek Ἀΐδης or ᾍδης, also Ἀϊδωνεύς; among the Romans Pluto (Greek Πλούτων, lat. Pluto - “rich”, also Dit lat. Dis) - in ancient times Greek mythology god of the underworld of the dead and the name of the kingdom of the dead itself, the first son of Kronos and Rhea, brother of Zeus, Poseidon and Demeter. Husband of Persephone, revered and invoked with him.)

Guardian
Furies (in ancient Greek mythology, goddesses of revenge; daughters of Nyx and Erebus. In Roman mythology, they correspond to the Furies.)

Languishing (departing %)))
Heretics [Heretics - apostates from the faith and deniers of God - are specially singled out from the host of sinners filling the upper and lower circles in the sixth circle. In the abyss of lower Hell (A., VIII, 75), with three ledges, like three steps, there are three circles - from the seventh to the ninth. In these circles, evil is punished, using either force (violence) or deception.] and false teachers

Type of punishment
To be ghosts in hot graves
All examples of Dante
Epicureans: Farinata degli Uberti, Cavalcante Cavalcanti, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Ottaviano degli Ubaldini [Cardinal Ottavio (died 1273), a zealous Ghibelline, so influential that if they simply said “cardinal”, they meant him. His phrase has been preserved: “If there is a soul, then I destroyed it for the sake of the Ghibellines.”], Pope Anastasius II

7 circle (divided into 3 belts)
-----
Guardian
Minotaur
Languishing (departing %)))
Perpetrators of violence
7/1-Violent people against their neighbors and their property (tyrants and robbers),

7/2-Rapists against themselves (suicides) and against their property (gamblers and spendthrifts, that is, senseless destroyers of their property),

7/3-Violators against the deity (blasphemers), against nature (sodomites) and art (extortion)

Type of punishment
Boil in a bloody river. Those who stick out are shot by the centaurs Nessus (mythology), Chiron and Pholus

7/1 - Boil in a bloody river. Those who stick out are shot by the centaurs Nessus (mythology), Chiron and Pholus

7/2-Suicides, in the form of trees, are tormented by harpies; spendthrifts are driven away by hound dogs

7/3 - To languish in the sultry desert by the burning stream
All examples of Dante (all in a bunch)
Alexander the Great, tyrant Dionysius, Count Azzolino, Obizzo d'Este, Count Guy de Montfort, Attila, Pyrrhus, Sextus, Rinier de'Pazzi, Rinier of Corneto, Pier della Vigna; Cienese Lano, rich Paduan Giacomo da Sant'Andrea. Capaneus , Brunetto Latini, Priscian, Guido Guerra, Count Guidi, Teggiaio Aldobrandi degli Adimari, Jacopo Rusticucci, Guglielmo Borsiere, Vitagliano del Dente

Circle 8 (contains 10 ditches, the most popular of the circles)

Sinisters, or Evil Crevices
The sinuses are separated from each other by shafts (rifts). Toward the center, the area of ​​the Evil Crevices slopes, so that each subsequent ditch and each subsequent rampart are located slightly lower than the previous ones, and the outer, concave slope of each ditch is higher than the inner, curved slope (Hell, XXIV, 37-40). The first shaft is adjacent to the circular wall. In the center yawns the depth of a wide and dark well, at the bottom of which lies the last, ninth, circle of Hell. From the foot of the stone heights (v. 16), that is, from the circular wall, stone ridges run in radii, like the spokes of a wheel, to this well, crossing ditches and ramparts, and above the ditches they bend in the form of bridges or vaults. In Evil Crevices, deceivers are punished who deceived people who are not connected with them by special bonds of trust.

Guardian
Geryon
Geryon (Greek Γηρυών) in ancient Greek mythology is a three-headed and three-body giant, the son of Chrysaor and Callirhoe. He lived on the island of Erithia (which, according to the Greeks, was located on the western edge of the world, beyond the Ocean). Hercules stole the cows of Geryon, killing the guards of Geryon's herds, the shepherd Eurytion and the dog Orpheus, and then Geryon himself (the tenth labor of Hercules).

Languishing (departing %)))
Those who deceived those who did not trust
(rem^ I never finished reading the comedy, so I don’t know what “They deceived those who did not trust” means, apparently some cunning fucker)

8/1-Pimps and seducers
8/2-Flatterers
8/3-Sacrificial merchants, high-ranking clergy who traded in church positions (“Simonists”)

8/4-Soothsayers, fortune tellers, astrologers, witches
8/5-Bribe takers, bribe takers
8/6-Hypocrites
8/7-Thieves (purely lads hanging out)
8/8-Cunning advisers
8/9-Instigators of discord
8/10-Alchemists, false witnesses, counterfeiters
Type of punishment
8/1-sinners go in two oncoming streams, scourged by demons

8/2-Sticky feces
8/3-Torsos are chained in rocks, fire flows down to the feet

8/4-The head is turned half a turn (it’s interesting horizontally or vertically so that, for example, it would be more convenient for birds from above to shit on sinners)

8/5 - Boil in resin. The devils stick hooks into those who stick their heads out (you’ll need to send a couple of books to the Duma)

8/6-Chained in lead robes (“Federic’s cloak” [It was said that Emperor Frederick II ordered those guilty of lese majeste to be dressed in a heavy lead mantle and placed on a red-hot brazier. The lead was melted, and the condemned person was burned alive])

8/7-Torment by reptiles (kenkhr, amphisbaena, farey, yakul, viper), mutual transformations with them

8/8-Souls are hidden (burning) inside the lights
8/9-Evisceration
8/10-Leprosy and ringworm
All examples of Dante
There are simply countless examples, so if you find them very interesting, look here

9 circle
Ice Lake Cocytus
Belt of Khaine
Antenor Belt
Tolomei Belt
Giudecca Belt
The middle, the center of the universe
Guardian
Giants (Briareus, Ephialtes, Antaeus)
Languishing (departing %)))
Those who deceived those who trusted:
Traitors to relatives
Traitors to the Motherland and Like-Minded People
Traitors to friends and dinner companions
Traitors of benefactors, divine and human majesty

Dit (Lucifer), frozen into an ice floe, torments in his three mouths the traitors to the majesties of earth and heaven (Judas, Brutus and Cassius)

Type of punishment
Frozen in ice up to their necks, and their faces turned downwards
All examples of Dante
Alberti brothers (Counts of Mangona), Focaccia, Camichon
Bocca, Carlino, Duera, Beccheria, Gianni Soldanier, Ganellon, Tebaldello dei Zambrasi, Tidei, Ugolino della Gherardesca

Monk Alberigo
...........................
Well? who chose what? :-)))))

It is not difficult for a modern person to imagine hell; fortunately, the cultures of different countries have created memorable pictures. We have all heard about the 9 circles of hell according to Dante, seen the breathtaking paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, and seen descriptions of hell in other works - from comics to movies.

Sometimes this information is contradictory, and a person is haunted by the question - what awaits the sinner there, in the afterlife. We can rely on different sources, for example, trust the testimonies of people who have experienced clinical death.

Hell is represented in different ways: some consider it a real place, some consider it a state of mind, and others consider it a fiction.

Ideas about hell are much older than Christianity. It is not easy to trace the origins of the belief that the soul after death can go to at least two places: where it will be rewarded for kindness, or where it will suffer for its sins.

It is difficult, and perhaps not necessary, to form a general idea of ​​hell. It is too different in the world, in religions, in time. There are very contradictory ideas. Here are just some of them:

• Hell is a place of bodily suffering. The deceased person retains physical perception and undergoes torture for some period (possibly unlimited) by fire, cuts, diseases and other means of causing pain;
• Hell is the source of mental suffering. The soul is not corporeal, which means that only mental blows can cause it the greatest pain: something that is personally unbearable for this person. Let's say a person who suffered from gluttony will undergo tortures such as overeating or, conversely, hunger;
• Hell is not some area of ​​the afterlife, but our own world. There is so much suffering here that the conclusion itself is that we are living in hell. Perhaps we are already suffering for a sin that we committed in reality. Or, we simply do not understand the idea of ​​hell, and it was given to us on Earth not as punishment, but as a stage of purification for achieving spiritual maturity. Only after this will a person be allowed into the higher worlds;
• Hell, like heaven, is a region in the human mind. We do not apply there once after life or death, but constantly rush between different states. The righteous person is already in heaven, because perfection reigns in his soul. A sinner, a hypocrite, a criminal, even during his lifetime, is in an internal hell, since he is forced to put up with his imperfection.

This view is shared by the Greek Metropolitan Hierotheus Vlachos:

Hierotheus Vlahos

Metropolitan

“Heaven and hell exist not as a threat from God, but as illness and health. Those who are healthy and cleansed experience the enlightening effect of God’s grace, and the sick and sick experience the scorching effect of God.”

• Hell doesn't exist. God deliberately frightens people with posthumous punishment, but he is too kind to find souls to suffer.

In reality, there are many more ideas about hell. More often, hell is an immaterial place, so only subtle bodies can get there: souls, consciousnesses, etc. But there are also supporters that hell is a real, material place that is located under the earth's crust. A man of flesh may well go down there if he can withstand the temperature. Here are just a few such places:

• Darvaza- gas crater in Turkmenistan. Initially, a funnel was drilled there, but the ground collapsed and let gas in. To prevent it from spreading, it was set on fire. However, for half a century the flame has not gone out.
• Osore- mountain in Japan. It corresponds to the description of hell in some Buddhist sources.
• Masaya- a volcano in Nicaragua. The Spaniards installed a huge cross on its top to prevent the army of demons from reaching the ground.

The idea of ​​hell inside the Earth is closely related to the idea of ​​its circles, as the famous medieval author Dante Alighieri tells us about.

The poet Dante described hell in The Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321) is one of the most famous writers in the world. Along with him, only a few are mentioned because such a contribution to literature is a rare merit. He is as significant as Homer, for example, who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Actually, before Homer there were vague ideas about works of art. Their usual purpose is to praise the gods. Homer went further - he created a multi-level work, with images, plot, poetics - something that other authors could not compete with over the next 15 centuries.

Dante Alighieri loved antiquity very much and was not afraid to challenge Homer's poems. He wrote a long poem “The Divine Comedy” (at first simply “Comedy”), which Europeans did not yet know in those days.

It is almost impossible to convey the artistic value of this work in translation, so you just have to take the word of the experts when they say that this is an outstanding work with language.

Dante became a kind of legislator and founder of the Italian language. His influence on subsequent literature is difficult to overestimate.

The author collected all the techniques and traditions of previous writing and drew a line under them, summarized one era of writers and gave rise to another. Subsequently, there will be an even more powerful work - “Ulysses” by James Joyce, but this is in prose. Dante was a poet.

“The Divine Comedy” is a poem imprinted with the biography and views of the author

It was the “Divine Comedy” that created the description of the nine circles of hell. And not only them. To better understand what kind of work this is, you need to take into account several facts:

• The poem describes not only the structure of hell, but also purgatory, as well as heaven. This is rarely remembered, since few people actually read The Divine Comedy. But it is so. The hero of the work reaches the center of hell, passes through purgatory and ascends to the upper level of heaven, which, by the way, is divided into 10 heavens.
• This is not theological or Christian, but simply a work of art. Dante suffered from serious internal conflict. As a believer and theologian of his era, he considered it necessary to write for the glory of Christianity. Everyone did that. But Dante himself simply adored antiquity. “The Divine Comedy” constantly rushes between two poles, because the author wants to write about Greek mythology, but “should” about Christianity. As a result, Cerberus, the Minotaur, the Titans and other Greek bestiary are woven into the picture of hell.

Among the worst sinners is Caesar's traitor Brutus. The narrator's guide is the poet Virgil. It is difficult for Dante to hide his sympathy for antiquity; it prevails over the Christian core, which is also present. So you need to treat the work not as a guide to real hell, but correctly - as an artistic fiction. Then everything is fine.

• The poem is heavily influenced by Dante's biography.. Some authors distance themselves as much as possible from their works, while others write about themselves. Dante was one of the latter. His hell is filled with references to real places on earth where the poet has been. Among the martyrs, his acquaintances are often noted - some were still living at the time of composition.

A special place in the plot is occupied by Beatrice Portinari, Dante’s beloved, with whom he never decided to start a relationship until her sudden death. The girl is present in most of Dante's works, where he fantasizes about his love coming true with her. Dante himself married for convenience and never had such lofty feelings for his wife.

The Divine Comedy describes 9 circles of hell where sinners live - from righteous pagans to traitors

The poem begins with the meeting of Dante and Virgil in the forest. In every landscape object or character one can see a multitude of symbols, but we will not dwell on this.

First, Dante demonstrates at the entrance to hell the souls that did not go to hell and heaven because they did not do good or evil.

1 lap. It's called Limbo. This is the sweetest place in hell. There is no pain here, only sorrow. Dante placed his favorites here - ancient philosophers and poets who were virtuous, but were not baptized. Unbaptized babies also live here.

2nd circle Here, on the second circle, strong winds and storms are raging. They punish harlots, fornicators, people who succumbed to passion.

3 circle. Gluttons and gluttons. They rot forever under the scorching sun, suffering from their own fattened flesh. A three-headed dog, Cerberus, is running nearby. He willingly devours potbellied sinners.

4 circle. Spendthrifts and stingy people - victims of opposing worldviews - are forced to argue with each other forever.

5 lap. Lazy people always get stuck in a swamp from which they lack the will to get out. Here there are angry sinners nearby - there are only enough of them to endlessly fight in the quagmire. You can go through the fifth circle on the only boat.

The 5th circle of hell, according to Dante, is a swamp where lazy people and aggressors trample

6 circle. The city of Deet begins. It takes several circles inside. For now, only its walls are visible. Here false teachers and heretics are no longer as dangerous as they were in life. They are invisible - just ghosts that lie in burning graves.

7 circle. It is described in great detail, as it includes several zones where different sinners live. But they are all connected by one sin - violence:

• over others;
• over oneself and property;
• above divinity, nature and art.

There is a suicide forest on this circle. They will now have to endure suffering forever. There is a river of blood where robbers and tyrants are forced to hide from the arrows of centaurs. And at the very edge there is a boiling stream, where vandals, blasphemers and sodomites languish in the heat.

8 circle. We have passed 7 circles of hell. The city of Deet is over. Then we go down ten ditches, like steps. In the center of these ditches is the end of hell. But it’s still the eighth round. Deceivers of all stripes are kept here: flatterers, hypocrites, deceivers, counterfeiters, etc. There is also a wide variety of punishments: someone boils in tar, someone is gutted, a third suffers from leprosy, another is lashed by demons, etc.

9 circle. The very center. It's cold here. This is the surface of Lake Cocytus. The most terrible sin according to Dante is betrayal. There are four categories of traitors:

• who betrayed their relatives;
• who betrayed their homeland or common idea;
• who betrayed friends;
• who betrayed their benefactors.

They were all frozen up to their necks. And in the very center are two of the most famous traitors in Christianity - Lucifer, who, according to legend, betrayed God, and Judas. The devil holds the former apostle in his hand and endlessly eats him.

Next, Virgil leads Dante through purgatory, and then says that, as a pagan, he cannot enter heaven. Here the narrator is met by Beatrice, who died many years ago. After death, both souls unite and move on to heaven.

There are no circles of hell according to the Bible - there is not a word about them in Scripture

How many circles of hell are there, according to the Bible? No one. Holy Scripture, in principle, is aimed not at satisfying man's curiosity on all issues, but at giving him spiritual guidance. The description of hell in the Book of Books is rather sparse, because the emphasis is not on it. To put it very bluntly, the Bible is a teaching about how not to go to hell, and not a tour of it.

Orthodoxy, like Christianity in general, has no general idea of ​​what hell is like.

For example, from Greek hell is a place devoid of light.

In general, there are several words in the Bible that are often used as synonyms for hell.

Hades- kingdom of the dead in Greek. In Hebrew - Sheol. This is a dark dungeon for the souls of sinners. But at the same time it is the Roman name of the god Hades. And in this meaning it often denotes the kingdom of the dead in general.

Hades is mentioned in the book of Revelation:

(Rev. 20:14)

"Both death and hell were cast into the lake of fire"

From this it is easy to conclude that hades is a place where it may be dark, but certainly not hot.

Tartarus- also a word of Greek origin. Originally a dark place where the Greek gods kept their enemies. In the Sindal translation it means “hellish darkness”.

“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but, having bound them in the chains of hellish darkness, he handed them over to be judged for punishment.”

That is, this is also a kind of dungeon.

Gehenna- the name comes from the area where pagans burned children. Fiery Gehenna must replace hell.

“Snakes, brood of vipers! How will you escape from condemnation to Gehenna?”

Underworld- translation of the word “sheol” (hades). Synonym for hell.

According to the Bible, hell is dark, but not hot

So the Bible does not give a description of hell and its circles. But we have reason to say that there is hardly a fire burning in hell. Most likely, it's just dark there. The flame is in the description of fiery Gehenna, where the souls of sinners must go after the Last Judgment.

As for Dante's legacy, it should be treated correctly - as a work of art. Literature should not be assigned preaching functions. It never ended well. For such purposes there is Holy Scripture. It will tell you about the main thing.

A long time ago, back in 1321, Dante Alighieri wrote his Divine Comedy. In it he presented his model of the Underworld. In the work, the author describes hell as a place that consists of nine different locations, which he calls the 9 circles of hell. Even though this literary work of art is almost 700 years old, it still fascinates, and even horrifies, people around the world. What was so interesting that Dante described in his brainchild?

The main character of the work is the author himself. He talks about how he got lost in the forest. Virgil, the great Roman poet, came to Dante's aid. Virgil is not only ready to lead Dante out of the forest, but also wants to show him the afterlife. Dante agrees when he learns that the Roman poet was sent by Beatrice, Dante's beloved.

Before entering the first circle, Dante and Virgil must pass through, as it were, the hallway of hell. There languish the souls of people who have done nothing bad in their lives, but nothing good either. Also locked there are angels who did not side with either God or the Devil during their battle. Dante calls the souls of these people worthless.

All 9 circles of hell by Dante Alighieri

1 circle of hell according to Dante

There are souls of people who were not baptized. They didn't do bad things. Virgil himself, Dante's companion, is locked there. Besides him, the souls of Socrates, Aristotle, Caesar, and many other famous people live here. Also here were the souls of Noah and Moses. But they were transferred to Paradise when Jesus Christ resurrected. Prisoners in this circle are not subject to torture. Their punishment is sorrow. The guardian there is Charon, the carrier of the souls of dead people.

2nd circle of hell according to Dante

The souls of people who indulged in lust and passion are locked there. According to Dante, the souls of Cleopatra and Helen the Beautiful are locked there, because of which the war between Greece and Troy began. The punishment for lustful souls is an eternal hurricane. Souls swirl in a continuous and strong current of wind and often hit the rocks. The guardian of that circle is Minos, the ancient judge. In addition to his duties in the 2nd circle, he also sends souls to other circles of hell, according to their sins.

3 circle of hell according to Dante

In that circle, the souls of people whose main sin was gluttony are tortured. Punishment for gluttons is constant rain and hail. In addition to the rain, the souls of sinners are gnawed by an ancient demon. His name is Cerberus, and he appears as a huge three-headed dog. He is also the guardian of the 3rd circle.

4 circle of hell according to Dante

The souls of people who committed two different sins are locked in that circle. Half of these souls spent a lot during their lifetime, and the other half was greedy. In their eternal confrontation, these souls push huge stones up the mountain. Having met at the top, they collide and slide down to the very foot of the mountain to begin their own torture all over again. The guardian of the 4th circle is the demon Plutos.

5 circle of hell according to Dante

There is the last refuge for the angry and lazy. The souls of people whose main sin was anger are doomed to endlessly fight each other in the swamp. At the bottom of the swamp lie people whose main sin was laziness. The guardian of the 5th circle is Phlegius.

6 circle of hell according to Dante

The souls of heretics and false teachers are locked in the 6th circle. Their punishment is graves with flames inside. Souls are constantly burning in their graves. The guards of the 6th circle are three furies - Tisiphone, Megaera and Alecto. These creatures have snakes instead of hair.

7 circle of hell according to Dante

All souls who have harmed themselves or others are tortured there. Tyrants and robbers are forced to boil in hot blood. Those who try to emerge will be immediately shot by the centaurs. Suicides are turned into trees. They are forced to silently watch as they are tortured by harpies, half-women, half-birds. Those who squandered and lost their fortune are forced to forever run from the hounds. Blasphemers, perverts and the souls of people who harmed or interfered with art are doomed to eternal torment in the desert and languish under the fiery rain. In addition to harpies and centaurs, the guardian of that circle is the Minotaur, half-man, half-bull.

8 circle of hell according to Dante

In that circle, the most varieties of sinners are tormented. Pimps and seducers, beaten by demons, swim towards each other through fetid feces. The sycophants are doomed to be buried in feces forever. Members of the clergy who traded church positions are chained to rocks, with flames streaming down their heels. Sorcerers and fortune tellers have their heads turned 180 degrees and their tongues removed. Bribe takers are boiling in the tar, if someone tries to emerge from the tar, then the devils will stick hooks into him, weapons resembling a half-spear, half-poker. Hypocrites are shackled in lead robes. Thieves are tormented by snakes, as well as leprosy and lichen. The souls of crafty advisers are doomed to eternal burning. Those who like to cause discord are gutted by demons. Those who counterfeit anything are doomed to suffer from various diseases forever. The guardian of the 8th circle is Geryon, the great liar and deceiver.

9 circle of hell according to Dante

That circle is a huge ice lake. The souls of traitors, those who betrayed their relatives and their homeland, their friends, kings and their God are locked here. The 9th circle also serves as a prison for the most important traitor, the one who betrayed his father the Lord God. Lucifer himself is locked in the 9th circle. All other traitors, including Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius, are tormented in the three jaws of Lucifer or frozen up to their necks in ice. The guardians of that circle are the giants Briareus, Antaeus and Ephialtes.

Exact date of birth Dante Alighieri unknown. However, there is information that on May 26, 1265, he was baptized in Florence under the name Durante.

Dante is an Italian poet, one of the founders of the literary Italian language. In his work, the poet repeatedly touched upon issues of morality and faith in God.

AiF.ru recalls one of the most famous works of Dante Alighieri - “The Divine Comedy”, which deals with the mortal essence of man, as well as the afterlife. Dante subtly and skillfully describes hell, where eternally condemned sinners go, purgatory, where they atone for their sins, and heaven, the abode of the blessed.

9 circles of hell in The Divine Comedy

According to Dante Alighieri, just before entering hell you can meet people who have led a boring life - they have done neither evil nor good.

1 lap

The first circle of hell is called Limbo. Its guardian is , who transports the souls of the departed across the River Styx. In the first circle of hell, infants who have not been baptized and virtuous non-Christians suffer torment. They are doomed to suffer eternally in silent sorrow.

2 round

The second circle of hell is guarded by the intractable judge of the damned. Passionate lovers and adulterers in this circle of hell are punished by being torn and tormented by a storm.

3 circle

- guardian of the third circle, in which gluttons, gluttons and gourmets live. All of them are punished by rotting and decay under the scorching sun and pouring rain.

4 circle

Rules in the fourth circle, which includes misers, greedy people and wasteful individuals who are unable to make reasonable expenses. Their punishment is an eternal dispute when they collide with each other.

5 circle

The fifth circle represents a gloomy and gloomy place, guarded by the son of the god of war Ares -. To get to the fifth circle of hell, you need to be very angry, lazy or sad. Then the punishment will be an eternal fight in the Styx swamp.

6 circle

The sixth circle is the Walls of the city, guarded by furies - grumpy, cruel and very evil women. They mock heretics and false teachers, whose punishment is eternal existence as ghosts in hot graves.

7 circle

The seventh circle of hell, guarded, is for those who have committed violence.

The circle is divided into three zones:

• First belt is called Flageton. It includes those who have committed violence against their neighbor, against their material values ​​and property. These are tyrants, robbers and robbers. They all boil in a ditch of hot blood, and those who emerge are shot at by centaurs.
• Second belt— Forest of suicides. It contains suicides, as well as those who senselessly squandered their wealth - gamblers and spendthrifts. Spenders are tortured by hound dogs, and unfortunate suicides are torn to shreds by Harpies.
• Third belt- Burnt sands. Here reside blasphemers who have committed violence against deities and sodomites. The punishment is staying in an absolutely barren desert, the sky of which drips fiery rain on the heads of the unfortunate.

8 circle

The eighth circle of hell consists of ten ditches. The circle itself is called Evil Cracks, or Sinisters.

The guardian is a giant with six arms, six legs and wings. In the Evil Crevices, deceivers suffer their difficult fate.

9 circle

The ninth circle of hell is the Ice Lake Cocytus. This circle is guarded by stern giant guards named , son and - Antaeus, half-bull, half-snake - and - guardian of the road to purgatory. This circle has four belts - the Belt of Cain, the Belt of Antenor, the Belt of Tolomei, the Belt of Giudecca.

In this circle Judas and... languish. Besides them, traitors of their homeland, relatives, loved ones, and friends are also doomed to fall into this circle. All of them are frozen in ice up to their necks and experience eternal torment in the cold.

Dante is depicted holding a copy of the Divine Comedy next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of the Mount of Purgatory, the city of Florence and the spheres of Heaven above in a fresco by Domenico di Michelino. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Charon- in Greek mythology, the carrier of the souls of the dead across the River Styx (Acheron). Son of Erebus and Nyukta.

Minos— Dante has a demon with a snake’s tail, entwining the newly arrived soul and indicating the circle of hell into which the soul will descend.

Cerberus- in Greek mythology, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, a three-headed dog with a poisonous mixture flowing from its mouth. Guards the exit from the kingdom of the dead Hades, not allowing the dead to return to the world of the living. The creature was defeated by Hercules in one of his labors.

Plutos- a bestial demon who guards access to the fourth circle of Hell, where misers and spendthrifts are executed.

Phlegy- in ancient Greek mythology, the son of Ares - the god of war - and Chryse. Phlegias burned the temple of the god Apollo and, as punishment for this, was killed by his arrows. In the underworld, he was condemned to eternal execution - to sit under a rock, ready to collapse every minute.

“Charon transports souls across the River Styx” (Litovchenko A.D., 1861). Photo:

Briareus- in Greek mythology, the son of the sky god Uranus and the earth goddess Gaia. A monstrous creature with 50 heads and a hundred arms.

Lucifer- a fallen angel identified with the Devil.

Brutus Marcus Junius- in Ancient Rome he led (together with Cassius) a conspiracy in 44 BC. e. against Julius Caesar. According to legend, he was one of the first to stab him with a dagger.

Cassius Gaius Longinus- killer of Julius Caesar, organized an attempt on his life.