Dante's Inferno: Reading Notes, Part B
Physical Descriptions of the Seventh Circle of Hell
For these reading notes, I wanted to focus on the way that the violent sinners were punished in hell. It seems like many of the regions of hell punish people in the way they harmed others or themselves on earth. So, this section would have a lot of physical pain for the spirits trapped there. If I retell this story, I would want to get that feeling across to the readers. Here are some physical characteristics of the region.
- Centaurs armed with bows and spears roam this area, attacking spirits who try to leave the river of blood.
- Sinners are submerged in a river of boiling blood. Their depth depends on the atrocity of their sins.
- The feeling of guilt keeps sinners from moving out of the blood.
These are some questions I had about the area that I might answer in a retelling.
- Is all violence punished, or is some violence justified?
- Is violence towards animals considered sinful?
- How many people are in this area of hell?
- If someone sinned in multiple major ways, which layer of hell will they end up in?
- Does the experience get less painful after a while? Or does time have a different meaning?
- Does fire fall from the sky here like it did in another part of hell?
- What is the air like?
- How do people see? Is it dark out?
- What are the noises one hears?
- Does it smell like anything?
- Do the centaurs suffer as well?
- Where does the river start and end?
- Whose blood is in the river?
Story Source: Poetry in Translation by Tony Kline
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