Resumo de The Divine Comedy

It is the evening of Good Friday, 1300. Dante finds himself lost in the dark forest he was travelling through, he sees the sun shining on the mountain that looms above him, he tries to climb it but is prevented from completing his journey by three beasts- a leopard, a lion and a she-wolf. Frightened he returns to the dark wood, where he comes across the spirit of Virgil, who has come to act as Dante's guide. Dante must travel the path that leads through hell if he in order to reach heaven, where Dante's Beatrice awaits.

Virgil leads Dante through the gates of Hell, where the inscription 'ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER HERE'; and through this gate they enter the Ante-Inferno, the outer region of hell where the souls of those who were neither followers of God nor truly evil-doers run in an endless and hopeless chase after a blank banner, while stinging insects bite them and worms lap their blood. They are carried across the border of hell, the river Acheron, by Charon the ferryman, and from there enter, Limbo, the first circle of hell reserved for those who did not hear the message of Christ. This is where Virgil himself is being punished. They continue into the second circle of hell, where the lustful suffer for eternity in a terrible storm. The Creature Minos stands by the gates and assigns the damned to the circle of hell they are to suffer in. In the Second circle of Hell, Dante meets Francesca, She tells him of her affair with her husband's brother, the reason for her punishment.

The third circle holds the Gluttonous, their punishment is to lie in the mud and suffer a continuous rain of excrement and filth. Dante continues deeper into Hell into the Forth circle where the Envious live with the prodigal, and must charge at each other with giant boulders held above their heads. In the Fifth circle is the river Styx, a cesspool in which the Wrathful must struggle with each other for eternity and the Sullen are held beneath the waters by ropes and lie choking in the mud. In this river Dante sees his political enemy, Filippo Argenti and he is delighted to see the other souls rip him apart. Next, Dante is lead by Virgil into the city of Dis, which is held in the larger region of hell. However, the hellish being that guard the gates refuse to open them for the travellers and an angel comes down and opens the gates. The Sixth circle of hell, within Dis, contains the Heretics; one of which is Farinata, another political opponent of Dante's.

Dante enters the first ring of the Seventh circle, through a deep valley. In this ring a boiling lake of blood contains all those who were violent toward others. The travellers are led into the second ring, by the centaur Nessus, where those who were violent towards themselves (the suicides) are contained forever in the form of trees. From there Dante proceeds into the third ring where the Blasphemers, Sodomites (violence towards nature) and the Userers (violent towards Art) walk in a desert of burning sand. Here Dante meets Brunetto, an old patron of his.

Virgil and Dante are transported into the Eighth Circle, across a great abyss, by the monster Geyron. This circle is split into Malebolges or "evil pockets", divided by great mounds of earth. In the first pouch, panderers and seducers are lashed by whips while in the second Flatterers are forced to lie in a river of human excrement. The Simoniacs are burned by fire, and are hung inverted in a baptismal font; the Astrologists and Diviners must walk with their heads on backwards in the fourth pocket. In the fifth pocket the Barrators are torn apart by demons in a pool of Pitch. In the sixth pouch the Hypocrites walk in circles, while forced to wear a suit of lead. Lying crucified on the ground in Caiphas, the priest who confirmed Jesus' death sentence, the other sinners trample him underfoot as they walk. In the seventh pouch, the thieves are trapped in a pit of vipers, becoming vipers upon being bitten and forced to bite another thirder to return to their human form. In the ninth pouch the Sowers of Scandal and Schism walk in a circle while wound open and close on their bodies and Falsifiers are afflicted with disease in the tenth.

From there Dante travels to the Ninth circle by way of the Giants Well. The traveller?s are picked up and set down at the bottom of the well by the Giant Antaeus. This is the lowest circle of hell, the Ninth, called Caina. Here, those who betrayed their family stand frozen up to their necks in the ice, those who betrayed their country are frozen to their heads, those who betray their guest must lie flat on the ice for eternity, and those who betrayed their benefactors lie submerged in ice.

At the very bottom of hell Dante find the three headed Giant Lucifer, waist deep in the ice, where he was thrown after the war in heaven. He holds Judas, Cassius and Brutus, in his mouth. Dante climbs Lucifer?s form and reaches the River of Forgetfulness, which he travels back to earth. They return on Easter Morn, as the sun is rising.

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