Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to dive into the Divine Comedy and discuss the 9th circle of hell: the circle reserved for traitors, the frozen heart of hell where Satan is torturously trapped, and the place in all of creation most sundered from the light and love and God. Here, we'll see Satan depicted in superlative fashion, virtually as massive, monstrous, and malevolent as can be, the horror of him beyond Dante's ability to fully describe.

We're going to begin by quickly outlining how Hell is structured, then jumping into the story when Dante and Virgil enter the 8th circle, covering their entry into the 9th circle, their encounter with Satan, and their arrival at Mt. Purgatory.

Alright, let's get into it.

Dante Alighieri penned the "Divine Comedy" in the early 14th century. The story takes the reader on an allegorical journey through the three spiritual realms: Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Heaven (Paradiso). The narrative follows Dante, the protagonist and the fictional representation of the author, whom we first join while he's lost in a dark forest, symbolic of spiritual confusion. Guided by the Roman poet Virgil and later by his muse Beatrice, Dante embarks on a profoundly transformational odyssey. In "Inferno", he plunges into the depths of Hell, braving ever deeper into the depths of terror, torture and torment, journeying downwards through the nine circles of Hell.

Hell is conceptualized as a descending funnel-shaped abyss composed of nine concentric circles, each containing a distinct category of sin and its corresponding punishment.

Central to Dante's vision of punishment is the concept of 'contrapasso,' poetic justice, the punishments suffered by the sinners in Hell inspired by the nature of their sins in life.

Beginning at the outermost circle, the nine circles of Hell are: limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery, the ninth and final circle. Limbo is the place for unbaptized souls and virtuous pagans, neither good nor bad, and after it, the punishments of hell proper begin in the second circle where the lustful are condemned to be buffeted and battered by the winds of a violent storm that relentlessly rages.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.