Illustrations for the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. William Blake. Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy. "Hell. Hell Dante in painting

The Divine Comedy absorbed everything that had been growing stronger in the poet's soul for years, nourishing his thought and artistic genius. Faithful to an old oath, Dante dedicated the poem to Beatrice. Her image lives on in The Divine Comedy as a bright memory of the great, only love, its purity and inspiring power. Beatrice is an image-symbol, an image is an idea. Next to the ghost of the deceased beloved in the Comedy, another image arises - alive, quivering, real. That is the image of the poet's homeland - Italy.

The plot of the poem is an allegory, "going through torment" - the path of the human soul from sin to righteousness, from the delusions of earthly life to the truth. "Comedy" begins with a picture of a dense forest in which the poet got lost. He was surrounded by predatory animals - a lion, a panther, a she-wolf. The poet is about to die. And then suddenly an old man appears before him, who drives away the animals and leads him out of the formidable forest thicket. This elder is the great Roman poet Virgil. It was sent by Beatrice, whose soul lives in paradise. From there, from heavenly heights, the deceased beloved saw the danger that threatens Dante.

Virgil invites Dante to follow him and leads him through the Underworld. They pass through hell and purgatory, where they see the torment of condemned sinners, and rise to the gates of paradise, where Virgil leaves Dante. He is replaced by Beatrice. She leads Dante further, through the heavenly spheres, where they contemplate the bliss of the righteous in heaven. Rising higher and higher, they reach the divine throne, where the image of God himself appears to the poet.

The forest thicket in which the poet got lost is an allegory of life's catastrophes and moral falls of a person. Beasts of prey are fatal human passions. Virgil is earthly wisdom that guides a person to good. Beatrice - divine wisdom, which leads to moral purification and comprehension of the truth. The path of a person's spiritual rebirth lies through his awareness of his sinfulness (wandering through Hell) and the atonement of these sins (the path through purgatory), after which the soul, cleansed of filth, enters Paradise.

Dante depicts hell as a huge funnel that goes to the center of the earth. Hell is divided into nine concentric circles. Purgatory is a mountain surrounded by the sea, having seven ledges. Dante depicts hell as a place of punishment for unrepentant sinners. In purgatory are sinners who have had time to repent before death. After purifying tests, they move from purgatory to Paradise - the abode of pure souls. He gives everyone a clear, well-defined place in their respective circles of hell or purgatory. Dante mixes Christian mythology with pagan mythology. The dull picture of the Christian abode of the dead blossomed with poetic fantasy, lit up with unprecedented colors.

The imperishable beauty of ancient art burst into the realm of medieval ascetic dogma. History, embodied in human destinies, comes to life under the pen of Dante. The poet inhabited the kingdom of the dead with countless crowds of shadows, but he gave them flesh, blood, human passions, and the inhabitants of the underworld became indistinguishable from those who live on earth, Dante still does not separate history from myth, fact from fiction. Next to his contemporaries, he depicts in the poem historical figures, heroes of biblical traditions or literary works.

From song to song, the tragic scroll of Italian history unfolds in the poem. Fiery, indignant passion bursts uncontrollably from every line. The poet brought to the kingdom of shadows everything that burned him in life - love for Italy, implacable hatred for political opponents, contempt for those who doomed his homeland to shame and ruin.

In the poem, a tragic image of Italy arises, seen through the eyes of a wanderer, who proceeded all over her land, scorched by the fire of bloody wars: Italy, slave, hearth of sorrows, In a great storm a ship without a helm, Not a mistress of peoples, but a tavern!...

And you cannot do without war Your living ones, and they squabble, Surrounded by one wall and a moat. You, unhappy, should look back. To thy shores and cities: Where are peaceful monasteries to be found? (“H ​​and s t and l and s e”, ​​song VI)

The poet speaks on behalf of the entire Italian people. The Italy of the dispossessed, the deceived, the enslaved, found its voice for the first time in the burning images of Dante's tercini. With an alarming rumble they spread throughout the country, waking up the sleeping and indifferent, rousing the desperate and calling Italy to battle with the forces of darkness and destruction. The poet angrily denounced the powers that be, the criminal earthly rulers who kindled wars and sowed devastation and death.

In the 7th circle of hell, where the "burning Phlegeton" bubbles - a river that carries streams of boiling blood instead of water, he gathered war criminals of different times and peoples who rush about in the bloody glow of the infernal river:

... There is not one tyrant here who craved gold and blood: All those who desecrated their rank by force. (“Hell.” Ode XII)

And all who are here, and near, and far, Guilty were in strife and contention. Among the living, and now they were dissected. ("Hell", Ode XXVIII)

Popes and cardinals Dante placed in hell, among the covetous, deceivers, traitors. The poem will become a smashing weapon of humanists in the fight against the covetous catholic church. No wonder the church censorship repeatedly banned certain parts of the Divine Comedy, and to this day many of its poems arouse the fury of the Vatican. Life breaks into the hellish abyss in a whirlwind, deafening with a rumble, screams, bursts of rage, despair, pain.

Everything here is buzzing, rushing, bubbling. An infernal whirlwind howls, circling in thick darkness the souls of voluptuaries (the 2nd circle of hell). Forever rushing, not daring to stop even for a moment, "insignificant" on the eve of Hell. Rapists run around the hellish circle with such speed that "their legs seem to be wings." Seducers and pimps are flowing in a double counter stream. A snowstorm is rushing about, a fiery rain is dancing, the Phlegeton River is bubbling and, howling, falls to the bottom of the underworld.

But there is a terrible abode of silence in the depths of the hellish abyss. There is eternal darkness and the immobility of death. That circle of traitors, traitors. A land of bitter cold. Permafrost, where the icy lake Cocytus shines like a dead mirror, holding frozen bodies in its glassy surface. All the immensity of his contempt for betrayal, for treason, was poured out by the poet in the picture of a terrible execution - execution by cold, darkness, a dead desert. He gathered here all kinds of shameful vice. Traitors to the motherland, traitors to relatives, loved ones, friends, who betrayed those who trusted them... Cold souls, dead while still alive.

They have no mercy, no relief, they are not even allowed to cry out their torment, because their tears ... from the very beginning, Accumulating in the depths of the eyebrows, Harden like crystal visors. ("Hell", song XXXIII)

But the torments of traitors do not touch the poet. But what inspirational, what proud words Dante finds to sing of the beauty and grandeur of a civil feat!

... was I alone when they decided to wipe Florence off the face of the earth? I saved her with the visor up. ("Hell", song X)

The same bright and inspired brush is used in the poem to paint a portrait of Cato Utticus, a Roman patriot who gave his life for the Republic. "Pure spirit", "dignified shadow" Dante calls the noble Roman:

His face was so brightly adorned with the sacred light of the four luminaries, It seemed to me that it was the sun shining. ("Purgatory", canto I)

Medieval moral philosophers wrote their works in an ascetic denial of the world, in anticipation of otherworldly existence. They called for repentance and cleansing from sin in the name of the happiness of eternal, afterlife. Sin was declared by them to be the original property of human nature, an inevitable companion of the earthly path, a consequence of the fall of the first people and their curse by God. The moral pathos of the Divine Comedy is different. The poet calls for moral purification in the name of a worthy life on earth. It is easy to see that Dante’s most severe condemnation is not for carnal sins, which the church, in its hatred of the bodily nature of man, condemned so mercilessly, but social vices: violence, greed, betrayal, lies. They are punished in the darkest lowlands of Dante's Hell.

« The mother of dishonesty and disgrace” Dante calls greed. Greed brings cruel social disasters: eternal strife, political anarchy, bloody wars. The poet stigmatizes the servants of greed, seeks out sophisticated tortures for them. Dante looked into the depths of this vice and saw in it a sign of his era. People were not always slaves of greed, she is the god of the new time, she was born by growing wealth, the thirst for possession of it. She reigns in the papal palace, made her nest in urban republics, settled in feudal castles. The image of a skinny she-wolf with a red-hot eye - a symbol of greed - runs like an ominous ghost throughout the poem. In a conversation with the shadow of the “Lombard Marco,” the poet was not afraid to openly fight church dogma. What is the reason for the modern decline in morals, he asks the shadow of Marco. Why: now no one. Good does not even wear a mask: Is evil both inside and spilled from above? ("Purgatory", canto XVI)

What is to blame for this: the wrath of heaven or the original sinfulness of human nature? And Marco gives a startling answer. No, the reason is not in the divine will and not in the original depravity of man, Man is not a vessel of sin: he is capable of moral perfection, because he has reason and free will. The reason for the decline of morals is different: ... bad management The fault is that the world is so bad, And not your nature's perversion. ("Purgatory", canto XVI)

The image of Dante himself is always in the foreground, the image of a proud, passionate, rebellious person, with his diverse world of feelings: love, hatred, sorrow, anger, compassion. Having placed himself as a judge of human affairs, he does not separate himself from the sinful world. Not without reason, at the entrance to purgatory, an angel inflicts with a fiery sword on his forehead seven times the Latin letter "P" as a sign that the poet is guilty of all seven deadly sins, and these signs gradually disappear one by one as the poet passes through the circles of purgatory .

And how mercilessly he denounces his vices before Beatrice! He does not hide any of his human weaknesses. How many times during the terrible journey he was overwhelmed by confusion, despair, fear, cowardice, and he is not ashamed to admit it.

In the eyes of the church, the decisive criterion of "righteousness" was not the personal qualities of a person, not the exploits of humanity, but devotion to the dogmas of faith. Dante rejects this theological criterion and judges a person by personal moral qualities and earthly affairs. Righteous is the one “who in deeds and in thoughts is turned to the truth, neither in life nor in speeches did evil” (“Paradise”, Song XIX).

Following this criterion, the poet placed sinners in the afterlife, boldly violating the hierarchy of sins and retributions developed by the church. He saved the great thinkers of pagan antiquity from the hellish torments, assigning them a place in a special “limb” of hell, where they are in a state of “semi-bliss”.

In the same limbus, Dante also placed the “infidel” Muslim Sultan Saladin, for the generosity of this man was glorified by folk parables and legends. In Dante's Paradise there is a place even for non-Christians, if they are glorified by good deeds. And the ministers of the "true faith" - popes and cardinals, guilty of shameful crimes, are placed in hell, severe punishments are determined for them.

His sinner can at the same time be a righteous man. There are many such "righteous sinners" in The Divine Comedy, and these are the most lively, most human images of the poem. They embodied a broad, truly humane view of people - the view of a poet who cherishes everything human, who knows how to admire the strength and freedom of the individual, the inquisitiveness of the human mind, who understands the thirst for earthly joy and the torment of earthly love.

Dante brought to poetry a whole world of new artistic images, so rich and vitally true that now, centuries later, world poetry draws from this source.

IllustrationsFrench engraver and painterGustave Dore (1832 - 1883).

http://clubs.ya.ru/4611686018427432697/replies.xml?item_no=169334

On the influence of Dante's work on the work of famous painters.

Hell Dante in painting

Many years have passed since the writing of the cult Divine Comedy, however, the ideas and images created by Dante inspire artists to write illustrations for the poem, and sculptors to create various monuments. Some masters very meticulously recreated the details of the work, others brought their own ideas.

Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510)

Stradanus (1523–1605)

Known as Jan van der Straat, Giovanni Stradano and Stradanus, the Flemish painter lived in Florence and was close to the Medici family. Despite the fact that the artist was one of the leading masters of Italian mannerism, he did not forget about his origin, which is clearly seen in a series of illustrations for the Divine Comedy. The harsh northern character is revealed primarily in the images of Inferno, containing demonic images and eerie landscapes.

Dante and Virgil cross the River Styx with the help of the ferryman Phlegius

William Blake (1757–1827)

Blake's 102 drawings illustrating the comedy were commissioned in 1825. After the death of the artist, two years later, many sketches and preliminary compositions were found.

Unlike Botticelli, Blake not only pays attention to the details of the poem, but also brings his own point of view to key scenes. The images created by William sometimes hint at a critical attitude towards the work of Dante, although they have many signs that testify to the intellectual sympathy of the poet and artist.

Paul Gustave Doré (1832–1883)

Doré was a famous French artist. Starting his career at the age of 16, he worked as an illustrator for newspapers and publishing houses. His work was valued for successfully combining elements of realism and romanticism, and was also praised for its stunning depictions of bodies and attention to anatomy. The painter achieves great success in 1865, thanks to his illustrations for the Bible.

Already in 1855 Doré planned to create a series of illustrations for the masterpieces of world literature. In the list of authors, in addition to Homer, Ossian, Goethe and others, there was also Dante Alighieri. Gustave realized this project between 1861 and 1868, and was so inspired by the Divine Comedy that he himself financed the creation of drawings for Hell.

Admiration for the poem in the 19th century was great, so Doré's illustrated book achieved success in the shortest possible time. Later, work was completed on Purgatory and Paradise, and the book itself was translated into many languages.

Doré's illustrations for the comedy are masterpieces. The master managed to convey the supernatural atmosphere of the poem, helping the viewer to immerse himself in the plots, putting himself in the place of the protagonist. Gustave was able to convey the structure of life and death invented by Dante, created four centuries earlier.

William Bouguereau (1825–1905)

The author of many realistic paintings on mythological and religious themes was not appreciated during his lifetime, largely due to his negative attitude and rejection of impressionism and avant-garde. The work “Dante and Virgil in Hell” is connected with the Divine Comedy, in which the characters encounter alchemists, counterfeiters, false witnesses and impostors. Gianni Schicchi, a usurper and a deceiver, seized the neck of Capaccio, a heretic and an alchemist. They beat each other with their hands, feet, head, tearing the body to pieces.

Dante and Virgil

Franz von Bairos (1866–1924)

The Austrian painter and writer von Beuros is known for his illustrations of erotic books (Boccaccio's Decameron, Tales of a Thousand and One Nights). Byros's drawings of the Divine Comedy are filled with the influence of Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Alphonse Mucha, as well as the Pre-Raphaelite style.

Salvador Dali (1904–1989)

On the occasion of the 700th birthday of Dante Alighieri, in 1951, Dali was commissioned to create a set of drawings for the Divine Comedy. In addition to watercolor drawings, the surrealist created a number of woodcuts. In hundreds of illustrations, in addition to the images of dreams and hallucinations characteristic of Dali's style, one can see the dampness and materiality of Dante's Hell. In addition to simply creating drawings based on the poem, the artist also wanted to convey all the emotions and feelings that led Dante to create his afterlife. The series was created between 1951-1959.

View of Beatrice. Dali.

Some of the best illustrations for The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri are watercolors and engravings by the English artist and poet William Blake (1757-1827), also known for his works on k. Blake began work on a cycle of illustrations for the Divine Comedy a year before his death and did not have time to finish what he started. Illustrations, including unfinished ones, have been preserved for almost all the songs of "Hell" and "Purgatory" and "Paradise" were partially illustrated.

This collection contains watercolors, sketches, engravings for the songs of "Ada".

01. Song 1st. Virgil, Dante and three animals: a lynx (a symbol of sensuality), a lion (pride) and a she-wolf (covetousness).

02. Song 2. Dante and Virgil in the dark forest

03. Song 2. Virgil tells Dante that Beatrice was called

04. Canto 3rd. Virgil and Dante at the gates of Hell. The inscription "Incoming, leave hope"

05. Canto 3rd. Charon and insignificant souls on the banks of the river Acheron

06. Canto 3rd. Charon and the souls about to cross the river Acheron

07. Canto 4th. Homer, Horace, Ovid and Lucan in Limbo (the first circle of Hell)

08. Canto 4th. Homer ("with a sword in his hand, greatness shines")

09. Canto 5th. Minos assigning the degree of punishment to sinners

10. Canto 5th. The second circle (voluptuaries). Famous lovers Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta

11. Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta

12. Canto 6th. Three-headed dog Cerberus, tormenting gluttons in the third circle of Hell

13. The second version of Cerberus

14. Canto 7th. Plutos, guarding access to the fourth circle of Hell, where misers and spendthrifts are executed

15. Canto 7th. Goddess Fortune.

You see, son, what a flying deception
Gifts of Fortune, earthly kind
Filled with burning hatred

16. Canto 7th. Circle five. Wrathful in the Stygian Swamp.

17. Canto 7th. Circle five. Dante and Virgil at the foot of the tower in the Stygian marsh

18. Canto 8th. Virgil repels Filippo Argenti (a Florentine knight who was distinguished during his lifetime by arrogance and a rabid disposition) from the Phlegius boat (carrier of souls through the Stygian swamp)

19. Canto 9th. Fallen angels at the gates of the city of Dita

20. Canto 9th. Heavenly angel at the gates of the city of Dita

21. Canto 10th. Circle six (heretics). Dante and Farinata degli Uberti - the head of the Florentine Ghibellines, condemned as an imitator of Epicurus.

22. Canto 12th. Dante, Virgil and the Minotaur are the guardians of the 7th circle of Hell, where rapists suffer.

23. Canto 13th. Circle 7th, second belt. Harpies in the Forest of Suicides

24. Canto 13th. Hellhounds prey on rapists over their property.

25. Canto 14th. Circle 7th, third belt. Violators of the deity, scorched by hellish flames.

26. Canto 14th. The king of Kapanes is an implacable blasphemer, whom even fiery rain does not soften. He was one of the kings who besieged Thebes. Climbing the enemy wall, he daringly challenged the gods, the guardians of Thebes, and Zeus himself, who struck him with lightning.

27. Canto 14th. The Cretan Elder, described by Virgil as a symbol of humanity that has passed through the golden, silver, copper and iron age, and now leans on a fragile clay foot. The hour of its end is near.

28. Canto 16th. Circle 7th, third belt. Violators of nature (sodomites). Dante talks with Jacopo Rusticucci, who says that the temper of his wife is to blame for his misfortunes. These words are interpreted in two ways: either the wife was cold to him and thereby prompted him to become homosexual, or, as Giovanni Boccaccio believed, for example, on the contrary, she was too depraved and forced her husband to commit sodomy with her (sodomy in the medieval sense is not only sexual intercourse between men, but also heterosexual practices other than vaginal intercourse (eg, anal and oral intercourse).

29. Canto 17th. Dante and Virgil ride on Geryon, the guardian of the 8th circle, where deceivers are punished.

30. Canto 18th. Circle 8, first ditch (pimps and seducers).

31. Pimps and seducers

32. Canto 18th. Circle 8, second ditch (flatterers). Dante and Virgil look at flatterers immersed in feces. Among them - hetaera Faida (the heroine of the comedy Terentia "The Eunuch").

33. Canto 19th. Circle 8th, third ditch (holy merchants). Pope Nicholas III (in the world - Giovanni Gaetano degli Orsini)

34. Canto 20th. Circle 8th, fourth ditch (soothsayers).

35. Song 21st. Circle 8th, fifth ditch (bribery). The demon throws the sinner

36. Song 21st. Dante hides behind a rock while Virgil speaks to the demons

37. Song 21st. Demons lead Dante and Virgil

38. Canto 22nd. Demons lead Dante and Virgil

39. Canto 22nd. Bribe-taker Champolo, tormented by demons

40. Canto 22nd. Imp fight

41. Song 23rd. Dante and Virgil are saved from demons

42. Song 23rd. Circle 8th, fifth ditch (hypocrites). Caiaphas is a Jewish high priest who gave advice to crucify Christ. Caiaphas himself was crucified in Hell.

43. Song 24th. 8th circle, 7th ditch. Thieves tormented by snakes

44. Thieves

45. Song 24th. The snake attacks Vanni Fucci, the culprit of many murders and robberies, including the robbery of the sacristy of Pistoia Cathedral.

46. ​​Canto 25th. Vanni Fucci showing cookies to God

47. Canto 25th. Centaur As, who stole from Hercules (Hercules) four bulls and four sheep from the herd of Gerion

48. Canto 25th. Aniello Brunelleschi turns into a snake

49. Aniello Brunelleschi

50. Canto 25th. The snake attacks Buoso Donati

51. Canto 25th. Francesco Cavalcanti turns into a man, and Buoso Donati into a snake

52. Canto 26th. 8th circle, 8th ditch. Wicked advisers. Heroes of the Trojan War Diomedes and Ulysses (Odysseus) burn in the flames of Hell

53. Canto 28th. 8th circle, 9th ditch. Discord instigators. The Prophet Mohammed (Mohammed) is the founder of Islam, a new religion that appeared after Christianity and thus, in the eyes of Dante, introduced a new split into the world. Next to Mohammed is his son-in-law Ali with a cut head (Ali was killed by a blow to the skull with a saber). His followers (Shiites) caused a split already within Islam. With a sword in his hands - a demon crippling sinners.

54. Canto 28th. Headless - Bertram de Born - Provencal troubadour, under whose influence discord began in England. With severed hands - Mosca dei Lamberti, who initiated the division of the Florentines into Ghibellines and Guelphs.

59. Canto 31st. Ephialtes - former leader of the giants

60. Canto 31st. Antaeus helps Dante and Virgil

61. Canto 32nd. Ninth circle, first belt (traitors of relatives). Alberti brothers who killed each other

62. Canto 32nd. Circle 9th, second belt (traitors to the motherland and like-minded people). Dante accidentally kicked the temple of Bokke degli Abati, a traitor who cut off the hand of the standard-bearer of the Florentine cavalry

63. Canto 32nd. Dante drags Bocca degli Abati by the hair, who refuses to give his name. On the left is Ugolino della Gherardesca, gnawing Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini.

64. Canto 33rd. Ugolino della Gherardesca and Ruggeri degli Ubaldini. Ugolino della Gherardesca, Count of Donoratico, who was at the head of the Republic of Pisa. In 1285, he shared power with his grandson Nino Visconti, but discord soon arose between them. This was taken advantage of by his enemies, led by Archbishop Ruggeri degli Ubaldini, who, under the guise of friendship with Ugolino and promising him assistance in the fight against Nino, secretly led an intrigue against both. In 1288, he forced Nino to leave Pisa, and raised a popular uprising against Ugolino, accusing him of high treason. Ugolino, together with his two sons and two grandchildren, was imprisoned in a tower, where they were then starved to death (in May 1289). Ruggieri was proclaimed the ruler of the republic, but was soon removed. He died in 1295. To prevent the defeat of Pisa by the Guelph coalition, Ugolino ceded three castles to Florence and five castles to Lucca. For this, Ruggeri's supporters declared him a traitor. Apparently, Dante does not see betrayal here and places Ugolino in Antenora for his struggle with Nino Visconti, regarding this desire for autocracy as a betrayal of the interests of the motherland. The execution of Ruggeri is doubly terrible, because this traitor to the motherland betrayed his accomplice.

65. Canto 34th. Lucifer. In the three jaws of Lucifer those are executed whose sin, according to Dante, is worse than all the others: traitors to the majesty of God (Judas, who betrayed Christ) and the majesty of man (Brutus and Cassius, who betrayed Julius Caesar), that is, those two authorities who, according to him doctrine, should jointly (in the person of the high priest and in the person of the emperor) lead mankind to eternal bliss and to earthly bliss.

A lion with uplifted mane stepped forward.

He moved and I followed him.

Look how this beast has embarrassed me!
O prophetic man, come to my aid,
I tremble to my innermost veins!

The day was gone...

I am Beatrice, the one who sends you...

Incoming, leave hope.

And in a boat sailing towards us
An old man, overgrown with ancient gray hair...

And the demon Charon calls a flock of sinners...

And here, by the verdict of a higher will,
We are thirsty and hopeless...

Thus I saw the most glorious of schools,
Whose chants ascended above the light
And soar above others like an eagle.

Here Minos waits, baring his terrible mouth;
Interrogation and trial takes place at the doorstep
And with a wave of his tail he sends flour.

That hellish wind, not knowing rest,
Rushing hosts of souls in the surrounding haze
And tortures them, twisting and torturing.

None of us have read the list...

She covered my brow with mortal sweat;
And I fell like a dead man falls.

My leader bent down, stretching his pasterns,
And, taking two full fists of the earth,
He threw it into the gluttonous mouth.

For the fact that I indulged in gluttony,
I decay, groaning in the rain.

Shut up, damn wolf!
Sink into the gurgling of your own womb!

All the gold that glitters under the moon
Or it was old, from these shadows, poor
None of them would calm down.

My son, before us
You see those who are overcome by anger.

An ancient plow rushed, and so deep
The jet did not cut under anyone.

Then he stretched out his hands to the boat;
But the leader pushed the clinging in anger.

I could not hear his speeches;
But his enemies talked little to him.

Look at the furious Erinyes.
Here is Tisiphone, the middle one;
Levey - Megaera: on the right it was fierce
Sobs Alecto.

He stood at the gate and raised his cane
He opened them, and the enemy did not fight.

The teacher who is buried
In the tombs of these mournful, that such
Is the air filled with groans?

When I stood at the raised stove,
At the feet of the grave, dead, glancing sternly,
He asked arrogantly: "Whose descendant are you?"

My leader and I hid behind the stove
Large tomb, with an inscription that read:
"Here, Papa Anastasy is imprisoned,
Fotin followed the right path, forgotten.

And on the edge, over the descent to the new abyss,
Spread out lay the shame of the Cretans,
Conceived of old imaginary cow.

Everyone became, noticing us on a rock,
And three jumped closer to the edge,
Preparing a bow and picking an arrow.

Chiron, with the reins of the arrow parting the clubs
Thick mustaches, smoothed them to the cheeks ...

Clawed, with a feathered belly,
They call sadly through the trees.

Then I held out my hand involuntarily
To the blackthorn and broke off a twig;
And the barrel exclaimed: "Don't break it, it hurts me!"

And now they run, to the left of us, naked,
Tormented two, between the branches,
Breaking chest thickets tight.

And slowly fell over the desert
Rain of flames, wide handkerchiefs,
Like snow in the windless mountain cliffs.

"You, Sir Brunetto?"

And the image of a disgusting deceit,
Swimming, but not picking up the tail,
He fell on the shore with the whole bulk of the camp.

And he slowly flies deeper and deeper ...

Oh, how nimble these blows are
Heels up!

We ascended there, and to my eyes
Crowds of people stuck in fetid feces appeared,
As if taken from the cesspools.

This Faida, who lived in the midst of fornication,
She once said to a friend's question:
"Are you satisfied with me?" - "No, you're just a miracle!"

"Whoever you are, cast into darkness
Upside down and dug in like a pile
Answer me if you can," I said to him.

And up to a hundred teeth
They immediately plunged into the sinner's sides.

But he cried out: "Don't be angry yet!"

He jumped, shouting: "I overtook you!"

But he is no worse to point his claws,
Was hawk-washed and their bodies
In an instant they found themselves in hot tar.

As soon as he touched the bottom, those in a hurry
Already reached the ledge of the rapids
Just above us.

Everything is in robes, and obscures the eyelids
Deep cockle, low and pressing;
This is how the clothes of the Cluniac monks are sewn.

The one you're looking at is pierced here
Once he spoke to the Pharisees,
That one executed person can save everyone.

In the midst of this monstrous osprey
Naked people, rushing about, not a corner
Not waiting to hide, not a heliotrope.

"Alas, Aniel, what is the matter with you? -
Shouted, looking, the other two. -
Look, you're not one, not two."

dragged away

Alexander Litovchenko

The first circle of hell is Limbo, where the souls of those who were not caught in unrighteous deeds, but died unbaptized, reside. Ancient philosophers and poets (in addition, Virgil) live in Limbo: Noah, Moses and Abraham were also here - all the righteous men mentioned in the Old Testament, but then they were allowed to ascend to Paradise.
Guardian: Charon.
Punishment: painless grief.

2 circle - voluptuousness

At the entrance, travelers are met by King Minos (a fair judge and father of the Minotaur), who distributes the souls in circles. Here everything is covered with darkness and a storm is constantly raging - gusts of wind throw the souls of those who were pushed onto the path of sin by love. Desired someone else's wife or husband, lived in debauchery - your soul will rush restless over the abyss forever and ever.
Guardian: Minos.
Punishment: torsion and torment by a storm.

3 circle - Gluttony

Gluttons are imprisoned in this circle: it is always freezing rain, souls get stuck in a dirty slush, and the demon Cerberus gnaws at the prisoners who have fallen under the clawed paw.
Guardian: Cerberus.
Punishment: rotting in the sun and rain.

4 circle - Greed

Gustave Dore

The abode of those who "unworthily spent and saved", a gigantic plain on which two crowds stand. Pushing loads with their chests, they go towards each other, collide and then diverge to start all over again.
Guardian: Plutus.
Punishment: Eternal dispute.

5 circle - Anger and Laziness

Gustave Dore

A giant river, or rather the Stygian swamp, where they are exiled for laziness and anger. All circles up to the fifth are the haven of the intemperate, and intemperance is considered a lesser sin than "malice or violent bestiality," and therefore the suffering of souls there is eased compared to those who live in the outer circles.
Guardian: Phlegius.
Punishment: An eternal fight to the throat in a swamp.

6 circle - For heretics and false teachers



Furies

The flaming city of Dit (the Romans called Dit Hades, the god of the underworld), which is guarded by the Fury sisters with tangles of snakes instead of hair. Inescapable sorrow reigns here, and heretics and false teachers rest in the open tombs, as if in eternal furnaces. The transition to the seventh circle is protected by a fetid abyss.
Guardians: Furies.
Punishment: be a ghost in a fiery grave.

7 circle - For rapists and murderers of all stripes

Gustave Dore

Steppes, where the fiery rain is always falling, and the same thing appears to the eye: the terrible torment of souls stained with violence. This includes tyrants, and murderers, and suicides, and blasphemers, and even players (who thoughtlessly destroyed their own property). Sinners are torn apart by dogs, hunted by harpies, boiled in scarlet boiling water, turned into trees and forced to run under jets of flame.
Guardian: Minotaur.
Punishment: boil in a bloody river, languish in a hot desert by a burning stream, be tormented by harpies and hounds.

8 circle - For those who deceived the untrustworthy

Sandro Botticelli

The haven of pimps and seducers, consists of 10 ditches (Sleazy, Evil Slits), in the center of which lies the most terrible ninth circle of Hell. Soothsayers, soothsayers, sorceresses, bribe takers, hypocrites, flatterers, thieves, alchemists, false witnesses and counterfeiters are tormented nearby. The same circle includes priests who traded in church positions.
Guardian: Geryon.
Punishment: sinners go in two oncoming streams, scourged by demons, stuck in fetid feces, some bodies are chained in rocks, fire flows down their feet. Someone boils in tar, and if he sticks his head out, the devils pierce the hooks. Those chained in lead robes are put on a red-hot brazier, sinners are gutted and tormented by reptiles, leprosy and lichen.

9 circle - For apostates and traitors of all sorts

Gustave Dore

In the very center of the underworld is the icy lake Cocytus. Like Viking hell, it's incredibly cold here. Apostates lie frozen in ice here, and the main one is Lucifer, the fallen angel. Judas Iscariot (who betrayed Christ), Brutus (who betrayed the trust of Julius Caesar) and Cassius (also a participant in the conspiracy against Caesar) are tormented in the three jaws of Lucifer.
Guardians: the giants Briareus, Ephialtes, Antaeus.
Punishment: eternal torment in an icy lake.