Dante's hell is like a funnel. Dante out of the dark Forest, through a corridor, a rolling and gloomy river of hell. An old man rowed a boat and took Virgil and him to the first floor of hell. The first circle gathered a group of ancient poets and philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle and Socrates. Because they lived before the birth of Jesus and were not baptized by religion. They are heretics, waiting for trial on the first floor of hell. When I went down to the second hell, I met many ghosts. They were greedy before their death and were punished here after their death. The wind blew them to the cliff. The third circle is gluttonous ghosts, who are standing in the cold pouring rain and being punished in the rain. The fourth circle is greedy people, one is stingy and the other is profligate and greedy. Ghosts here collide with each other with big stones. The fifth circle is a ghost who likes to be angry before his death. They were submerged in a dark and smelly river. After the fifth level of hell, you must go in through a door. At the gate stood three banshees with snakes around their heads. Very scary. They are Nemesis. Into the city, to the sixth lap. The sixth circle is full of heretics. They lived after the birth of Christ, but they didn't believe in Christ. Their punishment is burning, burning, burning in the fire.
After a large cliff hanging on the wall, on the seventh lap, I met a group of ghosts who were violent before they died. There are three kinds of violence, one is violence against others, hurting and killing others, the other is violence against oneself and suicide, and the other is violence against nature, which is to destroy the ecological balance in modern terms. These three kinds of violent ghosts were immersed in a boiling lake of blood to be punished. On the eighth lap, the ghost who faked before his death was punished here. Dante listed ten forms of fraud. There were three kinds of violence and ten kinds of fraud just now. Some seduce women, flatter women, buy and sell official positions, talk nonsense in the name of prophecy, some corrupt officials, some hypocrites, some petty theft, some connive at others' crimes, sow discord, and some cheat. These ten kinds of ghosts are all on the eighth floor, and the eighth floor is divided into ten floors, which are punished separately. For example, when buying and selling official positions, Dante threw the living Pope Penny VIII into this hell to be punished. He was planted upside down in a cave and his feet caught fire. Here is an example. After the eighth hell, there was a very high and steep cliff, and Dante and Virgil met Satan. In western literature, Satan often appears as a symbol of evil. We can recall the descriptions of Satan in various literary works. Dante's description of Satan is excellent and original. The Satan he described is a huge monster with three heads, one red, one white and one black. There are six arms on each side, and the arms are constantly waving, and a strong wind blows the lake where Satan is located into ice; Every hair of it is like a step on which Dante and Virgil walk. Here, I entered the ninth floor, the bottom of hell. This floor is full of heinous ghosts who are being punished. Three in one * * *. One is Judas who betrayed Jesus, and the other two are traitors who murdered the Roman emperors Caesar, Casio and Brutu. These three ghosts who committed treason before their death were bitten by Satan for three mouths. Here is also an example.
Now I will show you a portrait of Satan painted by contemporary Italian painter Yin Cserti. The painter's life is also very rough. He once participated in the anti-fascist struggle and has been in poor health. However, he has been making artistic creation with Dante's Divine Comedy as the theme. As his lifelong career, he has painted many such paintings, one of which is Satan in hell. This painting is very interesting. This Satan also has three heads, red, yellow and black. Interestingly, the eyes of each head are cannons, the teeth are bayonets, the claws are missiles, and the two horns are devices for launching nuclear weapons. This is the image of Satan in modern people's thinking, and its evil incarnation is a demon with guns, bayonets and nuclear weapons. There is a small shadowy person here, and modern people live in the shadow of this huge demon. There's a lot of yellow here. What is it? Here is the money. In other words, the evil now is supported by money and driven by money. This is a modern painter who observes and thinks with modern thinking, and finally recreates the image of Satan.
Dante believes that treason and betrayal are the greatest sins of mankind, so people who commit treason are sent to the ninth floor of hell. After crossing hell, Virgil led Dante to purgatory. Hell is a dark, miserable and horrible atmosphere, and purgatory is also a ghost who made all kinds of mistakes before he died. He was proud, jealous, angry, lazy, greedy for money, gluttonous for food and lustful, but their mistakes are lighter than those of the ghosts in hell. Ghosts in hell can never turn over, and ghosts in purgatory are expected to be reborn after being baptized by the fire of purgatory, so the atmosphere of purgatory is different from that of hell, and the whole atmosphere is quiet and clear. You can see the sea and the blue sky here. These ghosts are punished differently. People who were proud before their death are all here, carrying big stones and walking in the hot sun one by one, crushing their arrogance. For example, before you die, you are jealous, that is, the place where your eyes are sewn up by wire; People who like to get angry during their lifetime are shrouded in black smoke here, and they can't get angry if they want to. As long as they accept punishment devoutly, they still have hope of rebirth. From hell to purgatory, Virgil's mission ended, only to hear Yue Xian lingering, pieces of auspicious clouds drifting by, Beatrice appeared, and she led Dante to visit heaven, after nine days, until the Divine Comedy ended before God. This is the structure of The Divine Comedy.