INFERNO

Author: Dante Alighieri
Year: 1965 (1321)
Publisher: Rabén & Sjögren
Language: Swedish (Translator Aline Pipping)

MIDWAY upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.*

These are the first lines of “Inferno”; the first book in Dante Alighieri’s legendary epic The Divine Comedy. What follows is an account of the horrors of hell, but also its structure, its purpose, and the sometimes surprising shadows or souls that it contains.

In this journey through the underworld, Dante guides his readers through a vividly imagined afterlife, where souls undergo trials and tribulations commensurate with their earthly misdeeds. The journey is structured as a descent through nine concentric circles of Hell, each representing a different category of sin, with the final circle housing Satan himself. Throughout Inferno, Dante employs rich symbolism to convey his allegorical vision of Hell. The various punishments inflicted on sinners, both contemporary and historic, both real and mythological, are not only literal but also symbolic representations of the spiritual consequences of their actions.

Through his allegorical exploration of sin, redemption, and divine justice, Dante offers profound insights into the human condition, inviting readers to contemplate the nature of existence and the quest for spiritual enlightenment, but he does so through a distinctly Christian lens. Even though the deeds of the men and women whose shadows populate underworld in the afterlife may be perfectly human, the judgment is altogether Christian.

This hierarchical structure of Hell reflects medieval Christian theology, which categorised sins based on their severity and moral implications and yet Dante is by no means oblivious to the plight of mankind and the weaknesses of the human flesh and mind. The very first circle is Limbo and is dedicated to those who departed from the world of the living without ever having known Christ as their saviour, for example heathens and unchristened infants, who have otherwise not sinned. The next four circles of Hell house the sinners of incontinence. This refers to sinners who have fallen prey to the exaggeration of natural human desires and follows the teachings of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics which singles out those weak minds that allow their desires to overcome their rationality. Here we find the lustful, they gluttonous, the greedy, and the wrathful. Heretics are found in circle six, and murderers and sodomites in the seventh circle together with those who committed suicide. In the eighth circle, Dante meets with panderers, flatterers, seducers, sorcerers, instigators, and counterfeiters. The ninth and final circle of Hell is where Satan keeps traitors.

A key element to all these sinners is that their sin only governs which circle they are sent you to. According to Catholic doctrine, the reason anybody ends up in Hell in the first place is their failure to repent. Until their last breath, every human being is able to escape damnation just by acknowledging their sins and accepting Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Only if they fail to do that, they will be subject to the torments of Inferno. The rest is simply logistics.

Having said that, when we read “Inferno”, it is necessary to remember that, although heavily influenced by Greek, Roman, and Christian symbolism, philosophy, and theology, the work remains the brainchild of Dante alone. Although the concept of Hell rests on Christian doctrine, and it is reasonable to assume that Dante, who was in exile in the Vatican when he first began to toil over this masterpiece, made extensive theological research for his work, the result is still the product of a poet and artist and does not constitute part of the teachings of the Catholic Church.

A few observations may still be of interest to a 21^st century reader.

First, the hierarchical arrangement of the levels or circles in Hell seems to be grouped based on with the victim of the sinners’ deeds in life. Those consigned to the upper circles primarily inflicted harm upon themselves through their sins. The circles behind the walls of the city of Hell but before the Well of the Giants are for the deceitful who defrauded individuals who placed unwarranted trust in them. This is also where sins of violence is punished. Beyond the Well of Giants are those who deceived their own kin, homeland, friends, and benefactors.

Second, following as a consequence of the first, is the relatively light punishment for the sinners of incontinence. Lust in particular, although disproportionately vilified by contemporary adherents of certain pseudo-Christian denominations, particularly of the evangelical low church confessions, is relegated to a relatively lenient sentence. Dante positions these sinners outside the city gates of Hell signalling his discernment that their offenses do not merit the same type of perpetual torment endured by many others. In contrast, sins such as simony, flattery, and sorcery are deemed far graver. It is noteworthy that while acts of pimping and seduction incur explicit condemnation, the profession of prostitution per se does not. Indeed, the sole mention of a prostitute, Ptolemy’s courtesan Thaïs, in Inferno pertains to her flattery rather than her extramarital liaisons.

Third, it may appear counterintuitive to a modern reader that acts of violence and even murder receive milder retribution than e.g. deceit. Dante also grapples with this conundrum and in Canto 11 eturn man away from his humanity and make him a beast. Acts of deceit on the other hand, are sins that exploit the unique faculties given to man from God to the fullest: reason, planning, the comprehension of truth, and the volition to deceive. Therefore, by perverting the most quintessential attributes God has given to man, the gifts that define man as opposite to beasts, these sins are more odious to God then any act of violence.

Fourth, all of us sin in more ways than one way and each of the shadows in Inferno would qualify for more than one circle. Dante seems to place the shadows in the circle that corresponds to the sin that most prominently defined the sinner’s life, not necessarily the sin that is the gravest. On the other hand, people who had been fair and respected in their lifetime but made one decisive error are unceremoniously condemned by Dante to the underworld. Such as Farina di Umberto who was sent to the sixth circle as a heretic even though he had otherwise lived his life according to the highest human standards. Perhaps the fact that he belonged to a different political party than Dante might have had something to do with it.

Reading “Inferno” proves fascinating in a number of ways, not least of which is its value as a historical document. Dante skilfully weaves personal relationships and political feuds into his poem, occasionally lending it a somewhat parochial air. It is as if a modern poet would grapple with the concept of damnation by introducing King Charles III, Taylor Swift, and Rupert Murdoch into the various infernal circles. Particularly intriguing is Dante's candid depiction of sin in his surroundings. For example, in Canto 9 he encounters the father of his best friend among the heretics. Apart from that, he names a catalogue of historical celebrities, but conspicuously few of them hail from the epochs most recently predating Dante’s own. Even biblical figures are scarce. Instead, he delves into antiquity and summons both real and mythological beings from ancient Rome and Greece. It seems reasonable to perceive this as a pedagogical method, referring to characters familiar to his readers for illustrative purposes while he allowed his allusion to coeval Florentines to serve as contemporary political critique.

Dante’s remarkably compassionate eyes and his sublime poetry, expertly translated by into Swedish by Aline Pipping who, contrary to Longfellow’s English rendition, retains the poetic metric of the Italian original, Hell becomes vividly palpable and intuitively comprehensible. While no depiction, whether verbal or visual, can probably even begin to encapsulate the profound darkness and desolation of the underworld, it is undeniable that after seven centuries, Dante’s project still constitutes the benchmark for the popular conception of Hell in the Christian part of the world.

 *In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s translation from 1867