Dante's Divine Comedy

Inferno

The dark forest in the background at the top of the design is where the story begins of Dante's journey through the nine circles of hell guided by Virgil. Leaping out of the wood on the far left are the beasts representing temptations symbolized by the lion, a leopard, and a she wolf. There he has lost his way symbolized by the dim sunlight behind the mountains This place also represents the first circle of hell known as Limbo where there are fields and a castle where Minos dwells who judges all souls of sinners. This is where Dante and Virgil take a ferry across the river Acheron to Hell proper piloted by Charon. Dante falls asleep in the ferry and does not wake until he is on the other side. In the center of the design is the Gate of Hell with the words over it "Lasciatae ogne speranza, voi ch'ntrate" ("Abandon all hoe, ye who enter here"). The Gate of Hell is formed by a single tree on top whose roots turn into the stonewalls of hell. Above the tree is a horrific storm cloud that is blowing everything over, pelting rain, fire and lightening constantly.

The circles of hell are concentric, each one going deeper and deeper toward the center of the earth where Satan is held bound up to his waist in frozen ice. Satan is the central figure in the mural. He is described as having three heads and six eyes. You view him from the back therefore only seeing two heads a yellow one and a red one with boils and ooze through matted and rough ragged fur all over his body. His six bat like wings are dark red and transparent so you can see the circles of hell through them. He constantly flaps his wings to try and get loose from his bondage that causes everything to get colder and more chaotic.

The Second circle shows lustful souls who are constantly blown around by the storm above. The Third Circle guarded by the three-headed monster Cerberus is gluttons forced to lie in the mud under continual cold rain and hail. The Fourth Circle are the avaricious who have to push weight against weight of their material possessions. The Fifth Circle is the swamp water of the river Styx where the wrathful fight each other on top of the surface. Dante and Virgil cross the river to the lower circles of hell. The city of Dis is visible here where lower hell begins. The Sixth Circle is the heretics trapped in their flaming tombs. The Seventh Circle housed the most violent divided into three rings. People in the first ring are immersed in boiling blood. The middle ring is the suicidal that are turned into gnarled thorny bushes. The inner ring are those against nature and art in a desert of flaming sand and fiery rain from the sky

From here Dante and Virgil descend into the last two circles of hell by riding the back of Geryon a winged monster with a head of a man and body like a scorpion stinger. The Eighth Circle is made up of 10 ditches with bridges between them. The First Ditch is made up of seducers walking in separate lines in opposite directions. Ditch Two of flatters steeped in human excrement. Ditch Three are placed head first in the rocks with their feet in the air with flames burning on their soles. Ditch Four - Ten.

The Ninth Circle is where the giants reside and among them the largest being Satan himself in Zone 4. Here the two poets escape by climbing the ragged fur of Satan and passing through the center of the earth emerging in another hemisphere beneath a starry sky.

Sketch of Dante's Inferno.
Dante's Inferno Sketch

Purgatory
Paradiso